Minnesota Rusco, a local home improvement business known for its catchy advertising jingle, has closed.

“With heavy hearts we regrettably inform you, Minnesota Rusco, a Renovo Home Partners company, has ceased all operations,” the 70-year-old company shared in a statement on its website.

Based in New Hope and famously founded in 1955, Minnesota Rusco was known for its earworm advertisements, State Fair swag and, of course, its windows, siding and doors.

Minnesota Rusco was acquired by Renovo Homes, a Dallas-based aggregator of local home improvement and remodeling companies, in late 2022. Renovo Homes closed its doors Tuesday, as reported by industry magazine Qualified Remodeler.

“We would like to wish our staff and their families the  best as they navigate these difficult times and thank all of Minnesota for their 70 years of support and trust,” the company statement said.

Advice for consumers

The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office is recommending that customers of Minnesota Rusco dispute charges with their credit card  issuers for services not received, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

“Consumers who have been financially harmed are encouraged to preserve any contracts, receipts, or other documents they received in their dealings with Minnesota Rusco,” a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said in a statement to MPR on Thursday.

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By PATRICK WHITTLE

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A network of medical clinics that serves low-income residents in Maine said it will shut down its primary care operations on Friday because of Trump administration cuts to abortion providers.

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Maine Family Planning operates 18 clinics in the state and says abortions are a relatively small percentage of its overall services, which also include cancer screenings, sexually transmitted disease testing and contraception. The network said it had to cut primary care because of the administration’s move to block Medicaid money from abortion providers including the much larger Planned Parenthood.

The move to defund abortion providers is driving patients away from their doctors in Maine, said George Hill, president of Maine Family Planning. The network saw more than 600 patients in its primary care practices last year, Hill said.

“Telling those patients we can’t see them anymore has been devastating, especially knowing that some of them will find it too difficult to get a new provider and may just forego care,” Hill said.

Maine Family Planning serves many of the poor and rural areas of the state and typically receives about $1.9 million in Medicaid reimbursements per year, the network said in a statement. The network said it notified its patients of the coming primary care closures about a month ago. The network has about 8,000 patients in total.

FILE – Vanessa Shields-Haas, a nurse practitioner, walks from the lobby toward the examination rooms at the Maine Family Planning healthcare facility, July 15, 2025, in Thomaston, Maine. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

Maine Family Planning fought the halting of Medicaid dollars in federal court, but it suffered a setback in August when a federal judge ruled against restoring funding during the network’s ongoing lawsuit against the Trump administration. The network appealed to a higher court, and that legal fight is still ongoing.

The Center for Reproductive Rights filed the case in federal court on behalf of the network, and said Friday it will continue to fight to restore the funding. Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, called the loss of funding for Maine Family Planning “part of a larger strategy to shut down clinics even in states like Maine that protect the right to abortion.”

By WILL WEISSERT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump hosted hundreds of costumed guests — from superheroes to dinosaurs and even a few children dressed as the first couple — as part of Thursday night’s Halloween celebration at the White House.

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He and first lady Melania Trump emerged on the South Lawn as evening was starting to fall to an orchestral version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Neither was in costume. Trump wore a blue suit and red tie with a red “USA” cap; his wife was in a brown coat over an orange dress.

The couple handed out full-sized Hershey bars and Twizzlers in boxes with the presidential seal to a line of children and their parents that stretched down the driveway. Temporary walls obscured the view of the construction of Trump’s new White House ballroom — which has led to the demolition of the East Wing — though a parked bulldozer could still be seen hulking on the other side.

“It’s a long line,” Trump said. “It’s almost as big as the ballroom.”

The White House tradition went ahead despite Trump returning mere hours earlier from a six-day Asia trip that took him to Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and amid a government shutdown in its 30th day.

Trump has called for the government to reopen, but congressional Democrats are demanding an extension of expiring tax credits that have helped millions of people afford health insurance. Their Republican colleagues say they won’t negotiate until the government is reopened.

Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports have reduced inventory and raised prices for Halloween costumes for American importers, retailers and shoppers. Still, the White House exterior featured dozens of decorations resembling large autumn leaves and fall flowers like orange and red mums. The stairs leading to its balcony were crowded with carved pumpkins.

