The Minnesota Supreme Court has suspended Anoka County Judge John Dehen for nine months without pay after he “abused his position of authority” in a salary dispute involving his court reporter’s salary and for holding a remote juvenile court calendar while riding as a passenger in a moving car headed to a family member’s swim meet.

Anoka County Judge John Dehen (Alex Carroll / Minnesota Judicial Branch)

The Board on Judicial Standards filed a formal complaint against Dehen with the Supreme Court last year. A three-person panel found that Dehen committed three acts of misconduct and recommended that he be censured and suspended from judicial office without pay for six months.

Dehen appealed the findings, and the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in April.

Dehen was first licensed to practice law in Minnesota in 1988. He’s been an elected judge in the Tenth Judicial District since 2010.

According to the Supreme Court’s 72-page order released Tuesday, Dehen’s court reporter, who was in the job since 2017, felt that she was not getting paid enough — and Dehen agreed. Her salary level was at step 2 out of 11, making her one of the lowest paid court reporters in the Judicial Branch.

The court reporter learned that another court reporter in Anoka County was able to get a pay increase by resigning and then being immediately rehired by that court reporter’s judge at a higher step. The Judicial Branch did not have a written policy against that tactic.

“In August 2023, Judicial Branch human resources clarified that the treatment of the other court reporter was contrary to the Judicial Branch’s practices,” the order states. “But Judge Dehen was not immediately made aware of that clarification.”

Dehen’s court reporter resigned in September 2023 and reapplied, a move that Dehen supported.

The Tenth Judicial District Court Administrator then sent Dehen a copy of a 2022 union arbitration decision that concluded judges do not have authority under the collective bargaining agreement to set compensation for their court reporters.

Dehen did not accept that response, and hired her back as his court reporter. He then filed a court order directing the court administrator to immediately start the employment of his court reporter at a step 11 salary.

The Court of Appeals was brought into the mix and disagreed with Dehen, issuing a court order of its own that vacated his order. However, Dehen filed and served a second order to the court administrator directing her to respond and appear at a hearing before him in November 2023 and show cause for not hiring the court reporter at a step 6, the midpoint salary for court reporters.

The Court of Appeals issued a special term order vacating Dehen’s second order.

The Supreme Court concluded that “Judge Dehen’s conduct in [the court reporter compensation dispute] severely undermines the public’s trust in the judicial system, giving the impression that a judge may treat their office as a weapon to be used in professional disputes.”

Moreover, Dehen has “exhibited little if any remorse for his flagrant and egregious actions involving the court reporter dispute,” the Supreme Court’s order said.

Meanwhile, in proceedings before the panel, Dehen did not dispute that he committed misconduct when he held a remote juvenile court calendar while riding in a moving vehicle, acknowledging that it was a “bad idea,” the order said.

However, in a brief to the Supreme Court, Dehen argued that his actions were “not ethical misconduct” and that conducting a remote calendar from his car would be preferable to “either canceling the calendar with less than one day’s notice or finding a replacement judicial officer.”

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The Supreme Court disagreed and cited several rules, including one that states a judge’s duties “take precedence over all of [their] personal and extrajudicial activities.”

“Absent extraordinary circumstances, conducting court from a moving car is not consistent with decorum in proceedings before the court,” the Supreme Court concluded.

On the third issue, the Supreme Court concluded that Dehen’s conduct over at-risk juvenile guardianship proceedings did not constitute misconduct.

If Dehen stops being a judge before his suspension ends, the order says, he will be suspended from practicing of law for a term equal to the balance of his judicial suspension.

By LAURIE KELLMAN

From the pulpit of the presidency, Donald Trump offered some advice to pregnant women: “Tough it out” before taking Tylenol.

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Nine times in all, Trump said expectant mothers should suffer through their discomfort instead of reaching for acetaminophen — or paracetamol in countries outside the U.S. — to cure their fevers or headaches, despite the drug being one of the few painkillers that pregnant women are allowed to take.

“Fight like hell not to take it,” Trump instructed at a Monday news conference meant to address autism. He added that if pregnant women absolutely have to take Tylenol, that’ll be something that they “work out with themselves.”

What many women and experts heard was the latest example of a man telling women how much physical pain they should endure — and an age-old effort to blame mothers for their babies’ autism.

“His use of ‘tough it out’ really was infuriating because it dismissed women’s pain and the real danger that exists with fever and miscarriage during pregnancy,” said women’s rights advocate and social media influencer Amanda Tietz, a 46-year-old mom of three in Wisconsin, in an email. “Not to mention the pain we can experience in pregnancy that can be debilitating.”

