By MICHAEL R. SISAK

NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione pleaded not guilty Friday to a federal murder charge in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as prosecutors formally declared their intent to seek the death penalty against him.

Mangione, 26, stood with his lawyers as he entered the plea, leaning forward toward a microphone as U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett asked him if understood the indictment and the charges against him.

Mangione said, “yes.” Asked how he wished to plead, Mangione said simply, “not guilty” and sat down.

Mangione’s arraignment for the killing last December attracted several dozen people to the federal courthouse in Manhattan, including former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who served about seven years in prison for stealing classified diplomatic cables.

Mangione, who has been held in a federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest, arrived to court in a mustard-colored jail suit. He chatted with one of his lawyers, death penalty counsel Avi Moskowitz, as they wanted for the arraignment to begin.

Late Thursday night, federal prosecutors filed a required notice of their intent to seek the death penalty.

That came weeks after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that she would be directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for what she called “an act of political violence” and a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”

It was the first time the Justice Department said it was pursuing capital punishment since President Donald Trump returned to office Jan. 20 with a vow to resume federal executions after they were halted under the previous administration.

Mangione’s lawyers have argued that Bondi’s announcement was a “political stunt” that corrupted the grand jury process and deprived him of his constitutional right to due process. They had sought to block prosecutors from seeking the death penalty.

Mangione’s federal indictment includes a charge of murder through use of a firearm, which carries the possibility of the death penalty. The indictment, which mirrors a criminal complaint brought after Mangione’s arrest also charges him with stalking and a gun offense.

Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family, faces separate federal and state murder charges after authorities say he gunned down Thompson, 50, outside a Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4 as the executive arrived for UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor conference.

The state murder charges carry a maximum punishment of life in prison.

Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind. Police say the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase commonly used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

The killing and ensuing five-day search leading to Mangione’s arrest rattled the business community, with some health insurers deleting photos of executives from their websites and switching to online shareholder meetings. At the same time, some health insurance critics have rallied around Mangione as a stand-in for frustrations over coverage denials and hefty medical bills.

Prosecutors have said the two cases will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state case expected to go to trial first, but Mangione lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said his defense team would seek to have the federal case take precedent because it involves the death penalty.

Mangione was arrested Dec. 9 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York City and whisked to Manhattan by plane and helicopter.

Police said Mangione had a 9mm handgun that matched the one used in the shooting and other items including a notebook in which they say he expressed hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives.

Among the entries, prosecutors said, was one from August 2024 that said “the target is insurance” because “it checks every box” and one from October that describes an intent to “wack” an insurance company CEO. UnitedHealthcare, the largest U.S. health insurer, has said Mangione was never a client.

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By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Thousands of people are gathering in New Mexico for a celebration showcasing Native American and Indigenous dancers, musicians and artisans from around the world.

Billed by organizers as the largest powwow in North America, the annual Gathering of Nations festival kicks off Friday with a colorful procession of dancers spiraling into the center of an arena at the New Mexico state fairgrounds. Participants wear elaborate regalia adorned with jingling bells and dance to the tempo of rhythmic drumming.

The event also features the crowning of Miss Indian World, as well as horse parades in which riders are judged on the craftsmanship of their intricately beaded adornments or feathered headdresses and how well they work with their horses.

Powwow roots

Powwows are a relatively modern phenomenon that emerged in the 1800s as the U.S. government seized land from tribes throughout the Northern and Southern Plains. Forced migrations and upheaval during this period resulted in intertribal solidarity among Plains people and those from the southern prairies of Canada.

Alliances were formed, giving way to the exchange of songs and dances during gatherings between different tribes. In the decades that followed, powwows were advertised to pioneers heading westward as “authentic” Native American dance shows. For some, it was an exploitation of their cultures.

The word powwow was derived from pau wau, an Algonquian Narrtick word for “medicine man,” according to the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Scholars say English settlers misused the word to refer to the meetings of medicine men and later to any kind of Native American gathering.

Today, some of the large powwows like the Gathering of Nations have become more commercialized events that use dancing and drumming competitions with big prize money to provide a glimpse into Indigenous cultures.

Reconnecting with culture

At ceremonial dances, participants wear traditional regalia specific to their tribe, whereas powwow attire often is more contemporary and flashy with sequins and sparkles. It’s about dressing to impress the judges, said Warren Queton, a Kiowa Tribe legislator and adjunct instructor at the University of Oklahoma who has participated in community dancing and cultural events since he was a boy.

Queton, who served as the head gourd dancer at the university’s recent spring powwow, said ceremonial dances are deeply rooted in community, identity and cultural values.

