Mike Lee’s posts about the Minnesota shootings incensed fellow senators. They refused to let it go.

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By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and MATT BROWN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Lee has in recent years become one of the Senate’s most prolific social media posters, his presence seen in thousands of posts, often late at night, about politics. Fellow senators have grown accustomed to the Utah Republican’s pugnacious online persona, mostly brushing it off in the name of collegiality.

That is, until this past week.

His posts, after the June 14 fatal shooting of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband, incensed Lee’s colleagues, particularly senators who were friends with the victims. It all added to the charged atmosphere in the Capitol as lawmakers once more confronted political violence in America.

As the Senate convened for the week, Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., marched past a crowd of reporters and headed toward the Senate floor: “I can’t talk right now, I have to go find Sen. Lee.”

Smith, whose name was listed in the suspected shooter’s notebooks recovered by law enforcement officials, spoke to Lee for several minutes. The next day, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., did the same. By midday Tuesday, Lee had deleted his tweets.

“I would say he seemed surprised to be confronted,” Smith later told reporters.

The shooting unfolds

On the morning of June 14, Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., announced that former state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, had been shot and killed in their home outside Minneapolis. Another Democratic lawmaker, state Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, were critically injured, in a shooting at their home nearby.

The next day, as police searched for the shooter, Lee posted a photo of the alleged shooter with the caption “Nightmare on Waltz street” — an apparent misspelled attempt to shift blame toward Walz, who was his party’s vice presidential nominee in 2024.

In a separate post on his personal account, @BasedMikeLee, the senator shared photos of the alleged suspect alongside the caption: “this is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way.”

On his official Senate social media account, Lee was “condemning this senseless violence, and praying for the victims and their families.”

A spokesperson for Lee did not respond to a request for comment.

The man arrested, Vance Luther Boelter, 57, held deeply religious and politically conservative views. After moving to Minnesota about a decade ago, Boelter volunteered for a position on a state workforce development board, first appointed by then-Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, in 2016, and later by Walz.

Boelter has been charged with two counts of murder and two of attempted murder.

Lee’s online posts draw bipartisan backlash

Once a critic of Donald Trump, Lee has since become one of the president’s most loyal allies. Lee’s online persona is well established, but this year it has become especially prominent: a Salt Lake Tribune analysis found that in the first three months of 2025, Lee averaged nearly 100 posts per day on X.

What was different this time was the backlash came not just from Democrats.

To Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Lee’s posts were “insensitive, to say the least, inappropriate, for sure” and “not even true.”

“I just think whenever you rush to a judgment like this, when your political instincts kick in during a tragedy, you probably should realign some priorities,” Cramer said.

Republican state Rep. Nolan West wrote on social media that his respect for Lee had been “rescinded.”

A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., did not respond to a request for comment.

Last Monday night, after Smith’s confrontation with Lee, a senior member of her staff sent a pointed message to Lee’s office.

“It is important for your office to know how much additional pain you’ve caused on an unspeakably horrific weekend,” wrote Ed Shelleby, Smith’s deputy chief of staff. He added, “I pray that Senator Lee and your office begin to see the people you work with in this building as colleagues and human beings.”

Lee avoided reporters for much of the week, though he did tell them he had deleted the posts after a “quick” discussion with Klobuchar. Lee has not apologized publicly.

“We had a good discussion, and I’m very glad he took it down,” Klobuchar said at a news conference.

Tragedy prompts reflection in Congress

The uproar came at a tense time for the Senate, which fashions itself as a political institution that values decorum and respect.

Senators are under intense pressure to react to the Trump administration’s fast-paced agenda and multiple global conflicts. Republicans are in high-stakes negotiations over the party’s tax and spending cuts plan. Democrats are anxious about how to confront the administration, especially after federal agents briefly detained Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., at a recent Department of Homeland Security news conference in California.

Lawmakers believe it’s time to lower the temperature.

“I don’t know why Mike took the comments down, but it was the right thing to do,” said Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M. “I appreciate my Republican colleagues who were very clear with their observations. And those that spoke up, I want to commend them.”

He added: “We just all have to talk to each other. And what I learned from this week is people need to lean on each other more, and just get to know each other more as well.”

___

Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

Working Strategies: Do you have a bucket list for your career?

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Amy Lindgren

I was talking with a Japanese woman a few weeks ago, here in the U.S. to improve her English, when we ran into one of those inexplicable idioms Americans are so fond of. The conversation turned to travel and I asked what trips were on her bucket list.

