UPDATE: Dept. of Homeland Security says Thao, originally of Laos, is being held at the federal Whipple Building under an order for removal dating to 2010. Here's raw cell phone video of his detainment, recorded by a fellow staffer at the community center: youtu.be/eseyAjDphY4

Here's the right link. Copy and paste is hard: www.mnhs.org/media/news/m...

OPERATION PARRIS ON HOLD?: A federal judge orders lawful refugees who are in the pipeline for Green Cards to be flown back to Minnesota and released in humane conditions. White House is not loving Judge Tunheim's temporary restraining order: www.twincities.com/2026/01/29/f...

HEY CONFUSED NATIONAL MEDIA: Federal Whipple Building at Fort Snelling has nothing to do with Minnesota Historical Society. Archivists don't deport people. Put your finger on the cartoon golfer and follow it up to marker that says Hwy. 62. Whipple is right around there: www.mnhs.org/.../mnhs-sta....

Thao Xiong, a volunteer delivery driver for the food shelf at the Hallie Q. Brown Center in St. Paul, was detained by federal agents this morning in the city-owned center's parking lot www.twincities.com/2026/01/28/s...

"MINNESOTA RIOTERS"?": Nasra Ahmed and Christina Rank, an Inver Grove Heights paraprofessional, were arrested (again) on Wednesday and are federally charged in separate incidents. STORY BY NICK FERRARO www.twincities.com/2026/01/28/i...

WINTER SNARL-NIVAL: Team USA's elaborate snow sculpture is disassembled in Stillwater after spelling "ICE OUT" and other pro-peace, ant-ICE messages in American Sign Language www.twincities.com/2026/01/28/t... Story by @MaryEDivine

St. Paul, Roseville, West St. Paul, Minneapolis and other cities receive DEED environmental clean-up grants for redevelopment sites like Face 2 Face on Arcade Street, which will become affordable housing for homeless youth www.twincities.com/2026/01/27/s...

The University of Minnesota, Fairview Health and M Physicians (the U’s medical facility) announce a 10-year, three-way agreement that keeps the M Health brand alive and invests $1 billion in the U of M Medical Center across the next decade. www.twincities.com/2026/01/26/u...

For lawful refugees who fled oppressive regimes, lockdowns and police stops based solely on ethnicity and other barbarisms, America was supposed to be different — and better. The land of the free, it’s no longer: www.twincities.com/2026/01/25/r...

When you lose dads from Prior Lake , Woodbury and Bloomington, this week in MN . Ground sifts beyond politics into fairness , freedom and human rights.

...and in everyday downtown economic development news, the St. Paul Port Authority is offering grants of $50,000 to $150,000 to businesses within a little under a mile in any direction from the Minnesota State Capitol building... www.twincities.com/2026/01/23/p...

(I mean, this search took 60 seconds using the online state prison offender locator. Try it yourself: coms.doc.state.mn.us/publicviewer...)

After federal agents forced a U.S. citizen into the snow wearing only crocs and boxers, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Tweeted he lived with two sex offenders. He does not. One has been in state prison for over a year. The other lives out of state. www.twincities.com/2026/01/23/d...

Armstrong and Allen will go home today after processing and not be detained…

We are at the federal courthouse in St. Paul waiting to hear if there will be criminal charges against Nekima Levy Armstrong, St. Paul School Board Member Chauntyll Allen and others for disrupting a church service. www.twincities.com/2026/01/22/t...

Non-citizens in the state prison system measure in the hundreds, not the thousands, according to state officials, who have repeatedly called federal tallies incorrect. “DHS claims that ‘ICE has more than 1,360 arrest detainers for criminal illegal aliens... www.twincities.com/2026/01/16/m...

A former friend of St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her sought a restraining order against the mayor after their friendship soured, a text message/social media fight escalated and she lost her board seat with the Natl. Kidney Foundation. A legal ref has tossed the case: www.twincities.com/2026/01/21/l...

Duluth voters overwhelmingly approved last year a “Right to Repair” ordinance that gives landlords 14 days to fix broken items or tenants can deduct repair costs from up to half their rent/$500. Is St. Paul next? Signatures being collected now for ballot question: www.twincities.com/2026/01/20/h...

Duluth voters overwhelmingly approved last year a “Right to Repair” ordinance that gives landlords 14 days to fix broken items or tenants can deduct repair costs from up to half their rent/$500. Is St. Paul next? Signatures being collected now for ballot question: www.twincities.com/2026/01/20/h...

Saint Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, in collaboration with the Saint Paul Police Department, Public Works, and the Department of Safety and Inspections, has announced a temporary pause on towing for most reported abandoned vehicles in response to federal immigration actions stpaul.gov/abandoned-vehicles

"In St. Paul, LeFevere said there had been at least two instances at Regions Hospital when federal agents entered the emergency department, once through the ambulance bay and another through a back entrance reserved for law enforcement." (NYT) www.twincities.com/2026/01/19/i...

St. Paul Public Works employees launch GoFundMe fundraiser for plow truck driver detained and transferred to Texas for possible deportation www.twincities.com/2026/01/18/f...

A St. Paul Hmong elder, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was forced from his East Side home at gunpoint on Sunday afternoon, wearing nothing more than crocs, shorts and a children's blanket. ICE released the 57-year-old Thao about an hour later: www.twincities.com/2026/01/19/s... #StPaul #ICE

St. Paul Animal Control is poised to evolve... into Animal Services. That and a $6 million new home are on deck... www.twincities.com/2026/01/19/s...

