The St. Paul City Council voted 6-1 on Wednesday to ban cryptocurrency kiosks citywide, setting up a possible legal confrontation with machine operators who recently sued the city of Stillwater over a similar ban.

At least 32 of the ATM-like machines have proliferated in convenience stores and small shops across St. Paul, drawing scrutiny from police and others. The machines — which allow users to make cash contributions to cryptocurrency accounts and have dollars converted to Bitcoin — have been linked to 51 scam reports statewide, amounting to $700,000 in losses in Minnesota alone.

Council members Saura Jost and Cheniqua Johnson on Wednesday acknowledged they had little prior knowledge of the machines or the scams until Council President Rebecca Noecker invited law enforcement officials from suburban cities to make a presentation in May.

“The predatory nature of it … was something that was hard to ignore,” said Johnson, who was impressed by Forest Lake and Stillwater’s own findings around cryptocurrency scams, which often target elderly victims. Noecker noted the machines impose heavy mark-ups, inspiring seasoned cryptocurrency users to perform their deposits and other transactions online.

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Stillwater banned the kiosks in April, drawing a lawsuit from Bitcoin Depot. In St. Paul, a representative of Bitcoin Depot delivered remarks at a public hearing last week but made no mention of possible legal action against the city.

Council Member Anika Bowie cast the sole dissenting vote against the ordinance, noting a citywide ban does nothing to prevent scammers from simply directing victims to a kiosk over the city’s borders.

“I honestly think this penalizes businesses … and just kind of relocates the issue,” Bowie said. “I do think it’s important that we raise awareness, and that was really good in terms of what came out of this.”

Jaden McDaniels’ iron-man streak came to an end Wednesday. The 25 year old missed Minnesota’s home bout with Washington with a left-wrist injury.

That was the first game the wing sat out since Dec. 8, 2023 — nearly two calendar years. The absence snapped a streak of 157-straight regular season games played, the fifth-longest active mark in the NBA.

McDaniels had also played 31 playoff games in that span, pushing his personal total to 188.

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By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and JOSH BOAK

WASHINGTON (AP) — For the second time in two days, President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would like to appoint Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to chair the Federal Reserve.

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Yet Bessent keeps saying he doesn’t want the job, Trump added, in comments to the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum.

“We’re thinking about him for the Fed, but he wants no part of it, he likes being secretary of the Treasury,” Trump said. “I think we’ll leave him — so let’s cross your name off right, officially, right?”

Trump has been sharply critical of the current Fed chair, Jerome Powell, whose term ends in May, for not cutting interest rates quickly enough. Trump’s pick as a replacement will almost certainly push for rapid interest rate cuts and likely institute wide-ranging changes in how the Fed operates. Bessent earlier this year published extensive criticisms of the Fed’s groundbreaking efforts to shore up financial markets and the economy after the 2008-2009 Great Recession and during the pandemic.

Bessent is heading up the Trump administration’s search for a new Fed chair. Yet despite his protestations, he is also widely seen as a leading potential replacement for Powell.

“He’s a top-tier candidate right now,” Stephen Moore, a senior economic adviser to Trump in his first term, said. Trump “wants to shake things up, so I think he wants an outsider.”

Two of the five candidates Bessent has named are current Fed officials: Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman. The other three would fit the outsider criteria: Kevin Hassett, currently a top White House economic official; Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor who has been highly critical of the Fed; and Rick Rieder, a senior managing director at asset manager BlackRock.

Late Tuesday, in an interview on Fox News with Bret Baier, Bessent said the administration is continuing to interview potential nominees for Fed chair. By mid-December, “the president will meet the final three candidates and hopefully have an answer before Christmas,” Bessent said.

Associated Press Writer Fatima Hussein contributed to this report.

When donors give money to the International Wolf Center on Thursday, they’ll help the Ely, Minn.-based nonprofit make progress toward a $20,000 matching grant, one of any number of incentives that charitable organizations are rolling out to draw contributions on Minnesota’s annual “Give to the Max” Day.

Housing and social service organizations, schools and even a statewide sheriff’s organization have launched their own promotions, hoping to draw eyeballs and dollars to their causes in a one-day digital fundraising push.

Since the inaugural “Give to the Max” event in 2009, nearly one million donors have given more than $355 million to 14,000 nonprofits and schools as part of what’s billed as “Minnesota’s giving holiday,” a day of digital giving organized by fundraising coaches with GiveMN.

Thursday marks the 17th annual “Give to the Max” event, which has broadened in recent years to launch early giving on Nov. 1. More than $37 million was donated last year to 6,556 organizations.

Jenna Ray, the new chief executive officer of GiveMN, plans to host or participate in multiple promotional events throughout the day. Ray will greet visitors from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. at Wildflyer Coffee at 3262 Minnehaha Ave. in Minneapolis, spotlighting its life skills program, which is dedicated to ending youth homelessness.

Ray and GiveMN staff also will be headquartered throughout the day at 550 Vandalia St. in St. Paul, fielding questions from donors for 24 hours straight. The Bond Between — a pet adoption and foster agency formerly known as Secondhand Hounds — is scheduled to bring kittens for a “kitty party” designed to keep staff spirits lively. The event is not open to the public.

Later in the day, Ray will help distribute turkeys at a Minneapolis nonprofit, in partnership with the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association and Second Harvest Heartland. She’ll end the day at MetroNOME Brewery in downtown St. Paul for “Pour It Forward,” an event where breweries donate a percentage of sales to a nonprofit of their choice. MetroNOME will be pouring forward for Theater Latté Da and ComMUSICation, which provides music classes to youth.

For more information, visit GiveMN.org.

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