ST. PAUL, Minn.-Gov. Tim Walz will temporarily transfer his powers and duties to Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan while he undergoes knee surgery Thursday. The governor’s office says Walz will be under general anesthetic while doctors repair a torn meniscus in his left knee – a common injury in runners. As required by state law, the governor sent letters Monday to…
MILWAUKEE-Milwaukee treasurer’s office records show Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes is delinquent on property taxes. Deputy City Treasurer Jim Klajbor said Friday that Barnes, a Democrat, has failed to pay $2,225.43 in property taxes, interest and penalties for his condominium. Barnes told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which first reported the delinquency , that he’s paying the delinquent taxes in an installment…
NEW YORK (AP) _ Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar says she would support impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump “beginning now.” The Minnesota senator’s comment to CNN Friday followed Trump’s statement this week that he’d take information from a foreign power that offered dirt on an opponent. Klobuchar says “it’s illegal” to take something of value from a foreign country…
WASHINGTON, D.C.-According to a memo from the Office of the Inspector General with the Environmental Protection Agency, an audit is now underway regarding a complaint connected with Polymet Mining Company’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. The objective is to determine whether the EPA followed appropriate Clean Water Act and NPDES regulations for the Polymet permit approved in 2018 in…
ST. PAUL, Minn.-St. Paul’s police chief has fired five officers for allegedly failing to intervene in an assault at a business. Police Chief Todd Axtell said Thursday that officers are expected to intervene when a violent act occurs in their presence and to tell the truth. Axtell says the community “deserves to know that its St. Paul police officers will…
WASHINGTON-White House press secretary Sarah Sanders will be leaving the Trump administration at the end of the month. President Donald Trump announced the news on Twitter Wednesday. He says Sanders will be returning to her home state of Arkansas and has not immediately named a successor. Sanders is one of the president’s closest and most trusted White House aides and…
MINNEAPOLIS-Environmental Protection Agency documents show that its staffers were critical of how Minnesota regulators drafted a key permit for the planned PolyMet copper-nickel mine. And they show the officials concluded the permit would violate federal law because it lacked specific water pollution limits. The EPA released the documents after a court challenge by WaterLegacy and other groups. WaterLegacy attorney Paula…
MEMPHIS, Tenn.- The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has confirmed the identity of a man killed by a federal fugitive task force as Brandon Webber, a 20-year-old black man. The TBI says Webber was shot by federal marshals who were trying to arrest him on multiple felony warrants Wednesday evening. The agency says Webber got into a vehicle and then rammed…
MADISON, Wis.-Republicans who control the Legislature’s finance committee are planning to add a roughly $300 million income tax cut to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ state budget. Committee co-chairs John Nygren and Alberta Darling told reporters Thursday that Republicans plan to insert language in the budget that will reduce the two lowest tax brackets. They also said that they plan to…
ST. PAUL, Minn.-Gov. Tim Walz says he’s open to calling a special session to help diabetics who can’t afford the cost of insulin, but lawmakers must first work out a deal. Walz made his comments Wednesday after a discussion with diabetics, advocates and medical professionals. A measure that would have established an emergency insulin program had broad support during the…
ST. PAUL, Minn.-President Donald Trump has approved a major disaster declaration for spring storms and flooding that caused nearly $40 million in damage to infrastructure across Minnesota. Gov. Tim Walz said Wednesday that the declaration will provide federal emergency relief money for 51 Minnesota counties and four tribal governments Walz had requested the federal aid in a letter to Trump…
MINNEAPOLIS-A month after collecting $166,000 in early retirement benefits from the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, a veteran staffer is back at work there. Former Deputy Commissioner Brian Hiti volunteered for retirement as part of a restructuring at the development agency. But the Star Tribune reports his retirement didn’t last long. He was back on the payroll a month…
ROSEVILLE, Minn.-A Lyft driver from Coon Rapids says he’ll direct some of his $1 million lottery winnings to the nonprofit he started that provides sustainable access to clean water in Africa. Forty-five-year-old Kodjo Ayewonou won his million in the June 4 Mega Millions drawing with a ticket he bought at a gas station in Eden Prairie. He matched five numbers,…
NASHWAUK, Minn.-A fundraiser has been set up for one of the teens killed in a fatal crash near Nashwauk Saturday. A GoFundMe has been set up for 16-year-old Aiden Hall, who was killed in the crash. The money would be used to help pay for funeral expenses. State Patrol officials say the victims were passengers in a car traveling north…
NEW YORK-The New York Fire Department is responding to a report of a helicopter crash at a building in midtown Manhattan. It does not appear anyone else was on board when the crash occurred at around 2 p.m. other than the pilot. It was not immediately known what type of helicopter was involved. Videos posted by onlookers showed emergency vehicles…
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) – Authorities say former Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz is hospitalized following surgery for a gunshot wound after being ambushed by a man in a bar in his native Dominican Republic, authorities said. Dominican police officials said Ortiz was at the Dial Bar and Lounge in Santo Domingo around 8:50 p.m. Sunday when the…
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.-A Minneapolis police officer convicted of murder has been sentenced to a 12-year prison term for the fatal shooting of an unarmed woman who had called 911. A Minnesota jury convicted Mohamed Noor in April of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the July 2017 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a 40-year-old dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia….
