By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A dozen states sued the Trump administration in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York on Wednesday to stop its tariff policy, saying it is unlawful and has brought chaos to the American economy.

The lawsuit said the policy put in place by President Donald Trump has left the national trade policy subject to Trump’s “whims rather than the sound exercise of lawful authority.”

It challenged Trump’s claim that he could arbitrarily impose tariffs based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The suit asks the court to declare the tariffs to be illegal, and to block government agencies and its officers from enforcing them.

A message sent to the Justice Department for comment was not immediately returned.

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The states listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit were Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Vermont.

In a release, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes called Trump’s tariff scheme “insane.”

She said it was “not only economically reckless — it is illegal.”

The lawsuit maintained that only Congress has the power to impose tariffs and that the president can only invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act when an emergency presents an “unusual and extraordinary threat” from abroad.

“By claiming the authority to impose immense and ever-changing tariffs on whatever goods entering the United States he chooses, for whatever reason he finds convenient to declare an emergency, the President has upended the constitutional order and brought chaos to the American economy,” the lawsuit said.

Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, sued the Trump administration in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California over the tariff policy, saying his state could lose billions of dollars in revenue as the largest importer in the country.

White House spokesperson Kush Desai responded to Newsom’s lawsuit, saying the Trump administration “remains committed to addressing this national emergency that’s decimating America’s industries and leaving our workers behind with every tool at our disposal, from tariffs to negotiations.”

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is putting his “touches” on the White House with new flagpoles, new artwork, a complete redecoration of the Oval Office and possibly covering up the lawn in the Rose Garden.

Trump, a former real estate developer and hotelier, said Wednesday that he’s adding two “beautiful” flagpoles to the grounds to fly the American flag “in about a week or so.”

The Republican president recently hung new artworks featuring himself, including a rendering of him with his fist raised after last year’s attempted assassination in Pennsylvania. He has spruced up the Oval Office by adding portraits of all of his predecessors, a wall-mounted copy of the Declaration of Independence flanked by dark drapes and many golden accents.

Trump has also talked about paving over the lawn in the Kennedy-era Rose Garden

All families granted the privilege of living in the White House try to find ways to leave their mark on property, and Trump isn’t any different.

Near the end of his first term, he and first lady Melania Trump unveiled refurbished tennis courts and a new pavilion on the south grounds. Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden is still producing.

But Trump is a “real estate developer at heart” and is always looking to improve the White House, spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday.

New flag poles

Earlier Wednesday, Trump took an impromptu stroll outside toward the Pennsylvania Avenue fence with head groundskeeper Dale Haney and other staff members. Asked what he was doing, Trump said he was scoping out a location for a flagpole.

He told reporters afterward that he’s installing two “beautiful” flagpoles on the grounds because “they’ve needed flagpoles for 200 years.” He said the poles would be “paid for by Trump” and could be installed as soon as next week.

The American and POW/MIA flags fly on the roof of the White House every day. Trump had them lowered on Monday after Pope Francis’ death.

Oval Office overhaul

Trump pledged in his inaugural address to preside over a “golden age of America.” But he appears to have ushered it first into an Oval Office he has redecorated by adding golden accents to the fireplace, doorway arches, walls and other areas of the room. It hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“I really must say the Oval Office has never looked better,” Paul Atkins, the new Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, said Tuesday after his ceremonial swearing-in there. “One could really describe it as glistening, and I’ve heard stories about it. It’s true. It’s the touch of a confident president, leading with optimism towards an American golden age.”

A replica of the Declaration of Independence is pictured during a swearing in ceremony for Dr. Mehmet Oz to be Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, April 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Every president spruces up the office to their liking, often with new furniture, rugs, draperies and other items. Some hire decorators; former President Joe Biden had one of his brothers to handle it.

Trump seems to have directed the process himself.

“I’ve done some ‘Trump touches’ to the Oval Office,” he told the championship Ohio State football team when he invited them for a tour after he hosted the players and coaches last week. “It’s a little nicer than it used to be, I think.”

New Trump art

Earlier this month, Trump hung a portrait depicting a moment after last summer’s assassination attempt, thereby bumping the official portrait of former President Barack Obama to another wall in the foyer.

The new painting was donated by Andrew Pollock, whose lost his daughter Meadow in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Another image of Trump now hangs on the ground floor between the official portraits of former first ladies Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton.

Revealed in a social media post by first-year Rep. Jimmy Patronis, a Florida Republican, the image of Trump features the red, white and blue of an American flag superimposed over the president’s headshot on a black background.

The White House on Wednesday confirmed that the image is real.

Rose Garden

Trump also wants to pave over the lawn in the famous Rose Garden, which was created during the administration of John F. Kennedy after he was inspired by gardens he saw during a 1961 state visit to France.

