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Sen. John Curtis says DHS secretary ‘lost’ trust following Minneapolis shooting

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Sen. John Curtis says DHS secretary ‘lost’ trust following Minneapolis shooting


SALT LAKE CITY — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s response to a fatal shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis will “forever undermine trust” with Americans, Utah Sen. John Curtis said Thursday.

Speaking to reporters at the state Capitol, Curtis expanded on his criticism of Noem after previously calling her response to the Jan. 24 shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti “premature.” Noem initially said Pretti, a U.S. citizen, committed an “act of domestic terrorism” and planned to kill officers, even though videos showed him holding a cellphone, not a weapon.

Curtis quickly joined others in calling for an independent investigation into the shooting.

“I think it will forever undermine trust that she has with the American people,” Curtis said of Noem’s response. “Now, at this point, I think it’s up to the president to see if that’s salvageable, but I do think a lot of trust was lost, and as you know, trust is very hard to rebuild.”

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The senator’s comments came amid a partial government shutdown impacting the Department of Homeland Security, which Noem oversees. Democrats are pushing for reforms to immigration enforcement procedures after Pretti and Renée Good, also a U.S. citizen, were fatally shot by agents in Minneapolis last month.

Curtis said he’s still “hopeful” a resolution to end the shutdown can be reached, although he acknowledged negotiations between President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer appear to have stalled.

The shutdown impacts agencies like the Transportation Security Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. However, ICE and CBP operations are still funded thanks to the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that passed last year, the Associated Press reported.

“(I’m) really frustrated myself,” Curtis said. “I just do not like shutdowns. There’s nothing good that comes out of a shutdown.”

Curtis said he supports “reasonable reforms” at the Department of Homeland Security, such as better training for agents and scrutinizing how quickly they are being hired. As for Democrats’ demands that ICE agents stop wearing masks in the field, Curtis was less enthusiastic. He said there are known instances of immigration agents being doxxed, with personal information about them and their families publicly posted online.

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“It’s easy for me to say this is not just as clean-cut as ‘don’t wear a mask,’” he said.

There have been rumblings that an immigrant detention facility may be coming to Salt Lake City, prompting protests by some Utahns. Curtis said state lawmakers raised that issue with him on Thursday during private meetings, but he has not had any discussions with the Trump administration about it.

“But I’m happy to advocate on behalf of the state and do what’s best for the state,” Curtis added. “Beyond that, I’ve not had conversations.”

Opposition to Trump nominee

Curtis recently announced his opposition to one of Trump’s nominees for a high-ranking State Department position, likely tanking the nomination.

Jeremy Carl was tapped to serve as an assistant secretary of state for International Organizations, but Curtis grilled him during a recent hearing over previous statements Carl had made suggesting that Jewish people focus too much on the Holocaust.

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“I’m not convinced that Jeremy Carl is the right person to represent our nation’s best interests in international forums, and I find his anti-Israel views and insensitive remarks about Jews unbecoming of the position for which he has been nominated,” the senator stated last week.

This is the first time Curtis has outright opposed one of Trump’s nominees. But it’s not the first time the freshman senator has raised questions about them. Curtis was reportedly one of several GOP senators who helped sink former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s nomination as attorney general.

Daniel Woodruff, KSL

Curtis also expressed concerns about confirming Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense. Hegseth was accused of sexual assault, heavy drinking, financial mismanagement and other things. Curtis initially said those allegations were “serious,” but he ultimately voted to confirm Hegseth.

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Asked on Thursday why he decided to come out so strongly against Carl’s nomination, the senator said: “There’s a difference between concerns and an outright no.”

“I was willing to give a lot of deference to the president in his selection,” Curtis said of Trump’s cabinet nominees. “I think at that point I’m looking for fatal flaws, right? That’s a line I can’t cross. Jeremy Carl, to me, has fatal flaws.”

Curtis added he chose to “speak out early” against Carl.