Oops. No problem with the word “bucket,” and “list” was certainly clear. But “bucket list”? It only got worse when I used another idiom to explain — “You know, what you want to do before you kick the bucket?”

We figured ourselves out eventually but the exchange got me to thinking: Do we have bucket lists for our careers? When I encounter “bucket list” in usage, the other person is usually referring to a more global set of dreams, with the personal and professional and family and adventure all mixed together. And of course, the ever-present travel goals.

A look online reveals a multitude of articles and even products to help create your own bucket list. There are books, worksheets, financial planning tools … it’s almost a cottage industry in America to write down our dreams and plan our great adventures.

Borrowing from the most common principles I saw in my brief search, I’ll set the stage here for a bucket list that helps you (and me) imagine what might be possible in a fulfilling work life.

Don’t hold back. Off the top of your head, what would you love to achieve in your career? Don’t be practical; just write stuff down. Maybe your career bucket list would include running your own company or working remotely while sailing around the world or getting a Master’s degree or learning to weld or fixing lawn mowers in your retirement years or earning $100,000 or taking a sabbatical to write your novel or gaining a certain certification or … have I hit yours yet?

Your career bucket list could also include a variety of jobs or work you’ve always wanted to try. Have you ever wanted to work for a rodeo or travel the world for your job, or be the beach lifeguard for a summer? On the list it goes.

Cluster the answers. For someone wishing to travel to both Australia and New Zealand, it seems somewhat obvious they could plan one trip to cover both destinations. How about your career dreams — are there any that could be combined to support each other?

For example, if you want your own company but also dream of fixing lawn mowers in retirement, maybe your company could relate to lawn mowers in some way.

No worries if things don’t seem to cluster easily. It’s just a step to try, in case any natural pairings emerge.

Prioritize your answers. If the original list is long, there’s no need to rank them past the first five or so. The idea is to identify a handful that feel important to you, not to micro-stratify a huge list.

Review your priority answers. To help with this question, you could create a system for marking the items on the list. For example, an asterisk could go next to those things you’ve been considering for a long time, while a bullet could go next to those you think would be the most fun, and perhaps another symbol by those items that would open doors for other things.

Once you’ve marked items for different attributes, you can do some more ranking / prioritizing by notating those that have two or more symbols next to them. These would be the bucket list items that check the most boxes for you.

Decide what to do. Bucket lists can be just for fun, so you don’t have to do anything at all if you don’t want. Just put the list in a drawer and amuse yourself stumbling on it later. In that case, prepare to be surprised. It turns out that simply writing something down can be the first step in making it happen, even when you don’t have a specific plan. Years from now you might be amazed to see how many bucket list items happened “all on their own.”

On the other hand, making the list might inspire you to achieve certain goals. In that case, you could have the pleasure of checking things off the list as they happen, or perhaps revising the list to include new ideas.

From what I can tell, there’s no best way to handle a bucket list. Just enjoy the process, and hopefully the results as well.

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Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.

One Tech Tip: No more lost cats and dogs. Use tech to track your pet

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By KELVIN CHAN, Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — “Have you seen the cats?”

That’s a common refrain in my household because our two felines, Maple and Juniper, can venture outside through a flap in the backdoor. Like many other London house cats, they’re free to come and go, roaming the surrounding backyards and beyond, equipped with microchips to identify them if they get lost.

If your cat likes to prowl outdoors for long stretches, or your dog has a tendency to run off, it can be distressing when they don’t return as expected.

If you’re worried about your furry friend’s whereabouts, technology can help you keep tabs on them.

How pet tech works

Dedicated pet trackers are collar-worn devices that typically use GPS signals to pinpoint the location of the animal wearing them. They use a 4G cellphone signal or your home Wi-Fi connection to relay the position to a smartphone app.

There are many products on the market. Tractive, Jiobit and Pawfit are among brands that offer trackers for both dogs and cats. Devices for the latter are generally smaller and lighter.

An Apple Air Tag and a Chipolo Bluetooth tracker are seen on a keyring next to a cat in London, Thursday, May 29, 2025.(AP Photo/Kelvin Chan)

Dog trackers with integrated collars are available from Fi and Whistle. PetTracer is a cat collar that uses both GPS and radio signals from a home base station. FitBark, also for dogs, has an Apple Watch app to monitor location and other activity.

