Marcus Schmit has been named executive director of NAMI Minnesota — the National Alliance on Mental Illness — effective Oct. 27, 2025.

Marcus Schmit.
(Courtesy of NAMI Minnesota)

Schmit succeeds Sue Abderholden, who led the organization for more than 20 years.

Schmit is currently executive director of Hearth Connection, a nonprofit that focuses on ending long-term homelessness through supportive housing and systems partnerships.

He also served as assistant commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Corrections, director of Advocacy at Second Harvest Heartland, and held senior posts with MNsure and with Tim Walz, when he was a member of Congress.

“Marcus brings deep policy expertise, proven nonprofit leadership, and a personal commitment to advancing Minnesota’s mental health system,” shared Jessica Gourneau, president of NAMI Minnesota’s board of directors, in a statement. “We are excited for the vision, energy, and relationships he will bring to build on Sue’s extraordinary legacy and lead NAMI Minnesota into its next chapter.”

The organization is holding its annual NAMIWalks Minnesota on Saturday at Minnehaha Regional Park in Minneapolis. The event this year is themed “Mental Health for All,” and is to feature a program at 12:30 p.m. followed by a 5K walk at 1 p.m. There also will be a resource fair, family-friendly activities, free parking and shuttle service, and no registration fee.

Both Abderholden and Schmit are expected to attend the event.

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By SETH BORENSTEIN

NEW YORK (AP) — Soon people will be able to use satellite technology and artificial intelligence to track dangerous soot pollution in their neighborhoods — and where it comes from — in a way not so different from monitoring approaching storms under plans by a nonprofit coalition led by former Vice President Al Gore.

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Gore, who co-founded Climate TRACE, which uses satellites to monitor the location of heat-trapping methane sources, on Wednesday expanded his system to track the source and plume of pollution from tiny particles, often referred to as soot, on a neighborhood basis for 2,500 cities across the world. Particle pollution kills millions of people worldwide each year — and tens of thousands in the United States — according to scientific studies and reports.

Gore’s coalition uses 300 satellites, 30,000 ground-tracking sensors and artificial intelligence to track 137,095 sources of particle pollution, with 3,937 of them categorized as “super emitters” for how much they spew. Users can look at long-term trends, but in about a year Gore hopes these can become available daily so they can be incorporated into weather apps, like allergy reports.

It’s not just seeing the pollutants. The website shows who is spewing them.

“It’s difficult, before AI, for people to really see precisely where this conventional air pollution is coming from,” Gore said. “When it’s over in their homes and in their neighborhoods and when people have a very clear idea of this, then I think they’re empowered with the truth of their situation. My faith tradition has always taught me you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

Unlike methane, soot pollution isn’t technically a climate issue because it doesn’t cause the world to warm, but it does come from the same process: fossil fuel combustion.

FILE – People visit the Mount Royal lookout in Montreal, July 14, 2025, as much of Central Canada and Manitoba were placed under special air quality statements or warnings, amid smoke from wildfires, and Environment Canada advised residents to limit time outdoors and watch for smoke exposure symptoms. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

“It’s the same combustion process of the same fuels that produce both the greenhouse gas pollution and the particulate pollution that kills almost 9 million people every single year,” Gore said in a video interview Monday. “I’ll give you an example. I recently spent a week in Cancer Alley, the stretch between Baton Rouge and New Orleans where the U.S. petrochemical industry is based. That’s a 65-mile stretch, you know, and on either side of the river we did an analysis with the Climate TRACE data. If Cancer Alley were a nation, its per capita global warming pollution emissions would rank fourth in the world, behind Turkmenistan.”

Gore’s firm found Karachi, Pakistan, had the most people exposed to soot pollution, followed by Guangzhou, China, Seoul, South Korea, New York City and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Disney announced on Tuesday it will raise the subscription prices for its streaming services, amid widespread calls for a boycott following Jimmy Kimmel’s abrupt suspension from Disney-owned ABC.

The increase is set to go into effect for new subscribers beginning Oct. 21. Current subscribers will see the change to their first bill on or after that date.

Disney+ with ads and Hulu with ads will both increase by $2 to $11.99 per month, while Disney+ Premium will increase by $3 to $18.99.