It’s a struggle to keep traditional cultural practices and commercial powwows from being lumped into the same category, he said. They have very different meanings in Native American and Indigenous cultures.

There has been a focus on promoting smaller powwows held in tribal communities. Queton said these gatherings serve as a way for people who live elsewhere to return home and reconnect with their families and the land, and to share traditions with younger generations.

“Knowing where you come from, your land, your oral traditions, your language, but also values and traits — that can only be learned from a community,” he said. “That’s why those smaller dances are so important because people learn those community values. They’re all a part of our identity.”

Capturing good energy

There still are elements of tradition woven in to modern powwows. Competitors wear feathered bustles, buckskin dresses, fringed shawls and beaded head and hair pieces. Some of the elaborate outfits are hand-stitched designs that can take months to complete.

The sounds, movements and emotions that radiate from the dancing are challenging to capture on canvas. But Cochiti Pueblo painter Mateo Romero did just that when he partnered with the U.S. Postal Service to create a series of powwow stamps to be unveiled Friday during Gathering of Nations.

Powerfully hypnotic, atavistic and somatic is how the artist describes the dancing. One of his pieces depicts what is known as a fancy shawl dance with its dips, pivots, hops and twirls. Each tassel on the shawl flows and flips, accentuating the dancer’s movements.

Romero said he used color, thick and thin paint and soft and hard edges along with photographic elements to create something that feels alive, embedded with feeling and bright pops of color.

Romero called it a huge honor to transform powwow culture into a postage stamp filled with “good energy.”

“I look at it as a sort of vehicle to express this sentiment, the energy, the celebration, the vibration, the beauty of it,” he said. “It’s the power of it.”

Former Hennepin County District Judge Jay Quam, who retired last month, has been publicly reprimanded by the Minnesota Board on Judicial Standards after its investigation concluded he engaged in a sexual relationship with his law clerk and made inappropriate and sexually suggestive comments to other clerks.

Quam was appointed to the Fourth Judicial District bench in 2006 and stepped aside March 7 in the midst of the board’s investigation, which concluded that he violated the Minnesota Judicial Council’s harassment policy.

Former Hennepin County District Judge Jay Quam (Courtesy of Minnesota Judicial Branch)

The board began the investigation after receiving a complaint concerning Quam’s conduct. He cooperated with the case and did not demand a formal complaint and public hearing. He admitted that he engaged in the misconduct outlined in the public reprimand.

The reprimand says Quam engaged in inappropriate sexual contact with his law clerk for a period of time of her employment. The judge and clerk were seen by court employees and justice partners in and around the courthouse “without any apparent business reason,” the reprimand says.

Several years after she left the job, the relationship was renewed and continued until recently. In 2022 and early 2023, on at least three occasions, a court staff person overheard explicit sounds of sexual activity while Quam and his former clerk were in his chambers.

Within the past year, an attorney saw Quam and his former clerk “canoodling” outside the courthouse, sitting close together with hands on each other’s knees, the reprimand says.

Inappropriate comments

Quam’s inappropriate comments to other clerks included telling one that he would like to go to happy hour with her to “see another side of her after a few drinks,” according to the reprimand.

While looking another clerk up and down, Quam said, “Yeah, you definitely have a runner’s body.”

Quam commented to a clerk that she looked great for just having a baby.

He commented on clerks’ clothing in an awkward or flirtatious way, and offered compliments about food intake and appearance.

One clerk estimated that Quam made 50 to 60 inappropriate comments to her during her employment.

Quam would also stand “unnecessarily close” to clerks, or “leer” at them in a way that made them feel uncomfortable.

‘Substantial harm’

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In response to Quam’s conduct, clerks began to wear longer skirts, avoided his invitations to coffee or lunch and acted in an “extra-professional way” to avoid attracting unwanted attention.

“Clerks are fearful that Judge Quam may have an impact on their career and expressed uncertainty about including him as a reference,” the reprimand says.

Quam has otherwise enjoyed a “good reputation” throughout his career and does not have a disciplinary record with the board, the reprimand says.

“However, the degree of notoriety and effect of his misconduct has damaged the public’s confidence in the integrity of the judiciary,” it continues. “Judge Quam’s misconduct was serious and caused substantial harm to the court clerks and staff.”

If Quam had not yet retired, the board may have sought more serious discipline, the reprimand says.

By TERRY TANG

PHOENIX (AP) — The Trump administration’s plan to strictly require anyone illegally in the U.S. to register with the government and carry documentation is stirring up fears of heightened racial profiling even among legal residents, immigrants’ rights advocates say.

