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Elizabeth Flores/Star Tribune/TNS

Border czar: End of Operation Metro Surge depends on behavior of Minnesota's activists

Current News / News & Features /

MINNEAPOLIS — White House border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday, Feb. 4, that after getting unprecedented cooperation from Minnesota political and law enforcement leaders, the Trump administration is withdrawing 700 federal law enforcement personnel from the state “effective today.”

Homan then said that if Minnesotans want to end Operation...Read more

Leila Navidi/Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Sheriffs in Minnesota's biggest metro counties mum on whether they'll agree to ICE deal to end surge

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MINNEAPOLIS — The sheriffs overseeing some of Minnesota’s largest county jails aren’t saying whether they will go along with a plan to give immigration agents better access to the facilities.

Border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday that the Trump administration was immediately withdrawing 700 federal agents who have been part of the ...Read more

Amy Davis/The Baltimore Sun/TNS

Columbus statue relocation talk grows, but White House stays quiet

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Plans to place a replica of Baltimore’s toppled Christopher Columbus statue on the White House grounds are gaining momentum again — but there is still no confirmation that the move will happen or when it might occur.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that sources said White House officials have designated a specific area on the grounds...Read more

New caseload standards cast doubt on future of public defense in Washington state

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OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington's long-strained criminal justice system is under new pressure as significantly lower caseload limits for public defenders threaten to slow prosecutions and force the state to spend millions more on legal defense.

The issue surfaced in December after the state bar association presented new caseload standards to ...Read more

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump vows to donate any proceeds from $10 billion IRS lawsuit

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he would donate any money he received in a $10 billion lawsuit that he filed against the U.S. Treasury and Internal Revenue Service over an unauthorized disclosure of his tax returns to the press during his first term in office.

“Any money that I win, I’ll give it to charity, 100% to charity, ...Read more

Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times/TNS

LA archbishop holds 'Mass for Peace' as students protest Trump immigration policies

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Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez celebrated what he called a "Mass for Peace" at Our Lady of the Angels on Wednesday, stopping just short of a direct appeal to the Trump administration to draw down its aggressive immigration enforcement efforts as protesters gathered blocks away.

"We are united with everybody in our country praying for ...Read more

Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/TNS

Not so pumped: Idaho lawmakers push back on proposed gasoline tax

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Utah lawmakers want to lower gas prices for their state’s residents — but Idaho residents may pay for the change at their own gas stations.

In a proposal that has yet to be formally introduced in the Utah Legislature, lawmakers have pitched a plan to charge states that receive exported Utah gas the same tax that Utah residents pay at the ...Read more

Pima County Sheriff's Department/TNS

Kentuckians who knew Nancy Guthrie, family say her disappearance is a 'tragedy'

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People who knew Nancy Guthrie, mother of the “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie, and her husband Charlie Guthrie when they grew up in Kentucky are calling her disappearance a “tragedy.”

Law enforcement officials in Pima County confirmed Tuesday they were investigating reports that ransom notes had been received by media outlets ...Read more

Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post/TNS

Colorado high school shooter used family heirloom gun; parents won't be charged

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DENVER — The gun used by the 16-year-old boy who shot two students and then himself at Evergreen High School in September was a family heirloom, investigators with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday.

The Smith and Wesson .38 Special revolver that Desmond Holly used in the Sept. 10 attack originally belonged to one of ...Read more

Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Residents ask Carlsbad police to help curb aggressive ICE tactics

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SAN DIEGO — The increasing presence of federal immigration officers in Carlsbad prompted a crowd of concerned citizens to express their fears and frustrations at Tuesday’s Carlsbad City Council meeting.

More than 30 people spoke during an update from local officials on federal activities in the city. Councilmember Teresa Acosta requested ...Read more

Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald/TNS

Healey signs new offshore wind agreement with leaders of Nova Scotia as grid relies on fossil fuels

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Gov. Maura Healey and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston signed an agreement to strengthen collaboration between the two jurisdictions on offshore wind development in the North Atlantic as the region’s electrical grid has been powered by fossil fuels during the cold winter weather.

“This memorandum of understanding today that Massachusetts ...Read more

Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune/TNS

Feds: Many agents have been targeted since their IDs were stolen during unrest at scene of Renee Good shooting

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MINNEAPOLIS — As many as 15 FBI agents and employees have been harassed and threatened since identification documents were stolen last month from two vandalized federal government vehicles during unrest in Minneapolis involving anti-ICE demonstrators, according to a criminal complaint.

The disclosure came in a complaint last week in U.S. ...Read more

CLARENS SIFFROY/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

US backs Haiti's prime minister as presidential transitional council's mandate ends

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With Haiti’s politicians unable to arrive at a consensus for governing after the expiration of the Transitional Presidential Council’s mandate this weekend, the U.S. is publicly asserting its support for Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé and signaling it will not recognize alternative power arrangements.

The Trump administration’s ...Read more

Justin Lane/Pool/Getty Images North America/TNS

NY judge appears unswayed by Trump bid to move Stormy Daniels hush money case to federal court

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NEW YORK — A Manhattan judge appeared unconvinced by President Donald Trump’s third bid to move his hush money case to federal court at a hearing Wednesday, where his lawyers squared off with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.

The renewed bid, if successful, could allow Trump to try to get his historic criminal conviction ...Read more

News briefs

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Supreme Court refuses to overturn new California districts

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied an effort to overturn California’s new voter-passed congressional map, letting the map go into effect for this year’s midterm elections.

The unexplained, unsigned order ends a bid from the Trump administration and California ...Read more

Texas man charged with attacking teen girl at school protest against ICE

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A Texas man is accused of attacking a teenage girl during a student demonstration against the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, officials said Tuesday.

Chad Michael Watts, 45, of Kyle, was arrested and charged with two counts of assault causing bodily injury following an altercation with students taking part in a walkout ...Read more

Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

NASA Langley makes final preparations for Artemis II mission to launch around the moon

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When Apollo 17 astronauts returned from the moon in 1972, they visited NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, to thank staff for their contributions to the mission, saying “we stood on the shoulders of giants as we shot for the stars.”

More than 50 years later, NASA Langley researchers are making final preparations to do it ...Read more

John Autey/St. Paul Pioneer Press/TNS

During immigration enforcement surge, St. Paul Council introduces ordinance barring officer face coverings

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With many federal officers wearing face coverings during an immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota, the St. Paul City Council on Wednesday introduced an ordinance requiring law enforcement to be unmasked.

The city council has said they’re taking a phased approached to introducing a series of ordinances in response to the enforcement, and ...Read more

Flynt/Dreamstime/TNS

Forever chemicals boost multiple sclerosis risk. Is your water safe?

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Could plastic byproducts and forever chemicals found in drinking water cause your body to attack your own nervous system? New research from Sweden links higher levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, with a higher risk for developing multiple sclerosis.

“We saw that several individual ...Read more

Leila Navidi/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS

Government appeals temporary restraining order prohibiting the detention of Minnesota refugees

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The Trump administration is asking a judge to lift his temporary restraining order prohibiting the arrest and detention of Minnesota’s refugees. Last week, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim prohibited the federal government from detaining any refugees who don’t have a green card and ordered the release of dozens of lawfully admitted refugees ...Read more