By HANNAH FINGERHUT, Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s largest school district said it filed a lawsuit Friday against the consulting company it hired to identify superintendent candidates, alleging the company did not properly vet Ian Roberts, who was arrested by immigration authorities last week.

Related Articles

Hegseth announces latest strike on boat near Venezuela he says was trafficking drugs

It’s déjà vu for Muslim Americans as anti-Muslim playbook follows Zohran Mamdani’s success

School ride-hailing services may be nudging aside traditional buses

Health care’s employment growth clouded by immigration crackdown, Medicaid cuts

20 years after Katrina, Louisiana still struggles with evacuation plans that minimize health risks

Des Moines Public Schools hired JG Consulting in 2022 to facilitate the leadership search, which led to Roberts’ hiring the following year.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements officials have said the Guyana native was in the U.S. illegally and had no work authorization. Federal prosecutors charged Roberts on Thursday with possessing four firearms while in the U.S. illegally, including one authorities said was wrapped in a towel inside the Jeep Cherokee he was driving when agents pulled him over, according to court filings.

The district’s complaint accused the search firm of breach of contract and negligence, and school board chair Jackie Norris said the focus is on recouping taxpayer dollars and addressing reputational damage.

“The firm failed its duty to properly vet candidates. Ian Roberts should have never been presented as a finalist,” Norris said. “If we knew what we knew now, he would never have been hired.”

James Guerra, president and CEO of Texas-based JG Consulting, did not immediately respond to phone calls or messages seeking comment Friday. A phone call to JG Consulting’s customer service line went unanswered.

The arrest of Roberts after he ran from a traffic stop has shocked and confused the community. Students have walked out of their classrooms in protest. Community members have gathered to pose questions to Roberts’ lawyers, trying to reconcile the vibrant man who engaged with students and staff with the man at the center of a scandal that has grabbed national attention. The Des Moines school board has said it was “a victim of deception” throughout his tenure.

Roberts, who is in federal custody in Des Moines, resigned as superintendent this week after a state education board revoked his license.

Federal authorities said Roberts had a final removal order that was issued last year, and an immigration judge denied a motion to reopen Roberts’ immigration case this April. Roberts’ attorney, Alfredo Parrish, has said Roberts was under the impression from a prior attorney that his immigration case was “resolved successfully.”

The district has said Roberts signed a form when he was hired attesting that he was a U.S. citizen, submitting a Social Security card and a driver’s license as verification. District officials also stated they had no knowledge of an order of removal issued in 2024.

ICE officials also said Roberts had an unspecified weapons charge from 2020. Pennsylvania court records show that Roberts paid a $100 fine after pleading guilty in January 2022 to a minor infraction for unlawfully possessing a loaded firearm in a vehicle. A Pennsylvania Game Commission officer had stopped him after deer hunting in Erie County.

Roberts said at the time he was a longtime licensed hunter and gun owner, that he left his hunting rifle in plain view to ensure the officer did not feel threatened during their interaction and that he pleaded guilty to avoid distraction.

The district was aware of that charge and officials said it was addressed early on.

The contract between the district and JG Consulting, which has long been available on the district’s website, said the company was responsible for advertising, recruitment, application and resume review, public domain search, complete reference checks and the presentation of qualified candidates. The district serves about 30,000 students and employs nearly 5,000 staff.

Roberts, who has two decades of experience in education, used a doctorate title well before earning a doctoral degree from Trident University International in 2021.

Roberts falsely claimed on a resume he submitted with his application that he earned a doctorate in urban educational leadership from Morgan State University in 2007, according to documents The Associated Press obtained through a public records request.

Although Roberts was enrolled in that doctorate program from 2002 to 2007, the school’s public relations office confirmed in an email that he didn’t receive that degree. A background check during the hiring process said the same, flagging the discrepancy with the resume, according to the district.

The district said the full school board only saw a resume that was revised to indicate he had not completed his dissertation, which is necessary for the degree. But the board did have access to the background check alerting members to the initial variance.

The consulting company was required to bring all information, positive or negative, to the board’s attention but failed to do so, Norris said. “This is about accountability.”

By STEVE KARNOWSKI and MARC LEVY, Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota regulators voted unanimously Friday to approve an investment group’s takeover of a power company over the objections of the state attorney general, big industrial electricity buyers and consumer advocates.

