Judge Patrick Diamond was still a young lifeguard at Phalen Beach in St. Paul when he met and wooed Beth Peterson, the woman who would go on to be his wife of more than 40 years, by taking her to a John Prine and Steve Goodman concert. Last summer, the two took sailing lessons out of Bayfield, Wis. and received their captain’s license, leaving Diamond with big plans to sail the Great Lakes, down the eastern seaboard and on to the Caribbean.

Diamond, who had served more than a dozen years on the Ramsey County District Court bench, wrapped up a jury trial in downtown St. Paul on Monday, Feb. 3. On that Tuesday, he completed a full day of pre-trial hearings. He suffered cardiac arrest that Wednesday morning, and died on Feb. 9 at the University of Minnesota Hospital, surrounded by loved ones. He was 64.

“A big dreamer. A big thinker. A big hearted man,” wrote Peterson, sharing the news on his CaringBridge website. “Sail on, Captain. Sail on.”

Diamond, who was born on June 28, 1960, in Hudson, Wis., attended St. Thomas Academy and Hamline University before entering the University of Minnesota Law School, where he was the research and note editor for the Law Review. He went on to clerk for a federal judge in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and then served as Deputy County Hennepin County Attorney from 1992 to 2012 for both Mike Freeman and Amy Klobuchar, who went on to become a U.S. senator.

“He was my chief criminal deputy for 12 years during that time,” said Freeman on Tuesday. “I will brag though that I’m a better fisherman than him. Pat was a very smart man who had great judgment and was deeply committed to justice. He always wanted to figure out what was the right and just thing to do. He was a good trial lawyer.”

Freeman recalled how Diamond would work through creative solutions to problems. “He was more committed to justice than almost anybody I ever knew,” he said.

‘Astute and unflappable counsel’

Diamond argued a case before the United States Supreme Court in 2007, Danforth v. Minnesota, involving a convicted sex offender, who had been deemed incompetent to take the stand in his own defense, attempting to retroactively apply new rules of criminal procedure to challenge a conviction based on his taped testimony.

Diamond was appointed to the Ramsey County District Court bench by Gov. Mark Dayton in July 2012.

As judge, he recently ordered the city of St. Paul to pay legal damages in a case filed by a Summit Avenue homeowner who accused the city of willful violations of the state’s Data Practices Act, and found in another case that USA Powerlifting engaged in discriminatory practices by prohibiting a transgender athlete from competing.

His term in office was scheduled to end on Jan. 4, 2027. An obituary prepared by his family recalled his “wicked wit and big heart,” and his commitment to specialty courts such as the Treatment Court, Drug Court and the Juvenile Delinquent Center.

In a written statement to colleagues, Chief Ramsey County Judge Sara Grewing recalled Diamond as “one of the finest public servants this community has ever known.” Grewing, who clerked for Diamond in the Hennepin County Attorney’s office in 2001, said she was fortunate to be mentored “by his brilliant legal mind and deeply caring heart. Quite frankly, we will be a bit rudderless without his astute and unflappable counsel. We have lost a giant.”

Enjoyed the outdoors

Diamond enjoyed the outdoors, including winter camping, downhill skiing, open water swimming, kayaking and sailing on Lake Superior. He was a fan of minor and major baseball tours. His family remembered him as an avid reader and storyteller who loved pondering recipes for Christmas Eve extended family dinners.

Diamond volunteered for many years as a Youth Week Counselor at Camp Unistar, a Unitarian-Universalist camp on Star Island, Cass Lake when his sons were campers, and continued to volunteer for years afterward. He is survived by his wife Beth, his sons Charlie and Sam, his brother David and sister Peggy, as well as granddaughter Zoey.

Diamond donated his body to the University of Minnesota Anatomy Bequest Program. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on April 18 at Unity Church-Unitarian at 733 Portland Ave. in St. Paul. The service will also be livestreamed. The family has requested that memorials be sent to Camp Unistar.