Others saw a man opining — again, without evidence that maternal use of Tylenol causes autism or ADHD in children — on mothers, children with disabilities and their health at a time when studies show pain suffered by women is frequently dismissed. Women’s health and their autonomy are especially fraught issues in the wake of the Supreme Court decision in 2022 to strip away constitutional protections for abortion, a deeply personal change for Americans nearly a half century after Roe v. Wade. The debate now roils state legislatures nationwide.

“Yesterday 5 powerful men stood together in the WH and shamed: Pregnant women, told to ‘tough it out’ through pain; Moms of autistic kids, blamed for their child’s condition; Autistic people, called broken & in need of fixing,” Trump’s former surgeon general, Jerome Adams, posted on social media. “Can we all be kinder and less stigmatizing?”

Three women also spoke at Monday’s press conference and thanked Trump: Dorothy Fink, the acting assistant secretary at HHS; and Jackie O’Brien and Amanda Rumer, two mothers who said they have autistic children.

Dr. Nicole B. Saphier of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said pregnant women generally are advised to take acetaminophen only under medical supervision, when necessary and at the lowest effective dose. But equally important — and missing from Trump’s message — was that untreated fever or severe pain can also pose serious risks to mothers and babies, she said.

“For decades, women have endured a paternalistic tone in medicine. We’ve moved past dismissing symptoms as ‘hysteria,’” Saphier, who also is a Fox News medical contributor, wrote in an email. “The President’s recent comments on Tylenol in pregnancy are a prime example. Advising moderation was sound; delivering it in a patronizing, simplistic way was not.”

Trump is not known for a delicate touch around policy where women are concerned. Ahead of the 2016 election, he erupted over tough questioning by Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, later telling CNN: “You can see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” He’s got a special playbook for female opponents that includes put-downs about their appearance, their emotional stability and their intelligence.

There’s a long history of men holding forth, sometimes incorrectly, about women’s reproductive health. Former Missouri Republican Rep. Todd Akin sank his 2012 U.S. Senate campaign with remarks about what constituted “legitimate rape.” Others have erred by suggesting publicly and falsely that rape victims can’t get pregnant.

History offers a long list of men making medical policy for women based on the beliefs of their time — and, some say, suspicion about the power of women to create and shape their unborn babies. A nearly half-century-old theory, long discredited, held that “refrigerator mothers” — cold or distant figures — were responsible for their children’s autism.

Trump’s advice “took me straight back to when moms were blamed for autism,” said Alison Singer, founder of the Autism Science Foundation. “He basically said, if you can’t take the pain, if you can’t deal with the fever, then it’s your fault.”

Trump’s “tough it out” advice is familiar to Mary E. Fissell, a professor of medical history with Johns Hopkins University. “It’s the classic blame-the-mother …over and over again,” she said. The “maternal imagination,” for example, was a principle once thought to influence the way a baby forms.

“It’s the idea that what a pregnant woman desires or feels or imagines will shape the form of her unborn child,” said Fissell, who focuses on 17th- and 18th-century medical history.

Trump offered at least one moment of introspection during his news conference, acknowledging the awkward nature of his directive.

“You know, it’s easy for me to say tough it out,” the president allowed. “But sometimes in life or a lot of other things, you have to tough it out also.”

By FATIMA HUSSEIN, ALMUDENA CALATRAVA and DEBORA REY

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump stopped short Tuesday of promising Argentina’s President Javier Milei a financial bailout from the Latin American country’s economic turmoil.

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“We’re going to help them. I don’t think they need a bailout,” Trump told reporters. He sat alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Milei on Tuesday afternoon on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

“Scott is working with their country so that they can get good debt and all of the things that you need to make Argentina great again,” he said.

Bessent posted on X Monday that “all options for stabilization are on the table” for Argentina.

Options being contemplated include the purchase of Argentina’s currency or sovereign debt by a fund controlled by the U.S. Treasury, called the Exchange Stabilization Fund, Bessent said. Argentina is one of the biggest Latin American economies and the biggest borrower from the International Monetary Fund — its total outstanding credit as of Aug. 31 is $41.8 billion.

The offer to financially help Argentina comes as Trump has frequently promoted his “America First” agenda. Critics contend that the planned intervention is a way to reward a personal friend of Trump’s who is facing a critical midterm election next month.

