By TODD RICHMOND, Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge said Wednesday that the trial for a Wisconsin judge charged with illegally helping an immigrant evade federal agents will go on as planned next month, brushing past talk of a possible plea agreement.

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U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman told prosecutors and attorneys representing Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan during a hearing to assume the trial will begin as planned on Dec. 11 with jury selection.

Federal prosecutors charged Dugan in April with obstruction and concealing an individual to prevent arrest. According to court documents, Dugan was set to hear a state battery case in April against 31-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an immigrant who was in the country illegally. Federal agents learned he was scheduled to appear in her courtroom and traveled to the Milwaukee County Courthouse to apprehend him.

Dugan learned the agents were outside her courtroom and led Flores-Ruiz out through a private door, according to the documents. He found his way outside the courthouse but agents caught him after a foot chase. The Department of Homeland Security announced this month that he has been deported.

Dugan faces six years in prison if she’s convicted on both the obstruction and concealment charges. U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel said last week that plea negotiations were underway but Dugan wasn’t interested in a deal.

Her defense team has insisted she’s innocent and is preparing for trial, arguing that she was acting in her official capacity as a judge when she led Flores-Ruiz out of her courtroom. Still, Schimel’s remarks raised questions about what might happen next in the case.

No one from Schimel’s office or Dugan’s attorneys mentioned the prospect of a deal during Wednesday’s hearing, the last one scheduled ahead of Dugan’s trial. They instead focused on the logistics of jury selection and trial procedure.

Steven Biskupic, Dugan’s lead attorney, told Adelman that the two sides have already stricken 34 potential jurors based on responses to a questionnaire they sent out gauging their political biases. The two sides said they may need two days to select jurors from the pool of 90 or so remaining prospects.

Dugan’s indictment has intensified the clash between President Donald Trump’s administration and local authorities over the Republican’s sweeping immigration crackdown.

Democrats accuse the Trump administration of trying to blunt judicial opposition to the crackdown by making an example of Dugan. The administration has vilified Dugan on social media, posting photos of her being led out of the courthouse in handcuffs and labeling her an activist judge.

Biskupic said that he wants to make each potential juror fill out another questionnaire about their biases on the way into the courtroom on the selection days, saying publicity over the case is continuing. Adelman agreed.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Frohling told Adelman the government plans to call 25 to 28 witnesses, including federal immigration agents and witnesses who saw what happened in Dugan’s courtroom and in the courthouse. Biskupic told the judge that the government also plans to introduce about a half-hour’s worth of recordings made in Dugan’s courtroom.

The government’s case will take at least four days, Frohling said. Biskupic did not offer any details about his witnesses or the potential length of his side of the case.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys did not speak with reporters on their way out of the hearing. Dugan attended the proceeding but said nothing. She also left without speaking with reporters.

New York State is still waiting on $400 million from the federal government to open applications for its energy assistance program this winter. In the meantime, officials are urging residents in need to check their eligibility for another state initiative that secures a monthly utility discount for low-income households.

(Adi Talwar/City Limits)

While the federal government has been back open for nearly two weeks, New York State is still waiting on $400 million from the Trump administration to open applications for its home energy assistance program this winter, known as HEAP.

In the meantime, officials are urging residents in need to check their eligibility for another state initiative that secures monthly utility discounts for low-income households.

The New York Energy Assistance Program (EAP) provides the discounts for households that earn below a certain income threshold—what officials say can save participants up to $500 per year.

To be eligible, applicants must prove their participation in one of several public benefit programs, including SNAP, Supplemental Security Income, Medicaid and federal public housing assistance (a full list can be found here). They’re also eligible if they’re enrolled in the Home Energy Assistance Program, or HEAP, which is based on income (a family of four can earn up to $6,680 a month, or $80,165 annually, and qualify).

Beginning in 2026, families can be eligible for EAP even without participating in another benefits program as long as they meet the income requirements, which will also expand next year to those earning up to the Area Median Income for New York City, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office.

Last year, around 1 million households across the state benefited from monthly EAP discounts, but an additional 1.5 million are estimated to be eligible and haven’t applied, according to the governor.

“We’re not leaving people out in the cold and letting bills escalate,” Hochul said during a press conference last week. “I want to urge all eligible households to sign up for the programs we have here in New York.”

Meanwhile, the governor says the state is still waiting on federal funds to open applications for HEAP, which is distinct from EAP and provides direct payments toward participants’ utility bills. The amount varies—maxing out at $996—based on income, household size, heating source, and if the household contains a vulnerable member (a child under 6, adult 60 or older, or residents who are permanently disabled).

