By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN and MORGAN LEE, Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Emmy Award-winning actor Timothy Busfield is due in court for an initial appearance Wednesday, a day after turning himself in to authorities to face charges of child sex abuse stemming from allegations that he inappropriately touched a minor on the set of a TV series he was directing in New Mexico.

Albuquerque police issued a warrant for his arrest last week on two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse. A criminal complaint alleges the acts occurred on the set of the series “The Cleaning Lady,” which was filmed in Albuquerque.

Busfield, who is married to actor Melissa Gilbert and is known for appearances in “The West Wing,” “Field of Dreams” and “Thirtysomething,” has vowed to fight the charges. In a video shared before turning himself in, Busfield called the allegations lies.

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Prosecutors are seeking to keep Busfield in custody pending trial. They filed a motion early Wednesday detailing their reasons for the request, pointing to what they described as a documented pattern of sexual misconduct, abuse of authority and grooming behavior by Busfield over two decades. They also said witnesses have expressed fear regarding retaliation and professional harm.

The motion states that research and experience show that offenders are uniquely positioned to evade accountability and circumvent safeguards designed to protect children when they wield authority, status or influence.

“In light of the defendant’s demonstrated disregard for boundaries, authority and compliance, no condition or combination of conditions of release can reasonably protect the victims or the community,” the motion states.

It will be up to a judge to determine whether to grant the request. A detention hearing has yet to be scheduled.

Prosecutors also took issue with Busfield disseminating a video to the media outlet TMZ on Tuesday, suggesting he was prioritizing “personal narrative control and public relations” over compliance with the court process.

According to the criminal complaint, an investigator with the police department says the child reported that he was 7 years old when Busfield touched him multiple times on private areas over his clothing. Busfield allegedly touched him on another occasion when he was 8, the complaint said.

The complaint also says the child was reportedly afraid to tell anyone because Busfield was the director and he feared he would get mad at him.

The boy’s twin brother told authorities he also was touched by Busfield but did not specify where. He said he didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to get in trouble.

The mother of the twins reported to Child Protective Services that the abuse occurred between November 2022 and spring 2024, the complaint said.

In an interview with police last fall, Busfield denied the allegations and suggested that the boys’ mother was seeking revenge for her children being replaced on the series. The argument was echoed by Busfield’s attorney Tuesday.

The investigation began in November 2024 after a call from a doctor at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. The boys’ parents had gone there at the recommendation of a law firm, the complaint said.

Busfield’s attorney said an independent investigation by Warner Bros. was unable to corroborate allegations of inappropriate behavior by Busfield. But prosecutors in their filing argued that the investigator failed to talk to key witnesses.

Lee contributed from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

By MICHELLE L. PRICE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he’s been told “on good authority” that plans for executions in Iran have stopped, even as Tehran has indicated fast trials and executions ahead in its crackdown on protesters.

The U.S. president’s claims, which were made with few details, come as he’s told protesting Iranians in recent days that “help is on the way” and that his administration would “act accordingly” to respond to the Iranian government. But Trump has not offered any details about how the U.S. might respond and it wasn’t clear if his comments Wednesday indicated he would hold off on action.

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“We’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping — it’s stopped — it’s stopping,” Trump said at the White House while signing executive orders and legislation. “And there’s no plan for executions, or an execution, or executions — so I’ve been told that on good authority.”

The president on Tuesday consulted with his national security team about next steps after telling reporters he believed the killing in Iran was “significant.”

Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and key White House National Security Council officials began meeting last Friday to develop options for Trump, ranging from a diplomatic approach to military strikes.

The Iranian security force crackdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2,586, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported.

On Wednesday, Iranian officials signaled that suspects detained in nationwide protests would face fast trials and executions while the Islamic Republic promised a “decisive response” if the U.S. or Israel intervene in the domestic unrest.

The threats emerged as some personnel at a key U.S. military base in Qatar were advised to evacuate by Wednesday evening following Trump’s escalated warnings of potential military action over the killing of peaceful demonstrators.

Mohammad Pakpour, commander of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, reiterated Iranian claims, without providing evidence, that the U.S. and Israel have instigated the protests and that they are the real killers of protesters and security forces who have died in the turmoil, according to Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

He added that those countries will “receive the response in the appropriate time.”

Earlier Wednesday, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, Iran’s judiciary chief, said the government must act quickly to punish more than 18,000 people who have been detained through rapid trials and executions. Mohseni-Ejei’s comments about rapid trials and executions were made in a video shared by Iranian state television online.

“If we want to do a job, we should do it now. If we want to do something, we have to do it quickly,” he said. “If it becomes late, two months, three months later, it doesn’t have the same effect. If we want to do something, we have to do that fast.”

The comments stand as a direct challenge to Trump, who warned Iran about executions in an interview with CBS aired Tuesday. “If they do such a thing, we will take very strong action,” Trump said.

Amiri reported from New York.

