Midwest
Michigan man gets year and a day in prison for antisemitic online threats
A 20-year-old Michigan man who admitted using social media to make violent threats against Jewish people was sentenced Monday to a year and a day in prison, far short of what prosecutors had recommended.
A sentence exceeding a year makes someone eligible for good conduct credits and a shorter stay in federal custody.
Seann Pietila, who has been locked up since June, was accused of using Instagram to spread neo-Nazi ideology, discuss plans to kill people and praise mass shooters.
MICHIGAN MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO THREATENING VIOLENT, ANTI-SEMITIC ATTACK ONLINE
Pietila admitted that he told someone last summer about a plan to kill or injure Jewish people and wanted to post the attack online. The FBI said Pietila also had written the name of the Shaarey Zedek congregation in East Lansing, near Michigan State University, on his phone along with a 2024 date.
A Michigan man has been sentenced to over a year in prison for violent, antisemitic threats he made online.
“He never sent the note to anyone or posted it in a public forum,” defense attorney Scott Tilton said.
Pietila moved to the Lansing area from the Upper Peninsula when he was 16 years old. Tilton said he’s had cognitive issues as well as depression and anxiety.
“Mr. Pietila understands that his words have meaning, his messages were harmful, and that there are consequences for his actions,” Tilton said in a court filing.
Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of nearly three years. But U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker settled on 366 days, along with $10,648 in restitution to the synagogue for security. Pietila will get credit for nearly nine months already spent in jail.
“The preponderance of the evidence supports the conclusion that (Pietila) started down a path of desiring to kill people because of their religion or race and was interrupted by law enforcement before he was able to act on his desire,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher O’Connor said in a court document.
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Milwaukee, WI
Milwaukee Bucks to hire Taylor Jenkins in bid to keep Antetokounmpo this summer
The Milwaukee Bucks became the first NBA team to hire a new coach this offseason, targeting and landing former Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins to succeed Doc Rivers.
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, Jenkins and the Bucks’ front office were finalizing a deal on Thursday afternoon to bring the 41-year-old former Milwaukee assistant back to serve as the franchise’s fourth coach since parting ways with Mike Budenholzer in 2023.
BREAKING: The Milwaukee Bucks and Taylor Jenkins are finalizing a deal to make Jenkins the franchise’s new head coach, sources tell me and @ramonashelburne. Jenkins, a Bucks assistant in 2018-19, went 250-214 and made three postseasons across six seasons in Memphis. pic.twitter.com/LOHoCZO7NA
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 23, 2026
Jenkins served as an assistant under Budenholzer in 2018-19 after serving under him for five seasons in Atlanta.
Rumors of Jenkins being spotted with Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who faces a decision regarding his own future this summer, made the rounds on social media this week as unconfirmed sightings suggested the Bucks’ franchise star was helping the coach tour schools.
I don’t have sources or anything, take with a grain of salt… but I have heard some rumors/stories that Giannis was with Taylor Jenkins around Milwaukee yesterday, including looking at schools for Jenkins’ kids.
— Nathan Marzion (@nathanmarzion) April 22, 2026
Bobby Portis, under contract for next season and holding a player option for ‘28-’29, was on popular NBA show “Run it Back and believed landing him to lead the team going forward would be a positive in convincing Antetokounmpo to stay put.
Bobby Portis says Giannis wants a head coach who establishes culture 👀
“A Mike Budenholzer type of vibe. …
When you play the Heat, Celtics, OKC, and Toronto you know exactly how they’re about to play.”@BPortistime | @MichelleDBeadle | @ChandlerParsons | @TeamLou23 pic.twitter.com/87liFcparh
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) April 14, 2026
“What helps is that (Jenkins) was in Milwaukee during Coach Bud’s stint in Milwaukee. He was one of the assistant coaches on the roster,” Portis said. “I think that kind of relationship with Giannis and that kind of relationship with (GM) Jon Horst sits well with the franchise, and I think that kind of helps”
Horst and Bucks ownership courted Jenkins in Memphis and clearly zeroed in on him as the top target in the coaching search. Although what Antetokounmpo is going to do is anyone’s guess, keeping the “Greek Freak” in Milwaukee has been the franchise’s primary objective over the last few years as rumors he was growing dissatisfied with the direction of the team intensified, so it’s clear that the team’s leadership views Jenkins as an asset in retaining Antetokounmpo’s services.
ESPN’s Charania reported that Antetokounmpo wasn’t involved in Jenkins’ hiring and has had no communication with the Bucks.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was NOT involved in the Bucks hiring process of Taylor Jenkins, per @ShamsCharania
Giannis and the Bucks top brass have NOT had ANY communication since the trade deadline pic.twitter.com/IrlHDkaPzj — Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) April 23, 2026
Jenkins went 250-214 in six seasons with the Grizzlies, but was fired late in the 2024-25 season with a postseason berth lined up. He was linked to the New York Knicks opening last summer that Mike Brown ultimately filled and was going to be a candidate for the vacancies in Chicago and potentially Orlando if the Magic move on from Jamahl Mosley after their postseason run ends.
