When it was announced that Operation Metro Surge had been scaled back, Gov. Tim Walz said the presence of thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents left “deep damage,” including economic ruin among small businesses, in Minnesota.

Among Minnesotans who stood up for peace are members of the literary community, who used their writing skills to document their thoughts and experiences as they watched what unfolded in Minnesota for more than a month. Their allies were independent bookstores. Now those stories are being told this week at several events.

(Courtesy of Ian Graham Leask)

‘Ice Out: Minnesota Writers Rising Up’ / Friday

“This is the most important thing I’ve done in my life, fighting back against authoritarianism,” Ian Leask says of “Ice Out,” the nation’s first compilation of prose and poetry about living through the federal law enforcement surge. He calls it “an emergency anthology” of writing from more than 50 poets, immigrants, activists and witnesses, with cartoon-like drawings by Robin Schwartzman.

The paperback is a collaboration between Calumet Editions and Afton Press, separate entities for which Leask is publisher. Thanks to long experience in publishing, Leask got “Ice Out” to market in just a few weeks, a feat almost heard of in the industry. He laid out the pages Jan. 31 and the book was published Feb. 6, with some typos going uncorrected because he felt immediacy was paramount. (A second edition will fix the errors.)

“I wanted writers’ impressions, very raw stuff from on the ground, as it was happening,” Leask said. The writing varies widely, from an account of the killing of Renee Nicole Good, witnessed by Lynette Reidi-Grandell, to the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Minneapolis.”

Leask lives in south Minneapolis, close to where George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020 and where Good and Alex Pretti were shot to death.

“I am in the middle of (the turmoil) and I put out a call three or four weeks ago to social media and writers I know and they responded,” Leask said. “We all feel good about the project. The contributors are writing to thank me for taking the lead on this book.”

Typical of those letters is one from Julie A. Ryan, who wrote: “Thank you from the deepest part of my nervous system for creating the cathartic emotional ride that I took through the anthology. While anger about what is occurring in Minnesota and throughout this country still tangles with my thoughts, I experienced a form of healing as other writers’ words validated the grief, frustration, and disbelief I’ve been feeling. And thank you for throwing your right hook at the bullies; you landed the punch.”

Ian Graham Leask.

Leask is an immigrant, born and raised in London, and he knows the consequences of authoritarianism.

“I never thought I’d see this in America. I am aghast,” he says. “I grew up in the ruins of London 10 years after the war. My father was in the Royal Navy and everybody you talk to there tells of how it felt to be waiting for Nazis to invade us. It’s changed me growing up, made me a certain kind of person that dislikes authority, and I am seeing that in our government. This is the opposite of what’s happening in Minnesota where people are kind and trying to do good in the world and the U.S.”

Leask will return to London next month for the big international book fair, where he’ll meet with publishers interested in foreign rights to the book, which as of mid-February had sold a couple of hundred copies and hit the Amazon nonfiction bestseller list.

There will be a celebration party from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday at 6800 France Ave., Edina. On March 1, poet Tim Nolan and Leask will host a reading by some of the book’s contributors at 1 p.m. at Eat My Words bookstore, 201 Sixth St. S.E., Mpls., with books available. All profits after expenses will be dedicated to a history book about the immigration crackdown to be published in 2027.

(Courtesy image)

Authors for Minnesota Day / Saturday

Jess Lourey (Courtesy of the author)

If these were normal times, award-winning authors Jess Lourey and Kristi Belcamino (who works for the Pioneer Press) would be concentrating on on their writing careers. Lourey is preparing to launch her dystopian novel “The Verdant Cage” in April and Belcamino co-authored “Silver Bullet,” coming out in May. They are also finishing plans for a joint tour of central Minnesota libraries next month.

But these are not normal times, so these friends organized Authors for Minnesota Day, involving more than 52 authors signing copies of their books at 24 bookstores around the state.

From noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, authors will be assigned to one of the bookstores where readers can get a free, signed book (while supplies last) in exchange for an on-site donation to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota and/or Women’s Foundation of Minnesota Immigration Rapid Response Fund. (Call or go online to check the authors scheduled at your favorite bookstore, or do a “bookstore crawl” and make a day of it.)