Presidents have long used the space for everything from big announcements to Thanksgiving turkey pardons ceremonies.

He shared his plan with Fox News Channel host Laura Ingraham as he showed her Oval Office while taping an interview. The Rose Garden is just outside and Trump complained about the lawn always being “soaking wet” and “the women with the high heels.”

“The grass just, it doesn’t work,” Trump told Ingraham, adding that it would be covered with “gorgeous stone.”

Ingraham asked if the roses stay. Trump said they would.

“It’s a rose garden. All of this stays,” he said, explaining that only the lawn would be affected. “I think it’s going to be beautiful. I think it’s going to be more beautiful.”

Paving over the lawn would mark the second makeover of the space under Trump.

In 2020, then-first lady Trump announced a spruce-up of the garden, with the most visually striking change being the addition of a 3-foot-wide limestone walking path bordering the central lawn. Less noticeable alterations included improved drainage and infrastructure, and accessibility for people with disabilities. Audiovisual and broadcasting fixes were also made.

Winter camelina, an oilseed crop in the same family as canola, could be a climate change problem solver, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

The agency has announced that it will fund a $75,000 grant for the University of Minnesota’s Forever Green Initiative for an independent study on how the state can scale up to 1 million acres of winter camelina, MPCA commissioner Katrina Kessler said Tuesday at the university’s crop research fields in Falcon Heights.

“I think this is a great opportunity to support rural Minnesota, rural communities, farmers who want to innovate – and decarbonize the airline industry to help us meet our goals around getting to carbon neutral in 2050 as a state,” Kessler said.

What is SAF and how do crops help?

Sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, is fuel made from non-petroleum sources blended with traditional jet fuel to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It can reduce aviation emissions by up to 94%, according to the MPCA.

Winter camelina has a high oil content and a low carbon intensity score, which makes it beneficial for sustainable aviation fuel, according to the MPCA. The crop also helps to improve soil health and water quality. Additionally, it can be used to create animal feed, food and bioplastic, according to Forever Green Initiative co-director Dr. Mitch Hunter.

“Right now, we don’t have a pipeline, so to speak, built to take on farm production and turn it into fuel,” Hunter said. “The study that we’re launching will lay out the steps that we need to take to get there.”

Planning for 1 million acres

In September 2024, Delta Air Lines used SAF derived in part from winter camelina to fuel a flight from Minneapolis to New York. The demonstration flight was the first out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to use SAF.

Every winter, about 17 million acres of cropland in Minnesota has nothing growing on it, according to Hunter. He said these cold months are a missed opportunity for farmers to grow crops like winter camelina, which is planted in the fall and harvested in the spring.

“If we can put productive, profitable crops on those acres that can protect the soil and give farmers something to harvest, we can make progress on improving farm economics, improving water quality and protecting the soil that we depend on for growing food today and for future generations,” Hunter said.

Close to 5000 acres of the crop were planted in the upper Midwest in the fall of 2024, according to Hunter, but the goal for Minnesota alone is to cover 1 million acres.

“We have an ambitious goal, which is to have 1 million acres of winter camelina in the upper Midwest by 2035,” Hunter said. “We will really have to pull out all the stops to get to that goal, but we have a big, committed coalition of supporters who are all behind us in that goal, and that gives me hope that we can get there.”

Farming the crop

A field of pennycress, closely related to winter camelina, grows at the University of Minnesota in Falcon Heights. (Talia McWright / Pioneer Press)

The university and MPCA are encouraging farmers to consider growing winter camelina to help drive the demand for climate-smart crops.

Ben Penner, a farmer from Mankato, said that in 2024, Penner Farms planted close to 150 acres of winter camelina.

Penner said there hasn’t been a crop to hit the market to help with fuel emissions like winter camelina and its relatives, since soybeans, which grows in the summer months and can also be used for sustainable aviation fuel. The potential for a crop like winter camelina is there, he said, but it’s new and that means there’s still a lot to learn.

“The demand is there, and it is a fuel pathway that will grow,” Penner said. “What I tell farmers is, ‘Let’s learn everything we can now so that when that market comes fully online, then we’ll be able to partake in the market rather than watch someone else do it.’”

Along with soybeans and winter camelina, other crops that can be used as SAF feedstock include pennycress, woody biomass and corn, according to the MPCA.

“The journey that soybeans were on 80 years ago is the journey we’re on with winter camelina; taking a promising plant and turning it into a high-performing crop,” Hunter said.

Federal and state funding

According to the MPCA, Gov. Tim Walz’s 2025 budget includes $20 million over the next 10 years for tax credits to promote SAF production in Minnesota. In 2025, the state will also complete a roadmap for SAF industry development and regulation.

“This is part of our whole government approach around climate change,” Kessler said. “We need to be doing whatever we can across the state, across all of our economic sectors to reduce greenhouse gases.”

