President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday at 9 p.m. Eastern is likely to be a test run of the message Republicans will give to voters in November’s elections for control of the House and the Senate.

The president and his party appear vulnerable, with polls showing much of America distrusts how Trump has managed the government in his first year back in office. In addition, the Supreme Court last week struck down one of the chief levers of his economic and foreign policy by ruling he lacked the power to impose many of his sweeping tariffs.

Though Trump is expected to focus on domestic issues, his intensifying threats about launching military strikes on Iran over its nuclear program cast a shadow over the address.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will give the Democratic Party response following Trump’s speech. California Sen. Alex Padilla, who made national headlines last year after being forced to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents, will deliver the party’s response in Spanish.

Watch the livestream here.

An Apple Valley man convicted of murder for setting up a Bloomington marijuana deal and then hitting and dragging the seller with his SUV while speeding off with the drug was sentenced to 12½ years in prison Tuesday.

A Hennepin County jury found Lamont Eugene Williams Jr., 22, guilty of second-degree unintentional murder last month in connection with the killing of 21-year-old Alexif Loeza Galvan near his home on Bloomington’s east side on March 6.

Alexif Loeza Galvan (Courtesy of GoFundMe)

Galvan’s family and then officers called to the scene found him on the ground near a snowbank, gasping for breath. He was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he soon died of blunt force trauma.

“I had to to watch my brother take his last breath,” sister Yamilet Loeza said Tuesday in her victim impact statement. “Nothing could have prepared me for the silence that came after.”

Galvan’s injuries included a brain bleed, skull fracture, broken collarbone, rib fractures and cuts and bruising on the lower back and elsewhere consistent with road rash.

“This was a horrible death, Your Honor,” Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Krista White told Judge Juan Hoyos, who presided over the trial. “You saw the photos. He was dragged down to the bone, his skull was crushed.”

Lamont Eugene Williams Jr. (Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)

Williams claimed self-defense at trial, testifying that he sped away after Galvan assaulted him and “was completely taken off guard by (Galvan’s) actions,” his attorney Katherine Claffey and Robert Paule and wrote in a presentencing memo.

Claffey said at sentencing that Williams “has great remorse,” and no prior criminal convictions. She asked the judge to depart from state sentencing guidelines and give him probation or else a four-year prison term.

White said there was neither evidence nor trial testimony from the witness that Galvan was the first aggressor. She asked the judge for a 15-year prison term, the maximum that would have been allowed under state sentencing guidelines.

Williams had prior convictions as a juvenile, White said, adding “and had the opportunities to learn from his prior mistakes. This isn’t about helping Mr. Williams. He killed someone.”

‘I’m in this Jeep’

Police were called to the 8300 block of 11th Avenue about 8:45 p.m. on a report of the man lying in the street with broken bones and difficulty breathing.

One of Galvan’s family members told officers that Galvan had told him that “Monty,” who was later identified as Williams, had contacted him and that he agreed to sell marijuana to Williams, the criminal complaint said.

Galvan’s mother reported she was sitting on the couch when he told her he was going outside to sell something. About two minutes later, she heard yelling. She looked outside and saw him leaning into the passenger side of a small, dark-colored SUV. He appeared to be halfway in the vehicle.

She said she could see Galvan and someone inside the SUV pulling a backpack back and forth. As this was happening, the SUV accelerated and she shouted to her other children. They went outside and found Galvan lying in the street a few houses from their house.

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Williams was arrested the next day near his home; he’d been driving a grey Jeep Renegade registered to his mother. Inside the SUV was a backpack with a 9mm handgun, which was missing a serial number, and plastic bags of marijuana that totaled about 264 grams, or more than 9 ounces.

A search of Williams’ phone showed the two men exchanged messages through Facebook about Galvan selling him “smoke.” Galvan sent Williams his home address.

