Nearly four months after losing his bid for a third term, former St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter will begin an advisory job with GroundBreak Coalition, an organization with nearly $1 billion in funding for wealth-building initiatives focused on closing racial gaps.

GroundBreak Coalition, a Minneapolis-based community funding organization, announced on their social media Thursday that Carter will serve as interim senior advisor. The organization focuses on addressing racial wealth inequality for Black individuals through homeownership, entrepreneurship and commercial development initiatives.

As a leader, Carter has focused on supporting economic mobility, including through initiatives like city of St. Paul-run college savings accounts and the Rondo Inheritance Fund, the organization said in its announcement.

“Families should have tools that help them build stability, not barriers that hold them back. GroundBreak applies that same logic to capital markets — aligning institutions so families and entrepreneurs can build wealth that lasts,” Carter said in a post by the organization.

Carter, who lost his bid for a third term in November, told the Pioneer Press in December that he planned to take a break and denied any plans to run for positions as lieutenant governor or county board member.

GroundBreak Coalition is led by a coalition of more than 40 partners. Board members include leaders with the Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Greater MSP and Ramsey County, among others.

Adair Mosley, who was named as the organization’s first chief executive officer in September, shared the announcement on his LinkedIn.

“I’m excited to welcome Melvin Carter to the GroundBreak team as Interim Senior Advisor,” Mosley said in a post. “His track record of advancing equity and building systems that expand economic mobility will strengthen our work to unlock capital for families, entrepreneurs, and neighborhoods across the Twin Cities. We’re moving with urgency to build a financial system that works for everyone.”

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Gophers goaltender Luca Di Pasquo made 37 saves as Minnesota rallied for its biggest win of the season, 4-2, at No. 2-ranked Michigan on Thursday in Ann Arbor, Mich. despite being outshot 39-15 by the hosts.

The Wolverines held a 1-0 lead after the first period on a power-play goal by Adam Valentini, but Brodie Ziemer knotted the count at 1-all on the only score of the middle frame.

While the initial stanzas featured just a goal apiece, the Gophers exploded for three tallies in the third.

LJ Mooney gave the visitors their first lead of the game on a power play strike at 2:42 of the final frame. It was a lead that held until the final horn as Tanner Ludtke followed Mooney’s goal with one of his own just 73 seconds later.

Michigan cut Minnesota’s advantage to 3-2 on a T.J. Hughes goal at 8:43, however, the Gophers gained that back on an empty netter by Ziemer — with Di Pasquo gaining the assist — at 18:26 as coach Bob Motzko’s squad skated away with a two-goal triumph in the first matchup of the two-game series. Luke Mittelstadt also had two assists in the contest.

With the victory, Minnesota (11-19-2 overall, 7-13-1 Big Ten) leapt over Ohio State for fifth-place in the conference standings, while circuit-leading Michigan (25-7-1, 16-6-1) could not improve on its one-point lead on Michigan State for first place.

The two teams close out their “weekend” set at 5 p.m. Friday in Ann Arbor.

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PARK RAPIDS, Minn. — A north-central Minnesota man is accused of threatening to kill a state senator and commit acts of terror at the state Capitol.

John D. Tobias, 58, was arrested Tuesday in Hubbard County, according to a news release from the Hubbard County Sheriff’s Office.

John D. Tobias / Hubbard County Sheriff’s Office

Tobias is accused of making a threatening post on Facebook, according to the news release, and tagging District 17 state Sen. Glenn Gruenhagen, a Republican from Glencoe in southern Minnesota. The post demanded money lost during the COVID-19 shutdown and Tobias threatened to kill the senator, according to the sheriff’s office.

According to the statement of probable cause in the criminal complaint, Tobias also called the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office and said he wanted something done about DFL Gov. Tim Walz “unconstitutionally” shutting down the state due to COVID-19. The call was recorded.

“Tobias claimed that there was never any COVID, that he lost $1.4 million and said that if he didn’t get his money back he would ‘come down’ and ‘execute’” everyone at the Capitol, according to the criminal complaint.

A Hubbard County sheriff’s investigator obtained a search warrant for Tobias’ property, just outside of Park Rapids. According to the news release, deputies and the Lakes Area SWAT Team executed the warrant on Tuesday, taking Tobias into custody.

A search of the home turned up nine firearms, 45 boxes of ammunition of various calibers and two handgun magazines, according to the criminal complaint.

