An appeals court on Wednesday suspended a decision that restricts immigration officers’ aggressive tactics in Minnesota, while Maine declined a request for more undercover license plates for U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicles, citing “abuses of power” during the Trump administration’s crackdown.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was persuaded to freeze a judge’s ruling that bars officers from using tear gas and other steps against peaceful protesters while the administration pursues an appeal. Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, began in early December.

An injunction ordered last week by U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez harms “officers’ ability to protect themselves and the public in very dangerous circumstances,” lawyers for the government argued.

Minnesota remains a major focus of immigration sweeps by agencies under the Department of Homeland Security. State and local officials who oppose the effort were served with federal grand jury subpoenas Tuesday for records that might suggest they were trying to stifle enforcement.

A political action committee founded by former Vice President Kamala Harris is urging donors to come to the aid of Gov. Tim Walz, her 2024 running mate, and contribute to a defense fund.

“The Justice Department is going after Trump’s enemies list,” Harris’ email said, referring to President Donald Trump.

Related Articles

Minnesota: Amtrak cancels some services ahead of brutal winter weather

Food producers, vendors invited to St. Paul lunch-and-learn event amid ICE impacts

Founders of St. Paul addiction recovery nonprofit charged with drug trafficking

Minnesota statewide strike, economic blackout to protest ICE on Friday

DOJ subpoenas Walz, other local leaders in immigration enforcement obstruction investigation

Maine says no to special plate request

In Maine, meanwhile, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, said she won’t grant a request for confidential license plates sought by Customs and Border Protection, a decision that reflects her disgust over the tactics of immigration officers elsewhere. Renee Good was fatally shot by an immigration officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. A message seeking comment from CBP was not immediately returned.

“We have not revoked existing plates but have paused issuance of new plates. We want to be assured that Maine plates will not be used for lawless purposes,” Bellows said.

Portland Public Schools, the largest and most diverse district in Maine, said it kept the doors locked at two schools for a few minutes Tuesday because of concerns about activity by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“This is an understandably tense time in our community, as reports and rumors of immigration enforcement actions grow,” the district said.

Conflicts emerge in shooting incident

Greg Bovino of U.S. Border Patrol, who has commanded the Trump administration’s big-city immigration crackdown, said more than 10,000 people in the U.S. illegally have been arrested in Minnesota in the past year, including 3,000 “of some of the most dangerous offenders” in the last six weeks during Operation Metro Surge.

Bovino defended his “troops” and said their actions are “legal, ethical and moral.”

Julia Decker, policy director at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, said advocates have no way of knowing whether the government’s arrest numbers and descriptions of the people in custody are accurate.

Separately, a federal judge said he’s prepared to grant bond and release two men after hearing conflicting testimony about an alleged assault on an immigration officer. Prosecutors are appealing. One of the men was shot in the thigh by the officer during the encounter last week.

The officer said he was repeatedly struck with a broom and with snow shovels while trying to subdue and arrest Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna following a car crash and foot chase.

Aljorna and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis denied assaulting the officer. Neither video evidence nor three eyewitnesses supported the officer’s account about the broom and shovels or that there had been a third person involved.

Aljorna and Sosa-Celis do not have violent criminal records, their attorneys said, and both had been working as DoorDash drivers at night to avoid encounters with federal agents.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko said they still could be detained by ICE even if released from custody in the assault case.

___

Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Associated Press reporter Ed White in Detroit contributed.

Related Articles

St. Paul ordinance would ban law enforcement staging at city property for immigration enforcement

Food producers, vendors invited to St. Paul lunch-and-learn event amid ICE impacts

After Minneapolis, Democrats confront political vulnerabilities as they battle Trump on immigration

Doctors in Minnesota decry fear and chaos amid Trump administration’s immigration crackdown

U.S. immigration authorities downplay concerns over citizens being detained

Following the success of the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival at St. Paul’s Harriet Island Regional Park, promoters have officially announced that a long-rumored country music festival will take place on the same site.

Details, however, are scarce at this point. The Minnesota Country Club Festival is set for July 10 and 11. An Instagram post promises “a weekend of roots, folk, country, Americana and a few surprises along the Mississippi” but does not reveal anything else beyond a website, minnesotacountryclubfest.com.

The Minnesota Yacht Club Festival debuted in 2024 with headliners Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gwen Stefani and Alanis Morissette and was a hit with critics and crowds. It returned in July 2025 with an expanded three-day lineup led by Green Day, Hozier and Fall Out Boy. The festival has drawn about 35,000 people each day.

It was the first major rock and pop festival on Harriet Island since Live Nation’s River’s Edge Music Festival in 2012. Despite promising St. Paul a five-year commitment, the concert promoting giant lost enough money to convince them to pull out after a single year.

Live Nation owns 51 percent of Yacht Club organizers C3 Presents, an Austin, Texas, company that’s also behind Austin City Limits Music Festival, Voodoo Music + Arts Experience and the modern-day Lollapalooza. But Live Nation apparently allows C3 to follow its own path and use a more personal touch in staging festivals. Concertgoers have praised much about the festival, but complained about long concessions lines and inflated prices for beer and alcohol.

