ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Gov. Mark Dayton has vetoed a Republican-backed bill that would have required Minnesota physicians to tell pregnant women they have the option of viewing an ultrasound before having an abortion. The Democratic governor vetoed the bill Wednesday after it passed the Legislature largely on party lines last week. Several Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the…
(Rachel Rogers/Sauk Valley Media via AP)DIXON, Ill. (AP) -Authorities say students did exactly as they were trained to do when a school resource officer and a former student exchanged gunfire at a northern Illinois high school. Officer Mark Dallas shot and injured the 19-year-old gunman at Dixon High School and took him into custody Wednesday morning. At a news conference…
(Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office via AP) TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A Tulsa mother stabbed her eldest daughter 50 to 70 times, struck her head with a pickaxe then set their home on fire, before fleeing the scene with the youngest of her three daughters, according to police. Taheerah Ahmad, 39, was arrested in downtown Tulsa Tuesday afternoon. Authorities accuse her…
(Mindy Schauer/The Orange County Register/SCNG via AP)LOS ANGELES (AP) – Two officials have told The Associated Press that an office in a Southern California medical building was targeted by an explosive package. The officials were briefed on the investigation but not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press Wednesday on condition of anonymity. One woman…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and other elections officials are calling on the Legislature to free up federal funds for election security. The federal government has given Minnesota $6.6 million to bolster its election cybersecurity efforts. But the secretary of state’s office can’t spend that money until the Legislature passes an authorizing bill. Time…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A year after repealing a ban on Sunday liquor sales, Minnesota lawmakers are taking another look at where people can buy their booze. Lawmakers on Tuesday debated a proposal that would allow people to buy beer, wine and certain spirits in places like grocery stores and corner stores. Minnesota and Utah are the only two…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Republican Party leaders say they expect Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton to veto a tax bill squaring Minnesota’s tax code with sweeping federal changes. The House passed its bill Tuesday and the Senate was expected to vote on the bill Wednesday. But Dayton has said he won’t sign a so-called tax conformity bill unless lawmakers set…
(Cory Morse/The Grand Rapids Press via AP, File) EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan State University has reached a $500 million settlement with hundreds of women and girls who say they were sexually assaulted by sports doctor Larry Nassar in the worst sex-abuse case in sports history. The deal was announced Wednesday by Michigan State and lawyers for 332 victims….
EDINA, Minn. (AP) – Edina’s City Council has approved a task force report recommending steps to correct “long-term racial inequities” in the city. City officials assembled the task force in response to an October 2016 incident involving a white police officer handcuffing a black man. A bystander video went viral, with some viewers objecting to what they saw as rough…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A move to require Minnesota drivers to use only hands-free cell phones looks like it’s finished for the current legislative session. Rep. Mark Uglem, the Champlin Republican sponsoring the bill in the House, says leaders told him his bill won’t get a vote as the session heads toward a finish this weekend. Uglem tells Minnesota…
(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Wednesday threatened to scrap a historic summit next month between its leader, Kim Jong Un, and U.S. President Donald Trump, saying it has no interest in a “one-sided” affair meant to pressure the North to abandon its nuclear weapons. The warning by North Korea’s first vice foreign minister came hours…
(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)SEOUL, South Korea-The United States says it is going ahead with plans for the meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department says the U.S. has not heard anything directly from Pyongyang or Seoul that would change that. Her comment came shortly after South Korea’s Yonhap News…
ST. PAUL, Minn.-A Minnesota Tax Court ruling says the state has overvalued Enbridge Energy’s pipeline system in Minnesota, a decision that could leave several counties owing tens of millions of dollars in refunds. Enbridge says it was overtaxed by $55 million from 2012 to 2017. Tuesday’s ruling covers the first three years, when Enbridge says it was overtaxed by $15…
(AP Photo/Mike Householder)MACOMB TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Police looking for the remains of up to seven girls who have been missing for decades stopping digging Tuesday in suburban Detroit, suspending a multi-day effort while they decide whether to search elsewhere in Michigan or resume the excavation in roughly the same area. Authorities repeatedly have said they’re confident they will solve…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – An analysis of claims by Blue Cross Blue Shield of America finds Minnesota with one of the highest rates of depression in the country. The health insurer examined medical claims from more than 41 million commercially insured members from 2013 to 2016 and compared the depression rates by state, age and gender. Minnesota, with a depression diagnosis…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota House has approved a bill authorizing construction on Enbridge’s Line Three oil pipeline. Before the 74 to 51 vote House Speaker Kurt Daudt spoke on the House floor for the first time in four years saying the proposed replacement pipeline is for the environment, for good paying jobs and for more tax revenue for…
