There’s no question that superstar receiver Justin Jefferson has reached the stage in his career where his success no longer hinges on him participating in organized team activities.

Though he likely would have made headlines this week if he decided not to show up at TCO Performance Center, Jefferson would have been forgiven considering these are voluntary workouts by definition. The fact that he chose to be in attendance for the Vikings wasn’t lost on head coach Kevin O’Connell as he reflected on the importance of his presence.

“He means so much to this organization,” O’Connell said. “The guys in that locker room know, ‘If this guy is pushing himself in May and June, I sure as heck better be doing the same thing.’ ”

The intentionality of being back in the Twin Cities goes beyond setting an example for his teammates, however, as it’s also given Jefferson a chance to familiarize himself with new No. 1 quarterback J.J. McCarthy. The growing relationship between both players was on full display a couple of weeks ago when Jefferson and McCarthy went viral while sitting courtside at a playoff game between the Timberwolves and the Golden State Warriors.

“That was interesting, being mic’d up and all that,” McCarthy said. “We spend a good amount of time together.”

As close as they’re getting off the field, Jefferson and McCarthy are still a work in progress on the field.

Though the Vikings selected McCarthy with the No. 10 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft to be the future of the franchise, Jefferson spent most of his time last summer catching passes from former starting quarterback Sam Darnold. Just when it looked as if McCarthy might be pushing for some additional snaps with the starters, he suffered a torn meniscus that landed him on injured reserve.

That’s why the reps in organized team activities this spring have been so important for Jefferson and McCarthy. They are trying to get on the same page as quickly as possible. That way they can hit the ground running in training camp this summer.

The learning curve was apparent in real time this week. There was a particular play early in practice that featured McCarthy throwing an interception during 7-on-7 drills while targeting Jefferson in the middle. On the other side of the coin, there was a play late in practice that featured McCarthy throwing a touchdown during 11-on-11 drills while targeting Jefferson deep downfield.

“We’re not where we want to be,” McCarthy said. “We’re going to be there when we need to be.”

Some of the subtle moments between Jefferson and McCarthy this week also mattered in the grand scheme of things. The little interactions that otherwise go unnoticed. Like picking each other up after a bad play and dapping each other up after a good plays.

None of it would’ve have been possible if Jefferson was elsewhere.

“He’s an energy igniter of the whole building,” O’Connell said. “He’s come back with a purpose.”

The hope is that the work the Vikings are putting in now could go a long way later.

“It’s been extremely huge,” McCarthy said. “Just being able to get that chemistry building has been invaluable.”

Related Articles

J.J. McCarthy’s goal during Vikings OTAs? ‘Not being afraid to fail’

Five storylines to keep an eye on as the Vikings start OTAs

NFL teams can keep using the tush push after ban proposal fails at owners meetings

NFL owners unanimously approve player participation in Olympic flag football for 2028

NFL owners set to discuss tush push again, along with playoff seeding

Ramsey County has named Nadir Abdi as deputy county manager of the health and wellness service team, with his role beginning July 14.

Ramsey County selected Nadir Abdi as deputy county manager of the health and wellness service team. He begins his role July 14, 2025. (Courtesy of Ramsey County)

Abdi will join the county’s executive leadership team. His role includes implementing county board policies and advancing integrated services for residents. The search process for the position began in February.

Abdi has more than two decades of experience in government administration, social policy, and community engagement and is currently Dakota County’s director of employment and economic assistance, a role he has held since 2020.

“I’m passionate about delivering care with dignity and supporting the incredible staff who make that possible every day,” Abdi said in a statement. “I am looking forward to working together with the team at Ramsey County to ensure community feels supported and valued when they need it most.”

He held leadership positions at Equus Workforce Solutions, Jewish Family Services in Ohio and JP Morgan Chase. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from California State University, Los Angeles, and a Master of Management and Leadership from Hamline University.

Related Articles

White Bear Lake’s Music on the Lawn summer concert series returns Sunday

Ex-volunteer with Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office youth program gets probation for sexually abusing girl

Alternatives to defunding: Who goes to help when police aren’t needed?

St. Paul faith-based nonprofit leader charged with possessing child pornography

Ramsey County leaders remind residents: ‘Safe gun storage saves lives’

By SOPHIA TAREEN

CHICAGO (AP) — One of Chicago’s most infamous gang leaders is among the people to receive commutations this week from President Donald Trump, a puzzling move that has raised questions about whether Larry Hoover will be freed.

