DULUTH, Minn. — The Duluth Fire Department on Monday released video footage of firefighters rescuing a dog from the eight-foot waves of the Duluth Ship Canal last week. The rescue, which happened on Dec. 7, included firefighters in survival float suits climbing into the ship canal and struggling to find the dark-colored dog as it slipped below each big wave.

Firefighters responded to the call at about 6:20 p.m. with some crews going directly to the scene and others headed to the Pier B resort complex where they launched a 14-foot inflatable rescue boat.

As crews were en route, St. Louis County Dispatchers were able to use cameras on the Aerial Lift Bridge being controlled by the bridge operator to help pinpoint the caller’s location. Upon arrival, crews found the dog’s owner on the south pier on the lake side of the bridge.

The firefighters climbed in and made their way toward where the dog was last seen but had difficulty finding the animal. Firefighters on land and the dog’s owner used portable lights and shouted directions to the firefighters in the water to help locate the dog.

The rescuers were finally able to get a hold of the dog by his collar but “were not able to do much more against the heavy waves other than help keep him from going under again. The dog was large, scared and was struggling, which added to the difficulty,’’ according to a report written by Daniel Lattner, an assistant fire chief who was on duty that night. “The crew and dog were being swept in towards the bay and as they were passing under the bridge when (the fire department’s boat) arrived on scene.”

Firefighters in the boat were able to get the dog and the firefighters in the water into the boat and brought them back to the calmer waters of the Pier B slip where the exhausted dog was treated for hypothermia and reunited with its owners.

“He had stopped shivering, was able to walk on his own and was wagging his tail as he jumped into his owner’s car,’’ Lattner noted.

Lattner said after the event that if they hadn’t acted, someone else on shore likely would have.

“The Duluth Fire Department understands how important pets are to their families. We have learned in the fire service that if we do not respond to help in these situations, bystanders and owners likely will take action on their own,’’ Lattner noted in his report. “Without the proper training and equipment, this most often results in the firefighters now responding to a call for a person in harm’s way. On this call, one of the notes taken by St. Louis County Dispatchers and transmitted to fire crews stated ‘The female reporting party is threatening to jump in.’”

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Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has once again given millions to local nonprofits.

In the past, mostly in 2022, Scott donated more than $50 million to nonprofits serving Minnesotans.

Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, March 4, 2018, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Scott announced $2.1 billion that she’s made in charitable donations since November 2022, in a post Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023, on her website Yield Giving. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

In this latest round, Scott announced she was donating $2.5 million to the Battered Women’s Justice Project and $2 million to the Hmong American Partnership, both in St. Paul.

May yer Thao, president and CEO of the Hmong American Partnership, expressed deep gratitude for the “unexpected and impactful contribution.”

“We are incredibly thankful for Mackenzie Scott’s generous donation, which will undoubtedly play a crucial role in advancing our mission to drive prosperity within Minnesota’s Hmong and New American communities,” said Thao.

The nonprofit organization said the donation will bolster its “ability to make a positive impact and address the unique challenges faced by the communities it serves. The funds will be utilized to expand existing programs, launch new initiatives, and strengthen the organization’s overall capacity to drive positive change.”

Amy Sanchez, CEO of The Battered Women’s Justice Project, said her organization is “thrilled and honored to receive a donation from Mackenzie Scott, we are excited to use the funds to beef up reserves, boost programming, and possibly add more staffing.”

In September, Scott gave a $2 million grant to a Little Canada nonprofit called Think Small that provides early childhood care and education. At the time, the organization posted on its Facebook page that it was “honored to receive this incredibly generous gift from Mackenzie Scott. Think Small and Think Small Institute will put these resources to great use to improve the quality of care children receive in Minnesota and across the country.”

These donations are the latest examples of Scott showering east metro nonprofits. Her other gifts include:

$5 million to Penumbra Theatre (2021)
$20 million to Planned Parenthood North Central States (2022)
$13.5 million to Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity (2022)
$6 million to Big Brothers Big Sisters Twin Cities (2022)
$4.2 million to Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys (2022)
$1.9 million to St. Paul’s Junior Achievement North (2022)

Scott donated more than $2.1 billion in the past year, she said in a brief online post, bringing her total reported giving to more than $16 billion since 2019.