(Garret Ellison | MLive)TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) – Enbridge Inc. is asking a Michigan court to rule on the legality of an agreement it reached with former Gov. Rick Snyder to build an oil pipeline tunnel beneath the channel linking lakes Huron and Michigan. The Canadian company said Thursday that it is asking the Michigan Court of Claims to determine…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Two law enforcement agencies in eastern Minnesota are warning residents after a series of overdoses they say may be linked to a potent batch of heroin mixed with other drugs. The Star Tribune reports that the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the St. Paul Police Department issued alerts Wednesday. Washington County neighbors the county home…
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration is ending medical research by government scientists using human fetal tissue. Officials said Wednesday government-funded research by universities will be allowed to continue, subject to additional scrutiny. The policy change will not affect privately funded research that used human fetal tissue. Ending the use of fetal tissue by the government is a victory for…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – With no deal on how to fund Wisconsin’s transportation needs in sight, some Republican senators are proposing tapping $133 million in budget reserves to pay for repairs to county and town roads. But the senators who announced the plan Wednesday say they have no agreement with Assembly Republicans on the deal. That means it may not…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota’s two medical marijuana providers lost a combined $2.4 million in 2018, continuing the losses that have marked the state’s program since it began. But top executives of both companies tell the St. Paul Pioneer Press they see reason for optimism. They point to changes approved in the recent legislative session that will make it…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled Legislature is poised to send four anti-abortion bills to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who has vowed to veto the measures. One so-called born alive bill touted by President Donald Trump would require doctors to care for babies that survive an abortion or face felony charges and up to life in prison. The Assembly passed…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Police in St. Paul are investigating how a loaded handgun ended up in the backpack of an elementary school student. Sgt. Mike Ernster says the 8-year-old girl put her backpack on the floor at John A. Johnson Achievement Plus Elementary School Monday and heard a thud. Ernster says she opened the backpack and found the…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Republicans who control the Wisconsin Legislature were set to decide how much they intend to spend on health care programs over the next two years. The Legislature’s GOP-controlled budget committee was meeting Tuesday to vote on funding for the state’s BadgerCare Medicaid program and a host of other health care programs in the state. Republicans have…
DETROIT (AP) – Wet spring weather has pushed Lake Erie’s water level to its highest point ever recorded. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday the shallowest of the Great Lakes hit the milestone in May, surpassing the previous peak set in 1986. Lake Superior also reached its highest known level for the month of May, although it has…
RED LAKE, Minn. (AP) – A teenager has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for killing a man he mistook for a rival gang member on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. Eighteen-year-old Michael Whitefeather pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in December for the fatal shooting of Anthony Wells in April 2018. A federal criminal complaint says Whitefeather and other…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – The Minnesota Court of Appeals says Globe University and the Minnesota School of Business must pay back students millions of dollars in high-interest loans. The state attorney general sued the schools in 2014 saying they exceeded limits on loan rates and engaged in deceptive trade practices. The loans were made to about 6,000 students and…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – An appeals court has reversed a decision by Minnesota utility regulators who approved the environmental impact statement for Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 pipeline. The Star Tribune reports the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Monday the environmental impact statement is inadequate because it doesn’t address the possibility of an oil spill into the Lake Superior watershed….
