Tracing social media accounts and a phone number led police to arrest a 16-year-old in Eagan, who was charged Thursday with four counts of threats of violence with intent to terrorize.
Police and prosecutors say the teen’s social media posts that threatened shootings at high schools in Dakota County led eight high schools to close on Tuesday. They reopened on Wednesday.
Though firearms were seen in videos, Apple Valley Police Chief Nick Francis said they did not find weapons in a search of the teen’s family’s home and added “there is no belief that the suspect had access to weapons.”
The Dakota County Attorney’s Office charged him Thursday with four felonies.
When police took the teen into custody on Tuesday, he “initially stated that he did not make the posts” and eventually “said he made the posts because an unknown person had forced him to do it,” according to the juvenile petition’s probable cause statement.
“When asked to provide further details or an identity of this unknown person, (the teen) did not provide further information on this individual, and the tone and demeanor indicated this allegation was not true,” the probable cause statement continued. “… The allegation that another individual was involved in this incident is unfounded.”
The schools closed in Independent School District 196 Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan Tuesday were Eastview, Eagan, Rosemount and Apple Valley high schools, along with the district’s two other high schools, Area Learning Center and School of Environmental Studies.
In neighboring Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District 191, Burnsville High School and Burnsville Alternative High School were closed Tuesday. The district dismissed all elementary and middle schools early that day.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage edged lower this week, staying relatively close to its low for the year.
The decline brings the average long-term mortgage rate to 6.21% from 6.22% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.72%.
Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also fell this week. The rate averaged 5.47%, down from 5.54% last week. A year ago, it averaged 5.92%, Freddie Mac said.
Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.
The 10-year yield was at 4.12% at midday Thursday, unchanged from a week ago.
The average rate on a 30-year mortgage has been mostly holding steady in recent weeks since it dropped to 6.17%, its lowest level in more than a year, on Oct. 30.
Mortgage rates began easing in July in anticipation of a series of Fed rate cuts, which began in September and continued this month. An encouraging report on inflation on Thursday could give the central bank cause to keep cutting interest rates next year.
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Yes the darkest day of the year is here, but that means brighter days are ahead.
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Sunday is the shortest day of the year north of the equator, where the solstice marks the start of astronomical winter. It’s the opposite in the Southern Hemisphere, where it is the longest day of the year and summer will start.
The word “solstice” comes from the Latin words “sol” for sun and “stitium” which can mean “pause” or “stop.” The solstice is an end of the sun’s annual march higher or lower in the sky. The winter solstice is when the sun makes its shortest, lowest arc. The good news for sun lovers: It then starts climbing again and days will get a little longer every day until late June.
People have marked solstices for eons with celebrations and monuments such as Stonehenge, which was designed to align with the sun’s paths at the solstices. But what is happening in the heavens? Here’s what to know about the Earth’s orbit.
What is the solstice?
As the Earth travels around the sun, it does so at an angle, making the sun’s warmth and light fall unequally on the northern and southern halves of the planet for most of the year.
The solstices mark the times when the Earth’s tilt toward or away from the sun is at its maximum. This means the hemispheres are getting very different amounts of sunlight — and days and nights are at their most unequal.
At the Northern Hemisphere’s winter solstice the upper half of the Earth is at its furthest lean away from the sun — leading to the shortest day and longest night of the year. The winter solstice falls can fall between Dec. 20 and 23 — this year it’s the 21st.
The opposite happens at a Northern Hemisphere summer solstice: The upper half of the Earth is leaning toward the sun, creating the longest day and shortest night of the year. This solstice falls between June 20 and 22.
What is the equinox?
During the equinox, the Earth’s axis and its orbit align so that both hemispheres get an equal amount of sunlight.
Aymara Indigenous people hold up their hands to receive the first rays of sunlight in celebration of the Andean New Year 5533, marking the Southern Hemisphere’s winter solstice, in El Alto, Bolivia, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)
The word equinox comes from two Latin words meaning equal and night. That’s because on the equinox, day and night last almost the same amount of time — though one may get a few extra minutes, depending on where you are on the planet.oo
The Northern Hemisphere’s fall — or autumnal — equinox can land between Sept. 21 and 24, depending on the year. Its spring — or vernal — equinox can land between March 19 and 21.
What’s the difference between meteorological and astronomical seasons?
These are just two different ways to carve up the year.