While previous announcements have included detailed essays about the reasons for her donations, this time Scott offered only a three-sentence post: “Excited to call attention to these 360 outstanding organizations, every one of whom could use more allies.” She added, “Inspired by all the ways people work together to offer each other goodwill and support.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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After 20 years, the founder of Frogtown’s HmongTown Marketplace on Como Avenue is looking forward to a major expansion. The bustling indoor and outdoor marketplace is home to 125 Southeast Asian vendors, and Toua Xiong believes he’s found the right location to situate dozens more: the former Sears department store at the Maplewood Mall.

His vision calls for a ground-level grocery store spanning some 50,000 to 60,000 square feet, as well as smaller vendors on the second floor in what had been Sears aisles. He’s even promising a bowling alley and children’s area, and has raised the possibility of someday adding a senior center, herbal spa, farmer’s market and night market.

“It’s time for us to grow,” said Xiong, addressing viewers in an eight-minute video testimonial shared last month on the 3 Hmong TV news YouTube channel. “It’s time for us to be competitive. … I have been looking for properties that would be big enough.”

It’s unclear from Ramsey County property records when Xiong acquired the 14-acre Sears site, but Hmong Town 2 LLC, registered to his Como Avenue offices, is listed as the taxpayer of record. Seritage Growth Properties, the real estate investment company that spun off from Sears, put the vacant property on the market a year ago, alongside locations in St. Paul and Burnsville. Brookwood Capital Advisors owns the mall itself.

Xiong, in his explanatory video, can be seen touring what appears to be prospective vendors or investors through the former Sears building.

He said he’s hoping to officially open by early 2025, though some vendors could arrive earlier. St. Paul and Maplewood are home to the largest concentration of Hmong residents in the country, as well as a growing community of ethnic Karen from Myanmar (formerly Burma), among other Asian groups. More than half the state’s 95,000 Hmong residents live in Ramsey County.

Xiong is soliciting new vendors with a written form on the HmongTown Marketplace website: “HmongTown 2 is on its way! Thank you all for your continuous support over the past few decades. We are excited to announce that we will be opening a new location in Maplewood. If you are interested in possibly being a vendor, please click the button below to fill out our interest form.”

Spanning 170,000 square feet, the two-story Sears building was constructed in 1973.

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NEW YORK — Former Rep. George Santos is in talks to plead guilty to federal charges, prosecutors disclosed in a court filing Monday, 10 days after the onetime congressman was expelled from the House.

“The parties are presently engaged in plea negotiations with the goal of resolving this matter without the need for a trial,” Brooklyn federal prosecutors wrote in the filing, ahead of a court conference planned for Tuesday. Prosecutors added that “[t]he parties wish to continue those negotiations over the next thirty days” before meeting for an additional court conference.

Santos, a former first-term Republican from New York who was originally indicted in May and was hit with an updated indictment in October, faces an array of 23 charges, including wire fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds.

Prosecutors also allege he stole people’s identities, made charges on his donors’ credit cards without their authorization and submitted false campaign reports that listed nonexistent loans and contributions that were fabricated or stolen.

Santos has long maintained his innocence, calling the federal charges a “witch hunt.” “I’m going to take care of clearing my name,” he said following his initial arraignment.

But last month, the House Ethics Committee disclosed “substantial evidence” supporting federal prosecutors’ charges, as well as other salacious offenses, including that Santos spent campaign funds on Botox treatments and lavish Atlantic City trips with his husband.

Santos subsequently became the sixth person ever voted out of the House, with 311 members voting yes.

And in the time since prosecutors first charged the former congressman, he has seen several of his former associates plead guilty to related charges.

One of his former campaign aides pleaded guilty to impersonating a House leadership aide while soliciting contributions for Santos’ campaign, and another former Santos ally, his former campaign treasurer Nancy Marks, pleaded guilty to fraudulently reporting a nonexistent loan that Santos had claimed to have made to his campaign.