ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota House has voted to hold drug manufacturers responsible for the state’s growing costs for dealing with the opioid crisis. The bill passed 94-34 Monday night. It would support prevention, education, intervention, treatment and recovery strategies. The state would pay for them by sharply raising its annual registration fees for pharmaceutical manufacturers and drug wholesalers…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – State data shows the number of deaths from opioids and suicides in Minnesota reached record levels in 2017. The Minnesota Department of Health says 783 people took their own lives in 2017, a 5 percent increase from the previous year. There were 422 deaths from opioid overdoses, a 12 percent increase from 2016. State officials have…
MADISON, Wis. – Republican lawmakers are introducing a bill that would allow some first-time drunken drivers to ask judges to erase their record. Sen. Andre Jacque and Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt’s proposal would allow first-timers to petition for expungement if they didn’t cause an injury and their blood alcohol content was less than 0.15 percent. They also would have to drive…
(AP) MADISON, Wis. – Foxconn Technology Group says its manufacturing facility in Wisconsin will be producing liquid crystal display screens by the end of 2020, with construction starting later this year. The news Monday comes after worldwide electronics manufacturing leader sent mixed signals earlier this year about whether it planned to suspend work in Wisconsin. The Taiwan-based Foxconn in February…
(AP Photo/Nati Harnik) (AP) – Some residents are still out of their homes and roads are closed throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota due to severe flooding. But, forecasters say drier weather this week should give cresting rivers and streams a chance to recede. Shelters at a church in Fond du Lac County and at Preble High School in Green Bay remain…
MILWAUKEE – Cash bond is set at $1 million for a 34-year-old man accused of killing a missing girl’s mother in Milwaukee. Dariaz Higgins appeared in court Sunday on charges including first-degree intentional homicide. Higgins is accused of fatally shooting 24-year-old Sierra Robinson and wounding another woman last week. Higgins is the father of 2-year-old Noelani Robinson. Authorities say a…
MADISON, Wis. – Gov. Tony Evers has declared a state of emergency across Wisconsin as heavy rain and melting snow flood roads, fields and communities. Evers issued the declaration in an executive order Friday afternoon. The order directs all state agencies to assist with response and recovery and authorizes Maj. General Donald Dunbar to activate Wisconsin National Guard units as…
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci) WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump issued the first veto of his presidency on Friday, overruling Congress to protect his emergency declaration for border wall funding. Flanked by law enforcement officials as well as the parents of children killed by people in the country illegally, Trump maintained that he is not through fighting for his signature campaign…
LE SUEUR, Minn. – No major injuries were reported after a Union Pacific Railroad train derailed in Le Sueur County, but two crew members were taken to the hospital as a precaution. KEYC-TV reports the train derailed Friday morning about 2 miles south of Le Sueur. Authorities say one locomotive and 12 rail cars left the tracks. The cause of…
MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee’s police chief says authorities are asking for help “from the entire nation” to find a missing 2-year-old girl after a man was arrested on suspicion of killing her mother. Chief Alfonso Morales says Dariaz Higgins has been providing police with information on the whereabouts of his daughter, Noelani Robinson, but it has “proven to be untrue.” Higgins…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota House has voted to ban vaping from bars, restaurants and workplaces statewide. The House approved the ban 100-25 Thursday in a move aimed partly at reversing the growing popularity of e-cigarettes among young people. The bill would restrict the use of e-cigarettes wherever tobacco smoking is currently banned under the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air…
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — At least 49 people were killed in mass shootings at two mosques full of worshippers attending Friday prayers on what the prime minister called “one of New Zealand’s darkest days.” One man was arrested and charged with murder in what appeared to be a carefully planned racist attack. Police also defused explosive devices in a…
MADISON, Wis. – Beto O’Rourke is coming to Wisconsin this weekend in an early campaign stop after launching his presidential bid in neighboring Iowa. O’Rourke was slated to appear Sunday at a coffee shop in Madison, the liberal capital city of Wisconsin. It will be O’Rourke’s second visit to the overwhelmingly Democratic city in a month. He met with University…
MADISON, Wis. – Butterball LLC is voluntarily recalling more than 78,000 pounds of raw ground turkey products as Wisconsin health officials investigate four salmonella cases in the state. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services said Thursday the four patients have the same strain of salmonella and are linked to the Butterball ground turkey products being recalled. Health officials say a…
WASHINGTON – In a stunning rebuke, the Republican-controlled Senate has voted to terminate President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Senate voted 59-41 for a resolution to halt Trump’s emergency order. Trump has promised to veto it, and it is unlikely that Congress will have the votes to override him. Yet the vote represents…
FOND DU LAC, Wis. – Ice-jam flooding along the Fond du Lac River in eastern Wisconsin has prompted the evacuation of some residents as water swamps local roads and the basements of homes. Firefighters from the city of Fond du Lac are going door to door to check on people along the river. At least 10 have been evacuated. A…
AUSTIN, Texas – Former congressman Beto O’Rourke is running for president. The 46-year-old officially announced his 2020 Democratic primary bid Thursday with an online post. After months of teasing a bid, he’s finally, formally hoping to turn buzz from a close loss in Texas’ 2018 Senate race into a White House try. O’Rourke nearly upset Sen. Ted Cruz. Since then,…
SEARLES, Minn. — A Minnesota man accused of removing his ailing wife from a care center, taking her home and holding what he described as a “death party” before she died has been charged with murder. Fifty-eight-year-old Duane Johnson had been charged with criminal neglect in the January death of his wife, Debra Lynn Johnson, at their home in Searles….
