Average rate on a US 30-year mortgage rises to 6.89%, its highest level since early February

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By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. rose this week to its highest level since early February, further pushing up borrowing costs for homebuyers.

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The rate increased to 6.89% from 6.86% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 7.03%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also rose. The average rate ticked up to 6.03% from 6.01% last week. It’s still down from 6.36% a year ago, 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. The key barometer is the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

Bond yields have been trending higher, reflecting bond market investors’ uncertainty over the Trump administration’s ever-changing tariffs policy and worry over exploding federal government debt.

The 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.43% in midday trading Thursday.

Ellison opposes appointment of Otto Bremer Trust trustee’s daughter

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A Ramsey County District Court judge on Friday will hear an unusual request from the Minnesota Attorney General’s office, which hopes to remove a recently-appointed trustee from the helm of one of the state’s oldest philanthropies, or at least slash her salary, impose training requirements and institute safeguards against future family appointments.

When Charlotte Johnson retired last August after 34 years as one of the three leaders at the helm of the Otto Bremer Trust, she appointed her daughter as her successor. Until then, Caroline S. Johnson had served as a Bremer Bank branch manager in New Richmond, Wis., a rural community of some 10,000 residents.

Based in St. Paul, the $1.5 billion philanthropy has been a major owner of the bank since its inception in 1943, and the charity’s three trustees have chosen their own successors for the past 80 years.

Those concerns reverberated with Ellison’s office, which regulates charities. With her move from community banker team lead to trustee, Caroline Johnson became one of three co-chief executive officers of the multi-billion dollar philanthropy overseeing Bremer Bank. The bank is one of the state’s largest farm lenders and recently merged with Indiana-based Old National Bank.

Efforts to get comment from Caroline Johnson and the trust’s attorneys for this story were unsuccessful as of Thursday morning.

Ellison raises issues of ‘nepotism’

Her annual salary, according to the attorney general’s office, increased nearly tenfold from $73,000 to $685,000. Her resume, according to the attorney general’s office, did not reveal deep credentials administering sizable charities beyond her family roots.

In 2023, the Otto Bremer Trust issued $105 million in grants and low-interest loans to charitable causes across Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Montana.

The attorney general’s office, “as representative of the charitable interests of the public, does not have sufficient assurances that the selection is in the best interest of the beneficiaries,” reads an April 16 legal filing from Ellison’s office. “Rather, trustees’ continuing pattern of nepotism substantially undermines the trust of the public whom trustees are supposed to serve.”

Ellison’s office noted that while trustees have a tradition of choosing their own successors, state law requires that they “must comply with their fiduciary duties of care and loyalty when exercising that discretion,” and that breaching those duties “cannot have been the (founder’s) intent.”

A hearing before Judge Mark Ireland is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday at the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul.

Trustees defend Johnson

In their legal response to the attorney general’s office, attorneys with Ciresi Conlin wrote that Ellison’s office “has never provided any evidence that her removal is necessary to best serve the interests of all beneficiaries.” Instead, it would in fact be inconsistent with both 80 years of practice and Otto Bremer’s express preferences, spelled out in the trust’s founding documents, that trustees select their own replacements.

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The attorney general’s office “relies primarily on arguments it made and lost three years ago” when the office attempted to block a bank sale in court, the attorneys wrote. “This court has already rejected the (attorney general office’s) campaign against what the (office) terms ‘nepotism.’ … Charlotte did all she was required to do, and Trustee Caroline has faithfully administered the Trust since then.”

Charlotte and Caroline Johnson have joined the Otto Bremer Trust in objecting to the attorney general’s petition and defending her credentials, as have trustees Daniel Reardon and Francis Miley, who both submitted affidavits to the court.

Caroline Johnson’s previous public service has included sitting on the board of directors and finance committee of the St. Croix Valley Food Bank during its capital campaign, serving on the board of directors of the Encampment Forest Association/Minnesota Land Trust, and serving for five years on the board of directors of the St. Croix County United Way, specifically its grants committee.

Reardon noted that Otto Bremer selected his grandfather, his trusted tax consultant, as a trustee, who later selected his father, who later selected Reardon. He praised Caroline Johnson’s “high emotional intelligence” and said her intimate knowledge of both banking and relationship building were assets during the recent bank sale.

“I have known Caroline for over 30 years and have seen her evolve and grow both personally and professionally,” Reardon wrote, noting she had previously worked for Bremer Bank for seven years.

“This direct boots-on-the-ground experience in a Bremer branch bank was an excellent way to learn about the banking industry as well as Otto Bremer’s philanthropic vision for the Trust,” Reardon wrote. “Like me, Caroline grew up surrounded by the Trust. She learned about a life of service to Otto Bremer’s vision at the dinner table, by joining Charlotte on Trust retreats, and other events over the last 30 years.”

Ellison’s office asked that the court adjust her salary and consider reviewing “Caroline Johnson’s skills and abilities and imposing training requirements and/or independent advisors as needed.” In her affidavit, Caroline Johnson noted she recently received a certificate from University of Minnesota Continuing and Professional Studies for completing a course on “Leadership Essentials.” She also completed another course on “Introduction to Trust Administration” at the University of Sioux Falls.

Asking for ‘steps expected of a large nonprofit’

Ellison’s office has asked that even if the court does not remove Charlotte Johnson, that it require a more formal appointment process moving forward. Ellison’s office previously alerted the courts they will take a hard look at the selection process if a trustee appointed a family member as a successor, said Brian Evans, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office.