“I didn’t want this thing to mature and have people question where I was at,” he said. “The longer it goes, the better I actually feel about my decision.”

Curtis talks priorities and AI regulation

Curtis spoke to reporters after meeting with state lawmakers from both parties about his priorities in Congress that include tax relief, cutting regulation around housing and transportation, streamlining the development of clean energy and protecting children online.

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As the Utah Legislature weighs several bills this session dealing with artificial intelligence, the Trump administration is pressuring one state representative to drop his bill requiring AI developers to implement plans to keep children safe while using the emerging technology. Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt even came to the Capitol to speak in favor of the bill.

“We are categorically opposed to Utah HB286 and view it as an unfixable bill that goes against the administration’s AI agenda,” a letter from the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs reads.

Curtis said Congress is “wrestling” with potential AI regulations.

“I personally think there’s probably a lane for states, and there’s probably a lane for the federal government,” he said. “We need to define that and make sure that everybody is in their lanes.”

Curtis said he’s worried about ceding the technology race to global adversaries but added he thinks there is broad support for regulations aimed at protecting kids.

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The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.



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Walking All the Streets of Western Northeast Park

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Walking All the Streets of Western Northeast Park


Editor’s Note: Max Hailperin is walking each of Minneapolis’ 87 neighborhoods, in alphabetical order. He chronicles his adventures at allofminneapolis.com, where the original version of this article was published July 4, 2026.

The Northeast Park neighborhood is arguably the northeasternmost in Minneapolis. Those that extend somewhat further east are nowhere near as far north, and those that are further north don’t extend as far to the east. Of course, everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. I’m not trying to pick a fight with Waite Park, for example.

What’s inarguable is that the neighborhood divides into two quite distinct areas. West of Johnson Street, there’s a nearly square portion, bounded on its other three sides by Broadway Street, Central Avenue, and 18th Avenue. (I’ll omit the direction indicator NE, which applies to all streets and avenues in this area.) This western portion was the focus for this first walk in the neighborhood. Unlike the irregularly shaped area east of Johnson, it has a grid-based layout, albeit with substantial gaps.

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The main loop of my walk began and ended at the southwest corner, the intersection of Broadway and Central. The building on that corner, The Broadway, presents a low-profile facade toward Broadway, which is the uphill side of a sloping lot. The main tenant on this side is Spyhouse Coffee, which makes the most of the timber and brick interior. I chose to wait until the end of the walk to see other parts of the building.

The Broadway, 945 Broadway St. NE

Heading east on Broadway, the next building I passed was the National Guard armory, described more fully by the sign out front as the “Minnesota Army National Guard N.E. Minneapolis Training and Community Center.” A sprawling one-story structure built in 1992, it has none of the romance of the earlier castle-like armories or the vaulted art deco structure in downtown Minneapolis. Together with its parking lot, it occupies the entire triple-sized block from Tyler to Fillmore, with Polk and Taylor being absent in this area.

East of Fillmore, I continued in a forward-and-back spur two blocks to Buchanan, with a side spur north on Pierce. This reflects the fact that Pierce doesn’t cross the diagonal railroad tracks, one of the many ways in which the street grid of this area gives way to the realities of land use.

I rather like how commercial, residential and recreational uses are mixed together, leading to buildings of widely varying age, style, and size. Some of them have also gained a new look and new purpose over time. For example, a concrete-block building on the corner of Broadway and Pierce, which looks like it started life as an automotive business in the 1970s, now has a sharp paint job and signage announcing its repurposing as Abra Kadabra Environmental Services: “When nature creeps in, call us.”