Related Articles

Hegseth announces latest strike on boat near Venezuela he says was trafficking drugs

It’s déjà vu for Muslim Americans as anti-Muslim playbook follows Zohran Mamdani’s success

School ride-hailing services may be nudging aside traditional buses

Health care’s employment growth clouded by immigration crackdown, Medicaid cuts

20 years after Katrina, Louisiana still struggles with evacuation plans that minimize health risks

In voting for the takeover of Duluth-based Minnesota, the five members of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission said they believe the conditions imposed on the deal will protect the public interest and shield customers from rate increases. Opponents warned that the private equity group is only interested in squeezing bigger profits from regular ratepayers.

The approval came as electricity bills are rising fast across the U.S., and growing evidence suggests the bills of some residential customers are increasing to subsidize the rapid build-out of power plants and power lines to supply the gargantuan energy needs of Big Tech’s data centers and the boom in artificial intelligence.

Raising the stakes is the potential that Google could build a data center in Minnesota Power’s territory in the northern part of the state, a lucrative prospect for the utility’s owner.

Opponents also expressed fear that the sale would encourage more such deals across the U.S.

Under the planned buyout, a BlackRock subsidiary and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will take over the publicly traded company Allete, parent of Minnesota Power, which provides power to 150,000 customers and owns a variety of power sources, including coal, gas, wind and solar.

The buyout price is $6.2 billion, including $67 a share for stockholders at a 19% premium, and assuming $2.3 billion in debt. In its petition, Allete told regulators that Minnesota Power’s operations, strategy and values wouldn’t change under BlackRock and that the deal’s cost wouldn’t affect electric rates.

Building trades unions and the administration of Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who appointed or reappointed all five of the utility commissioners, sided with Allete and BlackRock.

The state Department of Commerce, Minnesota Power and the investors negotiated a package of modifications this summer that included additional financial and regulatory safeguards. The department’s attorney, Richard Dornfeld, told the commission the changes will protect the public interest.

The commission’s chair, Katie Sieben, agreed.

“Because of the collective work of partners, stakeholders, labor, environmental groups and others, we’ve made the overall package better for Minnesota Power customers,” Sieben said.

Opposing the deal were the state attorney general’s office and industrial interests that buy two-thirds of Minnesota Power’s electricity, including U.S. Steel and other iron mine owners, Enbridge-run oil pipelines, and pulp and paper mills.

Allete argued that BlackRock will have an easier time raising the money that Minnesota Power needs to comply with a state law requiring utilities to get 100% of their electricity from carbon-free sources by 2040.

Previously, an administrative law judge recommended that the commission reject the deal, saying that the evidence revealed the buyout group’s “intent to do what private equity is expected to do — pursue profit in excess of public markets through company control.”

Commissioner Audrey Partridge said she started with “a high degree of skepticism and I would say even cynicism,” and “assumed the absolute worst in these investors.” But she said the added safeguards, and the over $100 million that the investors will provide for relief for ratepayers and investments in clean energy, will protect the public interest.

Opponents said they were dismayed by the approval.

“Private equity ownership of Minnesota Power will likely mean higher bills, less accountability, and more risk for Minnesotans,” Alissa Jean Schafer, climate and energy director at the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, said in a statement. The national nonprofit says it seeks to bring transparency and accountability to the private equity industry.

Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

By SOPHIKO MEGRELIDZE and DASHA LITVINOVA

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Almost every day for nearly a year, Gota Chanturia has joined rallies at Georgia’s parliament against the government and its increasingly repressive policies. He’s done this despite mass arrests and police violence against demonstrators.

Related Articles

Sarah Mullally named the first female Archbishop of Canterbury in history of Church of England

Japan’s governing party is choosing a new leader Saturday to succeed Ishiba

Hegseth announces latest strike on boat near Venezuela he says was trafficking drugs

Israel intercepts the last boat from the Gaza flotilla as Israeli minister mocks the activists

One of 2 victims in Manchester synagogue attack was accidentally shot by police

And the civics teacher keeps marching even though he’s racked up an astonishing $102,000 in fines from the protests. That’s about 10 times what the average Georgian earns in a year.

“We’ve said that we will be here until the end, and we’re still here,” Chanturia told The Associated Press as he participated in yet another demonstration this week in the capital of Tbilisi.

The protests began when the government halted talks about joining the European Union. That move came after the longtime ruling party Georgian Dream won an election that the opposition alleged was rigged.

The rallies, big and small, continue despite a multipronged crackdown by the government through laws that target demonstrators, rights groups, nongovernmental organizations and independent media.

More protests are planned for this weekend to coincide with local elections.

The repression in the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million has drawn comparisons to Georgia’s powerful neighbor and former imperial ruler Russia, where President Vladimir Putin has stifled dissent. Georgian Dream has been accused of steering the country into Moscow’s orbit of influence.

