A Somali-American leader and Ramsey County sheriff civilian officer was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Friday afternoon and brought to Freeborn Adult Detention Center.

Omar Abdi Jamal, of Minneapolis, has lived in the U.S. for 20 years, according to the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office. He joined the sheriff’s office as a civilian Community Service Officer in 2020.

“Omar Jamal has played an integral role in helping us liaison with the Somali community in Minnesota, which has the largest population of Somalis in the country,” Steve Linders, Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said in a statement. “He’s done a great job in that role.”

Jamal’s attorney said that a judge previously granted Jamal protection against deportation.

“Years ago, a U.S. immigration judge found that Mr. Jamal would face persecution if returned to Somalia and granted him protection from removal under U.S. law,” said attorney Abdiqani A. Jabane. “We are aware that ICE may now be exploring alternate removal options. However, Mr. Jamal is not a citizen of any other country, including Canada.”

Jabane said his office is “reviewing the basis for his detention and will pursue all appropriate legal avenues to protect his rights and ensure he is treated in accordance with the law. We urge ICE to act with transparency and fairness, and we ask the community to remain engaged and supportive during this time.”

Jamal has “spent decades advocating for public safety, interfaith cooperation, and stronger relationships between law enforcement and immigrant communities. He has worked closely with the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office and is widely recognized for his leadership and community engagement,” Jabane said.

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DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) — The pressure has ramped up for defending Southern 500 winner Chase Briscoe as the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs approach.

Then again, all playoff drivers feel things heating up at Darlington Raceway as the postseason begins.

A season ago, Briscoe was on the outside hoping to squeeze into the field of 16 as NASCAR came to Darlington for its final regular-season event. A late pass of three others pushed Briscoe to the front and gave soon-to-be-shuttered Stewart-Haas Racing a surprise chance at a Cup title.

Briscoe lasted through the second round, which he and his old SHR organization considered success. Now with Joe Gibbs Racing, Briscoe has been locked into the playoff grid for some time and carries increased expectations into Sunday night’s race.

“If you just make the round of 16 (at JGR), it’s not a successful season,” Briscoe said Saturday. “It’s kind of a failure.”

The round concludes at Gateway outside of St. Louis and Bristol the next two weeks before the playoff field is cut to 12.

Regular-season champion William Byron and Briscoe’s JGR teammate Denny Hamlin understand that the line between a long playoff run and early exit is razor thin.

Byron doesn’t see a track ahead where his No. 24 Chevrolet can’t be as fast as any of his competitors, starting at Darlington where he won the spring race in 2024. “So I think at the same time, though, you never know what everyone else is going to bring and how fast they’re going to be. So we’ve just got to keep working,” Byron said.

The race comes just days after a hearing on the legal fight over charters between NASCAR and the teams of 23XI Racing and Front Row Racing.

“What we shared was just talk among ourselves that doesn’t have anything to do with the case,” Byron said.

Hamlin won the pole for Sunday’s race after what he said were struggles in practice Saturday. “What drives me is the competition knowing that I can still go out and win races,” he said.

Hamlin, a four-time winner this season for Joe Gibbs, is also co-owner of 23XI with Michael Jordan and will balance his unofficial status as NASCAR’s best current driver without a title and his ownership duties helping team playoff drivers Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick advance.

“It’s just another chance to roll the dice,” said Hamlin, who is in the playoffs for the 19th time.

He believes his No. 11 JGR Toyota is as strong as ever, but he knows too well how bad luck, a caution at the wrong time or a mistake on pit road can thwart a championship. “Those are the small things that decide whether you move on in the playoffs or not,” he said.

At the start

Next to Hamlin for the Southern 500 is Briscoe, who qualified second. Playoff drivers took the top 10 spots for Sunday’s race, with Josh Berry third, followed by Reddick, Larson, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, Wallace, Austin Dillon and Austin Cindric.

Playoff Shane

Shane van Gisbergen won four times this year for Trackhouse Racing, tying Hamlin for most on the circuit. His victories have come on road courses in Mexico City, Chicago, Sonoma and Watkins Glen. The Charlotte Roval is the only playoff race not run on an oval.