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blue concrete block building
Abra Kadabra, 1101 Pierce St. NE

An even more striking example lies in the first block north of Broadway on Fillmore, a house now prominently exhibiting mural art by Yuya Negishi, but upon closer examination showing signs of its origins as the Samuel Moyer Gospel Lighthouse.

house with mural on front and side
Yuya Negishi Mural, 1121 Fillmore St. NE (Former Samuel Moyer Gospel Lighthouse)

Take another look again at that mural-adorned former chapel, this time with an eye toward how its form fits that of its neighbors. To its right and further to its left, there are houses with similarly pitched roofs. But this appearance of consistency is somewhat illusory. The neighbor immediately to the left (or north) only came into view as I walked a bit further.

That immediate neighbor, a flat-roofed two-story structure, was built in 1901 as an apartment building. Today its four rental units are guarded by three metal roosters.

boxy residence with two metal roosters on front porch roof and one in lawn
1123 Fillmore St. NE (1901)

All of these residence are directly across Fillmore from the United States Postal Service’s Vehicle Maintenance Facility, just north of the armory. At the time of my walk, its lot was packed full of Next Generation Delivery Vehicles, which I assume were being readied for their initial deployment.

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I walked 13th Avenue east from Fillmore to its dead end just beyond Lincoln Street, where Interstate 35W cuts through. So far as getting anywhere goes, I was wasting my time to go that extra half block beyond Lincoln. But the whole point of this project isn’t to get anywhere, it’s to see what there is to see. And you never know when you’re going to see a giraffe in someone’s back yard.

backyard with giraffe visible through fence
Backyard of 1301 Lincoln St. NE from 13th Ave NE

A few roosters or a giraffe are nothing compared to the lawn ornaments on one of the Lincoln Street houses just south of 12th Avenue. The horizontal lines of flower boxes and whatnot balance out the vertical totem-pole-like collection of cartoon characters (Minnie Mouse, a pig chef, baby Yoda, a cow and I don’t know what else).

front yard full of ornaments
1130 Lincoln St. NE

With that behind me, you’ll understand why, after wrapping around to Buchanan Street, I was unsure about the turkey resting on a loading dock. Was it like the metal roosters, the giraffe, the pig? I waited. Eventually it swiveled its head, answering my question in the negative.

concrete block building with turkey on loading dock
1135 Buchanan St. NE (1960)

The very presence of a loading dock amidst residences is not something one would see in more rigidly zoned neighborhoods. The residences vary in age, with my eye particularly drawn to one a couple blocks further north that turns out to be from 1902.

one-and-a-half story cross-gable house with front porch
1319 Buchanan St. NE (1902)

The street grid is interrupted again at 14th Avenue, this time by Northeast Athletic Field Park, the defining feature of the neighborhood. I walked a spur east along 14th Avenue as far as Johnson Street, then turned west to continue my main loop. The athletic fields themselves are just athletic fields, nothing that struck me as out of the ordinary. (I’m notably non-athletic.) But the restroom building in the block between Buchanan and Pierce is a standout for its Creatives after Curfew mural celebrating “the heart of Northeast Park.” It was painted in 2021 by Leslie Barlow, Maiya Lea Hartman, Thomasina Topbear, Maria Robinson and Claudia Valentino, sponsored by the Northeast Park Neighborhood Association.

building with mural wrapping around it
Building at Northeast Athletic Field Park (Mural by Creatives After Curfew, 2021)

Once I was headed back northbound on Fillmore, I detoured off to the west on the entrance driveway leading to Sociable Cider Werks. For a pedestrian, it’s actually easier to access this business from the north, but I wasn’t sure yet whether that was blocked off or not, so I took the driveway. I enjoyed a brief rest stop on their patio, consuming a Freewheeler cider and an oil-stained paper bag of seasoned french fries from the resident food trailer, Smashed Patty’s.

building with food trailer
Sociable Cider Werks and Smashed Patty’s, 1500 Fillmore St. NE

The All of Minneapolis project has been an on-and-off part of my life for a decade now, and though there has been change over that time, there have also been constants. One of those constants has been my struggle with how to balance the interesting and the beautiful in my choice of photo subjects.

