Ramsey County Attorney John Choi is asking people to file a police report if they believe they’ve been a victim of a felony at the hands of federal agents in St. Paul or suburban Ramsey County.

The sheriff’s office already has one active investigation and two preliminary investigations, including ICE taking a 57-year-old Hmong man who is a naturalized U.S. citizen from his St. Paul home handcuffed and into freezing temperatures wearing only boxer shorts, Crocs and a blanket. Another case is of a 23-year-old Somali-American woman, who was born in Minnesota, and was detained by ICE for two days, said Sheriff Bob Fletcher.

For people in law enforcement and in prosecution, “one of our primary responsibilities is to protect and serve our residents, and we should be doing everything that we can to seek the truth about allegations of felonious conduct of federal agents,” Choi said in a Tuesday interview. “… There’s allegations of kidnapping, false imprisonment, assaults.”

Choi met with Ramsey County law enforcement agencies and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension on Monday about “the unprecedented rise in federal law enforcement activity” related to immigration enforcement.

If members of the public believe they witness a felony crime involving federal law enforcement or are victims of such in Ramsey County, including in the recent past, “we wanted to make it clear that we should be taking police reports,” Choi said.

People should call 911 or their police department’s non-emergency phone number to make a report. Based on the evidence, law enforcement “may investigate and, if warranted, refer the case” to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office to review the evidence and determine if charges are warranted, Choi wrote in a Tuesday memo to Ramsey County’s law enforcement leaders about taking such reports.

“There are limits to ICE authority, just like there are limits to ours as a sheriff’s office when you exceed your authority,” Fletcher said. “… There are checks and balances to hold all law enforcement accountable,” including “local local law enforcement and local laws.”

Choi: No one is ‘above the law’

Tuesday’s memo is a step farther than a request that Choi issued two weeks ago when he asked that, if a federal officer shoots someone in St. Paul or Ramsey County, local law enforcement independently secure evidence and immediately call in the BCA.

But the BCA has been blocked from investigating the recent fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

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A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order brought by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison against the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies, preventing them from altering or destroying evidence related to the fatal shooting Saturday of Pretti by DHS agents in Minneapolis.

In amended guidance issued by Choi Tuesday, he said the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office has agreed to assist all law enforcement agencies in the county in securing a shooting scene.

“No federal, state, or local government agency is above the law,” Choi wrote in Tuesday’s memo about investigating felonies. “While federal agents may act pursuant to federal authority, that authority is not unlimited. … Authority exercised by all law enforcement officers (federal, state, or local) operating within Minnesota must be lawful and consistent with these constraints.”

By JENNIFER McDERMOTT and MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge said Tuesday that a nearly completed Massachusetts offshore wind project can continue, as the industry successfully challenges the Trump administration in court.

At U.S. District Court in Boston, Judge Brian Murphy halted the administration’s stop work order for Vineyard Wind, citing the potential economic losses from the delays and the developers’ likelihood of success on their claims. Vineyard Wind is one of five big offshore wind projects on the East Coast that the Trump administration froze days before Christmas, citing national security concerns— and the fourth that has since been allowed to go forward.

Developers and states sued seeking to block the administration’s order. Prior to Vineyard Wind’s hearing, federal judges had allowed three of the five to restart construction: the Revolution Wind project for Rhode Island and Connecticut by Danish company Orsted, the Empire Wind project for New York by Norwegian company Equinor, and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind for Virginia by Dominion Energy Virginia. Those three judges essentially concluded that the government did not show that the national security risk is so imminent that construction must halt, said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond Law School professor who has been following the lawsuits.

Orsted is also suing over the administration halting its Sunrise Wind project for New York— the fifth paused project — but has not had a hearing yet.

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Vineyard Wind is a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, located 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts. It is 95% complete and partially operational, able to produce nearly 600 megawatts of power for the New England electric grid, according to the complaint. Before the pause, it was on track to be complete by the end of March, with 62 turbines generating a total of 800 megawatts. That is enough clean electricity to power about 400,000 homes.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said the completion of this project is essential to ensuring the state can lower costs, meet rising energy demand, advance its climate goals and sustain thousands of good-paying jobs.

The administration’s announcement that paused construction did not reveal specifics about its national security concerns. But in a court filing, Matthew Giacona, acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said he reviewed classified documents in November that discussed direct impacts to national security that arise from operating offshore wind projects near early warning monitoring and radar systems. Giacona said he determined the ongoing activities for the Vineyard Wind project did not “adequately provide for the protection of national security interests,” absent potential mitigation measures.

Given its nearly complete status, BOEM decided to allow Vineyard Wind to continue partially operating during the suspension period while it consulted with defense officials and the owners, Giacona said. But, he said he is not aware of any measures that would mitigate the national security risks.

