DULUTH, Minn. — A 72-year-old Duluth man allegedly threatened to shoot out the windows of an elementary school to attract media attention.

Richard Joseph Neault told an officer he planned to shoot at the school across the street from his house when it was unoccupied, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday in St. Louis County District Court.

Neault is charged with felony threats of violence. He remained in the St. Louis County jail Friday night.

The alleged threats followed the Aug. 27 shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis. Two students, ages 8 and 10, were killed. Twenty-one other people, mostly children, were injured. The shooter died by suicide, police said.

On Thursday evening, Neault told a bar worker to “watch the news” and he was going to shoot the windows of the school, the charges say. The worker contacted police, who responded to his house on the 5500 block of West Sixth Street, which is across the park adjacent to Laura MacArthur Elementary School. Neault allegedly admitted to making the threat.

“I know how to get the news crews here,” he allegedly recounted saying to the bar worker. “I’ll take my SKS, all loaded up, and make sure that nobody is in the school, and I’ll take out about five of them (expletive) windows.”

He told an officer he was a disabled veteran and he was upset that media outlets had not responded to his requests to do a story about him, according to the court complaint.

A SKS semiautomatic assault rifle, a homemade shotgun made from steel pipes, and ammunition reportedly were found in Neault’s house during the execution of a search warrant. Handwritten documents that included mentions of weapons and that Neault was a trained killer also were found.

Adelle Wellens, a Duluth School District spokesperson, said Laura MacArthur School students stayed inside for recess on Friday as a precaution.

“We understand that events like this can be unsettling, and we have staff available to provide support for any student or staff who may need it,” Wellens said. “We encourage everyone to remember: if you see something, or hear something, say something.”

Related Articles

EPA scientist at Duluth lab says he was fired after signing ‘Declaration of Dissent’

Historic Duluth lighthouses could be open for tours in the next few years

Minnesota State Fair Space Tower arrived 60 years ago via Duluth

Readers and writers: A mystery writer tries out romance, and other late-summer titles

Duluth man charged with fatally shooting mother as she slept in recliner

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and CHRISTOPHER RUGABER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook referred to a condominium she purchased in June 2021 as a “vacation home” in a loan estimate, a characterization that could undermine claims by the Trump administration that she committed mortgage fraud.

Related Articles

Appeals court rules Trump administration can end legal protections for more than 400,000 migrants

The EPA wants to end a requirement that large polluters report their greenhouse gas emissions

Trump administration to award a no-bid contract on research into vaccines and autism

California lawmakers pass bill barring authorities from wearing face masks

Lawsuit says US held West African migrants in straitjackets for 16 hours on flight to Ghana

President Donald Trump has sought to fire Cook “for cause,” relying on allegations that Cook claimed both the condo and another property as her primary residence simultaneously, as he looks to reshape the central bank to orchestrate a steep cut to interest rates. Documents obtained by The Associated Press also showed that on a second form submitted by Cook to gain a security clearance, she described the property as a “second home.”

Cook sued the Trump administration to block her firing, the first time a president has sought to remove a member of the seven-person board of governors. Cook secured an injunction Tuesday that allows her to remain as a Fed governor.

The administration has appealed the ruling and asked for an emergency ruling by Monday, just before the Fed is set to meet and decide whether to reduce its key interest rate. Most economists expect they will cut the rate by a quarter point.

Bill Pulte, a Trump appointee to the agency that regulates mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has accused Cook of signing separate documents in which she allegedly said that both the Atlanta property and a home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, also purchased in June 2021, were both “primary residences.” Pulte submitted a criminal referral to the Justice Department, which has opened an investigation.

Claiming a home as a “primary residence” can result in better down payment and mortgage terms than if one of the homes is classified as a vacation home.

The descriptions of Cook’s properties were first reported by Reuters.

Fulton County tax records show Cook has never claimed a homestead exemption on the condo, which allows someone who uses a property as their primary residence to reduce their property taxes, since buying it in 2021.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

AP writer Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed to this report.

By MICHAEL CASEY

BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the Trump administration can end legal protections for around 430,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Related Articles

The EPA wants to end a requirement that large polluters report their greenhouse gas emissions

Trump administration to award a no-bid contract on research into vaccines and autism

California lawmakers pass bill barring authorities from wearing face masks

Lawsuit says US held West African migrants in straitjackets for 16 hours on flight to Ghana

Man arrested in Charlie Kirk’s killing had no known criminal history, had become ‘more political’

The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest twist in a legal fight over Biden-era policies that created new and expanded pathways for people to live in the United States, generally for two years with work authorization. The Trump administration announced in March it was ending the humanitarian parole protections.