The Disney+ with Hulu bundle is going up by $2 to $12.99 per month, and ESPN Select will increase by $1 to $12.99. Hulu’s Live TV Only plan will increase by $7 to $88.99 per month.

Many of the company’s bundles that include services from non-Disney providers will start costing more, too. But the price for Hulu Premium, ESPN Unlimited and the Disney+ with Hulu Premium bundle will not go up.

The announcement of the price hikes comes a day after the company said “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would return to its late-night time slot — though not on affiliates owned by conservative companies Nexstar and Sinclair — as many in Hollywood have pushed for subscribers for cancel Disney’s services in the wake of Kimmel being pulled of the air last week.

The controversial decision also prompted protests from writers and unions who said they wouldn’t work with Disney in the future. A letter from the American Civil Liberties Union was signed by more than 400 artists, including Tom Hanks, Robert DeNiro, Jane Fonda, Ben Stiller, Pedro Pascal, Jamie Lee Curtis, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Natalie Portman.

So many people have purportedly tried to scrap their subscriptions that there were reports of Disney+’s cancellation page crashing.

According to The Wrap, the price increase is not related to the Kimmel backlash and was planned well in advance. However, according to The Handbasket, Disney partly resolved things with Kimmel speedily because it was hemorrhaging subscribers — more than 1 million — as a result of the fallout and will likely lose more over the price hikes.

Disney announced in August it had a total of 207.4 million subscribers across Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+.

By R.J. RICO, Associated Press

A gunman fired upon a Dallas immigration field office from a nearby roof Wednesday morning, killing two detainees and critically wounding another, before killing himself in what authorities called an indiscriminate attack on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

All three victims were inside a van outside the facility at the time the gunman opened fire, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. Authorities say they found ammunition with anti-ICE messaging at the scene.

The attack is the latest public, targeted killing in the U.S. and comes two weeks after conservative leader Charlie Kirk was slain by a rifle-wielding shooter on a roof.

Here are some of the things to know about the shooting at the ICE field office.

Who are the victims?

All three victims were detainees, the Department of Homeland Security said. Officials have not released any additional information about the identities of the victims.

No members of law enforcement were injured in the attack, authorities said.

Who was the shooter?

Authorities say the shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but they have not given any details about who the gunman was.

What was the motive for the attack?

The FBI said at a morning news conference that ammunition found at the scene contained anti-ICE messaging, and the head of the agency, Kash Patel, released a photo on social media that shows a bullet containing the words “ANTI-ICE” written in what seems to be marker.

In a statement, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said, “This vile attack was motivated by hatred for ICE.”

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At a news conference, Sen. Ted. Cruz said, “This is the third shooting in Texas directed at ICE or CBP. This must stop. To every politician who is using rhetoric demonizing ICE and demonizing CPB: stop. To every politician demanding that ICE agents be doxxed and calling for people to go after their families: stop. This has very real consequences.”

But Democrats accused Cruz and others of selectively releasing information and trying to “control the narrative” to fit Republican arguments that ICE agents are under siege.

Immediately after an earlier news conference in which authorities refused to say whether detainees were among the victims, Democratic U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey called in to Dallas’ WFAA-TV newscast and told them he was “absolutely sickened” by officials’ comments.

“If they are trying to control this narrative and they don’t want migrants to be the victim in this story, then they may want to slow-walk giving us any information about this so they can still keep on talking about attacks on ICE,” Veasey said.

Where did the shooting occur?

The shooting occurred at the local field office in Dallas, where agents conduct short-term processing of those in custody. The victims may have been recently arrested by ICE.

The ICE facility is along Interstate 35 East, just southwest of Dallas Love Field, a large commercial airport serving the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, and just blocks from hotels catering to airport travelers.

What other recent attacks have there been at ICE facilities?

A July 4 attack at a Texas immigration detention center injured a police officer, who was shot in the neck. Attackers dressed in black military-style clothing opened fire outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, southwest of Dallas, federal prosecutors said. At least 11 people have been charged in connection with the attack.

A man with an assault rifle fired dozens of rounds at federal agents as they were leaving a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen on July 7. The man, identified as Ryan Louis Mosqueda, injured a police officer who responded to the scene before authorities shot and killed him. Police later found other weaponry, ammunition and backpacks inside his car.