By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI has reassigned several agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington that followed the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, two people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The reasons for the moves were not immediately clear, though they come as the FBI under Director Kash Patel has been undertaking broad personnel changes and Deputy Director Dan Bongino has repeatedly sought to reassure supporters of President Donald Trump who are critical of the bureau.

“The Director and I are working on a number of significant initiatives to ensure that the mistakes of the past are never repeated, and that many of your open questions are answered,” Bongino wrote in one recent post on X, without elaborating.

The reassignments, first reported by CNN, were confirmed to The Associated Press by two people familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss non-public personnel moves. An FBI spokesman declined to comment.

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The photographs at issue showed a group of agents taking a knee during a demonstration following the May 2020 killing of Floyd, which sparked widespread anger after millions of people saw video of his arrest. It led to a national reckoning over policing and racial injustice.

The kneeling angered some in the FBI but was also understood as a possible de-escalation tactic during a time of widespread protests, and the agents were not punished at the time.

Patel pledged at his January confirmation hearing that he would not “go backwards” in seeking retribution on perceived adversaries. But even before he was sworn in, there was concern that the Justice Department was poised to do exactly that, including by demanding a list of the thousands of agents who worked on investigations into the Jan. 6,2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, a request seen by some as a possible precursor to a purge at the bureau.

By REBECCA BOONE, Associated Press

A federal appeals court says it won’t lift restrictions on the access that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has to Social Security systems containing personal data on millions of Americans.

The full panel of judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 9-6 to keep the ruling from U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in place while DOGE pushes forward with an appeal. The appellate decision was released Wednesday.

Earlier this month Hollander issued a preliminary injunction in the case, which was brought by a group of labor unions and retirees who allege DOGE’s recent actions violate privacy laws and present massive information security risks.

Hollander said DOGE staffers could access data that has been redacted or stripped of anything personally identifiable, but only if they undergo training and background checks. She also said DOGE and its staffers must purge any of the non-anonymized Social Security data they have already obtained, and barred them from making any changes to the computer code used by the Social Security Administration.

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Attorneys representing DOGE had argued that anonymizing the data would be too burdensome, and disrupt the Trump administration’s efforts to root out any Social Security fraud.

Appellate Judge Robert B. King, writing for the majority, said DOGE wants “immediate and unfettered access” to all Social Security records, including “the highly sensitive personal information of essentially everyone in our Country,” like family court and school records, mental health and medical records of SSA disability recipients, and bank and earning information.

“All this highly sensitive information has long been handed over to SSA by the American people with every reason to believe that the information would be fiercely protected,” King wrote.

Appellate judge Julius Richardson, who voted against the majority ruling, said the case should have been handled by a smaller three-judge group rather than the full panel of active appellate judges. He also said the plaintiffs haven’t shown DOGE has actually snooped on any of their personal information, but instead are distressed by the possibility of “abstract harm.”

Apostle Supper Club is set to close on June 1.

The high-profile, tiki-themed restaurant across the street from the Xcel Energy Center, which opened in 2022, is the latest in a string of restaurant closures in downtown St. Paul. Co-owner Brian Ingram said the reasons for closing are many, including high crime rates, multiple break-ins and overdoses on the restaurant’s patio and in its bathroom.

“We are walking away from a $4 million buildout,” Ingram said. “It’s not something we’re doing lightly. It was a lifelong dream to build that style and that restaurant, but we can’t sustain it.”

Ingram said the busy patio season is coming up, and he’ll be able to offer jobs to all Apostle employees at his other restaurants, which include Hope Breakfast Bar locations all around the metro area, including one opening soon in Blaine, and The Gnome on Selby Avenue in St. Paul.

Ingram said office workers not returning to downtown and other businesses closing since the pandemic have transformed downtown from a “once vibrant” neighborhood into a quiet core “in crisis.”

While upwards of 90 percent of downtown residences are occupied, one-third of downtown St. Paul’s commercial office space is vacant, according to the mayor’s office.

In recent months, Saint Dinette and Dark Horse Bar in Lowertown have closed. Wrestaurant at the Palace closed due to some water damage a few months ago and has not reopened. All of the Madison Hospitality Group restaurants — including several on Mears Park in Lowertown and Gray Duck Tavern in downtown proper — remain shuttered since the death of owner Jim Crockarell last year.

Ingram and other restaurant owners, including Steve Lott of Big River Pizza in Lowertown, have talked about concern for their safety and that of staff members.