Lourey and Belcamino say the event was created to celebrate independent bookstores that anchor Minnesota communities while raising money for protection of civil rights.

Kristi Belcamino (Courtesy of the author)

“Independent bookstores are more than places to buy books,” Belcamino said. “They are where neighbors meet, ideas are exchanged, and communities learn how to stand up for one another. Authors for Minnesota Day is about celebrating those spaces and reminding people that supporting local bookstores is one powerful way we show up for our neighborhoods and the values we share.”

The idea for Authors Day began in January when Lourey noticed that Comma, a Minneapolis bookshop, was speaking out on behalf of its immigrant neighbors. She wondered how many other bookstores were risking their income by taking a stand against federal agents and found nearly all Minnesota bookstores were doing so in some form, including raising money and offering safe spaces.

Lourey was surprised at how fast people said yes to the event: “Within hours, authors and bookstore across the state were in. That tells you something about Minnesota — we don’t sit around when our communities need us.”

Bestselling Minnesota author William Kent Krueger posted this comment to Facebook in connection with Authors for Minnesota Day, scheduled for Feb. 28, 2026. (Courtesy of the author)

Among high-profile participating authors are Jess Chandler, Heid E. Erdrich, Allen Eskens, Shannon Gibney, Matt Goldman, Rebecca Kanner, Judy Kerr, William Kent Krueger, Lorna Landvik, Mindy Mejia, Bao Phi, Curtis Sittenfeld, William Sounder, Sarah Stonich, Kathleen West, Wendy Webb and more.

Minnesota Writers Respond: A reading / Thursday

An evening of fellowship and readings at 6:30 p.m. Thursday presented by the Loft Literary Center and Milkweed Books. Readers will be Curtis Sittenfeld, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Sarah Ghazal Ali, Chaun Webster, Claire Wahmanholm, Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay, Lara Mimosa Montes, Halee Kirkwood, and Jessica Nordell, author of “The End of Bias: A Beginning,” who is organizing the event at Open Book, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Mpls. The suggested donation is $25, with proceeds going to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.

Letter from Minnesota / Ongoing

If you want to read heartfelt and heartbreaking writing, be sure to check out Literary Hub’s ongoing Letter from Minnesota series, in which writers share their perspectives about living with the enforcement surge. Among contributors are Angela Ajayi, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Kao Kalia Yang, Sun Yung Shin, Dobby Gibson and David Mura.

Charles Baxter

An example is Charles Baxter’s offering “Mad Means Something,” in which he writes of the rage of the poet and its power. Baxter, a fiction writer and essayist who has won two Minnesota Book Awards and is a former University of Minnesota professor of creative writing, calls for more poetry now. He recalls previous political uses of the form: “During the Vietnam War, roving bands of poets — I saw Creeley, Ed Sanders and the other Fugs, Diane Wakoski, and Robert Bly on the same stage in Minneapolis in 1968 — they all did marathon readings against the war.”

Free downloads from the Letter from Minnesota series are at https://lithub.com/tag/letter-from-minnesota/.

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Today is Monday, Feb. 23, the 54th day of 2026. There are 311 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Feb. 23, 1980, American Eric Heiden completed his sweep of the five men’s speed skating events at the Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York, by winning the men’s 10,000-meter race in world record time; Heiden was the first athlete to win five gold medals in a single Winter Olympics.

Also on this date:

In 1836, the siege of the Alamo by Mexican troops began in San Antonio, Texas. Almost all of the nearly 200 heavily outnumbered Texas defenders, including American frontiersman and politician Davy Crockett, were killed in the 13-day assault.

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In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an agreement with Cuba to lease land around Guantanamo Bay to the United States. No date was set for termination of the lease and Naval Station Guantanamo Bay continues at the site, along with a high-security detention complex for suspected terrorists.

In 1942, the first shelling of the U.S. mainland during World War II occurred as a Japanese submarine fired on an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California.