Nearly 1 million New York City households received HEAP assistance last winter. It was supposed to open applications for this season on Nov. 3, but enrollment was delayed thanks to the federal government shutdown—and remains on hold despite the government reopening earlier this month.

Hochul says the Trump administration has yet to release the $400 million that funds New York’s HEAP. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the funding, did not return City Limits’ request for comment.

But the federal agency informed states that funding would be dispersed by the end of the month, according to Hochul’s office. If that’s the case, the state expects to open HEAP applications the first week of December.

“Governor Hochul continues to demand the immediate release of these federal funds, while also helping enroll more New Yorkers in state programs for monthly energy discounts and ensuring that vulnerable households don’t lose access to heat,” Spokesperson Ken Lovett said in a statement.

The delay comes as New Yorkers’ utility bills are going up: both National Grid and Con Edison recently approved multi-year rate hikes for customers in the five boroughs.

A report last year from the climate policy think tank Switchbox found that one of every four New York residents is “energy burdened,” meaning they spend at least 6 percent of their income on utility bills. In the Bronx, 34 percent of households are energy burdened, among the highest of any New York county, the report found.

To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post Struggling to Afford Heating Bills? See If You Qualify For This NYS Discount appeared first on City Limits.

ICE said Wednesday that a man arrested by agents Tuesday in a St. Paul neighborhood entered the U.S. illegally from Honduras.

Victor Molina Rodriguez was previously removed from the U.S., has a “rap sheet” that includes domestic abuse and disorderly conduct and illegally re-entered the United States, according to a statement from a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson.

Tuesday’s arrest drew nearly 200 constitutional observers and protesters to the 600 block of East Rose Avenue in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood. There were confrontations between protesters and law enforcement. Federal law enforcement and St. Paul police officers responded with pepper spray; St. Paul police also deployed projectiles.

“During the arrest, a U.S. citizen weaponized their vehicle and rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle,” Wednesday’s DHS statement said. “The attacker fled on foot, but was later apprehended by law enforcement.”

Police “disrupted a peaceful observation,” said Mary Anne Ligeralde Quiroz, Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center co-founder and executive director, on Wednesday. “No one was threatening HSI and law enforcement agents.”

It wasn’t immediately clear how many people ICE arrested on Tuesday.

Jeffrey Suazo’s family members, standing against the wall, listen as Mary Anne Ligeralde Quiroz talks about Suazo’s arrest. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

The family of Jeffrey Suazo gave a statement Wednesday saying he also was detained Tuesday. His family came to the U.S. fleeing persecution in Honduras, a community organizer said.

“A simple man, 26 years old, hard working and humble,” Suazo’s family said in a statement read by Ligeralde Quiroz. “On Nov. 25, Jeffrey was on his way to work and saw that there was ICE activity. Jeffrey fled out of fear — fear of never seeing his partner, his family, fear of being taken away from his loved ones.”

“They want to blame Jeffrey for something he didn’t do that was part of what was happening,” the statement continued. “No one deserves to live the trauma that Jeffrey and the family have experienced. Children and a pregnant woman spent five hours under threats, humiliation by HSI agents, mockery and invasion of property, because, yes, they were able to get in without a warrant.”

Called in back-up

DHS said in Wednesday’s statement that a large number of people, who they referred to as “rioters,” arrived and they called in back-up “to help secure the scene.”

St. Paul has a separation ordinance that says city employees are not authorized to enforce federal immigration policies, and Police Chief Axel Henry said Tuesday the city’s officers had not violated it.

“I understand that our public is greatly frustrated by these issues, but be clear, the St. Paul police officers are not doing immigration enforcement, but we do have a responsibility to make sure that laws aren’t broken in our city,” he said in a statement.

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St. Paul city council members, legislators and community members expressed anger about the involvement of St. Paul police and their use of chemical munitions and projectiles.

DHS said in its statement that people on the scene “continued to ignore law enforcement commands and aggressively advanced on law enforcement. ICE used their training and deployed crowd control measures for the safety of the public and law enforcement.”

“Our officers are facing a 1,150% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest murderers, rapists, abusers and gang members,” the statement continued. “Secretary Noem’s message to the rioters is clear: you will not stop us or slow us down. … And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

By JAMES POLLARD

NEW YORK (AP) — MacKenzie Scott, one of the world’s wealthiest women and most influential philanthropists, is now known for her “no strings attached” surprise grantmaking. But, as a Princeton University sophomore, she learned what it was like to be on the receiving end of generosity.

