Over the last month voters have nixed 60 different products, ranging from Velveeta cheese to railings found in professional sports stadiums, and declared them not the “coolest thing” made in Minnesota.

Hosted by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and BMO, the manufacturing competition, “Coolest Thing Made in Minnesota” has narrowed down its final four products for voters to choose from.

“Reaching the top four is a huge accomplishment,” said Doug Loon, president and CEO of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, in a news release. “These products have captured the imagination of voters and put a spotlight on the creativity, craftsmanship and ingenuity that define Minnesota manufacturing.”

Without further ado, here are the finalists.

SR Series G7+ Aircraft

The SR Series G7+ Aircraft is the latest in the SR Series from Cirrus Aircraft. Constructed in Duluth, the single-engine piston aircraft features the world’s first FAA-approved autonomous emergency landing system from Garmin.

MRZR

An off-road military vehicle from Polaris, the MRZR is manufactured and engineered in Roseau and Wyoming, Minn. With military modifications, the MRZR can also include infrared and blackout lighting, greater range and collapsible roll cages for internal transport in helicopters and on naval vessels.

Trackchair

Hand-built in Marshall, the Trackchair from ATZ is an all-terrain wheelchair that can navigate through sand, mud, snow and up to 10 inches of water. Tim Swenson, who created the chair to allow his son to access the outdoors, crafted the first Trackchair using a bent tube frame, two snowmobile tracks and a broken seatbelt.

Teardrop Trailer

Vistabule, a family-run business, manufactures its Teardrop Trailer in St. Paul. Weighing 1,400 pounds, the trailer features a queen-size sleeping area and a galley kitchen with upper cabinets, customizable pull-out drawers, sink, cooler and refrigerator options.

“Each matchup now feels less like a contest and more like a celebration of what our state can build,” Loon said.

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Last year’s inaugural competition saw products like a man-made floating wetland, a wood-burning sauna stove, a rainbow freezer pop and an Arctic Cat snowmobile.

The first place finisher? Scotch Magic Tape from 3M Co.

This year’s winning product will be announced Oct. 7 at the 2025 Manufacturers’ Summit.

Voting is open now until 5 p.m. Sunday. To cast your last vote, go to http://pipr.es/CcOxwe4.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana’s Republican governor asked for National Guard deployments to New Orleans and other cities, saying Monday that his state needs help fighting crime and praising President Donald Trump’s decision to send troops to Washington and Memphis.

Gov. Jeff Landry, a Trump ally, asked for up to 1,000 troops through fiscal year 2026 in a letter sent to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It comes weeks after Trump suggested New Orleans could be one of his next targets for deploying the National Guard to fight crime.

Trump also sent troops in recent months to Los Angeles and his administration has announced plans for similar actions in other major cities, including Chicago and Portland, Oregon.

Landry said his request “builds on the proven success” of deployments to Washington and Memphis. While Trump has ordered troops into Memphis with the backing of Tennessee’s Republican governor, as of Monday night there had yet to be a large-scale operation in the city.

“Federal partnerships in our toughest cities have worked, and now, with the support of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, we are taking the next step by bringing in the National Guard,” Landry said.

Leaders in Democratic-controlled states have criticized the planned deployments. In Oregon, elected officials have said troops in Portland are not needed.

In his request, Landry said there has been “elevated violent crime rates” in Shreveport, Baton Rouge and New Orleans as well as shortages in local law enforcement. He said the state’s vulnerability to natural disasters made the issue more challenging and that extra support would be especially helpful for major events, including Mardi Gras and college football bowl games.

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But crime in some of the state’s biggest cities has actually decreased recently, with New Orleans, seeing a particularly steep drop in 2025 that has put it on pace to have its lowest number of killings in more than five decades.

Preliminary data from the city police department shows that there have been 75 homicides so far in 2025. That count includes the 14 revelers who were killed on New Year’s Day during a truck attack on Bourbon Street. Last year, there were 124 homicides. In 2023 there were 193.

In Baton Rouge, the state capital, has also seen a decrease in homicides compared to last year, according to police department figures. Data also shows, however, that robberies and assaults are on pace to surpass last year’s numbers.

Associated Press reporter Sara Cline contributed to this report.

By LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors urged a New York federal judge Tuesday to send Sean “Diddy” Combs to prison for over 11 years following his conviction on prostitution-related charges, citing one of his accusers who said she lives in fear of the music mogul’s release from detention.

“His crimes of conviction are serious and have warranted sentences over ten years in multiple cases for defendants who, like Sean Combs, engaged in violence and put others in fear,” they wrote in a presentence submission requesting at least 11 years and three months in prison.

They filed their sentencing recommendation shortly after midnight, including letters from some of his accusers describing how his violence and demands had impacted their lives.

They called Combs “unrepentant” and said Combs had conceded his acts of violence and abuse throughout his trial but “incredibly, … he now argues that his victims should shoulder the blame.”

Combs, 55, has remained jailed since his July conviction on charges related to arranging male sex workers to travel to hotels or residences where he directed them to have sex with his girlfriends.

Combs faces sentencing Friday

The elaborate dayslong, drug-fueled sexual events were often filmed by Combs. Defense attorneys have asked that he be sentenced to no more than 14 months in prison. Sentencing is set for Friday.