Related Articles

Embattled aquarium chain SeaQuest appears to close Roseville location

St. Paul Neighborhood Safety director sues Met Council over discipline at previous Metro Transit police job

Over a St. Paul Valentine’s Day lunch hour, judges married 21 couples for free in Ramsey County

St. Paul officer sentenced to workhouse and probation for drunken crash into East Side building while off-duty

Five things Bachman’s CEO wants you to know about Valentine’s Day flowers

It seems unlikely that Minnesota Wild assistant coach Jack Capuano has ever spent time restoring old cars. But on Tuesday at TRIA Rink, he spent some time removing rust.

After a nine-day break for the 4 Nations Face-Off, now down to just Thursday’s title game between Canada and the USA, the members of the Wild who aren’t skating for their countries were on the ice in downtown St. Paul for an hour on Tuesday afternoon, stretching their legs and getting the feel of the ice after some savored down time.

“I think the guys really enjoyed the break,” said Capuano, the former New York Islanders head coach in is first season with the Wild as an assistant under John Hynes. “We’re coming off two home wins versus Carolina and the Islanders, but it’s good just to get away for a little bit and spend some time with your family because there’s so much hockey in the second half.”

Capuano spent some time in Florida during the break. Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury got away to Turks & Caicos. Forward Marcus Johansson caught some sun in the Dominican Republic, while fellow forward Freddie Gaudreau stayed in Minnesota and relaxed at home.

The three members of Team Sweden from the Wild — goalie Filip Gustavsson, defenseman Jonas Brodin and forward Joel Eriksson Ek — are not expected to re-join the team until Friday, the day before the Wild return to playing games on Saturday.

That would also be the earliest that defenseman Brock Faber and forward Matt Boldy could return after they try to win gold for Team USA on Thursday. Hynes, who is a Team USA assistant coach, and Wild general manager Bill Guerin, who has served the same role with Team USA, could re-join the team on Saturday in Detroit where they face the Red Wings in an afternoon game.

Until then, it falls on Capuano to get the team back into shape and into their systems.

“That’s basically how we set the practices up. Today there was a theme, tomorrow’s a theme, Thursday will be treat and train, give the guys some time off and maybe some video,” Capuano said. “Friday we get back to some special teams and then get ready for Saturday.”

The 4 Nations games have been a fun distraction, with Wild players sometimes torn between their loyalty to teammates and their country. Fleury admitted as much, saying that as a proud Canadian, he still wants the best for Faber and Boldy in Thursday’s title game.

Team Sweden concluded the tournament with a win over Team USA on Monday after overtime losses to Canada and Finland. Johansson, who played development hockey in Malmo and Farjestad, said it was a good way for his country to close out the tournament.

“It’s always fun to see Sweden win. It wouldn’t have been good to go home without winning for them,” he said.

After the visit to Detroit, and a visit by the Red Wings to Minnesota on Tuesday, the Wild dive back into Central Division play with back-to-back road games at Utah and Colorado on the final two days of February. Then the real fun begins, as the Wild will play 15 games in the 31 days of March, 11 of them at Xcel Energy Center.

Hence, the need for knocking the rust off their skate blades as soon as possible.

“The guys were really good today. I thought the execution and the pace was good,” Capuano said. “Going out there as coaches, we thought it could maybe get a little sloppy, but I thought the guys did a really good job, dialed in.”

 

By PAUL WISEMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed wealthy financier Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary Tuesday, putting in place a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump’s hardline trade polices.

Related Articles

US Catholic bishops sue Trump administration for halt in funding for refugee settlement

Layoffs hit many at CDC lab program that was started to address previous failures

As egg prices soar, Trump administration plans new strategy to fight bird flu

Border arrests plummet 39% in January in an early gauge of Trump’s immigration policies

Trump administration fires 1,000 workers at National Park Service, raises maintenance concerns

At the Commerce Department, Lutnick, who was CEO at the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, will oversee 50,000 employees who do everything from collecting economic statistics to running the census to issuing weather reports. But he’s likely to spend a lot of time — along with Jamieson Greer, Trump’s nominee to be the top U.S. trade negotiator — managing the president’s aggressive plans to impose import taxes on U.S. trading partners, including allies and adversaries alike.

The Senate vote to confirm Lutnick was 51-45.

