When Hassani Dotson’s contract dispute with Minnesota United went public in January and the Loons midfielder injured his meniscus in March, it appeared the free-agent-to-be had played his last game for United.

That sentiment seemed like a foregone conclusion after MNUFC put him on its season-ending injury list in May.

But Dotson recovered from the knee repair and won an appeal via the MLS Players’ Union and the League to be reinstated. He has fully rejoined training sessions in Blaine and could make his return to games for Minnesota against Colorado Rapids on Saturday night.

“If you look at this group with fresh eyes entirely objectively, you wouldn’t look at him as being the one that’s been out for six months,” head coach Eric Ramsay said Friday. “We’ve had two difficult days this week, Tuesday (and) Wednesday, and he’s coped with them both really well. … At this stage where we are with the squad, we’re eager to look to someone with his level of seniority, experience in the league, and if he can get back to a certain level, then for sure he can push players that we’ve got here.”

Dotson, a seven-year veteran, said the initial fear from doctors was he had torn his right anterior cruciate ligament — just like he did in a season-ending injury in 2022. But he felt the recovery timeline for this injury, again in his right knee, put him in a position to still play yet this year, barring a big setback.

“When I was put on that (season-ending list), I was kind of caught off guard,” Dotson said Friday.

Minnesota United midfielder Hassani Dotson (31) gets a pat of the head from Los Angeles Galaxy goalkeeper John McCarthy (77) as he leaves the field following an injury in the first half of a MLS game at Allianz Field in St. Paul on Saturday, Mar. 22, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Dotson aimed to come back for the U.S. Open Cup semifinal last week but a hamstring injury delayed his return. He thanked the club’s support staff for helping him get back on the field.

The Washington native was asked if he plans to go into offseason as a free agent or resign with the only MLS club he has played for.

“I’m not sure,” Dotson said. “Honestly, I haven’t talked to (Loons Chief Soccer Officer Khaled El-Ahmad) since mid- or early March, so I’m just focused on my recovery and trying to get back to doing what I love the most — well, job-wise, (besides my) wife and kid.”

Players returning from long-term injury can be cast as a new signing for a club. Dotson tapped the brakes on that view.

“I like to kind of keep it humble, low key,” Dotson said. “I just want you know the team’s been doing really well this season. I’m not trying to step on any toes, but I’m here to try to compete and and help them, give something off the bench. And I’m just eager to try to show my teammates that I still can offer something. And then once I get back into the groove of things, I have no doubt in my mind that it’d be something like that.”

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At the recommendation of the state’s appointed mediator, Duluth-based Essentia Health has withdrawn from the facilitation process to assess the formation of a nonprofit “All-Minnesota Health System Solution” alliance with the University of Minnesota and Fairview Health Services.

The initial proposal for a new nonprofit health entity was made by the university and Essentia in January. The goal was to align resources across the systems for education, training and delivery of clinical care with up to $1 billion invested annually over five years.

Fairview Health Services also was invited to join the health system, but declined the merger in February, citing a desire to operate its hospitals and clinics independently. Fairview did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

In March, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office assigned a facilitator, Lois Quam, a longtime executive and director in healthcare and nonprofits, to explore potential solutions for the future of academic medicine in the state. Essentia, the university and Fairview agreed to partake in the moderated discussion.

Talks continuing on medical school

In a statement this week Essentia officials noted that “broader conversations to support the university’s medical school” between it and the university are continuing despite its departure from talks with the Attorney General’s Office.

“Essentia Health is no longer part of the strategic facilitation process because the strategic facilitator determined Essentia no longer had a role in that process,” Essentia said in a brief statement. “That process is distinct from the broader conversations happening between the university and Essentia to support the university’s medical school — a critical resource for all Minnesotans — in preparing the current and future health care workforce.”

Last September, the U announced plans to expand its medical school program in Duluth from a two-year to a four-year program. The medical school’s Duluth campus partners with Aspirus St. Luke’s and Essentia. Both hospitals have offered locations for the proposed new medical school campus.

Meanwhile, the university and Fairview continue to be engaged in direct discussions facilitated by the attorney general. That process is distinct from the broader conversations between the university, Essentia and other partners on an academic health system.

“The University continues to be engaged in direct discussions with Fairview facilitated by the Attorney General,” university officials said in a statement. “That process is distinct from the broader conversations that are happening among the University, Essentia Health and other partners on an academic health system to meet the needs of all Minnesotans; both organizations remain open to and are actively exploring solutions to ensure a strong medical school to meet the state’s health care challenges.”

Agreement between U, Fairview expires 2026

Fairview owns health care facilities on the university’s metropolitan campus, including the teaching hospital for the university’s medical school. With an agreement between the university system and Fairview expiring in 2026, the university sought to buy back Fairview’s teaching hospitals.

However, the health system expressed surprise in learning about the new “all-Minnesota health system solution” proposal just prior to its announcement, claiming it veered from plans for a resolution on the purchase of academic assets.

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“Despite our good faith efforts, thus far we have not reached an agreement with Fairview that secures the long-term future of the medical school — one of the state’s most vital and essential assets,” university officials said. “As we have done in the past, the University will be exploring all options as part of a path forward that includes partnerships with healthcare providers in the Twin Cities and across Minnesota. The University remains committed to achieving a solution that includes a relationship with Fairview, but it will be different than the status quo.”

The university stated it remains committed to achieving a solution that includes a relationship with Fairview, and holds room for continued conversations with Essentia while inviting other providers to help with solutions to meet current and future health care challenges facing the state.

“Any solution must ensure the short- and long-term sustainability of the University of Minnesota Medical School,” the university’s statement read. “The University of Minnesota is resolute in its commitment to deliver on its public health mission of clinical care, medical education, research and service for patients and Minnesota.”

