Two men get life in prison for Coon Rapids fake-UPS triple murder

posted in: All news | 0

Two more men have been sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the fatal shootings of a woman, her son and husband in Coon Rapids nearly two years ago.

Brothers Demetrius Shumpert and Omari Shumpert, along with Alonzo Mingo, posed as UPS drivers and went into the family’s home with guns looking for money, leading to the killings of Shannon Jungwirth, 42, her son Jorge Reyes-Jungwirth, 20, and her husband, Mario Trejo Estrada, 39.

Alonzo Pierre Mingo, Demetrius Trenton Shumpert and Omari Malik Shumpert (Courtesy of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office)

Mingo fatally shot Jungwirth and Reyes-Jungwirth, while Omari Shumpert killed Trejo Estrada after he fought back, prosecutors said.

All three victims were shot in the head, and the killings were caught by video cameras inside the home in the 200 block of 94th Avenue Northwest. Two small children, both under the age of 5, were also in the home at the time of the killings but not injured.

Related Articles


Apple Valley man spared prison in Mounds View shooting case


4-year prison term for Minneapolis man who shot at vehicles during separate St. Paul road rage incidents


State, MSP mayors allege ‘federal invasion’ in lawsuit against Trump administration


U.S. Bank Center mortgage acquired by St. Paul Downtown Development Corporation


Burnsville man, 23, charged with attacking 74-year-old woman on park trail

Demetrius Shumpert, 33, and Omari Shumpert, 20, both of Minneapolis, were sentenced last week in Anoka County District Court after juries convicted them last year of aiding and abetting first-degree murder and other charges in the Jan. 26, 2024, killings.

Jurors in August found Mingo, 39, of Fridley, guilty of the same charges and he was sentenced to life in prison in September.

Court records say that Trejo Estrada was suspected of drug trafficking and that law enforcement was on his trail in the days leading up to the killings.

Trump administration restores federal funding for family planning after ACLU lawsuit

posted in: All news | 0

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI

Reproductive rights advocates say they have dropped a legal challenge against the Trump administration for withholding millions of dollars of federal funding for family planning, contraception and other services after officials agreed to restore the money.

Related Articles


Strength training is crucial after menopause. How to make the most of your workouts


Popular weight-loss drugs shouldn’t carry suicide warnings, FDA says


Fewer Americans sign up for Affordable Care Act health insurance as costs spike


EPA says it will stop calculating health care savings from key air pollution rules


At-home STD tests offer new options for screening and treatment

Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after federal officials alerted 16 organizations, including Planned Parenthood affiliates, that the department was pausing $27.5 million to investigate whether they’re complying with the law.

At the time, HHS didn’t specify which laws or executive orders the groups were suspected of violating. However, in a Dec. 19 letter to the organizations, HHS officials cited “federal civil rights laws” and that the groups had taken actions to show they were in compliance.

The letter reminded the organizations of their “ongoing obligation to comply with all terms of the award, including by not engaging in any unlawful diversity, equity or inclusion-related discrimination in violation of such laws.”

The ACLU then filed to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit on Jan. 13.

“We should never have had to sue to protect essential health care like cancer screenings, STI tests, and birth control,” said Arthur Spitzer, senior counsel at the ACLU of the District of Columbia. “Restoring funding is a victory, but the larger fight to protect everyone’s reproductive freedom continues.”

An email seeking comment to HHS was sent on Wednesday.

Since taking office, Trump has issued executive orders targeting programs that consider race in any way, some of which have been put on hold by judges.

Republicans have long railed against the hundreds millions of dollars that flow every year under the Title X program to Planned Parenthood and its clinics, which offer abortions but also birth control, cancer and disease screenings, among other things. The program provides services mainly to low-income women, many of them from minority communities. Federal law prohibits taxpayer dollars from paying for most abortions.

According to the ACLU, when HHS withheld 22 federal Title X grants last spring, 865 family planning service sites were unable to provide services to an estimated 842,000 patients across nearly two dozen states.

Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the Reproductive Freedom Project at the ACLU, said in a statement that while funding has been restored, “we know that the Trump administration will continue to attack reproductive freedom, and the ACLU will be ready to use every lever we have to fight those attacks and defend the Title X program.”

After Minnesota shooting, Democrats call for Kristi Noem’s impeachment

posted in: All news | 0

By David Lightman, McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Reps. Doris Matsui and Mike Thompson want to impeach Homeland Secretary Kristin Noem. So do dozens of other Democrats.