Jenkins was already in Memphis when the Bucks broke through to win the NBA Finals in 2021, but he reportedly had a great relationship with Antetokounmpo and helped set the foundation for the last big winner in Milwaukee. The Bucks lost 50 games this past season, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16 under then-head coach Jason Kidd.
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Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis Man Gets 8.5 Years For Trying To Join ISIS In Somalia
MINNEAPOLIS, MN — A 23-year-old Minneapolis man was sentenced Wednesday to 102 months in prison and 15 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to attempting to provide material support and resources to ISIS, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota.
Prosecutors said Abdisatar Ahmed Hassan tried to travel from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to Somalia in December 2024 to join and fight for the foreign terrorist organization.
ISIS has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. secretary of state since 2014.
According to court documents cited by federal prosecutors, Hassan consumed and reposted ISIS propaganda, obtained bombmaking and weapons-related manuals, and communicated on social media with ISIS media wings and recruiters operating in Somalia.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Hassan bought a one-way ticket, left Minneapolis for Chicago on Dec. 29, 2024, and was prevented from continuing to Somalia after an interview by Customs and Border Protection’s Tactical Terrorism Response Team.
Prosecutors said he later continued researching ISIS attacks and posting pro-ISIS content online before the FBI arrested him on Feb. 27, 2025.
Hassan pleaded guilty Sept. 29, 2025, before Judge Donovan W. Frank, who imposed the sentence on April 22.
In the announcement, FBI Minneapolis Special Agent in Charge Christopher D. Dotson said, “Abdisatar Hassan took active steps in an attempt to join and support ISIS—a brutal foreign terrorist organization responsible for the violent deaths of thousands of innocent people.”
He added that the sentence “takes a would-be terrorist off the streets and sends a clear message that the FBI and our partners will unremittingly pursue anyone seeking to join or support a foreign terrorist organization.”
This case was investigated by the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, Customs and Border Protection and the New York Police Department.
Indianapolis, IN
Cost of living tops Indiana voters’ minds as primary nears
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A working mother told News 8 she’s not sure if any candidates have the answers to cost-of-living problems.
Lamia Nelson works as a nurse assistant and has her own home health care business. She also works multiple side gigs. Even with all that, she said she struggles to make ends meet for herself and her three children. Nelson pulled her two younger children out of their charter school and is having them take classes at home so that she can reduce transportation costs and avoid scheduling conflicts with her work.
Nelson said the rent for the home she and her children share has risen from about $900 a month eight years ago to $1,850 per month. She says it’s extremely difficult for working parents like her to properly invest time in their children while at the same time keeping the bills paid.
“Where’s the help here? If parents have to work all day because they need to be able to afford to keep a roof over their head, where are the programs at? Where is the assistance? Where’s the helping hand for single-parent families?” she said. “My kid needs help tutoring in school. I’m at work, I have to pull a double, who’s going to help with that? They’re putting so much money into the highways and streets, why don’t you do some programs for our children?”
Polling data shows she’s not alone. In a survey of about 1,500 voters conducted in February of this year for the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, 37% of respondents said cost of living and affordability issues were the top issue they wanted Congress to address.
The second-highest category, protecting democracy, got top marks from 21%. An Ipsos poll conducted in October logged similar numbers, with 40% of respondents saying cost-of-living issues were their top concern.
According to Ball State University political science Prof. Chad Kinsella, cost-of-living issues dominate every election cycle because they affect every voter every day. Kinsella says voters tend to punish the party in power whenever their costs of living become too great.
President Donald Trump ran on affordability issues in 2024, and Democrats are doing the same thing in 2026. The Consumer Price Index, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ measure of inflation, showed a 3.3% rise in costs for all items in March. Much of that was driven by a 12.5% increase in energy costs driven by oil prices. Those prices spiked as a result of the war with Iran and Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil flows.
“Inflation and, you know, utility, gas prices, grocery prices, and everything, it affects people no matter where they are on the political spectrum,” Kinsella said. “And they’re aware of that. And people care. And so, I think talking about those matters, even if you’re in a primary election, it’s gonna matter.”
Lamia Nelson says gas prices are a problem for her, but rent and utilities are her biggest concerns. Moreover, she says whoever is running for office needs to come up with a plan to bring up worker pay.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average weekly wage in Indiana during the fall of 2025, the most recent quarter for which data is available, was $1,214, compared to $1,459 for the country as a whole.
That works out to about $63,000 per year in Indiana. Indiana’s minimum wage is tied to the federal minimum wage, which has been set at $7.25 per hour since 2009. The minimum wage would have to rise to $11.10 per hour to offset inflation since then.
“They need to focus on the rent prices, and I feel like the rent and utilities go hand in hand, and they need to focus on the pay. People cannot survive with these types of pay rates employers are giving. It’s ridiculous,” Nelson.
Nelson says cost-of-living issues are far and away her top issue when she goes into the voting booth, but says she doesn’t have high hopes about the candidates currently on the ballot.
“Of course, you’re going to want to go with who’s going to help us, but who is going to help us, in reality?” she said.
Early voting runs through May 4. Primary Day itself is on May 5. Click here to find out how to vote and check your voter registration.
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