North of the park on Fillmore, there are two quite similar buildings, each built in the late 19th century by Aaron Carlson as a duplex and then extended by him in the 1920s and subdivided. I decided to photograph the slightly older of the two (1897 versus 1899), even though I can’t count the obscuring of the original facade in the category of beauties. It simply is too interesting a glimpse into the evolution of this Minneapolis housing to be ignored. And that’s even before the name “Aaron Carlson” meant anything to me. (Later in the walk I saw the name on a smokestack and looked it up.)

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tan building with boxy protrusions
1703 Fillmore St NE (1897 with 1921–1922 Additions)

As I walked by other residential properties, mostly from varying decades of the 20th century, I was frequently as interested by the flowering bushes and trees as by the buildings. Likewise, when I came around to the Johnson Street side of the park, I was as drawn to the daffodils planted around the sign as I was by the water park visible in the background.

Northeast park sign with daffodils
Jim Lupient Water Park at Northeast Athletic Field Park, 1520 Johnson St. NE

After following 16th Avenue along the northern border of the park, I turned north on Buchanan Street and found myself walking alongside a school building for which the playground equipment already signaled that it wasn’t just any school. Yinghua Academy is a Mandarin Chinese immersion school.

dragon-headed playground equipment
Yinghua Academy Playground, 1616 Buchanan St. NE

Before I turned onto 17th Avenue and saw the front of the school (complete with a fitting Little Free Library), I paused to consider the white duplex at 1709 Buchanan. The horizontal lines and white color made me think of one of the less common styles of modernist architecture, loosely inspired by the Secession Building in Vienna. I don’t know whether that was intentional; the history of the building’s construction and expansion is complex.

white two-story building with protruding flat roof
1709 Buchanan St. NE
Little Free Library
Little Free Library, Yinghua Academy, 17th Ave. NE

Once I was back to 18th Avenue, I headed west from Pierce Street to Central Avenue, with southward spurs down Taylor, Polk and Tyler Streets. This is a rhododendron-enhanced residential area dead ending at the railroad-adjacent industrial zone that now contains Sociable Cider Werks and the former Industrial Machinery Company building, fancifully called “The Alamo.” I saw the front of that building once I turned onto Central Avenue.

rhododendron
Rhododendron, 1701 Taylor St. NE
limestone building facade stepped up from one story to stwo in the center
The Alamo, 1519 Central Ave. NE (Former Imperial Machinery Co., 1902)

To access the part of this industrial area that is south of the tracks, I turned east on 14th Avenue. Extending south of there on Tyler Street is the former Crown Iron Works, redeveloped by Hillcrest Development. Today it is the Crown-Arts Center, billed as a “Creative Office Campus.” Sadly, one of the tenants I visited, Bauhaus Brew Labs, has closed in the interval between my walk and completing this writeup.

glass roofed industrial architecture
The Shed, Crown-Arts Center, 1321 Tyler St. NE
building signed as Bauhaus Brew Labs
Bauhaus Brew Labs, 1315 Tyler St. NE
colorful interior of taproom
Bauhaus Brew Labs, 1315 Tyler St. NE

Tyler Street also brought me back to The Broadway building, where I had begun my walk. Across the parking lot from it is a 2023 apartment building featuring a mural by Chuck U. The parking lot also provides a good view of the historical signage (“The Land-O-Nod Co., Bedding Manufacturers”) and is the site for a sculpture by Zoran Mojsilov.)

apartment building with mural
Tyler Street Stacks with Mural by Chuck U (2023), 1180 Tyler St. NE
brick-faced two-story building with painted signage for The Land-o-Nod
The Broadway, 945 Broadway St. NE, from Tyler St. NE (Land-o-Nod, 1921)
sculpture
Torso (Zoran Mojsilov, 2007) at The Broadway

