Chet Holmgren grew up hooping at random parks throughout the Twin Cities. If there was a pickup game to be played, no matter the location, the lanky teenager and his friends were always up for the challenge.

“We would go all over the place,” Holmgren said. “Wherever people were playing.”

In a perfect world for Holmgren, his return to the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center in St. Paul on Thursday afternoon would have been much less conspicuous.

“There’s a bunch of media here,” he said. “I don’t even know how this happened.”

Such is life for an NBA champion.

Less than weeks after the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 to win the NBA championship, Holmgren returned to the Twin Cities and brought the coveted Larry O’Brien Trophy with him to share with the community that helped raise him.

In the hour leading up to Holmgren’s arrival at the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center, hundreds lined up in the parking lot to take pictures with the hardware. They did so while wearing hats and bouncing basketballs that were being handed out for the occasion. There were also a number of food trucks set up in the parking lot, as as well as makeshift basketball court in the distance.

“This is for this kids,” Holmgren said. “Just to kind of show them that anything is possible.”

After talking to reporters inside the recreation center for roughly 15 minutes, Holmgren made his way outside where everybody was anxiously waiting for him.

“This might be a little overwhelming,” he said. “It’s a great problem to have.”

That perspective was on display in Holmgren, who handled himself with grace despite being bombarded as soon as he walked out the door.

Never mind that there were items being shoved in his face as he slowly made his way around the parking lot. He signed autographs for roughly 45 minutes with the sun beating down and temperatures sitting in the mid-90s.

As soon as that crowd started to die down, Holmgren went back inside to cool off, then returned outside and played 1 on 1 with anybody who was up for the challenge.

As the sweat dripped form his forehead it was almost as if Holmgren had been transported back in time. He wasn’t an NBA player for the 30 minutes he was playing on the blacktop, just a hooper sharing the game he loves with those that love it as much as he does.

“It’s all about the kids,” Holmgren said. “Just trying to inspire them and give them something that they’ll remember for a long time to come.”

Why is that part so important to him?

“To show them what they can dream of,” Holmgren said. “The hardest thing for a lot of kids is that they can’t work to accomplish something if they don’t think it’s possible. It’s big for them to be able to see something like this, just so they understand that if they want to do something, they can strive for that.”

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By JIM VERTUNO

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A mother and her two young children from Honduras who had filed what was believed to be the first lawsuit involving children challenging the Trump administration’s policy on immigrant arrests at courthouses have been released from detention, civil rights groups and attorneys for the family said Thursday.

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The lawsuit filed on behalf of the mother identified as “Ms. Z,” her 6-year-old son and her 9-year-old daughter, said they were arrested outside the courtroom after an immigration court hearing in Los Angeles. They had been held for weeks in the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas. Their identities have not been released because of concerns for their safety.

The lawsuit said that the family entered the U.S. legally using a Biden-era appointment app and that their arrest violated their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizure and their Fifth Amendment right to due process.

The family’s lawyers said the boy had also recently undergone chemotherapy treatment for leukemia and his mother feared his health was declining while in detention.

The family was released late Wednesday while their lawsuit was still pending, and they went to a shelter in South Texas before they plan to return to their lives in the Los Angeles area, said Columbia Law School professor Elora Mukherjee, one of the lawyers representing the family.

“They will go back to their lives, to church, and school, and the family will continue to pursue their asylum case. And hopefully the little boy will get the medical attention he needs,” Mukherjee said. “They never should have been arrested and detained in the first place. We are grateful they have been released.”

Department of Homeland Security officials did not immediately respond to an email request for comment. Last week, the agency posted on social media that the boy “has been seen regularly by medical personnel since arriving at the Dilley facility.”

Starting in May, the country has seen large-scale arrests in which asylum-seekers appearing at routine hearings have been arrested outside courtrooms as part of the White House’s mass deportation effort. In many cases, a judge will grant a government lawyer’s request to dismiss deportation proceedings and then U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will arrest the person and place them on “expedited removal,” a fast track to deportation.

Lawyers for the “Z” family said their lawsuit was the first one filed on behalf of children to challenge the ICE courthouse arrest policy.

