Laura Jean Fero, a former dean of nursing at St. Catherine University, did not apologize at her Wednesday sentencing for swindling from the St. Paul school through bogus contracts with a health care consultant she was dating.

Fero, 55, told Ramsey County District Judge DeAnne Hilgers she has remorse for “introducing a very manipulative person” to the university and said she was a “victim of that situation, as well.” She said she lost everything, including her home and profession of 30 years. “And I’m not saying I’m not taking accountability for introducing a person like that … that’s on me.”

Laura Jean Fero (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Fero was charged last year with embezzling $400,000 from St. Kate’s, but reached an agreement with the prosecution and pleaded guilty to one count of theft by swindle.

Hilgers sentenced Fero to three years of probation, which was the maximum allowed under the plea deal. The judge followed the deal’s other terms — ordering Fero to pay $25,000 in restitution to St. Catherine and giving her a stay of imposition, which means the felony conviction will be considered a misdemeanor if she successfully completes probation.

Five other felony theft by swindle charges were dismissed at sentencing, which was attended by several of the school’s administrators and staff.

Kara Koschmann, the associate dean of nursing at St. Kate’s, read a victim impact statement on behalf of the university, saying Fero’s thievery “is a grievous breach of trust” that will have a “deep and lasting impact.”

“This was not a one-time theft driven by desperation or need,” Koschmann said. “She engaged in a calculated act of deception that targeted the good faith of St. Kate’s, its students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and the entire university community.”

Hilgers said she recognized the plea agreement was reached after “a lot of work and effort” between the attorneys and the university, adding, “What happens here today does not fix the harm that’s been caused, and the work to fix that harm is going to last far longer than your probation.”

Boyfriend was acquitted

Fero was St. Catherine’s dean of nursing from June 2019 through Aug. 28, 2023, when she left the St. Paul private college to take a job as dean of nursing and chief academic nurse at AdventHealth University in Orlando. She’s no longer employed by the university.

St. Catherine officials discovered missing funds after Fero left for the Florida job. The university conducted an internal investigation, and reported its findings to St. Paul police in late November 2023. Fero was arrested on May 8, 2024, at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport after arriving on a flight from Orlando, and charged two days later.

At Fero’s April 8 plea hearing, which she appeared via remote, she admitted she entered into contracts with Juan Ramon Bruce, 57, a Shakopee health care consultant, beginning in August 2020, and that she didn’t follow the university’s process of seeking requests for proposals beforehand.

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Fero also admitted she didn’t disclose to school leadership that she was involved in a romantic relationship with Bruce, whom she met in 2020 on a dating website.

For the count in which she pleaded guilty, Fero affirmed a statement by Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Tom Madison that Bruce was not “producing appropriate or expected work for the size of the contract.”

Bruce was charged with the same six counts three days after Fero. A jury in July deliberated less than four hours before acquitting him of all charges. His attorney, Debra Hilstrom, told the Pioneer Press after the verdict, “We said from the very beginning that Mr. Bruce did the work that he was hired to do.”

They met on Elitesingles.com

A police review of financial records showed Bruce’s company, JB & Associates LLC, received six payments from St. Catherine, totaling $412,644, between August 2020 and August 2023. The contracted work included outreach, marketing and market and cost analysis for continuing education development and delivery for the Catholic liberal arts school in St. Paul’s Highland Park area.

The charges against Fero say she sent an email to Bruce in October 2020 where she referenced meeting him on a dating website. Several emails she sent one day in July 2022 mentioned how they have traveled together to many places over the previous two years and how “she loves him deeply.”

The charges say a review of Fero’s university credit card showed she racked up $26,191 in expenses — airfare, rental cars, hotels and airport parking — for trips with Bruce to Miami, Atlanta and Phoenix in 2021, Cancun in 2022 and Orlando in 2023.

The investigation found additional emails indicating that Fero helped Bruce with some of the reports he was providing to the university to receive his contract funds, the charges say.

