Raised by his grandparents, Virgil Wind recalled childhood nights when their car would find the one blinking red light at the edge of a dusty rural road, the only visible marker under the moonlight indicating it was time to turn toward the Mille Lacs Reservation, the high-poverty community they called home.

Fast forward 40 years, and Wind — the elected chief of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe — said his tribe made gradual economic inroads through key investments, not the least of which are two destination gambling hubs — Grand Casino Mille Lacs and Grand Casino Hinckley — as well as two downtown St. Paul hotels. Even the brewpub at St. Paul’s Allianz Field soccer stadium bears the Grand Casino name.

For sports fans, the tribe’s latest investment may be the most eyebrow-raising. The downtown Xcel Energy Center — the longtime home of the Minnesota Wild and the new Minnesota Frost — is officially no more. On Wednesday, standing side by side with Wild owner Craig Leipold and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter at the arena’s club-level Flynt & Kindle Restaurant, Wind helped usher in a new name and a new era for the city’s celebrated hockey and concert arena: the Grand Casino Arena.

While it may take a while for the Xcel name to work its way out of the collective consciousness, someday soon “the youth will be like, ‘What X? What are you talking about?’” quipped Wind, talking to reporters after the event.

‘A long process’

Purchasing the naming rights for the 25-year-old, 18,000-seat arena involved months of discussion within the tribe, as well as negotiations with the team.

“It was tough,” Wind said. “It was a long process to get here. (But) what really ends up happening is meant to happen.”

The 14-year agreement includes the possibility of a six-year extension, said Wind, who declined to describe the total dollar amount involved, except to confirm it was a “multi-million dollar” deal.

“Revenues from our businesses fund healthcare, housing, education, cultural and language preservation,” Wind told the crowd. “This is a business investment … aimed at elevating the Grand Casino brand, aimed at deepening our visibility, aimed at expanding opportunities for all of us.”

“But beyond the business value, this is also a chance to tell our story,” he added. “Inside the arena, visitors will have an opportunity to learn about who we are — the non-removable Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. They will learn about our history. They will learn … about our resilience, and they will also learn about our connection to the land.”

Wild efforts to remodel arena rebuffed — would they move?

To that end, Wind said, an educational display will be installed by Gate 1.

Kelly McGrath, general manager and executive director of the Grand Casino Arena, said she had ordered 1,800 end plaques for the seating aisles, all emblazoned with the name “Grand Casino.” Carter, who called the arena essential to downtown’s future, read a proclamation declaring Wednesday “Grand Casino Arena Day” in the city of St. Paul.

To celebrate the new naming rights arrangement, Wind presented Leipold with an elaborate star quilt embroidered in the traditional style of the Ojibwe but with Minnesota Wild colors and patterns, drawing some “oohs” and “aahs” from the crowd. Leipold said more than 34 million fans have come to the former Xcel Energy Center since it opened in 2000, and he looked forward to the years ahead.

The Wild worked closely with the city in the past two legislative sessions to convince state lawmakers to cover half the project costs of what was then pitched as a $769 million remodel of the arena and the adjoining RiverCentre Convention Center and Roy Wilkins Auditorium, without success.

With hopes fading, the team rejiggered its proposal mid-stream last May, reducing it to a $488 million project, with $50 million to be provided by state bond funds. When the legislative session rolled to a close, they were again shut out.

On Wednesday, Leipold told reporters he had no plans to sell the team, which now employs one of his sons in a management-training role, and he planned to continue to ask lawmakers for remodeling assistance. “We have scaled it back,” Leipold said. “We feel like the changes we’ve made are good changes. The number we’re looking for from the state is $100 million, which is still a lot of money.”

Asked about rumors that the team was being courted by developers to move to Bloomington or another city, Leipold said his focus remains St. Paul. But if the team’s efforts to get an arena remodel funded continue to fall through at the state Capitol?

“That’s an interesting question,” Leipold responded. “I’m a St. Paul person, I really am. But I also know we can’t survive long-term in this arena. We will look at all the options if the time is ever right. It’s not right now. We aren’t spending any time right now looking at other sites outside St. Paul.”

Related Articles

Rapper Playboi Carti to headline Xcel Energy Center in October

Concert review: Benson Boone flips out at Xcel Energy Center

Concert review: Nine Inch Nails thrill fans at first local show in 12 years

A cappella group Pentatonix to play Christmas concert at Xcel Energy Center

Concert review: Tate McRae keeps sold-out crowd screaming at the X

“Unholy Communion,” a murder mystery largely shot in and around St. Paul last year, is coming to home screens.

Starting Friday, the film will be available to buy or rent online from Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Xfinity and other digital providers. It’ll also be released on DVD on Oct. 7 and will stream next month on Hulu.

“Unholy Communion” will also be screened on Sept. 9 at the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis. Tickets are $10 in advance via theparkwaytheater.com and $15 at the door.

