Today is Saturday, Dec. 20, the 354th day of 2025. There are 11 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Dec. 20, 1986, three Black men were attacked by a group of white youths in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens, New York, resulting in the death of one of the men, Michael Griffith.

Also on this date:

In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase was completed as ownership of the territory was formally transferred from France to the United States.

Related Articles

Implosion takes down a nearly century-old Mississippi River bridge

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recovers $55 billion pay package in Delaware court ruling

A California fisherman may have broken records by catching a 10.25-pound canary rockfish

What’s inside the released files on Jeffrey Epstein

NORAD continues decades-long tradition of tracking Santa’s trip around the world

In 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union on a vote of delegates at a secession convention, emboldening other Southern states to follow suit and helping to trigger the American Civil War.

In 1946, the classic holiday film “It’s a Wonderful Life” premiered at the Globe Theater in New York City.

In 1987, more than 4,300 people were killed when the Doña Paz (DOHN’-yuh pahz), a Philippine passenger ship, collided with the tanker Vector off Mindoro island.

In 1989, the United States launched Operation Just Cause, sending troops into Panama to topple the government of Gen. Manuel Noriega.

In 1995, American Airlines Flight 965 from Miami to Cali, Colombia, crashed into a mountain near Buga, Colombia, at night while descending into the Cali area, killing all but four of the 163 passengers and crew aboard.

In 2019, the United States Space Force was established when President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2020.

In 2024, a car slammed into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, killing six people and injuring more than 200. The suspect, who was arrested, was a doctor originally from Saudi Arabia who had expressed anti-Muslim views and support on social media for a far-right party.

Today’s Birthdays:

Rock drummer Peter Criss (Kiss) is 80.
Producer Dick Wolf (“Law & Order”) is 79.
Musician Alan Parsons is 77.
Author Sandra Cisneros is 71.
Actor Michael Badalucco is 71.
Rock singer Chris Robinson (The Black Crowes) is 59.
Filmmaker Todd Phillips is 55.
Actor Jonah Hill is 42.
Soccer player Kylian Mbappé is 27.

Anthony Edwards rose up on a stepback over Cason Wallace, fired and hit an impossible shot to lift the Timberwolves over an impossible opponent.

His late 3-pointer put Minnesota up by one with 38 seconds to play, and the Wolves got a pair of stops to hold on for a 112-107 victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Target Center.

Minnesota couldn’t hit a free-throw to save its life Friday night at Target Center. That trend continued all the way to the finish, as Julius Randle missed the back end of a pair with 45 seconds to play. But Rudy Gobert collected his 15th rebound of the night to set up the Edwards’ winner.

Edwards finished with 26 points and 12 rebounds in his return after missing three games with foot soreness. Six Wolves players scored 13-plus points, and that doesn’t include Gobert, who dominated on the interior.

The Thunder were on the second half of a back to back after playing the Clippers on Thursday in Oklahoma City.

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch was ejected just minutes into the game after he stomped out onto the floor and screamed an endless number of expletives at the officials after what he felt was a missed call. Perhaps his tirade wasn’t in vain, as Minnesota possessed a sizable free-throw advantage throughout the affair, though the Wolves missed 14 of their 47 attempts.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 35 points, seven assists and five rebounds for the Thunder.

Neither team shot the ball well, as has become the norm for these two teams in their matchups, but Minnesota won enough loose balls to give itself the edge.

Related Articles

Frederick: Timberwolves had to bring Kevin Garnett back into the fold

Report: Kevin Garnett to join Timberwolves in off-court role, have jersey retired

Timberwolves, again, show that a lack of ball movement leads to losses

Frederick: Chris Finch making young Wolves earn minutes

Short-handed Timberwolves again strike brilliant offensive balance in win over Kings

A St. Paul man was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday for raping a Wisconsin woman at his home in March shortly after they met on a dating app.

Green Isiah Kelly Jr. (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Ramsey County jurors in August found 39-year-old Green Isiah Kelly Jr. guilty of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, but acquitted him of the more severe first-degree criminal sexual conduct charge.

Kelly was a convicted sex offender at the time of the March 23 rape in St. Paul’s Summit-University neighborhood. In 2013, he pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct for raping a woman who had passed out from alcohol at a party in St. Paul, court records show.

He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, followed by 10 years of conditional release. Most people sent to prison in Minnesota serve two-thirds of their sentence in custody and the remaining on supervised release in the community.

Kelly was given an additional 15 months in prison in 2020 for repeatedly punching a fellow inmate in the face at Minnesota Correctional Facility-Faribault, according to court records. He was put on intensive supervised release in September.

“What is beyond the pale is that the defendant was on supervised release for sexual assault when he committed this sexual assault,” Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Cory Tennison told Judge Veena Iyer, who gave Kelly the maximum allowed under state sentencing guidelines.

