JACKSONVILLE (AP) – Florida authorities are reporting a multiple people dead and “many transported” to hospitals after a mass shooting at a riverfront mall in Jacksonville. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office used Twitter and Facebook to warn people to stay away from the Jacksonville Landing. The department says to “stay far away from the area. The area is not safe at…
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A bear charged a family hiking in Yellowstone National Park on Thursday, knocking down and injuring a 10-year-old boy before his parents were able to drive the animal off with bear spray, park officials said. The unidentified boy from Washington state was transferred to a hospital for puncture wounds to his back, wounds around his buttocks…
SPARTA, Wis. (AP) – Two adults have been arrested in Monroe County after authorities received a report of child neglect, including apparent evidence that children were being kept in makeshift cages. Monroe County Sheriff Scott Perkins says authorities got the report Friday, and the complainant was able to provide evidence that children were being kept in makeshift cages at a…
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)NEW YORK (AP) — A former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been arrested in New York on a sex abuse charge. The New York Police Department says Thomas Frieden was arrested on Friday morning in Brooklyn. WABC says Frieden surrendered to face charges that he grabbed the buttocks of a…
ST. PAUL, Minn.-The Department of Natural Resources has rejected a clean water group’s petition for an additional environmental review of the PolyMet copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota. WaterLegacy argued in its request last month that critical details of the plan have changed so much since the final review was approved in 2016 that a supplemental environmental impact statement is needed….
WASHINGTON-Sen. John McCain’s family says the Arizona senator has chosen to discontinue medical treatment for brain cancer. In a statement, McCain’s family says McCain has surpassed expectations for his survival, but “the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict.” The family adds: “With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A long-running class-action lawsuit over the constitutionality of Minnesota’s civil commitment program for sex offenders effectively ended Thursday when a federal judge dismissed the remaining claims but stood by his earlier statements that some revelations during the six-week trial shock his conscience. U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank cited a 2017 decision by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Abortion opponents who challenged the University of Minnesota’s use of aborted fetal tissue for medical research have lost an appeal. The ruling was issued Monday by the state Court of Appeals. It says the lawsuit filed in 2016 by Pro-Life Action Ministries is moot because the Legislature clarified the law, which allowed the research, while the case…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – University of Wisconsin System regents have signed off on asking Gov. Scott Walker for an additional $107 million in the next state budget. The regents approved the request 16-1 on Thursday. The request seeks an additional $82.5 million in tax dollars to meet performance-based goals Republican legislators have imposed on the system. The system also wants…
APPLE VALLEY, Minn. (AP) – A Minnesota man has been charged with murder after authorities say he inflicted life-threatening injuries on his newborn son, who later died. Thirty-two-year-old Michael Herkal of Burnsville was charged Thursday with three counts of second-degree murder in connection with the Aug. 14 death of Anthony, who was just two weeks old when he was injured…
(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)BROOKLYN, Iowa (AP) – Preliminary autopsy results show that Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts was killed by “multiple sharp force injuries.” The state medical examiner has determined that Tibbetts’ death was a homicide. No details were released about what caused the sharp force injuries. The agency says further examination may result in additional findings. The Division of Criminal…
HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. (AP) — Sears Holdings Corp. is closing another 13 Kmart stores and 33 Sears stores as sales shrink and losses grow. The ailing company said Thursday that liquidation sales at the 46 unprofitable stores marked for closure will start Aug. 30, and the stores will close in November. The company said it informed its workers. The move…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A Wisconsin board that oversees insurance for state employees has voted to restore coverage for sex reassignment procedures for transgender workers. The Wisconsin State Journal reports that the Group Insurance Board voted 5-4 Wednesday to cover sex reassignment surgery and related treatments for transgender people seeking to match their sex to their gender identity. Sex reassignment…
photo: Facebook/Blaine Police Department BLAINE, Minn. (AP) – A vintage warplane has crashed and burned at the Anoka County Airport in the Minneapolis suburb of Blaine. It happened shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday. Video from local TV stations shows the fuselage broken into pieces near the end of a runway. There was no immediate word on the condition of the…
(Dana Verkouteren via AP) WASHINGTON (AP) — A juror in Paul Manafort’s financial fraud trial says a lone holdout prevented the jury from convicting the onetime Trump campaign chairman on all 18 counts. Jurors repeatedly tried to persuade the holdout to “look at the paper trail” but she insisted there was reasonable doubt, juror Paula Duncan told Fox News. “We…
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)MIAMI (AP) — Patricia and Jeff Rodgers figured they did everything right to get rich beyond their wildest dreams selling Herbalife health and personal care products. They attended all of the “Circle of Success” events, brought in new recruits, met their quotas on buying Herbalife goods to sell and even set up a storefront shop. But they…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A federal air marshal was removed from a United Airlines flight in Minneapolis after a flight attendant mistook him for a gun-carrying passenger. The Transportation Safety Administration says the marshal was apprehended along with another marshal after Flight 3531 landed Monday night at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. According to the agency, the marshal was on official business….
