A 70-year-old New Richmond, Wis., man is charged with killing his wife, whose body was found Sunday in Polk County.

According to New Richmond police, officers responded to the couple’s home around 1:45 p.m. Sunday for a possible domestic disturbance and welfare check of 68-year-old Mary Laakso.

The 911 caller said Laakso’s husband, Gordon Laakso, made statements that led them to believe he may have harmed her earlier in the day, police said in a Monday statement.

Upon arrival at the home in the 1300 block of Bluff Border Road, officers located Gordon Laakso but could not locate his wife nor reach her by phone.

The investigation later led to a rural area in Polk County, where she was found dead about 4 p.m.

On Monday, a Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office provisional autopsy report indicated the manner of death to be homicide, police said.

St. Croix County Circuit Court records show Laakso is charged with four counts: first-degree intentional homicide, strangulation and suffocation and hiding a corpse.

Laakso made an initial court appearance on the charges Monday. Judge R. Michael Waterman set his bail at $1 million and he remains at the St. Croix County Jail ahead of a preliminary hearing scheduled for March 17.

Laakso does not have a prior criminal history, Wisconsin court records show.

His attorney, Micheal Becker, when reached by phone Monday, declined to comment on the charges.

An online search shows Gordon Laakso worked as a Farmers Insurance agent, based in Superior. Mary Laakso also worked for Farmers Insurance and previously as an office assistant at the Douglas County Courthouse in Superior, according to her Facebook page.

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By LOLITA C. BALDOR and DAVID KLEPPER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has paused offensive cyberoperations against Russia by U.S. Cyber Command, rolling back some efforts to contend with a key adversary even as national security experts call for the U.S. to expand those capabilities.

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A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, on Monday confirmed the pause.

Hegseth’s decision does not affect cyberoperations conducted by other agencies, including the CIA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. But the Trump administration also has rolled back other efforts at the FBI and other agencies related to countering digital and cyber threats.

The Pentagon decision, which was first reported by The Record, comes as many national security and cybersecurity experts have urged greater investments in cyber defense and offense, particularly as China and Russia have sought to interfere with the nation’s economy, elections and security.

Republican lawmakers and national security experts have all called for a greater offensive posture. During his Senate confirmation hearing this year, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said America’s rivals have shown that they believe cyberespionage — retrieving sensitive information and disrupting American business and infrastructure — to be an essential weapon of the modern arsenal.

“I want us to have all of the tools necessary to go on offense against our adversaries in the cyber community,” Ratcliffe said.

Cyber Command oversees and coordinates the Pentagon’s cybersecurity work and is known as America’s first line of defense in cyberspace. It also plans offensive cyberoperations for potential use against adversaries.

Hegseth’s directive arrived before Friday’s dustup between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. It wasn’t clear if the pause was tied to any negotiating tactic by the Trump administration to push Moscow into a peace deal with Ukraine.

Trump has vowed to end the war that began when Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago, and on Monday he slammed Zelenskyy for suggesting the end to the conflict was “far away.”

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about Hegseth’s order.

Cyber warfare is cheaper than traditional military force, can be carried out covertly and doesn’t carry the same risk of escalation or retaliation, making it an increasingly popular tool for nations that want to contend with the U.S. but lack the traditional economic or military might, according to Snehal Antani, CEO of Horizon3.ai, a San Francisco-based cybersecurity firm founded by former national security officers.

Cyberespionage can allow adversaries to steal competitive secrets from American companies, obtain sensitive intelligence or disrupt supply chains or the systems that manage dams, water plants, traffic systems, private companies, governments and hospitals.

The internet has created new battlefields, too, as nations like Russia and China use disinformation and propaganda to undermine their opponents.

Artificial intelligence now makes it easier and cheaper than ever for anyone — be it a foreign nation like Russia, China or North Korea or criminal networks — to step up their cybergame at scale, Antani said. Fixing code, translating disinformation or identifying network vulnerabilities once required a human — now AI can do much of it faster.

“We are entering this era of cyber-enabled economic warfare that is at the nation-state level,” Antani said. “We’re in this really challenging era where offense is significantly better than defense, and it’s going to take a while for defense to catch up.”

Meanwhile, Attorney General Pam Bondi also has disbanded an FBI task force focused on foreign influence campaigns, like those Russia used to target U.S. elections in the past. And more than a dozen people who worked on election security at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were put on leave.

These actions are leaving the U.S. vulnerable despite years of evidence that Russia is committed to continuing and expanding its cyber efforts, according to Liana Keesing, campaigns manager for technology reform at Issue One, a nonprofit that has studied technology’s impact on democracy.

“Instead of confronting this threat, the Trump administration has actively taken steps to make it easier for the Kremlin to interfere in our electoral processes,” Keesing said.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal authorities in Los Angeles arrested two alleged leaders of a criminal organization suspected of smuggling 20,000 people from Guatemala to the U.S. and charging each person as much as $18,000 to get them into the country.

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Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, known as “Turko,” and his lieutenant, Cristobal Mejia-Chaj, were taken into custody Friday. They have each pleaded not guilty to multiple charges related to smuggling migrants across the border over five years, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

A federal judge ordered the men, who themselves are in the country illegally, jailed without bond until their trial in April.

The indictment names Renoj-Matul as the head of one of the largest human smuggling organizations in the U.S., a vast ring operating for at least a dozen years that primarily transported people to the U.S. from Guatemala.

The criminal network was responsible for the deaths of seven immigrants without legal status — including a 4-year-old child — who were killed in a November 2023 vehicle crash in Oklahoma, prosecutors said.

