All posts tagged: Minnesota News

Lawsuit Accuses Massachusetts Schools of Segregating Students of Color in Low-Opportunity Districts

Lawsuit Accuses Massachusetts Schools of Segregating Students of Color in Low-Opportunity Districts

Published by Sam Flores

A lawsuit filed Wednesday on behalf of students and community organizations in Massachusetts argues the state is illegally maintaining schools that are racially segregated, concentrating Black and Latino students in high-poverty districts with fewer opportunities. The lawsuit challenges the state’s practice of assigning students to schools based solely on where they live, which can lead to patterns of housing segregation being replicated in school systems. The case is the latest example of efforts to address segregation and funding inequities through state-level litigation. Even before the Trump administration began taking steps to release districts in the Deep South from court-ordered desegregation efforts, integration efforts had fallen far from their peak decades ago when the federal government intervened in school systems around the U.S. The plaintiffs include nine students and four community organizations from segregated school districts across Massachusetts, including Springfield, Holyoke, Boston, Lawrence, Brockton, Lynn, and Worcester. The districts border more affluent, predominantly white districts where the plaintiffs are unable to enroll. In response to the lawsuit, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said …

A US Teen Buddhist Lama Is Now a Monk Studying in the Himalayan Foothills

A US Teen Buddhist Lama Is Now a Monk Studying in the Himalayan Foothills

Published by Sam Flores

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — At a monastery in the Himalayan foothills, a teenage Buddhist lama blesses thousands. One by one, he taps bowed heads with a ritual vase and a peacock feather, sprinkling holy water for protection, purification, wisdom. He stops to smile at children who eye him with curiosity, reverence and awe. He tries to keep pace with others who, like him, are among the few chosen to give the final blessing. Just six months earlier, thousands of miles away, this same young man was pulling all-nighters to play Madden NFL on his Xbox at his home near Minneapolis. Sometimes he’d pause to snack on pizza rolls and Diet Coke, or check his texts for the next hangout at TopGolf or Buffalo Wild Wings. A typical American teen, he grew up loving rap music, video games and football. He is also an aspiring spiritual leader who, from an early age, was recognized by the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhist leaders as a reincarnated lama. Now he’s 19. He graduated from high school last …

AP, Washington Post, Reuters and Minnesota Star Tribune Among Pulitzer Winners for 2025 Work

AP, Washington Post, Reuters and Minnesota Star Tribune Among Pulitzer Winners for 2025 Work

Published by Sam Flores

NEW YORK (AP) — The Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for scrutinizing the Trump administration’s sweeping, choppy overhaul of federal agencies, and The Associated Press won the award Monday for international reporting about surveillance. In a year when several prize-winning projects zoomed in on the Trump presidency, the Post’s coverage illuminated the administration’s fast-moving, sometimes opaque drive to reshape the national government and what the cuts and changes meant for individual Americans. The Miami Herald’s Julie K. Brown was given a special citation for her reporting, nearly a decade ago, that drew attention to Jeffrey Epstein ’s abuses. The New York Times won three of the coveted prizes, the Post and Reuters each won two, and less widely known outlets ranging from The Connecticut Mirror to the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” also were recognized in a challenging year for American journalism. “This is always a day of celebration in our communities, but perhaps never more so than today as we face tremendous political and economic pressures,” prize administrator Marjorie Miller …

A Small Plane Crash Near Minneapolis Kills North Dakota State Legislator and the Pilot

A Small Plane Crash Near Minneapolis Kills North Dakota State Legislator and the Pilot

Published by Sam Flores

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A small plane crashed just after taking off from Crystal Airport north of Minneapolis on Saturday, killing a North Dakota state legislator and the pilot, authorities said. North Dakota state Rep. Liz Conmy, of Fargo, was killed in the crash, her colleague, state Sen. Tim Mathern, told the Star Tribune. The North Dakota Democratic–Nonpartisan League Party, an affiliate of the national Democratic Party, confirmed Conmy’s death in a social media post, calling her a champion for public education, the environment, and transparency. “We are completely heartbroken and gutted by the loss of Representative Liz Conmy. Her death is a profound loss for our state,” the party said in a post on X. Officers responded to a report of a small airplane crash at 11:51 a.m. and found an aircraft that had crashed and caught fire in a park in the city of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, shortly after taking off, Brooklyn Park Police Inspector Matt Rabe said. Rabe said the plane crashed shortly after taking off. He wouldn’t say how many people were …

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 …