An Isanti County man charged with hiding a Forest Lake teen in a tent in rural Pine County pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony charges of kidnapping and second-degree criminal sexual conduct, officials said.

Shawn Patrick Bellach (Courtesy of the Pine County Sheriff’s Office)

Shawn Bellach, 39, of Dalbo, was arrested in July 2023 after the girl, 14 at the time, was found living in a tent north of Grasston, Minn. She had been missing since May after leaving her house on a bicycle with her cat and $3,000 in babysitting money

Her mother told the Pioneer Press that the girl left a note saying she was going to be “traveling around the United States with her boyfriend.”

Bellach faces a sentence of four years in prison. His sentencing is slated for Oct. 31.

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By CHRISTINE FERNANDO, SOPHIA TAREEN and OBED LAMY

CHICAGO (AP) — President Donald Trump’s threats to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago sent ripples through America’s third-largest city as many residents defended their home against Trump’s escalating rhetoric toward its violent crime, including claims it is a “killing field.”

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The threat of federal troops stirred a mix of fear, frustration and defiance for residents as they pointed to historic drops in violent crime. Groups constantly pressing for police reform said sending troops who lack training in de-escalating violence or any knowledge about the nuances of neighborhoods still grappling with violent crime would undo progress made in recent years.

The sentiment was echoed by people going about their day — commuters heading to work, cyclists weaving through traffic, and friends pausing to take photos along Michigan Avenue — who said the presence of troops would only heighten tensions, not ease them.

“It’s a direct affront to the progress our communities have made,” said Bradly Johnson, who leads BUILD Chicago. The anti-violence organization focuses its efforts on neighborhoods on the city’s West Side that have seen persistent crime, even as rates overall have fallen.

“It’s not a war zone,” Johnson said. “They’re vibrant resilient communities where young people deserve opportunities and not intimidation.”

Trump has focused on Chicago

On Tuesday, Trump called Chicago a “hell hole” and repeated that Chicagoans are asking “Trump to come in” to reduce crime in the city. The statements echoed comments earlier this month when Trump indicated Chicago may be next for a federal crackdown, claiming Chicago is “a mess” and residents are “screaming for us to come.”

Trump has long singled out Chicago, making it a recurring theme on the campaign trail in both 2016 and 2024. He has drawn controversial comparisons between the city and war zones like Afghanistan, and in 2017, he vowed to “send in the feds” in response to gun violence.

But data paints a more nuanced picture of crime — one that varies dramatically block by block and that has seen recent progress.

Violent crime in Chicago dropped significantly in the first half of the year, representing the steepest decline in over a decade, according to city data. Shootings are down 37%, and homicides have dropped by 32%, while total violence crime dropped by over 22%.

“The empirical data is very clear that the Chicago trend is extremely positive,” said John Roman, who directs the Center on Public Safety and Justice at the University of Chicago. ”… Chicago is doing better than the rest of the country on a lot of really important measures.”

Still, the city’s most ardent defenders acknowledge gun violence still plagues parts of the city in recent years, particularly in warmer months. Chicago saw about 570 homicides in 2024, according to city data. Shooting lethality — the rate at which shooting victims die from being shot — has increased in recent years, as has the number of high-capacity magazines recovered by Chicago police at shooting scenes, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab.

Crime in Chicago represents persistent, localized challenges, said Kimberley Smith, director of national programs for the University of Chicago Crime Lab. The neighborhoods with the highest homicide rates experience about 68 times more homicides than those with the lowest rates.

Rene Cardona, a maintenance worker born and raised in Chicago, acknowledged these inequities in exposure to violent crime while maintaining that he feels safe in Chicago generally.

“It depends where you’re at and what time it is,” he said. “Overall, Chicago’s a pretty good place to live … There’s more good people than bad people here.”

Crime has fallen in Chicago through groups’ efforts

Smith attributes much of the drops in violent crime to a focus in Chicago on the systemic drivers of violence, rather than the militaristic approach Trump has touted in Washington, D.C. She encouraged more federal investment in researching these types of violence-prevention strategies, calling Chicago “a hub for innovation in gun violence prevention.”

Jahmal Cole, founder of the community organization My Block, My Hood, My City, said Trump’s comments “erase this work being done on the ground by local leaders, community organizations and residents themselves” to combat gun violence.

“As for Trump’s remarks, it’s worth remembering that rhetoric alone doesn’t improve public safety,” he said. “We need smart, community-focused investments, not sensationalism.”

As a show of unity against the move, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender, convened roughly 100 elected officials, pastors, business leaders and activists at a splashy news conference against the backdrop of gleaming skyscrapers along the Chicago River. The attendees Monday ranged from U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, to the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a well-known Catholic priest in the city.