The Lumineers, Matchbox Twenty and the Strokes will headline the third annual Minnesota Yacht Club Festival, which returns to Harriet Island July 17 through 19.

Related Articles

Bruce Springsteen dedicates song to Renee Good and says ICE should ‘get the f— out of Minneapolis’

VocalEssence and Sir John Rutter offer a balm for the wounded Twin Cities

Chris Stapleton adds second show at Mystic Lake Amphitheater

Pitbull will headline Mystic Lake Amphitheater in September with Lil Jon

John Mellencamp will play his biggest hits at new Shakopee amphitheater

Frankie Capan III came up just short of achieving even conditional status for this year’s PGA Tour season via his performance as a rookie last year.

But his late fall surge wasn’t all for naught — it’s why the North Oaks, Minn., native is in this week’s American Express field in La Quinta, Calif.

There are 156 players in this week’s tournament, which is played alongside a pro-am between three different courses. It’s also played the same week as a high-profile event on the DP World Tour, where many of the world’s top players will tee it up this week.

So while the American Express does tout many of the world’s best — Scottie Scheffler is playing — it is difficult to fill this big of a field. After going through all of the PGA Tour cardholders as well as those with conditional status, there were four spots remaining when the field was finalized Friday.

From there, the Tour turns to those just outside of last year’s top 125. Capan finished 127th, a position he climbed into last fall via a pair of top-six performances. He was the third-to-last man into this week’s field because of it.

Capan is a member of the Korn Ferry Tour — the PGA Tour’s primary feeder tour — this season. He already has played in one Korn Ferry event, where he missed the cut. He passed on the second Korn Ferry Tour event of this season in order to play in the American Express.

This is one of a few PGA Tour events Capan will get to tee it up in thanks to last year’s late surge, along with the likes of the off-field events the PGA Tour hosts on the same weekends as marquee, limited-field events.

While it’s difficult to transform your career in a weekend on a tour on which you don’t currently carry a card, a top-10 finish this weekend would earn Capan a start at next week’s Farmer’s Insurance Open in San Diego. And the ultimate dream, of course, would be to hoist the trophy on Sunday, at which point Capan would re-join the PGA Tour, where he’d automatically have a two-year exemption, and earn a trip to this year’s Masters.

Neither feat will be easy to achieve, but Capan did finish in a tie for 12th in this event a year ago — easily his best individual finish of his rookie campaign prior to the fall slate.

A rare opportunity knocks.

Related Articles

Letters: If we can sue automakers for car theft, whom should we sue for Minnesota fraud?

Frankie Capan III finishes T-3 in Bermuda, inching toward PGA Tour status

Citing “significant financial headwinds,” Minneapolis’ Jungle Theater is cancelling the remainder of its current season and pausing all its programming through at least mid-summer.

The theater is not shutting down permanently, artistic director Christina Baldwin and managing director Rachel Murch-D’Olimpio said in a joint statement. But the duo seemed to characterize the programming pause as a necessary precaution to avoid a total closure.

“This pause allows the organization to step back from production, assess our options, and plan for the future, rather than continue in ways that could compromise our mission or impact,” Baldwin and Murch-D’Olimpio wrote.

The remainder of the Jungle’s 2025–2026 season was slated to include South Korean family drama “Wolf Play,” the based-on-a-true-story adaptation “Letters From Max” and a workshop reading of the play “Sonia Flew” by Melinda Lopez, partially set in Minneapolis. Separately, a scheduled Jan. 19 reading of queer playwright Jayne Deely’s “I Never Asked For A GoFundMe” did not take place due to escalating immigration enforcement activity, the theater announced.

Ticketholders and season subscribers can expect to hear more shortly, Baldwin and Murch-D’Olimpio said in the statement.

In 2024, the most recent year the nonprofit theater’s financial disclosures were made public via ProPublica, the theater lost around $442,000, and also ended 2023 in the red by about $400,000. But the theater appears to have been profitable in 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018 and 2017. Financial information for 2025 is not available, but many arts organizations, both locally and nationally, have struggled over the past year as they’ve grappled with the sudden termination of certain federal grant programs.

The 152-seat Jungle, which opened in the Lyn-Lake area of Minneapolis in 1991, has developed a reputation for creative stage productions and other programming, including improv nights and a theater criticism course.

Related Articles

A key character in Ballet Minnesota’s ‘Nutcracker’? Clara’s dress — for 37 years and counting

Obituary: TU Dance founder Toni Pierce-Sands, 63, made national mark before return to St. Paul

As part of touring ensemble, two St. Paul skaters are set to perform in ‘Disney on Ice’ this weekend

Holiday arts and entertainment: ‘White Christmas,’ Dickens and the Grinch lead the holiday stage offerings

History and fantasy blend in ‘Rollicking! A Winter Carnival Musical’