Human Rights Watch says Georgia is suffering a “rights crisis.” The clampdown is unprecedented in the country’s independent history and is escalating steadily, said Giorgi Gogia, the group’s Europe and Central Asia associate director.

But Georgia’s vibrant civil society is pushing back, and it has become a question of “who would blink first,” Gogia said. If it’s the public and civil society, they could wake up in an authoritarian country, “which would be a huge transformation from what Georgia used to be up until now,” he added.

Fines, beatings and prison

Ketuna Kerashvili joined a rally in rainy Tbilisi on Wednesday despite the fact that her 30-year-old brother Irakli was arrested in December, convicted of disrupting public order, and sentenced to two years in prison. He had rejected the charges as unfounded.

Kerashvili told AP her brother’s trial was “tough to watch.”

Ketuna Kerashvili attends a protest in Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, to denounce the government’s anti-European Union stance and call for the release of those detained as part of a crackdown on political opponents ahead of municipal elections. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)

“All of those boys and girls who are in prison now were trying to protect our country from pro-Russian forces and a pro-Russian government,” she said.

The violent crackdown escalated after largely peaceful protests in late November 2024, with over 400 people detained within two weeks; at least 300 reported severe beatings and other ill-treatment, according to Amnesty International. The group alleged much of the brutality occurs out of sight in detention.

Between April 2024 and August 2025, at least 76 people have faced criminal prosecution in the protests, with more than 60 imprisoned, according to Transparency International Georgia, an anti-corruption organization. The number of prosecutions is likely higher now, and scores more people have been slapped with steep fines.

Chanturia said he was fined 56 times for allegedly blocking a road –- a common charge levied against protesters. He said he hasn’t paid them and doesn’t intend to. Under new regulations, failing to do so could land him in jail.

Gota Chanturia, a member of the Movement for Social Democracy, shouts as he attends an anti-government protest near the parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia, on May 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)

HRW’s Gogia says it’s hard to estimate how many people have been fined, but he estimates it could be thousands. The penalties are issued via automation, like highway tolls and traffic fines, with authorities using surveillance cameras with facial recognition.

Sometimes those penalized weren’t protesting but just happened to be at the rally. Mariam Nikuradze, a prominent journalist and co-founder of the independent news site OC Media, has accrued 20,000 lari (about $7,300) in fines, after being cited four times for allegedly blocking a road. She said she was merely covering the demonstrations.

Javid Ahmedov, a journalism student from Azerbaijan, told AP he was filming at a July protest when the cameras spotted him. He learned he had been fined 10,000 lari (about $3,700) upon returning to Georgia last month to complete his studies at the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs.

He eventually was denied entry, risking the completion of his degree and his U.S. scholarship.

“I have to be in Georgia,” he told AP from Germany, where he is now an exchange student. “But it’s a big question.”

Opposition parties, media and NGOs targeted

Authorities also have targeted key opposition politicians and parties, along with rights activists and media.

In the summer, eight opposition leaders were jailed on charges of refusing to cooperate with a parliamentary inquiry, and two more were arrested later on different charges. The opposition said these arrests were politically motivated.

FILE – A demonstrator gestures trying to stop riot police during a protest near the parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze, File)

In August, authorities froze the bank accounts of seven rights groups. The Prosecutor’s Office alleged they were supplying demonstrators with gear like masks, pepper spray and protective glasses that were used in clashes with police. The organizations said the gear was for journalists covering the rallies.

The government is trying to create a narrative that there are attempts to overthrow the government, violate the constitution and engage in sabotage and violence, said Guram Imnadze of the Social Justice Center, a group whose funds were frozen.

Another goal is to “stop all the independent actors in the country, to limit or shrink democratic free spaces in the country, (and) make independent actors such as NGOs, media outlets or individual activists unable to support democracy,” he said.

Georgian Dream has filed lawsuits against several independent TV channels and revealed plans to petition the Constitutional Court to declare the main opposition party, United National Movement, and others to be unconstitutional.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said last month the lawsuit will target everyone considered to be under the umbrella of the United National Movement, under the radical opposition and under foreign influence — “against all of them. Against everyone, everyone.”

He alleged the protests are orchestrated and funded from abroad.

“No foreign agent will be able to destabilize the situations in the country,” he added, referring to legislation that allows labeling NGOs, media and individuals as “foreign agents.”

FILE – Demonstrators stand under the spray from a water cannon outside the parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Dec. 2, 2024, to protest the government’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze, File)

The targeted groups remain defiant. The seven groups with frozen funds vowed to “fight against authoritarian rule and Russian-style laws, using every legal mechanism available, to ensure that the opponents of the democratic and European path enshrined in our constitution cannot achieve their goals.”