Garmin has a range of GPS dog collars that work with handheld devices resembling walkie-talkies, but they’re pricey and aimed at outdoors enthusiasts like hunters.

Phone signals

Most trackers let you designate a safe zone on a map, usually your house and surrounding area, and alert you if your pet has left it.

They usually operate on the 4G LTE spectrum commonly used by wireless carriers. It typically has the longest range of any cellular signal, said Andrew Bleiman, Tractive’s executive vice president for North America.

That means strong connectivity in most of Europe and North America “unless you’re in a really far flung place like the middle of a national park,” Bleiman said.

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What it costs

Exact price depends on brand and model. Most devices sell for less than $100. However, keep in mind you’ll also have to pay a subscription fee for the cell service to function.

While that could cost $100 or more a year, for some pet owners it’s worth the “peace of mind,” Bleiman said.

Battery life

The collars usually have a built-in rechargeable battery but battery life varies. Most will be last at least two to three days before they need charging, and a lot longer in ideal conditions.

One big factor is signal strength. The battery will drain faster if the device has to work harder to pick up the GPS or connect to Wi-Fi. Some save power by not sending coordinates in the safe zone.

Other features

Like fitness watches for humans, pet tracking apps offer health and activity monitoring features. You can see how long your cat or dog has spent resting or exercising on a daily or hourly basis.

But be aware, a tracker is “not going to keep your pet in the backyard,” Bleiman said. It will only “alert you when they leave the virtual fence area that you set up.”

How to use it

This One Tech Tip was inspired by Maple, who once went AWOL for days. It turned out he was hanging out in a backyard 10 doors down the street. We only found out after the residents got hold of a pet microchip scanner to look up our contact details to let us know so we could retrieve him.

Tractive provided a loaner device to try. Using the included breakaway collar, we put it on Maple, who clearly didn’t like it at first. He dashed out the back door and jumped through a hole in the fence.

A screenshot of the Tractive pet tracking app shows a cat’s travels and most frequented areas in a London neighborhood in London, Thursday, May 29, 2025.(AP Photo/Kelvin Chan)

Over the next day, I used the Tractive app to monitor his movements. It showed his travels back and forth onto various neighboring properties. He came back to rest for a few hours around midnight, went out to prowl again around 3 a.m, then came back after an hour to nap some more.

It was fascinating to see where he was spending his time. According to the app’s “heatmap,” one of Maple’s favorite spots was the same backyard where we had to retrieve him previously.

Losing track

About 24 hours after I attached the Tractive collar on Maple, I noticed he was no longer wearing it. It had somehow come off.

If you can’t find your pet’s exact location, or the device gets lost, Tractive has a “radar” feature to pinpoint it with your phone’s Bluetooth. Other brands have similar features.

On the app’s map, I could see it was in a nearby backyard and that I was getting closer because the circle was getting bigger. But I couldn’t figure out where it was and, not wanting to disturb the neighbors, I gave up.

A screenshot of the Tractive pet tracking app shows the path that a cat has taken in a London neighborhood in London, Thursday, May 29, 2025.(AP Photo/Kelvin Chan)

Bleiman recommends using a harness for cats that don’t like collars, but I’m not convinced.

Microchips

It’s common for cats and dogs to be implanted with microchips, with the details added to a database. That makes it much easier to reunite owners with lost dogs and cats, even if they’ve strayed hundreds of miles away or gone missing for years.

Pet microchips, about the size of a grain of rice implanted just below the skin, are legally required in some European countries. There’s no federal law in the U.S., though some places like Hawaii now require them, so check with state or local authorities.

But there’s some confusion about what microchips can do. Because they don’t have a power supply, they can’t be tracked in real time. Whoever finds your pet would need to take it to a vet or a shelter to can scan the device for contact details.

Air Tags and similar devices are another option

Many pet owners use Bluetooth trackers like Apple’s Air Tags, Samsung’s SmartTags or similar devices from Tile, Cube and Chipolo, which rely on low-power signals relayed by passing smartphones.

A Chipolo Bluetooth tracker is displayed while a cat rests in the background in London, Thursday, May 29, 2025.(AP Photo/Kelvin Chan)

Bluetooth trackers have a range of 100 to 500 feet, depending on the model. The batteries last for months if not longer, and there’s no need to pay for a subscription.

However, they’re not specifically marketed for pets. That hasn’t stopped pet owners, judging from many recommendations they’ve posted in online forums.