“We recognize the risks of irreparable harm persuasively laid out in the district court’s order: that parolees who lawfully arrived in this country were suddenly forced to choose between leaving in less than a month — a choice that potentially includes being separated from their families, communities, and lawful employment and returning to dangers in their home countries,” the judges wrote. “But absent a strong showing of likelihood of success on the merits, the risk of such irreparable harms cannot, by itself, support a stay.”

In a two-page ruling, the court lifted a stay issued by a district court and is allowing the administration to end humanitarian parole for those groups while the lawsuit plays out. The ruling Friday is a victory for the Trump administration but doesn’t change anything on the ground.

Esther Sung, the legal director of Justice Action Center, a co-counsel in the case, said the ruling “hurts everyone.”

“People who came here from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela did everything the government asked of them, and the Trump administration cruelly and nonsensically failed to hold up the government’s end of the bargain,” Sung said. “While we are deeply disappointed by this decision, we will continue to advocate zealously for our clients and class members as the litigation continues.”

A district court issued a stay in April halting the administration’s decision, but the Supreme Court lifted the lower court order at the end of May with little explanation.

The Trump administration had argued the appeals court should follow the Supreme Court and reverse the district court ruling.

The protections for people fleeing turmoil in their home countries were always meant to be temporary, and the Department of Homeland Security has the power to revoke them without court interference, the Justice Department said in a court filing.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that ending parole on a case-by-case basis would be a “gargantuan task” that would slow the government’s efforts to press for the removal of the migrants.

“The Secretary’s discretionary rescission of a discretionary benefit should have been the end of the matter,” lawyers for the government wrote in their brief.

Plaintiffs, including people who benefited from the legal protections, urged the appeals court to endorse the district court ruling, which found that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem could not categorically end protections for these groups, but instead had to evaluate each case individually. They also cited the district court’s finding that Noem ignored the humanitarian concerns that led to the legal protections in the first place.

“The district court applied the law correctly and did not abuse its discretion when it concluded that Secretary Noem’s action inflicted irreparable injury on the class members (among others) and that the public interest and balance of the equities tip sharply in favor of preliminary relief,” attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote in a brief.

Republican President Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail to deport millions of people. Since taking office, he has sought to dismantle Biden administration policies that expanded paths for migrants to live legally in the U.S.

The Trump administration’s decision was the first-ever mass revocation of humanitarian parole, attorneys for the migrants said in court papers, calling it “the largest mass illegalization event in modern American history.”

By MATTHEW BROWN

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A cloud of smoke from two pounds of methamphetamine seized by the FBI and incinerated inside a Montana animal shelter prompted its evacuation and sent workers to the hospital, city officials in Billings said.

The smoke started to fill the building during a drug burn on Wednesday, apparently because of negative pressure that sucked it back inside, Billings Assistant City Administrator Kevin Iffland said Friday. A fan was supposed to be on hand in such situations to reverse the pressure so smoke would flow out of the building, but Iffland said it wasn’t readily available.

The incinerator is used primarily to burn the carcasses of animals euthanized or collected by the city’s animal control division. But every couple of months local law enforcement or FBI agents use it to burn seized narcotics, Iffland said.

Fourteen workers from the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter went to the hospital as a precaution, he said. The dogs and cats at the shelter were relocated or put into foster homes.

Animal crates sit outside the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, in Billings, Mont. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

Some workers had symptoms such as not feeling well. “I don’t know if it was from the smoke inhalation or exactly what it was,” Iffland said.

Billings resident Jay Ettlemen went to the shelter on Friday to donate dog food and said he was angry when he found out about the drug burns.

“Why the hell are they destroying drugs inside the city limits?” Ettlemen asked. “There’s so many other places in the middle of nowhere.”

The FBI routinely uses outside facilities to conduct controlled drug evidence burns, agency spokesperson Sandra Barker said. She referred further questions to Billings officials.

A sign is posted on the door of the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, in Billings, Mont. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

A city animal control supervisor who was present for Wednesday’s burn declined to go the hospital, Iffland said. The FBI agents were told to go to the hospital by their supervisor.

The incinerator is meant to operate at a certain temperature so it doesn’t emit toxins. Iffland said officials were trying to determine if it was at the appropriate temperature Wednesday.

The shelter will remain closed until it can be tested for contamination. Shelter workers were tested for potential exposure and Iffland said he did not know the results.