According to the March 25 criminal complaint:

A 37-year-old woman from Menomonie, Wis., reported to police about 4:15 p.m. March 23 that she had been sexually assaulted less than two hours earlier at a home in the 800 block of Aurora Avenue. She identified the suspect as “Isiah,” who was later identified as Kelly.

She told police she had met Kelly through a dating app about a month earlier, and that they then texted and made FaceTime calls to each other.

Kelly asked if they could get together, and she said she was coming into town on March 23. Around 11:30 a.m., she agreed to cut his hair and beard, and went to his home on Aurora Avenue to meet him. He took her to a local restaurant. While there, he said he wanted to be in a relationship with her, but she told him she wasn’t interested.

When they returned to Kelly’s home, he asked her to come inside to cut his hair and offered to pay her to do so. “(The woman) was suspicious because (Kelly) was bald,” the complaint said.

When she and Kelly went into his bedroom, where she thought she was going to trim his beard, Kelly grabbed her by the arm and threw her on the bed. He ripped off her clothes and pinned his body against hers as she screamed and kicked at him. She told police she repeatedly yelled, “No! I don’t want to have sex with you!” the complaint said. He then raped her.

Related Articles

Ex-Hudson teacher gets 6-year prison sentence for sexual misconduct with 11-year-old student

Minnesota jury says Johnson & Johnson owes $65.5 million to woman with cancer who used talcum powder

Gov. Tim Walz, DHS say they don’t have evidence to suggest fraud could reach $9 billion

Federal judge weighs Trump’s claim he is immune from civil litigation over Capitol attack

Wisconsin Republicans demand Judge Dugan resign or face impeachment after felony conviction

Kelly stopped when his phone rang and someone knocked on the door, she told police. She was able to get past him and leave the home.

The woman drove directly to a hospital in Wisconsin. As she drove, Kelly called her multiple times. She recorded their conversations and provided them to police. Kelly apologized for not listening to her and said he let his “hormones speak for (him),” the complaint said. She told him that she had said “no” and yelled at him that what he did was “definitely not OK.”

After his arrest, Kelly underwent a suspect sexual assault examination. He declined to talk to investigators, saying that he wanted a lawyer.

After taking their longest break between home games to open a season, the Frost provided the Grand Casino Arena faithful with an array of goals that saw everything from trick shots, to some luck to final-minute drama in their 5-2 victory over the Boston Fleet on Friday night.

The Frost had gone 2-1 on the road before a break for international play, dropping their last game 4-1 in Boston. Their last match-up against the Fleet was described as a ‘big testament’ for their season by forward Taylor Heise ahead of the matchup, as they’d be entering a new home arena for Boston.

Between the return to their home ice — where they owned a 4-2 record all-time over Boston entering Friday night’s game — and the home-ice advantage was exactly what the Frost needed to get back into the win column.

Kendall Coyne Schofield got Minnesota its first goal of the night seven minutes into the first period, with what could be described as a ‘slip-and-slide’ assist from Heise. Heise had the puck just in front of Boston’s goal, and slipped on top of it as she attempted her first goal of the year. The puck was able to get over from underneath Heise to Coyne Schofield, who was waiting outside the corner of the goal, scoring her team-leading sixth goal on the year.

The Frost’s second goal in the first didn’t look as awkward. This goal attempt looked more like a trick shot, as Lee Stecklin had a clean shot 18 feet away from the goal. Stecklein’s shot bounced off of Dominique Petrie’s stick, set up right in front of the goal, and made it a 2-0 Frost lead.

The Frost’s goals after the first came with a little less flair and pause for the dramatic, but what had Frost fans cheering was save after save made by Hensley in the second.

The Fleet outshot Minnesota on 12-5 in the second, and no matter which way Boston tried to get the puck in, Hensley came up with the save and had 7,216 fans echoing her name throughout Grand Casino Area.

But the shutout wouldn’t last for Hensley, as the Fleet would get two goals 23 seconds apart from each other halfway through the third to make it a 3-2 game.

What looked like a safe lead with 11 minutes left in regulation quickly turned into tension for the Frost.

Fortunately, the Frost would be able to hold off the Fleet as their opponents sacrificed their goalie for the last minute of the game for an extra attacker.

Minnesota’s Katy Knoll stole the puck away and scored an empty-net goal from the neutral zone for her first of the season to make it a 4-2 game. Then with 8 seconds remaining, Kelly Pannek got one more empty-netter to make it a 5-2 win.

The Frost will head out on the road for their next game in Chicago against Ottawa as part of the PWHL’s Takeover Tour. The Takeover Tour features 12 neutral-site PWHL games in American and Canadian cities that have PWHL teams established in their cities. Puck drop is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday.

Related Articles

Frost center Taylor Heise preps to make Olympic dream a reality

PWHL: Record crowd watches Frost blank Seattle

Frost’s first road game in unfamiliar rink, against unfamiliar team

Frost celebrate championship but lose season opener to Sceptres

PWHL: Frost take first aim at third title on Friday