There have been other similar lawsuits, including in New York, where a federal judge ruled last month that federal immigration authorities can’t make civil arrests at the state’s courthouses or arrest anyone going there for a proceeding.

“The Z family’s release demonstrates the power we have when we fight back against harmful, un-American policies,” said Kate Gibson Kumar, staff attorney for the Beyond Borders Program of the Texas Civil Rights Project.

The family’s lawyers have said that during their hearing before a judge, the mother said they wished to continue their cases for asylum. Homeland Security moved to dismiss their cases, and the judge immediately granted that motion.

When they stepped out of the courtroom, they found men in civilian clothing believed to be ICE agents who arrested the family, Mukherjee said. They spent about 11 hours at an immigrant processing center in Los Angeles and were each only given an apple, a small packet of cookies, a juice box and water.

At one point, an officer near the boy lifted his shirt, revealing his gun. The boy urinated on himself and was left in wet clothing until the next morning, Mukherjee said.

“Heads of State” is not the Cheech & Chong reunion film you’ve been waiting for, but a comic thriller co-starring John Cena and Idris Elba, premiering Wednesday on Prime Video. Previously joined in cultural history by the DC super antihero flick “The Suicide Squad,” the actors have remade their rivalrous characters there into an odd couple of national leaders here, dealing with conspiratorial skulduggery, bullets, bombs and the like.

Call me dim, but I wasn’t even half aware that Cena, whose muscles have muscles, maintains a long, successful career in professional wrestling — which is, of course, acting — alongside his more conventional show business pursuits; he’s ever game to mock himself and not afraid to look dumb, which ultimately makes him look smart, or to appear for all intents and purposes naked at the 2024 Oscars, presenting the award for costume design. (He was winning, too, in his schtick with Jimmy Kimmel.) Elba, whose career includes a lot of what might be called prestige genre, has such natural poise and gravity that one assumes he’s done all the Shakespeares and Shaws and Ibsens, but “The Wire” and “Luther” were more his thing. He was on many a wish list as the next James Bond, and while that’s apparently not going to happen, something of the sort gets a workout here.

Elba plays British Prime Minister Sam Clarke, described as “increasingly embattled” in his sixth year in office, who is about to meet Cena’s recently elected American president, Will Derringer, on the eve of a trip to Trieste, Italy, for a NATO conference. (Why Clarke is embattled is neither explained nor important.) Derringer resents Clarke, who can’t take him seriously, for having seemed to endorse his opponent by taking him out for fish and chips. (This is a recurring theme.) An international star in the Schwarzenegger/Stallone mold — “Water Cobra” is his franchise — one might call Derringer’s election ridiculous, but I live in a state that actually did elect Schwarzenegger as its governor, twice. Wet behind the ears (“He still hasn’t figured out the difference between a press conference and a press junket,” somebody says), Derringer thinks a lot of himself, his airplane, his knowing Paul McCartney and his position. Beyond aspirational platitudes, he has no real politics, but as we first see him carrying his daughter on his shoulders, we know he’s really OK.

Directed by Ilya Naishuller (“Nobody”) and written by Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec and Harrison Query, the movie begins with a scene set at the Tomatino Festival in Buñol, Spain, in which great crowds of participants lob tomatoes at each other in a massive food fight — it’s a real thing — foreshadowing the blood that will soon be flowing through the town square, as a team of unidentified bad guys ambush the British and American agents who are tracking them. They’ve been set up, declares M16 agent Noel Bisset (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), who is later reported “missing and presumed dead” — meaning, of course, that she is very much alive and will be seen again; indeed, we will see quite a lot of her.

Meanwhile, the prime minister and the president board Air Force One for Trieste. They talk movies: “I like actual cinema,” says Clarke, who claims to have never seen one of Derringer’s pictures. “I’m classically trained,” the movie star protests. “Did you know I once did a play with Edward Norton? But the universe keeps telling me I look cool with a gun in my hand — toy gun.”

Following attacks within and without the plane, the two parachute into Belarus and, for the remainder of the film, make their way here and there, trying to evade the private army of Russian arms dealer and sadistic creep Viktor Gradov (Paddy Considine) led by your typical tall blond female assassin (Katrina Durden). They’ll also meet Stephen Root as a computer guy and Jack Quaid as a comical American agent. Elsewhere, Vice President Elizabeth Kirk (Carla Gugino) takes charge. (“Bad?” is the note I wrote. I’ve seen my share of political thrillers.)

