All posts tagged: Minnesota News

Powerful Winds and Reported Tornadoes Rip Through the Midwest, Leaving Heavy Damage but No Deaths

Powerful Winds and Reported Tornadoes Rip Through the Midwest, Leaving Heavy Damage but No Deaths

Published by Sam Flores

A trail of damaged homes and buildings dotted a wide swath of the U.S. on Saturday after a burst of destructive winds and reported tornadoes tore off roofs, uprooted trees and rendered rural roads impassable with debris. No deaths were reported following Friday’s storms, which barreled through the Upper Midwest and delivered the latest round of severe weather to batter the region. Officials braced residents for a long recovery in some rural communities. “We are extremely fortunate that this storm did not result in loss of life or serious injury,” Stephenson County Sheriff Steve Stovall said of the storm that hit Lena, Illinois. Officials in Wisconsin and Minnesota echoed those sentiments. In central Wisconsin, a reported tornado that tore through the cities of Kronenwetter and Ringle left behind damaged homes and some residents briefly trapped in their basements, Ringle Fire Chief Chris Kielman told reporters. Marathon County Sheriff Chad Billeb said he had not seen this much devastation during his 34 years in law enforcement. “A lot of people are going to need a lot …

Era of Political Violence Means Higher Costs for Candidate Security, a New Report Says

Era of Political Violence Means Higher Costs for Candidate Security, a New Report Says

Published by Sam Flores

Security spending for congressional and presidential campaigns has jumped fivefold over the past decade as an increasingly hostile political environment has led to escalating threats against public officials, ranging from doxing to assassination plots, according to a report released Thursday. Federal political committees spent more than $40 million on expenses labeled as security during the 2023-24 campaign cycle, the most recent one for which data is publicly available, according to the report from the Public Service Alliance, a nonpartisan group that focuses on security for public officials. The report did not specify which candidates spent the most on security. The tally also did not count the escalating security costs of the federal government, which includes augmented Capitol Police services for members of Congress and heightened U.S. Secret Service protection for presidential candidates, as well as former and current presidents and their families. “This is not a good place to be as a country,” said Justin Sherman, the report’s author. The report calculated security costs by looking at publicly available filings with the Federal Election Commission …

Vance Holds First Meeting of a New Anti-Fraud Task Force Targeting Benefit Programs

Vance Holds First Meeting of a New Anti-Fraud Task Force Targeting Benefit Programs

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President JD Vance on Friday held the inaugural meeting of a new anti-fraud task force he’s leading as the Trump administration seeks to show it’s cracking down on potential misuse of social programs. Vance, speaking Friday before the task force held a closed-door meeting, said that the federal government, for decades, had not taken the issue of fraud seriously and that it needed to be tackled with “a whole-government approach.” “This is not just the theft of the American people’s money,” Vance said. “It is also the theft of critical services that the American people rely on.” President Donald Trump, a Republican, has made a crackdown on fraud a central part of his domestic agenda as voters have expressed concern about affordability ahead of November’s midterm elections. That effort comes after allegations of fraud involving day care centers run by Somali residents in Minneapolis prompted a massive immigration crackdown in the Midwestern city, resulting in widespread protests. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who faced Vance as a vice presidential candidate …

Pennsylvania Court Upends Mandatory Use of Life-Without-Parole for Second-Degree Murder

Pennsylvania Court Upends Mandatory Use of Life-Without-Parole for Second-Degree Murder

Published by Sam Flores

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s high court on Thursday overturned the use of automatic life sentences without parole for people convicted of second-degree murder, saying it violates the state’s constitutional ban on cruel punishment when imposed without a closer look at the defendant’s specific role and culpability. The court majority ordered resentencing in the case of Derek Lee, convicted of a 2014 killing in Pittsburgh, but the decision also has implications for others among the roughly 1,000 other inmates currently serving similar second-degree murder sentences. The court’s order was put on hold for four months to give the state’s politically divided Legislature time to “consider appropriate remedial measures.” In a footnote, the justices said they were ruling on Lee’s sentence and not addressing “questions of retroactivity.” Prison reform groups hailed it as a landmark decision, while the Allegheny County district attorney’s office said it will follow the court’s order. Pennsylvania law has made people liable for second-degree murder if they participated in an eligible felony that led to death, and life without parole has been …

Detained Immigrant Children Still Face Concerning Conditions at Texas Facility, Lawyers Say

Detained Immigrant Children Still Face Concerning Conditions at Texas Facility, Lawyers Say

Published by Sam Flores

Nearly 600 immigrant children were held in a Texas family detention center in recent months without enough food, medical care or mental health services, as their time inside stretched beyond court-mandated limits, according to court documents filed Friday. Children and families held in the Dilley detention facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were sent earlier this year also faced virus outbreaks and lasting lockdowns in December and January, although the total number of children held at Dilley has fallen in recent weeks, according to the attorney’s reports and site visits. The case of Ramos, a preschooler who was wearing a blue bunny hat when he was picked up in Minnesota by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stirred protest over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, including among detainees who gathered and held up signs in the yard inside Dilley’s chain-link fences. Last week about 85 children remained detained at Dilley, but concerning conditions continued, said Mishan Wroe, directing attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, who visited in mid-March. In early February, …

