St. Thomas has something special brewing early this fall.

After opening with a convincing victory over Lindenwood, the Tommies more than held their own last weekend in a 37-30 loss at nationally-ranked Idaho.

With a visit to Division-II Northern Michigan set for Saturday before the start of Pioneer Football League play, the Tommies have the look of a team capable of winning the league and qualifying for the FCS Championship playoffs in their first season of eligibility.

“I’m really happy with the continual growth,” Tommies head coach Glenn Caruso said. “That’s why we schedule games against non-conference opponents like Northern Iowa and Lindenwood, so you can see if you’re growing.

“And it’s obvious that we’re growing at a pretty fast rate right now. But not at the expense of the culture. And we’re doing it with great energy. It’s a unique team. I’d say we’ve probably had two or three teams that were like it over the last couple of decades.

“It’s one that, they work hard, they have a ton of fun, they love being around each other. But the really unique thing is that we learn and grow at a faster rate when we bring good energy for each other.”

Caruso sees that play out on the sidelines, as guys theoretically competing against one another for opportunities within a position group are one another’s biggest allies, and on the field, like when St. Thomas was down its top three corners against Idaho, but had a 17-year-old freshman step in.

“Those are the types of things that make me say I’m not only happy, I’m really proud,” Caruso said.

The early results are significant in that they came against teams that offer athletic scholarships. In their four previous Division-I seasons, the Tommies didn’t fare nearly as well against such teams.

“I’m not going to say that’s there’s not still a gap,” Caruso said, “but I think what we’ve said all along is that it’s not just about talent, it’s the right people doing the right thing the right way.”

It all adds up to what is looking to be a pivotal point in the program’s growth.

“I said from the beginning that to do this full transition, there’s three phases,” Caruso said. “In my mind, we’re at the very end of the first phase. I think a lot of people think we’re in the beginning of the second phase because of the playoff ruling. But that’s an external thing, something I don’t control or anything I allow my mind space to be used for.”

Caruso believes his team will reach the second phase when it has played as well as it currently is over an extended period of time.

“So it’s not going to be answered in a single game or a single year,” he said. “The lens we look through is a much longer lens than most other programs. That’s because I feel like it’s not that difficult to have a good football team.”

But he said it’s “wildly difficult to have a good football program.”

“The latter insinuates that you can replicate that over years of time — not games,” he said.

The Tommies’ recent success could have a direct impact on how aggressive Caruso and athletic director Phil Esten will be in scheduling the type of non-conference opponents that continue to measure the program’s growth.

The Tommies have three non-conference opponents lined up for next season — North Dakota, Northern Michigan and Southern Utah. Caruso said it is to be determined whether they had a fourth non-conference opponent.

After next year, the only other non-conference game that has been announced is a 2029 visit from Harvard.

“This season will tell us a lot as far as the right type of schedule for us,” Caruso said. “We’re still trying to find our way through that.”

Georgetown, Villanova and Holy Cross are three teams the Tommies hope to get on the schedule in the near future. They also would like to continue to play Ivy League teams. More compelling opportunities are out there as well.

“I’ve said many times that I wouldn’t mind having an FBS school on the schedule, but that day is not today,” Caruso said. “It certainly would have to be the right one. That’s never been out of the realm of possibility, it’s just never been what we’re focusing on right now.

“I want to make those decisions because it’s the right thing for our program and for our university, based on where we are as a program.”

By JEAN-YVES KAMALE, Associated Press

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — A boat with nearly 500 passengers caught fire and capsized in northwestern Congo, killing 107 people and leaving 146 missing, authorities said Friday, in the region’s second deadly boat accident over the past week.

The latest accident took place Thursday along the Congo River in the Equateur Province’s Lukolela territory, the Congolese humanitarian affairs ministry said in a report.

It came a day after 86 people were killed and several others left missing Wednesday in a separate boat accident in the province’s Basankusu territory, bringing the total deaths to nearly 200.

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It was not immediately clear what caused either accident.