Tobias admitted to investigators that he sent the email and made the threatening phone call, according to the criminal complaint.

On Wednesday, Tobias was arraigned on two felony counts of making terroristic threats. Bail was set at $300,000 without conditions or $150,000 with conditions.

A review of Tobias’ criminal history reveals convictions for gross misdemeanor driving while intoxicated in 2013 and a misdemeanor domestic assault in 2010.

An initial court appearance is scheduled for Monday.

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A rural hospital executive, a mom of a child on Medicaid and other advocates spoke Thursday at the Minnesota State Capitol in response to the federal government’s recent threat to withhold some Medicaid funding.

“Every dollar that doesn’t come in is going to have to be balanced on the budget, and that may mean cuts to services, cuts to access, individual lives being impacted,” said Josh Berg, director of services and strategic growth at Accessible Space Inc., a housing provider for people with disabilities.

On Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance announced the federal government would withhold $259 million in Medicaid funding from Minnesota “until the state government takes its obligations seriously,” Reuters reports.

That amount is roughly 8% of the federal government’s quarterly share of Minnesota Medicaid funding, said Matthew Anderson, a Twin Cities health policy professor who spoke at the press conference in a personal capacity.

“That’s no small amount, especially for a state that’s already facing at least, in the next biennium, significant budget challenges,” he said.

The withholding is the Trump administration’s latest action in response to cases of alleged fraud within some of Minnesota’s social safety net programs, including Medicaid.

While speakers at Thursday’s press conference — organized by the This is Medicaid coalition — said it’s unclear what the short-term impact will be on Medicaid patients and their service providers, the withheld funding adds to ongoing concerns about changes imposed by the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which was signed into law in July.

“Whether it’s a loss of services, a loss of coverage or the ultimate loss of a hospital, the magnitude of change that’s coming under HR 1 puts my hospital, all rural hospitals and effectively all Minnesota hospitals into a precarious position,” said Rachelle Schultz, president and CEO of Winona Health, whose rural southeast Minnesota health system gets 20% of its revenues from Medicaid.

Medicaid, known in Minnesota as Medical Assistance, is the state-federal public health insurance program that covers roughly 1.2 million low-income and/or disabled Minnesotans.

In recent months, the Minnesota Department of Human Services has taken several actions to address fraud, including ending the state’s housing stabilization services program, auditing some Medicaid service claims for providers in the 13 categories deemed “high-risk” for fraud and, later this year, visiting and revalidating all of those providers.

In a written statement, Minnesota Human Services Commissioner Shireen Gandhi said that the withheld funding “is part of a broad and sustained attack by the federal government on Medicaid in Minnesota.”

“Deferring $259 million will significantly harm the state’s health care infrastructure and the 1.2 million Minnesotans who depend on Medicaid,” she continued. “The federal government chose to ignore more than a year of serious and intensive work to fight fraud in our state.”

The state’s efforts have put many service providers in tight financial positions, said Jen Diederich, chief compliance officer at MAC Midwest, as the pre-payment audits meant delayed reimbursements for her nonprofit’s 18 autism services centers. Further fraud-prevention steps also come with price tags.

“It’s a $700 per center revalidation fee,” Diederich said. “We need to apply for provisional licensing … which is about $1,200 per location, which means that between February and (the) May 31 deadline, we’ll have to pay almost $35,000 in fees alone.”

Financial strain, Diederich said, is likely why only six of the state’s 500 autism treatment centers, so far, have applied for the newly required licenses.

“Minnesota’s children with autism deserve access to their medically necessary treatment, delivered by accountable providers,” she said. “We ask that we continue to stay focused on making this about people and not politics.”

Some of Thursday’s speakers voiced concerns that, if the federal government reduces its share of Medicaid funding, state lawmakers will have to cut back on what — or who — the program covers.

“Medicaid funding is interconnected, and when cuts are made to one area, it potentially affects all of them,” said Sarah Lindbo, family and patient engagement specialist at Gillette Children’s Hospital. She spoke about her teenage daughter, Greta, who has quadriplegic cerebral palsy and epilepsy.

Lindbo said Greta’s supplemental Medicaid covers some services that private insurance itself does not, including her augmentative and alternative communication, or AAC, device.

“Private insurance does not deem communication medically necessary,” Lindbo said. “Without that device, Greta simply would not have her voice.”