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A Minnesota housing task force is recommending broad changes in funding, technology and regulation to meet a statewide demand for affordable housing. Minnesota Public Radio News reports that the task force has made 30 recommendations and identified six goals to improve access to housing. Gov. Mark Dayton appointed the task force last year. The task…
(Iowa Department of Public Safety via AP) MONTEZUMA, Iowa (AP) — A man from Mexico living in the U.S. illegally has confessed to kidnapping college student Mollie Tibbetts while she was running in her small Iowa hometown, killing her and dumping her body in a rural field, authorities said Tuesday. Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 24, was arrested and charged with first-degree…
(AP Photo/Richard Drew)NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and “fixer,” Michael Cohen, has pleaded guilty to charges including campaign finance fraud stemming from hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal. The 51-year-old Cohen said in federal court in New York on Tuesday that he made the payments in coordination with Trump,…
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Paul Manafort, the longtime political operative who for months led Donald Trump’s winning presidential campaign, was found guilty of eight financial crimes Tuesday in the first trial victory of the special counsel investigation into the president’s associates. A judge declared a mistrial on 10 other counts the jury could not agree on. The verdict was part…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The University of Wisconsin System plans to ask regents this week to request an additional $107 million in the next state budget. System officials say about $82.5 million would go toward meeting performance-based goals in four areas: student success, student progress toward graduation, workforce contributions and improving efficiency. The remaining $25 million would go toward providing…
VIRGINIA, Minn. (AP) – Mesabi Range College has confirmed three men arrested for burglarizing a Virginia business are student athletes. Police arrested the three Friday night following a burglary at Momentive Chemicals plant. WDIO-TV reports Mesabi Range confirmed Monday the three arrested are football players and that the college is cooperating with law enforcement. Officers responding to a motion sensor…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota is spending millions annually to fight invasive species in its lakes and waterways, but the damaging plants and animals are continuing to spread. Minnesota Public Radio News reports that the state Legislature since 2014 has set aside $10 million each year for counties to fight invasive species like zebra mussels and starry stonewort. Counties…
CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. (AP) – A Minnesota man is dead and another missing after an unoccupied pontoon boat was found on Lake Wissota in western Wisconsin. Authorities were called Sunday about the pontoon near the Wissota Hydro Dam. Someone later reported finding a rubber tube floating near buoys near the dam. A man’s body was attached to the tube by…
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – Investigators believe they have found the body of Mollie Tibbetts, a University of Iowa student who has been missing for more than a month. The 20-year-old woman was last seen July 18, jogging in her hometown of Brooklyn in central Iowa. Greg Willey, the vice president of Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa, says a body…
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) – A Minnesota man has been charged with aiding the suicide of his wife, who was reportedly suffering from unexplained pain. Sixty-one-year-old Thomas Houck of Eden Prairie was charged Monday. A criminal complaint says he called 911 last Thursday to report his wife had “euthanized herself” with nitrogen. Eden Prairie police arrived to find the woman…
DETROIT LAKES, Minn. (AP) – A man is dead after being struck by a Canadian Pacific Railway train in Detroit Lakes. Police say the 57-year-old pedestrian was hit at a crossing about 12:15 a.m. Monday. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died. The man’s name wasn’t immediately released. His last known address was Fergus Falls. Categories: News,…
JERUSALEM (AP) — PepsiCo bought carbonated drink maker SodaStream for $3.2 billion on Monday, a move the beverage giant hopes will further help it adjust as consumers drink less traditional soda and opt more for flavored waters and other drinks. The deal is also a boon to SodaStream, which has enjoyed a resurgence after being targeted by anti-Israel boycotters in…
WABASHA, Minn. (AP) – Authorities say more body parts have been found in the Mississippi River in southeastern Minnesota. Wabasha County Sheriff Rodney Bartsch says two boys discovered a torso and an attached leg with a boot on Saturday. The Winona Daily News reports the boot appears to match a boot found on a human leg that was discovered July…
photo: Facebook/Chaska Police DepartmentCHASKA, Minn. (AP) – Police have recovered an 11-week-old puppy stolen from a car in Chaska. The Chaska Police Department said in a Facebook post on Sunday that the dog named Goldy has been recovered. Police say a suspect has been identified, and the investigation is still active. A woman was suspected of stealing the puppy from…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence is heading back to Minnesota. Minnesota Republican Party chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan announced Monday that Pence will return to Minnesota Aug. 30 and will be stopping in Bloomington for a fundraising event. It’s the latest evidence of the White House’s keen focus on Minnesota ahead of an election filled with competitive races…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A police force in a Minneapolis suburb is outfitting its officers with cameras mounted on their handguns amid calls for more transparency in police shootings. The West Hennepin County Safety Department says the $7,200 cameras are significantly less expensive than body cameras. The Star Tribune reports that the department tested the weapon-mounted cameras over the past year…
(AP) – Police swarmed a Connecticut park near Yale University and searched people’s homes for drugs Thursday in an effort to prevent more overdoses from a batch of synthetic marijuana blamed for sending more than 70 people to the hospital. Social workers and mental health professionals also responded to the New Haven Green, where most of the overdoses happened Wednesday….
