Unions representing correction officers and staff at the Stillwater state prison are calling for a halt to the plan to closure the facility.

“The proposed stated budget agreement that includes the closure of Stillwater Correctional Facility is not only shortsighted, it’s downright dangerous, disruptive and deeply disrespectful to the workers that keep the community safe and the inmates safe,” said Bart Andersen, executive director of the American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees Council 5, at a press conference at the state Capitol on Friday.

State officials said the move to close the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater addresses safety concerns concerning its aging infrastructure and will save more than $40 million annually.

But union leaders said Friday that the closure leaves staff members’ futures uncertain and poses safety risks to inmates, staff and the public.

Study on closure of prison

The prison houses some of the state’s most dangerous offenders, said Dan Gorman, AFSCME vice president and chief steward. Moving them could overcrowd other facilities.

“It makes it very dangerous for the inmate population and for the staff that work in those facilities,” Gorman said.

Union leaders also said they were left in the dark about the decision to close the facility, located in Bayport, and continue to have questions about the plans. A state study intended to look at closing the prison and advise lawmakers on it will apparently be unnecessary, they said.

“This move comes before the very study that was meant to inform a thoughtful and orderly closure of this facility,” said Megan Dayton, president of Minnesota Association of Professional Employees. “That study was supposed to guide legislative decision making … now it’s going to be conducted after incarcerated individuals are already being moved. That is not planning, that is scrambling. We have seen no bill language. We have seen no protections for staff. We have no clarity at all about staffing during this transition. We have no commitment on fair compensation or placement for workers who might not be able to transfer.”

While state officials say a full-modernization or replacement of the Stillwater site would cost an estimated $1.3 billion, union members say low-cost improvements they have requested over the years have been ignored.

Safety concerns

From what union leaders have been told, part of the closure plan is reliant on the Minnesota Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Act which allows inmates to earn earlier release, Dayton said. The MRRA, passed by the Legislature in 2023 as part of the public safety bill, allows qualified inmates to reduce their sentences.

However, state officials have said inmates will not be released early as part of the closure. Early release under the MRRA is earned and determined on an individual basis, DOC officials told the Pioneer Press on Friday, and its implementation is entirely separate from the planned closure of the Stillwater prison.

In response to concerns of overcrowding at other facilities caused by the closure and ensuing safety risks, DOC officials said that all of its correctional facilities are currently staffed fully at between 97 and 100 percent and such staffing is intended to meet facility needs at full capacity.

State officials and state labor relations specialists will begin labor management discussions immediately following passage of the phased-closure proposal, which union agreements require in instances of staff reductions, according to state officials.

State officials have cited safety concerns for inmates and staff at the aging Stillwater facility when discussing its closure. Some union members questioned that assessment and what they described as a long-term underinvestment in the prison and in low-cost safety improvements.

“It appears to be a cost-savings measure right now. And in order to consolidate effectively, to deliver programming effectively, to correct behavior, you have to invest in it,” Dayton said. “You have to spend money to rehabilitate people so that they can be functioning members of society again. And we have no guarantee that that’s part of this plan.”

The maximum security facility for adult male felons — built in 1914 — currently has 1,171 inmates. Its closure is expected by June 30, 2029, under the plan announced by state officials Thursday.

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A 56-year-old St. Paul man has pleaded guilty to murdering his girlfriend at her downtown apartment in 2023 and will be given nearly 25 years in prison at his July sentencing.

Kelvin Maurice Perry pleaded guilty to second-degree intentional murder on Wednesday after reaching an agreement with the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office in the killing of 39-year-old Shaqita Thomas at the Press House apartment building on Nov. 15, 2023. An autopsy determined she’d been asphyxiated.

Kelvin Maurice Perry (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Two minutes after Perry told a childhood friend, “My girlfriend is gone — she is dead,” he walked in front of a light-rail train and was struck in St. Paul, the criminal complaint says. He was charged with Thomas’ murder while hospitalized with serious injuries.

Perry entered a Norgaard plea, which means a defendant says they cannot remember what happened because of intoxication or amnesia but acknowledges there is enough evidence for a jury to convict beyond a reasonable doubt.

The plea agreement calls for a little over 24½ years in prison. He remains jailed ahead of his July 23 sentencing.

Paramedics found Thomas dead in her bedroom after a friend asked the apartment building’s property manager to do a wellness check. She was lying face down beneath a blow-up mattress in the bedroom, and had head trauma and small cuts on her body.