President Donald Trump has targeted offshore wind from his first days back in the White House, recently calling wind farms “losers” that lose money, destroy the landscape and kill birds. Research from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows that states with the most utility-scale wind and solar often have low electricity prices, supported by federal tax incentives. However, states with aggressive, binding programs to mandate more renewable energy have seen prices increase as a result of those policies, according to the study.

Turbines, like all infrastructure, can pose a risk to birds. The National Audubon Society, which is dedicated to the conservation of birds, thinks developers can manage these risks and climate change is a greater threat.

White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers has said the construction pause is meant to protect the national security of the American people and Trump has been clear that “wind energy is the scam of the century.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has criticized the Vineyard Wind project, specifically, because of a blade failure. Fiberglass fragments of a blade broke apart and began washing onto Nantucket beaches in July 2024 during the peak of tourist season. Manufacturer GE Vernova agreed to pay $10.5 million in a settlement to compensate island businesses that suffered losses.

Kennedy’s family famously opposed an earlier failed wind project not far from the family’s Cape Cod estate.

McDermott contributed to this report from Providence, Rhode Island.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

One does not need much in the way of advanced statistics to confirm that playing defense at the top levels of hockey can be hazardous to your health.

For definitive proof, just take a look at the Minnesota Wild’s season statistics, which show that Tuesday’s home game versus Chicago was the sixth in a row played without the services of veteran blueliners Zach Bogosian and Jonas Brodin.

Wild coach John Hynes is hopeful that Bogosian could return relatively soon from his third stint on the injured list this season. Brodin, on the other hand, will miss the chance to skate for Team Sweden in the coming Winter Olympics and is not expected back on the ice for Minnesota until early March.

“It’s difficult,” Hynes acknowledged following the team’s morning skate on Tuesday. “It is special. That’s why the players have voted to go play in the Olympics. It is, you know, a best-on-best tournament. You don’t get a lot of opportunities to be able to represent your country.”

However, out of challenges come opportunities for the young defensemen in the Wild system that have been tasked with filling those roles. Already this season, prospects like David Spacek and Carson Lambos have made their NHL debuts for the Wild, and newcomer Matt Kiersted — originally from Elk River, Minn. — has logged four games for his home-state team.

The two mainstays among the next wave of defensemen getting ice time have been David Jiricek and Daemon Hunt.

In a strange twist, last season the Wild traded Hunt to Columbus as part of the package that brought Jiricek to Minnesota. At the end of training camp, when Columbus placed Hunt, 23, on waivers for purposes of sending him to their American Hockey League team, the Wild claimed him and brought Hunt back to Minnesota.

Hunt admits there was a bit of an odd relationship between Jiricek, 22, and him early in the season, knowing that they were once traded for each other.

“But now, half way through the season, I think it feels normal,” said Hunt, who had three assists in his first 21 games with the Wild this season. “He’s a good friend of mine now.”

Jiricek, who was a top-10 draft pick by Columbus, was prized enough by Wild general manager Bill Guerin that he sent Hunt, a first-round pick, and three other draft picks to the Blue Jackets to get the big Czech in green and red.

In Minnesota, Jiricek’s development has been slower than most had hoped. But after 22 games at the NHL level this season, Hynes is seeing some encouraging signs, especially when Jiricek lets his 6-foot-3, 210-pound frame do the work.

“He’s always been competitive. I think now it’s understanding how to use his body, when to use his body, how to have angles, how to use your leverage against elite players,” Hynes said. “I think the more opportunities you get to do that, whether it’s here or the American League level, you’re always going to get better and better. The good thing is he has a willingness to work on those things.”

For the Wild system’s young defensemen, those opportunities to work on their game, and learn, while playing at the NHL level are expected to help them be valuable additions as inevitable injuries happen to veterans. Time with the Iowa Wild is important for any developing player but there is no substitute for what they experience playing for Minnesota.

“Those games are highly competitive, but they’re not the NHL,” Hynes said of the work done for Iowa. “So, I think when you get your opportunities and you get a taste of the speed of the NHL, the strength of the NHL, the structure that teams and individual players play with, it does give you a better perspective of whether you’re truly ready or not, but also what you need to work on.”

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By OLIVIA DIAZ, Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Virginia judge ruled Tuesday that a proposed constitutional amendment letting Democrats redraw the state’s Congressional maps was illegal, potentially foiling their efforts to pick up seats in the U.S. House in November.

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Tazewell Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. wrote in a court order that Virginia lawmakers’ proposed constitutional amendment was not valid due to a technicality under state law that says such proposals must be passed and published by the clerk’s office at least three months before a general election.

In October, lawmakers advanced their mid-decade redistricting resolution less than a week before their statewide races.

The unusual mid-decade redistricting battle across the country has resulted, so far, in a nine more seats that Republicans believe they can win in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Democrats, meanwhile, think they can win six more because of redistricting in California and Utah.

That leaves the GOP up by three seats, and Democrats hope to fully or partially make that up in Virginia.

As in Virginia, redistricting is still being litigated in several states, and there is no guarantee that the parties will win the seats they have redrawn.