PLYMOUTH, Minn. (AP) – One of Minnesota’s largest public companies is moving its headquarters to Florida. The fertilizer giant, Mosaic Co., says it will relocate its corporate headquarters from the Twin Cities suburb of Plymouth to Hillsborough County, Florida to be closer to its phosphate mines and to accomplish long-term savings. The Fortune 500 company mines potash and phosphate and…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A pair of primary elections Tuesday will determine the Republican candidates in two special legislative elections in June. Polls open at 7 a.m. in northeastern Wisconsin’s 1st Senate District and in south-central Wisconsin’s 42nd Assembly District. The winners of each contest will advance to the June 12 general election. The two districts have gone without representation…
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. researchers say recent satellite imagery shows that North Korea has begun dismantling facilities at its nuclear test site. An analysis Monday by the 38 North website says commercial imagery taken last week shows that several operational support buildings have been razed and rails for mining carts have apparently been removed. North Korea says it will dismantle…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton says he won’t sign a bill squaring the state’s tax code to sweeping federal changes if Republican lawmakers don’t include emergency funding money for schools. Dayton’s comments Monday set the stage for tricky negotiations with GOP legislative leaders as they careen toward deadlines. Passing a so-called tax conformity bill to avoid…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Just like they started the session, Minnesota’s Legislature is entering the homestretch with a long to-do list. But now they have just over a week to finish it. Republicans who control the Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton are at odds on how to restructure Minnesota’s tax code, how to change health care programs and whether…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Republican Jeff Johnson has chosen a running mate in his bid for governor. Johnson added Donna Bergstrom to his ticket in a Monday announcement. Bergstrom is a Republican activist and a retired lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve who lives in the Duluth area. Bergstrom ran and lost for a heavily Democratic Duluth state…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The number of people who died from the synthetic opioid fentanyl surged in 2017. A preliminary report released Monday by the Minnesota Health Department says there were 172 deaths involving synthetic opioids in 2017. A total of 156, or 91 percent, of those deaths listed fentanyl as a contributing factor. The number of overall synthetic opioid deaths…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A Minnesota television station’s investigation has found that most schools in the state don’t test school buildings for radon. KARE-TV reports that state and federal guidelines suggest schools test for radon every five years. Radon is colorless and odorless gas that’s a known carcinogen. Medical research says children are particularly vulnerable to the chemical. Minnesota Department of…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota Republican lawmakers have agreed on a plan they say would cut taxes for 2.2 million residents. The Star Tribune reports the deal reached Friday comes after the House and Senate reconciled differences between their two tax bills, which come in response to the federal tax overhaul. House members’ original plan reduced the tax rate…
ITASCA STATE PARK, Minn. (AP) – Three men have set off on what they hope will be a record-setting journey paddling down the Mississippi River. Kevin Eckelkamp, Nate Lastinger and K.J. Millhone left the river’s headwaters at Lake Itasca in Minnesota on Thursday in their canoe, bound for the Gulf of Mexico. To break the current record of 18 days,…
NEW YORK (AP) — The World Health Organization is calling on all nations to rid foods of artificial trans fats in the next five years. The United Nations agency has in the past pushed to exterminate infectious diseases, but now it’s aiming to erase a hazard linked to chronic illness. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was expected to issue the…
(AP Photo/John Locher) WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a federal law that bars gambling on football, basketball, baseball and other sports in most states, giving states the go-ahead to legalize betting on sports. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. The 1992 law barred state-authorized sports gambling…
FARMINGTON, Minn. (AP) – Authorities say a Minnesota woman has been arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty after investigators found about 100 animals at her home, including 60 dead cats. The Star Tribune reports that authorities removed more than 40 live cats, five dogs, one farm pig, a hamster and a dead rabbit from the single-family home in Dakota County,…
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)WASHINGTON (AP) -The White House is refusing to condemn a staffer who said during a closed-door meeting that Arizona Sen. John McCain’s opinion “doesn’t matter” because “he’s dying anyway.” Kelly Sadler was discussing McCain’s opposition to President Donald Trump’s nominee for CIA director Gina Haspel. Former Vice President Joe Biden says a White House official’s comments…
(AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. Postal Service is reporting another quarterly loss. That’s because strong gains in package deliveries were outweighed by an unrelenting decline in mail volume and the costs of its health care and pension obligations. The financial report released Friday comes amid sharp criticism from President Donald Trump, who says the Postal Service is…
BECKER, Minn. (AP) – Some residents of Becker aren’t happy that a Minneapolis scrap metal company with a history of air pollution problems is eyeing that community. Northern Metal Recycling in March 2017 agreed to move a metal shredder out of north Minneapolis to settle air pollution concerns with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The company also was hit with…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The motorist who struck and killed a Wayzata police officer as he removed debris from a highway last September has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison. Fifty-four-year-old Beth Freeman pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular homicide in the death of 47-year-old Officer Bill Mathews and was sentenced to 98 months. She’ll be eligible for parole…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A Minneapolis indoor market has been temporarily shut down by the city for not having the required food license. The city served a search warrant at Uptown Locavore last week over concerns it was distributing raw, unpasteurized milk and uninspected beef. Health Commissioner Gretchen Musicant says it’s legal to buy raw milk in Minnesota, but it has…