St. Paul Downtown Development Corporation has acquired four vacant downtown buildings, including the Alliance Bank Center, and now the distressed mortgage of the U.S. Bank Center. What does it plan to do with all that empty space? A Q-and-A with Dave Higgins: www.twincities.com/2026/01/19/d...

Nasra Ahmed, a U.S. citizen raised in St. Paul, recounts the encounter with a dozen ICE agents that led to two days at the Sherburne County Jail. She was taken for an MRI in arm and leg restraints, and then released Friday night without charges:

Nasra Ahmed, 23, was walking through the parking lot of her aunt’s St. Paul apartment complex when she found herself surrounded by 12 agents. Ahmed, born in the USA, says she showed them her I.D. She was forcefully detained and jailed anyway for more than 2 days. www.twincities.com/2026/01/18/s...

A Venezuelan couple came to Jane Graupman’s office sobbing over unknown fate of their son who had been taken away by agents. “They were getting ready for work and all of a sudden their house was surrounded by men with drawn guns saying ‘It’s just some paperwork… www.twincities.com/2026/01/18/5...

Mockovak and Me: How a 94-year-old senior crusader, “greedy for relationships” is speaking out and saving his corner of the world, one book, one dinner and one tomato seed packet at a time www.twincities.com/2026/01/11/m...

ICE is looking for 5,600 refugees in Minnesota — legal immigrants — whose Green Cards are still in process. And these aren’t simple “re-interviews.” It’s guns drawn, detentions, and flights to Houston: www.twincities.com/2026/01/18/5... #OperationPARRIS

I’d like to write an addendum to Clue No. 1. Skip all that “King Boreas” stuff and focus on this: The medallion is somewhere cold… 🥶 You can tell because it’s in Minnesota… Clue No. 1: twincities.com/tag/treasure... Win $15,000!

Um, can we still do the @PioneerPress Treasure Hunt? In times of stress our beer comes highly recommended… Beer release today at @BadWeatherBrew ! Clue No. 1 is live: twincities.com/tag/treasure... Win $15,000!

“Sherburne County sent her back to Fort Snelling, and Fort Snelling released her yesterday after we talked to her attorney, (a federal public defender). I said, ‘(They’ve) been holding onto a U.S. citizen for over 48 hours. What’s the deal?’ He said, 'Everyone I know has resigned.'”

HOME FREE: Nasra Ahmed, 23, a St. Paul woman and U.S. citizen who was born in Minnesota, was released to her family without charges on Friday night after being detained by federal immigration enforcement agents and spending more than two days in detention. www.twincities.com/2026/01/17/s...

St. Paul names Jennifer O'Rourke as chief lobbyist, director of intergovernmental relations www.twincities.com/2026/01/16/s...

She’s a U.S. citizen and was on her way to pick up seizure medication. ICE has detained her anyway for the past 50 hours at the Sherburne County Jail. www.twincities.com/2026/01/16/f... #NasraAhmed #StPaul

I-94 closure in downtown St. Paul postponed a week www.twincities.com/2026/01/09/i...

Political grandstanding or procedural foot-dragging? You decide...

Council Member Anika Bowie proposed a beefed up "separation ordinance" Wednesday barring St. Paul Police from assisting feds, but city council deadlocked. Calling the last-minute submission legally dubious, half the council noted there was nothing online to review www.twincities.com/2026/01/15/s...

Walz to Minnesota: Carry your phones, record the present because the future is already watching… document, document, document. www.twincities.com/2026/01/14/g...

NO SCHOOL MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY for St. Paul Public Schools: With all 69 schools offering an optional online curriculum beginning next Thursday, Jan. 22, teachers need time to prep virtual courses. www.twincities.com/2026/01/14/s...

St. Paul Public Schools will soon offer optional online learning at all 69 schools district-wide. That’s different than what happened Monday when they offered student transfers to SPPSOnline, the virtual school. Stay in your own school, without transferring, but virtual — a temporary safety measure

Paper Source Grand Ave closes Thursday… JUUT has temporarily relocated and Trade Winds is gone. Billy’s/Gather Eatery is long gone. The rental home is looking dire from the outside. Do these qualify as “blighted” properties? A city consultant says: Yes. There’s a formula… and a big TIF district.

The last days of Paper Source in St. Paul. Everything must go. See those tarps? As snows melt, water pours into the Victoria Crossing East Mall at Grand and Victoria, which has been determined blighted and will be demolished to make room for a 90-unit mixed-use apartment building.

Josh Hoaby, executive director of the MN Transportation Museum, says the Justus Ramsey House rebuild is 60% funded with $500,000. “We need about $250,000 to finish the roof and the interior. It will be watertight.” He was joined by historian Karen Sieber, project coordinator with museum.

Remember the Justus Ramsey Stone House on W. 7th Street? It will rise again, stone by stone, beginning today at 1 p.m. at the Minnesota Transportation Museum: www.twincities.com/2026/01/13/k... Story by @imanicruzen

OPERATION PARRIS (Story 1 of 2): Dept. of Homeland Security announced last week it would re-interview lawful refugees in pipeline for permanent residency/Green Cards. It never said it would arrest them. An estimated 100 have since been flown from MN to Texas. NYT: www.twincities.com/2026/01/13/i...

With ICE circling, Latin restaurants limit hours, switch to take-out -- and some close altogether www.twincities.com/2026/01/13/s...

Joe Thompson, the recent face of federal fraud prosecutions in Minnesota, has resigned after coming under pressure to investigate Renee Good's widow instead of her killer: www.twincities.com/2026/01/13/3...