Gisbergen’s plan to improve? “Just time,” he said. “I don’t know anything different. It’s taken me a long time to learn the ovals, particularly because I haven’t done them before.”

Van Gisbergen finished 20th at Darlington this past April. He was 16th last week at Daytona, an improvement from February when he finished 33rd there.

The New Zealand racer accepts that many will write off his chances of a deep playoff run. He’s fine with that. “Hopefully, it will be nice to prove people wrong,” he said.

Odds and Ends

Kyle Larson, the 2021 NASCAR champion, is the betting favorite for the Southern 500 at 4 1/2-to-1, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. Tyler Reddick is next at 5 1/2-to-1 along with Hamlin, who is seeking his first NASCAR title; Ryan Blaney, last week’s winner at Daytona, and regular-season champion William Byron are next at 6-to-1. … Defending series champion Joey Logano looks to end an odd — over even — quirk with a fourth overall title. His three championships have come in even years (2018, 2022, 2024). “Just got to make it happen,” Logano said. “I don’t understand the whole even-odd things. I’d really like to break that cycle this year.” … Hamlin leads all current drivers with five Darlington victories. A sixth would give him the fourth-most in track history behind David Pearson (10), Dale Earnhardt (9) and Jeff Gordon (7).

Bruce Helmer and Peg Webb

President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act (OBBBA) is a sweeping package that cements much of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) into law. But it also adds new deductions, targeted incentives and temporary perks for specific groups. For investors, retirees and business owners, the legislation offers both opportunities and challenges. Here are the five most important takeaways.

Lock in low tax rates for the long haul

The OBBBA keeps the marginal rates at 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37%, all indexed for inflation. Before this law, those rates were set to expire at the end of 2025, reverting to pre-TCJA levels.

For investors, this stability can be a green light for long-term strategies like Roth IRA conversions, capital gains harvesting and structured charitable giving. While “permanent” in Washington is never truly permanent, the current brackets give taxpayers a clearer runway for planning.

If you anticipate higher rates in the future, act now to lock in today’s historically low brackets through strategic income recognition.

Use the bigger SALT deduction while it lasts

The cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions jumps from $10,000 to $40,000 in 2025, increasing by 1% annually through 2029. After that, the cap snaps back to $10,000 in 2030.

For high-tax states like Minnesota, this temporary expansion is a meaningful break, especially for households with large property tax bills or significant state income tax obligations. But the benefit phases out for joint filers above $500,000 in modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) and singles above $250,000, reducing the deduction by 30% of income above those thresholds.

Consider bunching deductions or using a pass-through entity tax (PTE) election to maximize the value during the five-year window.

Take advantage of permanent relief for pass-throughs

The OBBBA makes the 20% Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction permanent and adds a $400 minimum floor. For many small-business owners, professional practices and independent contractors, this locks in a major tax break that had been set to expire.

The bill also expands Opportunity Zone rules to encourage rural investment, potentially opening new avenues for tax-advantaged capital deployment.

Review your entity structure, compensation method and income timing to fully capture the deduction — and explore whether rural Opportunity Zone projects could enhance your portfolio’s after-tax return.

Tap into targeted breaks for seniors and newborns

Several niche but noteworthy benefits are included in the new law:

— For seniors (age 65-plus), there’s an extra $6,000 federal deduction per person from 2025 through 2028, even if you itemize. The benefit phases out above $75,000 MAGI for singles and $150,000 for joint filers. While it doesn’t eliminate Social Security taxation, it can meaningfully reduce it for many retirees.

— Workers can claim up to a $25,000 deduction for tip and overtime income, and up to $10,000 for interest on auto loans for new U.S.-assembled vehicles, through 2028.

— “Trump Accounts” provide a $1,000 government-funded investment account for each baby born between 2025 and 2028, starting in 2026. Families can add up to $5,000 annually, and employers up to $2,500 (both indexed for inflation from 2027). Earnings grow tax-deferred, but withdrawals before age 59½ may incur taxes and a 10% penalty.

