By TERRY CHEA and SUDHIN THANAWALA, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge on Friday sharply questioned the Trump administration’s authority and need to maintain command of California National Guard troops it first deployed to Los Angeles in June following violent protests.

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At a hearing in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer suggested conditions in Los Angeles had changed since the initial deployment, and he questioned whether the administration could control state Guard troops “forever” under its interpretation of federal law.

“No crisis lasts forever,” he said. ”I think experience teaches us that crises come and crises go. That’s the way it works.”

He pressed an attorney for the government for any evidence that state authorities were either unable or unwilling to help keep federal personnel and property in the area safe and noted President Donald Trump had access to tens of thousands of active duty troops in California.

California officials have asked Breyer to issue a preliminary injunction returning control of remaining California National Guard troops in Los Angeles to the state. Breyer did not immediately rule. He has previously found the administration’s deployment of the California National Guard illegal.

“The National Guard is not the president’s traveling private army to deploy where he wants, when he wants, for as long as he wants, for any reason he wants, or no reason at all,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said after the hearing.

Trump initially called up more than 4,000 California National Guard troops in response to the protests over his stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws, but that number had dropped to several hundred by late October, with only a 100 or so troops remaining in the Los Angeles area.

The Republican president, however, has also tried to use California Guard members in Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, as part of his effort to send the military into Democratic-run cities despite fierce resistance from mayors and governors.

Justice Department Attorney Eric Hamilton said federal law gives the president the power to extend control of state Guard troops as long as he deems that necessary.

The remaining troops in Los Angeles were allowing immigration agents to continue their mission and protecting federal property, he said, noting someone threw two incendiary devices into a federal building on Monday.

The court did not have the authority to review how the president manages a Guard mission that is in progress, but even if it could, it had to consider the violence this summer, Hamilton said.

“We cannot turn a blind eye to what happened in Los Angeles in June of this year,” he said.

Trump’s call up of the California National Guard was the first time in decades that a state’s national guard was activated without a request from its governor and marked a significant escalation in the administration’s efforts to carry out its mass deportation policy. They were stationed outside a federal detention center downtown where protesters gathered, and later sent on the streets to protect immigration officers as they made arrests.

California sued, and Breyer issued a temporary restraining order that required the administration to return control of the Guard troops to California. An appeals court panel, however, put that decision on hold. Breyer was nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.

California argued that the president was using Guard members in violation of a law limiting the use of the military in domestic affairs.

The administration said courts could not second-guess the president’s decision that violence during the protests made it impossible for him to execute U.S. laws with regular forces and reflected a rebellion, or danger of rebellion.

In September, Breyer ruled after a trial that the deployment violated the law. Other judges have blocked the administration from deploying National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, and Chicago.

Thanawala reported from Atlanta.

Shots on goal are important. But the shots IN goal are the difference-makers in hockey.

So, as much as the Minnesota Wild liked some parts of their effort on Thursday in Calgary, a 1-1 tie in the third period that became a 4-1 loss was a result of a team not converting enough scoring chances into goals lately.

The Wild prepare to face the Canucks on Saturday night in Vancouver having scored just two goals on this road trip, and with four goals, total in their past three games while going 1-1-1.

“I do think we’re creating a bunch of chances, and you know, if they go in, we’re talking a different game,” Wild veteran forward Mats Zuccarello said to the reporters gathered in the visiting locker room after the loss to the Flames. “But sometimes you’ve got to accept that they scored on their chances and we didn’t. We don’t like losing, so we’ve got to forget about this one.”

When everything seemed to be going wrong for the Wild in October, one bright spot was their power play, which was tops in the NHL at the time. Things are much better overall now, but the Wild’s vitally important time with an opponent in the penalty box is not providing the boost it once did.

On the flip side of that bad news, the Wild’s penalty kill — once the worst in the NHL, statistically — has killed off opponents’ last 20 man-advantage situations, moving them up to 20th in the league.

