ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Two of the top officials at Minnesota’s largest state agency are leaving their jobs, and the department isn’t saying why. Human Services Commissioner Tony Lourey announced Thursday that Deputy Commissioners Chuck Johnson and Claire Wilson are resigning in the coming weeks. He thanked them for their service but gave no reason for the abrupt exits….
HAWLEY, Minn. (AP) – Authorities say a pilot has died in an ultra-light plane crash at a municipal airport in western Minnesota. The plane crashed after noon Thursday at Hawley Municipal Airport. Clay County Sheriff Mark Empting says the pilot was the only person aboard and died at the scene. His name, age and hometown were not released. Empting says…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The University of Wisconsin System regents have voted to increase student fees and room-and-board costs for the upcoming school year. The regents approved the increases unanimously as part of the system’s 2019-20 operational budget Thursday. Under the plan, student fees will increase an average of $36 across the system. UW-Madison students will face a $170 increase,…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota taxpayers helped foot the bill when Jimmy Fallon broadcast “The Tonight Show” from Minneapolis as part of last year’s Super Bowl festivities. Minnesota Public Radio News obtained information via public records request that shows the state paid the show $267,000 through a rebate program. The state’s Snowbate program is aimed at luring productions and…
RAMSEY, Minn. (AP) – Officials say a lottery ticket sold in Anoka County is worth more than $21 million. The Minnesota Lottery says the Lotto America ticket hit the jackpot in Wednesday night’s drawing. It was sold at a Holiday convenience store in Ramsey. If the winner chooses the $21.6 million annuity jackpot, it would be paid over 29 years….
HASTINGS, Minn. (AP) – A Minnesota state trooper is charged with repeatedly sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. The Dakota County Attorney’s Office has charged 36-year-old Shawn Barta with first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving the girl who authorities say is “cognitively delayed.” The State Patrol has placed Barta on leave pending the outcome of the case and an internal…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A high school in Madison plans to offer students free condoms as part of a pilot program this year. The Wisconsin State Journal reports Madison West High School will provide condoms for free to students upon request. The Madison Metropolitan School District’s health services coordinator, Sally Zirbel-Donish, says students will be told about reproductive health, proper…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Officials say the number of people reportedly sickened while boating around Big Island on Lake Minnetonka over the Fourth of July has grown to nearly 120. As of 10 a.m. Wednesday, Hennepin County has returned 140 phone calls from people who reported being ill and were in that area over the holiday. Of those calls, 116 said…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled that a suspected impaired driver does not have a limited right to an attorney before submitting to a blood test if police have a search warrant. Wednesday’s decision comes in the case of a woman arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in 2017 in Dakota County. A deputy got a warrant…
(AP Photo/Richard Drew) NEW YORK (AP) – Fans of the World Cup champion U.S. women’s soccer team are gathered at City Hall in New York for a ceremony where Mayor Bill de Blasio will give the players symbolic keys to the city. The ceremony follows a joyful ticker tape parade up Broadway’s Canyon of Heroes. Co-captain Megan Rapinoe danced and…
(AP) MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Gov. Tony Evers says he believes Foxconn Technology Group will hire 1,500 people by the time production begins next spring at its new display panel plant in southeastern Wisconsin. Evers told CNBC during a June 27 interview posted online Tuesday that he believes the plant will have about 1,500 employees in place when production begins…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota’s health insurers are seeking relatively small premium increases and in some cases cuts for patients who buy coverage on the individual market. The Commerce Department says the Blue Cross HMO is seeking a 4.8% increase for next year, while HealthPartners wants a 2.1% increase and UCare plans on a 0.3% increase. Meanwhile, Medica is…
(AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, File) NEW YORK (AP) – AT&T is pulling “Friends” from Netflix to beef up its own upcoming streaming service. The wireless company, which owns the WarnerMedia entertainment business, said Tuesday that its service will be called HBO Max. It will launch widely in spring of 2020. As more companies unveil their own streaming services, they’re trying to…
DETROIT (AP) – Water levels in two of the Great Lakes are the highest ever recorded. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday that Lakes Erie and Ontario last month reached their highest points since record-keeping began in 1918. Also setting a new mark was Lake St. Clair, which is part of the waterway linking Lakes Huron and Erie….