Chipolo advises that its round plastic trackers are only for “in-house pets like house-trained cats and smaller dogs” and warns against using them on “larger dog breeds and outdoor cats.”

Still, they can be a solution for some pet owners.

“Bluetooth is a totally reasonable solution if you’re in a downtown urban core,” Bleiman said. “But pets move fast. And if you’re in a wooded park, or you’re in a suburban area — let alone a more rural or wilderness area — it’s pretty unlikely your pet is going to be close to a Bluetooth device.”

Is there a tech topic that you think needs explaining? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your suggestions for future editions of One Tech Tip.

How client advocates are quietly reshaping criminal defense

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By Amanda Hernández, Stateline.org

In September 2023, Ashley, a 29-year-old mother of two who grew up in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, was facing child abuse and neglect charges in a criminal case related to substance use.

Her arrest led to her being separated from her youngest daughter.

But instead of receiving jail time, Ashley was connected with a specialized advocate who took the time to understand her and her case. She completed two inpatient substance-use treatment programs. In April 2024, she started a one-year outpatient treatment program.

By that June, she had reunited with her daughter, who is now 2 years old. And in April 2025 — a year after entering outpatient treatment — Ashley’s criminal case was fully dismissed after she had met every requirement of her court-ordered plan. (Stateline agreed to withhold Ashley’s full name to prevent potential retaliation in the ongoing custody case of her older child.)

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When she first entered the courtroom, Ashley recalled, she felt like a “lost puppy.” But through a collaborative defense model spearheaded by the national nonprofit Partners for Justice, she found not just support but strength.

Jaya Duckworth, who has been a client advocate in Los Angeles County for two years, helped Ashley obtain an ID, fill out and sign important documents, and connect to counseling and outpatient treatment.

A high school graduate with some college experience, Ashley now plans to return to school and continue raising her 2-year-old. She’s also working closely with her defense team to regain custody of her 9-year-old daughter.

“Without her help, I don’t think I would have been reunited with my daughter,” Ashley said in an interview with Stateline. “I have my little one here now, and I know that I’m confident to step into that courthouse and keep trying.”

Her experience reflects a growing shift in public defense — one that recognizes that attorney advocacy alone often isn’t enough.

But this shift is unfolding at a time when national momentum is swinging in the opposite direction, with many political leaders renewing calls to crack down on crime through tougher sentencing and increased policing.

“There’s just so much data out there that shows that this approach doesn’t work,” said Alaina Bloodworth, the executive director of the Black Public Defenders Association. Bloodworth previously served as a public defender in Louisiana for six years. “Tough on crime is fueled by emotions. It’s not fueled or based in any type of data.

“It has not worked for us, and it definitely doesn’t work for communities of color.”

A 2019 study by the Rand Corp. and the University of Pennsylvania Law School found that holistic defense — which integrates legal, social and community support — may not only reduce jail and prison time but may also improve long-term outcomes for clients. The study, which compared holistic and traditional public defense models in New York City over a 10-year period, found that holistic representation reduced the likelihood of a custodial sentence by 16% and reduced the expected sentence length by 24%. It also saved taxpayers an estimated $160 million on inmate housing costs.

This model has quietly taken root in pockets of the country — often showing results that are difficult to ignore. As local governments weigh various budget priorities and public safety, some public defenders and advocates are making the case that holistic support isn’t an add-on, but a necessary part of effective legal representation.

“Having holistic defense gives the client the agency and autonomy that they need to decide for themselves,” said Michael Halkias, the chief public defender for Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. “And once people feel empowered to make decisions when they’re in a system that tells them they have no power, I think ultimately it helps them in the long run.”

The county’s office has had client advocates for nearly a year.

The holistic defense model

Holistic defense, which emerged in the 1990s, pairs legal representation with social support and resources. The goal is not to excuse or overlook criminal behavior, but to address the underlying factors, such as poverty, substance use and trauma, that sometimes drive people into the justice system in the first place.

“When you meet those basic needs, it ensures that they don’t come back to the system,” Bloodworth said. “What I am not trained on is how to truly meet social needs in the way that social workers are trained or client advocates, so having a team of professionals representing someone is truly important to ensure that person actually gets the best representation.”

One of the organizations leading this shift is Partners for Justice, a national nonprofit that began operations in 2018. The group created a collaborative defense model by embedding trained client advocates directly within public defender offices, where they work alongside attorneys as part of an integrated and client-led defense team.