Related Articles

National Spelling Bee runners-up rarely go on to win. But Faizan Zaki hopes to defy the odds

Smokey Robinson sues former housekeepers for defamation over rape allegations

Skittles removes controversial additive targeted by RFK Jr.

Judge finds man charged with stalking Jennifer Aniston is mentally incompetent to stand trial

Ex-assistant testifies Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sexually assaulted her and used violence to get his way

The 74-year-old Hoover, who has received support from celebrities like rapper Ye and inspired popular rap lyrics, has been serving a life sentence at the nation’s most restrictive prison in Colorado. He was first imprisoned in Illinois for a 1973 murder and convicted decades later in federal court for running a criminal enterprise while behind bars.

Trump’s move commutes the federal sentence of the former kingpin and prison entrepreneur. However, Hoover must still serve his lengthy Illinois sentence.

Hoover’s supporters say they are working on ways to get Hoover paroled or pardoned in Illinois, but questions linger about his chances and even where he will be imprisoned.

Notorious gang leader works behind bars

Hoover was a founder of the Gangster Disciples more than 50 years ago, which remains one of Chicago’s most notorious street gangs.

At its height under Hoover’s leadership, the gang generated about $100 million each year in cocaine and heroin sales, according to federal prosecutors.

“He was the undisputed head of the organization. He ran it. Everybody reported to him,” said Ron Safer, a former U.S. assistant attorney who led the prosecution of Hoover. “The Gangster Disciples were monolithic, ruthlessly efficient.”

Hoover ordered the death of a gang member in 1973 and was convicted of murder. He was sentenced to 150 to 200 years in a state prison.

But prosecutors say that didn’t stop him from spreading the gang’s vast influence. For more than two decades, he ran the Gangster Disciples from behind bars, expanding it to chapters in more than two dozen states.

He was eventually charged with dozens of federal crimes, including engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise. A federal jury found him guilty in 1997. He was sentenced to life the following year and sent to the “supermax” prison in Florence, Colorado, where he has spent years in solitary confinement.

Prison entrepreneur tries politics

Hoover has left a prominent mark on pop culture, launching a jail-inspired fashion line, starting a political action committee and inspiring rap lyrics.

In 1995, he began his “Ghetto Prisoner” fashion line in hopes of having a positive influence on young people.

“All kids in the ghetto can associate with the idea of prisoners and being treated like prisoners,″ he told The Associated Press in a 1995 phone interview from the Dixon Correctional Center in Illinois. “I’m hoping that it will wake them up and help them understand that we have to come together as a people and stop being sectarian.”

Supporters said his political action committee, 21st Century V.O.T.E., inspired thousands to protest outside Chicago City Hall in the 1990s.

His name was further memorialized in one of rapper Rick Ross’ most famous songs, the 2010 single “B.M.F.,” which was an ode to Hoover’s power and influence.

Rapper Ye, formerly Kanye West, and Drake were among the celebrities who championed Hoover’s early release. West pleaded Hoover’s case to Trump during a bizarre Oval Office meeting in 2018.

Three years later, Drake and Ye headlined a “Free Larry Hoover” benefit concert in Los Angeles to help call attention to prison reforms.

Hoover’s chances for freedom

Trump’s move confused many, including Safer, who said the commutation was “extremely disappointing” given the years of trauma, drug addiction and lives lost in gang wars.

“There are some crimes that are so heinous and so extraordinary that they do not qualify for mercy,” Safer said.

Hoover’s many previous attempts for a sentence reduction or parole have been swiftly rejected, including a federal judge denying Hoover’s request for a lower sentence in 2021. Last year, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board unanimously rejected his bid for parole and before that in 2022 with a 10-1 vote.

Attorneys have said Hoover became a symbol of gang culture, making it hard for courts to consider resentencing him, but that Hoover has since denounced gangs and is a changed man.

For instance, Hoover was illiterate when he entered prison and has since taught himself, earned his GED certificate and taken classes on robotics and art history.

Hoover remains eligible for parole in Illinois and has a hearing later this year.

“He’s not responsible for all gang violence that ever has occurred,” said attorney Jennifer Bonjean.

She and others say they will push Gov. JB Pritzker to pardon Hoover, arguing that Hoover received a disproportionate sentence. Hoover’s co-defendants have received reduced sentences, clemency or already been released.

