Inspired by a consultant’s speech about her efforts to empower Black women through financial literacy, staffers with the city of St. Paul’s Office of Financial Empowerment invited Chloe B. McKenzie to apply for the opportunity to prepare a curriculum for St. Paul Public School students and other community partners.

The goal was to launch a significant expansion of Mayor Melvin Carter’s “CollegeBound” initiative to put low-income kids on the path to college, and eventually widen it to educate entire families on accumulating savings.

The contract was signed, and St. Paul paid McKenzie’s nonprofit, BlackFem, $900,000, while expecting lessons on personal budgeting to roll out this year in kindergarten classrooms throughout the city. The money changed hands, but lessons on money management never followed.

Lawsuit

In October, the city of St. Paul filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis seeking an unspecified amount of restitution from BlackFem, which is based in Maryland and New York City. The lawsuit notes that under the $1 million contract, “WealthRise” lesson plans were due in December 2024 but never delivered, and an evaluation toolkit and messaging plan were due in March of this year but likewise never materialized.

“The city has spent $900,000 on a product it has not received and cannot use without threat of litigation from (BlackFem),” reads the lawsuit, which cites five claims, ranging from breach of contract to unjust enrichment.

On Sept. 30, two days before St. Paul Public Schools staff were scheduled to be trained in the “WealthRise” financial literacy curriculum, McKenzie emailed school district staff and informed them, with no explanation provided, that the training would “not be moving forward,” according to the city’s lawsuit.

BlackFem filed a 27-page counterclaim against the city on Oct. 30, and the city responded with a 17-page amended complaint in November. Among McKenzie’s concerns, the city’s Office of Financial Empowerment began signaling their intent to allow St. Paul Public School teachers to make changes to her curriculum, including “altering the sequence of lessons, removing materials, and otherwise tailoring content.”

“This is about the city being disgruntled about what they can do with the work product because of copyright and intellectual property law,” said McKenzie, in an interview Tuesday. “The city tried to file a breach claim saying we didn’t submit these materials, when in fact we did, and we did on time, and we have approvals from the city officials who were in charge of that. There is a very serious legal question about who gets to retain ownership of the intellectual property.”

“I was never told I was in breach of contract until I got served with a lawsuit,” she added. “We’re 90% done, and St. Paul residents deserve this. We’ve done this with hundreds of schools across the country, and it’s never been an issue until now.”

‘There is no point in holding … the training session’

Over McKenzie’s objections, the city wanted the right to access the materials after the contract ended and share them with community partners. Her counterclaim has asked for full payment of the $1 million contract, court costs and a declaration that the WealthRise curriculum and trademark remain the property of BlackFem and the city does not have a right to copy or distribute them or create derivative works.

“My client requests that the city terminate the contract … so as to not cause even more confusion or difficulty to SPPS and other community organizations,” reads a Sept. 24 letter from BlackFem’s legal counsel to the city, quoted in the company’s counterclaim. “There is no point in holding the … training session if the city’s goal is just to make more claims that my client is defaming the city or acting in bad faith simply by stating ownership over its own intellectual property.”

The federal court released pre-trial scheduling orders on Dec. 3, lining up a settlement conference for March 23, 2026 and other court appearances to follow. If the case does not settle, a court trial could take place April 1, 2027.

BlackFem, according to its website, was founded in 2015 by McKenzie, a former Wall Street mortgage trader and financial counselor who grew up in Prince George’s County, Maryland. In 2021, McKenzie expanded her offerings to include 10Seven consulting and the nonprofit 10Seven Project, which works with “groups beyond the Black community that are affected by financial trauma.”

10Seven was initially named in the lawsuit but later dropped as a defendant. The St. Paul Public Schools were not named as a plaintiff or defendant in the lawsuits.

“We are on the ground, partnering with the nation’s most forward-thinking governmental bodies and activists to reimagine wealth-building opportunities for Black women,” reads the BlackFem website. “For students, we build curricula that heals their financial trauma and teaches them how to build wealth.”