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Police say two Minnesota beer deliverymen prevented a suicidal man from jumping off an interstate bridge in St. Paul by offering the man a Coors Light. Authorities say Jason Gable and Kwame Anderson were driving their truck Wednesday morning when they spotted the man clinging to the outer fence of the bridge and asked him…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Residents in the northern half of Minnesota are being warned about poor air quality due to smoke from Canadian wildfires. The state Pollution Control Agency has issued an air quality alert for the region through midday Sunday. Officials say the smoke is expected to reach levels considered unhealthy for sensitive people. The affected area includes the cities…
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – An Iowa woman is suing a South Dakota surgeon and his practice for wrongly removing one of her kidneys. The lawsuit filed by Dena Knapp alleges that Dr. Scott Baker erroneously removed her healthy right kidney instead of removing an adrenal gland and a mass on the gland during a surgery in Sioux Falls in…
STILLWATER, Minn. (AP) – An inmate accused of using a hammer to kill a Minnesota prison guard has been indicted on first-degree murder charges. A grand jury returned the indictment Tuesday against 42-year-old Edward Muhammad Johnson. He’s accused of killing Department of Corrections Officer Joseph Gomm at the Stillwater prison on July 18. According to the new charges, Johnson repeatedly…
LUTHER, Okla. (AP) – Investigators say a student has been airlifted to a hospital after a stabbing at a central Oklahoma high school. Oklahoma County sheriff’s spokesman Mark Opgrande says deputies were called to Luther High School in the small town of Luther following the reported stabbing Thursday morning. Opgrande says a student suspected in the attack is in custody….
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Passengers on a city bus in Minnesota have helped a woman deliver her baby after she went into labor. The Star Tribune reports the mother started having contractions Tuesday as the bus rolled through a neighborhood near the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus. Jane Mulcahy was seated right across from the woman. Mulcahy says…
(AP Photo/Shea Walsh, file)DETROIT (AP) — Aretha Franklin, the undisputed “Queen of Soul” who sang with matchless style on such classics as “Think,” ″I Say a Little Prayer” and her signature song, “Respect,” and stood as a cultural icon around the globe, has died at age 76 from advance pancreatic cancer. Publicist Gwendolyn Quinn tells The Associated Press through a…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Officials in Minnesota say human error was to blame for a statewide 911 outage earlier this month. Minnesota’s Emergency Communications Networks said Wednesday it has concluded its investigation into the Aug. 1 outage . Similar disruptions were reported in North Dakota and North Carolina. According to the agency, CenturyLink, Minnesota’s 911 service provider, said human…
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) – Scientists are investigating an unprecedented algae bloom in Lake Superior and have sent samples for lab testing to determine if it’s toxic. Minnesota Public Radio reports that kayakers and other visitors to the popular lake shore along eastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin found green scummy algae last week on Lake Superior’s surface. Robert Sterner directs the…
(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)WASHINGTON (AP) – A former utility executive from Vermont has become the first transgender candidate to win a major political party’s nomination for governor. Christine Hallquist defeated three other Democrats en route to victory in Tuesday’s primary. The former CEO of the Vermont Electric Cooperative says she’s running because she feels she has the best plan to help…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Turnout in Wisconsin’s primary that saw hotly contested races among both Democrats and Republicans is the highest since 2002. Based on official results, turnout in Tuesday’s election was nearly 22.1 percent. That is the highest since 22.5 percent in 2002. That year featured a multi-candidate primary for governor on the Democratic side won by Jim Doyle,…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Minnesota’s long list of big races in Tuesday’s primary sparked the biggest turnout in more than 20 years. A spokesman for the secretary of state’s office tweeted late Tuesday that it was about 21.5 percent. The spokesman, Ben Petok, said that was the best since 1994. Turnout in midterm primary elections in recent cycles has been more…
APPLE VALLEY, Minn. (AP) – A father with a lengthy criminal record is charged with inflicting life-threatening injuries on his newborn son in Apple Valley. Thirty-two-year-old Michael Herkal is charged in Dakota County District Court with first-degree assault and malicious punishment of a child. Herkal is jailed on $750,000 bond. A criminal complaint says the 13-day-old boy suffered a skull…
ST. PAUL, Minn.-Minnesota state Sen. Karin Housley has easily won the state’s Republican primary in a race to finish the last two years of Al Franken’s Senate term. Housley faced no major challengers when launching her campaign in the days after Franken announced his resignation over allegations of sexual misconduct. His departure unexpectedly put a Democrat-held seat in play, complicating…
MADISON, Wis.-Wisconsin state schools chief Tony Evers has won the Democratic primary for governor and will face Republican Gov. Scott Walker in November. Evers emerged from a field of eight candidates in Tuesday’s primary. He was the only candidate to have won election statewide before and now faces his biggest challenge against Walker. Walker has built up a big financial…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison has won Minnesota’s Democratic primary for attorney general. Ellison defeated four other candidates to win Tuesday’s primary days after a former girlfriend accused him of domestic abuse. Ellison denied the allegation. Ellison decided to give up his safe Minneapolis-area seat to try for attorney general when incumbent Lori Swanson ran for…
