Due to what promoters call “incredible demand,” country star Chris Stapleton has added a second show on July 30 at the new Mystic Lake Amphitheater in Shakopee.

Tickets for both concerts go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday via Ticketmaster. Singer/songwriter Allen Stone will open.

Initially known as the songwriter and frontman of the SteelDrivers, Chris Stapleton established himself as a solo star with the release of his debut, “Traveller,” in 2015. Not only did it go platinum seven times, it helped Stapleton fill a few shelves with awards. The 47-year-old Kentucky native has won 11 Grammy Awards, 11 Academy of Country Music Awards and 15 Country Music Association Awards.

His best-known include “Tennessee Whiskey,” “Broken Halos,” “Nobody to Blame,” “Millionaire,” “Starting Over” and “You Should Probably Leave.”

The addition of a second concert at the 19,000-capacity amphitheater isn’t too surprising, given that Stapleton filled the much larger U.S. Bank Stadium in April 2024.

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Country star Chris Stapleton books July show at new Shakopee amphitheater

If a federal officer shoots someone in St. Paul or Ramsey County, the county attorney is asking local law enforcement chiefs to independently secure evidence and immediately call in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi at a September 2024 news conference in St. Paul. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

John Choi’s request and suggested guidance came six days after an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good, 37, in Minneapolis. The BCA and FBI were initially going to conduct a joint investigation, but the BCA said the U.S. Attorney’s Office “reversed course” and they were informed the FBI would solely lead the investigation.

“I think what happened is they had things worked out, then the rug got pulled out from underneath whatever agreements were made,” Choi said in an interview. “That woke us up to recognize that we can’t assume that cooperation is the standard anymore, and so we need to take measures to protect our processes and to protect the public interest.”

The key issues are having “a thorough investigation and one that’s transparent at the conclusion,” said Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher.

When an investigation is closed in Minnesota, law enforcement reports become public.

“In the state system, the public gets to review the investigative data,” Fletcher said. “In the federal system, quite often those documents are never released or, after 10 years, possibly.”

BCA prefers collaboration

Choi asked BCA Superintendent Drew Evans to send the BCA’s Force Investigations Unit if there is a shooting involving a federal officer in Ramsey County, which Evans agreed to. Other county attorneys have not yet established similar standing requests with the BCA, Evans said Thursday.

“Part of the reason we’re here is that a lot has changed,” Evans said. “The FBI has long been and continues to be a good partner to us. … Our commitment continues to be to look for paths forward to share and conduct investigations, preferably collaboratively and jointly with them, but if not trying to work towards a place where they share information with us and we share information with them.”

Choi said he issued his memo Tuesday after conversations with Ramsey County law enforcement chiefs. The guidance in the memo is “how we normally respond to any officer-involved critical incident where the use of deadly force is used, whether someone is dead or they’re injured.”

“I wanted to reaffirm this is the way that we do things, and that if it’s a federal agent that’s involved, our response should be the same,” Choi added.

The memo, obtained by the Pioneer Press through a data practices request to the county attorney’s office, requests that local law enforcement:

respond and provide medical assistance
immediately notify the BCA and request their assistance
independently protect the scene and any evidence at the scene
attempt to identify any witnesses and involved federal officers before they leave the scene
canvas the area for witnesses and video cameras that may have captured evidence before the BCA arrives.

“If this were to happen in the six cities that we patrol, sheriff’s deputies would take control of the scene, including the casings that are recovered, any vehicles recovered, and freeze the scene,” Fletcher said.

After an investigation by the BCA, Choi said his office would review the case to “determine whether or not the use of force was justified, or whether criminal charges are appropriate.”

Minneapolis shooting

On Wednesday night, there was another shooting by a federal officer in Minneapolis. The officer shot a man in the leg after being attacked with a shovel and broom handle while trying to make an arrest, officials said.

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Minneapolis police requested the BCA investigate. The FBI was also out investigating, Evans said.

With separate investigations, who gets the evidence, such as casings?