In 1945, during World War II, U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima captured Mount Suribachi, where they raised two American flags. (The second flag-raising was captured in an iconic photograph by Joe Rosenthal of The Associated Press.)

In 2011, in a major policy reversal, President Barack Obama’s administration said it would no longer defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law banning recognition of same-sex marriage.

In 2020, a 25-year-old Black man, Ahmaud Arbery, was fatally shot while running in a coastal Georgia neighborhood after a white father and son armed themselves and pursued him. (Greg and Travis McMichael and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan subsequently drew life sentences for murder convictions and later were convicted of federal hate crimes.)

In 2021, golfer Tiger Woods was seriously injured when he crashed his SUV into a median and rolled over several times on a steep downhill road in suburban Los Angeles.

In 2023, a federal judge handed singer R. Kelly a 20-year prison sentence for his convictions that include producing child sexual abuse materials and federal sex trafficking charges., but said he would serve nearly all of the sentence simultaneously with a 30-year sentence imposed a year earlier on racketeering charges.

Today’s birthdays:

Football Hall of Famer Fred Biletnikoff is 83.
Actor Patricia Richardson is 75.
Singer Howard Jones is 71.
Japanese Emperor Naruhito is 66.
Actor Kristin Davis is 61.
Business executive Michael Dell is 61.
TV personality-business executive Daymond John is 57.
Actor Niecy Nash is 56.
Democratic Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland is 55.
Country singer Steve Holy is 54.
Actor Kelly Macdonald is 50.
Rapper Residente, born René Juan Pérez Joglar, is 48.
Actor Josh Gad is 45.
Actor Emily Blunt is 43.
Actor Aziz Ansari is 43.
Actor Dakota Fanning is 32.
Star guard Jamal Murray of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets is 29.
Actor Emilia Jones is 24.

By JOSH BOAK and MICHELLE L. PRICE

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump ‘s State of the Union address on Tuesday is likely to be a test run of the message that Republicans will give to voters in November’s elections for control of the House and Senate.

The president and his party appear vulnerable, with polls showing that much of America distrusts how Trump has managed the government in his first year back in office. In addition, the Supreme Court last week struck down one of the chief levers of his economic and foreign policy by ruling that he lacked the power to impose many of his sweeping tariffs.

Though Trump is expected to focus on domestic issues, his intensifying threats that he may launch military strikes on Iran over its nuclear program are casting a shadow over the address.

Here are a few things to watch as Trump tries to make his case:

The economy and immigration are no longer strengths for Trump

Trump swept back into the White House on promises to bring down prices and restore order to immigration in America. But on both issues, public sentiment has turned against him.

Only 39% of U.S. adults approve of his economic leadership and just 38% support him on immigration, according to the latest AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs survey. Those low numbers show the country is still fretting about the costs of groceries, housing and utilities, a problem compounded by Trump’s whipsawing use of tariffs. They also show how the public was disturbed by videos of violent clashes with protesters, including two U.S. citizens killed by federal agents.

Since his party passed a massive tax cut bill last year, Trump has yet to unveil major new policy ideas on the economy. In recent speeches, he has largely offered the public reruns about his tax cuts, plans to reduce mortgage rates and a new government website for buying prescription drugs.

The Supreme Court ruling against many of Trump’s far-reaching global tariffs on Friday and the president vowing to use other means to forge ahead with import taxes will only prolong the economic turmoil over trade and prices.

“I think it makes it even more important that the speech really focus on the economy,” said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist.

Conant said between the tariff ruling and a Commerce Department report on Friday that showed U.S. economic growth slowed in the final three months of last year, “the president needs to bolster his economic message.”

Blame everything on Joe Biden

The administration is trying to make the case that despite Trump’s rewiring of global trade and tax cuts, the economy is still struggling because of choices made in 2021 and 2022 by his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. But Trump is also seeking to take credit for positive signs in the current economy, such as recent stock market gains.

“Watch the State of the Union. We’re going to be talking about the economy. We inherited a mess,” Trump said at the White House on Wednesday.

Of course, Trump made the same kind of argument in his address to a joint session of Congress last year, invoking the name “Biden” 13 times.

