Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon announced Tuesday he’ll seek a fourth term in office. He’s the second statewide DFL official to announce his intent to run in 2026.

Simon, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, was first elected secretary of state in 2014. In his announcement, he said he hoped to use a fourth term to continue boosting confidence in the election system and implement recent changes to state election laws.

“I’m in the democracy business, and these are challenging times for that line of work,” Simon said in a news release. He said he’d keep “pushing back against alarming federal power grabs that seek control over our elections. I’ll follow the law, while protecting the privacy of our eligible voters and the integrity of our elections.”

Simon’s main challenger so far is Republican candidate Tad Jude, a former judge who served on the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners and in the Minnesota Legislature.

The secretary of state oversees and certifies the results of Minnesota elections, handles voter registrations and business filings and preserves documents filed with the state. It also runs the state Safe at Home Program, which helps domestic violence victims keep their addresses private.

Minnesota often tops voter turnout among U.S. states, something Simon has often pointed to as a sign the state has a well-run election system with high public trust.

In 2024 Minnesota was only second to Wisconsin in voter participation, with 76.35%. Nationally, 64.04% eligible voters cast a ballot, according to the University of Florida Election Lab.

Minnesota led the nation with 80% of eligible voters casting a ballot in 2020. In the 2022 midterm elections, which typically see lower turnout, Minnesota had 60% voter participation.

Simon has overseen major changes to voter eligibility during his tenure. Under new laws enacted during the 2023 legislative session, voters are now automatically registered when they apply for a driver’s license.

Past that, there is now preregistration for 16- and 17-year-olds, a permanent absentee ballot option. Felons on supervised release are now also eligible to vote. Simon’s campaign said all those new changes will require a “steady hand.”

Simon handily won reelection in 2022 with nearly 55% of the vote. In 2018, he won with 52%. The tightest race he had for secretary of state was his first in 2014, when he got 47% of the vote — just 1.1% more than his Republican challenger.

It’s not unprecedented for a secretary of state to seek more than two terms — Republican Mary Kiffmeyer, who served from 1999 to 2007, lost to DFLer Mark Ritchie in 2006. Ritchie served two terms.

The longest-serving secretary of state was Mike Holm, a Republican who served from 1921 to 1952. DFLer Joan Growe served 24 years, from 1975 to 1999.

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Meanwhile, Gov. Tim Walz announced he’d be running for a third term in September. DFLers control all statewide constitutional offices. No Republican has won a statewide race since 2006.

State auditor Julie Blaha does not plan to run for a third term in 2026. Attorney General Keith Ellison has not announced his plans yet. If he runs, he’d be seeking a third term.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The San Diego City Council on Tuesday approved a $30 million payment to the family of a 16-year-old youth killed by police in one of the largest such settlements in the U.S.

The settlement exceeds the $27 million the city of Minneapolis agreed to pay the family of George Floyd, whose May 2020 murder by a police officer who knelt on his neck sparked a nationwide racial reckoning.

This photo, taken from a body-worn camera video, shows the moment before a San Diego Police Officer fatally shot 16-year-old Konoa Wilson as he ran away from gunfire on Jan. 28, 2025. (San Diego Police Department via AP)

Surveillance and body-worn camera footage from Jan. 28 showed Konoa Wilson running away from someone who pulled a gun and fired at him in a downtown train station. As he exited the station, Wilson encountered San Diego Police Officer Daniel Gold.

In the lawsuit against the city and Gold, the family alleged the officer “instantly, without any warning,” fired two shots at Wilson as he ran by, striking him in the upper body. The lawsuit identified Wilson as Black.

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Council member Henry Foster became emotional when speaking about the settlement, sharing his fears about his own son and the dangers that some Black youth face.

“Kanoa’s life was taken while fleeing from gunshots, and he found himself running into the arms of a police officer. This should not have happened,” Foster said, asking that since Floyd’s killing “where’s the progress? Where’s the protect and serve? Better yet, where’s the accountability?”

The St. Paul Public Library system has rolled out a special edition library card recognizing the 50th anniversary of Southeast Asian resettlement in St. Paul. The free card, designed by Twin Cities artist Kao Lee Thao, features a colorful brushstroke image of a young Hmong woman in traditional dress reading a book while villagers around her walk through a lush forest.

The artwork draws inspiration from “traditional textiles, patterns and landscapes woven together as a symbol of resilience and connection,” according to a written statement from the library system. “Flowing water ties the design together, representing the journey from the Mekong to the Mississippi — symbolizing survival, transformation and imagination.”

The card, currently available to city residents while supplies last at all St. Paul Public Library locations, is intended to honor “the vibrant Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, and Vietnamese communities that have built new roots in St. Paul.”