“That’s one of the things that is a bit challenging in these situations,” Evans said. “That’s going to be on a case-by-case basis. … That’s why I continue to hope to find a path forward to jointly investigate because then it’s easier to work some of that out.”

In the BCA’s investigation of a federal officer’s use of force, they would provide their case file to a local prosecutor, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI, Evans said.

A law that went into effect in Minnesota in 2020 has the BCA’s Force Investigations Unit investigate any deadly force involving Minnesota peace officers. While federal officers are not Minnesota peace officers, “the use-of-force standard in Minnesota that applies to peace officers is how a county attorney would review any of the force,” Evans added.

County attorney’s offices have the authority to convene an investigative grand jury, which has subpoena powers, if necessary, Choi noted.

Renee Good shooting investigation

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty called on the public last week to submit to her office any information, videos or photos they have regarding Good’s shooting.

She said their request for a joint investigation was “not because we have concerns about the FBI investigation,” but “based on a previous experience with FBI processes, we are concerned that the evidence obtained in an investigation that has only been conducted at the federal level will not be shared with our office for review.”

The FBI has Good’s vehicle that she was shot in, ballistic evidence and witness interviews.

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“Our goal must be to ensure that a thorough investigation is completed at the local level, so that our community can have transparency,” Moriarty said. She said her office has jurisdiction to make a charging decision, but “we do not yet know if there will be sufficient evidence without the FBI case file” to do so.

An FBI probe is ongoing into the shooting of Good.

“Federal agents risk their lives each day to safeguard our communities,” Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement last week. “They must make decisions, under dynamic and chaotic circumstances, in less time than it took to read this sentence. The law does not require police to gamble with their lives in the face of a serious threat of harm. Rather, they may use deadly force when they face an immediate threat of significant physical harm. Following any officer-involved shooting, standard protocols ensure that evidence is collected and preserved.”

By ALI SWENSON, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Elizabeth Woike was cautiously optimistic when she saw news reports that the nearly $2 billion in grants that the Trump administration pulled from substance abuse and mental health programs around the country the previous day might be getting reinstated.

Then she got a 2 a.m. email Thursday from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reiterating the cuts — and didn’t know what to think anymore.

“I just shook my head. It’s mass chaos,” said Woike, the CEO of BestSelf Behavioral Health, a mental health and substance use disorder treatment provider in Buffalo, New York. As it turned out, the second termination letter was sent in error. She and roughly 2,000 other grant recipients nationwide were notified later Thursday morning that their federal funding had indeed been restored.

Woike’s feeling of whiplash over the past two days has been a common experience for providers, state health agencies and Americans who receive services amid the Trump administration eliminating, then abruptly reinstating, grants that support some of the nation’s most vulnerable people.

It builds on what program directors say has become a pattern of uncertainty from this administration, which has repeatedly canceled millions of dollars in federal funding without notice and at times reversed course in decisions about what will and won’t be covered. Woike said the unsteadiness makes it impossible for organizations like hers to make long-term plans.

“No one’s looking at expansion or really trying to ramp up services to meet the need in the community,” she said. “Everyone is just retrenching, looking at putting aside every penny and every resource.”

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Trump administration surprised grant recipients

The administration first notified grant recipients that their funding was being pulled in emailed letters Tuesday evening, according to copies received by organizations and reviewed by The Associated Press.

On Wednesday, several organizations told the AP they were already making difficult decisions in response to the cuts, including laying off employees and canceling scheduled trainings.

By Wednesday evening, news reports were suggesting the cuts might be reversed — but grant recipients hadn’t yet been notified of the change. Some of them said they instead received confusing emails overnight that duplicated their termination notices or instructed them on how to to close down their grants within 30 days.

It wasn’t until Thursday morning that grant recipients started getting form emails saying the grant terminations were “hereby rescinded.”

Even then, not everyone could rest easy. Sara Howe, CEO of the Addiction Professionals of North Carolina, said members of her professional association are still nervous about whether their funding is guaranteed.

“Any time this happens, you wind up in a position where you’re like, is it OK to breathe?” Howe said. “It puts everybody on really unsteady, shaky ground.”

