The boys hockey state tournament party gets started Wednesday with the Class A quarterfinals kicking off the festivities in downtown St. Paul.

The entire tournament can be watched on KSTC, Channel 45.

The field

Defending champion East Grand Forks isn’t in this week’s field, and Hibbing/Chisholm is the top seed after emerging from a daunting Section 7A tournament that also featured the likes of Hermantown and Cloquet/Esko/Carlton.

St. Cloud Cathedral, who was last year’s runner up after falling to the Green Wave in overtime, is seeded fifth.

Northern Lakes, St. Cloud Cathedral, Mahtomedi and Hibbing/Chisholm are the four entries in this year’s field returning from last season.

Can Mahtomedi do it again?

The Zephyrs enter the tournament in their usual position – not as a favorite, but a dark horse.

It’s a typical Jeff Poeschl-coached team, one that has balanced scoring – seven Zephyrs have 20-plus points this season, while 14 have cracked double digits – and ever improving.

Mahtomedi again tackled one of the state’s premier schedules, going 1-4 in five games against northern schools, while also playing Minnetonka, the top-seeded team in Class 2A.

Mahtomedi had a tie and a loss each in two battles against conference rivals St. Thomas Academy and Hill-Murray.

In the past two months, the Zephyrs have wins over the tournament’s No. 2 seed, Delano, and fifth-seeded St. Cloud Cathedral, who just happens to be their opponent in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.

The Zephyrs are capable of anything and, in this same time and location each year, tend to deliver some of their best performances.

Best player, best team

Hibbing/Chisholm is the top seed, and it possesses the top player. Forward Tate Swanson is a Mr. Hockey finalist and a points factory.

Last year, Swanson tallied 22 goals and 42 assists. This season, he has 27 goals and 41 assists with at least two games still to play.

Swanson assisted on all three goals in Hibbing/Chisholm’s 3-2 overtime victory over Cloquet/Esko/Carlton in last week’s section final.

Hibbing/Chisholm’s No. 2 leading scorer? Tate’s younger brother, sophomore forward Cole Swanson (28 goals, 32 assists).

Class A schedule

Wednesday’s quarterfinals

No. 1 Hibbing/Chisholm (24-2-2) vs. No. 8 Dodge County (19-8-1), 11 a.m.

No. 4 Mahtomedi (17-9-2) vs. No. 5 St. Cloud Cathedral (17-11), 1 p.m.

No. 2 Delano (22-4-2) vs. No. 7 Mankato West (19-7-2), 6 p.m.

No. 3 Warroad (22-5-1) vs. No. 6 Northern Lakes (17-10-1), 8 p.m.

Friday’s semifinals

Wednesday afternoon semifinal winners, 11 a.m.

Wednesday evening semifinal winners, 1 p.m.

Saturday’s final

Friday afternoon semifinal winners, Noon

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By MORGAN LEE

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Prosecutors began presenting never-before-seen video depositions of Meta executives at a trial in New Mexico on Tuesday to bolster accusations the social media conglomerate failed to disclose what it knows about harmful effects to children on its platforms, including Instagram.

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New Mexico prosecutors are billing depositions from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram leader Adam Mosseri as centerpieces of the state’s case against Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Prosecutors have accused Meta of violating state consumer protection laws.

Prosecutors say the dangers of addiction to social media as well as child sexual exploitation on Meta’s platforms weren’t properly addressed or disclosed by the company.

Meta attorney Kevin Huff pushed back on those assertions during opening statements on Feb. 9, highlighting efforts to weed out harmful content from its platforms while warning users that some content still gets through its safety net. He said Meta discloses the risks.

The New Mexico case and a separate trial playing out in Los Angeles could set the course for thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies.

Zuckerberg testified last month in Los Angeles about young people’s use of Instagram and has answered questions from Congress about youth safety on Meta’s platforms.

During his 2024 congressional testimony, he apologized to families whose lives had been upended by tragedies they believed were caused by social media. But while he told parents he was “sorry for everything you have all been through,” he stopped short of taking direct responsibility for it.

Mosseri testified at the California trial that he disagrees with the idea that people can be clinically addicted to social media platforms.

If he ever needs a reminder of what it takes to win a Stanley Cup, all veteran winger Robby Fabbri has to do is look down at his right forearm. That’s where the 30-year-old got a tattoo to commemorate the greatest achievement of his career.

After hoisting the Stanley Cup as a member of the St. Louis Blues on June 12, 2019, the veteran center had the date carved into his skin so he never forgets that feeling of euphoria.

The Wild hope Fabbri’s experience can help them in their pursuit of the Stanley Cup. He was claimed off waivers Monday afternoon and expected to make his team debut on Tuesday night when the Wild played host to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Grand Casino Arena.

“I think the way I play fits in well here,” Fabbri said. “It’s an exciting group, and I’m just trying to fill in any way I can.”

The plan was for Fabbri to play alongside center Nico Sturm and opposite winger Vinnie Hinostroza. He should bring some grit to the bottom half of the lineup, along with an understanding of what’s being asked of him in that role.

“We’re excited to have him,” head coach John Hynes said. “I think he adds some depth to our forward group.”

That’s something the Wild desperately need right now after veteran winger Marcus Foligno suffered a lower body injury that landed him on injured reserve. Though he is expected return later this season, Foligno will be on the shelf for the foreseeable future.

The addition of Fabbri should help ease some of the pain in the short term. He comes to the Wild having played more than 450 games, spending time with the Blues, Detroit Red Wings and Anaheim Ducks.

“He has been through different experiences,” Hynes said. “I think that’ll certainly help him in this situation.”