Acting United States Attorney Joe McNally, of the Central District of California, announces arrests of a transnational criminal organization that allegedly smuggled approximately 20,000 immigrants from Guatemala to the United States over five years on Monday, March 3, 2025, in Los Angeles. They are looking for Helmer Obispo-Hernandez pictured at left. (Sarah Reingewirtz/The Orange County Register via AP)

A driver who’s been in custody in Oklahoma since that crash, Jose Paxtor-Oxlaj, was also charged in the California indictment, according to the court documents. Another man, Helmer Obispo-Hernandez, a lieutenant in the organization and a supervisor of a team of drivers, faces charges as well. He’s believed to be in Guatemala, officials said.

Attorneys for the four men could not be located Monday for comment.

Renoj-Matual was assisted by associates in Guatemala who solicited people who each paid between $15,000 and $18,000 to be smuggled to the U.S. through Mexico, prosecutors said.

For an additional fee, the migrants were transported and moved to various destinations in the United States, including Los Angeles and Phoenix. Some of the migrants who weren’t able to pay the fees were held hostage in a stash house near downtown Los Angeles, according to prosecutors.

“These smuggling organizations have no regard for human life and their conduct kills,” Acting United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally said in a statement. “The indictment and arrests here have dismantled one of the country’s largest and most dangerous smuggling organizations.”

If convicted of all charges, the defendants could face a statutory maximum sentence of death or life imprisonment.

A 37-year-old St. Paul man has been sentenced to three years of probation for exchanging a flurry of gunshots with another man outside a White Bear Lake bar in 2023.

Charles Edward Stevens-Thigpen was shot in the thigh and turned himself in to police two days after the shootout at Doc’s Landing, telling them it followed an argument over a spilled drink.

Charles Edward Stevens-Thigpen and Kardell Baraka Otae Jackson (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

The charges say Kardell Baraka Otae Jackson fired off a shot at Stevens-Thigpen, who had rounded the corner of the bar, barely missing him. The two men fired 13 rounds at each other in the parking lot, including one that grazed a 48-year-old man who was sitting in the bar.

A bullet was found lodged in a dart machine, and three bullet holes were discovered in the bar’s roofline.

In July, Stevens-Thigpen pleaded guilty in Ramsey County District Court to second-degree assault.

Jackson, 51, of St. Paul, faces the same charge and also two counts of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. His case is scheduled to go before a jury March 19.

Surveillance video

According to the charging documents, officers were called to the bar along White Bear Avenue just north of Interstate 694 shortly before 1 a.m. Sept. 24, 2023. The shooters had fled but were soon identified as Stevens-Thigpen and Jackson.

Surveillance video showed that Stevens-Thigpen and Jackson got into a “heated dispute” inside the bar. At one point, Jackson held a pool cue as if he was going to strike Stevens-Thigpen with it. Two women and a man intervened and blocked Stevens-Thigpen and Jackson from one another.

Jackson ran to his Chevrolet Tahoe with Stevens-Thigpen following a few seconds behind with a pistol in his hands. Jackson fired off a shot at Stevens-Thigpen, who took cover behind a Tesla, and the two men exchanged gunfire, the charges say.

Stevens-Thigpen nearly shot a woman who ran toward the Tahoe. Jackson helped her get into the SUV before he again shot at Stevens-Thigpen. Stevens-Thigpen “grimaced” and began to favor his right leg, the charges say.

As Jackson and the woman fled the parking lot, Stevens-Thigpen fired three to four more rounds at the Tahoe. He ran to a GMC Denali and also fled.

Turned over gun

Police say a man called 911 to report he was trying to drive to the hospital after he had been shot in the leg. Officers tried to make contact with the caller, but he didn’t answer their return calls. The phone number was associated with Stevens-Thigpen.

Stevens-Thigpen voluntarily went to the police department two days later, turning over a Smith and Wesson 9mm handgun to police when he arrived.

Stevens-Thigpen told police he was at the bar when he bumped into a table, knocking a glass of soda onto his ex-girlfriend’s sister. He said that caused an argument with the woman, who was Jackson’s girlfriend, and Jackson intervened.

“The man told me that he got something for my (expletive) ass and he’s gonna pop me,” Stevens-Thigpen said at his July 8 plea hearing.

Stevens-Thigpen said he went to his Denali to get his 9mm as a “precaution.” He said when he saw Jackson in the parking lot, Jackson fired at him. He returned gunfire.

“I believe four shots were fired before I fired my first shot,” Stevens-Thigpen said at his plea hearing.

He said he went to a doctor the next day because of severe bleeding from his injury, and that his family convinced him to talk to police.

Jackson was arrested Sept. 27 in the parking lot of his workplace. His Tahoe had three bullet holes to its passenger side. He denied firing a gun at the bar. Officers executed a search warrant on his Tahoe and recovered a Glock 9mm handgun, the charges say.

‘Imperfect self-defense’

Stevens-Thigpen entered a straight plea to the felony charge, meaning there was no agreement between the defense and the prosecution on the terms of his sentence.

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A conviction carries up to seven years in prison. Since he had no previous felony convictions, the state guideline sentence was a three-year prison term.

In arguing for a downward departure, his attorney, Alex Kyes, told Judge Andrew Gordon the offense is “substantially less serious” than the typical offense as it constituted “imperfect self-defense” because his client was not the initial and primary aggressor. He noted he cooperated with law enforcement.

Gordon imposed a stay of imposition, meaning the conviction will become a misdemeanor as long as he follows conditions of his three years of supervised probation. The prosecution did not object to the departure.