An administration official with knowledge of the decision who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter confirmed the grants were restored, but didn’t say why. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services didn’t answer a question about the administration’s reasoning and declined to comment on the confusion that resulted from the situation.

Democrats blast the administration

Democratic lawmakers erupted at the Trump administration for the uncertainty and stress they caused in cutting grants and then abruptly reversing course.

House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rep. Rosa DeLauro described Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision-making as dangerous and haphazard after grant recipients began laying off employees based on the original plans.

“He must be cautious when making decisions that will impact Americans’ health,” DeLauro, D-Conn., said in a statement. “I hope this reversal serves as a lesson learned.”

Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin told the AP in a statement that the episode “caused chaos and real harm to Americans — and now, they need to come clean and give families some answers why they caused this mess.”

Providers said they were hustling to undo changes they’d already made in response to the cuts. Honesty Liller, CEO of the peer support organization the McShin Foundation in Richmond, Virginia, said she was working on the logistics of getting five laid-off employees their jobs back.

Ryan Hampton, founder of the nonprofit advocacy organization Mobilize Recovery, said he was relieved the funding was restored to his and other organizations, but criticized the administration for endangering lifesaving services in the first place.

“Restoring these grants was the only acceptable outcome, yet the chaos inflicted on frontline providers and families these past 24 hours is unforgivable,” he said. “We cannot normalize a political environment where overdose prevention and recovery are treated as leverage.”

With less than a dozen games remaining before the NHL takes a three-week break for the Winter Olympics, the Minnesota Wild find themselves getting younger on defense — and not by choice.

Veteran blue line presence Jonas Brodin — who missed four games in December due to a lower-body injury — is out of the lineup again, and this time the absence could be more lengthy.

Wild coach John Hynes said on Thursday morning that Brodin is once again beset by a lower-body injury, and is considered week to week. Brodin was one of four Wild players selected to skate for Team Sweden in next month’s Olympics. Hynes said he is still awaiting more information on the injury but said it was too early to rule Brodin in or out for the Winter Games.

Brodin played for Team Sweden at the World Championship last May and aggravated an injury that limited him in training camp. Hynes was asked if Wild general manager Bill Guerin would suggest Brodin skip the Olympics to be healthier for the Wild in March, April and a potential playoff run.

“I think we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I think that’s, obviously, something that’d be between Billy and Jonas,” Hynes said. “Right now, I think we’ll just see where he’s at and exactly what it is. I think there needs to be more things looked at in order for us to get to that point. … Maybe he’s ready before the Olympics, maybe he’s not. We don’t know at this point in time.”

The loss of Brodin comes as the Wild headed into Thursday night’s matchup with Winnipeg still missing veteran forward Joel Eriksson Ek — also a potential member of Team Sweden — and veteran defenseman Zach Bogosian.

Hynes said that he expects Eriksson Ek and Bogosian to accompany the Wild on their upcoming three-game road trip to Buffalo, Toronto and Montreal.

With the blue line looking thin, the Wild recalled defensemen David Spacek and Carson Lambos from Iowa on Thursday. Spacek, who was expected to make his NHL debut versus the Jets, said he was on the way to Costco in Des Moines, Iowa, when he got the call-up.

“We went there and turned around, got packed and went up to Minnesota,” said Spacek after the team’s morning skate on Thursday. Thurday’s game will be the NHL debut for David but not his family. His father, Jaroslav, played more than 900 NHL games for a handful of teams before retiring in 2012.

The NHL debut for David comes just days after he was named to Team Czechia for the Olympics.

“It’s just been piling up a little bit, but I’m very glad for both,” he said. “I’ll just go out there and have fun.”

Hynes, who coached Spacek in training camp and in the preseason, said he feels the rookie could contribute right away.

“I think he’s played some solid hockey. He’s a good puck-moving defenseman,” Hynes said. “Talking to the management … he’s played with efficiency, he’s defended well, he’s moved the puck well, positioning has been strong. So, just come in and keep doing what he’s doing.”

A fifth-round pick of the Wild in the 2022 NHL draft, Spacek has 19 points in 35 games for Iowa this season.

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