“There is no purpose in returning a 74-year-old man in failing health to prison after 52 years of incarceration,” said a joint statement from attorneys Joshua Dubin and Justin Moore. “Justice demands that Mr. Hoover’s time be considered served.”

Pritzker declined comment Thursday.

Hoover’s family celebrated the commutation. “Almost home!” his son Larry Hoover Jr. wrote on Instagram and posted a picture toasting his father.

While Trump said Hoover should be “released immediately,” it was unclear if or when Hoover would be moved out of the federal facility.

Federal prison officials confirmed Thursday that Hoover remained imprisoned in Colorado and determining a new release date would involve “additional research and auditing.”

Illinois officials declined to discuss the case.

“The Illinois Department of Corrections does not comment on the timing or details of transfers from federal facilities to state facilities and has no additional information to share at this time,” agency spokeswoman Naomi Puzzello said in statement.

Associated Press writer Colleen Slevin in Denver contributed to this report.

Major League Baseball is investing in Athletes Unlimited to support its softball league that will debut next month, its first comprehensive partnership with a professional women’s sports circuit.

MLB said Thursday it was making a strategic investment in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League of an undisclosed amount for operational costs and a commitment to help it gain visibility. MLB will assist with content, marketing and sales, events, distribution, editorial, and digital and social platforms.

Support will include marketing the AUSL and its athletes during MLB’s All-Star Game and throughout the postseason along with broadcasts on the MLB Network and streams on MLB.TV.

“This is something we’re really excited about,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told The Associated Press. “We studied the space hard. We think it’s a real opportunity and we’re excited to be involved.”

Athletes Unlimited has featured softball since 2020, when it unveiled a unique format that crowned an individual champion. The company will launch a four-team league starting June 7 with the Bandits and Talons opening with a three-game series in Rosemont, Ill., and the Blaze and Volts a three-game set at Wichita, Kan. The four teams will play 24 games each, touring to 12 cities, and the top two teams will compete in the best-of-three AUSL Championship from July 26-28 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

A 21-game AUSL All-Star Cup will follow in August.

A traditional city-based league will start in 2026, when the AUSL plans to expand to six teams, according to AU co-founder Jon Patricof.

“This is really something that is going to be sustainable, and people can be professional softball players and that is all they do,” U.S. national team infielder Sis Bates said. “This can be your full-time career, which is incredible.”

Manfred said MLB considered launching its own softball league.

“We thought rather than starting on our own and competing, that finding a place where we could invest and grow a business was a better opportunity,” Manfred said.

Former Miami Marlins general manager and MLB senior vice president Kim Ng joined AUSL as an adviser and was promoted to commissioner in April.

MLB’s involvement could drive softball toward advanced analytics in the same manner as it has in baseball.

“TrackMan is in some of the stadiums that we’re going to be in,” Ng said, referring to the radar system behind MLB Statcast. “We’ve signed on with a number of different analytics groups.”

MLB was encouraged by growth of the WNBA, National Women’s Soccer League and NCAA women’s basketball. MLB hasn’t ruled out later involvement in women’s baseball.

‘What’s really exciting about this is us committing not just a financial investment but resources and our time and sort of the power that is MLB,” MLB chief marketing officer Uzma Rawn Dowler said.

Patricof said MLB’s assistance to boost the AUSL’s visibility is as important as the financial investment.

“They’re committed to really elevating the AUSL,” he said. “It’s probably about one of the most difficult things for any sports league to do, which is to get visibility and break through to new audiences, and I think MLB is already doing that for the AUSL, and there’s going to be a lot more to come.”

Women’s pro softball leagues and independent teams have come and gone over the years. The AUSL hopes for stability and has softball greats Cat Osterman, Jennie Finch, Jessica Mendoza and Natasha Watley as advisers.

MLB already supports several women’s softball and baseball initiatives, including a partnership with USA Softball and operation of the MLB Develops girls baseball pipeline. It is not involved with the Women’s Professional Baseball League, which plans to launch in 2026 as the first pro baseball league for women since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — of “A League of Their Own” fame — folded in 1954.

Manfred sees a bright future ahead for AUSL.

“We hope that we will end up with a league that is sustainable on its own, a good investment for us, and a partner in growing diamond sports internationally,” he said.

AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.