The Wild’s power play has fallen out of the top 10 after going 0 for 10 over the past four games. That includes failing to score on an eight-minute man advantage in the first period versus the Flames on Thursday. Wild coach John Hynes mentioned faceoffs as being one of the problems in Calgary but wouldn’t pin the offensive deficiency on just one issue.

“I think we can dissect it every which way,” Hynes said. “I would say that it’s hard to win when your compete level, your engagement, your execution isn’t close to what it needs to be.”

The final two games of this road trip — Saturday in Vancouver and Monday in Seattle — are against teams that have struggled early. Minnesota beat the Canucks last month in St. Paul, and won in their March visit to the home of the Kraken last season. So, despite the recent offensive doldrums, and their first regulation loss in nearly a month, there remains a quiet confidence that the scoring chances are going to lead to goals if they just keep doing what they’re doing.

“We’ll draw on that; we’ve been playing good hockey as of late,” said Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian, who got his first assist of the season on the team’s lone goal in Calgary. “You don’t want them to happen, but these things happen. Games like this happen. Learn from it, move on from it. … We’re confident in the group and we can’t let one game throw us off course.”

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By JOSH FUNK, AP Transportation Writer

The nation’s freight railroads are going to be able to try relying more on technology and inspect their tracks in person less often after the federal government approved their waiver request on Friday.

The Association of American Railroads trade group asked for the relief from inspection requirements that were written back in 1971 because railroads believe the automated track inspection technology they use today is so good at spotting problems early that human inspections aren’t needed as frequently. They say that extended tests that BNSF and Norfolk Southern ran show that safety actually improved even when human inspections were reduced from twice a week to twice a month.

The Federal Railroad Administration didn’t go quite that far in its decision, but the agency said railroads will be able to cut inspections down to only once a week under the approved waiver.

The railroads had also asked for permission to have up to three days to repair defects identified by the automated inspections. But the Federal Railroad Administration said any serious defects in the tracks must be repaired immediately and all defects should be addressed within 24 hours.

Union says technology can miss problems

These automated inspection systems use an array of cameras and lasers installed either on a locomotive or on a railcar that can be pulled as part of a train to assess whether the tracks are moving out of alignment or shifting. But the union that represents track inspectors says the technology can’t detect things like the rock underneath the track shifting, vegetation growing into the path of the trains, a crack in the rail or railroad ties rotting out. Plus, inspectors can spot a combination of small defects that might together derail a train where the machine might not register a problem, the union says.

“This is everyday defects across the entire country that we find through visual inspections that cannot be detected by this machinery,” Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division union President Tony Cardwell said. “And that technology is not there. It has been here for 30 years. It hasn’t really advanced much at all. It’s a glorified tape measure.”

The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division union that represents track inspectors acknowledges that this technology does help spot problems. But the union says that this automated inspection equipment should supplement — not replace — human inspections because reducing track inspections would increase the risk of derailments.

The railroads counter that even if these systems can’t see the ballast shifting under the tracks or the ties starting to rot, the system will notice the symptoms of those problems because the track geometry — basically the alignment of the tracks — will be affected when those things happen.

“What it is looking at is the ultimate performance. If those components are doing their job, then the track geometry is being maintained. If they’re not doing their job, the track geometry is not being maintained,” said Mike Rush, the Association of American Railroads’ senior vice president of safety and operations.

Companies say technology is more effective

BNSF railroad said when it was arguing with the Federal Railroad Administration about whether their test should be extended that the “technology has proven to be far more sensitive and effective at detecting geometry defects on BNSF’s network than the regime of manual visual inspections mandated by the historic regulations.”

Over two years of testing, manual inspections detected only 0.01 defects per 100 miles, compared with the section of the railroad where the test was being run where the combination of the technology and reduced inspections found 4.54 defects per 100 miles.

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The Federal Railroad Administration agreed that tracks don’t need to be inspected visually as frequently when these automated track inspection systems are used regularly.

Cardwell and the union’s safety director, Roy Morrison, think that’s a bad idea. They said that one of the benefits of frequent inspections is that the inspectors become intimately familiar with their territories, which helps them spot subtle changes. If they aren’t out on the tracks as often, it may be harder to spot problems, they said.