You need to carefully coordinate these deductions with your broader tax strategy, especially required minimum distributions (RMDs), trust distributions and Roth conversions. For parents, compare the Trump Accounts against 529 plans or custodial accounts to determine which offers greater flexibility and control for your situation.

Keep an eye on potential fiscal storm clouds

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the OBBBA will add $2.4 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade — before factoring in potential economic effects. That raises several risks:

— Higher future taxes: Policymakers may eventually turn to capital gains, estate taxes or new wealth taxes to shore up revenue.

— Rising interest rates: Increased Treasury borrowing could lift yields, which can reduce bond prices and raise borrowing costs.

— Inflation pressure: More deficit spending could erode the purchasing power of cash and fixed income.

— Entitlement reform: Large deficits may prompt changes to Medicare or Social Security.

— Market instability: A loss of fiscal confidence could shake investor sentiment and credit ratings.

In all market environments, we recommend building flexibility into retirement and investment plans, diversifying across asset classes, maintaining adequate liquidity and keeping an eye on policy developments.

Change can mean opportunity, but risks persist

The OBBBA offers a mix of certainty and urgency: certainty in the form of locked-in tax brackets and permanent business deductions, and urgency in the form of time-limited SALT relief, senior benefits and newborn accounts. For those willing to act now, the opportunities are real — but so are the risks on the horizon. Smart investors and retirees should work with a qualified adviser to model different scenarios, optimize tax timing, and keep plans adaptable in the face of shifting economic and political winds. In Washington, after all, “permanent” is rarely forever.

Prior to investing in a 529 Plan, investors should consider whether the investor’s or designated beneficiary’s home state offers any state tax or other state benefits such as financial aid, scholarship funds, and protection from creditors that are only available for investments in such state’s qualified tuition program. Withdrawals used for qualified expenses are federally tax free. Tax treatment at the state level may vary. Please consult with your tax adviser before investing. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal.

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.

Bruce Helmer and Peg Webb are financial advisers at Wealth Enhancement Group and co-hosts of “Your Money” on WCCO 830 AM on Sunday mornings. Email Bruce and Peg at yourmoney@wealthenhancement.com. Advisory services offered through Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC, a registered investment adviser and affiliate of Wealth Enhancement Group.

St. Paul police are offering to place officers outside every public and private school in the city in the coming week in response to the shooting of students at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.

With St. Paul and Minneapolis public school students returning to school after Labor Day, both cities are pledging an increased law enforcement presence.

“This tragedy has shaken students, families, educators and our entire community to its core,” St. Paul Deputy Chief of Operations Kurt Hallstrom wrote in a Friday letter to school leaders. “In response, the department has felt called to offer police presence … to help bolster a sense of safety and security.”

A show of strength from law enforcement is a common reaction after a tragedy like Wednesday’s, said Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers. Law enforcement and everyone involved in school safety should be on the lookout for a potential copycat situation, and the presence of law enforcement can reassure students, faculty and parents, he said.

“It’s hard to think past just today at the moment — how do we get through today?” Canady said. “But from a long-term standpoint, it’s probably going to be unlikely or impossible to continue that level of commitment.”

Families and the community are grieving the loss of two innocent lives — an 8-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl were killed when the school was celebrating Mass on Wednesday morning at Annunciation Catholic Church — and another 18 people were shot and injured.

Now, as the school year gets underway, how are schools in the Twin Cities responding?

Protocols already in place

St. Paul Public Schools Superintendent Stacie Stanley sent a reminder to families Wednesday about safety protocols the district already has in place.

“As a parent and grandparent myself, I know how these tragedies affect everyone who has children in school,” she wrote.

Among the school districts using the “I Love U Guys” Foundation’s Standard Response Protocol are St. Paul’s public schools and Ascension Catholic Academy, which oversees four Catholic schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The foundation was started in 2006 by the parents of Emily Keyes, 16, who was killed in a school shooting in Colorado. She’d sent a text message to her mother that day saying: “I love u guys.”