“It’s so gratifying,” said writer and director Patrick Coyle. “That’s the end game. You work really hard for something for a really long time, trying to do it for more than your friends and family. It’s going to get out into the wider world.”

Coyle adapted the film from the book of the same name by Scandia author Thomas Rumreich. It follows a Washington County investigator who is tracking a serial killer preying on priests. Rumreich based the novel on his own experience of being sexually abused by a priest when he was a college student at St. John’s University as well as the 16 years he spent working as a forensic odontologist for the Ramsey County Medical Examiner.

The film stars Adam Bartley (“Longmire,” “Night Sky”) and Vincent Kartheiser (“Mad Men,” “Another Day in Paradise”) — both native Minnesotans — and features a largely local cast and crew who shot at the former Keenan’s Bar and Grill (now the 620 Club) on West Seventh Street and other sites around St. Paul.

In a March 2024 interview with the Pioneer Press, Bartley said it didn’t take him long to say yes to the role: “I read (Coyle’s) script and I called him the next day and I’m, like, ‘Yeah, man. I’m in, I’m in. I gotta work out the details, but I’m in.’ And it’s just been one ridiculous blessing after the next.”

Coyle, who has previously directed three feature films, said he learned from past experiences in finding a distributor. After taking on a sales agent in Los Angeles, Coyle received four offers.

“We took the best financial deal,” Coyle said of Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group. “And they agreed to pay residuals to the actors. They’ve treated us really well.”

Rumreich and Coyle found about 15 investors to fund the budget, which Coyle thinks they’ll be able to recoup.

“I’m knocking on wood,” he said. “It’s a genre that has a pretty big fan base.”

Coyle is currently in pre-production for another film, “Leavenworth Street,” which is scheduled to begin shooting in spring 2026. Set in his hometown of Omaha, it’s an original story about a woman who went to prison for killing her abuser and is attempting to start her life over. He said he’s “pretty sure” he’ll once again film in St. Paul.

Related Articles

Farm Aid will be broadcast live on CNN from Huntington Bank Stadium

Conservative news network Newsmax files antitrust lawsuit against Fox News

St. Paul native Tommy Brennan lands featured player gig on ‘Saturday Night Live’

The defunded Corporation for Public Broadcasting will get one of TV’s biggest prizes

TV for fall 2025: 25 shows, including a Glen Powell comedy and the return of the rom-com ‘Nobody Wants This’

By SOPHIA TAREEN, Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago community leaders forged ahead Wednesday with preparations for the influx of National Guard troops and immigration agents the city is expecting, advising residents about their rights and organizing protests with fresh urgency.

Details about the operation are scant, but President Donald Trump has amped up the rhetoric about crime in the nation’s third-largest city, saying an immigration crackdown and National Guard deployment are planned despite the objections of local leaders and a federal court ruling that a similar deployment in Los Angeles was illegal.

The preparations seem familiar in the Democratic stronghold that’s often found itself in Trump’s crosshairs.

Still, leaders of schools, churches and community groups — particularly in the city’s immigrant enclaves and Black and Latino neighborhoods — say there’s increased gravity and coordination in preparing for the expected troop deployment and its accompanying deluge of attention.

Here’s how Chicago is preparing.

Protesters say they’re ready

Even without knowing what will unfold, Chicago’s energetic activist networks circulated “emergency protest” schedules, vowing to demonstrate within hours of federal intervention.

Organizers from immigrant rights groups, unions, clergy and anti-violence organizations said they’re working together more than ever.

“We have a stronger broader movement preparing to mobilize,” said Lawrence Benito, head of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. “People still have to go about their lives. We’re making sure folks are prepared and we’re ready to respond.”

Immigrant communities have been on high alert since Trump took office for the second time in January and kicked off a nationwide immigration enforcement operation in Chicago.

Activists say they’ve already offered countless know-your-rights training sessions and have added hours for a hotline where people can report immigration arrests. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson recently signed an executive order reiterating the city’s longtime sanctuary policies, which bar local police from coordinating with federal immigration agents.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks during a press conference Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

Trump’s plans for Chicago

Trump signaled this week that he’s ready to order federal authorities to mobilize and combat crime in Chicago despite the objections of Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. Trump hasn’t given a timeline for the Chicago operation, and he muddied the outlook again on Wednesday by suggesting New Orleans as the next possible location.

Trump’s administration indicated that it would soon expand immigration operations in Chicago, and the Department of Homeland Security requested limited logistical support at the Naval Station Great Lakes outside the city.

The administration deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles over the summer and as part of his unprecedented law enforcement takeover in Washington, D.C., where he has direct legal control. His administration plans to appeal the California deployment ruling.

Trump has often singled out Chicago and other Democrat-led cities. Recently, his administration started playing up the city’s daily crime log, including using shootings over Labor Day weekend as justification for sending in troops.

