In the heat of their on-ice battle in Italy last week, Team Sweden forward Joel Eriksson Ek barely noticed that he had Minnesota Wild teammates wearing red, white and blue on the other side of the faceoff circles.

But when he saw and spoke with Matt Boldy, Brock Faber and Quinn Hughes during warmups before their game — eventually won by the Americans, 2-1, in overtime — it was a little bit of a strange feeling.

“I don’t think you really think about it once you start playing and once you get going, you’re just kind of so into the game,” Eriksson Ek said on Tuesday after the Wild’s practice at TRIA Rink. “But, yeah, seeing them before the game was a little bit weird.”

From the USA-Sweden clash at the Winter Games, optimistic Wild fans will remember Hughes’ overtime goal that propelled Team USA one step closer to their eventual gold medal. The more pessimistic Minnesota fans will recall a hard hit Eriksson Ek took in the third period of that game, which had him getting up slowly.

But on Tuesday, after flying home from Milan and getting a few days away from the rink, the Wild’s second-line center said he is physically fine heading into the re-start of the NHL season on Thursday at Colorado. While head coach John Hynes will be back at practice on Wednesday, the travel plans for Boldy, Faber and Hughes are more up in the air — although the trio is expected to re-join the team in Denver in time to face the Avalanche.

They were pictured celebrating with the rest of the men’s team at a Miami nightclub on Monday, and several were planning to attend the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, after being invited by President Donald Trump in a postgame phone call.

“The (Americans) probably injured themselves partying more than on the ice,” Wild forward Marcus Foligno joked. “But I think it’s great. The first thing I did was went to Ekky and said, ‘How you feeling? Everything good?’ And he said everything’s great, so that’s a huge plus for us.”

Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin, who had surgery for a lower body injury last month and missed playing for Team Sweden in the Olympics as a result, skated on his own before practice on Tuesday but his timeline to return remains unclear.

“He’s still quite some time away, but at least he can get out there with us now,” said Wild assistant coach Jack Capuano, who has been running practices while Hynes has been away. “The surgery went well. Non-contact, then we’ll just assess it nice and slowly and move forward.”

Briefly

Offered congratulations on his home country, Norway, winning the medal count in Milan/Cortina, Wild forward Mats Zuccarello responded with a prideful smile.

“We do that every Olympics,” said Zuccarello, who skated for the Norwegians in the 2010 and 2014 Winter Games. “Then everyone forgets about it, and four years later everyone is surprised when we do it again.”

Indeed, a check of the year-by-year medal count shows the Norwegians with either the most medals overall or the most gold medals, or both, for every Winter Olympics dating back to 2014.

Norway, which has a national population that is slightly smaller than that of Minnesota, is a world power in skiing and sliding sports, but the nation failed to qualify for the 2022 and 2026 Olympic hockey tournaments.

In stark contrast to the on-ice success of Scandinavian neighbors Sweden and Finland, Norway lags behind in hockey. Zuccarello is one of just three Norwegians to play in the NHL this season.

Related Articles

Wild anticipate momentum with three gold medalists coming back

U.S.-Canada ‘grudge match’ ends up being mostly about the hockey

Jack Hughes scores in overtime as United States beats Canada for gold at the Olympics

Watch the U.S. men’s hockey gold medal game at these Twin Cities bars Sunday morning

T.J. Oshie evolving from Olympic hero to broadcast booth

By SCOTT BAUER

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A coalition of Wisconsin school districts, teachers’ unions, advocacy groups, parents, students and others announced a lawsuit Tuesday against the state Legislature, alleging that it’s failing to adequately fund public schools.

Related Articles

Shipley: Immediately swept into politics, U.S. men’s hockey team takes the bait

Calls grow for Texas Rep. Gonzales to resign over allegations of affair with ex-staffer

5 questions heading into Trump’s State of the Union address

Trump administration sues New Jersey over restrictions on immigration arrests

Democrats bet on Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s cost-focused message to counter Trump

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Eau Claire County Circuit Court, argues that schools are in crisis, with high-needs students facing the greatest risk. It asks the court to adopt a new finance system that meets the needs of districts unless the Legislature and governor enact one first “in a timely fashion.”

School funding lawsuits have been brought for decades in states across the country with varying degrees of success.

Fights over how and whether to reshape Wisconsin’s complex school finance system have usually taken place in the Statehouse. Now it will move to the courthouse, where this challenge will almost certainly end up before the liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court.

In 2000, the last time the state’s school funding formula was challenged, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the system as constitutional. But attorneys argue that so much has changed since then that a new challenge was warranted.

The lawsuit comes as Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the Republican-controlled Legislature have been negotiating tapping the state’s $2.5 billion surplus to cut taxes and potentially increase funding for schools.

As recently as 2003, the state paid two-thirds of the cost of each student’s education. But now districts are paying about half the costs.

Evers, a former state schools superintendent, angered Republicans in 2023 when he used the governor’s extensive veto powers to ensure that districts can increase per-pupil spending annually for the next 400 years. However, without increased funding from the state, districts are forced to raise property taxes.

And when schools can’t raise enough under the allowable spending limits to meet expenses, they have been increasingly asking voters to increase property taxes to fund their local district.

In 2024, a record-high 241 referendums were put before voters for approval to fund schools, with 169 approved, according to the Wisconsin Policy Institute.

Anger over the most recent property tax bills, mailed in December, has motivated lawmakers and Evers to try and enact a property tax cut this year. They have yet to reach a deal.

The lawsuit also blames a drop in Wisconsin student testing scores over the past two decades with inadequate funding. Wisconsin has long been the state with the widest achievement gap between white and non-white students.

