About 20 people were displaced after an early Thursday fire at townhomes in Mahtomedi.

“Fortunately all occupants were able to escape without injury,” the Mahtomedi Fire Department said of the fire in the 900 block of Ledgestone Drive at 5:40 a.m. Thursday.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office, which assisted, said deputies saw two units of the six-unit townhome structure were engulfed in flames when they arrived. Firefighters from Stillwater, Oakdale, Lake Elmo, White Bear Lake and Vadnais Heights helped Mahtomedi firefighters in putting out the fire.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation. The Red Cross was contacted to assist families as needed.

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WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — A judge ruled Thursday that President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Alina Habba, has been unlawfully serving as the the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey.

“I conclude that she is not statutorily eligible to perform the functions and duties of the office of the United States Attorney and has therefore unlawfully held the role since July 24, 2025,” U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann wrote.

Brann said he’s putting his order on hold pending an appeal.

Brann’s decision comes in response to a filing on behalf of two New Jersey defendants who faced a trial on federal drug-trafficking charges. Their attorney sought to block the charges against his clients, arguing that Habba didn’t have the authority to prosecute the case after her 120-day term as interim U.S. attorney expired in July.

By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Police in Florida are still investigating the death last month of professional wrestling icon Hulk Hogan from what the medical examiner concluded was a heart attack.

The Clearwater Police Department said in a statement Thursday that the “unique nature of this case has required us to interview multiple witnesses and seek medical records from a variety of providers, and our detectives continue to do that.”

Hogan, whose real name was Terry Bollea, died July 24 at age 71 at a hospital after paramedics and police rushed to his beachfront home in Clearwater following a 911 call. That call, and police body camera video of the scene, has not yet been released as the investigation continues.

“All of this takes time,” the police statement said. “Until the investigation is completed, no records related to the case, including body camera footage, can be released.”

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Police have previously said there was no evidence of foul play in Hogan’s death, so it’s not clear exactly what the police probe is looking into other than medical records. Hogan previously had leukemia and atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, according to the medical examiner’s report that concluded the cause of death was natural.

Investigators have been working with Hogan’s family, including his son Nick and daughter Brooke, the statement said.

“We plan to meet with the family and brief them on the case to this point, and we will share the results of the investigation with the family prior to closing the case and releasing it to the public and media,” the police statement added.

No timetable for public release of the findings was given.

Hogan was perhaps the biggest star in WWE’s long history, known for both his larger-than-life personality and his wrestling exploits. He was the main draw for the first WrestleMania in 1985 and was a fixture for years, facing everyone from Andre The Giant and Randy Savage to The Rock and even WWE co-founder Vince McMahon.

Hogan won at least six WWE championships and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005 and reinstated there in 2018. He had been removed from the Hall of Fame in 2015 after he was recorded making racial slurs against Blacks, for which he apologized.

Hogan was to be cremated but it wasn’t clear Thursday if that had happened yet. A well-attended but private funeral service was held Aug. 5 at a church in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida.

By ADAM GELLER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A coalition of more than 30 privacy and civil rights groups called on U.S. universities Thursday to dismantle campus surveillance and data collection, to protect student protesters and others from government retaliation.

The demands, issued in a letter sent to leaders of 60 major universities and colleges, come as President Donald Trump has pressed schools to crack down on alleged antisemitism and take a harder line on demonstrations.

But the groups said it is essential that universities resist that pressure, including threats to millions of dollars in federal research grants, to preserve the academic freedom and rights to expression of their students, faculty and others.

“We are open-eyed to the financial pressure that all campuses are under,” said Golnaz Fakhimi, legal director for Muslim Advocates, a civil rights group that has counseled students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests and which joined in signing the letter. “But we think this is the moment for all campuses to hunker down” and hold the line against government interference.

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In their letter, the groups called on university leaders to refuse to cooperate with law enforcement agencies seeking to surveil, detain or deport students, and demanded they do more to secure and delete sensitive data. The letter also asked that schools reject restrictions on masks worn by some student protesters to conceal their identities, work to prevent doxxing and dismantle campus surveillance systems.

“Without immediate action, surveillance tools and the data they amass will be used to supercharge the virulent attacks on campus communities,” says the letter, coordinated by the group Fight for the Future. It was signed by 32 groups, including Amnesty International USA, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Several colleges introduced new security measures and protest guidelines following a wave of pro-Palestinian campus protests in spring 2024.

The letter was sent to leaders of 60 schools, including Yale, the University of Michigan and Columbia, which last month agreed in a deal with the Trump administration to pay more than $220 million to restore federal research money that was canceled in the name of combating antisemitism on campus.

“Surveillance does not make a university safer,” said Will Owen of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, which also signed the letter. “It chills free speech, endangers students who speak out against injustice and it’s really essential for campuses to protect their communities from the threat.”