Minnesota is on its way to officially recognizing the service of Hmong and Lao and other veterans who fought alongside the U.S. in the “Secret War” during the 1960s and 1970s in Laos.

A veterans and military affairs bill passed by the state House on Tuesday night creates a path to grant official state veteran status for fighters recruited into Special Guerrilla Units by the CIA during the Vietnam War to fight communist forces in Southeast Asia.

The anniversary of the fall of Saigon this week marks 50 years since the U.S. ended its involvement in Vietnam, and supporters of the bill gathered at the state Capitol with surviving veterans of the Secret War to call for greater recognition.

“Today, we say their service matters, their sacrifice matters, their story is American history,” said Rep. Jay Xiong, DFL-St. Paul, co-author of the veterans bill and the son and grandson of Hmong soldiers.

He added: “Recognizing SGUs isn’t just symbolic, it’s a long overdue act of respect.”

‘Burden of being forgotten’

Lee Pao Xiong, a professor from the Center for Hmong Studies at Concordia University, addresses the media at a Capitol news conference on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, along with state lawmakers and Hmong veterans of the "Secret War" in Laos in the 1960s and ’70s. (Alex Derosier / Pioneer Press)

Ya Lee, a Special Guerrilla Unit veteran who flew T-28 warplanes, said there is limited time to recognize surviving veterans for their sacrifices, and that they carry the “burden of being forgotten.”

Lee, who said he is among 10 remaining T-28 pilots living in the U.S., was among dozens of veterans at the Capitol on Tuesday who showed up in military uniforms to support the bill.

At a news conference promoting the bill, Rep. Kaohly Vang Her, DFL-St. Paul, said it’s not exactly clear how many SGU veterans remain in Minnesota, but that it’s likely fewer than 1,000.

During the 1960s and 1970s, many groups across Southeast Asia found themselves drawn into a U.S. war against communist forces within and beyond the borders of Vietnam.

Many faced persecution by their governments as a result, with many hundreds of thousands fleeing their homes and eventually ending up in the U.S. But official recognition for their contributions to the war efforts remained elusive for decades.

Legislation

The House passed a large veterans and military affairs bill containing the Secret War acknowledgement language by a vote of 126-6 on Tuesday, though it’ll need a little more work since it differs from the version passed by the Senate. Once those have been smoothed over in a conference committee, the House and Senate will have to vote once again before it can go to Gov. Tim Walz.

If signed into law by the governor, the bill would create a definition for veterans of the Secret War in Laos and criteria for eligibility for benefits and privileges for veterans. Those include designation as a veteran on driver’s licenses and ID cards, access to state veterans cemeteries, and access to preference in private employment.

Anyone who became a citizen under the Hmong Veterans Naturalization Act of 2000 will automatically get Secret War veteran status. Eligibility also extends to those who received a Medal of Honor, Purple Heart or other military award for service in support of the U.S. military operating in Laos.

Beyond immediate recognition of veterans who got citizenship for their service, the Minnesota commissioner of Veterans Affairs would be empowered to recognize veterans who served with a special guerrilla unit or other forces that operated from a base in Laos between February 1961 and May 1975.

State task force

A state task force created by the bill is charged with overseeing the process for official recognition. It is to include the Minnesota veterans commissioner, a U.S. Veterans Affairs Department official, a Hmong American Minnesota resident who served in the military, two Secret War veterans, a U.S. Vietnam veteran and other history and veterans’ issues specialists.

While the bill creates a process to recognize anyone involved in the Secret War in Laos, a group backing a bill earlier this legislative session to recognize Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian veterans expressed disappointment that language didn’t mention those groups by name.

Bana Soumetho, who was born to Lao refugee parents in Thailand and has been working to establish explicit recognition for a broader group of Secret War veterans in state law, expressed her frustration in an email.

“This year marked what may have been the final meaningful opportunity for many of our aging veterans to receive public acknowledgment,” she wrote. “Instead, it became a painful reminder of how easily their stories can be overlooked — even when the intent is recognition.”

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LAS VEGAS – We are closing in on a decade since the Golden Knights played their first-ever games, in the fall of 2017, and still one can see plenty of Nevada hockey fans coming to games wearing the number 29 sweater of current Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, from his time with Vegas.

After Tuesday’s morning skate at T-Mobile Arena, Jon Merrill joked that not as many Nevada hockey fans still wear his jersey from the 140 games the Wild defenseman played for Vegas around that same era. After watching the first four playoff games from the press box, Merrill was back in the Wild lineup for Game 5, after coach John Hynes opted for his experience over the rookie promise of Zeev Buium.

Merrill, 33, admitted it was heartbreaking to come out of the lineup at the start of the playoffs after logging 70 regular season games, but said that he was excited to be back on the ice and to be part of the Wild’s plan to re-capture home ice advantage.

“We play to win and not to lose. Go after them, stay aggressive,” Merrill said. “That’s been the difference in the series is our aggressiveness on the forecheck. So we’ll come out swinging tonight.”

Hynes made it clear that Buium’s healthy scratch for Game 5 was an acknowledgement of the Wild’s needs in Game 5 and not any kind of long-term change, but admitted that there has been a learning curve from the speed of the college game to the NHL pace, most notably in terms of opportunities to shoot the puck.

“I think there’s been times, maybe when he could trigger and is maybe used to having just a little bit more time and space than he does, where you’ve got to almost trigger right away when there’s a lane there,” Hynes said. “I think there’s other times where the shot lanes haven’t been there and to his credit, he hasn’t just shot the puck to shoot the puck.”

