The playoffs are known to create unlikely heroes and unexpected villains in the span of one good or bad shift. Looking back on the Minnesota Wild’s six-game playoff run, perhaps the unlikeliest of heroes to wear red and green in a valiant but losing effort was veteran forward Ryan Hartman.

His two goals on Thursday in the series finale combined with a quartet of assists for a point-per-game average from a player who started the series centering the Wild’s fourth line. The stellar postseason came after a generally forgettable run from October to mid April that included injuries, long scoring droughts and an eight-game suspension in February.

“I think Ryan grew a little bit,” Wild coach John Hynes said in the postgame press conference Thursday at Xcel Energy Center. “Coming after that suspension, I think (it was) just his mental focus from when he came back coming down the stretch to end the regular season and into the playoffs — more focused.”

Always known for his hard-nosed, edgy play, Hartman began the series by sending a message that he would not be goaded into retaliation, even after a nasty cross check to his face delivered by Vegas defenseman Nicolas Hague. Past suspensions were no guarantee of future blow-ups, the Golden Knights learned. And Hartman’s coach noticed.

“Channel his energy the right way. Play the game the right way,” Hynes said. “He had a great playoffs for us. It was really good to see. The one thing I do know about him is he has that competitive gene. When it gets hard, and when the stakes get high, he has that mindset and ability to be able to produce and play his best — and he did that for us in this series.”

The resurgence came after many Wild fans were ready to be done with Hartman at the trade deadline, although a no-move clause in his contract made that talk mostly pointless. Hartman was initially suspended 10 games for driving Ottawa’s Tim Stutzle headfirst into the ice during an early February road game. On appeal, the suspension was reduced to eight games, and upon his return Wild general manager Bill Guerin made it clear that they expected “best behavior” from the oft-suspended Chicago native who has been in Minnesota since 2019.

Hartman spent the mandated time off — which included the league’s two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off — working on and off the ice and returned for an early March game in Seattle in great shape, mentally and physically. In his 21 regular-season games after the suspension, Hartman had four goals and five assists while serving just 15 minutes in the penalty box.

Promoted to center the Wild’s third line between Marcus Foligno and Gustav Nyquist after the Wild’s series-opening loss, Hartman proved to be an essential hard-hitting playoff center, winning faceoffs and very briefly looking like he had given the Wild a vital series lead in Game 5.

His apparent goal with 1:15 left in regulation at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas was eventually taken off the board when replays showed Nyquist was maybe an inch offside. The Wild lost in overtime, eventually dropping the final three games of the series after taking a 2-1 series lead.

In the quiet Wild locker room after the season had ended, when asked about his breakout performance in the playoffs, Hartman was in no mood for self promotion, preferring more games to play over personal accolades.

“I’d rather have been out of the lineup and we move on,” he said. “It doesn’t really … matter.”

He didn’t want to look back at the latest playoff disappointment and instead focused on what he believes is ahead for this team.

“I love our group. Gain experience from things you go through, especially if you’re a young guy,” said Hartman, who will be 31 by the time next season begins. “We’ve got guys in this lineup that can play in the playoffs, and get us wins and. you know, we love everyone in our lineup. And we’re just going to keep getting better.”

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With the excitement of a teenager and the time-worn experience of an elder, Steve Hurvitz describes a five-day summer camp that takes young people through a free crash course in first responder training, from sitting in on mock water rescues to handling police canines.

It’s grown so popular, he says, that organizers will host it twice this summer, back to back, to keep up with demand, and hope to possibly roll out three sessions a year from now.

At the age of 84, Hurvitz might not strike the casual observer as an obvious choice for summer camp cheerleader, but few can talk up the benefits of the Learning Jet’s First Responders Camp like its founder and chairman emeritus.

Steve Hurvitz, founder and chairman emeritus of The Learning Jet’s First Responders Camp, in the retired Boeing 727-200 cargo jet that has been turned into an on-site learning laboratory at Holman Field in St. Paul on Friday April 25, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Among his many hats, Hurvitz is a parliamentarian with the Minnesota Street Rod Association, which is a long story, and he was known as “The Zebra” in his 13 years talking high school and collegiate football on a show on WCCO-TV, which is an even longer story. In 1998, his years spent representing Division II and III college refs on the NCAA rules committee helped land him in a YMCA “Sports Legends” Hall of Fame.

“I’ve had a wonderful life — a wonderful life!” said Hurvitz, standing on the deck of a Boeing 727-200 cargo jet he keeps grounded at Holman Field, the downtown St. Paul municipal airport, outside a hangar dedicated in his honor. It’s the same type of plane legendary thief and hijacker D.B. Cooper parachuted out of in 1971, never to be seen again, says Hurvitz excitedly, before leading an impromptu tour from its cockpit back to its black box.