With a permanent outdoor rink built to NHL standards and a massive video board already in place two miles east of downtown Hastings, and the fiscal support of myriad sponsors jumping into the fray, organizers of Hockey Day Minnesota 2026 figured 24 hours just wouldn’t be enough.

Born in 2007 on a frozen river just a long slap shot from the Canadian border in Baudette, the event which started as a one-day affair has grown a little bit here and there over the past decade-plus. A “Hockey Day Weekend” that began with games on Thursday and ran through Saturday, when the televised nationally televised marquee matchups happen. became the standard a few years ago.

But in Hastings this year, they’ve taken it to a whole new level.

“It’s Hockey Week Minnesota,” said Kevin Gorg, who has been one of the mainstays calling the games on TV for FanDuel Sports Network since the event began. “It’s changed a lot, and it feels like every year the next city in line wants to out-do the previous one. It’s gotten bigger and better and they’ve learned what works, they’ve learned what fans are looking for and what types of experiences they want.”

The actual Hockey Day Minnesota in 2026 will be Saturday, Jan. 24, when the Hastings girls will host Park, the Hastings boys will host East Ridge, and Rock Ridge will face St. Thomas Academy. It will include a full day of TV programming, culminating with the Wild hosting Florida that evening at Grand Casino Arena. But by then, the 5,000-seat HDM site, located at the United Heroes League complex, will be a well-known destination for hockey teams and fans in the state.

In all, there will be eight days of scheduled games and exhibitions at the Hastings rink, starting Saturday morning, Jan. 17 with four varsity prep games.

Community creation

Shane Hudella, who founded United Heroes League as Defending the Blue Line in 2009, is overseeing nearly every aspect of Hockey Day at their rink that’s situated in a scenic meadow between the Mississippi River to the north and the wooded bluffs to the south. He said that with all of the infrastructure they have in place and the overwhelming support from sponsors and the community, having it all on-line for just two or three days didn’t make sense.

“It’s Hockey Week in Hastings,” he said, speaking in one of the four permanent locker rooms on site as a junior team from St. Cloud finished up a morning skate. Hudella and a group from Hastings attended the Hockey Day Minnesota in Warroad two years ago, and in Shakopee last year, learning what works and what is needed to make this event a high-profile success.

“Warroad was great to learn some right ways to do things, from a fan experience and from a rinkside perspective. Our VIP tent mimics theirs,” Hudella said. “We learned some things in their (fan) village for layout that really helped us out.”

In Shakopee, where the event was held in the parking lot of Valleyfair theme park, with rollercoasters as a memorable backdrop to the rink, sponsorship dollars were reportedly harder to come by. There, the 2026 organizers got a good reminder of how much money is needed to make this event work, and made a concerted effort to get things fiscally sound almost from the day Hastings was announced as the future host.

Hudella said they have found generous sponsors to the tune of more than $1 million, and the results show in an outdoor rink set up with a capacity larger than anything seen at Hockey Day Minnesota in recent years, along with multiple tents where fans can get food, beverages, merchandise and hear an extensive schedule of live music while they warm up between periods and unwind after games.

“So just from a business perspective, to make that investment in infrastructure, we wanted to stretch the event and capture more revenue to offset it,” Hudella said. “There’s so much interest around Hockey Day and we were just inundated with teams that wanted to be a part of it, so we didn’t think we were going to struggle to find programming.”

On Saturday, Jan. 17, a full week before the actually scheduled Hockey Day Minnesota, Hudella said they were expecting upwards of 10,000 fans for the quartet of high school games.

Getting there

The biggest anticipated challenge is traffic management and parking. The site is in a rural area outside of the community’s historic downtown and riverfront, with one primary road – Ravenna Trail – leading to Hastings in one direction and to Treasure Island Resort and Casino in the other. There is parking on site for roughly 2,000 to 2,500 vehicles (at $20 per car), but with the number of games and the amount of interest in being a part of the week of festivities, organizers are promoting arriving early, carpooling and even using the shuttles that will be available from park and ride lots in Hastings and at the casino.

“We think most of the local community is prepared for it and understands, yeah, we’re going to have some backups,” Hudella said. “But I think between the (police department), MNDOT and the county, everything will be pretty well-marked for people coming to the event.”

The highest-profile event among the more than 30 games and scrimmages scheduled for the Hastings rink is Friday evening, Jan. 23, when the Minnesota Wild’s top AHL minor league team, the Iowa Wild, faces the Milwaukee Admirals, who are the Nashville Predators’ farm team.

The 2026 Hockey Day Minnesota site outside Hastings, Minn., includes a lighted outdoor skating path through the woods among the Mississippi River bluffs. (Contributed / Hockey Day Minnesota)

But they also have put together opportunities for fun away from the rink, including a lighted skating path that winds a little less than a mile through the nearby woods, and an ice mini-golf course that uses sticks and pucks in place of putters and golf balls.

On a recent afternoon, after days of sun and above freezing temps, the skating path looked a bit slushy, but Hudella offered assurance that with the thermometer dropping to near zero in the coming forecast, the ice would be in good shape by the time the gates opened for real.