Related Articles


US apologizes for deporting a college student flying home for Thanksgiving surprise


From Minneapolis to Venezuela, Trump starts new year with fresh risks as he faces midterm verdict


Democrats see a path to win the Senate. It’s narrow and has little room for error


Tina Peters’ lawyers try to convince Colorado court to overturn conviction for voting system breach


US to suspend immigrant visa processing from 75 countries over public assistance concerns

They said Wednesday they’re backing an impeachment resolution in the House led by Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill. It appears highly unlikely it will go anywhere in the Republican-run chamber.

The Democrats’ anger has been building all year, as immigration enforcement agents have used what critics say are strong-arm tactics to find undocumented immigrants. Impeachment backers are particularly outraged by the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Gold by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Minneapolis during an anti-ICE protest January 7.

“Secretary Noem, you have violated your oath of office and there will be consequences,” Kelly told a Capitol news conference Wednesday.

Many Republicans and Trump administration officials have said ICE personnel were acting in self-defense in Minneapolis.

“Our ICE officers are enforcing federal law as the Congress wrote it. The Democrats here don’t like that law, they object to its enforcement, and they are actively encouraging citizens to obstruct its enforcement,” said Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, chairman of the House immigration subcommittee.

Nonetheless, Matsui, Thompson and an estimated 70 other House members want to try to oust Noem.

“She’s spearheading a lawless and incompetent campaign of cruelty in our cities, blatantly violating the Constitution and allowing the senseless killing of our neighbors,” Matsui, D-Sacramento, posted on the social media platform X.com.

“She has been a complete and destructive failure as DHS secretary. Our nation demands that our justice system is carried out transparently and in accordance with the Constitution,” she said in a separate post.

Added Thompson, D-St. Helena, “Like so many Americans, I am sickened by ICE’s killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. Enough is enough.

“It’s clear that Secretary Noem isn’t just a poor leader — she’s violating the law,” he said.

The Department of Homeland Security pushed back hard.

“How silly during a serious time. As ICE officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them, Rep. Kelly is more focused on showmanship and fundraising clicks than actually cleaning up her crime-ridden Chicago district,” the department said in a statement to The Sacramento Bee.

Could Noem be impeached?

The impeachment drive appears to have little momentum. Even if the House impeached Noem, which would take a majority vote, the Senate would need a two-thirds majority to remove her from office. The House has a 218 to 213 Republican majority, and 53 of the Senate’s 100 members are Republican.

Party leaders have indicated they’d rather keep the focus on affordability.

“We haven’t had a caucus-wide conversation on that issue,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, when asked earlier this week about Noem’s actions.

“Clearly, we’re going to have to explore what accountability looks like as it relates to an out-of-control administration that continues to break the law, violate norms and jam reckless, right-wing extremism down the throats of the American people,” he said.

Rep. McClintock’s view

Republicans have generally supported the ICE action. “What I saw was an ICE vehicle attempting to leave an area that was in a near-riot condition, a civilian vehicle then suddenly moved in front of it to block its departure,” McClintock said. He described what he saw in a lengthy X post.

He watched as “an ICE officer approached that vehicle and issue a lawful order to the driver to get out of the car. Instead of complying with that order, the driver backed up, pointed the car in the direction of another officer, and then shifted into drive…”

Kelly said her effort has been long in the making. At a Wednesday news conference, she said the department has acted improperly as it searches for undocumented immigrants.

“Secretary Kristi Noem is an incompetent leader, a disgrace to our democracy, and I am impeaching her for obstruction of justice, violation of public trust, and self-dealing,” Kelly said.

She has proposed three articles of impeachment:

—Obstruction of Congress: The measure says Noem “willfully obstructed Congressional oversight and withheld Congressionally appropriated funds in violation of her constitutional oath and federal law.”

—Violation of public trust: Noem “compromised public safety, violated due process of American citizens, and directed unconstitutional actions.”

—Self-dealing: Noem “abused her office for personal benefit and steered federal dollars to associates. “

©2026 McClatchy Washington Bureau. Visit at mcclatchydc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Related Articles


US apologizes for deporting a college student flying home for Thanksgiving surprise


US to suspend immigrant visa processing from 75 countries over public assistance concerns


No immediate court decision in request to stop immigration crackdown in Minnesota


‘Like a military occupation’: Clashes rise with federal agents in Minneapolis


ICE arrested dozens of refugees in Minnesota and sent them to Texas, lawyers say

US overdose deaths fell through most of 2025, federal data reveals

posted in: All news | 0

By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. overdose deaths fell through most of last year, suggesting a lasting improvement in an epidemic that had been worsening for decades.