On-site learning laboratory

His time is limited on this particular day — there’s a storm rolling in, and as a ham radio volunteer with the National Weather Service, he has duties — but he recalls a group of developmentally disabled young people who sat down for one of his whirlwind interactive aviation seminars, which he was told to keep to no more than an hour. By the time he had answered enough questions to satisfy their interest, three hours had flown by, so to speak.

A decade ago, Hurvitz teamed with the Minnesota Association of Women in Aviation and a host of other partners, donors and volunteers to get the 153-foot Boeing and the nearby hangar ready to host summer camp. The Learning Jet’s First Responders Camp was launched in 2015 with the plane, donated by Federal Express, serving as an on-site learning laboratory.

Some nights brought him out at 1:30 a.m. to install interior paneling himself. A group of about 10 volunteers — the Learning Jet’s “tenders” — put in their own toil on the cargo jet, which once flew for Braniff Airways, said Mike Smith, a founding board member.

“We completely gutted the airplane and converted it into a classroom,” recalled Hurvitz, who retired from state employ in 2006 as assistant state director of aeronautics, the job he held after serving as assistant director of land acquisition.

Summer camp

The Learning Jet hosted 31 young people ages 15 to 20 at the donor-driven summer camp last year, and will host two free day camps this June and July, with the latter still accepting enrollees through a mid-May application deadline.

“This is the first year we’ll do two camps, and if we get enough interest, we’ll add another camp next year,” Hurvitz said. “We’re always looking for donors.”

Camp opens with a trip to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for a daylong tour through all things aviation, including a look at how firefighters put out fires aboard planes, and an introduction to airport police and airport police dogs. The second day introduces them to the work of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office and its divers, airboats and snowmobiles.

Day three involves a visit from the Minnesota Air Rescue Team, as well as a visit to the St. Paul Fire Training facility off Snelling Avenue to suit up for hands-on demonstrations of pressure hoses and the jaws of life.

On day four, a Life Link rescue helicopter lands at Holman Field to explain the work of flight nurses and paramedics, and St. Paul fire trainers get campers certified in first aid training. The final day features a tour through the work of the St. Paul Police Department, with an introduction to police canine handlers, the bomb squad, a crisis negotiator, drones and the SWAT team.

Sharing life lessons

The camp has yet to take any students airborne, though that’s not entirely out of the question.

It has taken some onto the water for demonstrations of water rescues, which are always more fun when an elected official is willing to float on White Bear Lake in a life jacket before being airlifted into the sky. Last year, students shadowing the county boat patrol sat in as two boaters received written warnings, says Horvitz, amusedly.

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He’s tracked at least a handful of former campers who have gone on to enroll in Junior ROTC or become paramedics, and at least a couple are working toward becoming firefighters. As he looks forward to his 85th birthday, Hurvitz is more than happy to share a few life lessons.

“I’ve found that the more I do, and the more fun I have, the better off things are,” he said.

By CHRISTOPHER WILLS and JOHN O’CONNOR, Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, disgraced by a corruption scandal that landed him in prison yet heralded by some for clearing the state’s death row, has died. He was 91.

Kankakee County Coroner Robert Gessner, a family friend, said Ryan died Friday afternoon at his home in Kankakee, where he was receiving hospice care.

Ryan started out a small-town pharmacist but wound up running one of the country’s largest states. Along the way, the tough-on-crime Republican experienced a conversion on the death penalty and won international praise by halting executions as governor and, eventually, emptying death row.

He served only one term as governor, from 1999 to 2003, that ended amid accusations he used government offices to reward friends, win elections and hide corruption that played a role in the fiery deaths of six children. Eventually, Ryan was convicted of corruption charges and sentenced to 6½ years in federal prison.

During his more than five years behind bars, Ryan worked as a carpenter and befriended fellow inmates, many of whom addressed him as “governor.” He was released in January 2013, weeks before his 79th birthday, looking thinner and more subdued.

He’d been defiant heading to prison. The night before he went in, Ryan insisted he was innocent and would prove it. But when Ryan asked President George W. Bush to grant him clemency in 2008, he said he accepted the verdict against him and felt “deep shame.”

“I apologize to the people of Illinois for my conduct,” Ryan said at the time.

Ryan was still serving his sentence when his wife, Lura Lynn, died in June 2011. He was briefly released to be at her deathbed but wasn’t allowed to attend her funeral. On the day he left prison and returned to the Kankakee home where he and his wife had raised their children, one of his grandchildren handed him an urn containing his wife’s ashes.

Born in Iowa and raised in Kankakee, Ryan married his high school sweetheart, followed his father in becoming a pharmacist and had six children. Those who knew Ryan described him as the ultimate family man and a neighbor’s neighbor, someone who let local kids use his basketball court or rushed to Dairy Queen to buy treats when they missed the ice cream truck.