Kessler and Hunter acknowledged that many environmental organizations and efforts have experienced federal funding cuts under the Trump administration and are unsure whether this will impact their plans.

“We were selected for a $10 million grant from the Department of Energy, which would greatly further our research on camelina and pennycress, and we understand that that grant is currently under review by the new administration,” Hunter said.

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Despite the uncertainty, Kessler and Hunter said the state remains committed to supporting this initiative.

“We remain hopeful that it will come through, and in the meantime, we are extra thankful for the support of all of these partners who can continue the work while we wait,” Hunter said.

The Forever Green Initiative is partnering with Greater MSP’s MBOLD coalition and SAF Hub, Friends of the Mississippi River, Minnesota Environmental Partnership, the McKnight Foundation, MPCA and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to conduct the study and fund the total cost of the research, which is between $250,000 to $500,000, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

A St. Paul man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for hiding out in an alley behind his home last summer and fatally shooting a 22-year-old as he drove past.

Lawrence Danzel Phelps, 31, pleaded guilty in Ramsey County District Court to second-degree unintentional murder while committing a felony last week, before the start of the second day of testimony in his trial in the June 24 killing of Royce D. McKinney on the city’s East Side. Phelps’ brother told police the shooting stemmed from a feud over a previous alleged marijuana theft and shooting, according to the criminal complaint.

A plea agreement included the length of his prison term, which he received Monday from Judge Kellie Charles. He was given credit for nearly 10 months already served in custody.

Phelps was initially charged with second-degree intentional murder. In January, prosecutors added the unintentional murder charge and possession of a firearm after a conviction for a crime of violence. Those charges were dismissed as part of the plea deal.

According to the complaint, officers were called to Van Dyke Street and York Avenue about 9:40 p.m. June 24 on reports of gunshots and a horn sounding. McKinney, of St. Paul, was in the driver’s seat of a Chevrolet Tahoe SUV that had crashed into a boulevard tree.

McKinney, who had a gunshot wound to his upper torso, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said there was a handgun on the driver’s seat of McKinney’s vehicle. It had a full magazine and no round in the chamber.

About 8 a.m. the next day, Phelps’ 17-year-old brother was seen leaving the area with a backpack and law enforcement pulled over the Uber he was riding in. When officers were taking him into custody, he said, “There is a gun in my bag,” and asked, “What am I wanted for, murder?” and then said the backpack wasn’t his.

The teen told police he knew the gun he was arrested with was involved in the murder and that a friend of his mother’s, “Derrick,” was the shooter.

He said McKinney followed them home from Cub Foods, taunted Derrick and scared his mother by revving his engine outside their home. Police talked to the teen’s mom who “denied the existence of a ‘Derrick,’” the complaint says.

Investigators knew the teen had an older brother, Phelps. They reviewed surveillance video from Cub that showed the teen with his 6-year-old nephew and Phelps, but not another person who could be Derrick, the complaint says.

The teen was charged with possession of a firearm by a person under 18, and later requested to talk with investigators again. He said he’d talked to his mother and “feels comfortable now telling the truth about what occurred,” the complaint against Phelps says.

Lawrence Danzel Phelps (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

He said Phelps previously stole marijuana from McKinney. About three months before McKinney’s killing, McKinney shot at Phelps, and casings found at a shooting scene matched McKinney’s firearm, the complaint says.

The teen said he was at Cub on June 24 when he noticed McKinney in a Tahoe, which followed them home. A couple of hours later, the teen was inside with his family and he heard an engine revving outside. His sister looked outside and said it was the Tahoe again. The teen told Phelps, who grabbed a gun and ran outside.

Soon after, the teen “heard several shots and hit the floor with his other family members,” the complaint says.

Phelps came back inside, saying, “I gotta go,” changed his clothes and left the firearm. “Phelps reportedly said that he hid in the alley and when the Tahoe came by, he jumped out to start shooting,” the complaint says.

Officers arrested Phelps on June 28 in South St. Paul. He said he hadn’t been to his family’s address in a couple of weeks, but then said he’d been there earlier in the week. He said it was only to drop off groceries and he’d left. He said he didn’t know anything about a shooting.

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He had warrants from the Minnesota Department of Corrections for a probation violation in an assault case, domestic-related warrants from Dakota County and a theft warrant from Hennepin County, the complaint says.

In August, a BCA report was filed stating Phelps was a major profile DNA match from swabs taken from the grip of the firearm believed to be the murder weapon.

Phelps has three prior felony convictions for crimes of violence that prohibit him from possessing a firearm: aiding and abetting second-degree burglary in April 2013 in Ramsey County, third-degree assault in March 2022 in Ramsey County and domestic assault in January 2023 in Dakota County.