Federal data released Wednesday showed that overdose deaths have been falling for more than two years — the longest drop in decades — but also that the decline was slowing.

And the monthly death toll is still not back to what it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, let alone where it was before the current overdose epidemic struck decades ago, said Brandon Marshall, a Brown University researcher who studies overdose trends.

“Overall I think this continues to be encouraging, especially since we’re seeing declines almost across the nation,” he said.

Overdose deaths fell in 45 states

Overdose deaths began steadily climbing in the 1990s with overdoses involving opioid painkillers, followed by waves of deaths from heroin and — more recently — illicit fentanyl. Deaths peaked nearly 110,000 in 2022, fell a little in 2023 and then plummeted 27% in 2024, to around 80,000. That was the largest one-year decline ever recorded.

The new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data runs through August 2025 and represents the first update of monthly provisional drug overdose deaths since the federal government shutdown.

Related Articles


Strength training is crucial after menopause. How to make the most of your workouts


Popular weight-loss drugs shouldn’t carry suicide warnings, FDA says


Fewer Americans sign up for Affordable Care Act health insurance as costs spike


EPA says it will stop calculating health care savings from key air pollution rules


At-home STD tests offer new options for screening and treatment

An estimated 73,000 people died from overdoses in the 12-month period that ended August 2025, down about 21% from the 92,000 in the previous 12-month period.

CDC officials reported that deaths were down in all states except Arizona, Hawaii, Kansas, New Mexico and North Dakota. But they noted it’s likely that not all overdose deaths have been reported yet in every state, and additional data in the future might affect that state count.

Researchers cannot yet say with confidence why deaths have gone down. Experts have offered multiple possible explanations: increased availability of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, expanded addiction treatment, shifts in how people use drugs, and the growing impact of billions of dollars in opioid lawsuit settlement money.

Some also point to research that suggests the number of people likely to overdose has been shrinking, as fewer teens take up drugs and many illicit drug users have died.

Two other theories recently joined the list.

China regulation changes may be having an impact

In a paper published last week in the journal Science, University of Maryland researchers point to the drug supply. They say regulatory changes in China a few years ago appear to have diminished the availability of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl.

Their argument is based partly on information from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which last year reported that the purity — and dangerous potency — of fentanyl rose early in the COVID-19 pandemic but fell after 2022. It suggests it became harder to make fentanyl and its potency was diluted.

One piece of evidence for that: More U.S.-based Reddit users reported a fentanyl “drought” in 2023.

The authors connect that to signs that the Chinese government — at the urging of U.S. officials — took steps in 2023 to clamp down on the selling of substances used to make drugs. Information is limited on exactly what the Chinese government did, and the paper is a bit speculative, but “we thought we could make a case,” said Peter Reuter, one of the authors.

The recent deceleration of overdose deaths could be because producers in Canada and Mexico found alternative sources, Reuter and his colleagues think.

Their paper drew inspiration from a team of University of Pittsburgh researchers, who earlier concluded that regulatory changes in China concerning the drug carfentanil were an important explanation for a dip in U.S. overdose deaths in 2018.

Did pandemic stimulus payments play a role?

Those same Pittsburgh researchers — Dr. Donald Burke and Dr. Hawre Jalal — are now focused on another theory for what’s happened to overdose deaths. In a paper published last week in the International Journal of Drug Policy, they say overdose trends may be at least partly tied to federal stimulus checks sent out during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The researchers tracked the three rounds of pandemic stimulus payments to U.S. households in 2020 and 2021, and saw surges in overdose deaths after each one.

That money alleviated economic hardship for many families, but some of it also helped people pay for illicit drugs, the Pittsburgh researchers say. And the end of those payments helps explain why overdoses stabilized in 2022 and began falling afterward, they say.

Both arguments seem to have merit, though they do not prove causation, said Dr. Daniel Ciccarone, a drug policy expert at the University of California, San Francisco.

“I personally think it’s more complicated,” with those partial explanations layering on other trends, he said.

The Maryland and Pittsburgh researchers raised questions about whether Trump administration policies could slow momentum.

They noted relations between the U.S. and China strained last year when Trump placed sharply higher tariffs on imports from China, and speculated China might ease efforts to police fentanyl precursors.

They also noted Trump has promised a $2,000 check to Americans to help offset the rising prices resulting from tariffs placed on China. Those checks could cause some drug users to splurge and overdose, said Burke, who urged federal officials to think through how the money is disbursed.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.