A $900,000 pay-out

Elsewhere on its website, BlackFem indicates that the greatest impacts on a household’s financial health are structural and societal, not based on personal choice or know-how, and its focus is on “wealth justice,” a term McKenzie says she coined.

“The greatest influence on a person’s ability to build wealth isn’t financial knowledge,” reads the website. “It’s redlining. It’s housing discrimination. It’s wage gaps. It is the total of all these unfair institutions and more that clearly hold back Black women from succeeding financially. With discrimination invisibly embedded in every policy, every school, every part of public life — it’s clear the mechanisms meant to hold up our communities instead inflict perpetual violence against those most vulnerable. The system isn’t broken. It is actively destructive.”

After encountering McKenzie at the Midwest Asset Building conference in 2022, city officials later invited her to apply to be part of an expansion of the Office of Financial Empowerment’s CollegeBound program, one of Carter’s favored projects, which links the city’s newborns to college savings accounts at birth. The hope was to have a wealth building curriculum in place by the fall of 2025, just as the first set of account holders was starting kindergarten.

The city issued a request for proposals in February 2024 for a curriculum that could eventually roll out in three parts, including pre-k through fifth grade student lessons through the St. Paul schools, afterschool programs, and “whole family literacy” through community partners. BlackFem was awarded the contract, but problems quickly followed, according to the city.

“From the start of the contract, defendants made up excuses for performance and failed to meet deadlines,” reads the city’s amended complaint. “Passionate about the goals of the project, (St. Paul’s Office of Financial Empowerment) worked with defendants despite the delays. Defendants issued two invoices, on September 9, 2024 and April 1, 2025, for $500,000 and $400,000 respectively. The city paid these invoices.”

The complaint goes on to say: “In June 2025, contrary to the terms of the contract, defendants informed OFE that when the contract expires, none of the curriculum that they have developed for any of the three programs would be available to the city or its partners unless the city paid an ongoing fee to BlackFem.”

Intellectual property

In July 2025, BlackFem seemed to relent in part, indicating the materials would be issued to the city at the end of the contract in a “locked” PDF software format, meaning the lesson plans could be used internally but not shared with the city’s partners to teach wealth literacy to CollegeBound students or families.

“BlackFem admits … and affirmatively states that the contract did not transfer ownership of BlackFem’s or any other party’s intellectual property to the city,” reads the company’s counterclaim. “While the contract does state that ‘work product’ – as defined in the contract – ‘will become the property of the city after final payment is made,’ the contract makes clear that ‘work product’ does not include any of BlackFem’s intellectual property.”

By late August, McKenzie had sent letters to the St. Public Public Schools and other community partners “threatening that any use of the curriculum ‘could expose (their) institution to potential legal liability.’”

The city then responded with a cease-and-desist letter dated Aug. 27, demanding that McKenzie and BlackFem stop contacting partners about issues related to the dispute and retract its previous communications. On Sept. 3, BlackFem’s legal counsel responded: “BlackFem will not be silenced by the city and will not rescind or retract any communications to CollegeBound partners.”

Three weeks later, BlackFem’s attorney asked that the contract be canceled, and said there was no point in hosting an Oct. 2 training with the school district.

“If the city prefers to terminate the agreement at this stage without further obligation, my client will not object,” reads a letter from BlackFem’s legal counsel to the city, quoted in the lawsuit.

The letter made no mention of repaying the city its $900,000.

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By MARK SCOLFORO and MARC LEVY, Associated Press

BRISTOL, Pa. (AP) — There was a gas explosion reported Tuesday at a nursing home just outside Philadelphia and people are believed to be trapped inside, authorities said.

“We understand that there are people trapped inside,” said Ruth Miller, a Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokesperson.

Bucks County officials notified the agency of an explosion before 3 p.m. at the Silver Lake nursing home in Bristol Township, about 20 miles northeast of Philadelphia.

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State Rep. Tina Davis, whose district includes the center, said she got near the scene in her car but did not want to interfere.

“I saw smoke and I saw car after car after car was a fire truck or ambulance from all over the city, from all over,” Davis said.

