Police arrested a driver after they say he fatally struck a pedestrian in St. Paul on Tuesday night.

Officers responded to Front Avenue and Grotto Street in the Como neighborhood shortly before 6:30 p.m. and found a man lying in the street with severe head injuries, according to Nikki Muehlhausen, a St. Paul police spokesperson.

St. Paul Fire Department medics pronounced the man dead at the scene.

Preliminary information suggests the driver, after striking the pedestrian, did a U-turn and parked on the other side of the street, Muehlhausen said. Officers found the man there. He was taken into custody on suspicion of criminal vehicular homicide.

The police department’s Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Unit is leading the investigation.

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Cottage Grove Elementary School was placed into a lockdown on Tuesday afternoon after a man with a butcher knife tried to get into the building.

Officers from the Cottage Grove Police Department responded just before noon to a report that someone was at the school waving a butcher knife and possibly intoxicated, police said in a statement posted on social media.

A caller told police that the man had been seen “driving erratically in the school’s parking lot,” police said.

“All students and staff of the school are safe,” police said. “The individual never went beyond the locked vestibule, and responding officers were able to safely apprehend the individual without incident.”

A 46-year-old Cottage Grove man was arrested within six minutes of the initial call. He was taken to the Washington County Jail in Stillwater.

“The safety of our students and staff is our absolute priority,” South Washington County Schools Superintendent Julie Nielsen wrote in a letter to families sent Tuesday night. “We are incredibly grateful for the swift response of our school team and the Cottage Grove Police Department.”

Nielsen credited “secured entryways provided by taxpayer support” with playing a critical role in keeping everyone safe.

“Please continue to support our work in staying vigilant and reporting potential issues immediately,” she wrote. “It takes all of us working together to ensure our communities are safe places to live and learn.”

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The activity heated up well in advance of Thursday’s NBA trade deadline.

The Timberwolves got involved by shipping Mike Conley to the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday afternoon, but it was far from the biggest move of the day. Four former all-stars were involved in three other trades on a busy day: James Harden, Darius Garland, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Nikola Vucevic.

Minnesota might not be done dealing before Thursday’s 2 p.m. CT deadline. The Wolves end of 3-team, 4-player deal on Tuesday involving Detroit and Chicago was largely money related. Moving Conley might be precursor to more moves.

In the meantime, here’s a rundown of what happened Tuesday:

Huerter moved to Detroit in Conley deal

The Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons got deeper Tuesday by agreeing to acquire Kevin Huerter from the Chicago Bulls as the centerpiece of a four-player, three-team deal, two people with knowledge of the trade told The Associated Press.

The Pistons got Huerter and Dario Saric — who was just acquired over the weekend by Chicago — from the Bulls. Chicago landed Mike Conley Jr. from Minnesota and Jaden Ivey from the Pistons, said the people, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the trade was still pending league approval.

Huerter is having one of the most well-rounded seasons of his career and would join a Detroit team aiming for a deep playoff run in the East. The Pistons don’t shoot many 3-pointers — they’re 27th in attempts and 28th in attempts per game entering Tuesday — but that could change with Huerter being added to a group that features constant deep threat Duncan Robinson, among others.

Huerter is averaging nearly 11 points this season and is set to become a free agent this summer.

Ivey spent parts of four seasons with the Pistons. He was dealing with the aftereffects of knee surgery entering the season and was averaging a career-low 8.2 points, getting only 16.8 minutes per game, another career low.

Harden gets his wish, again

Harden is headed to the Cleveland Cavaliers, with the Los Angeles Clippers agreeing to send the 11-time All-Star back to the Eastern Conference during his highest-scoring season in six years, a person with knowledge of the agreement told the Associated Press on Tuesday night.

ESPN was first to report the deal was finalized.

The Cavaliers are giving up point guard Darius Garland and a second-round pick, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade has not yet been approved by the NBA.

That approval could come by Wednesday, when the Cavaliers and Clippers face off in Inglewood, California.

Harden is averaging 25.4 points this season, his most since averaging 34.3 points in 2019-20. He’s been a huge part of the Clippers’ resurgence back into playoff — or, at least, play-in — contention after a dismal 6-21 start.

“He means a lot to our team and we’ve seen it the last three years,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said Monday night when stories began breaking indicating such a move was close. “Who wouldn’t want to have James Harden?”

Cleveland will become Harden’s sixth team. He played for Oklahoma City, then Houston, then Brooklyn, then Philadelphia and, since 2023, the Clippers.

For the Cavaliers, it seems to be a move for right now — pairing the 36-year-old Harden with another star guard in Donovan Mitchell. For the Clippers, it seems to be a move with an eye on the future — the 26-year-old Garland is a two-time All-Star, averaging 18 points and 6.9 assists this season for Cleveland.

Harden opted out of the final year of his contract last summer with the Clippers to sign a new deal that would have been worth $81.5 million for this season and the 2026-27 campaign. Next year is at his option, which basically meant he was on a one-year contract anyway.

Another Bulls deal

The Boston Celtics are adding some frontline depth for the playoff run, agreeing Tuesday to acquire Nikola Vucevic from the Chicago Bulls for guard Anfernee Simons, a person with knowledge of the pending trade told the Associated Press.

There is a package of second-round draft capital also involved in the trade, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal is still pending the required league approval.

