Minnesota officials on Wednesday announced the launch of a new tip program for missing and murdered Indigenous relatives cases.

The Gaagige-Mikwendaagoziwag Reward Fund Tip Program — meaning “They will be remembered forever” in Ojibwe — will offer financial rewards of up to $10,000 for tips that significantly move investigations forward. The tip reward program is an extension of the state’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) Office within the Department of Public Safety.

Interim MMIR Director Ana Negrete announced the program’s launch Wednesday at a press conference in St. Paul alongside Commissioner of Public Safety Bob Jacobson; Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton; Bemidji Police Chief Mike Mastin; and affected families.

“There are questions that have gone unanswered for far too long,” Negrete said. “These questions bring us here today. These questions need to be answered, and our families need and deserve justice.”

Currently, 16 active cases qualify for rewards under the program, she said. Tips may be submitted anonymously to local law enforcement or through third-party platforms such as Crime Stoppers. To be eligible for an award, the tip must pertain to an open case, provide “specific and actionable information” that helps move the investigation forward, and cannot come from a suspect or accomplice in the crime, Negrete said.

The rewards are set in three tiers: $1,000 to $2,500 for the identity of persons of interest, up to $5,000 for tips that lead to an arrest or significant progress, and up to $10,000 for locating remains or closing out long-term unsolved cases.

Kathy Mishow, mother of Kateri Mishow, who has been missing from Minneapolis since 2007, spoke at the program’s launch. She said she remembers waiting to see reports about her daughter on the evening news after she initially went missing.

“Instead, we saw a report about a dog that had run away from the scene of a car accident,” Mishow said. “I wondered when I would see the reports about our daughter, but never really did.”

Kathy Mishow said her family once received a tip that suggested Kateri might be by the Mississippi River — her husband walked along the banks of the river every day for a year following that tip.

“Please help us end this,” Kathy Mishow said.

Lisa Ortley, mother of Frank Joseph Ortley, Columbia Heights, who was murdered in October of 2022, said Wednesday that she needs justice, as her son’s case remains unsolved almost three years later.

“I just need people to talk,” she said. “I know there are people in our circle that know things and they’re not coming forward. I know people — that have known him all his life — know things that are not coming forward.”

The state’s tip program was inspired by a similar local effort in Duluth , Negrete said Wednesday.

Kunesh, who co-authored the 2023 legislation that established the program alongside Rep. Liish Kozlowski, DFL-Duluth, said Wednesday that the program has a total base fund of $250,000 in one-time funding and has generated an additional $100,000 from the sales of 4,500 MMIR license plates across the state.

“Sometimes money loosens a tongue, sometimes it creates a discussion,” Kunesh said Wednesday. “At the end of the day, we have to remember that our Indigenous people, our American Indian people, have had such a long distrust of policing … of government, and that distrust has really added to … the barriers in finding out what has happened to our loved ones. And so … if there’s a way that we can create an opportunity to come forward to share that information, then I think this is … money, well spent.”

Mastin said Wednesday that his police department has investigated “thousands” of these cases and has two cases left: Jeremy Jourdain and Nevaeh Kingbird, both of whom went missing in Bemidji in 2016 and 2021, respectively.

“That information that you are hanging onto that’s tearing at you, it’s time to let it out, and this is an opportunity to do that,” he said. “I’m hopeful that through the creation of this … this is that final step … final encouragement that people need to share information, and we can bring all of our missing relatives home and bring closure to all of our families.”

According to the MMIR Office, 716 Indigenous people were reported missing in Minnesota in 2024. MMIR also reported that Indigenous women make up 1% of the state’s population but account for 10% of all missing women in the state reported in 2024.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the third leading cause of death among Indigenous women and girls is murder. Indigenous women experience a murder rate 10 times higher than the national average, according to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center.

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LAS VEGAS — New Gophers starting quarterback Drake Lindsey has big shoes to fill this fall, and the 6-foot-5 redshirt freshman took some initial paces in a large pair of white and brown Louis Vuitton sneakers at Big Ten Media Days on Wednesday.

In a matching off-white summery suit, Lindsey looked comfortable, and the U will need him to mirror that confident ease on the field when the season starts against Buffalo on Aug. 28.

“A clean look … with a little flair to it,” a smiling Lindsey told the Pioneer Press about his fit inside the Mandalay Bay Resort.

Photographers and videographers film Minnesota Gophers quarterback Drake Lindsey (5) during the team media day held at the Gibson/Nagurski complex in Minneapolis on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Last fall, Lindsey’s jersey didn’t get dirty very much as he made short cameos in sixth-year senior Max Brosmer’s stead. He completed four of five passes for 50 yards and a touchdown, with a special package for Lindsey in the 24-10 win over Virginia Tech in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.

Now Lindsey, who played in only five games, is finding his footing as a team leader.

In March, Lindsey invited a small group of teammates to work out in Atlanta, with noted quarterback trainer Quincy Avery (the same guy who has helped Brosmer). In May, Lindsey brought more than a dozen teammates to workout at Exos Sports Performance Training in coastal Pensacola, Fla.

“I think it’s huge getting in a different environment because you’re also together all day doing fun activities as well as training,” Lindsey said. “So you get to learn new things about each other, talk about different things. … New stories come up, talking about your beach times with your family, or beach times with your friends. You just learn a lot of things about your teammates.”

Lindsey has done other small-group outings, with star safety Koi Perich coming to Lindsey’s hometown in Fayetteville, Ark. in May. Then in June, Lindsey, top defensive end Anthony Smith and new backup QB Emmit Morehead flew to Southern California to watch Jake Paul beat Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., in a boxing match.