For some, it’s a return to a climate from the recent past in which police departments and other law enforcement agencies’ insistence on documentation drove immigrants underground and increased public safety concerns.

“It happens already to an extent. … I think this would make it even worse because how would you know somebody is undocumented?” said Jose Patiño, vice president of education and external affairs for Aliento, an Arizona-based advocacy organization that supports immigrants without documents. “It creates ambiguity of how you’re going to enforce and identify people who are not in the country (legally).”

A federal judge sided with President Donald Trump earlier this month in a lawsuit brought by immigrants’ rights groups over the policy and the mandate took effect April 11. Trump officials say they are simply enforcing a requirement that has been law for decades.

“The Trump administration will enforce all our immigration laws — we will not pick and choose which laws we will enforce,” U.S. Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem said in the statement after the ruling. “We must know who is in our country for the safety and security of our homeland and all Americans.”

Under federal law, everyone 14 and older without legal status must self-register and give fingerprints and an address. Parents and guardians of anyone younger must ensure they are registered. Not doing so is considered a crime and a lack of documents risks prison time and fines.

Complications and confusion about enforcement

The mandate has rarely been enforced under previous administrations. To complicate matters, there have been recent instances of authorities detaining even people born in the U.S. as confusion also sweeps through other federal and state immigration policies.

An online appointment app used by temporary residents has sent work permit cancellations since late March, including to U.S. citizens. A growing number of Republican-led states also are refusing to recognize state driver’s licenses specially issued for immigrants without documents.

Guerline Jozef, executive director of the nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance, says racial profiling already happens at a disproportionate rate to Black migrants. The sudden pivot has aggravated things and people with Temporary Protected Status or who had regular Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-ins have been detained during travel, she said.

She decried the whole ordeal as a form of “psychological warfare.” Migrants who were allowed temporary legal residence are not sure if they need to protectively carry documents at all times.

“It is very hard to even communicate with the community members on what to do, telling them they need to know their rights, but they trample on their rights anyway,” Jozef said. “We are back in the ‘show me your papers’ era.”

‘Show me your papers’

The new mandate evokes previous instances of certain groups having to carry documentation. During the time of enslavement in the U.S., freed Black people had to have “freedom papers” or risk being re-enslaved. During World War II, Japanese Americans were required to register and keep identification cards but were put in incarceration camps.

“The statutes that are on the books about registration have been dormant” for 85 years, said Lynn Marcus, director of immigration law clinics at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. “There weren’t forms to comply with this requirement. It was created in wartime originally.”

The renewed strict registration requirement forces U.S. citizens to carry birth certificates or other proof of citizenship at all times, “especially if they have a ‘foreign appearance,’” Marcus said.

People who are valid residents or visa holders could potentially be profiled based on factors other than physical characteristics.

“Let’s say law enforcement encounters someone in another circumstance — maybe they’re reporting a crime,” Marcus said. “They might not be satisfied with answers if they aren’t able to communicate because not all U.S. citizens speak fluent English.”

Impacts on immigrants’ well-being

Eileen Diaz McConnell, a professor at Arizona State University’s School of Transborder Studies, pointed to the effects of a 2010 Arizona law requiring all immigrants to obtain or carry immigration registration papers.

In 2012, the Justice Department sued the state over the law and the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the papers requirement, but those two years when the requirement was in place were a traumatic time for Latino families in the state, McConnell said.

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“Parents wouldn’t ride together in a car. They were always separated because they were worried they would be stopped,” Diaz McConnell said. “People don’t leave their house.”

She has done extensive research on how immigration policies can impact the mental health of mixed households of family members who are American-born and don’t have documents.

“In previous years, children report, even if they’re U.S.-born, real harm — impacts on their own sleep, worry, not eating, depression,” Diaz McConnell said. “There will be people who will say things like, ‘Well, if you’re not undocumented, what do you have to worry about?’”

Patiño, whose undocumented parents brought him to the U.S. when he was 6, is accustomed to keeping papers as a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient. He knows others without special status are now panicked. The single mother of one of his U.S.-born former interns has stopped going to the grocery store, church and other places since she lacks documents.

“It’s like she’s afraid of her shadow or, like, even to go out and throw out the trash,” he said.

People who crossed the border without documents are especially unsure whether to register in the wake of international students and others being detained or deported even though they had visas or pending court hearings.

“You’re asking people to come out of the shadows and enroll us in a system that most of them probably have not heard of,” Patiño said. “It seems the administration is trying to go catch-22 with folks. You are in trouble if you do, you’re in trouble if you don’t.”