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota saw a big drop in drug overdose deaths in 2018. Preliminary statewide data released Tuesday shows that overdose deaths dropped 17 percent, from 733 in 2017 to 607 in 2018. Officials say the numbers are promising, but that overdose deaths remain at historic highs and more work needs to be done to prevent and…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – At least six people were hurt, including three critically, when a van slammed into a crowded bus stop shelter in north Minneapolis. All six were transported to hospitals. Metro Transit spokesman Howie Padilla says police took the driver of the van into custody following the crash about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. Authorities say the man driving the van…
DALLAS (AP) – H. Ross Perot, the colorful, self-made Texas billionaire who twice ran for president, has died. Family spokesman James Fuller says Perot died early Tuesday. He was 89. Perot rose from Depression-era poverty to become one of the nation’s richest men as the founder of computer services giant Electronic Data Systems Corp. In 1992, Perot jumped into the…
JANESVILLE, Wis. (AP) – Gov. Tony Evers is expected to sign a bill designed to make it easier for patients to get needed prescription drugs even when insurance companies force them to try cheaper alternatives first. The measure address the process known as step therapy, where insurance companies can force a patient to try cheaper treatment options before more expensive…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A new report finds that murders decreased in Minnesota last year but rapes increased. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension released the 2018 crime report Monday. The report says violent crimes – including murder, rape, robbery, human trafficking and aggravated assault – decreased by nearly 7% in 2018. Murders in Minnesota decreased from 114 in 2017…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The University of Wisconsin System regents are set to increase student fees as well as room-and-board costs for the upcoming academic year. The regents are scheduled to vote Thursday on a 2019-20 operation budget that calls for raising student fees an average of $36 across the system. UW-Madison students would see a $170 increase, the largest…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Officials with the state Republican Party say President Donald Trump is scheduled to attend a fundraiser in Wisconsin this week. Charles Nichols is a spokesman for the state GOP. He says the state party learned from the Republican National Committee on Monday morning that Trump is scheduled to attend a fundraiser in the Milwaukee area on…
TOWER, Minn. (AP) – Authorities say a man was injured when he became trapped under a small cabin in Minnesota while trying to move it. St. Louis County Sheriff’s officials say the 40-year-old man, identified as Michael A. Tam of Tower, was trying to move the 12 feet by 16 feet cabin Saturday at Daisy Bay Resort on Lake Vermillion,…
ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich. (AP) – Authorities and witnesses say a man fired gunshots hurting at least two people in a suburban Detroit neighborhood as fireworks were being set off, leading to a hours-long standoff with police. Police and residents in St. Clair Shores say the man fired into a crowd Thursday evening and hit a 12-year-old in the arm…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin insurance officials will soon consider a proposal to lower insurance rates for workers’ compensation. The Wisconsin Compensation Rating Bureau has proposed decreasing workers’ compensation insurance rates by more than 8.8%, continuing a three-year trend in falling premiums. Wisconsin Public Radio reports that the new rates could go into effect Oct. 1, upon approval from the…
MILWAUKEE (AP) – Four Democratic presidential candidates are planning to attend a town hall event on July 11 in Milwaukee. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former U.S. Housing Secretary Julian Castro and former Texas Rep. Beto O’ Rourke are slated to appear at the two-hour event. It is organized by the League of United Latin American Citizens….
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A fire destroyed a massive Jim Beam warehouse filled with about 45,000 barrels of bourbon, sending flames shooting into the night sky and generating so much heat that firetruck lights melted, authorities said Wednesday. Firefighters from four counties responded to the blaze that erupted late Tuesday. Lightning might have been a factor, but fire investigators haven’t…
(AP Photo)MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has made 78 partial vetoes to the state budget passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature. Evers signed the budget Wednesday, ignoring pleas from some liberals who wanted the new Democratic governor to reject the entire two-year spending plan. Evers says he considered doing that, but decided it would be petty and divisive…
EAGAN, Minn. (AP) – A domestic assault suspect has been fatally shot following a standoff with police in a St. Paul suburb. The Star Tribune reports the man fled on foot after assaulting a woman in a car in Eagan about 6 p.m. Tuesday. Eagan police spokesman Aaron Machtemes says officers tracked the man down to a commercial area and…
MINNETONKA, Minn. (AP) – Nearly two dozen well-armed officers sealed off several blocks and surrounded a Minnetonka home on Saturday in response to a call about a man who killed his wife with an AR-15 rifle and was threatening to kill police. But inside the home, a couple in their 60s were sleeping safely – the unwitting targets of “swatting,”…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – An attorney who unsuccessfully tried to persuade Wisconsin’s Supreme Court into ruling that drunken drivers can block blood tests by withdrawing their consent says the court’s decision isn’t clear. Jessica Randall was arrested in 2016 for driving under the influence. She agreed to a blood draw but before the sample could be analyzed she revoked her…
MILWAUKEE (AP) – A man accused of driving drunk and killing a Milwaukee police officer has pleaded not guilty to felony charges. Dante James waived his preliminary hearing in Milwaukee County Circuit Court Tuesday and was bound over for trial. The 34-year-old defendant is charged in the crash that killed Officer Kou Her on June 18. The 27-year-old officer was…
SHAKOPEE, Minn. (AP) – A Minnesota women’s prison is discontinuing its policy that barred inmates from shaking hands or giving high-fives. The Shakopee woman’s prison has banned unsanctioned contact between inmates for the past eight years. Critics have called the prison’s “no-touch” policy cruel and unconstitutional. Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schell said Friday that, “It wasn’t a healthy…