Shaqita Thomas (Courtesy of GoFundMe)

A friend of Thomas told investigators she had been on a FaceTime video call with her about 11:20 a.m. Nov. 15 and she was crying while a man yelled at her in the background. Thomas told her friend the man was mad at her for spending the night at the emergency room with her estranged husband because of her son’s asthma, the complaint says.

Thomas’ husband, from whom she was separated, said he dropped her off in front of the apartment building on Cedar Street between Fourth and Fifth streets between 10 and 10:30 a.m. Thomas wanted him to leave so there wouldn’t be an altercation between him and her boyfriend.

An investigator also spoke with a woman Perry had dated. She reported he is a “very violent, jealous person,” the complaint states. She said she’d talked to a relative of Perry’s, who said Perry called people he knew and told them he “choked” Thomas out.

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Surveillance video showed Perry left Thomas’ apartment about 12:50 p.m. and that her key fob wasn’t used to unlock the door again until it was opened for paramedics two days later.

A woman who’s known Perry since they were kids said he called her at 11:13 a.m. Nov. 17 and that he “was crying and panicking” and told her, “Something is going on,” the complaint says. He asked her to tell his sister he loved her and the call ended.

At 11:15 a.m., Perry walked in front of a Green Line train at University and Western avenues in St. Paul.

“Perry has a significant arrest history out of Chicago where he is from and has family,” according to the complaint.

By ASHRAF KHALIL, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The World Pride 2025 welcome concert, with pop icon Shakira performing at Nationals Stadium, isn’t until May 31. But for host city Washington D.C., the festivities start with a string of localized Pride events beginning with Trans Pride on Saturday.

Hundreds of LGBTQ+ rallies, seminars, parties, after-parties and after-after-parties are planned for the next three weeks across the nation’s capital, including Black Pride and Latin Pride. It all culminates in a two-day closing festival on June 7 and 8 with a parade, rally and concerts on Pennsylvania Avenue by Cynthia Erivo and Doechii.

The biannual international event typically draws more than a million visitors from around the world and across the LGBTQ+ spectrum. But this year’s events will carry both a special resonance and a particular sense of community-wide anxiety due to the policies of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Trump’s public antipathy for trans protections and drag shows has already prompted two international LGBTQ+ organizations, Egale Canada and the African Human Rights Coalition, to issue warnings against travelling to the U.S. at all. The primary concern is that trans or non-binary individuals will face trouble entering the country if passport control officers enforce the administration’s strict binary view of gender status.

“I think it’s a fair assumption that the international numbers won’t be as high due to the climate and the uncertainties,” said Ryan Bos, executive director of the Capital Pride Alliance. “At the same time we know that there’s an urgency and importance to showing up and making sure we remain visible and seen and protect our freedoms.”

There’s major anxiety over Trump’s approach to LGBTQ+ rights

Opposition to transgender rights was a key point for Trump’s presidential campaign last year and he’s been following through since returning to the White House in January, with orders to recognize people as being only male or female, keep transgender girls and women out of sports competitions for females, oust transgender military troops, restrict federal funding for gender-affirming care for transgender people under age 19 and threaten research funding for institutions that provide the care.

All the efforts are being challenged in court; judges have put some policies on hold but are currently letting the push to remove transgender service members move forward. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found support for some of his efforts.

In February, Trump launched a takeover at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, publicly promising to purge drag shows from the institution’s stages. Within days of that takeover, the Kennedy Center abruptly pulled out of plans to host the International Pride Orchestra as part of a week-long series of World Pride crossover events entitled Tapestry of Pride. In the wake of that cancellation, the Capital Pride Alliance cancelled the entire week and moved some of the Tapestry events to alternate venues.

Some potential international participants have already announced plans to skip this year’s events, either out of fear of harassment or as a boycott against Trump’s policies. But others have called for a mobilization to flood the capital, arguing that establishing a presence in potentially hostile spaces is the precise and proud history of the community.

“We’ve been here before. There is nothing new under the sun,” said D.C. Council Member Zachary Parker, who is gay. “While this is uncharted territory … a fight for humanity is not new to those in the LGBTQ+ community.”

Supporters say showing up would carry symbolic weight

A recent editorial in the The Blade by Argentinian activist Mariano Ruiz argued for “the symbolic weight of showing up anyway,” despite the legitimate concerns.