BILLINGS, Mont. – U.S. wildlife officials want to strip gray wolves of their remaining federal protections and declare the species recovered following a decades-long restoration effort. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal released Thursday would put wolves under state authority and allow hunting in more areas. The Associated Press reported last week that the proposal was coming. Critics argue…
MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee police have arrested the man wanted for killing the mother of his child, wounding a second woman and for abducting the toddler. But, there is no sign of the 2-year-old girl. Dariaz Higgins was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon on Milwaukee’s northwest side. A second person was arrested for harboring a fugitive. The girl, Noelani Robinson, is…
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says the U.S. is issuing an emergency order grounding all Boeing 737 Max 8 and Max 9 aircraft in the wake of a crash of an Ethiopian Airliner that killed 157 people. Many nations in the world had already barred the Boeing 737 Max 8 from its airspace, but until now, the Federal Aviation Administration…
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has sentenced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to more than 3 1/2 additional years in prison. That’s on top of the roughly four-year sentence he received in a separate case in Virginia last week. The sentence followed a scathing assessment by the judge and a prosecutor of Manafort’s crimes. Categories: News, News –…
MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee police are searching for a man accused of fatally shooting a woman and abducting their young daughter. Thirty-four-year-old Dariaz Higgins of Milwaukee was charged Tuesday with first-degree intentional homicide. Police say Higgins is considered armed and dangerous. Higgins is accused of killing 24-year-old Sierra Robinson and wounding another woman on Milwaukee’s northwest side on Monday. Police say…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota’s legislative auditor says he can’t substantiate allegations that money defrauded from a state child care program found its way to terror organizations overseas. Lawmakers asked for the report following TV reports last year alleging that fraud in the Minnesota Child Care Assistance Program ran as high as $100 million annually. The KMSP-TV reports, partly citing…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota’s legislative auditor is about to release a report on fraud in a state child care program that was undertaken after allegations that some of the money may have found its way to terror organizations overseas. Lawmakers asked for the report following TV reports last year alleging that fraud in the Minnesota Child Care Assistance Program…
(courtesy: Fox 9) MINNEAPOLIS – Heavy snow has caused some structural damage at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. Authorities say part of the roof of the cattle barn gave way Tuesday night. No one was hurt. The 99-year-old brick barn is used for storage during the winter months. The extent of the damage to items stored there is not yet known….
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says anglers who fish Mille Lacs Lake in May will get to keep one walleye. It’ll be the first time since 2015 that anglers on the big east-central Minnesota lake will be allowed to keep a walleye during the open-water season. The DNR said Tuesday that they’ll be allowed…
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)BOSTON (AP) — Hollywood actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin were charged along with nearly 50 other people Tuesday in a scheme in which wealthy parents bribed college coaches and insiders at testing centers to help get their children into some of the most elite schools in the country, federal prosecutors said. “These parents are a catalog…
DETROIT (AP) — A type of Takata air bag inflator once thought to be safe has now come under scrutiny after a crash and explosion in Maryland injured the driver of an older Honda minivan. The incident forced Honda on Tuesday to recall about 1.2 million vehicles in North and Central America from the 2001 to 2016 model years that…
(courtesy: Fox 9) ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Family members say a Minnesota man is among the 157 people who died when a jetliner crashed in Ethiopia. Relatives say 31-year-old Mucaad Hussein Abdalla was on his way to Nairobi, Kenya from Morocco when the plane went down on Sunday. His cousin, Mohamed Warfa, says Abdalla graduated from St. Cloud Apollo High…
Photo: Amy Benson – U.S. Geological SurveyST. PAUL, Minn. – The state Department of Natural Resources has confirmed the presence of zebra mussel larvae in Red Lake in northern Minnesota. The DNR announced the finding Monday after studying samples gathered last summer by biologists from the Red Lake Nation. Zebra mussel larvae typically indicate the presence of a reproducing population…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – A Minnesota Senate committee has voted to kill a bill to legalize recreational marijuana in the state, making it unlikely that the legislation will pass this year. The GOP-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee voted 6-3 along party lines to reject the bill Monday after defeating a motion to keep the discussion going by sending it to another…
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – President Donald Trump is trying again to slash federal cleanup funding for major U.S. waterways, including the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay. The president’s 2020 budget released Monday calls for spending $30 million on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a program intended to remove toxic pollution, fight invasive species and deal with other longstanding environmental problems…