Originally selected in the first round of the 2014 draft, Fabbri looked like he was going to be a prolific scorer at the highest level. That trajectory changed after he missed more than 20 months of action after twice tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

It was imperative that Fabbri reinvent himself if he wanted to stick around. He started to take pride in being somebody that could be trusted in every situation, only to tear the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

Not once did Fabbri think about giving up, even when he started this season without a roster spot. He kept his head down and kept working with hopes of eventually earning another chance to chase a Stanley Cup.

That finally came this week when the Blues placed him on waivers, and the Wild decided to pick him up.

“I think everything happens for a reason,” Fabbri said. “I’m just very excited to be a part of this group.”

It isn’t lost on Fabbri that he’s suddenly on a legitimate contender with a chance to win another Cup. He isn’t taking anything for granted given his journey to this point.

“That’s why we play the game, right?” Fabbri said. “This is the most fun time coming down the stretch here, and I’m glad to be a part of it.”

Briefly

After missing the past 14 games with a lingering lower body injury that required surgery, defenseman Jonas Brodin was expected to return to the lineup when the Wild were host to the Lightning late Tuesday.

St. Louis Blues center Robby Fabbri (15) controls the puck in front of Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon (46) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in St. Paul, Minn., Sunday, March 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)

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The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to take up a lawsuit against a St. Paul police sergeant, bringing to a close a case that began with federal charges 15 years ago.

When the charges were filed in November 2010, Sgt. Heather Weyker and her supervisor said they had spent thousands of hours on the case. Weyker, who was assigned to a human trafficking task force, had started the investigation in 2008, after police said a family had contacted them and asked for help.

Thirty people were accused of being part of a multistate child sex trafficking operation that took place in Minnesota, Ohio and Tennessee.

A district court later opined that Weyker “likely exaggerated or fabricated important aspects of this story,” and she was caught “lying to the grand jury and, later, lying during a detention hearing,” according to a 2016 U.S. Court of Appeals decision for the Sixth Circuit.

One of the people caught up in the case was Hamdi Mohamud, then a teenager.

Hamdi Mohamud (Courtesy of the Institute for Justice)

“Weyker’s false claims led to Mohamud’s arrest, prosecution, and nearly two years in federal detention before the government ultimately dropped the charges and Weyker’s larger trafficking investigation fell apart after courts caught Weyker lying repeatedly and determined that her case may be ‘fictitious,’” the Institute for Justice, who represented Mohamud in her lawsuit, wrote in a press release Monday, the day the Supreme Court decided not to take up her lawsuit.

“In all, more than 30 people had their lives upended because of Weyker’s dishonesty,” the release continued. “None was convicted of a crime, but with the Supreme Court’s decision today, none of the more-than-two-dozen lawsuits against Weyker resulted in accountability. Despite her flagrant disregard of the Constitution, Weyker will face no legal accountability.”

The lawsuits’ demise also point to the difficulty in suing federal officers, such as those who fatally shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January, said Patrick Jaicomo, Institute for Justice senior attorney, who represented Mohamud.

“The problems of ICE are not just problems of ICE,” he said. “This is a problem of federal accountability across the board.”

She remains a sergeant

Weyker, who joined the St. Paul Police Department in 1997, is still a St. Paul officer. She’s assigned to Western District investigations.

She was put on administrative leave from the department on March 4, 2016, soon after the federal appeals court decision on the case, and returned to work on March 9, 2016.

It does not appear she was disciplined by the police department. Internal affairs investigations that result in discipline against public employees are public information in Minnesota, but no discipline in Weyker’s work record are related to the sex trafficking investigation.

The U.S. Department of Justice represented Weyker in the lawsuit, and a spokesperson declined comment Tuesday.

The Supreme Court typically does not state a reason for not taking up a case, which was true in the lawsuit against Weyker. It marks “the end of the line” for the lawsuits and “accountability” against Weyker, Jaicomo said.

Federal or local officer?

Most of the lawsuits against Weyker were thrown out because people sued her as a federal agent, according to Jaicomo. The Supreme Court has maintained that federal agents can only be sued under narrow circumstances.

Ifrah Yassin was 19 or 20 when she was arrested for allegedly intimidating a federal witness in the sex trafficking case, and she was later acquitted when she proved she was out of the country at the time. Mohamud was charged in the same matter before the case against her was dismissed.

In Yassin’s lawsuit against Weyker, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit previously wrote that Weyker did not have qualified immunity because “a reasonable officer would know that deliberately misleading another officer into arresting an innocent individual to protect a sham investigation is unlawful, regardless of the difficulties presented by the case.”

Compared to people who were imprisoned for years, Yassin said Tuesday that she felt lucky she was only in jail for a couple of weeks and in a halfway house for two months, though she had to give birth while wearing an electronic ankle monitor.

“I really wish people could get their justice,” Yassin said. “It sticks with me because when you google my name, it still comes up and it’s quite embarrassing. It’s caused me issues at work and in my personal life.”

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Attorneys said Weyker was a St. Paul officer who was deputized to work as a federal task force officer. The Eighth Circuit concluded that Weyker could not be sued because she was working as a federal officer at the time.

Continuing to work on Mohamud’s lawsuit, Jaicomo said, “We found all these documents that showed that the task force Heather Weyker was working on … the Gerald D. Vick Task Force of Minnesota, was a St. Paul-led task force,” and they argued she was working as a state officer and not a federal officer.

That led to Jaicomo petitioning the Supreme Court to hear the case. Attorneys ask the high court to take up 7,000-8,000 cases a year, and they hear arguments in about 80 cases.

The Supreme Court had previously declined to hear Mohamud’s lawsuit in 2022 and Yassin’s lawsuit against Weyker in 2023. The DOJ filed a brief in opposition to Mohamud’s case being heard previously.