In July, Combs was convicted of two charges for violating the Mann Act, which outlaws interstate commerce related to prostitution, for arranging the paid sexual encounters between his girlfriends and male sex workers. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

The same jury acquitted the Bad Boy Records founder of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges that could have resulted in a life sentence.

Last week, the defense submitted its presentence arguments, saying Combs has suffered enough during his nearly 13 months behind bars that he should be freed soon.

They wrote that he became a changed man in a Brooklyn federal lockup, where he has been under constant suicide watch and learned to react calmly to threats rather than violently, even when a fellow inmate confronted him with a shiv.

They said Combs has realized that his overuse of drugs, including some prescribed by doctors, had contributed to violent acts he participated in.

Prosecutors say Combs is not the victim

Prosecutors said Combs was now trying to cast himself as a victim.

“He is not the victim,” they wrote. “The Court should focus on the very real effects that the defendant’s conduct had on the lives of the actual victims, his victims.”

At trial, two of Combs’ former girlfriends testified that they felt forced to participate in the drug-fueled sex marathons with male sex workers as Combs watched and sometimes filmed.

R&B singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura described being beaten by Combs when she displeased him during their decadelong relationship. Another ex-girlfriend, testifying under the pseudonym “Jane,” said she felt pressured to perform sexually with male sex workers. She testified that an enraged Combs once put her in a chokehold and punched her in the face.

In a letter accompanying the prosecutors’ submission, Cassie wrote that she testified while nine months pregnant during Combs’ trial “in front of a packed courtroom about the most traumatic and horrifying chapter in my life. I testified that from age nineteen, Sean Combs used violence, threats, substances, and control over my career to trap me in over a decade of abuse.”

Cassie says she still suffers from nightmares

Cassie wrote that Combs controlled her like a puppet.

“These events were degrading and disgusting, leaving me with infections, illnesses, and days of physical and emotional exhaustion before he demanded it all again. Sex acts became my full-time job, used as the only way to stay in his good graces,” she said.

Cassie said she still has nightmares and flashbacks on an everyday basis and requires psychological care to cope.

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“My worries that Sean Combs or his associates will come after me and my family is my reality. I have in fact moved my family out of the New York area and am keeping as private and quiet as I possibly can because I am so scared that if he walks free, his first actions will be swift retribution towards me and others who spoke up about his abuse at trial,” Cassie said.

The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has.

In an indictment, prosecutors asserted that Combs used his fame, wealth and violence to force and manipulate Cassie and Jane, now-ex-girlfriends, into the sexual performances he called “freak-offs” or “hotel nights.”

After Combs was convicted, Judge Arun Subramanian immediately refused a defense request to grant him bail.

He denied it again in August as he rejected Combs’ $50 million bail proposal, saying the hip hop impresario hadn’t proven that he did not pose a flight risk or danger, nor shown an “exceptional circumstance” after a conviction that otherwise requires detention.

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A First Amendment group and watchdog organization pressed a federal appeals court on Tuesday to compel the release of a Justice Department special counsel’s report on the criminal investigation into President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Even though the charges against the Republican president were dismissed last year, the volume of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report related to the classified documents case has remained under wraps because of an order from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. The case accused Trump of hoarding classified documents at his Florida estate and thwarting government efforts to retrieve them, but Cannon ruled that Smith’s appointment was illegal and threw out the charges.

The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and American Oversight are now pressing for the report’s release in separate filings Tuesday with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The groups argue there is no legitimate reason to keep secret the report stemming from what was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the prosecutions Trump confronted before his White House return.

“Transparency isn’t optional in a democracy. The public has a right to know what Special Counsel Smith found, and the Justice Department cannot continue to withhold a report that should have been released nearly a year ago under federal law,” said Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight. “By keeping this order in place, Judge Cannon is undermining both accountability and the rule of law.”

Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, blocked the Justice Department in January from handing over to Congress the volume related to the classified documents case after defense lawyers argued it would be one-sided and prejudicial. At the time, an appeal was still pending in the case against Trump’s co-defendants — Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira — but the Justice Department has since abandoned those criminal proceedings as well.

The Knight Institute filed a motion in February urging Cannon to allow for the report’s release, but the judge has yet to rule. It’s asking the appeals court to force Cannon to issue a ruling, calling the delay “manifestly unreasonable.”

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“This report is of singular importance to the public because it addresses allegations of grave criminal conduct by the nation’s highest-ranking official,” said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of Knight Institute, said in a statement. “There is no legitimate reason for the report’s continued suppression, and it should be posted on the court’s public docket without further delay.”

The classified documents case had been seen as the most legally clear-cut of the four Trump had faced, given the breadth of evidence that prosecutors say they had accumulated, including the testimony of close aides and former lawyers, and because the conduct at issue occurred after Trump left the White House in 2021 and lost the powers of the presidency.

Trump had denied any wrongdoing and criticized all the cases against him as a politically motivated attempt to thwart his bid to return to the White House.

The first volume of Smith’s report — focused on Trump’s 2020 election interference case — was publicly released in January. In that portion of the report, Smith defended his decision to bring criminal charges over Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and said he believed it would have resulted in a conviction had voters not returned Trump to the White House.