Friday’s Prep Bowl state title game predictions

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The Prep Bowl begins Friday, with four of the seven Minnesota high school football champions being crowned at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Games will be televised on KSTC-Ch. 45 and can be streamed for free at https://kstp.com/45tv/prep45/mshsl-tournaments/

Class A: Minneota (12-0) vs. Breckenridge (13-0), 10 a.m.

Minneota is in search of consecutive win No. 46 and, with it, a fourth-straight state title. While they may seem like a foregone conclusion, Breckenridge has the offensive balance to potentially score points on the Vikings.

Prediction here is a thriller to kick off the festivities.

Our pick: Minneota 34, Breckenridge 31

Class 4A: Orono (9-3) vs. Kasson-Mantorville (11-1), 1 p.m.

Both teams won low-scoring, dramatic semifinals. It’s difficult to see anything else playing out Friday. Senior quarterback Griffin Mauer has been a playmaker when the Spartans have needed it most down the stretch run of the season.

If the ball is in his hands late, Orono would have to like its chances.

Our pick: Orono 20, Kasson-Mantorville 16

Class 2A: Jackson County Central (12-0) vs. Goodhue (12-0), 4 p.m.

Good for Roman Voss, the Gophers athlete commit who’s served as Jackson County Central’s signal caller. Voss was knocked unconscious during the state semifinals as a sophomore, and thus had to miss the Huskies’ state title game appearance two years ago. Now, he gets his shot on the grandest stage.

It comes against a Goodhue team that’s been so sound defensively all season and will see what answers it can dial up for Voss.

Our pick: Jackson County Central 21, Goodhue 14

Class 6A: Edina (8-4) vs. Moorhead (8-4), 7 p.m.

Ready for some fireworks? These two high-

Moorhead’s Sam Jacobson (65) celebrates with fans after defeating Lakeville South during a Class 6A semifinal of the State Football Tournament at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. Moorhead won 26-14.(Craig Lassig / Special to the Pioneer Press)

octane passing offenses combined to post 95 points in a mid-October meeting.

Given the potency of the two aerial attacks, it would be foolish to count either team out at any point in the meeting. When it’s all said and done, a four-loss team will win the Class 6A crown.

Our pick: Moorhead 38, Edina 35

ICE says they arrested 14 for immigration violations at St. Paul warehouse

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ICE arrested 14 people on immigration violations in a raid at a St. Paul warehouse this week, the federal agency said Thursday.

Immigrant groups said Wednesday that they’d confirmed two people were detained and attorneys were working to determine if anyone else was taken into custody.

A statement from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson late Thursday was the first official confirmation of the number of people arrested.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s HSI and other federal law enforcement agents carried out a search warrant Tuesday morning at Bro-Tex Inc. on Hampden Avenue near University Avenue in the St. Anthony neighborhood.

Bro-Tex’s website says they’ve been manufacturing and converting cloth and paper wiping products since 1923.

Of the people arrested, one had past domestic abuse charges and one committed a felony by illegally re-entering the U.S., according to the Homeland Security spokesperson’s statement.

“Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to protect public safety, national security and economic stability while rescuing individuals who may be victims of labor trafficking or exploitation,” the statement said. “These operations target illegal employment networks that undermine American workers, destabilize labor markets and threaten American communities.”

The spokesperson also said “the employment of illegal aliens also incentivizes dangerous and illegal practices, including social security fraud.”

The Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee in a Wednesday statement said they condemn “the kidnappings of the workers at Bro-Tex Inc., the arrest of a community observer, and the violence carried out by federal agents against peaceful demonstrators.”

The husband of a woman who was cuffed and taken into custody outside the business Tuesday wrote on social media that she’d been “peacefully protesting and filming.” She was held at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling until she was released later in the day.

Some people swarmed vehicles driven by federal agents while yelling, “No justice, no peace.” Federal personnel sprayed protesters with a chemical irritant. A woman reported she was struck twice in the leg by rubber bullets.

Video also showed some people stood in front of moving vehicles and law enforcement shoved them out of the way.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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FAA gives $10K bonuses only to air traffic controllers with perfect attendance during shutdown

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By JOSH FUNK

Only 776 of the more than 10,000 air traffic controllers who had to work without pay during the record shutdown will receive the $10,000 bonuses that President Donald Trump suggested because they are the only ones that had perfect attendance, officials announced Thursday.