Some of the client advocates are recent college graduates with aspirations to go into law or public policy who commit to two-year fellowships, while others bring firsthand experience from the criminal legal system. The team’s goal is to confront the underlying causes and prevent many of the most dire consequences of criminal legal involvement.

Today, Partners for Justice has placed advocates in 25 public defense agencies across 17 states. Earlier this year, the organization expanded its reach through new partnerships with the Colorado State Public Defender and the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender.

Many client advocates build their own networks of local service providers to connect clients directly with the help they need.

Sometimes, it’s walking a client through a release from incarceration plan. Other times, it’s simply holding their hand in court — or showing up with something to eat.

“One of the most important parts of my job is to contribute in a small part to restoring the dignity and humanity that the system denies them,” said Duckworth, the client advocate who worked with Ashley, the 29-year-old California mother. She is one of more than 20 advocates working within the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office.

The model eases the burden on overworked public defenders by allowing them to focus on legal strategy, rather than juggling the complex needs of dozens of clients at once.

“Our caseloads are high,” said New Jersey Public Defender Jennifer Sellitti. “But at the same time, we’re also creatures of, ‘I’m just going to do it all myself.’”

One of the biggest challenges, she said, was shifting that mindset.

“The biggest hurdle was trying to say to lawyers, ‘We want you just to lawyer,’” Sellitti told Stateline. “But that very, very quickly has turned into an incredible partnership in all three of our pilot offices.”

Since offering the Partners for Justice client advocate program in three offices across Atlantic, Hudson and Monmouth counties in March, Sellitti said, the offices have helped clients access treatment programs more quickly than they would through traditional routes like probation or recovery court.

The collaborative defense model also helps build trust between clients and their defense team. Some client advocates say there’s a common perception among defendants that public defenders don’t care about their clients. But many public defenders are stretched so thin that it’s nearly impossible to give each case the attention it deserves.

“We have been helpful in bridging that communication gap between the lawyers and their clients,” said Paul Boyd, a client advocate with the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender in Atlantic County.

Boyd, who spent time in prison, said his background helps him build trust with clients who relate to his experience and therefore better understand the heavy caseloads their attorneys face. That connection, he said, often makes clients more willing to cooperate with their defense team.

A fragile lifeline in Portland

Budget cuts in some states, though, could threaten the advocacy work.

A program that has helped dozens of defendants in the Multnomah County area of Oregon is now at risk of being cut from two of the county’s major law firms that offer public defense services. The county faces a $15.5 million budget shortfall driven by a pandemic-era drop in property tax revenues.

Among those the program has supported in Portland is a 33-year-old resident and Alaska Native who has lived there for nearly a decade. The resident, who asked that their name not be used out of concerns for safety, was arrested last fall and charged under Measure 11, Oregon’s mandatory-minimum sentencing law. A prison sentence loomed over them.

After spending nearly a month in county jail, they worked with client advocate Cierra Carlson on a release plan — outlining their goals for substance use recovery, going over the resources they wanted to be connected to and naming other steps to keep out of the criminal legal system.

“I was worried that I was going to fall through the cracks, that I was just going to be treated like a number,” they said in an interview with Stateline.

But upon release, they entered a “culturally specific” substance use treatment center that serves people of color. They secured more stable housing, and with Carlson’s help reactivated their food stamps and health insurance.

“I feel way more seen than I have in the past,” they said.

But Carlson’s position could soon be eliminated.

Under Multnomah County’s proposed budget, $621,261 in funding for client advocate or case manager positions at the Metropolitan Public Defender, a nonprofit law firm that contracts with the state to offer public defense services, and Multnomah Defenders Inc. would be eliminated — cutting all six positions across the county. It’s one of many potential cuts that county leaders are looking at to save money.

Two amendments have been proposed to keep the program, though. One would fully reinstate the $621,261 in funding, while the other would allocate about $415,000, likely resulting in the loss of one or two positions.

Carlson said she’s worried about what might happen to her clients if the program were cut. “I have seen the difference that it can make.”

The proposed cuts come as Oregon’s public defense system is in crisis.

More than 3,700 people charged with crimes across the state currently have no legal representation, according to the latest state data. More than 1,700 others have missed their court dates after never being assigned an attorney — and now face active arrest warrants.

“Even if this program goes away temporarily, it’s not something that we are going to back away from because it is so critical to our work and to the success and safety of our community, too,” said Grant Hartley, the director of the Metropolitan Public Defender.

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.