There will be hand-to-hand combat, missiles, machine-gun shoot-em-ups, more than a couple helicopters and a car chase through the streets of Trieste — a lovely seaside/hillside city I recommend if you’re thinking of Italy this summer. Must I tell you that antipathy will turn to appreciation as our heroes make common cause, get a little personal and, with the able Agent Bisset, become real-life action heroes? That they are middle-aged is not an issue, though there is a joke about the American movie star being less fit than the U.K. politician.

The logline portends a comedy, possibly a parody, even a satire. It’s definitely the first of these, if not especially subtle or sharp (Derringer stuck in a tree, hanging from a tangled parachute; Clarke setting off a smoke bomb in his own face — that did make me laugh), a little bit the second, and not at all the third, even though it sniffs around politics a bit. Above all, like many, most or practically all action films, it’s a fantasy in which many things happen that would not and could not ever, ever happen in the real world, because that’s not how people or physics behave. (It certainly doesn’t represent America in 2025.)

There is just as much character development or backstory as is necessary to make the players seem more or less human. Plot-wise there are a lot of twists, because the script superimposes a couple of familiar villainous agendas into a single narrative; it’s mildly diverting without being compelling, which, I would think, will ultimately work in its favor as hectic, violent light entertainment. Not even counting the orgy of anonymous death that has qualified as family entertainment for some time now — blame video games, I won’t argue — it’s a painless watch, and, in its cheery, fantastic absurdity, something of a respite from the messier, crazier, more unbelievable world awaiting you once the credits have rolled.

‘Heads of State’

Rating: PG-13 (for sequences of strong violence/action, language and some smoking)

Running time: 1:53

How to watch: On Prime Video July 2

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By Isaiah Steinberg, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Pete Kelly, the used car manager at Jim Marsh Kia and Jim Marsh Chrysler Jeep in Las Vegas, hasn’t bought a used car for less than $20,000 at auction in over two years, and it’s not for lack of trying.

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Since the pandemic, he said, there are fewer options for used cars under $20,000 and he’s having to compete with national chains willing to accept slimmer profit margins.

Nationwide, demand for vehicles has dwindled due to high prices and interest rates in recent months, following a brief tariff-induced panic in March.

Despite the temporary dip in demand, the average price of 3-year-old used cars in the U.S. has increased 40.9 percent since 2019, according to an iSeeCars study.

That’s largely due to the pandemic, said Nicholas Irwin, an associate economics professor at UNLV.

“You had a lot of used cars that were being sold to a lot of buyers thanks to rental companies selling off some of their stock to survive, and also just generally more interest in replacing cars during that period,” Irwin said.

After the pandemic, Irwin said, inflation worsened the situation for new car buyers, increasing prices further.

The average new car in the U.S. costs about $48,000 and the average 3-year used car costs about $31,000, according to recent Edmunds data. That’s an increase from about $21,000 for the average 3-year-old car in 2019.

President Donald Trump’s 25 percent tariff on imported cars and auto parts prompted many Americans to worry they could not afford a new car, spiking demand for used cars, Irwin added.

“As inflation continues to rise, I don’t think the percentage of cars under $20,000 will go up,” Chris Hemmersmeier, president and CEO of Jerry Seiner dealerships, said. “I think the new standard will continue to rise, so maybe it rises to $23,000 or $25,000 in the next few years.”

In the short-term, consumers should jump on used car deals while they still can, Hemmersmeier and Kelly said.

“Outside of my office right now is a 2018 Volkswagen Passat that I’m asking $15,000 for,” Kelly said. “That car probably won’t be here Friday.”

A variety of factors, from COVID-era supply shortages to inflation to tariffs to high interest rates, has caused a significant increase in used car prices across the country.

Irwin said the increase will cause the stock and quality of the remaining sub-$20,000 used cars to decrease.

“This is just another cost that is just putting pressure and creating a burden for our working-class families,” Irwin said.

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