“If we set the precedent that global LGBTQI+ events cannot happen under right-wing or anti-LGBTQI+ governments, we will effectively disqualify a growing list of countries from hosting,” Ruiz wrote. “To those who say attending World Pride in D.C. normalizes Trump’s policies, I say: What greater statement than queer, trans, intersex, and nonbinary people from around the world gathering defiantly in his capital? What more powerful declaration than standing visible where he would rather we vanish?”

The last World Pride, in 2023, drew more than 1 million visitors to Sydney, Australia, according to estimates. It’s too early to tell whether the numbers this year will match those, but organizers admit they are expecting international attendance to be impacted.

Destination D.C., which tracks hotel booking numbers, estimated that bookings for this year during World Pride are about 10% behind the same period in 2024, but the organization notes in a statement that the numbers may be skewed by a “major citywide convention” last year that coincided with what would be the final week of World Pride this year.

Still, as the date approaches, organizers and advocates are predicting a memorable party. If international participation is measurably down this year, as many are predicting, the hope is that domestic participants will make a point of attending.

“The revolution is now,” said Parker, the D.C. council member. “There is no greater demonstration of resistance than being present and being you, and that is what World Pride is going to represent for millions of folks.”

Associated Press reporter Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

MILWAUKEE – A manager can appreciate two highly competitive athletes trying to make a play, even if the result of their efforts was painful – literally – for the Minnesota Twins.

When infielder Carlos Correa and outfielder Byron Buxton both made a play on a pop fly in Thursday’s game in Baltimore, it showed their competitiveness and some of the grit that has led the team to double digits in consecutive wins. It also landed Correa on the shelf.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli announced prior to Friday’s visit to the closed-roof home of the Brewers that Correa was headed to the seven-day concussion injured list as a result of his collision with Buxton.

“Ultimately, some of the tests that he went through today went fine, and some didn’t. And as soon as something doesn’t, that’s it,” Baldelli said of Correa, whose season batting average dropped to .236 before he left the game on Thursday. “We get him, basically, into the recovery phase as opposed to us testing him and trying to see if he can play. We put the playing aside and we just get him back to full strength.”

The bad news, which came in the midst of one of the longest winning streaks in Twins franchise history, came as a result of two players drifting into a kind of no man’s land between the infield and shallow outfield to make a play on a fly ball, which Buxton ultimately caught. Buxton, who also went into the concussion protocol after later leaving the game, did not go on the injured list, but he was not in Friday’s starting lineup.

“The play looked innocent, because I’m sure both of them would say, ‘Oh yeah, I could’ve made the play, no problem,’” Baldelli said. “It was just in that one small area on the field where both guys not only thought the other one was going to make the play but they were just going a little too far into the other guy’s space.”

The head injury comes after a 2024 season when Correa was limited to 86 games due to a nagging left foot ailment.

Big league debut for Fitzgerald

Utility infielder Ryan Fitzgerald had a tough first game of a doubleheader this week for the St. Paul Saints, then he found out he was headed to the Twins for his major league debut. Then his flight from Des Moines, Iowa to Milwaukee was cancelled, meaning he had to make the five-hour drive to the Brewers’ ballpark.

After a career spent playing minor league ball in the U.S. and Dominican Republic, the Chicagoland native who turns 31 next month would likely have walked the 350-plus miles for this opportunity. Primarily a shortstop who began his pro career with the Gary (Indiana) Railcats, Fitzgerald joked that he’d be willing to don catchers’ gear if it meant getting his first chance in the majors.

“Playing (independent) ball back in 2017, making 800 bucks a month, driving more than an hour to the ballpark, living at home, having this opportunity, I’m just super grateful,” he said. Fitzgerald added, with his debut happening so close to his hometown of Burr Ridge, Illinois, he had his parents, two brothers and assorted others headed to Milwaukee for the game.

Baldelli said the addition of Fitzgerald, who had hit .328 for the Saints with four home runs, gives the Twins some important options with Correa temporarily unavailable.

“We brought a guy that’s versatile and we brought a guy that can play in the middle of the infield, which means Willi Castro can go anywhere at that point,” the manager said.

Asked for a self-scouting report regarding what Twins fans can expect from him, Fitzgerald flashed a grin and flipped his impressive black, curly mullet.

“Good hair. That’s number one,” he said.

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