Stand-up comic Dave Chappelle will perform at St. Paul’s Grand Casino Arena on Feb. 16 as a “statement of respect, unity and unwavering support for the region’s residents” during the ongoing ICE presence in the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota.

Tickets go on sale at noon Tuesday via Ticketmaster. Hip hop duo Clipse will open.

The comedian’s decision to perform in Minnesota “exemplifies his decades-long commitment to showing up for communities in crisis and using comedy as a force for connection and solidarity,” according to a news release. “The people of Minneapolis and St. Paul have stood up with remarkable courage and resilience, demanding accountability and justice in the face of extraordinary circumstances.”

Chappelle, 52, rose to fame as the star of Comedy Central’s “Chappelle’s Show,” which ran for 28 episodes in the early ’00s before Chappelle quit, despite blockbuster ratings. One of the most famous sketches featured Eddie Murphy’s brother Charlie recounting a late-night basketball game with Prince. The Purple One loved it and made references to it online.

After the end of “Chappelle’s Show,” the comic mostly stepped out of the spotlight, but returned to regular touring in 2013. That fall, he performed four nights at First Avenue followed by two more at the nearby Pantages Theatre.

In 2022, Chappelle announced a last-minute series of shows at First Avenue that led to an online backlash due to the comedian’s numerous jokes about transgender people. The four performances were ultimately moved to the Varsity Theater. Chappelle made his St. Paul arena debut the following year at the former Xcel Energy Center.

While Chappelle has raised controversy over the years, he’s also been vocal in his support of various causes. He’s a longtime financial contributor to his high school, Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C. In August, he hosted a special preview screening of his documentary “Dave Chappelle Live in Real Life” at the 23rd annual Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival. Proceeds from the event benefited the school’s programming and equipment upgrades and established an endowment for the theater department.

Next week, he’ll join fellow comic Jon Stewart for a live event in Ohio that will raise funds for a community-owned public radio station in Yellow Springs, where Chappelle has lived since 2004.

Chappelle has filmed a series of specials for Netflix and was reportedly paid $24.1 million for 2021’s “The Closer,” which he said will be his last stand-up special for the foreseeable future. He has since released two more specials for the streamer in 2023 and 2025.

No cell phones will be allowed during Chappelle’s performance. Attendees are asked to leave their phone at home or in their car. Those who do bring their phones inside the venue will be required to secure them in a Yondr pouch. Audience members can access their phones at designated stations in the lobby, but will be ejected from the venue if caught using their phone at their seat.

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By JENNIFER McDERMOTT and ALEXA ST. JOHN, Associated Press

A federal judge on Monday ruled that an offshore wind project aimed at powering 600,000 New York homes can resume construction, the fifth such project put back on track after the Trump administration halted them in December.

In clearing the way for Sunrise Wind to proceed, Judge Royce Lamberth found that the government had not shown that offshore wind is such an imminent national security risk that it must halt in the United States.

President Donald Trump has said his goal is to not let any “windmills” be built, and often talks about his hatred of wind power. His administration froze five big offshore wind projects on the East Coast days before Christmas, citing national security concerns. Developers and states sued to block the order. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers has repeatedly said during the legal battle over the pause that Trump has been clear that “wind energy is the scam of the century” and the pause is meant to protect the national security of the American people.

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Danish company Orsted sued the administration over halting both Sunrise Wind and its Revolution Wind for Rhode Island and Connecticut. In a preliminary injunction hearing on Sunrise Wind at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday, Lamberth cited many of the same reasons that he used when he ruled in January that construction could continue on Revolution Wind.

Sunrise Wind said it would resume work as soon as possible. The state of New York and the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, sued the Trump administration over halting Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind because she said the pause threatens New York’s economy and energy grid.

Other federal judges allowed construction to restart in January on the Empire Wind project for New York by Norwegian company Equinor, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind for Virginia by Dominion Energy Virginia, and Vineyard Wind for Massachusetts by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

Hillary Bright, executive director of offshore wind advocacy group Turn Forward, cited the industry’s victories in court in saying the government should stop trying to block such projects.

“At a time when electricity demand is rising rapidly and grid reliability is under increasing strain, these projects represent critically needed utility-scale power sources that are making progress toward completion,” Bright said. She estimated the projects combined would generate 6 gigawatts of electricity, powering 2.5 million American homes and businesses.

Sunrise Wind is about 45% complete and expected to be operational in 2027. The Sunrise Wind LLC said in court paperwork that the stop-work order was costing the project at least $1.25 million per day, a figure that would increase in February if construction couldn’t resume. It also said if the work stoppage continued past the first week of February, it might force cancellation.

The government had argued that national security concerns outweigh any harm to the developers from a pause. It said it was relying on new classified information, provided by defense officials in November, about the national security implications of offshore wind projects.

Trump has dismissed offshore wind developments as ugly, but Orsted says the Sunrise Wind project will be at least 30 miles east of Long Island’s Montauk Point, virtually unnoticeable from Long Island. Sunrise Wind will be capable of generating 924 megawatts, enough clean energy to power about 600,000 New York homes.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By ALI SWENSON, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday announced that his department will devote $100 million toward a pilot program addressing homelessness and substance abuse in eight cities, building on an executive order President Donald Trump signed last week related to addiction.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will also make faith-based organizations eligible for addiction-related grants and expand states’ ability to use federal health funding for substance abuse treatment in certain situations involving children, Kennedy said at an annual “Prevention Day” event for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The new initiatives signal the administration acting on an issue that hits close to home for many Americans — including Kennedy, who has been open about his past heroin addiction and lifelong commitment to recovery. They represent some quick momentum for Trump’s executive order signed last Thursday launching what Trump calls the “Great American Recovery Initiative” to better align federal resources on the addiction crisis.