State media attributed Wednesday’s accident to “improper loading and night navigation,” citing reports from the scene. Images that appeared to be from the scene showed villagers gathered around bodies as they mourned.

A local civil society group blamed Wednesday’s accident on the government and claimed the toll was higher. Authorities could not be immediately reached for comment.

The capsizing of boats is becoming increasingly frequent in this central African nation as more people are abandoning the few available roads for cheaper, wooden vessels crumbling under the weight of passengers and their goods.

In such trips, life jackets are rare and the vessels are usually overloaded.

Many of the boats also travel at night, complicating rescue efforts during accidents and leaving many bodies often unaccounted for.

By GISELA SALOMON, Associated Press

Some West Africans who were deported from the U.S. to Ghana were held in “straitjackets” for 16 hours on a flight during which all passengers were shackled and given only bread and water, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington on behalf of five migrants, says passengers were awoken in the middle of the night on Sept. 5 and not told where they were going until hours into the flight on a U.S. military cargo plane.

The migrants have been detained for five days in Ghana in “squalid conditions and surrounded by armed military guards in an open-air detention facility,” called Dema Camp, the complaint says. Conditions are “abysmal and deplorable,” with tents for shelter and little running water.

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The migrants are not from Ghana and have been told they will be sent to other countries that have been determined to be too dangerous by U.S. immigration judges — making it the latest legal challenge to the Trump administration’s practice of sending people to countries other than their own, including El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica and several African nations.

The complaint, filed by lawyers for Asian Americans Advancing Justice, asks a judge to immediately halt deportations to their countries of origin.

“Defendants have enlisted the government of Ghana to do their dirty work,” it says. “Despite the minimal, pass-through involvement of the Ghanaian government, Defendants’ objective is clear: deport individuals who have been granted fear-based relief from being sent to their countries of origin to those countries anyway, in contravention to the rulings of U.S. immigration judges and U.S. immigration law.”

The Homeland Security Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit was filed a day after Ghana’s president confirmed the arrival of the 14 deportees. Ghana joined Eswatini, Rwanda and South Sudan as African countries that have received migrants from third countries who were deported from the U.S., an approach whose legality has been questioned by lawyers and human rights organizations.

President Donald Trump has been aggressively cracking down on immigrants he describes as criminals and “aliens” from countries whose nationals have overstayed their visas in the U.S.

Lawyers and activists have said the Trump administration appears to be making such requests to the nations most affected by his policies on trade, migration and aid.

None of the 14 deportees were originally from Ghana and the five West-Africans who filed the lawsuit did not have ties with the country or designate it as a potential country of removal, according to the complaint.

Plaintiffs are identified only by initials in the complaint. Four are “in immediate danger of being sent on, within hours, to their countries.” One has already been removed to The Gambia and is in hiding, despite having “repeatedly stated his fear” of returning to his country.

Three plaintiffs are from Nigeria and two from The Gambia. The lawsuit says 14 West Africans were taken from their cells at an ICE detention center in Alexandria, Louisiana.

With growing numbers of deportations and a heightened atmosphere for immigrants in mind, Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, the Immigrant Law Center on Minnesota and the St. Paul City Attorney’s office will deliver a “Know Your Rights” presentation from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday at Progressive Baptist Church, 1505 Burns Ave. in St. Paul.

Topics will include understanding different types of legal warrants and other issues related to immigration enforcement and ICE activities. The St. Paul Department of Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity also will discuss how to respond to unfair treatment on the job or in rental situations.

A light meal will be served and attendees will be entered into a raffle for a $50 gift card.

The event leads into international “Welcoming Week,” a series of health fairs, job fairs, legal clinics and community celebrations held throughout the world and aimed at welcoming recent immigrants. The events will run from Sept. 12 to Sept. 21. More information is online at welcomingweek.org.

From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sept. 20, the International Institute of Minnesota will host a naturalization fair where the institute will join officials from the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis to help eligible Twin Cities residents learn how to become naturalized citizens. The location is 1694 Como Ave. in St. Paul.

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