Trump views the tariffs as a versatile economic tool. They can raise money to finance his tax cuts elsewhere, protect U.S. industries and pressure other countries into making concessions on such issues as their own trade barriers, immigration and drug trafficking. Mainstream economists mostly view tariffs as counterproductive: They are paid by import companies in the United States, which try to pass along the higher costs to consumers and can thereby add to inflationary pressures throughout the economy.

At his confirmation hearing last month, Lutnick dismissed as “nonsense” the idea that tariffs contribute to inflation. He expressed support for deploying across-the-board tariffs ”country by country” to strong-arm other countries into lowering barriers to American exports.

Trump last week announced plans for “reciprocal” tariffs — raising U.S. import tax rates to match the higher taxes that other countries impose on goods from the U.S. The move would shatter the rules that have governed world trade for decades. Since the 1960s, tariff rates have mostly emerged from negotiations between dozens of countries. Trump is commandeering the process.

The president has also imposed 10% tariffs on Chinese imports and effectively raised U.S. taxes on foreign steel and aluminum. He has threatened — and delayed until March 4 — 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico.

Lutnick was CEO at Cantor Fitzgerald when its offices were hit in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. The firm lost two-thirds of its employees — 658 people — that day, including Lutnick’s brother. Howard Lutnick led the firm’s recovery and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

Lutnick has promised to sell off his business holdings. They’re complicated. His financial disclosure statement showed that he had positions in more than 800 businesses and other private organizations.

By PETER SMITH

Catholic bishops sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over its abrupt halt to funding of refugee resettlement, calling the action unlawful and harmful to newly arrived refugees and to the nation’s largest private resettlement program.

Related Articles

As egg prices soar, Trump administration plans new strategy to fight bird flu

Border arrests plummet 39% in January in an early gauge of Trump’s immigration policies

Trump administration fires 1,000 workers at National Park Service, raises maintenance concerns

Kennedy says panel will examine childhood vaccine schedule after promising not to change it

Supervisor in DC federal prosecutors’ office told to resign after dispute over investigation

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says the administration, by withholding millions even for reimbursements of costs incurred before the sudden cut-off of funding, violates various laws as well as the constitutional provision giving the power of the purse to Congress, which already approved the funding.

The conference’s Migration and Refugee Services has sent layoff notices to 50 workers, more than half its staff, with additional cuts expected in local Catholic Charities offices that partner with the national office, the lawsuit said.

“The Catholic Church always works to uphold the common good of all and promote the dignity of the human person, especially the most vulnerable among us,” said Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the USCCB. “That includes the unborn, the poor, the stranger, the elderly and infirm, and migrants.” The funding suspension prevents the church from doing so, he said.

“The conference suddenly finds itself unable to sustain its work to care for the thousands of refugees who were welcomed into our country and assigned to the care of the USCCB by the government after being granted legal status,” Broglio said.

The conference is trying to keep the program going, but it’s “financially unsustainable,” he said, adding that it’s trying to hold the U.S. government to its “moral and legal commitments.”

The conference is one of 10 national agencies, most of them faith-based, that serve refugees and that have been sent scrambling since receiving a Jan. 24 State Department letter informing them of an immediate suspension of funding pending a review of foreign-aid programs.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, notes that the resettlement program isn’t even foreign aid. It’s a domestic program to help newly arrived refugees — who arrive legally after being vetted overseas — meet initial needs such as housing and job placement.

“USCCB spends more on refugee resettlement each year than it receives in funding from the federal government, but it cannot sustain its programs without the millions in federal funding that provide the foundation of this private-public partnership,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit said the government is attempting to “pull the rug out” from under the program, causing it longstanding damage.

The lawsuit names the departments of State and Health and Human Services as well as their respective secretaries, Marco Rubio and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Both departments have roles in delegating resettlement work to the bishops conference.

There was no immediate reply in court from those departments.

The USCCB said it is still awaiting about $13 million in reimbursements for expenses prior to Jan. 24.

As of Jan. 25, it said, there were 6,758 refugees assigned by the government to USCCB’s care that had been in the country less than 90 days, the period of time for which they’re eligible for resettlement aid.

The conference said suspending the resettlement effort will only prolong the time it takes for refugees to find employment and become self-sufficient.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.