Williams wrote to Galvan at 8:31 p.m., “Here.” Four minutes later, Williams wrote, “I’m in this Jeep.” Location data of Williams’ cellphone showed it moved east from the area of Galvan’s home at 8:37 p.m. Six minutes later, Williams messaged him: “My fault gang I had to.”

At sentencing, prosecutor White mentioned the mea culpa message and told the court: “No, he did not have to. He made a choice, and that choice has cost someone their life.”

By COLLIN BINKLEY

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is suing the University of California over allegations that UCLA failed to protect Jewish employees from antisemitic harassment amid pro-Palestinian protests that roiled the campus in 2023 and 2024.

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The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in California, is the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s campaign to punish top universities that it says have been soft on antisemitism. The suit accuses UCLA of failing to discipline those who were involved in protests, including dozens who were arrested in 2024 for failing to leave a campus encampment.

UCLA officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump officials previously determined that UCLA failed to protect Jewish students, and last year UCLA reached a $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor who sued the university. The new lawsuit alleges the harm to Jewish and Israeli employees “goes much deeper” than that settlement addressed.

“The United States will now do what UC has thus far failed to do: protect Jewish and Israeli employees” from antisemitic harassment, the suit said.

Much of the complaint focuses on the 2024 protest encampment that federal officials say blocked Jewish employees and students from parts of campus and included antisemitic signs and chants. It alleges UCLA violated its own policies by tolerating the encampment and accuses the university of failing to discipline any students, faculty or staff over antisemitic behavior.

The suit asks a judge to force UCLA to enforce its own anti-discrimination policies and to award damages to Jewish employees at UCLA who faced a hostile work environment.

The Trump administration has primarily focused on elite private universities in its campaign to win obedience from campuses it accuses of liberal and antisemitic bias. UCLA is one of the few public universities targeted in that effort.

Last summer the Trump administration said it was seeking $1 billion from UCLA as part of a settlement to end federal scrutiny. Trump officials had cut hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding from the university, though a federal judge ordered the money to be restored in September.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

No surge for the red?

I am curious why red state governors Ron Desantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas are not actively inviting an ICE surge into their own states. Both Florida and Texas have 10 times the number of immigrants as Minnesota. Both states have internment camps that detainees could be bused to rather than flown to on commercial airliners. Both have a larger number of residents who might actually support the fascist and unconstitutional practices of masked ICE agents.

The answer to my question is obvious. Desantis and Abbott know all too well the political and economic damage an ICE surge would do to their states. It is far easier for them to promote the false narrative that ICE activity in blue states like Minnesota is making those states and indeed our nation safer. Their hypocrisy is shameful.

Rick Gavin, Eagan

That aroma

I passed by you on the sidewalk today, and didn’t say anything. I sat near you at the coffee shop today. There you were at the mall, close by. When flying to Las Vegas this weekend, I passed by you as I searched for my seat. Your aura, fragrance and aroma, unmistakable. I asked Google to describe:

The smell of marijuana, particularly when it is considered “awful” or overwhelming, is often described as a pungent, skunky, and thick aroma that can trigger feelings of nausea or anxiety. It is notoriously difficult to hide and is frequently described as a mixture of burning rubber, rotting fruit, skunk spray, and damp, stagnant water.

The vast majority of us keep our heads down, hold our breath and pass you by.  I want to take this moment to tell the truth, not to bring you down from your buzz, nor to make you even more paranoid, a side affect of the drug. You stink.

Jerry Wynn, St. Paul

 

You know that voice

Just came home from a post-operative check-in with an eye doctor and was surprised to have been greeted by a cheerful employee leading me to a self-check-in kiosk. It was not too difficult to use the screen, though I did stumble a bit. After all, I am somewhat tech-literate. It struck me as an impersonal interaction, putting a machine between befuddled customer and a wonderful human being. I’ve always enjoyed cajoling, teasing, laughing with the sign-in personnel, and this seemed unnecessarily mechanized.