The 35-year-old Vucevic is joining his fourth team after stints with Philadelphia, Orlando and the Bulls. He has averaged 16.9 points and 9.0 rebounds this season, roughly matching his career marks of 17.2 points and 10.4 rebounds per game.

Simons was with the Celtics for just this season, after coming to Boston in the trade last summer that sent Jrue Holiday to Portland. He averaged 14.2 points this season for the Celtics, who entered Tuesday tied with New York for second in the Eastern Conference despite being without Jayson Tatum all season while he recovers from a torn Achilles.

Jazz make a move to acquire a star

Jaren Jackson Jr. was traded to the Utah Jazz in an eight-player, three-draft-pick deal with the rebuilding Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

Jackson, Jock Landale, John Konchar and Vince Williams Jr. were sent to Utah in exchange for Georges Niang, Kyle Anderson, Walter Clayton Jr. and Taylor Hendricks. The NBA approved the trade less than 48 hours ahead of the Thursday afternoon trade deadline.

Also included in the deal: three first-round picks for Memphis, which has been engaged in talks about trading star guard Ja Morant as well. For now, the Grizzlies — who already had built a sizable haul of looming first-round picks even before this move — decided to part with Jackson, a former defensive player of the year.

Jackson averaged 19.2 points and 5.8 rebounds per game this season for Memphis, the team that drafted him No. 4 overall in 2018. He was a two-time All-Star for the Grizzlies, the 2023 defensive player of the year, a two-time blocked shot champion and a three-time all-defensive team pick.

— Information from the Associated Press was used in this report

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By MEGAN JANETSKY

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Historians and observers accused the Trump administration of trying to rewrite American history to justify its own foreign policy decisions toward Latin America by posting a “historically inaccurate” version of the Mexican-American war.

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The Monday statement from the White House commemorating the anniversary of the war described the conflict as a “legendary victory that secured the American Southwest, reasserted American sovereignty, and expanded the promise of American independence across our majestic continent.” The statement drew parallels between the period in U.S. history and its own increasingly aggressive policies toward Latin America, which it said would “ensure the Hemisphere remains safe.”

“Guided by our victory on the fields of Mexico 178 years ago, I have spared no effort in defending our southern border against invasion, upholding the rule of law, and protecting our homeland from forces of evil, violence, and destruction,” the statement said, though it was unsigned.

In the post, the White House makes no mention of the key role slavery played in the war and glorifies the wider “Manifest Destiny” period, which resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Native Americans from their land.

Sparking criticism

Alexander Aviña, Latin American history professor at Arizona State University, said the White House statement “underplays the massive amounts of violence that it took to expand” the U.S. to the Pacific shore at a time when the Trump administration has stuck its hand in Latin American affairs in a way not seen in decades, deposing Venezuela’s president, meddling in elections and threatening military action in Mexico and other countries.

“U.S. political leaders since then have seen this as an ugly aspect of U.S. history, this is a pretty clear instance of U.S. imperialism against its southern neighbor,” Aviña said. “The Trump administration is actually embracing this as a positive in U.S. history and framing it – inaccurately historically – as some sort of defensive measure to prevent the Mexico from invading them.”

On Tuesday, criticisms of the White House statement quickly rippled across social media.

Asked about the statement in her morning news briefing, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum guffawed, quipping and noting “we have to defend sovereignty.” Sheinbaum, who has walked a tight rope with the Trump administration, has responded to Trump with a balanced tone and occasionally with sarcasm, like when Trump changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

Historical sticking point

The Mexican-American war (1846–1848) was triggered by long-running border disputes between the U.S. and Mexico and the United States’ annexation of Texas in 1845. For years leading up to the war, Americans had gradually moved into the then-Mexican territory. Mexico had banned slavery and U.S. abolitionists feared the U.S. land grab was in part an attempt to add slave states.

After fighting broke out and successive U.S. victories, Mexico ceded more than 525,000 square miles of territory — including what now comprises Arizona, California, western Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah — to the U.S.

The moment turned Texas into a key chess piece during the U.S. Civil War and led former President Ulysses S. Grant to write later that the conflict with Mexico was “one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation.”

The Associated Press was formed when five New York City newspapers funded a pony express route through Alabama to bring news of the Mexican War — as it is sometimes known in the U.S. — north faster than the U.S. Post Office could deliver it.

The war continues to be a historical sticking point between the two countries, particularly as Sheinbaum repeatedly reminds Trump that her country is a sovereign nation whenever Trump openly weighs taking military action against Mexican cartels and pressures Mexico to bend to its will.

Rewriting history

The White House statement falls in line with wider actions taken by the Trump administration to mold the federal government’s language around its own creed, said Albert Camarillo, history professor at Stanford University, who described the statement as a “distorted, ahistorical, imperialist version” of the war.

Aviña said the statement serves “to assert rhetorically that the U.S. is justified in establishing its so-called ‘America First’ policy throughout the Americas,” regardless of the historical accuracy.

The Trump administration has ordered the rewriting of history on display at the Smithsonian Institution, saying it was “restoring truth and sanity to American history.”

The administration has scrubbed government websites of history, legal records and data it finds disagreeable. Trump also ordered the government to remove any signs that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living,” including those making reference to slavery, destruction of Native American cultures and climate change.

“This statement is consistent with so many others that attempt to whitewash and reframe U.S. history and erase generations of historical scholarship,” Camarillo said.