“He’s even offered to deliver the papers,” newspaper delivery boy Ben Angelo said when Ryan was running for governor. “He was serious.”

In 1968, Ryan was appointed to fill an unexpired term on the county board, beginning a quick rise in politics. Eventually, he served as speaker of the Illinois House, lieutenant governor, secretary of state and, finally, governor.

A glad-handing politician from the old school, Ryan emphasized pragmatism over ideology. He worked with officials from both parties and struck deals on the golf course or during evenings of cigars and booze.

Ryan helped block the Equal Rights Amendment in the early 1980s during his term as speaker of the Illinois House, triggering some of the most heated demonstrations ever seen at the Capitol.

“They wrote my name in blood on the floor in front of the House, in front of the governor’s office,” Ryan said. “They were trying, hectic times, frankly.”

His willingness to set aside party orthodoxy sometimes put him at odds with more conservative Republicans.

He led a failed effort in 1989 to get the General Assembly to restrict assault weapons. He backed gambling expansion. He became the first governor to visit Cuba since Fidel Castro took power. And in 2000, after signing off on the execution of one killer, he decided not to carry out any more. He imposed a moratorium on executions and began reviewing reforms to a judicial system that repeatedly sentenced innocent men to die.

Ultimately, Ryan decided no reforms would provide the certainty he wanted. In virtually his last act as governor, he emptied death row with pardons and commutations in 2003.

“Because the Illinois death penalty system is arbitrary and capricious — and therefore immoral — I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death,” Ryan said.

Ryan found himself mentioned as a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize at the same time federal prosecutors were closing in. Before year’s end, he would be charged with taking payoffs, gifts and vacations in return for steering government contracts and leases to cronies, as well as lying to investigators and cheating on his taxes.

Much of the illegal activity took place during Ryan’s two terms as Illinois secretary of state, including the 1994 deaths of six children. They burned to death after their minivan struck a part that had fallen off a truck whose driver got his license illegally from Ryan’s office.

Federal investigators found that Ryan had turned the secretary of state’s office into an arm of his political campaign, pressuring employees for contributions — some of which came through bribes from unqualified truck drivers for licenses. After the children’s deaths, Ryan also gutted the part of his office responsible for rooting out corruption.

Then as governor, he steered millions of dollars in state leases and contracts to political insiders who in turn provided gifts such as trips to a Jamaican resort and $145,000 loans to his brother’s struggling business, investigators found. He was convicted on all charges April 17, 2006.

The father of the six dead children criticized Ryan’s attitude at the time.

“There was no remorse in George Ryan after the verdict. That didn’t surprise me. That’s Ryan’s same attitude, a chip on the shoulder,” said the Rev. Scott Willis. “It makes it a little easier to feel elation. His attitude confirms the verdict was right.”

Anger at Ryan weakened Republicans for years and energized the gubernatorial campaign of a charismatic young Democrat who promised to clean up Springfield — Rod Blagojevich. Later, as federal investigators probed his own conduct, Blagojevich would call for Ryan to be granted clemency and released from prison.

Wills, a former Associated Press staffer, was the principal writer of this obituary.

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to clear the way for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to access Social Security systems containing personal data on millions of Americans.

The emergency appeal comes after a judge in Maryland restricted the team’s access under federal privacy laws.

Social Security holds personal records on nearly everyone in the country, including school records, bank details, salary information and medical and mental health records for disability recipients, according to court documents.

The government says the DOGE team needs access to target waste in the federal government, and asked the justices to put the lower court order on hold as the lawsuit over the issue plays out.

Solicitor General John Sauer argued that the judge’s restrictions disrupt DOGE’s urgent work and inappropriately interfere with executive-branch functions. “Left undisturbed, this preliminary injunction will only invite further judicial incursions into internal agency decision-making,” he wrote.

Musk has been focused on Social Security as an alleged hotbed of fraud, describing it as a “ Ponzi scheme ” and insisting that reducing waste in the program is an important way to cut government spending.

An appeals court refused to immediately lift the block on DOGE access, though it split along ideological lines. Conservative judges in the minority said there’s no evidence that the team has done any “targeted snooping” or exposed personal information.

The lawsuit was originally filed by a group of labor unions and retirees represented by the group Democracy Forward.

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The ruling from U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in Maryland that blocked DOGE from Social Security systems did allow staffers to access data that has been redacted or stripped of anything personally identifiable.

The appeal is the latest in a string of emergency applications to the nation’s highest court as the Trump administration faces about 200 lawsuits challenging various aspects of President Donald Trump’s sweeping conservative agenda.