“At a time when Americans are struggling to afford groceries, rent, credit card bills, and other debt payments,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., “it is deeply troubling that the President intends to use significant emergency funds to inflate the value of a foreign government’s currency and bolster its financial markets.”

She called any planned U.S. intervention in Argentina’s economy a bailout. “I do not understand why it is in the interest of the United States to provide one, nor how one would be designed to ensure the best outcomes for the Argentinian people, instead of hedge fund investors.”

Miliei’s Argentina is weighed down by political and economic adversity, including fears that the country’s current stagnation could turn into a recession and that the devaluation of the peso, caused by the soaring dollar, could reignite prices, among other problems.

The setbacks have revealed an erosion of Milei’s support among broad sectors who, despite the drop in inflation, feel their economic situation has worsened in the context of an austerity plan unlike anything Argentina has ever seen.

Calatrava and Rey reported from Buenos Aires.

The Ramsey County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to set next year’s tax levy increase at 9.75% — or $434.56 million.

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State law requires the county to certify the proposed tax levy by Sept. 30. Commissioners will approve the final 2026 tax levy in December. The final levy increase can be less than $434.56 million but it can’t be more, now that the maximum levy has been set.

The county’s proposed budget totals $929.3 million in 2026 – a 6.57% increase from the 2025 supplemental budget of $848.5 million. The 2027 proposed budget of $968.5 million is a 4.22% increase from 2026.

What the average homeowner can expect

The average tax increase on a residential median-value home is estimated at a 4.4% increase, or $22 per month according to county officials, because of overall growth in property values and the amount of tax revenue coming from properties other than residences.

The estimated median home value in St. Paul for 2026 is $289,200.

About 46% of the county’s proposed budget is funded through property taxes. The rest comes from intergovernmental revenues, charges for services and other sources. The county raised the tax levy 4.75% in 2025, 6.8% in 2024 and 4.5% in 2023.

Why is it going up?

The proposed levy comes at a time when state and federal decisions are shifting responsibilities to the county without providing the needed resources for them, according to county officials.

County service teams have been holding budget presentations throughout this month. None of those departments presented “wish” budgets but rather presented what they need in order for the county to provide the services that it is required to, said Commissioner Mary Jo McGuire.

“I’m going to support this budget item today knowing that we’re going to continue to work on what we can do to not have this burden on our property taxpayers,” McGuire said at Tuesday’s meeting. “And it’s not any of our choice (but) that’s one of the very few ways that we can raise revenue is through the property tax.”

Board commissioners said they plan to work with county teams and others ahead of December to decrease the proposed levy hike.

“This is a very hard budget. There are very real consequences,” said Commissioner Mai Chong Xiong, during Tuesday’s meeting, at times becoming visibly emotional. “So I just want to be clear that today’s vote is just setting the max levy and that my commitment still remains — working through this budget with our staff and with our residents to ensure … Ramsey County is prepared to pay for the big shift that’s coming from the federal and from the state … No matter what type of cuts we make here, it will be painful, and I just want to reassure our residents that we take this role very seriously.”

Public hearing

Meanwhile, the board of commissioners held a public hearing on the proposed budget Monday.

Residents spoke about increases in property taxes and the county’s plans to close its Detox and Withdrawal Management Program on Dec. 31 as part of the proposed budget.

One Maplewood resident said levy increases have been “unsustainable” and his property taxes will go up to $12,000.

St. Paul resident Brandon Huggins said that around six years ago, he was homeless, but has now become a homeowner and is struggling with increasing taxes.

“Because of services like Ramsey County Detox, I was able to get sober, to become a taxpayer and I’m now a homeowner,” Huggins said. “And you’re increasing my taxes to a point where I’m struggling to provide for my family. You’re asking more and more from the residents of this city and this county. And you’re cutting services for us, public services, community services.”

County officials have cited financial underperformance as part of its decision to close its detox and withdrawal program and anticipates moving to community-based services will reduce county costs by at least $2 million annually. The county’s proposed budget includes the reduction of 43 staff positions, most of whom work for the program.

AFSCME union members representing Ramsey County workers oppose closing the program, citing concerns with the privatizing services and “questionable ethical ties to county leadership staff and hired analysts who were contracted to study the public program’s effectiveness,” union officials said last week.

When are the next hearings?

Community members will be able to provide feedback on the proposed budget during the next public hearing on Dec. 11, before its expected approval on Dec. 16.

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