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The library is using the new special edition card to highlight its upcoming 50th anniversary “Stories of Abundance” storytelling event, which will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. on Dec. 13 at the Sun Ray Library, 2105 Wilson Ave. The event is being hosted with the SEAD Project, a Minneapolis-based community organization that raises awareness of the Southeast Asian diaspora.

More information about the card is online at sppl.org/special-edition.

By JONEL ALECCIA, Associated Press

When Alessandro Barbera was rushed to a California hospital with infant botulism in October, his father had barely heard of the disease, never mind the rare and costly treatment that likely saved the newborn’s life.

Now, however, Tony Barbera is deeply grateful for BabyBIG, the sole antidote to the paralyzing and potentially deadly illnesses linked to contaminated ByHeart infant formula.

“It is hugely remarkable,” said Barbera, 35, whose son is slowly recovering.

The botulism outbreak tied to ByHeart formula has sickened at least 39 babies across in 18 states since August — and showed the value of the treatment made from blood plasma donated by a small group of scientists and other volunteers.

“This is almost like a miracle,” said Dr. Vijay Viswanath, a pediatric neurologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, who has treated several children with botulism during his career — including one in the current outbreak.

“Prior to the discovery of BabyBIG, some of these hospitalizations would take two or three months,” Viswanath said, if infected children recovered at all.

Licensed in 2003, BabyBIG is the brand name for human botulism immune globulin, an IV medication that uses antibodies from volunteers vaccinated against botulism to help babies too young to fight the disease on their own.

A glass case displaying a vial of BabyBIG, the treatment for infant botulism is shown on Nov. 21, 2025 in Aos Altos, Calif. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

Treatment relies on donors

The treatment was the brainchild of the late Dr. Stephen Arnon, who was a scientist with the California Department of Public Health. In 1976, Arnon and colleagues identified the rare form of botulism that affects infants younger than 1 — and then spent his 45-year career figuring out how to treat it. The disease occurs when babies ingest botulism spores that germinate in the intestine and produce a dangerous toxin that attacks the nervous system.

More than 3,700 children worldwide have been treated with BabyBIG since Arnon and his team conducted a pivotal clinical trial in California in 1997 that showed the medication could shorten hospital stays and reduce the need for breathing machines.

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Produced in small batches every five years, BabyBIG costs nearly $70,000 per treatment, according to the California Infant Botulism Treatment and Prevention Program, which Arnon founded. Under state law, fees from the sale of the drug are used only to fund the botulism program.

The medication relies on donors like Nancy Shine, a 76-year-old retired biochemist in California who was vaccinated against botulism because she worked with the lethal germ in a lab. Arnon first recruited Shine and other scientists for the BabyBIG project two decades ago because their blood produced high levels of antibodies, the blood proteins that neutralize the botulism toxin.

The early protocol required the volunteers to receive boosters doses of an investigational botulism vaccine also used by the U.S. military and then undergo a procedure that harvests the blood plasma that contains antibodies against botulism types A and B.

“It was not very pleasant to be vaccinated with,” Shine recalled. “There were a lot of side effects, like big welts where you got vaccinated and a little bit of pain.”

Still, Shine contributed to three batches of the antitoxin produced between 2008 and 2019.

“It’s probably the highlight of my career that I actually was able to participate in this project and donate plasma,” Shine said. “We made a product that could save infants’ lives.”

A glass case displaying a vial of BabyBIG, the treatment for infant botulism is shown on Nov. 21, 2025 in Aos Altos, Calif. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

Development faced hurdles

Because infant botulism is rare, with fewer than 200 cases reported in the U.S. each year, finding funding and other resources to develop the BabyBIG treatment took nearly 15 years and $10.6 million — and faced substantial hurdles, Arnon noted in a 2007 article.

Today, about 30 people on average provide plasma for each batch of BabyBIG, California health officials said. Batch 8, the latest edition, is being manufactured now at a Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. plant near Los Angeles, according to Giles Platford, president of the company’s plasma-derived therapies unit. The company contracts with California officials to produce BabyBIG on a “not-for-profit basis,” Platford said.

Some of the earliest donors, like Shine, have aged out of the BabyBIG program, which collects blood from adult volunteers up to age 70. New donors are accepted, but they must enroll in a clinical study directed by the California health department and agree to receive a booster dose of a different investigational botulism vaccine.

California officials estimate they have enough BabyBIG in reserve to last until next summer, based on current projections. The ByHeart outbreak is part of a worrisome rise of at least 107 infant botulism cases treated in the U.S. since August, said Dr. Jessica Khouri, senior medical officer for the state program.

Shine recently received a booklet filled with photos and letters from families whose children have recovered from botulism after receiving BabyBIG.

“It’s really wonderful. I read a couple each day,” she said. “Every single one of them makes you want to cry.”

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.