“I want to go into Chicago and I have this incompetent governor,” Trump said Wednesday.

He and Pritzker have traded barbs for days about the issue. Pritzker, a two-term governor and frequent Trump critic, has been floated as a possible 2028 presidential contender.

“I can’t live in a fantasy land where I pretend Trump is not tearing this country apart for personal greed and power,” Pritzker posted Wednesday on X. At an event later in the day, he told reporters his office had not received any additional information from the federal government.

There has been little outward support for Trump’s plans in Chicago, with only a handful of Republicans and conservative leaders saying they’d welcome the intervention.

Johnson and Pritzker have repeatedly pointed to the city’s drop in crime, and asked for more federal funding for prevention programs instead.

Echoing a trend in other major U.S. cities, Chicago’s violent crime has dropped significantly overall, though it remains a persistent issue in parts of the city.

A damper on Mexican Independence Day celebrations

Chicago is home to a large and thriving Mexican community, and the threat of the troop deployment and immigration crackdown has put a damper on Mexican Independence Day celebrations planned over the next two weeks.

Organizers acknowledged the threat of immigration arrests might keep some people at home, but they’re boosting security measures and inviting more allies. It’s a similar tactic that activists tried for annual May Day protests, when fears about public gatherings were also high.

Teresa Fraga, who is organizing an event in the city’s heavily Mexican Pilsen neighborhood, said the event has hired more security, lawyers and neighborhood patrols.

“It’s a dark cloud that is hanging over our heads,” she said. “But we are planning a safe event.”

Related Articles

Judge reverses Trump administration’s cuts of billions of dollars to Harvard University

Trump plans to ask Supreme Court to toss E. Jean Carroll’s $5 million abuse and defamation verdict

Washington, Oregon and California governors form a health alliance in rebuke of Trump administration

Epstein survivors implore Congress to act as push for disclosure builds

Utah’s congressional map must be redrawn now, judge rules

Worries in Black neighborhoods

Worries are also high in many of the city’s Black neighborhoods, where organizations have been busy advising residents about what their rights are should they interact with law enforcement.

Dozens of Black churches plan to take part in “Resistance Sunday” this weekend, to disseminate information about legal rights during traffic stops and other encounters.

“We need resources, not troops,” said the Rev. Marshall Hatch, a prominent civil rights activist. “We’re not interested in this charade of troops.”

Johnson and other Black mayors have called Trump’s targeting of Democratic cities racist. And Trump has often used racist narratives about urban crime when talking about the unprecedented deployment of troops in the nation’s capital.

“The president’s threats to send federal troops to Chicago are a clear blatant attack on the Black community and the immigrant community,” the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression said in a statement.

City schools prepare

Chicago’s public school system suggested that families create phone trees to quickly share information and organize walk-to-school groups to “provide safety in numbers.”

“We know that the potential of increased federal presence is creating anxiety and fear about safety at school and safety within the broad community,” Chicago Public Schools wrote in a letter to parents.

Members of the Chicago Teachers Union planned to distribute materials at schools this week with tips on legal rights and creating a buddy system on the school commute.

By COLLIN BINKLEY and MICHAEL CASEY

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday ordered the reversal of the Trump administration’s cuts to more than $2.6 billion in funding research grants for Harvard University.

Related Articles

Chicago prepares for an influx of National Guard troops and immigration agents

Trump plans to ask Supreme Court to toss E. Jean Carroll’s $5 million abuse and defamation verdict

Washington, Oregon and California governors form a health alliance in rebuke of Trump administration

Epstein survivors implore Congress to act as push for disclosure builds

Utah’s congressional map must be redrawn now, judge rules

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs sided with the Ivy League school, ruling the cuts amounted to illegal retaliation for Harvard’s rejection of White House demands for changes to its governance and policies.

The ruling delivers a significant victory to Harvard in its battle with the Trump administration, which also has sought to prevent the school from hosting foreign students and threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status.

The ruling reverses a series of funding freezes that later became outright cuts as the Trump administration escalated its fight with the nation’s wealthiest university. If it stands, it promises to revive Harvard’s sprawling research operation and hundreds of projects that lost federal money.

Beyond the courthouse, the Trump administration and Harvard officials have been discussing a potential agreement that would end investigations and allow the university to regain access to federal funding. President Donald Trump has said he wants Harvard to pay no less than $500 million, but no deal has materialized even as the administration has struck agreements with Columbia and Brown.

Harvard’s lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of waging a retaliation campaign against the university after it rejected a series of demands in an April 11 letter from a federal antisemitism task force.

The letter demanded sweeping changes related to campus protests, academics and admissions. It was meant to address government accusations that the university had become a hotbed of liberalism and tolerated anti-Jewish harassment on campus.

Harvard President Alan Garber pledged to fight antisemitism but said no government “should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”