We all know that what we need right now in these troubled times is caring, personal contact between each other. If efficiency is the kiosk’s purpose, well, consider that it required a person to help me get through the sign-in process anyway, and rather than talking about the weather or whatever, she needed to help an old duffer get through the technology. Maybe others have experienced the dreaded AI voice when calling to make a medical appointment or get some personal help for a medical condition. You know that voice, the one that can’t understand the word “YES!”  This makes me worry about what’s ahead.

Bob Goepel, Little Canada

 

Pawns in a larger war

The feds’ refusal to share information with the state about the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti will prevent a full accounting of what happened. The federal agents who pulled the trigger multiple times should be brought to justice. But even with full cooperation, investigations of those killings would be insufficient.

Triggers don’t get pulled in a vacuum. The agents who killed Good and Pretti are pawns in a larger war to pit Americans against each other.

These agents were put here by a reckless, lawless president for bogus reasons — do these masked ruffians look like they’re rooting out fraud? He armed them with simmering resentment of people with brown skin through dehumanizing and demeaning rhetoric. He empowered them with disdain for the rule of law. They were further egged on by J.D. Vance and Stephen Miller, declaring that federal agents had immunity.

Congressional Republican lemmings, blindly following a self-serving and malicious authoritarian, funded this chaos through the incongruously named One Big Beautiful Bill. Minnesota’s highest ranking lemming, Tom Emmer, has learned to lie and misdirect as proudly as the big boss. Like a good little lemming, he declared that ICE violence is the fault of local leaders.

Words have consequences. Contempt as policy has consequences. Trump and all of his enablers are responsible for Minnesotans’ suffering — including the deaths of Good and Pretti — and should be held accountable.

Rich Cowles, Eagan

 

Parallels

It is hard not to see the parallels between the ending of Baum’s The Wizard of Oz and the current chaotic scenes that play out daily at the White House. Harry Truman is credited for having placed a sign on the Resolute Desk that read, The Buck Stops Here. Unfortunately, as with many of the current resident’s past ventures, the result is bankruptcy, only this time it is of the moral kind. Minor flaws can be overlooked or overcome, but Donald Trump’s flaws are of the deeper and more tragic variety. When Dorothy exposed the Wizard of Oz and his false majesty, she reproached him and called him “a very bad man,” to which he replied, “No my dear, I’m a very good man – just a bad wizard.” And while it is certainly possible for someone to be a good man but a bad president, Trump shows us time and again by his reckless words and his feckless deeds that it is well nigh impossible for a very bad man to be a good president.

John W. Wheeler, Maplewood

Not a verdict on his potential

The Minnesota Vikings are right to pursue an experienced quarterback to serve as QB1 next season. Sam Darnold was never going to remain in Minnesota, and the mistake was not moving on — it was failing to start Daniel Jones as QB1 last season while allowing J.J. McCarthy to develop as QB2. Instead, McCarthy was rushed into a role he was not positioned to succeed in, effectively being asked to lead an offense that was not structurally prepared to support a rookie quarterback.

Evaluating Vikings quarterback play has been difficult dating back to the end of the 2024–25 season, when Darnold was sacked 11 times in his final two games, including nine in the playoff loss to the Rams. That breakdown did not end with that season. In 2025–26, Minnesota’s offensive line ranked approximately 25th to 28th out of 32 NFL teams in pass protection. That level of protection made it harder to evaluate quarterback play based on quarterback performance alone, as even elite passers see their performance and statistics suffer against an unrelenting, unimpeded pass rush.

That reality mattered for every quarterback, but it was especially true for McCarthy, who was effectively navigating his true rookie season. Even so, his final four starts showed progress: a 4–0 record, 64.3% completion rate, 703 yards, five touchdowns, two interceptions, and a cumulative passer rating near 95.

Two things can be true at once: the Vikings are right to seek a veteran QB1, and McCarthy should still be viewed as a possible NFL-level quarterback. Rushing his development was a team decision — not a verdict on his potential.

Dennis M Dunnigan, White Bear Lake