She said there was talk of using a nearby school as a temporary evacuation area.

Jim Morgan, president of the Bristol Township School Board, said district buses will be taking people from the emergency scene at the nursing home to a reunification center at Truman High School. He said officials were working on setting up beds and providing water and other needs to residents. As of 4 p.m. no one had showed up at the school, Morgan said.

“It’s just so sad — it’s that hopeful time of year. This is just something that is sad for everybody and the families and the workers that are there. I hope there’s positive results from this. We don’t know at this point,” Davis said.

Associated Press writer Marc Levy contributed to this report from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to allow the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area to support its immigration crackdown, a significant defeat for the president’s efforts to send troops to U.S. cities.

The justices declined the Republican administration’s emergency request to overturn a ruling by U.S. District Judge April Perry that had blocked the deployment of troops. An appeals court also had refused to step in. The Supreme Court took more than two months to act.

Three justices, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, publicly dissented.

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The high court order is not a final ruling but it could affect other lawsuits challenging President Donald Trump’s attempts to deploy the military in other Democratic-led cities.

“At this preliminary stage, the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois,” the high court majority wrote.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh said he agreed with the decision to block the Chicago deployment, but would have left the president more latitude to deploy troops in possible future scenarios.

The outcome is a rare Supreme Court setback for Trump, who had won repeated victories in emergency appeals since he took office again in January. The conservative-dominated court has allowed Trump to ban transgender people from the military, claw back billions of dollars of congressionally approved federal spending, move aggressively against immigrants and fire the Senate-confirmed leaders of independent federal agencies.

The White House did not immediately respond to an email message seeking comment.

In a dissent, Alito and Thomas said the court had no basis to reject Trump’s contention that the administration was unable to enforce immigration laws without troops. Gorsuch said he would have narrowly sided with the government based on the declarations of federal law enforcement officials.

The administration had initially sought the order to allow the deployment of troops from Illinois and Texas, but the Texas contingent of about 200 National Guard troops was later sent home from Chicago.

The Trump administration has argued that the troops are needed “to protect federal personnel and property from violent resistance against the enforcement of federal immigration laws.”

But Perry wrote that she found no substantial evidence that a “danger of rebellion” is brewing in Illinois and no reason to believe the protests there had gotten in the way of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Perry had initially blocked the deployment for two weeks. But in October, she extended the order indefinitely while the Supreme Court reviewed the case.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the west Chicago suburb of Broadview has been the site of tense protests, where federal agents have previously used tear gas and other chemical agents on protesters and journalists.

Last week, authorities arrested 21 protesters and said four officers were injured outside the Broadview facility. Local authorities made the arrests.

The Illinois case is just one of several legal battles over National Guard deployments.

District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb is suing to halt the deployments of more than 2,000 guardsmen in the nation’s capital. Forty-five states have entered filings in federal court in that case, with 23 supporting the administration’s actions and 22 supporting the attorney general’s lawsuit.

More than 2,200 troops from several Republican-led states remain in Washington, although the crime emergency Trump declared in August ended a month later.

A federal judge in Oregon has permanently blocked the deployment of National Guard troops there, and all 200 troops from California were being sent home from Oregon, an official said.

A state court in Tennessee ruled in favor of Democratic officials who sued to stop the ongoing Guard deployment in Memphis, which Trump has called a replica of his crackdown on Washington, D.C.

In California, a judge in September said deployment in the Los Angeles area was illegal. By that point, just 300 of the thousands of troops sent there remained, and the judge did not order them to leave.

The Trump administration has appealed the California and Oregon rulings to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this story.

PEORIA, Ariz. — Members of the Gophers coaching staff have been punching in GPS directions to an address on West Speckled Gecko Drive during recent recruiting trips to Arizona.

The destination is Liberty High School, the open division state champions in 2023 and 2024. The Lions’ suburban stadium is the same size as big schools in Minnesota, roughly 5,000 bleacher seats, but unlike up North, its natural-grass field is surrounded by rock, sand and desert flora. Maybe even a gecko from time to time.