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A man who threw a 5-year-old boy from a third-floor balcony at the Mall of America in Minnesota has been sentenced to 19 years in prison. Emmanuel Aranda showed little emotion and said almost nothing as he was sentenced Monday in Minneapolis. The 24-year-old Minneapolis man pleaded guilty last month to attempted premeditated first-degree murder in the…
RED CLIFF, Wis. (AP) – A Native American tribe in Wisconsin is constructing a cell tower that’s part of a multibillion-dollar effort to build a nationwide public safety broadband network to improve emergency communications. Wisconsin Public Radio reports that the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa broke ground on the 300-foot tower on its reservation Wednesday. The tribe is…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A man who threw a 5-year-old boy from a third-floor balcony at the Mall of America in Minnesota faces 19 years in prison when he’s sentenced. Emmanuel Aranda is scheduled to be sentenced Monday before Hennepin County District Judge Jeannice Reding. The 24-year-old Minneapolis man pleaded guilty last month to attempted premeditated first-degree murder in the April…
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Tragedy has struck Virginia Beach, Virginia. The city’s municipal center is the site of the country’s latest mass shooting. Police confirm at least twelve are dead in addition to the gunman. Multiple other people are injured. Among them, a police officer who is expected to survive. Officials say he was fired upon by the suspect, but…
(Renee Jones Schneider/Star Tribune via AP)MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Attorneys for the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of fatally shooting an unarmed woman in 2017 plan to ask a sentencing judge for no prison time. If that’s not granted, they’re seeking less prison time than state sentencing guidelines recommend. Mohamed Noor’s lawyers filed a motion Thursday asking for a “dispositional departure”…
WASHINGTON (AP) – It was a surprise announcement that could derail a major trade deal. President Donald Trump has announced that he is placing a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports, effective June 10, to pressure the country to do more to crack down on the surge of Central American migrants trying to cross the U.S. border. He said the…
(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)(AP) – FedEx plans to deliver packages seven days a week starting next January as it tries to keep up with the continuing boom in online shopping. The company is also taking back nearly 2 million daily deliveries to homes that are currently handled by the post office. FedEx says shifting SmartPost packages back to its…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has signed a $20 billion education funding bill approved by lawmakers in last week’s special session. Walz signed the bill Thursday at Bruce Vento Elementary School in St. Paul. The bill includes an increase in per-pupil state aid to public school districts of 2 percent in each year of the two-year…
CHICAGO (AP) – Prosecutors charged R&B singer R. Kelly on Thursday with 11 new sex-related counts, including some that carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, making them the most serious against him. Cook County prosecutors charged the Grammy award-winning singer with four counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, two counts of criminal sexual assault by force, two…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin authorities say they raided a self-styled Rastafarian church in Madison that claimed marijuana was a “sacrament” they gave its members in exchange for donations. Madison police said the Dane County Narcotics Task Force on Wednesday morning raided the Lion of Judah House of Rastafari, which has been open since March. The church was started by…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Abortion rights supporters are seeking to overturn Minnesota’s restrictions on abortion, including its 24-hour waiting period and parental notification requirements. A lawsuit, filed in state court by Gender Justice and the Lawyering Project, argues the restrictions violate Minnesota’s constitution. A 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court decision affirmed abortion rights. But the lawsuit contends opponents have chipped…
UPDATE: Special counsel Robert Mueller says he’s leaving the Justice Department now that he’s concluded his Russia probe. WASHINGTON (AP) – Special counsel Robert Mueller will make his first public statement on the results of his nearly two-year long Russia investigation on Wednesday. That’s according to the Justice Department, which said he would speak at 11 a.m. Mueller has not…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota farmers are still having trouble getting their crops into the ground as an unusually wet spring persists. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in its weekly crop progress and condition report for Minnesota Tuesday that a third of the state’s corn crop has yet to be planted. That puts Minnesota farmers eight days behind…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Legislation to help make emergency insulin supplies more affordable for diabetics who lack adequate insurance failed to make it across this finish line in last week’s special session. But Republican Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka says he expects the issue will return next year. The proposal was named after Alec Smith, a 26-year-old uninsured Minneapolis…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Continuing a University of Wisconsin tuition freeze for another two years and adding back scientists positions at the Department of Natural Resources are both up for key votes in the Legislature’s budget committee. The Joint Finance Committee was scheduled to vote Tuesday on UW funding and issues related to the DNR. The Republican-controlled panel was also…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Court of Appeals has rejected a request for another environmental review for the planned PolyMet copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota. Environmental groups asked the appeals court to order the Department of Natural Resources to conduct a supplemental study of the impacts if PolyMet builds a larger mine than what regulators have approved. They…
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – States are heatedly debating whether to make it more difficult for students to avoid vaccinations for religious or philosophical reasons amid the worst measles outbreak in decades, but schoolchildren invoking such waivers are outnumbered in many states by those who give no excuse at all for lacking their shots. Instead, data reported to the Centers for…
BARRON, Wis. (AP) – A Wisconsin man will spend the rest of his life in prison for kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killing her parents. Twenty-one-year-old Jake Patterson was sentenced Friday in Barron County. He pleaded guilty in March to two counts of intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping. He admitted to abducting Jayme in October and killing her…
UPDATE: Patterson gets life sentence for kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs, killing her parents. BARRON, Wis. (AP) – Members of Jayme Closs’ family are asking a Wisconsin judge to sentence the man who kidnapped her and killed her parents to the maximum amount of time in prison. Twenty-one-year-old Jake Patterson pleaded guilty in March to two counts of intentional homicide and…
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration notified Congress on Friday that it plans to send about 1,500 additional troops to the Middle East amid heightened tensions with Iran, officials said. Members of Congress were notified a day after a White House meeting to discuss Pentagon proposals to bolster the U.S. force presence in the Middle East. The…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has called lawmakers back for a special session to complete a $48 billion state budget for the next two years. The Democratic governor told them to convene at 10 a.m. Friday in hopes of adjourning before 7 a.m. Saturday. But suspending the normal procedural rules to let that happen requires some…
