Rep. Omar’s daughter suspended in Columbia protest

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Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is among several Barnard College students who have been suspended for participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University.

The camp, which includes dozens of tents pitched on the New York City campus’s South Lawn in protest against Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip, has created a standoff between administrators and students on the Ivy League campus.

Hirsi posted on social media around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday that she was one of three students suspended so far for participating in the protest, which began Wednesday, the day the university’s president, Nemat Shafik, appeared before Congress to discuss antisemitism on campus.

At the congressional hearing, Shafik told lawmakers that she would enforce rules about unauthorized protests and antisemitism. Omar, who is on the committee that held the hearing and who did not mention that her daughter was among the pro-Palestinian protesters, was one of several Democrats who questioned Shafik about her actions toward Palestinian and Muslim students.

Hirsi, 21, said on social media that she was an organizer with Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the student coalition that has been pushing the university to cut ties with companies that support Israel. Such divestment is the key demand of protesters in the encampment. She is also involved with the Columbia chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, one of two student groups that was suspended in November for holding unauthorized protests.

“I have never been reprimanded or received any disciplinary warnings,” she wrote. “I just received notice that I am 1 of 3 students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.”

Hirsi is a junior majoring in sociology. Two other Barnard students, Maryam Iqbal, 18, a freshman, and Soph Dinu, 21, a junior majoring in religion, were also suspended, protest organizers said.

Police officers are present on campus, but had not made any arrests as of Thursday afternoon. Several protesters off campus, rallying in support of the encampment, were arrested earlier Thursday.

Columbia announced Thursday afternoon that it was suspending all the students in the encampment. “We are continuing to identify them and will be sending out formal notifications,” a university spokesperson said. The students involved say they will not move until Columbia meets their demands.

During the congressional hearing Wednesday, Omar questioned Shafik about why pro-Palestinian students on campus had been evicted, suspended, harassed and intimidated for their participation in a pro-Palestinian event. Shafik responded that it was a very serious situation and that the suspended students had refused to cooperate with an investigation into an event where people spoke in support of Hamas.

Omar also asked about an alleged chemical attack on pro-Palestinian protesters. Shafik said that she had reached out to the students who had been attacked, but that the investigation was still with the police. Hirsi was among the students who were sprayed with an odorous substance, organizers said.

At one point, Omar asked Shafik if she had seen any protests at Columbia that were anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian or against Jewish people, to which Shafik responded “no.”

“There has been a rise in targeting and harassment against anti-war protesters,” Omar said during the hearing, adding, “There has been a recent attack on the democratic rights of students across the country.”

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Investigators ask for public’s help locating fugitive with southeast Minnesota connections

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The Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Fillmore County Sheriff’s Office are seeking the public’s help locating a wanted fugitive.

William Guy Amick III, 36, is charged in Fillmore County District Court with 13 felony counts related to child sexual abuse material including using minors in sexual performance, soliciting a child to engage in sexual conduct and possession of pornographic work involving a minor. The incidents involve multiple victims between the ages of newborn and 7 years old.

William Guy Amick III (Courtesy of Washington County (Penn.) Courts)

Amick also goes by “E.” He lived in Mabel and Rushford, Minnesota, for approximately two years until May 2023. His whereabouts since that time are unknown. He may or may not still be in Minnesota.

Amick is a white male, 6 feet, 3 inches tall, 123 pounds, with dark brown hair and blue eyes.

Amick often uses a false female identity when he interacts with other men online to create child sexual abuse material involving the men’s children, according to law enforcement.

Investigators believe Amick receives payments from people who support his online activities. His financial supporters may not know his true identity nor be aware of his criminal activity. Amick is also a fugitive from Pennsylvania on an unrelated case of a similar nature.

Anyone with information on Amick’s whereabouts is urged to submit a tip using the U.S. Marshals Service web tip form, www.p3tips.com/USMS.aspx, or tip line, 877-WANTED-2 (indicate that the tip should be routed to the state of Pennsylvania, county of Washington). Tips may be anonymous.

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With lottery help, Wild could pick as high as No. 3 in 2024 NHL entry draft

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The Wild’s season will be over on Friday, an anomaly for a team that had made the postseason in 10 of the previous 11 seasons. Yet Minnesota managed to keep one thing consistent this season:

They weren’t bad enough to earn a chance at the No. 1 overall pick in this summer’s entry draft. They could, however, get as close as No. 3 or No. 4, and the Wild haven’t picked that high since they chose Benoit Pouliot fourth overall in the 2005 draft.

Despite a 5-10-4 start that cost Dean Evason his job, the Wild made a run at a playoff spot that didn’t officially end until last week in Colorado and in fact went 34-23-5 under head coach John Hynes.