Among the children attending the Halloween party were those of members of the military and White House staffers. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, came with her young son dressed as a pumpkin. Katie Miller, a former Trump administration aide, was dressed as a skeleton, while her husband, Stephen, Trump’s deputy White House chief of staff, wore only a business suit.

Hundreds of children, tiny toddlers up to kids in their early teens, came dressed as Spider-Man and Captain America, ballerinas, princesses and leprechauns. Two boys wore suits, Trump hats and grins like the president, though they didn’t try to pull off his signature hairdo, while a girl with them wore a white coat over a dress like one the first lady might favor.

Several parents had “USA” caps like Trump.

Some children were shy or skittish about talking with the Trumps, but the president said something inaudible to a child whose costume consisted of sitting with his pants down on an inflatable toilet stenciled with “Wide Load” on the back.

A former special agent with Homeland Security Investigations admitted Thursday in federal court to taking at least 10 photos and videos of himself and a 17-year-old girl engaged in sex acts on several occasions and then sending them to her.

Timothy Ryan Gregg, 52, of Eagan, who was also an FBI task force member, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to the sole count of transportation of visual depictions of a minor engaging in sexual conduct after images and videos were found on her cellphone on May 29.

Timothy Ryan Gregg (Courtesy of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office)

Under questioning by U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen, Gregg said the girl told him that she was 19 years old after meeting her through the dating/meet-up app Tinder. He admitted that he later learned she was 17 by looking her up through a law enforcement database and that he still met with her and sent her sexually explicit photos and videos afterward.

During the hearing, Gregg struggled several times upon questioning by Ericksen and stopped to gain his composure before responding.

He became emotional when Ericksen asked him why he mostly met up with the girl on Sundays. After a long pause, he replied: “Because I was lying to my wife.”

When Ericksen asked about his law enforcement career, which stretched three decades, he replied, while fighting back tears: “Ever since I was 5, I knew I wanted to be in law enforcement.”

On the day he was arrested, June 3, Gregg was supposed to assist fellow FBI task force agents in a raid in Minneapolis. Instead, he was called in to the FBI field office in St. Paul.

“I felt like in a blink of an eye, my career was over,” Gregg said in court. “So it was a moment of panic.”

Gregg’s attorney Ryan Pacyga then told the judge his arrest came after he drove around for several hours with his service weapon and threatening to take his own life while FBI agents followed his car.

Gregg waived his right to have a grand jury consider an indictment. He remains in custody at the Sherburne County jail ahead of his sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled.

Sentencing guidelines call for between 14 and 17½ years in prison, although Pacyga said after the hearing that he will request a five-year term, the mandatory minimum.

Father found cellphone videos

According to the criminal complaint, the girl’s father told police that he found on her cellphone, which she had left behind in a car, multiple sexually explicit images and videos, including some of her and a man engaged in sex acts. The man was identified by law enforcement as Gregg.

The cellphone showed that Gregg and the teen had sent text messages to each other and naked photos. Gregg also sent her photos and videos of the two engaged in sex in a hotel room.

The girl told law enforcement that she had met Gregg through Tinder. She said he picked her up multiple times, mostly on Sundays, and that they went to a hotel, where he took photos and videos of them engaged in sex.

A check of hotel records by law enforcement showed that Gregg rented a room four times in March and twice in both April and in May, all on Sundays. Hotel employees said that Gregg would rent the rooms by himself and then bring a guest inside the hotel through the parking ramp.

Gregg used his “official ICE/HS email address to make the hotel reservations,” the complaint states.

Other officers charged

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Gregg was among three Minnesota law enforcement officers charged federally for alleged sex crimes in just over a month’s time.

Minnesota state trooper Jeremy Francis Plonski, 30, of Shakopee was charged with production of child pornography. He pleaded guilty to the charge Oct. 8, admitting to repeatedly sexually assaulting a toddler girl while recording the abuse and then sharing the videos with someone he met through the Telegram app. Under a plea agreement, Plonski faces between 23 and 28 years in prison. He remains jailed ahead of sentencing, which has not been scheduled.

Anthony John Crowley, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer from Minnetonka, was charged June 6 with uploading child pornography to the Kik app in 2022. Crowley, 52, pleaded guilty Sept. 26 to one count of possessing child pornography and remains ahead of sentencing, which has not been scheduled.