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…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Future lottery jackpot winners in Minnesota could be shielded from unwanted attention under proposed legislation. Minnesota Public Radio News reports that a bill calling for a one-word change to state law would put Minnesota among a handful of states that allow lottery winners to keep their identities secret. The bill is set for review by the…
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) — Dollar Tree is closing up to 390 Family Dollar stores this year and rebranding about 200 others under the Dollar Tree name. The company closed 84 Family Dollar stores in the fourth quarter, 37 more than originally planned. The company has said that it will renovate at least 1,000 stores this year. Dollar Tree Inc., based…
BILLINGS, Mont. – U.S. wildlife officials plan to lift protections for gray wolves across the Lower 48 states, a move certain to re-ignite the legal battle over a predator that’s rebounding in some regions but absent in others. Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt was expected to announce the proposal during a Wednesday speech before a wildlife conference in Denver. U.S….
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota has joined with 20 other states in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s restrictions on federal family planning funds. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Oregon. It claims the restrictions are illegal and unconstitutional. Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement Tuesday that the affected programs, including Planned Parenthood and the St….
SEATTLE (AP) – Researchers say a London man appears to be free of the AIDS virus after a stem cell transplant. It’s the second such success including “Berlin patient” Timothy Ray Brown. Such transplants are dangerous and have failed in other patients. The new findings were published online Monday by the journal Nature. The London patient has not been identified….
ST. PAUL, Minn. – A leading group in the opposition to a copper-nickel mine on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness has hired a former state agency chief who approved another controversial mining project in northeastern Minnesota. The Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters announced Tuesday that former Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Landwehr is its…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Gov. Tim Walz has signed his first two bills since taking office, one paying for fixes to the balky MNLARS vehicle registration system and one reversing what critics called an illegal attempt to tap an environmental trust fund to pay for projects statewide. Walz told reporters Tuesday the bipartisan negotiations that brought the bills to his…
MADISON, Wis. – A Republican legislator is re-introducing his bill to make bestiality a felony. Sen. Andre Jacque sent a memo to his colleagues on Tuesday seeking co-sponsors. He introduced the same bill during the last legislative session when he was a state representative in reaction to a case involving a Town of Eaton man convicted of molesting a horse….
WASHINGTON – Hillary Clinton says she won’t run for president in 2020, but vows she’s “not going anywhere.” The former secretary of state, senator and first lady ruled out another campaign during an interview posted Monday by New York TV station News12 . Clinton, who lost the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump, says, “I’m going to keep on working…
(courtesy: Fox 9)ST. PAUL, Minn. – Legislative leaders and Gov. Tim Walz have agreed on plans to provide about $13 million in immediate funding so repairs can continue on Minnesota’s troubled vehicle registration system known as MNLARS, and they’re working to find $10 million to compensate registrars for losses they incurred trying to make it work. Republican Senate Majority Leader…
LOS ANGELES – A publicist for Luke Perry says the “Riverdale” and “Beverly Hills, 90210” star has died. He was 52. Publicist Arnold Robinson said that Perry died Monday after suffering a massive stroke. Robinson says Perry’s family and friends were with him when he died. Among them were his children, siblings, fiancé and former wife. The actor had been…
(AP Photo)UPDATE: — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Monday released a hand-written note given to him by former Gov. Scott Walker just before he left office in January, after initially refusing an Associated Press open records request for the document. Evers released it hours after the AP published a story about his denial and asked that he reconsider. Evers rejected…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Court of Appeals has upheld a $15 an hour Minneapolis minimum wage ordinance. The court affirmed the ordinance in a divided opinion Monday. Graco Inc. contended the ordinance was pre-empted by Minnesota’s minimum wage law. The company asked a judge to stop the ordinance from going into effect in 2017. The Minnesota Chamber of…
(video courtesy: Facebook/Governor Tim Walz) ST. PAUL, Minn. – Gov. Tim Walz has set an ambitious goal for Minnesota to get 100 percent of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2050. Walz said at a news conference Monday that his clean energy proposals would put Minnesota at the forefront of addressing climate change. The Democratic governor says his proposals build…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Enbridge Energy is delaying the startup of its Line 3 replacement crude oil pipeline through northern Minnesota by a year. The Canadian-based company said Friday it now expects the new pipeline to go into service in the second half of 2020. Enbridge officials had hoped to put the pipeline into service in the second half of…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A Wisconsin researcher says a drop in teen pregnancies has contributed to the lowest number of babies being born in the state in more than 40 years. Wisconsin Public Radio reports that data from the state Department of Health Services show there were less than 65,000 babies born in 2017; the lowest number in the state…
MINNEAPOLIS – Firefighters have contained a large chemical spill at an industrial company in Minneapolis. Hawkins Chemical was evacuated Friday where an estimated 5,400 gallons of nitric acid spilled. No injuries have been reported. Nitric acid is a highly corrosive, toxic liquid that can cause burns. Fire officials say some of the acid got into storm drains so the Minnesota…
DETROIT – Hyundai and Kia are recalling more than a half million vehicles in the U.S. because of new problems that can lead to engine fires. Documents posted Thursday by the government show the Korean automakers are adding three recalls after reports of fires across the country. The largest recall covers nearly 379,000 Kia Soul SUVs from 2012 through 2016…
MADISON, Wis. – The Democratic leader of the Wisconsin state Senate won’t say whether she supports a key provision of Gov. Tony Evers’ transportation plan that Republicans have backed in the past. Evers wants to repeal the state’s minimum markup law on gasoline, a move he says would cut the price of gas by as much as 14 cents a…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Health officials say 11 people died and 118 were injured in Minnesota hospitals and surgery centers last year from medical mistakes that were preventable. The Minnesota Department of Health’s annual report released Friday says the deaths included three infants who died during what were supposed to be uncomplicated deliveries. It’s the 15th year the health department has…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – A Minnesota House committee has passed a proposed “red flag” law that would allow families and police to get court orders to temporarily remove guns from people judged to be an imminent danger to themselves or others. The House public safety committee approved the bill 10-7 along party lines Thursday. The same panel on Wednesday night…
OCONTO, Wis. – A Wisconsin man is facing his 11th drunken driving charge. Sixty-six-year-old Douglas Kluth of Green Bay was arrested early Wednesday in Oconto County. Authorities allege he had an open beer on the center console of his car. Officials say the State Patrol was helping with traffic when Kluth parked his vehicle and approached a trooper. The trooper…
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file)MADISON, Wis. – Gov. Tony Evers is releasing his first state budget to a skeptical Republican Legislature, with many of his proposals likely dead on arrival and others unlikely to pass without significant changes. Evers, a Democrat, unveils his plan Thursday night during a joint meeting of the Legislature. That will kick off a monthslong process…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota’s projected budget surplus has shrunk to just over $1 billion, leaving lawmakers nearly $500 million less to work with compared with the last forecast announced in December. Minnesota Management and Budget said in a statement Thursday that the state’s budget and economic outlook have weakened since the previous forecast. The agency says slower projected economic…