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file)MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Gov. Tony Evers is facing pressure to sign the state budget as passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature. Republicans are calling for him to sign it into law and on Monday, a group representing long-term care facilities also urged Evers to sign it. LeadingAge Wisconsin on Monday cited nearly $234 million more for…
BAXTER, Minn. (AP) – Dozens of first responders and community members from Crow Wing County gathered for a prayer vigil to support the paramedic who survived the crash of a medical helicopter last week. Acquaintances say Josh Duda remains in critical condition at North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale with broken bones, but is expected to survive. The two others on…
RAINY LAKE, Minn. (AP) – The Minnesota State Patrol says a woman trying to flag down help after her vehicle became disabled has been struck and killed on a northern Minnesota highway. The patrol says 18-year-old Kimburly Lynn Loycano, of International Falls, was walking southbound on Highway 71 in Rainy Lake with other occupants of the disabled vehicle when she…
BARRON, Wis. (AP) – A man who broke into the home of Jayme Closs after her parents were killed and she went missing has been sentenced to two years of probation. Thirty-three-year-old Kyle Jaenke-Annis earlier pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft for stealing some of Closs’ clothing during the break-in. Jaenke-Annis was initially charged with felony burglary. Investigators found the theft…
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) – An avowed white supremacist who drove his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters during a white nationalist rally in Virginia has been sentenced to life in prison on hate crime charges. James Alex Fields Jr. of Maumee, Ohio, was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty in March to federal hate crime charges in an attack that…
BYRON, Minn. (AP) – About 40 cattle were swept away from their pasture in southern Minnesota as heavy rainfall caused the Zumbro River to swell. Olmsted County Sheriff Kevin Torgerson says some of the cattle have been located, but it’s going to take some time for authorities to access them due to flooding. Some cattle were still unaccounted for as…
RACINE, Wis. (AP) – Sheriff’s officials have identified the man suspected of fatally shooting a Racine police officer who tried to stop an armed robbery. The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office said Friday a 26-year-old Milwaukee man is in its jail following his arrest Thursday, a day after Officer John Hetland’s funeral. Authorities say the suspect was arrested in Milwaukee with…
MILWAUKEE (AP) – Powerful thunderstorms that moved through Wisconsin snapped trees, downed power lines and sent attendees at summer festivals scrambling for cover. Thousands of people were still without power in southern Wisconsin on Friday, after storms swept across the state Thursday. Country USA music festival in Oshkosh was evacuated and suspended late Thursday afternoon, as festival organizers said tents…
BRAINERD, Minn. (AP) – Two people are dead and a third injured after a medical helicopter crash at the Brainerd airport. North Memorial Health says no patients were on board when the crash happened about 1 a.m. Friday. A nurse and a pilot were killed. The injured crew member was taken to St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Brainerd. The crew…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that federal courts have no place in policing political district boundaries means a challenge to Republican-drawn legislative boundaries in Wisconsin is likely over. Democratic voters filed a federal lawsuit in Madison in 2015 alleging boundaries Republicans drew in 2011 unfairly diluted Democrats’ voting power. A trial is set for July. But…
MILWAUKEE (AP) – Prosecutors say a Milwaukee father is accused of fatally punching his 5-year-old son because the boy ate some of the cheesecake he had gotten for Father’s Day. Travis Stackhouse is charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the child’s death last Saturday. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the boy died from blunt force trauma to the…
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court says law enforcement officers can generally draw blood without a warrant from an unconscious person suspected of driving drunk or while on drugs. The high court issued its ruling Thursday in a case involving a Wisconsin law about impaired driving. The question before the Supreme Court had to do with what happens when a…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – PolyMet announced today that preliminary results from a recent rights offering Glencore will now own approximately 72 percent of PolyMet common shares. Last March Polymet had secured a 12 month payment extension and lowered interest rates on its roughly $152 million of debt owed to Glencore AG, a mining company based out of Switzerland. In addition,…
(AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled for Enbridge Energy in a case over whether the company could be required to get additional insurance for a pipeline project in Dane County. Enbridge filed in 2014 to expand a pumping station so it could expand capacity of a pipeline running from northern Wisconsin to Illinois….
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) – A former student athlete at the University of Minnesota Duluth is suing the Board of Regents claiming retaliation for her support for a coach whose conduct generated an investigation. Former track and cross-country athlete Paige du Bois is seeking compensatory and emotional distress damages, as well as attorney’s fees. In her lawsuit du Bois says she…
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a 50-year-old registered sex offender in Minnesota faces federal charges after being accused of traveling to Iowa to have sex with minors. Federal prosecutors for Iowa say Terrance Nordwall has been charged with attempted sex trafficking of children, attempted enticement of minors and traveling for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct….
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The Wisconsin senator who holds the key vote on the state budget says he will vote for the spending plan, clearing the way for passage. The Senate is scheduled to take the final votes on the budget Wednesday. Approval would send the budget on to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Republicans hold a 19-14 advantage in the…
NEW ULM, Minn. (AP) – The Diocese of New Ulm in Minnesota has reached a $34 million settlement in its bankruptcy case with 93 people who say they were sexually abused by priests and others. Attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents many of the survivors, says it includes contribution of $8 million from the diocese and its parishes with the rest…