PALMDALE, Calif. – Officials say a 14-year-old high school student has been taken into custody after shooting a classmate at their high school in the California city of Palmdale. Los Angeles County sheriff’s Capt. Darran Harris tells KTTV Friday that the student was taken into custody and a gun was recovered at the scene. The shooting happened at Highland High…
NEW ROCKFORD, N.D. (AP) – A North Dakota woman charged as an accomplice in the slaying of a Minnesota woman three years ago has been sentenced to serve 20 years in prison. WDAY-TV reports that 38-year-old Crystal Herman, of Bismarck, pleaded guilty in January in the 2015 death of 36-year-old Amanda Engst, who was originally from Breckenridge, Minnesota. She was…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A Saturday rally planned at the state Capitol aims to call attention to the soaring cost of diabetes drugs. The American Diabetes Association says nearly 7 1/2 million Americans who use insulin to control diabetes saw the price triple from 2002 to 2013. Nicole Smith-Holt of Richfield is one who wants stronger regulation of pharmaceutical…
photo: twitterHUNTINGDON, Pa. (AP) – A funeral home says a 114-year-old Pennsylvania woman who was the oldest person in the United States has died. The Robert D Heath Funeral Home said that Delphine Gibson died Wednesday. Gibson had been living at a Huntingdon nursing home since 2004, when she was 100. She attributed her long life to good food, her…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The debate continued at the Minnesota Capitol over a bill that would require drivers to put down their phones. The “hands-free” bill previously stalled in committees, but there is a new push to get the measure approved before the Senate ends. This morning the hands-free bill passed the House Ways and Means Committee and will now…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – One of Minnesota’s medical marijuana manufacturers lost $5.3 million in the year before its chief executive left the company. That’s according to new 2017 financial documents on LeafLine Labs released by the state to The Associated Press. Those losses bring LeafLine’s total losses to $12.2 million in the first three years of legal medical marijuana…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A bill requiring doctors to give pregnant women the option to see an ultrasound before having an abortion has cleared the Minnesota Legislature. The House passed the bill Thursday by a 79-48 vote. A handful of Democrats joined Republicans to approve the measure, which the Senate passed earlier this month. Democrats argued it’s a veiled…
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is envisioning “a very special moment for world peace” after announcing he will meet North Korea’s Kim Jong Un for summit talks in Singa pore on June 12. Trump revealed the highly anticipated setting and date after hosting a 3 a.m., made-for-TV welcome home for three Americans who had been held by Kim’s government….
(Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP File)MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Both Enbridge Energy and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe are criticizing an administrative law judge’s recommendation regarding replacement of the company’s aging Line 3 oil pipeline across northern Minnesota. Judge Ann O’Reilly recently recommended that state regulators approve the replacement line only if it follows the existing route rather than the…
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s largest subsidized affordable housing complex was just sold for hundreds of millions of dollars, with some of the money going to a prominent critic of government housing programs: President Donald Trump. Trump and other investors in Starrett City in Brooklyn have sold the 46-building complex to two real estate firms…
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (AP) – A Bloomington woman is accused of killing her roommate in a sober living complex. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman says 46-year-old Donna Bastyr has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of 69-year-old Corrine Gibbs. Officers who responded to an apartment at the complex about 8 p.m. Sunday found Gibbs’ body. Authorities say she had…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Federal prosecutors allege a 25-year-old Minnesota mother of two is the leader of one of the biggest methamphetamine trafficking cells state has ever seen. Attorney Gary Wolf tells The Star Tribune that his client Macrina Perez is “adamant about fighting” the allegations. Wolf has successfully lobbied against federal detention and Perez may get early release under GPS…
ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) – A Minnesota woman says her military veteran husband was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder when he walked into the Mississippi River never to be seen alive again. Witnesses told police that 49-year-old Shannon Shaw started to swim across the massive waterway at St. Cloud on Monday afternoon. They lost sight of him when he was…
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh) WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence is revealing new details about the conditions of the three Americans freed by North Korea, saying one was evidently kept fr om the daylight. Pence tells ABC News that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told him that, during a refueling stop in Anchorage, “one of the detainees asked to go…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A lobbyist at the University of Wisconsin got a severance payout of more than $48,000 to resign under unexplained circumstances. The Wisconsin State Journal reports that Jeff Schoenfeldt is the second high-profile employee in the UW system to get such a payout in the last two months. University officials won’t say what led to his departure….
(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is set to greet three Americans who were detained in North Korea when they return to the U.S. early Thursday. Trump is promising “quite a scene” at a middle-of-the-night arrival ceremony outside Washington. Their release is the latest sign of improving relations between two longtime adversaries as they prepare for a historic…