“A track inspector who’s out on his mainline track twice a week, he knows that track inside out, and a lot of times he’ll spot a defect without even knowing what he’s looking at yet,” Morrison said. “He’ll get out of the truck and say, hey, there’s something wrong here. Take some measurements and go, OK, this is what’s going on.”

But the railroads say that freeing up inspectors from some of these mandated track inspections will allow them to focus more on switches and other equipment that must be inspected manually. Plus, Norfolk Southern noted in its comments on the request that even if regular inspections aren’t being done as often, special inspections will still be done regularly anytime there is a major storm or flooding in a certain area to make sure the tracks weren’t affected.

Norfolk Southern said that during its 18-month test of reducing inspections while using the technology, the railroad saw improvements in areas that the automated system can’t find because inspectors were free to spend more time focused on those areas.

An Eagan neighborhood aimed at combating homelessness within Minnesota’s veteran community has officially welcomed its first residents as key organizers announced the completion of the $6 million enclave last week.

Veteran Village includes 22 homes for up to 36 veterans and their families who are experiencing homelessness. The homes sit on about 6 acres on the 3900 block of Rahn Road. It’s the latest effort to help veterans needing assistance securing permanent housing, led by local partners Housing First Minnesota Foundation, Lennar and the Lennar Foundation, Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans and Mount Calvary Lutheran Church.

“When our nation called, they were the ones who answered,” said Doug Hurd, a member of the Mount Calvary Lutheran Church Council, at Wednesday’s opening celebration.

Now is the time for the community to answer the call, Hurd said.

“When our pastor approached the congregation about this opportunity, I told the other members immediately that I wanted to be involved,” said Hurd, himself a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Army. “I feel very passionate about veterans’ issues.”

The Veteran Village in Eagan is the only multi-unit housing community built specifically to support veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness in Minnesota. Pictured are the hundreds of partners who contributed to the effort, which officially opened Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (Elliot Mann / Special to the Pioneer Press)

The Veteran Village includes a mix of one-bedroom units, one-bedroom units with a garage and three-bedroom units for families spread across six buildings.

Opening the Village caps off a more than two-year effort, including purchasing land from Mount Calvary Lutheran Church, receiving approvals from the city of Eagan and developing blueprints for the eventual neighborhood. Housing First and the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans began partnering in 2017 with the construction of their first single-family home for members who had served in the Armed Forces.

The Veteran Village is the only multi-unit housing community explicitly built to support veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness in Minnesota.

Talking to the assembled crowd on Wednesday morning, shivering in 15 degree temperatures, Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans President Neal Loidolt thanked those in attendance. He also reminded the group that many local veterans would not have a warm place to go that night.

There are currently 196 veterans in Minnesota without a place to stay, according to the state’s Homeless Veteran Registry Dashboard.

Thanks to the Veteran Village, several families will have shelter, Loidolt said.

The Veteran Village in Eagan includes 22 townhomes, a mix of one-bedroom units, one-bedroom units with a garage, and three-bedroom units for families, spread across six buildings. It opened Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025 to provide stable housing for up to 36 veterans and their families. (Elliot Mann / Special to the Pioneer Press)

While the need will always exist, much like the emergency department in a hospital, Loidolt said, the key is to outpace the rate of names being added to that dashboard. The neighborhood not only provides housing, but also connections to case management, creating a vital component in the work against homelessness.

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Housing First Minnesota Foundation Executive Director Sofia Humphries credited the other partners in their shared vision in bringing the project forward.

“What makes this project so powerful is its impact and the collaboration behind it,” Humphries said. “Builders, trades, suppliers, nonprofit partners, funders and volunteers all worked side by side to bring this vision to life. No one group could have accomplished this alone. But together, we created something transformative, something generational, changing lives for years to come.”

Since 2017, the partnership between Housing First Minnesota Foundation, Lennar and MACV has led to nearly 44,000 square feet of veteran-focused housing across Minnesota.

If you are a veteran in need of assistance, call MACV toll-free at 833-222-6228.