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The foundation says the standard protocol “allows organizations, first responders, students and parents to share a specific vocabulary for quick and coordinated action.” The terms used are “Secure,” “Lockdown” and “Hold in Place.”

At St. Paul Public Schools, “staff and students are trained on what these protocols mean and what to do when one is in effect,” Stanley wrote.

Every school also has an emergency operations plan that outlines what happens in the event of an emergency, and plans are reviewed and updated on at least an annual basis.

St. Paul schools keep exterior doors locked at all times and buzz visitors in, Stanley wrote.

“Our office’s sole focus right now is getting our schools ready to safely welcome back 33,000-plus students,” said Laurie Olson, St. Paul Public Schools’ director of security and emergency management.

Situation in Minneapolis raises new concerns

Basic security steps are the building blocks for safety, said Jameson Ritter, Ascension Catholic Academy’s director of safety and security. The academy’s locations include St. Peter Claver and St. Pascal Regional in St. Paul.

“If somebody gave me a million dollars tomorrow to improve security across our entire academy, I would put it to good use,” said Ritter, who has a background in the military, law enforcement and corporate security. “But if you don’t have people making sure doors are locked or not propped open, or don’t have proper screening of visitors, it’s going to undo all of that before we even get started.”

At Annunciation Catholic Church, their practice was to lock doors after Mass began and the shooting happened shortly after, said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.

“There’s no question that the fact that doors were locked likely saved additional lives,” he said, though the shooter fired 116 rifle rounds through stained-glass windows.

A law enforcement officer stands outside the Annunciation Church’s school in response to a reported mass shooting, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Canady, of the school resource officers’ association, said he hasn’t seen a situation “play out quite that way at a school before.”

“On occasion when you think you’ve got this figured out, that you have an M.O. of how this plays out, somebody does it differently,” he said.

Connie Hune, of St. Paul, said she’s always worried about her children’s safety, though she feels like their schools have good safety measures.

“But now, my concern is when they’re out of the building,” said Hune, who has two children attending a private Christian school and an older child at a St. Paul public school.

Behavioral Threat Assessments

Nationally, about one-third of parents of children in K-12 said they were “very or extremely worried about a shooting ever happening at their children’s school,” according to a Pew Research Center survey published in October 2022.

The survey came after the May 2022 shooting of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

Sixty-three percent of the parents surveyed said improved mental health screening and treatment “would be a very or extremely effective way to prevent school shootings.”

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension started the Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management Team in 2023. Some counties in Minnesota have them, along with school districts and corporations.

As a Cottage Grove police sergeant, Randy McAlister co-founded with a forensic psychologist the first Behavioral Threat Assessment Team in the state in Washington County in 2015; he’s since retired as a captain from the department.

“I don’t think we’re where we need to be in Minnesota with school threat assessment,” said McAlister, who owns McAlister Threat Management. “I think a lot of school districts have threat assessment programs, maybe on paper and in name only, but they’re not operating a best practices type program that we know works around the country.”

The 23-year-old shooter in Minneapolis, who died by suicide at the scene, previously attended the school. Acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joe Thompson said videos and writings left behind show that the shooter “expressed hate towards almost every group imaginable.”

On a YouTube channel, videos that police say may have been posted by the shooter show weapons and ammunition, and list the names of mass shooters. What appears to be a suicide note to family contains a confession of long-held plans to carry out a shooting and talk of being deeply depressed.

The suspect didn’t have a criminal record that prohibited buying firearms, and police have said the weapons were recently and lawfully purchased.

There was “not substantive police contact with this individual that would have raised concern to the level that would lead us to believe this sort of a situation would happen,” said BCA Superintendent Drew Evans.

Evans emphasized that authorities “need the help of the public.”

“If there’s concerning social media behavior by anybody or … concern in their community,” people should contact law enforcement “so that we can adequately address that,” Evans said. “… That did not happen in this case.”

There previously had been three fatal shootings at Minnesota K-12 schools since 2000, according to Hamline University’s Violence Prevention Project Research Center.

