By JONATHAN J. COOPER

PHOENIX (AP) — Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said Thursday that party officers should be banned from taking sides in primaries, countering DNC Vice Chair David Hogg’s plan to raise money for candidates challenging Democratic incumbents.

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Martin’s proposal escalates a public feud between the new DNC boss and Hogg, who rose to prominence as a gun-control advocate after surviving the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Both were elected by DNC members earlier this year.

Martin said he’s drafting proposed bylaw changes to require officers to remain neutral in all Democratic primaries.

Martin said party neutrality is crucial to maintaining the confidence of voters, pointing to the bitter feud that emerged after supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign believed he was stymied by party insiders putting their thumb on the scale in favor of Hillary Clinton, who won the nomination but went on to lose the general election to Donald Trump.

“You can’t be both the player and the referee,” Martin wrote in an opinion piece published by Time.

Hogg has said he’ll raise millions of dollars through a political action committee unaffiliated with the DNC to support primary challengers running against longtime incumbents in solidly Democratic congressional districts. He says the party needs a shakeup to bring in leaders who will more aggressively confront Trump and connect with younger voters.

FILE – David Hogg talks to people after speaking at the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Aug. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Hogg said in a statement posted on social media that he is not breaking any current DNC rules, and his actions don’t interfere with the party’s responsibilities, including setting a presidential nominating calendar, supporting state Democratic parties, building data infrastructure and creating the campaign infrastructure for a future Democratic presidential nominee.

Voters don’t view Democrats as a “real alternative to the Republican Party,” he said.

“That will not change if we keep the status quo,” Hogg said. “We have no other option but to do the hard work of holding ourselves and our own party accountable.”

Also on Thursday, Martin said the DNC would increase its financial support for state Democratic parties by $5,000 to $17,500 per month, with an additional $5,000 monthly for Republican-led states.

John McCarthy, the chief finance officer for the city of St. Paul, is leaving City Hall after 18 years.

McCarthy has been named as the new chief financial officer of the League of Minnesota Cities, the state’s largest municipal membership association. He will join the league on June 2, replacing current CFO Mark Ruff, who announced his decision to step down earlier this year.

McCarthy will oversee all of the league’s financial reporting, accounting, budgeting and accounts payable. He has worked for the city’s Office of Financial Services since 2007 and has served as the city’s chief financial officer since 2019.

A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said plans for “interim leadership” will be announced in coming weeks.

The league represents more than 830 member cities through advocacy, education, training and policy development.

Jay Willms

On Wednesday, the St. Paul City Council officially swore in Jay Willms as director of city council operations. Willms, who was previously a principal fiscal analyst with Ramsey County and before that delivered nonpartisan budget analysis for the state Senate, had served since June 2023 as the council’s chief budget officer.

He replaces Brynn Hausz, who was director of city council operations until November 2024. Willms had served as the interim director since that time.

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By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

Google’s profits soared 50% in this year’s opening quarter, overcoming the competitive and legal threats that its internet empire is facing amid an economy roiled by a global trade war.

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The numbers released Thursday by Google parent Alphabet Inc. indicated the company is rising to the challenge so far, but investors are likely to remain concerned about the turbulent times ahead.

The Mountain View, California, company earned $34.5 billion, or $2.81 per share, during the January-March period, up from $23.7 billion, or $1.89 per share, at the same time last year. Revenue rose 12% from last year to $90.2 billion. The results easily exceeded analysts’ projections, according to FactSet Research.

“We continued to see healthy growth and momentum across the business,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told analysts Thursday during a conference call.

Alphabet’s stock gained more than 4% in extended trading after the numbers came out. The shares had fallen by 16% since the end of last year.

Google’s first-quarter performance illustrated the continuing power of its long-dominant search engine in a sea of uncertainty. While grappling with competitive threats emerging as artificial intelligence reshapes technology, Google is also battling court decisions condemning its search engine and digital ad network as illegal monopolies.

The AI-driven upheaval has opened new opportunities for people to find helpful advice, insights and information through more conversational search options from the likes of OpenAI and Perplexity.

Google’s long-dominant search engine is countering the new competition with a feature called AI Overviews that appear above web links in its results. It is also testing a conversational tool called AI Mode that would usher in an even more radical change to its business model.

“The company delivered a sound response to those questioning the solidity of the search business amid ever-increasing AI demand,” Investing.com analyst Thomas Monteiro said.

But Google is trying to keep its business intact as by the U.S. Justice Department attempts to break up the company and impose other restraints after a federal judge last year branded its search engine an illegal monopoly. To make matters worse, its digital ad network also was found to be illegally abusing its power earlier this month in another case brought by the Justice Department.