Leah Hover-Preiss, a teacher in the Adams-Friendship School District and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said that she has seen the impact of inadequate funding in the classroom through increased class sizes, reduced support for teachers, fewer opportunities for students and a lack of mental health services.

“In order to best support students and families, our schools need strong and stable funding from the state,” she said.

The lawsuit alleges that the state is violating the Wisconsin Constitution’s requirement that all children be provided with an equal opportunity for a sound, basic and uniform education.

It also argues that the constitutional rights of students with high needs is not being met and cannot be met unless the Legislature changes the public school finance system and increases funding for them. The lawsuit further contends that the current special education reimbursement rate is unconstitutionally deficient.

“When schools are underfunded, students lose opportunities and communities suffer,” said Jeff Mandell, president and general counsel at Law Forward that brought the lawsuit in partnership with the statewide teachers’ union. “Supporting public education isn’t just good policy – it’s a legal and moral obligation.”

The Wisconsin PTA is taking lead on the lawsuit and is joined by 18 others individuals and entities, including school districts in Beloit, Green Bay, Eau Claire, Adams-Friendship and Necedah. Other parties include teachers unions in Beloit, Eau Claire, Necedah and Green Bay and eight teachers, parents, students and community members.

The Legislature and its budget-writing committee are named as defendants. Republican legislative leaders did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

MOSCOW (AP) — Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messaging app, said Tuesday that the Russian government had opened a criminal investigation against him on charges of “aiding terrorism.”

Durov, who was born and began his career in Russia, accused Moscow of fabricating pretexts to restrict access by Russians to the Telegram service as part of an attempt to “suppress the right to privacy and free speech.”

“A sad spectacle of a state afraid of its own people,” Durov wrote on social media.

Russian media outlets had begun circulating unconfirmed reports earlier in the day that a criminal investigation had been opened against Durov by Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB.

It comes two weeks after Russia’s communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, said it was restricting the Telegram app, accusing the company of refusing to abide by Russian law.

The move triggered a rare wave of public outcry, including widespread criticism from pro-Kremlin military bloggers, who warned that Telegram was widely used by Russian troops fighting in Ukraine and restricting its service would derail military communications.

However, Russian officials have continued to portray Telegram as a security risk. Digital development minister Maksud Shadayev told Russian news wire Interfax that foreign intelligence agencies could be reading messages sent through Telegram by Russian soldiers on the front line.

When asked about the case, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that the FSB had gathered information on a “large number of violations” by Telegram, as well as content that could “potentially pose a danger to our country.” He said Telegram had been unwilling to cooperate with the authorities.

“Based on this, the relevant agencies are taking measures they deem appropriate,” Peskov said.

Under President Vladimir Putin, the authorities have engaged in multipronged efforts to rein in the internet. They have adopted restrictive laws and banned websites and platforms that don’t comply, and focused on improving technology to monitor and manipulate online traffic.

Russian authorities have targeted YouTube and imposed restrictions on popular messaging platforms, blocking Signal and Viber and banning online calls on WhatsApp and Telegram. In December, restrictions were imposed on Apple’s FaceTime video calling service.

While it’s still possible to circumvent some of the restrictions by using virtual private network services, many of them are routinely blocked too.

At the same time, Russia actively promotes the “national” messaging app known as MAX, which critics say could be used for surveillance. The platform — touted by developers and officials as a one-stop shop for messaging, online government services, making payments and more — openly declares it will share user data with authorities upon request. Experts also say it doesn’t use end-to-end encryption.

Durov has faced criminal investigations elsewhere. In 2024, he was arrested in Paris over allegations that his platform was being used for illicit activity, including drug trafficking and the distribution of child sexual abuse images.

By RIO YAMAT

Spirit Airlines’ parent company says it expects to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the late spring or early summer, after striking a preliminary deal with its lenders and secured creditors that provides the support needed to finish its restructuring.

Related Articles

Warner Bros gets a new offer from Paramount in heated fight for the storied Hollywood studio

Supreme Court ruling against Trump’s tariffs is unlikely to mean an end to trade policy chaos

Reddit hit with $20 million UK data privacy fine over child safety failings

Hegseth and Anthropic CEO set to meet as debate intensifies over the military’s use of AI

FACT FOCUS: A look at Trump’s false and misleading claims ahead of the State of the Union

The early-stage agreement would help Spirit finalize changes to its fleet, route network and cost structure as it works toward emerging as “a new Spirit” — a smaller, leaner carrier still focused on offering low fares but with more options like premium economy and its version of first-class seating with more legroom.

“Spirit will emerge as a strong, leaner competitor that is positioned to profitably deliver the value American consumers expect at a price they want to pay,” said CEO Dave Davis.

The budget carrier filed for fresh bankruptcy protection in August, months after emerging from a Chapter 11 reorganization. Davis said at the time that the airline’s previous Chapter 11 petition focused on reducing debt and raising capital, but after exiting that process last March, it had “become clear that there is much more work to be done and many more tools are available to best position Spirit for the future.”

The Florida company quickly followed the news of its second bankruptcy in a year with announcements that it would suspend operations in about a dozen U.S. cities and furlough 1,800 flight attendants. The airline also instituted furloughs and job cuts before its first bankruptcy filing.

Low-cost carriers like Spirit have been under pressure by bigger airlines, which have rolled out their own low-cost offerings.

Known for its bright yellow planes and no-frills service, Spirit has had a rough ride since the COVID-19 pandemic amid rising operation costs and its mounting debt. By the time of its first Chapter 11 filing in November 2024, Spirit had lost more than $2.5 billion since the start of 2020.