Seeking EU pressure on the government

Gogia says the crisis represents Georgia’s “stark departure” from “trying to be a modern, independent, pro-human rights country with a very, very vibrant civil society and human rights community.”

HRW and other international rights organizations last month urged the EU and its member states to “use all diplomatic and legal tools at their disposal to exert pressure on Georgian officials and members of the judiciary, prosecution and law enforcement, involved in human rights abuses, and prosecutions of human rights defenders and civil society activists.”

Despite suspending talks to join the EU, Georgian authorities still “care what the EU does or says,” Gogia said, adding the public overwhelmingly supports membership and the government knows that.

Kobakhidze said this week the goal of EU membership by 2030 is “realistic and achievable.”

But a European Commission official told AP that “the repressive actions taken by the Georgian authorities are far from anything expected from a candidate country.”

“The EU is ready to consider the return of Georgia to the EU accession path if the authorities take credible steps to reverse democratic backsliding,” said the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and thus spoke on condition of anonymity.

Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia. Associated Press journalist Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.

As his 18th season of playing defense in the NHL begins, Minnesota Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian knows well that amid all of the wins and money, and even the Stanley Cup he earned in 2020 with the Tampa Bay Lightning, there’s a price you pay, physically and mentally.

To successfully play on the blue line, in the corners and in front of your own net at hockey’s highest level, your body is going to take a beating.

“It’s tough. It’s a physical game,” said Bogosian, who turned 35 over the summer. “But you do end up doing a lot of things that don’t show up on a score sheet or people might not notice. It’s a pretty painful position.”

In addition, NHL arenas are bright and loud and the playing surface is literally ice cold. So, it’s not surprising that away from the rink, Bogosian seeks out a place that is dimly-lit, quiet and blazing hot for his body and mind to recover.

Nearly every day, either at the Wild’s team facilities, a team hotel on the road or at his home in the Twin Cities suburbs, Bogosian carves out between 12 and 20 minutes of sauna time.

“Generally late at night, when the kids go down and I can kind of have my peace out there and do something kind of to myself,” Bogosian said. “My wife (Bianca) does it a lot with me, too. So, it’s fun to do with her. Kind of a decompression zone thing.”

With Minnesota’s strong Scandinavian culture, saunas have been a part of life here since Europeans first arrived two centuries ago. But evidence of the use of a hot room like a sauna to relax and heal the mind and body dates back more than 4,000 years, to cultures from Scotland to Finland to Japan. Bogosian discovered them not long after he was the third overall pick by the Atlanta Thrashers in the 2008 NHL Draft, when he was still just 17.

“I’ve been doing it forever. I think from my rookie year, probably, just being at the rink,” he said. “There’s always one in every rink. So, I kind of got into it when I was young. I’ve really been doing it for 17, 18 years.”

Today, Bogosian is a part of what he called the “sauna crew” in the Wild’s locker room, a group of 10 to 12 players who make the sauna a part of their daily routine, at home and on the road. Last season, those get-togethers included one of the more unique sauna experiences available in the world.

During an off day last March, with the team staying in Vancouver, then-Wild forward Freddy Gaudreau organized a sauna boat excursion for the team members who like it hot. They spent several hours of a sunny spring day on the waters of Deep Cove, north of the city, on what looked like a houseboat, but with a wood-fired sauna and big windows for views of the city and the surrounding mountains.

The boats were powered by an outboard motor and piloted by a guide familiar with the region’s many waterways.

“You jump in the water after,” Bogosian said. “You’re looking around, beautiful landscape. It was definitely the coolest sauna that I’ve ever done. We had a big group of guys, on a day off in Vancouver and yeah, it was a ton of fun. The water was freezing cold, but it’s so nice when you jump in.”

As he approaches the 1,000-game milestone, which he could hit this season, Bogosian feels that his sauna time has definitely helped with longevity in a game that can be physically taxing.

“I just feel great when I do it, so I’ve definitely noticed the health benefits of it; the body feels better,” he said. “I’m getting older, and I’ve played a long time and my body, honestly, hasn’t felt as good in a really long time. So, the last few years I’ve been probably more religious with it. And would say that has been a big, big part of it.”

“I just think it’s good to sweat every day,” he added.

Related Articles

Wild: Rising cap makes Kirill Kaprizov’s NHL-record deal a reasonable risk

Questions remain as Wild’s preseason comes to a close

Jesper Wallstedt feels ready for Wild’s backup goalie role

Kirill Kaprizov show rolls on as Wild rally in preseason home finale

St. Paul renames 7th Street ’97th Street,’ temporarily, for Wild star Kirill Kaprizov