St. Paul police: ‘Ease concerns’

Police tape is stretched in front of the playground at Annunciation Church and School in Minneapolis after a mass shooting there Wednesday. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

In the St. Paul Police Department letter to school leaders, Deputy Chief Hallstrom said the department could have officers present as students arrive in the morning Tuesday through Friday.

“Please note that with more than 100 schools throughout our city, we may not be able to provide officers at your school each of these four days,” he wrote. “… While our primary goal is to help ease concerns within our community, we also hope to help restore the positivity that should surround the start of a new school year.”

The Minneapolis Police Department announced they’ve increased patrols at Annunciation. Minneapolis is also coordinating with the St. Paul Police Department, Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and other local law enforcement to expand patrols around all schools in Minneapolis over the next couple of weeks, the city said last week.

Gov. Tim Walz said Thursday that he had authorized the deployment of 14 Minnesota State Patrol troopers and six Department of Natural Resources enforcement officers to Minneapolis with a focus on schools and places of worship.

Schools in St. Paul can opt out if they don’t want an officer presence.

“Police officers will be outside as many schools as possible to greet students with a friendly face,” Superintendent Stanley wrote in a Friday letter to families. “This is something SPPD has done for our schools many times during the first week of school.”

After a police officer killed George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, the Minneapolis and St. Paul school boards voted to eliminate school resource officers.

St. Paul Public Schools put a different plan in place, and every St. Paul public secondary and pre-K-8 school has at least one school support liaison. Elementary schools and specialized sites are served by mobile liaisons, Stanley said in Wednesday’s message to families.

Ra’Von Hill, 17, said he feels safe at his St. Paul school, but he’d like to see metal detectors added. Hill, who is president of the nonprofit World Youth Connect in St. Paul, said he thinks schools need more mental health specialists and people who can connect with young people.

Hune, a community partner with World Youth Connect, believes metal detectors in schools would be a step too far. “I think that’s putting fear out there,” she said.

Meanwhile, Abdi Ahmed, a 10th-grader at a St. Paul public school who was working at the World Youth Connect booth at the Minnesota State Fair on Friday, said he believes armed security guards outside his school would be a deterrent to potential violence.

New concerns, past trauma

In the lead-up to school, Ritter was already meeting with Ascension Catholic Academy staff for regular safety refresher training when the shootings happened at Annunciation.

“The Catholic school and church community in the Twin Cities is so closely knit, and being out there to answer a lot of ‘what-if questions,’” Ritter said of the role he took. “How would we handle communication? How would we reunify our kiddos with their parents and guardians?”

Like public schools in Minnesota, private schools are also required to have drills for its emergency response programs, Ritter said.

Some challenges for religious schools, though, are funding for security and safety and generally having older facilities, he said.

Nationally, Canady said he’s seen more private schools contracting with off-duty or retired officers to serve over the last few years, but it’s still not as common as their presence at public schools.

After a school shooting, it’s natural for people to ask, “What about my community, what about my schools? Do we have a vulnerability?” said Safe and Sound Schools co-founder and executive director Michele Gay, whose daughter was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., in 2012.

Their recommendation is for everyone to get involved in the work: “To better protect your most precious people, do it together,” she said.

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Faith Lofton, a mother of three and program administrator of St. Paul’s Office of Neighborhood Safety, said the measures the shooter took to carry out violence in Minneapolis show it’s “not just about the lockdowns and the drills that a school can do.”

“Schools can only do so much to keep our babies safe,” she said. It’s going to take work from lawmakers and community advocacy for investments in public safety that go beyond traditional public safety, she said.

Beyond the trauma that school shootings inflict, they can also bring up past traumas, Gay said.

A younger brother of a childhood friend of DeJiohn Brooks, CEO and co-founder of World Youth Connect, was fatally stabbed at Harding High School in St. Paul in 2023.

“It’s not one of those things that people are over yet,” Brooks said of the homicide of 15-year-old Devin Scott. “With something like what happened in Minneapolis, people go back through all of the loss, all of the shootings that have happened around them.”

This report includes information from the Associated Press.