“Take the wasted money in sending the National Guard and the wasted money used on threatening commercials by your Homeland Security secretary and use it on real violence and prevention programs that will bring peace,” Pfleger said.

Residents reject Trump’s statements

Art Jarrett, a business owner just south of downtown, also pointed to Trump’s business presence in the city, saying: “He can’t think it’s that big a killing field; he wouldn’t have built a building here.”

“He’s full of crap,” said Jarrett, who has felt safe in the 57 years he has lived in Chicago.

Pastor Donovan Price, a local advocate for gun crime victims, said Trump “unequivocally does not know what they’re talking about” when it comes to crime in Chicago. He said federal troops threaten to undo progress toward reducing crime.

“When things are finally starting to turn around, you have someone come up with something totally unnecessary that could perhaps change the tide,” he said. “He’s trying to strike the hope out of the hearts of good people in our city.”

Sydney Aldrich, 26, said deploying federal troops isn’t the answer and hoped to challenge the harsh narrative of violence that so often defines her city in the news.

“We have a lot of community members around town that are supportive of one another, and we watch out for each other,” she said.

Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.

By ALAN SUDERMAN

President Donald Trump’s personal crypto ventures are expanding again, this time with plans for a digital asset treasury company that holds an alternative cryptocurrency.

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Trump Media and Technology Group, which operates the Truth Social media platform, announced Tuesday that it was partnering with the cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com to form a company that holds CRO, a token created by Crypto.com. A blank check company tied to Yorkville Advisors is another co-founder of the new firm, called Trump Media CRO Strategy.

Trump Media said it plans to purchase $105 million worth of CRO. Yorkville said the total expected funding for the company’s treasury will be $1 billion worth of CRO, or about 19% of the token’s market cap, plus $420 million in cash and equivalents and as a $5 billion line of credit.

The announcement is part of the hottest trend in crypto, in which a wide variety of companies – many with no obvious ties to the world of digital assets – have made buying and holding cryptocurrency a primary part of their business plan. The model is based on MicroStrategy, a tech firm that first started buying bitcoin in 2020 and has seen its stock price soar.

“Companies of all sizes and sectors are strategically planning for the future by establishing digital asset treasuries anchored by assets that have created a comprehensive value proposition and are poised for even greater utility,” Devin Nunes, the chairman and CEO of Trump Media, said in a statement.

Trump Media said it plans to introduce a “rewards system” on Truth Social that uses Crypto.com digital wallet infrastructure. CRO saw its price jump Tuesday morning by about 30% to 21 cents a token. It’s still far off from its all-time high of nearly 97 cents a token that it hit in 2021.

Expanding Crypto Empire

Since taking office, the Trump administration has pushed for crypto-friendly regulations and laws, while the Trump family has aggressively sought to expand its crypto-related businesses.

That unprecedented dynamic has led to allegations of corruption from Democrats, though the president says he has entrusted the management of his business dealings to his sons.

In May, Trump rewarded top investors in his meme coin with a swanky dinner. Trump launched the coin just days before taking office. Fans of the president have also been able to buy crypto-themed Trump merchandise, including $100,000 watches and pricey sneakers.

Trump Media previously announced plans to hold a significant amount of bitcoin on its books as well as to create an exchange-traded fund tied to the prices of five popular cryptocurrencies.

World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company launched by Trump and his sons last year, has received significant boosts from an investment fund in the United Arab Emirates and Justin Sun, a China-born crypto entrepreneur. The Securities and Exchange Commission has paused a lawsuit it filed against Sun in 2023 alleging his company engaged in market manipulation and paid celebrities for undisclosed promotions.

A little-known firm called ALT5 Sigma recently announced it was planning to raise $1.5 billion to buy the digital coins created by World Liberty Financial and that Eric Trump, the president’s son, is joining the company’s board.

Also on Tuesday, a firm called Canary Capital filed paperwork with the SEC seeking to sell an exchange-traded fund that will track the price of the president’s meme coin.

Minnesota United ended up adding five players during the summer transfer window, but did the Loons’ roster improve for the final stretch of the year?

The pending loss of leading scorer Tani Oluwaseyi on a $8 million transfer to Villarreal in Spain’s La Liga is the main reason for pause. His exit will crimp what head coach Eric Ramsay will be able to do at forward to close out the MLS season.

But second-leading scorer Kelvin Yeboah — who has nine goals to Oluwaseyi’s 10 — remains with United, and that fact was where Chief Soccer Officer Khaled El-Ahmad went first when talking with reporters about the expected exit of Oluwaseyi on Tuesday.