“It’s contagious to be around him,” Smith said Wednesday. “You are never not smiling around Drake. … That just goes along with how connected the team is: a defensive linemen with two quarterbacks? I don’t know if that makes sense if you say that out loud.”

Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck pointed to Lindsey’s biggest growth being in the leadership area.

“He has always been talented,” Fleck said. “He’s always had a big arm. He has always been able to shape the football really well. He’s a good processor. He’s really smart.

“Max was the alpha dominate leader on our football team last year,” Fleck continued. “I don’t think that is any question. When you lose that, sometimes that can get filled with trying to be the leader, acting like the leader. Drake was very meticulous in how he watched Max create that.”

But in the end, Lindsey must be himself. Otherwise, his leadership would be inauthentic.

“After the bowl game, it was my show to take over,” Lindsey said of Brosmer’s final game in Charlotte. “At first, you try to attempt to talk like Max, kind of act like Max because that’s what I saw, and that’s what I looked up to for a year. And then as I go about spring ball and go about different things, you start earning your own respect.”

While Brosmer is more introverted, Lindsey has let his extroverted ways come to the surface. Leading by example is a shared trait between the two QBs.

“(Lindsey) is the first one in the building most of the time,” transfer offensive lineman Marcellus Marshall said July 16. “When most guys are at home relaxing, he is watching film. He is taking the little steps necessary to be able to be successful in that role.”

So much of a team’s success rides on the ups and downs of the QB, but Fleck is trying to take some of that load of Lindsey’s shoulders. Fleck pointed to this year’s perceived depth of playmakers at receiver, running back and tight end, along with an athletic offensive line.

“This year has to be the surrounding cast,” Fleck said. “Drake is part of it, but we are talking about the surrounding cast this year of really elevating the game. Where I felt last year was about Max Brosmer.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Pam Bondi is facing Democratic calls to testify before Congress following a newspaper’s revelation that she told President Donald Trump that his name appeared in the files of the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation.

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The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Bondi told Trump his name was among many high-profile figures mentioned in the files, which the Justice Department this month said it would not be releasing despite a clamor from online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and members of Trump’s base.

Trump’s personal ties to Epstein are well-established and his name is already known to have been included in records related to the wealthy financier, who killed himself in jail in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, responded to the report by calling on Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“We need to bring Bondi and Patel into the Judiciary Committee to testify about this now,” Schiff said in a video posted on X.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the report but issued a joint statement from Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche saying that investigators had reviewed the records and “nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution.”

“As par of our routine briefing, we made the president aware of the findings,” the statement said.

The mere inclusion of a person’s name in Epstein’s files does not imply wrongdoing and he was known to have been associated with multiple prominent figures, including Trump.

Over the years, thousands of pages of records have been released through lawsuits, Epstein’s criminal dockets, public disclosures and Freedom of Information Act requests.

They include a 2016 deposition in which an accuser recounted she spent several hours with Epstein at Trump’s Atlantic City casino but didn’t say if she met Trump and did not accuse him of any wrongdoing.

Trump has also said he once thought Epstein was a “terrific guy” but they later had a falling-out.

White House spokesman Steven Cheung on Wednesday said the reports were “nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media.”

By LISA MASCARO

WASHINGTON (AP) — A House Republican proposed a resolution Wednesday to censure Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver over an incident with law enforcement during a congressional oversight visit to a new immigration detention facility in her home state of New Jersey.

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Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana pushed forward the measure, which also calls for removing McIver from her seat on the Homeland Security Committee, as the House was preparing to recess for the August break. As a privileged resolution, it can be considered for swift action as soon as lawmakers return in September.

Higgins read from the resolution on the House floor, arguing that McIver violated the chamber rules that require a member “to behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.” He said her continued service on the Homeland Security Committee “would represent a significant conflict of interest.”

The GOP action comes as House Republicans in the majority have been quick to punish Democratic lawmakers for transgressions large and small — and in this situation, before McIver’s case has played out in court. She has pleaded not guilty to charges brought by interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, a Republican appointed by President Donald Trump, stemming from the May 9 incident. A trial date has been set for November.

The congresswoman has vowed not to be intimidated by the legal and political actions against her.

“Clay Higgins is a bigot who wants to be back in the news,” McIver said in a statement.

She pointed to the way House Republicans are “running home to hide,” having recessed for August break a day early.

“This resolution aims to kick me off the committee that presides over the Department of Homeland Security and shame me for doing the oversight work that is my job. Good luck, Clay,” she said.

Members of Congress have been conducting oversight of the federal detention centers that are being stood up by the Trump administration across the nation as part of the president’s mass deportation agenda. Lawmakers have been assessing how best to conduct such work amid blowback by the Trump administration.

At the time, McIver, a new lawmaker first elected in 2024, was making the visit with other House Democrats and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka at the privately owned 1,000-bed facility that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using as a detention center.

McIver was indicted on three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officials. Two of the counts carry a maximum sentence of up to eight years in prison. The third is a misdemeanor with a maximum punishment of one year in prison.

Baraka was also arrested on a trespassing charge that was later dropped and is suing Habba over what he called a malicious prosecution.

A nearly two-minute video clip released by the Department of Homeland Security shows McIver at the facility inside a chain-link fence just before Baraka’s arrest on other side of the barrier, where other people were protesting.

The video shows McIver in a tightly packed group of people and officers. At one point her left elbow and then her right elbow push into an officer wearing a dark face covering and an olive green uniform emblazoned with the word “Police.”

It is not clear from police bodycam video if the contact was intentional, incidental or the result of jostling in the chaotic scene.

The prospect of a House censure used to be rare, with fewer than 30, but has become more frequent in recent years.

Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.