Two Teen Brothers in Texas Mariachi Band Are Released From ICE Custody Amid Bipartisan Criticism

Two Teen Brothers in Texas Mariachi Band Are Released From ICE Custody Amid Bipartisan Criticism

Published by Sam Flores

RAYMONDVILLE, Texas (AP) — A family whose two teen boys are in a nationally recognized mariachi band in South Texas was reunited Monday afternoon after bipartisan criticism that the Trump administration’s campaign for mass deportation overreached by detaining the family. Brothers Antonio Gámez-Cuéllar, 18, and Joshua, 14, were detained along with their 12-year-old brother and their parents Feb. 25. The teenage boys were prominent members of the McAllen High School Mariachi Oro band, which has visited the White House, performed at Carnegie Hall and won eight state championships. The two younger boys and their parents were released Monday from a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, said U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat who visited them, marking his third visit to the detention center. Antonio was released on Monday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from a detention center in Raymondville, Texas. “They were ecstatic. They were crying. They were excited to be reunited with their son and brother, Antonio, who was being held separately in Raymondville,” Castro said at a news conference in …

A Judge Says She’ll Rule That the US Still Cannot Force States to Provide Data on SNAP Recipients

A Judge Says She’ll Rule That the US Still Cannot Force States to Provide Data on SNAP Recipients

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump’s administration cannot force states to hand over detailed information on people who have applied for or received aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a judge said in a tentative ruling Friday. San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney last year blocked the U.S. Department of Agriculture from requiring states to provide the data, including on the immigration status of people who receive benefits and applicants, after 22 states sued over the policy. The department kept pushing for it, telling states in December that it would stop paying state administrative costs for the program if they didn’t comply. It also issued new protocols for securing the data, which the states rejected. The federal government said the previous ruling did not apply to its latest demands. Chesney said during a hearing Friday that she intends to issue an order that says the federal government cannot act on its letters to the states from last year. The Trump administration contends that the information is needed to stamp out fraud and waste, which it asserts …

Trump Immigration Officials Shown Video of Alex Pretti’s Death in Tense Senate Hearing

Trump Immigration Officials Shown Video of Alex Pretti’s Death in Tense Senate Hearing

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON (AP) — The men tasked with carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda were made to watch a video of the shooting death of Alex Pretti in a slow, moment-by-moment analysis on Thursday by Sen. Rand Paul, who repeatedly cast doubt on the tactics used by federal officers and warned that the American public had lost trust in the country’s immigration agencies. It was a tense confrontation at a Senate hearing that was called to scrutinize the immigration chiefs as they carry out one of Trump’s signature policy and after the deaths of two protesters in Minneapolis over recent weeks at the hands of federal officers. Paul, who paused the video every few seconds to explain his interpretation of the events, argued that Pretti posed no threat to the officers and questioned why the situation culminated in the ICU nurse’s death. “He is retreating at every moment,” said Paul, speaking of Pretti’s behavior while officers pepper-sprayed him. “He’s trying to get away and he’s being sprayed in the face.” Paul’s comments were a …

Masks Emerge as Symbol of Trump’s ICE Crackdown and a Flashpoint in Congress

Masks Emerge as Symbol of Trump’s ICE Crackdown and a Flashpoint in Congress

Published by Sam Flores

Not in recent U.S. memory has an American policing operation so consistently masked its thousands of officers from the public, a development that the Department of Homeland Security believes is important to safeguard employees from online harassment. But experts warn masking serves another purpose, inciting fear in communities, and risks shattering norms, accountability and trust between the police and its citizenry. Whether to ban the masks — or allow the masking to continue — has emerged as a central question in the debate in Congress over funding Homeland Security ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline, when it faces a partial agency shutdown. “Humans read each others’ faces — that’s how we communicate,” said Justin Smith, a former Colorado sheriff who is executive director and CEO of the National Sheriffs’ Association. “When you have a number of federal agents involved in these operations, and they can’t be identified, you can’t see their face, it just tends to make people uncomfortable,” he said. “That’s bringing up some questions.” Democrats demand ‘masks off’ “Cameras on, masks off” has become …

Feds Can’t Withhold Social Service Funds From 5 Democratic States Amid Fraud Claims, Judge Rules

Feds Can’t Withhold Social Service Funds From 5 Democratic States Amid Fraud Claims, Judge Rules

Published by Sam Flores

A federal judge ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must keep funds flowing to child care subsidies and other social service programs in five Democratic-controlled states — at least for now. U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick in New York, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama, granted the states’ request for a preliminary injunction and a stay against the administration to bar it from withholding the money while a lawsuit works its way through the courts. The states affected include California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York. The five states said they receive a total of more than $10 billion a year from the programs. Attorneys representing the federal government in the case did not immediately return emails seeking comment Friday night. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment. Two temporary rulings had been issued in January, when the states sued, that blocked the federal government from holding back the funding, with the latest set to expire on Friday. The programs in question …