In an interview with police, Fero initially said she met Bruce from a “cold call” to St. Catherine about medical supplies and that they were not in a relationship prior to the university contracting with him. Fero later said she had met him on the dating website Elitesingles.com and that she believed the relationship did not constitute a conflict of interest.

Fero admitted to police to “editing” documents that Bruce submitted to St. Catherine, the charges say.

‘Deplorable’

In the university’s statement, Koschmann said a dean of nursing “holds ultimate responsibility” for ensuring that the nursing programs comply with federal, state and accreditation regulations, including those related to licensure, clinical practice and educational standards.

“To do so, a dean must exhibit the utmost integrity, accountability and ethical leadership,” she said. “To act deliberately counter to the values they expect from students, faculty and staff within the School of Nursing is deplorable.”

The money Fero stole “came from one of the university’s most generous donors” and was supposed to support student clinical and educational opportunities, and new program growth to boost enrollment.

Koschmann said Fero’s actions continue to have negative consequences on the university’s chances of securing state funding to support its programs and initiatives.

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As a part of applying for Minnesota state grants, Koschmann said, the university is asked if there have been any instances of misuse or fraud in the past three years.

“Because of Dr. Fero’s criminal conduct, we now have to answer yes, which automatically deducts five points from our application scores,” Koschmann said.

Fero told the court that through her financial, personal and spiritual loss, she has turned to weekly therapy and “really diving deep into that as to why I could be strong in one area of my life and very weak in another.”

“Luckily, I was able to persist through it and start healing,” she said. “So I look forward to continuing that journey in the future.”

By LISA MASCARO

WASHINGTON (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom looked straight into the camera and staked out a clear choice for his Democratic Party.

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The governor positioned himself as not only a leader of the opposition to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, but a de facto champion of the immigrants now being rounded up in California and across the country. Many of them, he said in the video address, were not hardened criminals, but hard-working people scooped up at a Home Depot lot or a garment factory, and detained by masked agents assisted by National Guard troops.

It’s a politically charged position for the party to take, after watching voter discontent with illegal immigration fuel Trump’s return to the White House. It leaves Democrats deciding how strongly to align with that message in the face of blistering criticism from Republicans who are pouring billions of dollars into supporting Trump’s strict immigration campaign.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Wednesday he’s proud of Newsom, “he’s refusing to be intimidated by Donald Trump.”

From the streets of Los Angeles to the halls of Congress, the debate over Trump’s mass deportation agenda is forcing the U.S. to reckon with core values as a nation of immigrants, but also its long-standing practice of allowing migrants to live and work in the U.S. in a gray zone while not granting them full legal status. More than 11 million immigrants are in the U.S. without proper approval, with millions more having arrived with temporary protections.

As Trump’s administration promises to round up some 3,000 immigrants a day and deport 1 million a year, the political stakes are shifting in real time. The president rode to the White House with his promise of mass deportations — rally crowds echoed his campaign promise to “build the wall.” But Americans are watching as Trump deploys the National Guard and active U.S. Marines to Los Angeles, while pockets of demonstrations erupt in other cities nationwide, including after agents raided a meat processing plant in Omaha, Nebraska

Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist, said the country’s mood appears to be somewhere between then-President Barack Obama’s assertion that America is “a nation of immigrants, we’re also a nation of laws” and Trump’s “more aggressive” deportation approach.

“Democrats still have some work to do to be consistently trustworthy messengers on the issue,” he said.

At the same time, he said, Trump’s actions as a “chaos agent” on immigration when there’s already unrest over his trade wars and economic uncertainty, risk overreaching if the upheaval begins to sow havoc in the lives of Americans.

Republicans have been relentless in their attacks on Democrats, portraying the situation in Los Angeles, which has been largely confined to a small area downtown, in highly charged terms as “riots,” in a preview of campaign ads to come.

Police said more than 200 people were detained for failing to disperse on Tuesday, and 17 others for violating the 8 p.m. curfew over part of Los Angeles. Police arrested several more people for possessing a firearm, assaulting a police officer and other violations. Two people have been charged for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails toward police during LA protests.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Newsom should be “tarred and feathered” for his leadership in the state, which he called “a safe haven to violent criminal illegal aliens.”