Depending on what they do against Seattle in their season final Thursday at Xcel Energy Center, the Wild will finish either 20th or 19th in the overall standings. A single point would put them ahead of the Penguins.

According to the NHL, if they finish 20th in the NHL standings they will be 13th in the Draft Lottery order with a chance to move as high as third in the Lottery. If they finish 19th in the NHL standings, they will be 14th in the Draft Lottery order with a chance to move as high as fourth.

In their 24-season existence, the Wild have never held the No. 1 pick in the entry draft, and have selected in the Top 5 only twice, taking wing Marian Gaborik with the third overall pick in 2000 and Pouliot fourth overall in 2005.

Left wing Kirill Kaprizov, the only Wild player to score 40 or more goals in more than one season — three straight after reaching 45 through 81 games this year — was a fifth-round pick in 2015.

After making the playoffs last season, the Wild picked 21st overall.

Minnesota fan

Marc-Andre Fleury and the Wild announced Wednesday they had agreed on a one-year, $2.5 million contract extension, officially ending the veteran goaltender’s flirtation with retirement.

Playing for his fourth organization, Fleury said he only would have returned to play in Minnesota.

“I think it speaks volumes to the way we do things here, that a guy like Flower would want to stay here and only here,” general manager Bill Guerin said.

Why?

“I think first and foremost, my kids, they were in school in Vegas, they went to Chicago and then we came here and I’m going to retire and move again to another school,” Fleury said. “I didn’t want to move them again somewhere else.”

That being said, he added, he believes in the team, which should return in large part intact next fall.

“Obviously, very disappointed for the season to miss the playoffs,” Fleury said, “but I believe the group of guys that we have, staying healthy all season, better start maybe … I’m confident we can come back and make the playoffs here.”

Role model

After failing to make the NHL roster out of camp and subsequently playing his second full season at the Wild’s AHL affiliate in Des Moines, Marco Rossi spent the majority of his summer in Minnesota working with Wild staff and players.

After adding 15 pounds of muscle, Rossi, 22, looked like a different player in training camp, made the team and scored 21 goals in 81 games, second only to Chicago center Connor Bedard’s 22.

But that isn’t all it did for the young center. The decision not to return to his native Austria after last season showed the organization that he’s a serious person with serious goals.

“It’s nice to see him get rewarded for it because he made, as a young player, the type of professional commitment that you need to make in the offseason,” Hynes said.

Hynes, in fact, said he’d like to see Rossi’s teammates follow his lead this summer.

“I think the big thing is he made a big commitment,” Hynes said, adding, “You know, he wasn’t traveling all over the place. It wasn’t a trip here, a trip there. He was here, training four or five days a week, training consistently, and that’s how you can really improve in the summer.”

Briefly

Fleury was honored Thursday with the Tom Kurvers Humanitarian Award, given annually “to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community.”

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Prince’s sister Tyka Nelson to retire from performing live with show at the Dakota

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Prince’s younger sister Tyka Nelson is retiring from live performing with a June 7 show, dubbed Tyka Nelson and Friends: A Night of Purple Music, at the Dakota in downtown Minneapolis. The show takes place on what would have been the Purple One’s 66th birthday.

Tickets are $90, $80 and $70 and are on sale now at dakotacooks.com.

Prince discovered Canadian guitarist Donna Grantis online and invited her to join both 3rdEyeGirl and New Power Generation. (Courtesy of Sacks and Co,)

While Nelson never worked on music with her brother, the evening will feature a host of people who did. The lineup includes: Donna Grantis, guitarist from Prince’s power trio 3rdEyeGirl; vocalists Marva King and Shelby J (who was onstage with Prince during his legendary Super Bowl halftime show in 2007); saxophonists Adrian Crutchfield and BK Jackson; and St. Paul Peterson, who was a member of the Time and the lead singer of the Family, a Prince offshoot group that released the original version of “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

Peterson’s Minneapolis Funk All-Stars will act as the backing band for the night.

Nelson, 63, began writing songs as a child. But she ran away from home around the time Prince signed his first record deal, in 1977. She lived in Los Angeles for more than a decade before she penned her own deal with Chrysalis Records.

Her 1988 debut album “Royal Blue” earned some warm reviews, but failed to find a larger audience. She went on to release three more records, most recently issuing “Hustler” in 2011.

Prince, meanwhile, enjoyed a relationship with the Dakota as both an audience member and performer. Tower of Power, Roy Hargrove, the Steeles and Victor Wooten are among the many artists he saw live at the venue. An April 2016 Lizz Wright show at the Dakota was the last time he was seen at a public concert.

In 2013, Prince played three shows at the Dakota, including his first public performance with 3rdEyeGirl.

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