Trump’s focus on foreign policy has yet to resonate politically

Despite the president’s America First credo, his aggressive approach abroad over the past year has sparked concerns among some of his supporters about whether he should spend more time focusing on voters at home.

Trump, who has made it clear he covets a Nobel Peace Prize, is likely to use the speech to remind Americans of his attempts to try to broker peace accords in global conflicts.

But in many respects, the president hasn’t been extending olive branches. Within the past year, his administration has launched strikes in Yemen, Nigeria and Iran, along with an ongoing campaign of lethal military strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels near South America. Trump also shocked the world in January with a surprise raid to capture Venezuela’s then-leader, Nicolás Maduro, and floated the idea of using force to seize Greenland.

In recent weeks, as he pressures Iran, Trump has bolstered the U.S. military’s presence in the Middle East. But he has yet to make a clear case to voters about what his actions overseas mean for their lives.

He might even minimize foreign policy in his State of the Union despite his belief that it’s been a major success.

“For as much as foreign policy has dominated his last year in office, this speech will mostly focus on the economy,” Conant predicted.

Vice President JD Vance offered a similar prediction, saying in an interview Saturday on Fox News Channel that in the speech, “you’re going to hear a lot about the importance of bringing jobs back into our country, of reshoring manufacturing, of all these great factories that are being built.”

He said Trump would also speak about lowering energy costs.

Trump has made the State of the Union his own

The State of the Union used to be about recapping accomplishments and seeking to unite the country, but it increasingly reflects divisions in society.

“What you’re going to expect is some version of a campaign speech in which the Democrats are the villains, the Republicans he likes are the heroes, and he is the savior not only of the nation but of the globe,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Trump supporters might cherish the moment in 2020 when the president mid-speech reunited a military family. He also bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio host and author who died in 2021 due to complications from lung cancer. But that moment turned off Democrats who saw Limbaugh as a destructive figure in political media.

The reaction in the room could matter as much as Trump’s words

Trump is delivering the speech, but his audience sitting in the House chamber has a big role, too. When Trump delivered his 2020 State of the Union, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi theatrically ripped up a copy of the speech afterward, overshadowing much of what Trump said.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York has said in a letter to colleagues that “it is important to have a strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber,” indicating that some members might choose not to attend in protest to Trump. But there is also the possibility of Democrats razzing Trump as Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, did in 2025, leading him to be removed from the chamber.

If Trump in his speech lays out a fuller case for why he is using other mechanisms in federal law to continue his tariffs, Conant said it will be interesting to see the reaction from lawmakers.

“I think that any House Republicans that don’t applaud his tariffs are going to be featured prominently on the telecast,” he said.

State of the Unions have short shelf lives

While some presidential phrases endure, much of the rhetoric in State of the Unions is forgettable. And with Trump — who is known for veering off-script — there’s a good chance that a stray comment or a social media post could step on his message.

Matt Latimer, a former Republican speechwriter for then-President George W. Bush, noted in an email that people hear the president talk all of the time, so the State of the Union has lost much of its luster.

A State of the Union “only matters in moments when the country is undergoing a great trauma — a war, an attack, a global crisis — and a president and Congress want to speak in a (mostly) united voice to the country,” he said. “That’s not what we are experiencing now.”

By MEGAN JANETSKY and FABIOLA SÁNCHEZ

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) — School was canceled in several Mexican states and local and foreign governments alike warned their citizens to stay inside, as widespread violence erupted following the army’s killing of the powerful leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho” was the boss of one of the fastest-growing criminal networks in Mexico, notorious for trafficking fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine to the United States and staging brazen attacks against government officials who challenged it.

He was killed during a shoot-out in his home state of Jalisco as the Mexican military attempted to capture him. Cartel members responded with violence across the country, blocking roads and setting fire to vehicles.

President Claudia Sheinbaum urged calm and authorities announced late Sunday they had cleared most of the more than 250 cartel roadblocks across 20 states. The White House confirmed that the U.S. provided intelligence support to the operation to capture the cartel leader and applauded Mexico’s army for taking down a man who was one of the most wanted criminals in both countries.