At a private meeting of House Republicans this week with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Rep. Richard Hudson, the chairman of the GOP’s campaign arm, framed the situation as Democrats supporting rioting and chaos while Republicans stand for law and order.

“Violent insurrectionists turned areas of Los Angeles into lawless hellscapes over the weekend,” wrote Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., earlier this week in the Wall Street Journal, suggesting it may be time to send in military troops.

“The American people elected Donald Trump and a Republican Congress to secure our border and deport violent illegal aliens. That’s exactly what the president is doing.”

But not all rank-and-file Republicans are on board with such a heavy-handed approach.

GOP Rep, David Valadao, who represents California’s agriculture regions in the Central Valley, said on social media he remains “concerned about ongoing ICE operations throughout CA” and was urging the administration “to prioritize the removal of known criminals over the hardworking people who have lived peacefully in the Valley for years.”

Heading into the 2026 midterm election season, with control of the House and Senate at stake, it’s a repeat of past political battles, as Congress has failed repeatedly to pass major immigration law changes.

The politics have shifted dramatically from the Obama era, when his administration took executive action to protect young immigrants known as Dreamers under the landmark Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Those days, lawmakers were considering proposals to beef up border security as part of a broader package that would also create legal pathways, including for citizenship, for immigrants who have lived in the country for years and paid taxes, some filling roles in jobs Americans won’t always take.

With Trump’s return to the Oval Office, the debate has turned toward aggressively removing immigrants, including millions who were allowed to legally enter the U.S. during the Biden administration, as they await their immigration hearings and proceedings.

“This anniversary should be a reminder,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., at a Wednesday event at the U.S. Capitol championing DACA’s 13th year, even as protections are at risk under Trump’s administration. “Immigration has many faces.”

Despite their challenges in last year’s election, Democrats feel more emboldened to resist Trump’s actions than even just a few months ago, but the political conversation has nonetheless shifted in Trump’s direction.

While Democrats are unified against Trump’s big tax breaks bill, with its $150 billion for new detention facilities, deportation flights and 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, they talk more openly about beefing up border security and detaining the most dangerous criminal elements.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, points to the example of Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, who won a special election in New York last year when he addressed potential changes to the immigration system head-on. At one point, he crashed a GOP opponent’s news conference with his own.

“Trump said he was going to go after the worst of the worst, but he has ignored the laws, ignored due process, ignored the courts — and the American people reject that,” she told The Associated Press.

“People want a president and a government that is going to fight for the issues that matter most to them, fight to move our country forward,” she said. “They want a Congress that is going to be a coequal branch of government and a check on this president.”

Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this story.

By MICHELLE L. PRICE

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday made a brief trip to Montana, where he spoke to media mogul Rupert Murdoch; his son Lachlan Murdoch, the head of Fox News and News Corp.; and a group of other Fox News executives, according to two people familiar with the trip.

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Vance met with the group at the Murdoch family ranch in southwest Montana near Dillon, according to the people. They confirmed the visit to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about it.

It’s not clear why the vice president addressed the group or what they spoke about.

A spokesperson for Fox News Channel did not respond to a message seeking comment.

The vice president’s office does not release a schedule for Vance and did not offer advance notice of the trip, so the surprise arrival of Air Force Two in Butte, Montana, set off local speculation as his motorcade was seen driving away.

The Murdoch ranch near Dillon is roughly 70 miles south of Butte. The ranch, which Murdoch purchased in 2021, is spread across two valleys and a mountain range and has some 12,000 cattle. It sits near Yellowstone National Park along the Montana-Idaho border.

According to flight restrictions issued by the Federal Aviation Administration, the vice presidential aircraft was only on the ground for a matter of hours.

Vance was scheduled to have lunch with President Donald Trump on Wednesday, according to the president’s publicly released schedule, meaning the vice president presumably returned to Washington shortly after meeting the Murdochs 2,200 miles away on Tuesday night.

Rupert Murdoch and his media organization have long been friendly with Republicans and have, for the most part, had a friendly relationship with Trump. He appeared at Trump’s inauguration and was spotted earlier this year in the Oval Office.