DETROIT (AP) — As ice coverage goes, it’s Superior. The Detroit Free Press reports Lake Superior was 94 percent ice covered as of Friday, marking first time the largest of the Great Lakes had more than 90 percent coverage in four years. (courtesy: Twitter/MDOT Upper Penninsula) At this time last year, Superior was about half covered, and only 7 percent…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota Republicans say the Legislature should approve $20 million to replenish an empty disaster aid fund ahead of anticipated spring flooding. GOP lawmakers hold a news conference for Monday to call attention to the need to refill the state’s Disaster Assistance Contingency Account. Rep. Tony Jurgens of Cottage Grove and Sen. Mark Johnson of East Grand…
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Democrats selected Milwaukee to host their 2020 national convention Monday, setting up the party’s 2020 standard-bearer to accept the presidential nomination in the heart of the old industrial belt that delivered Donald Trump to the White House. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez chose Milwaukee over Houston and Miami after deliberations lingered longer than party leaders or…
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Olympic track cyclist Kelly Catlin, who helped the U.S. women’s pursuit team win the silver medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, died Friday at her home in California. She was 23. USA Cycling chief executive Rob DeMartini said in a statement Sunday that “the entire cycling community is mourning this immense loss. We…
MINNEAPOLIS – Heavy, wet snow that fell over the weekend is causing structural problems in some communities, collapsing roofs at a church, a hotel, a gas station and residential properties. In Moorhead, part of the roof over the kitchen area gave way at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church about noon Sunday. Two people inside got out safely. In Winona,…
CHICAGO — A grand jury in Chicago indicted “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett on 16 felony counts related to making a false report that he was attacked by two men who shouted racial and homophobic slurs. The Cook County grand jury indictment filed Thursday says he made a false report about an offense. The Cook County State’s Attorney charged Smollett on…
MINNEAPOLIS – A man accused of pulling a gun on a group of young Somali teens inside a McDonald’s in a Minneapolis suburb has pleaded guilty. Hennepin County prosecutors say 55-year-old Lloyd Johnson, of Eden Prairie, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of felony terroristic threats. The plea calls for him to serve up to 90 days in the county…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Legislation that would let Minnesota voters decide whether to amend the state Constitution to include an equal rights clause has passed the House. Members of the Democratic-dominated House passed the bill late Thursday. It would put the question on the 2020 ballot, asking voters whether to alter the Constitution to say that people have equal rights…
A Minnesota television station is reporting that the Wisconsin man charged in the kidnapping of 13-year-old Jayme Closs says in a letter from jail that he plans to plead guilty. KARE-TV reported Thursday that suspect Jake Patterson was replying to a letter from a station reporter. The station reported that Patterson wrote that he didn’t want Jayme’s family “to worry…
ALEXANDRIA, Va.-Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced to 47 months in prison for tax and bank fraud. A jury in Alexandria convicted Manafort last year on eight counts of tax and bank fraud related to his overseas work advising politicians in Ukraine. Federal sentencing guidelines called for a term of roughly 20 years, though few observers expected…
MINNEAPOLIS – The Minnesota Department of Human Rights is suing a plasma collection company for allegedly discriminating against a transgender woman who was banned from donating because of her gender identity. The suit filed Thursday accuses CSL Plasma Inc., of violating the Minnesota Human Rights Act. The action is in response to a complaint filed by Minneapolis resident Alice James,…
(AP Photo) MADISON, Wis. – Gov. Tony Evers’ capital budget proposal calls for borrowing $2 billion over the next two fiscal years for projects ranging from building new juvenile corrections facilities, a new state office building in Milwaukee and upgrading buildings around the University of Wisconsin System. The proposal must pass both the state building commission and the Legislature’s budget-writing…
TOWN OF LA POINTE, Wis. – A day after an early morning fire destroyed Madeline Island’s only fire station and ambulance service, Fire Chief Rick Reichkeitze is looking to the future with hope of rebuilding the hall in six months. Reichkeitze says the fire department is currently working out of two heated airplane hangars on Madeline Island and plans to…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that two Minnesota boys must be allowed to compete on their high schools’ dance teams. Juniors Dmitri Moua and Zachary Greenwald wanted to try out for their schools’ dance teams in suburban Minneapolis. But the Minnesota State High School League’s bylaws say the teams are for girls only. The boys sued…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – A bill to legalize sports betting in Minnesota has cleared its first committee test but still faces an uncertain future. The bill by Senate Tax Committee Chairman Roger Chamberlain passed his panel on a 5-2 vote Thursday. It now goes to the Senate state government committee. His bill would allow sports betting only at the state’s…
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. regulators on Tuesday warned people not to use certain Claire’s makeup products after samples tested positive for asbestos, but the retailer disputed the findings. The Food and Drug Administraiton said it issued the warning because it said Claire’s refused to comply with its request for a recall, and that the agency doesn’t have the power…
(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)MADISON, Wis. – Kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart is scheduled to speak in northwestern Wisconsin next week to help the region cope with a high-profile double homicide-kidnapping. Prosecutors have accused 21-year-old Jake Patterson of breaking into 13-year-old Jayme Closs’ home just outside Barron in October, killing her parents with a shotgun and abducting her. They say he held…