The Gophers are staking a recruiting claim here in the Valley of the Sun — a “chilly” 50 degrees on Wednesday morning — optimistic that recruits can develop into valuable collegiate while incubating in actually cold Minneapolis.

Two Liberty players already are on board with the Gophers: offensive lineman Nick Spence is redshirting this year, and linebacker Hudson Dunn will be a true freshman next season.

Dunn also is one of three players from Arizona to sign with the Gophers’ 2026 class, along with offensive lineman Aaron Thomas of Mountain Pointe High School in Phoenix and receiver Rico Blassingame from Tolleson Union High School in the smaller town west of the metro area.

Three recruits from Arizona is equal to the number of Minnesotans in the Gophers’ class for next year, and is second-most compared to four a piece from Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The Gophers’ recruiting footprint has expanded westward in recent years, primarily into California. But even going back to 2018, Minnesota hit big in the Southwest. Las Vegas safety Jordan Howden is the best success story; the fifth-round NFL draft pick is finishing his third season with the New Orleans Saints.

Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck doesn’t assign recruiting areas to assistants, but leans into each coach’s connections.

“It’s not, ‘We have this guy coaching this position and he recruits that area,’ ” Fleck told the Pioneer Press this week. “There are so many coaches that have so many connections around the entire country. So, we are using those resources to bring in the best student-athletes that fit our program.”

Assistant offensive line coach James Bain, who played at Northern Arizona and Texas-El Paso, has been helping out in Arizona.

The Gophers have had mixed results here in previous years. Current sophomore long snapper Alan Soukup from Phoenix has been ultra-reliable over two seasons, but in the 2021 class, four-star nickel back Steven Ortiz, from Desert Edge High in Goodyear, didn’t pan out and transferred. In that same class was offensive lineman Saia Mapakaitolo from Red Mountain in Mesa, who wound up being a short-timer.

Tolleson head coach Richard Wellbrock has been coaching in Arizona for 30 years and has been impressed with the Gophers’ approach in the state.

“They’ve just done a phenomenal job of, again, in today’s day and age with the transfer portal and everything,” Wellbrock said. “It’s about relationships, and they really did a good job. Coach Fleck was on campus a couple times, and and you feel the energy and you feel that they’re going to develop (Blassingame) into being what him and his family want in him.”

The Gophers have some stiff competition here, with this year’s crop of players off to places such as Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Clemson, Vanderbilt, Michigan State, Stanford and Nebraska. That’s on top of players headed to in-state Arizona and Arizona State.

Liberty head coach Colin Thomas said the level of talent has “grown a lot” in his 11 years at the school.

“I think with the weather and stuff, the skill positions especially, and there’s a lot of quarterbacks, receiver-type players coming from the state in the last five, six years, more so than lineman,” Thomas said. “… I think it’s certainly on the uptick.”

The Gophers’ appearance in the Rate Bowl at Chase Field in Phoenix on Friday is a cherry on top and gives the new Arizona additions the ability to be around their new program this week.

“I was seeing the (bowl) predictions for the previous weeks, and it was looking like we’re there going,” Blassingame said. “So, I was I was super excited when it was official.”

Dunn and Spence

Liberty has worked to build a “true brotherhood” inside its program. That goal helped them reached a pinnacle with a pair of state championships for both Dunn and Spence. The Lions were state semifinalists in 2022 and 2025.

“We try to have a really good team culture here, and I think seeing a place like Minnesota kind of felt similar,” head coach Colin Thomas said. “A staff that is still going to care about you. It’s just now all about some of the glitz and glam in today’s college football. … I just think finding a place that seems similar to maybe some things that we do here is important for both those kids.”

Dunn was a nightmare pass rusher at Liberty, setting a school record with 36½ sacks, and that production came after the slighter, 6-foot-1, 210-pound player was high on other team’s scouting reports.

“One of, I think, the better linebackers we’ve ever signed,” Fleck said on Dec. 3. “Lot of blue-blood offers.”