While astronomical seasons depend on how the Earth moves around the sun, meteorological seasons are defined by the weather. Meteorologists break down the year into three-month seasons based on annual temperature cycles. By that calendar, spring starts on March 1, summer on June 1, fall on Sept. 1 and winter on Dec. 1.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
BOSTON (AP) — A Boston-area man was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for the grisly murder of his wife, who disappeared nearly three years ago and whose body has never been found.
Brian Walshe was convicted Monday of first-degree murder in the killing of Ana Walshe. The sentence carries no possibility of parole.
He pleaded guilty in November to misleading police and illegally disposing of a body after admitting he had dismembered her body and disposed of it in dumpster. He said he did so only after panicking when he found she had died in bed.
Judge Diane Freniere called Walshe’s crimes “barbaric and incomprehensible” and she chastised him for “deceitful and manipulative behavior.” Walshe showed no emotion as the sentence was read.
Before the sentencing, Ana Walshe’s sister Aleksandra Dimitrijevic told the court about how the death has devastated her family, especially because they cannot have a proper burial without a body.
“I struggle with the grief that comes without warning, hoping every morning that this is just a terrible dream,” she said. “The most painful part of this loss is knowing her children must now grow up without their mother’s hand to hold. They now face a lifetime of milestones, big and small, where her absence will be deeply and painfully felt.”
The couple’s three young children are in state custody.
Brian Walshe stands after being found guilty of first degree murder of his wife Ana in 2023 by a Norfolk Superior Court jury in Dedham, Mass., Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Brian Walshe, left, is escorted out of court after being found guilty of the first degree murder of his wife Ana in 2023 by a Norfolk Superior Court jury in Dedham, Mass., on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
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Brian Walshe stands after being found guilty of first degree murder of his wife Ana in 2023 by a Norfolk Superior Court jury in Dedham, Mass., Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Walshe was also sentenced to 19 to 25 years for witness intimidation and two to three years for improper disposal of a body. Those sentences are to run consecutive to his life sentence, the judge ruled.
Walshe’s lawyer, Kelli Porges, described the consecutive sentencing — which prosecutors requested due to the severity of the crimes — as “excessive.”
Ana Walshe, a real estate agent who immigrated from Serbia, was last seen early Jan. 1, 2023, after a New Year’s Eve dinner at the couple’s home.
When initially questioned by investigators, Walshe said his wife had been called to Washington, D.C., for a work emergency. But witnesses testified there was no evidence Ana Walshe took a ride service to the airport or boarded a flight. Walshe didn’t contact her employer until Jan. 4.
During the trial, prosecutors leaned heavily on digital evidence found on devices connected to Walshe, including online searches for “dismemberment and best ways to dispose of a body,” “how long before a body starts to smell” and “hacksaw best tool to dismember.”
Investigators also found searches on a laptop that included “how long for someone missing to inherit,” “how long missing to be dead,” and “can you throw away body parts,” prosecutors told the jury.
Surveillance video also showed a man resembling Walshe throwing what appeared to be heavy trash bags into a dumpster not far from the couple’s home. A subsequent search of a trash processing facility near his mother’s home uncovered bags containing a hatchet, hammer, sheers, hacksaw, towels and a protective Tyvek suit, cleaning agents, a Prada purse, boots like the ones Ana Walshe was last seen wearing and a COVID-19 vaccination card with her name.
Prosecutors told the jury that the Massachusetts State Crime Laboratory examined some of the items and found Ana and Brian Walshe’s DNA on the Tyvek suit and Ana Walshe’s DNA on the hatchet, hacksaw and other items.
Prosecutors floated several possible motives for the killing.
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An insurance executive testified that Brian Walshe was the sole beneficiary of Ana Walshe’s $1 million life insurance policy, suggesting a financial motive. But prosecutors also portrayed a marriage that was falling apart; Brian Walshe was confined at their home in the affluent coastal community of Cohasset, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) southeast of Boston, awaiting sentencing on an art fraud case. Ana Walshe meanwhile commuted from their home to Washington, D.C., where she worked.
The year before she died, his wife had started an affair, details of which were shared in court by her boyfriend William Fastow. Brian Walshe’s attorney denied that his client knew about the affair.
In his opening, Walshe’s attorney, Larry Tipton, argued it was not a murder case but what he called a “sudden unexplained death.” He said the couple loved each other and were planning for the future.
But Walshe’s defense never called a witness and Brian Walshe declined to testify.