Yet the announcements come as the administration’s actions so far have created uncertainty, fear and logistical challenges for mental health and substance abuse treatment providers around the country.

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Over the past year, about a third of SAMHSA’s roughly 900 employees have been laid off. The agency and the organizations it serves are still reeling from the administration’s whiplash-inducing reversal last month that briefly eliminated then abruptly restored $2 billion in grant funding for substance abuse and mental health programs. Advocates and providers have said they don’t feel they can plan for the future because the administration has created an environment of uncertainty.

HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the department is “focused on reform and ensuring that federal resources are used effectively, responsibly, and in ways that deliver real results for those struggling and their families.”

“As part of the Great American Recovery announced just last week, HHS is moving forward with new funding, expanded flexibilities, and targeted actions that strengthen the mental health and substance use treatment system and provide greater support for providers on the ground,” he said.

Federal data shows that overdose deaths fell through most of last year, suggesting a lasting improvement in an epidemic that had been worsening for decades. Still, that decline was slowing, the figures showed.

Kennedy said SAMHSA’s new pilot program will be called STREETS, or Safety Through Recovery, Engagement and Evidence-Based Treatment and Supports. He said the program, first directed at eight unspecified communities, will build integrated care systems for people experiencing homelessness, substance abuse and mental health challenges and help them find housing and employment.

While that’s an idea many advocates support, “the devil’s in the details,” said Regina LaBelle, director of the Center on Addiction and Public Policy at Georgetown Law’s O’Neill Institute.

LaBelle said the real-world impact of the funding depends on which cities receive it and how the program is implemented. She also raised questions about how the program was paid for, and whether it will take away from others that already have successfully lowered overdose death rates.

Later Monday, Kennedy appeared at another event focused on substance abuse and mental health — the launch of a bipartisan initiative called Action for Progress by his cousin, former Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy, now a partner at the national health consultancy Healthsperien.

The two scions of one of the nation’s most prominent political families fell on different sides of the 2024 presidential race but have found common ground on the issue that is personal for both of them, said Patrick Kennedy, who has shared publicly about his bipolar disorder and battle with alcoholism and drug addiction.

“When we go into recovery rooms we don’t think of ourselves as Democrats and Republicans,” the former Rhode Island congressman said in a phone interview Monday. “I’ve grown up with my cousin, I know him, and I have an opportunity to share with him all that I’ve learned over the years in policymaking on mental health and addiction — and he’s welcomed it.”

For several Minnesota Wild players and their head coach, one of the great thrills of their hockey careers is just a few days away. And to a man, they’re trying not to think about it.

Later this week, eight members of the Wild and head coach John Hynes will be bound for Italy, where they’ll represent Team USA (Hynes, Brock Faber, Quinn Hughes, Matt Boldy), Team Sweden (Filip Gustavsson, Jesper Wallstedt, Marcus Johansson, Joel Eriksson Ek) and Team Germany (Nico Sturm). A ninth player in the organization, minor league defenseman David Spacek, will skate for Team Czechia.

But with two regular-season NHL games still to play and four vital points available, there was a clear focus on Montreal — the Wild’s Monday night opponent — and not Milan as the players prepped for their only February home game.

“I’m just kind of trying to get through these last two games and focused on that,” Hughes said following the team’s Monday morning skate at TRIA Rink. “Get healthy and play really good hockey and go into the Olympics feeling good about myself.”

For the players who aren’t headed to Europe, or south to Iowa, the NHL has mandated that the team’s locker room be closed for 12 consecutive days, giving at least a few of them time for rest and relaxation.

Before Hynes and the Wild players embark on their Olympic journeys, they discussed plans for how to handle their return to Minnesota and to NHL hockey when their games in Europe are done.

Oddsmakers have tabbed Team Canada as the gold medal favorite, with the Americans and the Swedes in the mix for the medal podium. By contrast, a recent betting line showed Sturm and the Germans with 10-1 odds to get a medal. That means his Olympic experience might be a few days shorter than that of the Swedes or the Americans.

Hynes has a plan in place for all of it.

“I met with all the players that are going to the Olympics and talked about every situation possible,” said Hynes, who will be an assistant coach for Team USA. “If they make it all the way to the gold medal game, what that would look like? If their team gets knocked out in the quarters or whatever, what would be our expectations and their expectations for rest and recovery, but also when to come back and join the team?”

When the non-Olympic Wild players return from their 12-day break, assistant coach Jack Capuano will run practices in St. Paul. The Olympics finish on Sunday, Feb. 22, and the Wild are scheduled to play Thursday, Feb. 26, at Colorado, which on Monday morning was the only Western Conference team with more points (81) than the Wild (74),

As opposed to his normal game night red and green, Gustavsson practiced Monday with gloves and pads that were dark blue with gold accents, working on breaking in his Team Sweden gear. Sturm, who missed the Wild’s Saturday night win in Edmonton due to illness, was breaking in his Team Germany skates.

Like the other Wild players bound for the Olympics, Sturm was trying to keep that part of it off his mind.

“I’m not even too much focused on it right now. It’s just too much hockey at the moment still here,” he said. “For me, it doesn’t feel like it’s four days away. It’s just my mind is so preoccupied with NHL hockey right now and playing every 48 hours. It’s hard to get much rest, do some planning or think about other things.”

With a roughly eight-hour flight across the Atlantic in all of their futures, there will be plenty of time for thinking, and the hockey thrill of a lifetime later in the week.

New Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes answers questions during a news conference at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023.Hynes replaces former Wild head coach Dean Evason, who was let go after starting the season with a 5-10-4 record. Hynes coached the Nashville Predators from 2019-2023. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Minnesota Wild forward Nico Sturm (7) poses for a photo during the Wild’s Media day at TRIA Rink in St. Paul on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2021. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

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