“First and foremost, the leading striker has not left,” El-Ahmad said in reference to Yeboah.

El-Ahmad is tasked with trying to balance the short-term goal of winning a trophy at MNUFC this fall with the longer-term objective of keeping the club competitive for the long haul.

A club-record transfer fee for Oluwaseyi will help fund reinvestment into the club via maxing out its salary cap flexibility, future transfer fees to buy new players and improve infrastructure in Blaine — to name a few possible areas. Where installments of that money are ultimately directed will be decided by club ownership.

Of the five newcomers, three appear most capable of raising the level of play for the second-place Loons: attacking midfielder Dominik Fitz, defensive midfielder Nectarios Triantis and striker Mamadou Dieng.

The Loons paid an approximately $2.5 million transfer fee to Sunderland for Triantis, a $2.1 million fee to Austria Wien for Fitz and $250,000 to Hartford Athletic for Dieng. MNUFC also added midfielder Alexis Farina on a one-year loan from Cerro Porteno, with an option to buy. Minnesota also paid $750,000 to Alajuelense for winger Kenyal Michel and loaned him back to the Costa Rican club for the rest of this year.

Fitz fits the Loons’ summer objective of adding (a No. 10) creative playmaker; the 26-year-old will end up being either a Designated Player or a TAM (Targeted Allocation Money) signing.

“I like his creativity,” El-Ahmad said. “He’s peak-age player, and he contributes offensively. I’m aware of the Austrian market.(It’s) a good transition from that league to this league. I signed Ismael Tajouri (-Shardi) back when I was at NYCFC from Austria Vienna. I know the club as well. … It was a good fit into what we want to do.”

The deal for Triantis came together just before Thursday’s deadline, and the 6-foot-3 player will help add to (a No. 6) defensive midfielder spot. He is an Under-22 Initiative signing.

“Calm on the ball, has a physical stature that we want to add to our team, good on set pieces, both defensively, offensively, deceivably good technique,” El-Ahmad said. “he can break lines” with his passing.

Dieng, who has 20 goals in USL Championship over the last two seasons, began training with MNUFC in Blaine this week and will be the first candidate to contribute on the field. Oluwaseyi, meanwhile, is in Nigeria working on his work visa for Spain and has likely played his last match for the Loons. .

And the Loons’ three other new signings are currently working their visas and are doubtful for Saturday’s game against Portland. That will be the eighth total game where new additions could have been on the field after the transfer window opened.

Two weeks ago, Ramsay expressed frustration that new additions had not yet hit his roster.

“We could have been more picky this year,” El-Ahmad said about why deals weren’t done until the final week of the summer window. “We’ve raised the level (of the roster) significantly, so just trying to get players early isn’t the main plan here. The plan here is to get the right player in.

“Would we all want the players to be here (when the window opened) July 24? 100%. It’s not like we plan and wait to get them in the last day of the window. But there’s context.”

For one, selling teams are playing in European competitions, and club decisions to keep or move on from players is sometimes based on those results and the revenue that comes from playing in UEFA Champions League, for instance.

“You can’t control those,” El-Ahmad said. “We stayed kind of patient, so we ended up getting the players that we looked at already back in June. We had conversation with (some) and then some players fall off. Then we made sure that we were ready with the next option. It’s not by design. I don’t sit and wait to the last (moments of the) window.”

Last year, Yeboah was added in July and Joaquin Pereyra came late in August. Pereyra had only one assist in MLS last fall, but four goals and six primary assists this season.

That led to Turkish club Trabzonspor putting in a $8 million bid for Pereyra, but MNUFC turned it down.

“The offers we received from various players has been very, very big,” El-Ahmad said. “And I think it’s important for me to then also say it on the record: It shows the testament of the owners, being patient, supporting. … Saying no to a player is as important as potentially spending money on the player. … When you asked me earlier, What do I think of the summer transfer window? I’m excited. I think we’re in a good place.”

Briefly

MNUFC pursued intra-league deals this window, but nothing came together like the move for Anthony Markanich last August. … The club is leaning toward the two-DP and four-U22 roster-building model. … Dieng played for Hartford in the U.S. Open Cup, so he is “cup-tied” and ineligible to play for Minnesota in the Open Cup semifinal vs. Portland on Sept. 17. … Morris Duggan received his green card and Hoyeon Jung’s season-ending injury freed up two international roster spots for new players. … Rookie forward Luke Hille tore his anterior cruciate ligament in a MNUFC2 match on Aug. 15. He’s expected to have surgery this week.