Charlotte Johnson “did not use any kind of objective process, such as collecting a pool of qualified candidates, applying objective criteria to narrow those candidates, and then making a selection applying those criteria that best serves interests of the public whom the Trust serves,” said Evans, in an email.

“Despite the fact that Trustees justify their substantial compensation by comparing themselves to CEOs of large nonprofit foundations, Johnson did not take the steps expected of a large nonprofit when replacing a high-level executive,” he wrote.

Previous efforts at removing trustees

The attorney general’s office has sought to remove trustees before.

In August 2020, Ellison’s office accused three trustees of attempting to inflate their compensation through a bank sale, among other forms of self-dealing. Following a 20-day bench trial, Judge Robert Awsumb chose to remove Brian Lipschultz as a trustee but retain Reardon and Charlotte Johnson.

Lipschultz filed legal appeals, but they failed to sway the Minnesota Court of Appeals and Minnesota Supreme Court. He recently filed a legal request to have the Otto Bremer Trust pay his legal fees.

Bremer Bank completed its sale to Old National earlier this month, creating the third-largest bank to the Twin Cities — as measured by deposits — and one of the top 25 banking companies headquartered in the U.S. As a result of the merger, the Otto Bremer Trust will retain an 11% ownership stake in Old National, and Reardon will join the Old National board of directors.

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Tropical Storm Alvin forms in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of western Mexico

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MIAMI (AP) — A weather system swirling off the coast of western Mexico has developed into the first tropical storm of the eastern North Pacific hurricane season, forecasters said Thursday.

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Tropical Storm Alvin was located about 670 miles (1,080 kilometers) south-southeast of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula of Mexico, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.

Maximum sustained winds were clocked at 40 mph (65 kph). It was moving northwest at 10 mph (17 kph). There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect Thursday morning, the hurricane center said.

Alvin was expected to strengthen late Thursday, then weaken late Friday. The eastern North Pacific hurricane season runs May 15 to Nov. 30.

The Atlantic hurricane season begins Sunday and also stretches through the end of November, and forecasters are expecting yet another unusually busy Atlantic season. But they don’t think it will be as chaotic as 2024, the third-costliest season on record as it spawned killer storms Beryl, Helene and Milton.

Most LGBTQ+ adults feel Americans don’t accept transgender people, poll finds

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By GEOFF MULVIHILL

LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. see lower social acceptance for transgender people than those who are lesbian, gay or bisexual, a new Pew Research Center poll found.

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Pew found that about 6 in 10 LGBTQ+ adults said there is “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of social acceptance in the U.S. for gay and lesbian people. Only about 1 in 10 said the same for nonbinary and transgender people — and about half said there was “not much” or no acceptance at all for transgender people.

Giovonni Santiago, a 39-year-old transgender man and Air Force veteran who lives in Northeast Ohio and was not a participant in the survey, said he feels that acceptance for transgender people has declined in the last few years – roughly in step with the rise of state laws banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, regulating which school and public bathrooms transgender people can use and which sports they can play.

He said he’s seen acceptance get worse nationally, following the lead of some places that were early adopters of restrictions.

“They were like the anomaly for ignorance and in hatred, especially towards trans people,” Santiago said. “But now we see that it’s just kind of sweeping the nation, unfortunately.”

Still, Santiago said he doesn’t fear for his own personal safety — a contrast with most transgender people, who said they have feared for their safety at some point.

“I guess I don’t feel it as much because I live a life that most people don’t know that I’m trans unless I specifically tell them,” said Santiago, who runs a nonprofit dedicated to supporting transgender youth.

The survey of 3,959 LGBTQ+ adults was conducted in January, after President Donald Trump was elected but just before he returned to office and set into motion a series of policies that question the existence of transgender people.

On his first day, Trump signed an executive order calling on the government to recognize people as male or female based on the “biological truth” of their future cells at conception, rather than accept scientific evidence that gender is a spectrum. Since then, he’s begun ousting transgender service members from the military, and tried to bar transgender women and girls from sports competitions for females and block federal funding for gender-affirming care for transgender people under 19, among other orders.

A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted in May found that about half of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling transgender issues, with a range of views on specific actions.

According to the Pew poll, about two-thirds of LGBTQ+ adults said the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationally 10 years ago boosted acceptance of same-sex couples “a lot more” or “somewhat more.” The Supreme Court is expected to rule in coming weeks on a major case regarding transgender people — deciding whether Tennessee can enforce a ban on gender-affirming care for minors.

Transgender people are less likely than gay or lesbian adults to say they’re accepted by all their family members. The majority of LGBTQ+ said their siblings and friends accepted them, though the rates were slightly higher among gay or lesbian people. About half of gay and lesbian people said their parents did, compared with about one-third of transgender people. Only about 1 in 10 transgender people reported feeling accepted by their extended family, compared with about 3 in 10 gay or lesbian people.

Transgender people are more likely than gay, lesbian or bisexual people to say they feel “extremely” or “very” connected to a broader LGBTQ+ community and to say that all or most of their friends are also LGBTQ+.

Some elements of the experience are similar. About one-third of transgender and lesbian or gay adults said they first felt they might be LGBTQ+ by the time they were 10 and most did by age 13. About half waited until they were at least 18 to first tell someone.

Aubrey Campos, 41, runs a taco truck near a hub of LGBTQ+ bars in Fort Worth, Texas, and also serves as a community organizer. She says her parents were supportive when she came out as transgender at about age 12. But the younger trans people she works with often have very different experiences — including some who were kicked out of their homes.

“Now the times are a little bit dark,” she said. “This is a time that we to come together and make it brighter and make it known that we aren’t going to just disappear.”