The parking lot also provides access to the side of the building opposite Tyler Street, where there is a sheltered area between the building itself and the retaining wall of Central Avenue, which ascends to Broadway. That area contains a stone amphitheater and a patio served by Padraigs Brewing. There I capped my walk off with an N.E. Porter and a Potter’s Pasty.

stone amphitheater
Amphitheater at The Broadway
glass of dark beer on picnic table
Padraigs N.E. Porter at The Broadway
pasty
Potter’s Pasty at Padraigs Brewing, The Broadway

All photos by Max Hailperin



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Feds release key evidence in Minnesota ICE shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti

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Feds release key evidence in Minnesota ICE shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti


Federal prosecutors have turned over key evidence in the fatal ICE shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti to Minnesota investigators after months of legal battles, marking a major breakthrough in the state’s effort to investigate the deaths.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced Monday that the evidence was released by U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Daniel Rosen’s office after a lengthy dispute over access to the materials. The transfer includes previously withheld hard drives containing witness statements, police body-camera footage and Good’s damaged SUV.

“The wonderful thing now is we have all the evidence,” Moriarty said in a video statement. “Any time the government is responsible in whatever way for taking the life of a community member, we need to have a full and thorough investigation.”

The Minneapolis immigration crackdown, dubbed “Operation Metro Surge,” ended in February after being billed as the largest immigration enforcement operation ever.

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A private autopsy found that Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot three times by a federal immigration agent during a Jan. 7 traffic stop, including a fatal gunshot wound to the head.

Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was shot and killed during a Jan. 24 protest. The medical examiner ruled he died after being struck multiple times by federal agents.

At least nine people have been killed nationwide in encounters involving ICE agents since the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign began last year. No one has been charged in connection with the deaths, and the federal government has argued that state prosecutors lack jurisdiction to investigate federal officers.

The latest development also comes as questions continue to surround other recent fatal ICE shootings. An ICE agent fatally shot a motorist in Maine on Monday, while prosecutors in Houston said federal officials are still withholding key evidence in their investigation into another deadly shooting involving an ICE officer last week.

New video of Minneapolis ICE shooting from agent’s perspective (CNN Newsource)

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Minnesota officials sued the Trump administration in March, accusing federal authorities of refusing to provide evidence needed for the state investigation.

Court filings suggest the breakthrough came after federal prosecutors sought evidence gathered by state investigators in a separate case involving ICE agent Christian Castro.

Castro, 52, has been charged with assault and falsely reporting a crime in connection with the Jan. 14 nonfatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. Prosecutors allege Castro fired through the front door of a Minneapolis home while pursuing another man, striking Sosa-Celis in the thigh.

State and local prosecutors told federal officials they would share evidence in Castro’s case only if the federal government agreed to reciprocate in the investigations into the deaths of Good and Pretti.

“We are willing to share evidence with you if the exchange is reciprocal,” Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans wrote in a court filing.

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Lawyers for Good’s family called the evidence transfer “an important and meaningful step toward justice and accountability.” The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which has taken custody of the materials, said “great strides have been made” to ensure a “thorough and complete review” of both shootings.

But an attorney for Pretti’s family said Rosen’s office still declined during a Monday meeting to confirm whether any formal cooperation agreement exists between state and federal investigators.

“No family should be required to beg federal authorities to do their job,” attorney Steve Schleicher said in a statement. “Without a public commitment by federal authorities to cooperate with the state, it is difficult—if not impossible—to pursue justice that holds the individuals accountable for Alex’s death.”

The evidence transfer marks the first significant cooperation between state and federal investigators since Minnesota filed its lawsuit, potentially allowing the long-stalled investigations into both fatal shootings to move forward.

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Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.



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MN weather: Dangerously hot week ahead

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MN weather: Dangerously hot week ahead


A sunny and dangerously hot Monday begins a prolonged stretch of 90-degree weather across Minnesota. An extreme heat warning remains in effect for central and northern Minnesota through Thursday.  FOX 9 meteorologist Cody Matz has the forecast.



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