“The thought of something happening to one of our staff members when we close really weighs on me,” Ingram said. “It’s gotten pretty bad.”

St. Paul Police said they’re investigating the case of the latest Apostle break-in, which took place on April 21, as criminal damage to property.

Overall, though, crime reports in downtown St. Paul have been trending down this year. As of Monday, according to St. Paul Police Department statistics:

• There were 128 crimes against people reported vs. 179 in the same time period last year.

• There were 316 crimes against property reported vs. 376 in the same period last year.

• There were 144 quality-of-life crimes reported vs. 166 in the same timeframe last year.

Still, Ingram said, the city can and should do better. In his social media post about the closure, he said the following:

“This isn’t giving up. It’s taking a painful, honest look at what’s working — and what’s not. Right now, downtown St. Paul simply is not a viable place for small, independent restaurants to thrive.”

Mara H. Gottfried and Frederick Melo contributed to this report.

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The default facial expression for Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman is deadly serious. Through his rapidly-growing playoff beard, you rarely see even a hint of a smile.

Since returning from an eight-game suspension that cost him most of February, Hartman has been on his best behavior, all business on the ice, and has proven to be a valuable postseason asset with his hard-nosed play.

So, it was quite a sight, with 75 seconds left in Game 5 of this entertaining first-round series with the Vegas Golden Knights, to see Hartman flashing a broad grin and doing a strut in the offensive zone. It came after he scored what briefly appeared to be the goal that would have given Minnesota a 3-2 series lead with the series headed back to St. Paul.

The goal was disallowed when reviews showed Gustav Nyquist’s skate an inch offside entering the zone. And by the time reporters talked to Hartman in the quiet postgame locker room after the Knights’ 3-2 overtime win, he was back to his default “all business” face and admitted that “no goal” was the right call.

“It’s offsides. It happens 50 times a game. Just happened to be it was on a goal,” Hartman said. “You feel bad, but (nothing Nyquist) should feel down about. It’s offsides. That thing happens throughout the game.”

And like everyone else packing up green and red socks and jerseys for a trip back to Minnesota, and a must-win Game 6, there was a laser-like focus on the next 60 minutes of hockey, and not back to the outrageous fortune that had just befallen the team and its legion of fans.

“That’s all it is. We go home and we play one hockey game at our home ice and get a win,” Hartman said. “There’s nothing else to look at. There’s nothing else to look forward to. Just one game. Go get a win.”

That was the consensus by the time the Wild were back in Minnesota on Wednesday afternoon. Forget a pair of overtime losses to a confident Vegas team that trailed in the series, 2-1, when this week began. Forget the fact that with two bounces, Minnesota would already be on to the second round, waiting to face either Edmonton or Los Angeles.

Forget everything except Thursday night, and the need to score one more than the Golden Knights and force one more trip to the desert.

“We live the life of a competitor. We didn’t win the game last night. Regardless, no matter what the circumstances were behind it … it’s behind us. We’ve got to get ready for the next one,” Wild coach John Hynes said while meeting with reporters at MSP Airport Wednesday afternoon.

As a few players did on Tuesday, Hynes offered some simple math, noting that Vegas has had six chances to win four games, and has not done so yet, winning the last two by the slimmest of margins. The Golden Knights come to Minnesota with a winning streak, but Hynes thinks that is irrelevant.

“I don’t believe in momentum. Momentum doesn’t carry game to game. Belief carries game to game,” Hynes said. “We have belief. We know we can win. We know we’re playing a good series. We know we’ve got to come out and win a hockey game tomorrow.”

To that end, the Wild are hopeful that starting goalie Filip Gustavsson can return from the illness that kept him off the ice for the third period and overtime in Game 5. And they vow to have a short memory, putting the near misses of the past two games behind them long before the puck drops with 18,000 full-throated Wild fans offering them encouragement in Game 6.

“The only thing that matters is Thursday night, and we’re gonna be ready to compete and play our ‘A’ game, and it’s gonna be loud, and that’s everything right now is the next one,” Wild defenseman Brock Faber said. “They still have to beat us, so we’re confident and we’re gonna be ready to go.”

Fans who keep an eye on Hartman during warmups Thursday will certainly see that deadly serious game face, as the veteran and his teammates attempt to use that invisible belief Hynes talks about to counteract the invisible momentum Vegas has grabbed over the past 11 periods of hockey.

And if all goes according to the Wild’s plans, if the final horn blows and there is a Game 7 to be played, look closely and one might even see Hartman offer a hint of a smile.

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