Familiarity breeds faceoffs

According to one NHL numbers-crunching website, the Wild were 28th out of the league’s 32 teams in faceoff win percentage, at 47.11 percent, during the regular season. Since starting with possession of the puck is a vital first step toward scoring goals, that’s a key number that can spell success in the regular season and in the playoffs.

While they had still lost more faceoffs than they had won in the first four postseason games, the Wild’s numbers are improving, and Hynes credited part of that to the fact that you’re playing the same team each night, and getting to know their faceoff men.

“I think it’s really digging in and understanding the importance of it,” Hynes said. “Sometimes it’s easier too when you’re not playing this center and that center and this center. … For the most part, there’s four guys you’re going against in a series.”

Hynes said the extra time against the same four Vegas centers over the course of a series allows Wild centers to study tendencies and learn what tactics might work best against a particular player.

Control your weapons

Penalties have become more of a factor in this series over the course of the first four games. Vegas was the least-penalized team in NHL history during the regular season, and officials for the most part let both teams play in the first few games.

The Wild got a big power play goal in Game 3, and they had an overtime power play in Game 4. The Knights tied the game late in a four-minute power play in Game 4, after Buium caught Vegas forward Mark Stone in the face with a high stick. Hynes said that penalties are going to happen, but the Wild can help themselves in the final two or three games of this series by keeping themselves under control.

“I think we want to retain the competitive nature that we played with. I think there’s some penalties – you know, we have some high sticks. We’ve got to control our sticks more. Obviously we had a too many men, so I think there’s some things in our control that we need to be a little bit aware of and better, and normally we are.”

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A state fund created to help cities that are losing a power plant is helping Oak Park Heights pay for design work on a potential future water treatment facility to remove PFAS from the city’s two wells.

In 2028, Oak Park Heights will lose its largest taxpayer when Xcel Energy shutters the Allen S. King power plant. The plant, which employs 77 people, provides 27 percent of the city’s tax base — or about $1.5 million — in 2024, said Jacob Rife, city administrator.

At the same time, the city needs $2.1 million to design a potential new water treatment facility that would be located somewhere near Oak Park Heights City Hall. City officials learned last year that both of the city’s drinking water wells tested above state guidelines for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The current numbers, however, remain within federal guidelines, and no action is required as of yet, Rife said.

“However, we are taking a very proactive approach in that our numbers could change, or the state could make their numbers enforceable, so we want to be ready to go,” he said.

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development this week awarded Oak Park Heights a second Community Energy Transition grant, this one for $374,800, to help pay for plans for the facility. Last year, the city received a $440,000 Community Energy Transition grant for a feasibility study and pre-design work for the new treatment facility.

This year’s grant will be used to evaluate data from the earlier studies and determine “the process, equipment, treatment plant building design and project cost estimates,” according to DEED.

The agency’s Energy Transition Office supports cities undergoing or preparing for power-plant closures “in their efforts to maintain vitality and diversify their economies,” said DEED Commissioner Matt Varilek. “Communities can face significant uncertainty when a power plant closes. Through these grants, we’re partnering with local officials to help ease that transition.”

The city is contracting with Stantec for preliminary design work to help answer questions such as where a potential new treatment facility would be sited, size of the facility, costs and construction schedules, Rife said.

The grant funds will get the city’s design plans to approximately 50 percent for water treatment at Wells 1 and 2, and city officials tentatively expect to get to 50 percent design by summer of 2026, he said.

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The city will use $110,000 from its own water funds to pay for the design work, but is still seeking grants and state bonding to cover the rest, Rife said.

The city also anticipates receiving funds from a national class-action settlement regarding PFAS in drinking water supplies, Rife said. The chemical company DuPont last year agreed to pay $1.185 billion to public water systems across the U.S. that detect PFAS chemicals in their drinking water supplies.

“I’m not sure of where that number will land,” Rife said. “We have some ballpark estimates right now, but we just won’t know until that comes in, so we’re trying to get the majority of the design work to be funded through grants and outside money, so we’re being very aggressive in pursuing grants.”

Mayor Mary McComber said the city has to be proactive. “If something happens to one of our wells, and we need to shut it down, well, we only have two wells, and that’s it,” she said. “We need more water supply.”

Country star Hank Williams Jr. will play the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand for the third time on Aug. 27.

Tickets are priced from $56 to $125.75 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday through Etix or by calling 800-514-3849. Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives are also on the bill.

The son of country legend Hank Williams, he began performing at an early age. He made his first television appearance in 1963 at the age of 14, singing several of his dad’s songs on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Williams was highly influenced by his father’s friends, including Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Fats Domino, Earl Scruggs, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Williams released his debut album, “Hank Williams Jr. Sings the Songs of Hank Williams,” in 1964, when he was 15. He continued to sing covers until the mid-’70s when he began carving out his own sound in Southern rock and outlaw country.

His landmark 1975 release “Hank Williams Jr. and Friends” saw him drawing influence from Waylon Jennings, Toy Caldwell and Charlie Daniels.

Among the more than 100 singles he’s issued over the decades, “Family Tradition,” “Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound,” “All My Rowdy Friends (Have Settled Down),” “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight,” and “Born to Boogie” stand among his biggest hits.

Williams first played the Grandstand in 1968 on a bill with Marty Robbins, Sonny James and Connie Smith. He returned as a headliner in 1983 with Aaron Tippin.

The Minnesota State Fair runs from Aug. 21 through Sept. 1. Williams joins the previously announced headliners Old Dominion on Aug. 21, Meghan Trainor on Aug. 22, Atmosphere on Aug. 23, the joint bill of Melissa Etheridge and Indigo Girls on Aug. 24, the Happy Together Tour on Aug. 25, Def Leppard on Aug. 26, the Steve Miller Band on Aug. 28 and the Avett Brothers on Aug. 29.

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