Star Tribune
Wednesday sentencing for St. Louis Park man who joined ISIS called off, to be rescheduled
Sentencing for a 27-year-old St. Louis Park man who joined ISIS was called off barely two hours before he was due in a Minneapolis federal courtroom on Wednesday.
The development further delays sentencing for Abdelhamid Al-Madioum, who has remained in federal custody in Sherburne County Jail since the U.S. government transferred him from a Syrian prison in 2020. Al-Madioum quickly pleaded guilty to terrorism support charges in 2021 but has yet to be sentenced while he has helped the U.S. Justice Department in terrorism recruitment investigations around the country.
No reason was publicly stated for Wednesday’s cancellation. A notice from the court only states that Al-Madioum’s sentencing “will be rescheduled for a future date and time to be determined.” Messages were left seeking comment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Al-Madioum’s attorney.
The Star Tribune first reported Al-Madioum’s joining ISIS in 2017, years before the government announced his defection and as his fate remained uncertain. His is among the rarest of cases involving Americans who tried joining ISIS around the mid-2010s. Of the estimated 300 Americans who traveled or tried to join the group abroad, Al-Madioum is among barely a dozen to survive and be sent back to the U.S. to face charges.
Al-Madioum became “self-radicalized” in 2014 when, as an engineering student at Normandale Community College, he connected online with an ISIS recruiter who helped him plan his travel to the group. Al-Madioum left his family behind while on a summer 2015 vacation to visit relatives and loved ones in Morocco.
Federal prosecutors are asking Montgomery to sentence Al-Madioum to 12 years in prison, acknowledging that he gave authorities “substantial assistance” since his arrest. This included testimony in federal prosecutions elsewhere of former fellow battalion members. Al-Madioum has described being trained to fight for ISIS, losing an arm to an explosion and later helping the terror organization maintain a database filled with records on fighters and their families.
Manny Atwal, Al-Madioum’s attorney, instead wants Al-Madioum to serve seven years in prison. She notes that he has been incarcerated for five years already, including more than a year in harsh conditions in Syria’s Hasakah prison. Al-Madioum’s wife was killed in front of him and their two young sons before his March 2019 surrender. He has since located the boys, who will soon arrive in Minnesota to be raised by Al-Madioum’s parents.
In a letter to Montgomery last month, filed as part of his attorney’s arguments for a seven-year prison term, Al-Madioum said he hoped to one day help others avoid falling prey to the same recruitment and manipulation ISIS operatives used to lure him into their ranks.
“I’ve been changed by life experience: by the treachery I endured as a member of ISIS, by becoming a father of four, a husband, an amputee, a prisoner of war, a malnourished supplicant, by seeing the pain and anguish and gnashing of teeth that terrorism causes, the humiliation, the tears, the shame,” Al-Madioum wrote. “I joined a death cult, and it was the biggest mistake of my life.”
Star Tribune
Central High graduate with Rondo roots tapped to be next superintendent of St. Paul Public Schools
Still, Board Member Chauntyll Allen said Thursday: “Each one of these candidates could lead this district in a wonderful way.”
Stanley began her teaching career in the East Metro Integration District and then served as a principal in the Roseville Area Schools and an administrator in the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage and Eden Prairie districts before taking over three years ago in Edina, where she oversees 8,600 students.
She is a product of the Rondo neighborhood, she told school board members Wednesday, with a “long, rich history in St. Paul.” Initially, Stanley worked as an occupational therapist, but she then switched to teaching when a student asked her “whether or not you could be brown and you could be smart,” she recalled, describing it as a “pretty profound experience.”
In Burnsville, she oversaw programming for English language learners, and in subsequent moves to Eden Prairie and Edina, succeeded in narrowing achievement gaps. She said she was impressed with the SPPS Reads program to boost student literacy and sees it as a perfect fit for her skillset.
“I say that literacy is the currency of power in the United States,” Stanley said.
Mhiripiri-Reed started her career as a middle school teacher in St. Paul, and then went on to be a high school principal in Brooklyn Park and a school administrator in Monterey, Calif., and Washington, D.C., before taking the top job in Hopkins overseeing 6,900 students.
Three Minnesota women have been accused in federal court of enriching themselves from a health care fraud scheme, spending the proceeds on private jets, luxury vehicles and other items.
The charges lay out how the three reportedly used an outpatient drug and alcohol treatment center called Evergreen Recovery, Inc., based in St. Paul, to defraud Medicaid and other health care programs by billing for treatment that was not provided and services that were not eligible for reimbursement.
The scheme also allegedly involved the defendants using free housing as a kickback to induce clients to remain in Evergreen Recovery treatment so the clients’ names and information could be used to overbill Medicaid.
Charged in the case is Shawn Ashley Grygo, 37, of Forest Lake; Shantel Rene Magadanz, 34, of Stacy; and Heather Lynn Heim, 46, of St. Paul. Each faces nine counts of wire fraud, among other charges.
Magadanz and Heim made their first appearances in federal court Thursday. Grygo is set for to appear in court Monday. None have entered a plea, according to online court records.
The complaint identifies Magadanz as the chief executive of Evergreen, Heim as the lead financial and operations officer and Grygo as the head of day-to-day operations.
From March 2018 to July 2024, Evergreen submitted invoices for $30 million from Medicaid and Medicaid-funded health care programs, the complaint said.
The three received excessive salaries in return. Magadanz was paid $600,000 in 2023, and was on track to receive more than $1 million this year, according to the complaint.
Star Tribune
Duluth bike group asks for safer roads after cyclist dies crossing Mesaba Avenue at rush hour
DULUTH – Alice Tibbetts slipped into all the gear she wears to make herself more visible to vehicles as a decades-long, year-round bike commuter: bright yellow jacket, reflective vest, several lights and a reflective helmet.
“The question is, would this have saved me from a driver going 42 miles an hour down Mesaba [Avenue]?” she asked, referencing a commuter-heavy road. “The answer is no.”
Tibbetts and other members of Vibrant Streets Duluth, a chapter of the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota, hosted a call to the city of Duluth, St. Louis County and the Minnesota Department of Transportation for improved safety Thursday afternoon in response to the Dec. 4 death of a cyclist who was struck by two cars and killed as he crossed a high-traffic highway here during rush hour. The group is asking for speed monitoring or flashing beacons at dangerous crossings, enforcement of pedestrian right-of-way laws, data-driven solutions and a city transportation commission.
Steven Edward Hoover, 60, was hit at 5 p.m. as he crossed Mesaba Avenue below First Avenue W. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to a news release from Duluth police.
The day after Hoover’s death, members of Vibrant Streets Duluth visited the site of the crash to clock traffic using a radar gun. Forrest Vodden, the group’s chairman, said it wasn’t a scientific study, but a 15-minute sampling found most drivers exceeding the speed limit by 8-10 miles per hour and some drivers surpassed 50. The speed limit on this stretch is 30.
“We just wanted to get a feel for the speeds at that time of day at that location,” he said.
The transportation commission could be a reality. In his state of the city speech earlier this year, Mayor Roger Reinert noted that Duluth has 39 boards and commissions and he was looking to the city council to align and reform some of these groups. At the same time, he suggested the formation of a transportation commission that would offer input on streets, sidewalks, bike lanes and other paths.
City Councilor Mike Mayou, who was at Vibrant Streets Duluth’s event, said he could see such a committee developing within the next six to eight months, if not sooner. The logistics of it still need to be planned.