President Donald Trump’s trade war has injected more uncertainty into the mix by rattling the financial markets amid fears the tariffs will reignite inflation while dragging the economy into a recession. Although Google’s digital services aren’t directly impacted by the tariffs, a recession would likely curtail the spending on ads that generate most of Alphabet’s revenue.

But there were few signs of a slowdown in the past quarter. Google’s ad revenue during the period totaled $66.9 billion, an 8% increase from the same time a year ago.

Although Google’s executives are mostly upbeat during Thursday’s call, they also acknowledged conditions should the trade war trigger a recession.

“We are obviously not immune to the macro environment,” said Philipp Schindler, Alphabet’s chief business officer.

The past quarter’s steady growth emboldened Alphabet to stand firm on plans to invest $75 billion on AI and other technologies this year while also pursuing approval of a $32 billion deal to buy cybersecurity firm Wiz.

This story has been corrected to reflect Alphabet’s first-quarter profit increased 50% from the same time last year, or $2.81 per share, and that its revenue for the January-March period totaled $90.2 billion. The story also has been corrected to reflect Google’s ad revenue for the first quarter totaled $66.9 billion, an 8% increase from a year ago. An earlier version reported the incorrect dollar amounts and percentage change.

In the 2025 version of the National Hockey League, there has never been more information available to head coaches. The 32 men who run the bench for each of the league’s teams have a seemingly endless array of video analysis and advanced statistics and biometric numbers at their disposal.

If they choose to pay attention to all of what’s out there, it could, in theory, give people like Wild coach John Hynes and Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy a kind of “money ball on ice” template for finding hidden advantages that others cannot see.

But in both Hynes and Cassidy, you have veteran, experienced coaches who have been through numerous playoff series and sometimes have gut feelings they choose to follow despite what the numbers and the video clips might say.

Asked on Tuesday morning about the fact that the Wild are playing at Xcel Energy Center for the first time in this series, which allows the home coach more freedom to match lines with the visitors, Hynes noted that he has that freedom, and also has the freedom to put all of the analytics aside and roll his lines, which worked in Game 2.

“You want to let your team play,” he said. “We’ve been a good team on the road, too, and I think one of the reasons is you don’t get the matchup. There’s certain things you look for; I think there’s certain times in a game you might adjust.”

Cassidy also cautioned against over-analysis. For example, the top Vegas line of Jack Eichel, Mark Stone and Ivan Barbashev did not appear on the score sheet in the first two games, but Cassidy noted that all three have played well and have had scoring opportunities, so there’s no reason to do an extensive deep dive on their collective slow start.

“It’s early. I have all the faith in the world in those guys,” Cassidy said after Game 2. “And that gets over-analyzed early in a series too.”

That is maybe the mark of success in the modern NHL, the ability to take in all of the information available, and to know when a gut feeling overrules all of it.

“I think as the coach and coaches, and the management, you obsess over it,” Hynes said. “Then you’ve got to take a deep breath and understand that you make decisions for the right reasons, and you’ve just got to keep it simple.”

Silencing the Strip

As should be expected in the entertainment capital of the nation, they put on quite a show when the Vegas Golden Knights play at home. It starts with a parade to the rink an hour before puck drop featuring a drumline and cheerleaders followed by scores of fans for a franchise that is less than a decade old but already has two conference championships and a Stanley Cup to its credit.

Inside T-Mobile Arena there are showgirls and celebrities and an on-ice pregame show featuring castles and dragons and a sword-wielding Golden Knight in shining armor who vanquishes the evil knight who carries a Wild flag, much to the delight of the perpetual sellout crowd.

“This is one of my favorite places to play. I think the crowd’s great. There’s a lot of energy in the building, in the whole city, so that’s what playoffs is. It’s amped up,” Wild forward Matt Boldy said after Game 2. “Everything’s faster, quicker. It’s a different game. So, you want that energy, even though they’re not rooting for us, you try to use that as much as you can.”

Coming back to Minnesota for Game 3 after splitting their first two games in Nevada, the Wild players talked about a similar energy in downtown St. Paul, and the passion for the game in a community and a state where hockey is generations-old part of the culture.

“It just gives us energy. It’s a great building to play in, obviously,” Wild forward Gustav Nyquist said following the team’s Tuesday morning skate. “It’s gonna be loud tonight, so we’re excited for the game.”

And after all of the lights and noise and distractions, when the road team scores the first four goals of the game, leaving the Knights partisans stunned, it’s even more fun to visit Vegas.

“When they’re quiet, it means you’re doing a great job,” Boldy said.

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