Those schools reportedly included Michigan, Miami (Fla.), Oregon and Penn State among others, per 247Sports.

Spence, who is listed at 6-6 and 300 pounds, didn’t have as big a recruiting process as Dunn.

“Nick was a dominant player for us,” Colin Thomas said. “He’s really athletic for kid that size. He’s good in the pass game. I mean, obviously (in 2024) we ran the ball really well and ran behind him every chance we possibly could. Long arms, everything you’d want at that position.”

Offensive lineman Nick Spence of Liberty High School in Peoria, Ariz., jogs off the field in an undated courtesy photo. Spence joined the Minnesota Gophers football team in the 2025 recruiting class, which led to high school teammate, Hudson Dunn, joining in 2026. (Christine Andert / Picture Lady Photography)

Fleck sat down with Spence before traveling to Arizona for the bowl. “He’s coming along,” Fleck shared. “He’s going to be a really good player.”

Gophers linebacker coach Mariano Sori-Marin was a key recruiter of Dunn, as were offensive line coach Brian Callahan with Spence.

“They’re very professional about how they go about their business,” Collin Thomas said of the Gophers. “They stay in contact with the kid regularly and do it in a very good manner that you feel very good about sending kids from (that) program to play for a coach like Coach Fleck and their staff.”

Thomas

Thomas was committed to Ohio State from June until November, when the 6-7, 300-pound offensive tackle flipped to the Gophers.

“I just feel like Minnesota was really the place for me,” he told the Pioneer Press.

Minnesota also beat out Florida State, where Thomas’ father, Eric, played O-line and won a national championship in 1999 before stints in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“Gifted athlete,” Fleck said of Aaron, who also plays basketball. “… He’s got that winning blood running through his veins.”

Eric Thomas has worked to help his son, but tried to not sway his college decision.

“I’ve taken away a lot of knowledge from my dad, just from his experience playing offensive line,” Aaron said. “So, he’s giving tips and tricks on what to do. We work on footwork together, and we watched film together.

Offensive lineman Aaron Thomas of Phoenix poses for a photo with Minnesota Gophers offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh, left, and offensive line coach Brian Callahan in an undated photo. Thomas is one of three prospects from Arizona in the Gophers 2026 football recruiting class. (Courtesy of Aaron Thomas)

“He’s just really big on making your own path in life, and really, he’s really big on hard work.”

There is a comfort for Thomas knowing there are other Arizonans joining him at Minnesota.

“It’s cool to have some people that are from the same place that you’re from, and there’s some people there right now, like Nick Spence,” Thomas said.

Blassingame

The 6-foot-1, 170-pound receiver moved from Auburn, Wash., to Tolleson and stayed true to a once-underwhelming program.

“Everyone here in Arizona that has reached out to him, and as well as Bishop Gorman (a powerhouse program in Las Vegas) and the Trinity League over in California have tried to take him,” Wellbrock said.

Blassingame wanted to “not let my teammates down” and they put together a winning season last fall. The four-star prospect caught 178 passes for 2,284 yards and 20 touchdowns in his career.

“The commitment and loyalty is what we are looking at right now,” Fleck said. “Not to say people aren’t looking for great opportunities, but who is staying at a school for a long time? That matters to us.”

Receiver Rico Blassinggame of Tolleson, Ariz., poses for a photo with Minnesota Gophers head football coach P.J. Fleck in an undated photo. Blassingame is one of three prospects from Arizona in the Gophers 2026 football recruiting class. (Courtesy of Rico Blassingame)

Blassingame built a connection with U receivers coach Matt Simon and he committed to Minnesota over other finalists Arizona and California. He also helped bring players into the UMN class.

“With Hudson, we kind of built our relationship after we committed. We both (have) been some early commits for a long time,” Blassingame said. “Our parents as well have talked a lot and met up here in Arizona, so it’s good to have that connection.

“And then with Aaron Thomas, I’ve been trying to get him to commit (to Minnesota) since before he committed to Ohio State. I was on him early.”

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