Mexico hoped the death of the world’s biggest fentanyl traffickers would ease Trump administration pressure to do more against the cartels, but many remained hunkered down and on edge as they waited to see the powerful cartel’s reaction.

Many fear more violence

Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco state and Mexico’s second-largest city, was almost completely shut down on Sunday as fearful residents stayed home.

Passengers arriving to the city’s international airport Sunday night were told it was operating with limited personnel because of the burst of violence.

Jacinta Murcia, a 64-year-old nutrition products vendor, was among those nervously walking late Sunday night through the airport, where earlier in the day travelers sprinted and ducked behind chairs fearing violence. Most flights into the city were suspended on Sunday.

Murcia anxiously scrolled through news stories on social media showing the face of “El Mencho” and sent messages to her children, who were tracking her location as she tried to travel across the city to her house after dark.

“My plan today leaving the airport is to see if there are any taxis, but I’m scared of everything. That there are blockades, that there’s a curfew, that something could happen,” she said. “I’m all alone.”

Authorities in Jalisco, Michoacan and Guanajuato reported at least 14 other people killed Sunday, including seven National Guard troops.

Videos circulating on social media showed tourists in Puerto Vallarta walking on the beach with smoke rising in the distance.

In another part of the airport a group of elderly Mexicans gathered, discussing how to get home.

“We better all go together,” one said. “Go with God.”

A blow against a cartel could be a diplomatic coup

David Mora, Mexico analyst for International Crisis Group, said the capture and outburst of violence marks a point of inflection in Sheinbaum’s push to crack down on cartels and relieve U.S. pressures.

U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded Mexico do more to fight the smuggling of the often-deadly drug fentanyl, threatening to impose more tariffs or take unilateral military action if the country does not show results.

There were early signs that Mexico’s efforts were well received by the United States.

U.S. Amb. Ron Johnson recognized the success of the Mexican armed forces and their sacrifice in a statement late Sunday. He added that “under the leadership of President Trump and President Sheinbaum, bilateral cooperation has reached unprecedented levels.”

But it may also pave the way for more violence as rival criminal groups take advantage of the blow dealt to the CJNG, Mora said.

“This might be a moment in which those other groups see that the cartel is weakened and want to seize the opportunity for them to expand control and to gain control over Cartel Jalisco in those states,” he said.

“Ever since President Sheinbaum has been in power, the army has been way more confrontational, combative against criminal groups in Mexico,” Mora said. “This is signaling to the U.S. that if we keep cooperating, sharing intelligence, Mexico can do it, we don’t need U.S. troops on Mexican soil.”

‘El Mencho’ was a major target

Oseguera Cervantes, who was wounded in the operation to capture him Sunday in Tapalpa, Jalisco, about a two-hour drive southwest of Guadalajara, died while being flown to Mexico City, the Defense Department said in a statement.

During the operation, troops came under fire and killed four people at the location. Three more people, including Oseguera Cervantes, were wounded and later died, the statement said.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said via X that the U.S. government provided intelligence support for the operation. “‘El Mencho’ was a top target for the Mexican and United States government as one of the top traffickers of fentanyl into our homeland,” she wrote. She commended Mexico’s military for its work.

The U.S. State Department had offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest of El Mencho. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel is one of the most powerful and fastest growing criminal organizations in Mexico and began operating around 2009.

In February 2025, the Trump administration designated the cartel as a foreign terrorist organization.

Sheinbaum has criticized the “kingpin” strategy of previous administrations that took out cartel leaders, only to trigger explosions of violence as cartels fractured. While she has remained popular in Mexico, security is a persistent concern and since U.S. President Donald Trump took office a year ago, she has been under tremendous pressure to show results against drug trafficking.

The Jalisco cartel has been one of the most aggressive cartels in its attacks on the military — including on helicopters — and is a pioneer in launching explosives from drones and installing mines. In 2020, it carried out a spectacular assassination attempt with grenades and high-powered rifles in the heart of Mexico City against the then head of the capital’s police force and now federal security secretary.

___

Sánchez reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer María Verza contributed to this report.

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