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A number of controllers started calling out of work as the shutdown dragged on longer than a month as they dealt with the financial pressure of working without a paycheck. Some of them got side jobs, but others simply couldn’t afford the child care or gas they needed to work. Their absences forced delays at airports across the country and led the government to cut some of their flights at 40 busy airports.

Trump suggested the bonuses for those who have stayed on the job in a social media post, but he also suggested that controllers who missed work should have their pay docked. Federal Aviation Administration officials haven’t publicly announced plans to penalize controllers.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the bonuses acknowledged the dedication of controllers who never missed a shift during the 43-day shutdown.

“These patriotic men and women never missed a beat and kept the flying public safe throughout the shutdown,” Duffy said.

But Democratic Rep. Rick Larsen questioned why all the controllers and others who worked to keep flights moving during during the shutdown won’t get bonuses.

“For the Trump administration to not give a bonus to every single one of these hardworking women and men is wrong; they all deserve a bonus and back pay,” said Larsen, who is the ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee.

Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that any TSA officers who went “above and beyond” while working without pay would get $10,000 bonuses, but she never specified how many will qualify beyond the handful of checks she handed out to officers at a news conference.

The FAA was already critically short on air traffic controllers before the shutdown. Duffy had been working to boost controller hiring and streamline the years of training required in the hope of eliminating the shortage over the next several years.

Duffy has said that some students and controllers quit and more experienced controllers retired during the shutdown. Many controllers already work 10-hour shifts six days a week because the FAA is so short on staffing.

As more controllers missed work, the FAA ordered airlines to cut flights to relieve pressure on the system. Duffy said repeatedly that FAA safety experts became worried as the absences grew because of reports from pilots concerned about controllers’ responses and a number of runway incursions.

Since the shutdown ended, controller staffing has improved significantly and airlines were allowed to resume normal operations this week.

Justice Department insists Comey indictment was properly approved as it tries to keep case afloat

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By ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after the Justice Department acknowledged to a federal judge that the full grand jury had not reviewed the final indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney overseeing the case abruptly reversed herself, insisting Thursday that the panel properly approved the charges as she tried to contain the fallout from earlier statements that risked imperiling the prosecution.

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The latest statements from Lindsey Halligan, the hastily named interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, represent an attempt to backtrack on earlier comments the prosecution team made under persistent questioning from a judge about the seemingly jumbled process leading to the return of the two-count indictment.

The new court filing, supplemented by a transcript from the September evening the indictment was returned, is meant to undo any public perception that the grand jury presentation was botched and that the case may be jeopardized as a result. It was not clear why some of the points in Thursday’s filing were not raised during Wednesday’s hearing, when prosecutors made clear that the full grand jury did not see the indictment filed in the case.

Either way, the dueling accounts underscore the irregular nature of the prosecution against one of President Donald Trump’s political opponents and lay bare the consequences of the Justice Department’s decision to entrust such a consequential case to a lawyer who had no prior experience as a prosecutor and was appointed to the job days before the indictment. Halligan replaced an experienced prosecutor who resigned amid Trump administration pressure to indict Comey and another Trump foe, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has also since been charged by Halligan.

The issue stems from the fact that the Justice Department initially sought a three-count indictment of Comey. The grand jury rejected one of the counts but approved two others accusing Comey of making a false statement and obstructing Congress. Prosecutors then placed the two remaining charges in a revised indictment but said in court Wednesday that the full grand jury did not see the final charging document.

“Let me be clear that the second indictment, the operative indictment in this case that Mr. Comey faces, is a document that was never shown to the entire grand jury or presented in the grand jury room; is that correct?” U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff asked at one point.

“Standing here in front of you, Your Honor, yes, that is my understanding,” replied Tyler Lemons, a prosecutor on the case. “I was not there, but that is my understanding, yes, Your Honor.”

Halligan, who was summoned to the lectern, told Nachmanoff in court Wednesday that only the grand jury foreperson and another grand juror were present for the second indictment. In a court filing later that evening, the Justice Department said the grand jury coordinator had returned to the grand jury room and presented the corrected indictment to the grand jury foreperson and the deputy foreperson.

On Thursday, in a five-page court filing titled “Government’s Notice Correcting the Record,” Halligan sought to downplay any problem with the presentation, describing the situation as a “clerical inconsistency” and insisting it was not the case that the full grand jury never voted on the second indictment.

The filing included a transcript of a conversation involving Halligan, the grand jury foreperson and the magistrate judge who was overseeing the return of the indictment.

“So you voted on the one that has the two counts?” the judge asked at one point, according to the transcript.

“Yes,” replied the foreperson.