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Facing the prospect of dropping out if she couldn’t come up with $1,000, Scott was crying when her roommate, Jeannie Tarkenton, found her and got her dad to loan Scott the money.

“I would have given MacKenzie my left kidney,” Tarkenton told the Associated Press recently. “Like, that’s just what you do for friends.”

Today, Scott’s net worth is around $34 billion, according to Forbes. In October, Scott wrote that Tarkenton’s act is among the many personal kindnesses she has considered as she has donated more than $19 billion of the wealth she amassed mostly through Amazon shares as part of her 2019 divorce from company founder Jeff Bezos. And when Tarkenton started Funding U, a lending company that offers last-gap, merit-based loans to low-income students without co-signers, Scott said she jumped at the chance to help.

A quarter century passed between the end of their sophomore year and Funding U’s creation, a period when Tarkenton realized just how many more students were being pushed into her former roommate’s position by the rising cost of college. That Scott took an interest in her old friend’s mission to help economically disadvantaged students finance school is unsurprising. Her unusual gifts — which she rarely discusses or discloses outside of essays and a database on her website, Yield Giving — tend to focus on issues of equity, higher education and economic security.

But the revelation of Scott’s Funding U support offers a new glimpse into her investments. Scott wrote last year that she would invest in “mission-aligned ventures” led by “undercapitalized groups” that focus on “for-profit solutions” to the challenges that her philanthropy seeks to address. However, this is among the few confirmed publicly.

“She’s looking for innovative ways to create opportunity for those that don’t have it,” said Marybeth Gasman, who runs Rutgers’ Center for Minority Serving Institutions and follows Scott’s donations. “I have to say, as somebody who went to school on a Pell Grant and who came from an extremely low-income family, that’s really meaningful.”

Amplifying impact

Scott, in many ways, resembled the exact students that Funding U seeks to serve. Tarkenton recalled the undergraduate Scott as a “hardworking student with very good grades” who was “highly focused” and had already been accepted into a competitive program.

Her lending company plugs those sorts of details — student transcripts and internship experiences, for example— into an algorithm that determines the likelihood applicants will complete college, get a job and make enough money to pay back the loan.

Tarkenton suggested that this formula is fairer — and more predictive — than existing criteria that determine loan eligibility based on the credit histories of students or their co-signers.

Scott provides most of the “junior debt” they use to reduce the risk for larger investments from banks such as Goldman Sachs, according to Tarkenton. She is among a handful of philanthropists who provide 30 cents for every dollar that Funding U loans. These funders lend at concessionary rates, meaning they make less money back than the market suggests they should and wait a longer period of time to recoup the money.

Funding U gets the other 70% from banks, who support them to comply with federal laws aimed at preventing anti-poor discrimination by requiring banks to make loans that benefit their communities.

“I wanted to combine capital from people who were participating in this because they cared about the underlying person,” Tarkenton said, “and also, knowing that scale of philanthropy wasn’t quite big enough, bring to the table some sort of market solution alongside that capital.”

A philanthropic endeavor?

Tarkenton is clear: the endeavor isn’t philanthropic. Funding U is a company, after all, and Scott will eventually get her money back — just as she repaid Tarkenton’s informal loan all those years ago at Princeton.

But the approach represents a model that Scott’s former roommate thinks more philanthropists should embrace. Tarkenton said there’s more space for the likes of Scott to “bring a spirit of investment” that serves a “greater good” but isn’t purely charitable.

“I think philanthropists can get a little messier and do more with their money,” Tarkenton said. “I’m all about pushing philanthropists in a very aligned way.”

It’s why she started Funding U. Working at an Atlanta-based adult literacy nonprofit, Tarkenton said she noticed persistent disparities in degree completion rates based on socioeconomic status. She found the problem too big for philanthropy to solve. But the need was too small for most market players to care about addressing, she said.

Scott described the Funding U loans as “generosity- and gratitude-powered” in an Oct. 15 essay about the ripple effects of kindness.

Panorama founder Gabrielle Fitzgerald, whose social impact nonprofit tracks Scott’s giving, said the investment is “very consistent with her approach to ensuring students have access to higher education.” She said many funders see impact investing as a critical part of their giving portfolios.

“It shows that she’s using all the tools at her disposal to pursue her goals,” Fitzgerald said.

And the full circle impact of Tarkenton’s college-era loan?

“It’s a really lovely story in a time when we’re not seeing a lot of kindness and generosity,” Fitzgerald added. “And just a reminder that helping your fellow humans is both a good thing to do at the time and something that could have a massive impact down the road.”

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.