Rupert Murdoch, 94, stepped down as the head of Fox News and News Corp. in 2023 and handed control over to son Lachlan.

Montana state Auditor James Brown told the Montana Talks radio show that he helped Vance’s staff arrange the trip.

Brown, who did not respond to a message Wednesday from the AP, said he met the vice president when Vance landed at the airport and then helped escort Vance’s entourage on an hourlong drive by driving second lady Usha Vance’s staff.

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller in Washington and Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report.

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and SOPHIE AUSTIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is expected to sign a measure Thursday that blocks California’s first-in-the-nation rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, a White House official told The Associated Press.

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The resolution Trump plans to sign, which Congress approved last month, aims to quash the country’s most aggressive attempt to phase out gas-powered cars. He also plans to approve measures to overturn state policies curbing tailpipe emissions in certain vehicles and smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks.

The timing of the signing was confirmed Wednesday by a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to share plans not yet public.

The development comes as the Republican president is mired in a clash with California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, over Trump’s move to deploy troops to Los Angeles in response to immigration protests. It’s the latest in an ongoing battle between the Trump administration and heavily Democratic California over everything from tariffs to the rights of LGBTQ+ youth and funding for electric vehicle chargers.

“If it’s a day ending in Y, it’s another day of Trump’s war on California,” Newsom spokesperson Daniel Villaseñor said in an email. “We’re fighting back.”

According to the White House official, Trump is expected to sign resolutions that block California’s rule phasing out gas-powered cars and ending the sale of new ones by 2035. He will also kill rules that phase out the sale of medium- and heavy-duty diesel vehicles and cut tailpipe emissions from trucks.

The president is scheduled to sign the measures and make remarks during an event at the White House on Thursday morning.

Newsom, who is considered a likely 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, and California officials contend that what the federal government is doing is illegal and said the state plans to sue.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin are expected to attend, along with members of Congress and representatives from the energy, trucking and gas station industries.

The signings come as Trump has pledged to revive American auto manufacturing and boost oil and gas drilling.

The move will also come a day after the Environmental Protection Agency proposed repealing rules that limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas. Zeldin said it would remove billions of dollars in costs for industry and help “unleash” American energy.

California, which has some of the nation’s worst air pollution, has been able to seek waivers for decades from the EPA, allowing it to adopt stricter emissions standards than the federal government.

In his first term, Trump revoked California’s ability to enforce its standards, but President Joe Biden reinstated it in 2022. Trump has not yet sought to revoke it again.

Republicans have long criticized those waivers and earlier this year opted to use the Congressional Review Act, a law aimed at improving congressional oversight of actions by federal agencies, to try to block the rules.

That’s despite a finding from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan congressional watchdog, that California’s standards cannot legally be blocked using the Congressional Review Act. The Senate parliamentarian agreed with that finding.

California, which makes up roughly 11% of the U.S. car market, has significant power to sway trends in the auto industry. About a dozen states signed on to adopt California’s rule phasing out the sale of new gas-powered cars.

The National Automobile Dealers Association supported the federal government’s move to block California’s ban on gas-powered cars, saying Congress should decide on such a national issue, not the state.

The American Trucking Associations said the rules were not feasible and celebrated Congress’ move to block them.

Chris Spear, the CEO of the American Trucking Associations, said in a statement Wednesday: “This is not the United States of California.”

It was also applauded by Detroit automaker General Motors, which said it will “help align emissions standards with today’s market realities.”

“We have long advocated for one national standard that will allow us to stay competitive, continue to invest in U.S. innovation, and offer customer choice across the broadest lineup of gas-powered and electric vehicles,” the company said in a statement.

Dan Becker with the Center for Biological Diversity, in anticipation of the president signing the measures, said earlier Thursday that the move would be “Trump’s latest betrayal of democracy.”

“Signing this bill is a flagrant abuse of the law to reward Big Oil and Big Auto corporations at the expense of everyday people’s health and their wallets,” Becker said in a statement.

Austin reported from Sacramento, Calif.