Fairview previously failed to persuade U officials to back a proposed merger with Sanford Health, based out of state in Sioux Falls, S.D., and the largest rural health care system in the nation. Sanford had proposed combining their 58 hospitals, but announced in July 2023 that the deal withered under pushback from key stakeholders and regulators, including the state Attorney General’s Office.

Imani Cruzen contributed to this story. 

ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta’s airport has forfeited at least $37.5 million because city leaders have refused to disavow diversity, equity and inclusion programs as mandated by President Donald Trump’s administration.

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world’s busiest airport by passenger traffic, declined on July 29 to agree to terms set out by the Federal Aviation Administration. Those terms certify that the airport doesn’t “operate any programs promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws.”

That language mirrors a January executive order signed by Trump banning DEI programs operated by anyone doing business with or receiving money from the federal government.

The FAA told the Atlanta airport, owned and controlled by the city government, that it was holding back $57 million, The Journal-Constitution reports. But federal authorities said $19 million of that money would be available to Atlanta in the next federal budget year if it agrees to the language then.

The money would have gone to repave taxiways and renovate public restrooms, among other projects.

The language could force the city to give up on a longstanding program that targets 25% of airport business for minority-owned firms and 10% for women-owned firms. Atlanta’s first Black mayor, Maynard Jackson, held up a $400 million airport expansion by insisting that a portion of the spending go to minorities and women. That project put Atlanta on the path to having the world’s busiest airport, and the complex is now partially named for Jackson, along with former Mayor William Hartsfield. The city’s minority business programs are credited with helping to bolster Black-owned businesses in Atlanta, burnishing the city’s reputation as a place where Black people could advance materially.

The newspaper found that Atlanta officials unsuccessfully tried to persuade the FAA to alter the language.

A number of other local governments, including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and Minneapolis, sued in May to stop Trump’s DEI ban. They argue in a lawsuit filed in Seattle that Trump is usurping powers reserved to Congress by trying to impose funding conditions on congressionally approved grants. A judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from altering the grant conditions for the local governments that are suing, but not for any other governments.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, who is seeking reelection this year, has said he’s considering changes to the program so the city could keep receiving federal money for a wide range of functions including the airport. Atlanta’s officials are elected on a nonpartisan basis, but Dickens, who is Black, says he’s Democrat.

“The city is currently evaluating all options to ensure alignment with our long-held values, local policy, and federal law and we are confident that the airport will be well positioned to receive federal funds in the future,” said Michael Smith, a spokesperson for Dickens.

In the meantime, the airport plans to “pursue alternative funding to advance these projects without impacting customers or airport service providers,” although Smith didn’t say where that money would come from. The city’s policy has been to finance airport improvements solely with airport-generated income.

In the year ended June 2024, the airport had $989 million in revenue and $845 million in expenses, according to a city financial report. At the time, the airport had almost $1 billion in ongoing construction. Smith said federal funding is “important” but represents less than 10% of the airport’s planned construction program over the next six years.

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday extended an order that allows President Donald Trump’s administration to keep frozen nearly $5 billion in foreign aid, handing him another victory in a dispute over presidential power.

With the three liberal justices in dissent, the court’s conservative majority granted the Republican administration’s emergency appeal in a case involving billions of dollars in congressionally approved aid. Trump said last month that he would not spend the money, invoking disputed authority that was last used by a president roughly 50 years ago.

The Justice Department sought the high court’s intervention after U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled that Trump’s action was likely illegal and that Congress would have to approve the decision to withhold the funding.

The federal appeals court in Washington declined to put Ali’s ruling on hold, but Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked it on Sept. 9. The full court indefinitely extended Roberts’ order.

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The court has previously cleared the way for the Trump administration to strip legal protections from hundreds of thousands of migrants, fire thousands of federal employees, oust transgender members of the military and remove the heads of independent government agencies.

The legal victories, while not final rulings, all have come through emergency appeals, used sparingly under previous presidencies, to fast-track cases to the Supreme Court, where decisions are often handed down with no explanation.

Trump told House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in a letter Aug. 28 that he would not spend $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid, effectively cutting the budget without going through the legislative branch.

He used what’s known as a pocket rescission. That’s a rarely used maneuver when a president submits a request to Congress toward the end of a current budget year to not spend the approved money. The late notice essentially flips the script. Under federal law, Congress has to approve the rescission within 45 days or the money must be spent. But the budget year will end before the 45-day window closes, and in this situation the White House is asserting that congressional inaction allows it to not spend the money.

The majority wrote in an unsigned order that Trump’s authority over foreign affairs weighed heavily in its decision, while cautioning that it was not making a final ruling in the case.

But that was cold comfort to the dissenters. “The effect is to prevent the funds from reaching their intended recipients — not just now but (because of their impending expiration) for all time,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The Trump administration has made deep reductions to foreign aid one of its hallmark policies, despite the relatively meager savings relative to the deficit and possible damage to America’s reputation abroad as people lose access to food supplies and development programs.

Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge last month that another $6.5 billion in aid that had been subject to the freeze would be spent before the end of the fiscal year next Tuesday.

The case has been winding its way through the courts for months, and Ali said he understood that his ruling would not be the last word on the matter.

“This case raises questions of immense legal and practical importance, including whether there is any avenue to test the executive branch’s decision not to spend congressionally appropriated funds,” he wrote.

In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out an earlier injunction Ali had issued to require that the money be spent. But the three-judge panel did not shut down the lawsuit.

After Trump issued his rescission notice, the plaintiffs returned to Ali’s court and the judge issued the order that’s now being challenged.