Slappers and songs

They also have developed a notable schedule of live music in one of the on-site fan tents, with 18 different acts – many of them from Hastings and the region – booked for the eight days of the event.

“We have this massive, massive entertainment tent and we wanted to have an opportunity for all of the local bands in our small town to play a big stage for an hour or two,” Hudella said.

Having been to more than a dozen previous incarnations of Hockey Day Minnesota, in weather varying from bright sunshine which made the ice a challenge in Moorhead (2011) to some dangerously low wind chill nights in Bemidji (2019), Gorg relishes playing a role in this event that has become like a state holiday.

He also understands that for the few hundred kids that will get to play a game in Hastings this year, or in Brainerd next year, or wherever else Hockey Day Minnesota is held beyond 2027, the hour or two they spend there will be a highlight of their lives in the game.

“For all of us that get to work the games, we don’t take that lightly, because these are lifelong memories,” Gorg said. “Not everybody gets to play in the State Tournament, right? So if you’re lucky enough to be a part of the Hockey Day celebration that week and you’re going to play on that big stage, on that rink, we think that’s really cool for the kids and their families.”

Tickets, parking and transportation information, a full schedule of games and information about live music and food vendors are available at the official Hockey Day Minnesota website, hockeydaymn.com.

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A Champlin woman was charged with killing her daughter the day a judge granted temporary custody to the girl’s father, a Lakeville man, according to court documents.

Maige Elizabeth Yang, 23, was charged Tuesday with the second-degree murder of De’Ali Blia Delgado, 18 months.

De’Ali Blia Delgado. (Courtesy of GoFundMe)

After Hennepin County District Judge Theresa Couri granted the child’s father temporary custody on Jan. 9, authorities allege that Yang went home and killed her daughter and then tried to kill herself, according to the criminal complaint.

The following details were found in court documents about last week’s custody hearing:

During the hearing, Couri said it would be a difficult decision since the girl had spent most of her life with her mother but, due to the mother’s “erratic” behavior, the father, Erick Delgado of Lakeville, would get temporary custody of the child.

Delgado said during the hearing that Yang was demonstrating erratic behavior and he believed that she had untreated mental health issues. It also was revealed that Yang’s mother had found a note in the trash in which Yang had threatened to end her life and her child’s life.

Based on an affidavit about the threat, Champlin police issued an endangered missing person alert for the mother and child on Jan. 3, saying they were last seen on Dec. 28. The alert said that after Yang disappeared, “Family later located communications that lead law enforcement to be extremely concerned for Yang and her daughter’s safety.”

The alert was canceled later that day with authorities saying the pair had been located.

Yang argued in court that she left the state to get away from the stress of the custody case and that she handled her mental health issues by taking medication and seeing a therapist. She said her daughter would not be safe in her father’s care because of his “inability to handle his anger and history of domestic abuse.”

Delgado could not be reached for comment, but in the custody hearing documents, the judge said that based on the facts Yang provided, it was not established that domestic violence had occurred.

In her ruling, Couri said it was a difficult decision to grant temporary custody to the father since the girl had bonded with her mother and been in the mother’s exclusive care most of her life. However, the mother’s recent behavior had been “deeply concerning.”

Couri ruled that the mother’s threats were a “profound threat” to the child’s well-being, warranted “immediate intervention” and were a “severe safety concern.”

It is unclear from court documents when Delgado was going to take custody of the girl, but Yang took her home to Champlin after the hearing.

Later that day, police were called to Yang’s home in the 11900 block of Castle Rock Court on reports of a child in distress. When they arrived, they found the toddler on the living room floor. She was not breathing. Despite lifesaving efforts, she was declared dead at the hospital.

Police found Yang partially unconscious in an upstairs bedroom. Authorities said that she had attempted suicide. She is currently hospitalized under police supervision.

Her parents told police that when Yang returned home from the custody hearing, she took her daughter to an upstairs bedroom. When Yang’s father went to check on them, the door was locked. He forced the door open and found the girl on the floor with her lips turning blue. He grabbed her, ran downstairs and called 911.

Yang later allegedly told investigators she poured a “significant” amount of children’s sleeping medication into the child’s bottle in order to “make the pain go away.” She also allegedly confessed that she intended for it to be a lethal dose so her daughter would “pass peacefully” in her sleep.

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A GoFundMe for funeral expenses (gofund.me/0059faf1c) was started by Delgado. As of Wednesday afternoon, it had raised nearly $10,000.

“It’s with my heart shattered that I write this post,” Delgado wrote on the GoFundMe page. “My baby girl De’Ali Blia Delgado was not just taken away from me, She was murdered. I did everything right. Today I was (supposed) to wake up right next to my daughter. I had finally won custody of my beautiful baby on Friday, January 9th at 11:30Am and by 4Pm her life was gone. I fought my hardest for you, and the justice system failed you. I ask for your help at this very unexpected time to help me and my family bury my beautiful princess.”

The criminal complaint says Yang will be booked into the Hennepin County jail after she is discharged from the hospital.