BENSON, Minn. — The Benson School District will continue to use the Braves logo and mascot after receiving an exemption from the Upper Sioux Community.

“We are deeply grateful to the Upper Sioux Community for their understanding and appreciation for the way Benson Schools uses the mascot in a respectful and honorable manner,” said Benson Superintendent of Schools Dennis Laumeyer.

The exemption allows the district to maintain a mascot that has represented the Benson Schools since 1945. School teams previously competed as the Plowboys.

The Minnesota Legislature in the 2022-23 session adopted legislation that required schools with American Indian mascots to end their use by Sept. 1, 2025, unless they received an exemption from all 11 tribal nations in the state and the Tribal Nations Education Committee.

The Benson School District requested the exemption, but two tribes and the Tribal Nations Education Committee rejected it.

In the last session, legislation was approved to allow school districts to seek an exemption from the tribal community nearest to the school district.

Benson School Board members met twice with the Upper Sioux Community Board of Trustees to make their request for an exemption. The superintendent said they explained how the district uses the mascot to motivate students to be of good character and do well in a very positive and respectful way.

Throughout the elementary school, signs promote the “Braves Way” with the ‘B’ representing positive attributes such “B respectful, B engaged, B my best.”

It was a two-way conversation with the local tribal trustees, according to the superintendent. The Upper Sioux Community indicated a willingness to help the district as it meets state education requirements for instruction about the Indigenous peoples of Minnesota, in particular the Dakota.

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The community has the resources and knowledge to help the district educate its students in an authentic way, the superintendent noted.

The decision to seek an exemption to maintain the mascot and logo came amid overwhelming support from the community to do so.

The superintendent said board members have been discussing the issue for over two years now, and feedback from residents and school alumni was overwhelmingly in favor of maintaining the mascot. Alumni indicated that they would feel as if they lost their school if the mascot was lost, he said.

A major concern too was the potential cost for adopting a new mascot and logo. The superintendent said it was a $1 million proposition. Everything from athletic uniforms to the scoreboards, furniture, gym floors and more would need to be changed.

The legislation provided no funding for schools to make a mascot change. The cost would have come at the expense of educational programming. The district is discussing the possibility of adopting a four-day schedule for the potential cost savings to help maintain educational offerings.

 

By The Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit Monday aiming to stop President Donald Trump’s administration from sending hundreds of National Guard troops to Chicago.

Trump moved to deploy the National Guard in another city on Saturday by authorizing 300 troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago. Trump has long threatened to send troops to Chicago, but it was not immediately clear when or exactly where they would be deployed.

The lawsuit alleges that “these advances in President Trump’s long-declared ‘War’ on Chicago and Illinois are unlawful and dangerous.”

“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” the lawsuit says.

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Some recent military funerals in the region are not including full military honors because of the federal government shutdown that began last week.

Jerome Feltis, a licensed funeral director at Gregory J. Norman Funeral Chapel in Grand Forks, said he was first told Friday morning that a funeral on Saturday for a retired Navy sailor would not be attended by U.S. Navy Reserve members from the Navy Reserve Center in Fargo.

“I don’t recall that ever happening,” Felstis said, referring to previous government shutdowns.

The honors that would normally be performed by requested military personnel would include presenting a U.S. flag to the family members of the deceased. The total number of reserve or active service members who attend can vary between military branches, according to Feltis, but most will send at least two members.

The hold on military honors doesn’t seem to be affecting every branch of the military, either; Feltis said another request he put in to have service members from the Grand Forks Air Force Base attend an upcoming funeral was approved only a few hours after he was notified about the Navy Reserve members. He added he’s unsure if any other branches are providing military personnel during the shutdown or not.

“I haven’t had to request anyone from the National Guard yet or from the Marines since the shutdown, so I don’t know what their response would be,” he said.

Because of the shutdown, military workers will not be paid until a funding deal is reached, according to the government. No new orders may be issued to active and reserve personnel until the government is reopened either, except in cases of natural disaster or national security.

Members of the East Grand Forks American Legion Post 157 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3817 will continue to provide their own services at local military funerals if requested, according to Jack Chatt, a member of the Legion and VFW who coordinates military services with local funeral homes.

Those services can include playing taps and providing riflemen. Chatt also said Legion members can present flags to family members themselves if other military personnel cannot attend.

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“We will continue to be there,” Chatt said.

The shutdown itself is likely to last at least into this week after a fourth vote to pass a funding bill failed in the Senate on Friday. The Senate adjourned until Monday, and House Speaker Mike Johnson also announced the House would not be returning to Washington until Oct. 14.

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin on Monday welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about Russia’s offer to extend the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the United States, saying it raises hope for keeping the pact alive after it expires in February.

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared his readiness to adhere to nuclear arms limits under the 2010 New START arms reduction treaty for one more year, and he urged Washington to follow suit. When asked about the proposal, Trump said Sunday it “sounds like a good idea to me.”

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed Trump’s statement, noting that “it gives grounds for optimism that the United States will support President Putin’s initiative.”

While offering to extend the New START agreement, Putin said its expiration would be destabilizing and could fuel proliferation of nuclear weapons. He also argued that maintaining limits on nuclear weapons could also be an important step in “creating an atmosphere conducive to substantive strategic dialogue with the U.S.”

The Russian leader reaffirmed the offer Thursday, noting that Russia and the U.S. could use the one-year extension to work on a possible successor pact.

Such an agreement will involve complex talks that could deal with battlefield nuclear weapons and prospective strategic weapons systems that Russia has developed, Putin said.

“We haven’t forgotten about anything that we have planned, the work is ongoing and it will produce results,” he declared at a forum of international foreign policy experts.

He mentioned the longtime U.S. push for including China in any prospective nuclear arms control pact but emphasized that it’s up to Washington to try to persuade Beijing to do so. China has rejected the idea, arguing that its nuclear arsenals are far smaller than those of the U.S. and Russia.

Putin also argued that the nuclear arsenals of NATO members Britain and France should be included in a prospective agreement.

He noted at the forum that some in the U.S. oppose New START’s extension, and “if they don’t need it, we don’t need it either. We feel confident about our nuclear shield.”

Putin’s offer came at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and the West, with concerns rising that fighting in Ukraine could spread beyond its borders.

The New START, signed by then-U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The pact also stipulates the need for on-site inspections to verify compliance, although inspections were halted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.

The treaty was originally supposed to expire in 2021 but was extended for five years.

Arms control advocates long have voiced concern about the treaty’s looming expiration and the lack of dialogue to secure a successor deal, warning of the possibility of a new nuclear arms race and the increased risk of a nuclear conflict.

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.