(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…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The family of a 5-year-old boy who survived after being thrown from a third-story balcony at the Mall of America in Minnesota says he will undergo further medical procedures. The Woodbury family posted Thursday evening on a GoFundMe page that the procedures are “non-life threatening complications” related to the fall. The boy, named Landen, plunged 40 feet…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A Minnesota academic official is the new chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The UW System Board of Regents announced Thursday that they have given the job to Dwight Watson, provost and vice president of Academic and Student Affairs at Southwest Minnesota State University. He replaces former Chancellor Beverly Kopper, who resigned in December after her…
(AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Gov. Tim Walz and top legislative leaders have now reached agreement on all nine of their major budget bills, and lawmakers are now waiting on the governor to call a special session so they can finish their work for the year. Aides say the last piece of the two-year budget fell into place…
(AP Photo/Jim Mone)ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Gov. Tim Walz has signed a bipartisan bill aimed at fighting the opioid epidemic in Minnesota. Walz says the compromise bill “will help more families access the treatment they need and prevent addiction in the first place.” The bill imposes sharply higher registration fees on drugmakers and distributors to raise around $21 million…
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say the Pentagon will present plans to the White House to send up to 10,000 more American troops to the Middle East to beef up defenses against potential Iranian threats. The officials say no decision has been made and it’s not clear if the White House will approve sending all or just some of the…
ELK RIVER, Minn. (AP) – A man who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a resident of a St. Cloud senior living facility has been sentenced to nearly six months in jail and faces deportation. Jesus Manzanilla Alvarado of Big Lake was sentenced earlier this month in Sherburne County. The 23-year-old Alvarado pleaded guilty May 1 to criminal sexual abuse of…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Kwik Trip has removed some vegetable trays from its convenience stores after several reported illnesses in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Health officials say the Del Monte vegetable trays, which included broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and dill dip, have been linked to salmonella bacteria which has, so far, sickened three people in Wisconsin and one in Minnesota. Symptoms of…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Advocates for K-12 schools and the University of Wisconsin System say they think Republicans will want to spend more money on education, but they don’t anticipate it will be as much as Democratic Gov. Tony Evers proposed. Education advocates and the lobbyist for the state chamber of commerce spoke Tuesday at an event organized by the…
NEW YORK (AP) – Nearly two dozen states and municipalities are suing the federal government to stop a new rule letting health care clinicians object to providing abortions and other services that conflict with their moral or religious beliefs. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court asks a judge to block a rule by the Department of Health and…
OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) – Oshkosh police say a body has been recovered from a vehicle submerged in Lake Winnebago. Police say they were notified Monday that there was damage to the railing at the Bowen Street fishing dock, indicating a vehicle may have plunged into the lake. Oshkosh Fire Department divers did an initial search, but didn’t find anything. The…
WALKER, Minn. (AP) – Cass County sheriff officials are investigating an apparent drowning in Leech Lake. Sheriff Tom Burch says deputies were called to Woodland Resort on the lake’s Kabekona Bay in Shingobee Township Monday afternoon. An adult female was found unresponsive in the water near a dock. Individuals at the scene began CPR until first responders arrived, but the…
DULUTH, Minn.-Dressbarn, the women’s clothing chain that’s been around for nearly 60 years, is closing all 650 of its stores. The company’s chief financial officer, Steven Taylor, said Dressbarn has not been operating at an “acceptable level of profitability in today’s retail environment.” Its owner, Ascena Retail Group Inc., says it wants to focus on its more profitable brands. Ascena…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – The Minnesota Legislature is headed into overtime. Legislators adjourned their regular session at midnight, but so much work remains that they’ll need to come back in special session in the days ahead. It’s just not clear when. Gov. Tim Walz and leaders of the House and Senate struck and overall budget agreement Sunday evening, but…
(AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – The Republican-controlled Minnesota Senate is prepared to pass a measure to prevent a state government shutdown if legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz can’t agree on a budget deal. Senate Republicans launched the gambit Thursday evening as talks bogged down among the governor and leaders of the Senate GOP and House Democratic…
MORRISTOWN, Ariz. (AP) — Grumpy Cat, whose sourpuss expression entertained millions on the internet, has died at age 7. Her owners wrote on social media Friday that she experienced complications from a urinary tract infection and “passed away peacefully” Tuesday “in the arms of her mommy.” Her owners said “Grumpy Cat has helped millions of people smile all around the…
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Senate has voted to confirm Jeffrey Rosen as deputy attorney general, the second-ranking official at the Justice Department. The vote was 52-45. Rosen replaces Rod Rosenstein, who left the department last week. Rosentein appointed special counsel Robert Mueller and had overseen his investigation. Rosenstein’s departure was expected after William Barr became attorney general this year. Rosen…
(AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – The Minnesota Senate and House have approved the final version of a bill for greater oversight over pharmacy benefit managers – the middlemen between insurers and patients that are supposed to hold down drug expenses. The Senate passed it unanimously Thursday, 67-0. The House then passed it 130-2 and sent it to Gov….
