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…
ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) – Authorities have recovered the body of a missing swimmer from the Mississippi River in St. Cloud. Police identify the victim as 49-year-old Shannon Shaw of Waite Park. Witnesses told police that they saw Shaw walk into the river about 4:30 p.m. Monday and start to swim across. They lost sight of him when he was…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – St. Paul police say a bicyclist is dead after colliding with a school bus. Police say no students on the bus were hurt. The crash happened Wednesday afternoon at the intersection of Snelling and Summit avenues near Macalester College. St. Paul Public Schools spokeswoman Toya Stewart Downey says the bus was carrying about 30 students…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A Minnesota man is facing criminal charges in Wisconsin after authorities say he never delivered on promised snow removal services for dozens of victims, many of them age 60 or older. Matthew Erickson of Cottage Grove, Minnesota, faces five theft counts. Prosecutors say he contracted to remove snow for customers through his company, Snow Angels, but…
ST. PAUL, Minn.-Gov. Mark Dayton has vetoed a bill that would nullify a water quality standard that’s meant to protect wild rice. The legislation passed by the Republican Legislature would have nixed a largely unenforced 1973 law limiting sulfate discharges into water where wild rice grows to 10 milligrams per liter. Supporters argued that standard is outdated and would cost…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A Minneapolis-area school bus driver is accused of texting while driving and looking up jokes on her cellphone. Thirty-nine-year-old Brenda Carsten is charged in Anoka County District Court with more than a dozen misdemeanor and gross-misdemeanor charges of child endangerment. Her first court appearance is June 6. Authorities say the charges stem from video and audio taken…
Lucifer NguyenHASTINGS, Minn. (AP) – A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to murder and aggravated robbery in connection with a home invasion and manhunt that left one woman dead. Forty-five-year-old Lucifer Nguyen of New Hope pleaded guilty Tuesday. Authorities say that last June, Nguyen entered a Mendota Heights home with a gun and demanded cash. He then crashed the car…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A southern Minnesota family in a victim protection program is suing Wells Fargo and one of its mortgage bankers, alleging the bank sent mail to what was supposed to be a secret location. The lawsuit also alleges the family received mail from outside vendors – a signal that the bank sold its information. The family’s attorney says…
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)(AP) – President Donald Trump announced Tuesday he will withdraw the United States from a 2015 agreement with Iran and world powers under which Tehran agreed to limit its nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief. European countries and other proponents of the deal say it prevents Iran from quickly developing nuclear weapons. Critics of the deal, including…
Photo: http:usdakotawar.orgWORTHINGTON, Minn. (AP) – A clay pipe linked to the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 and considered sacred by Native Americans in Minnesota is being returned to the Sioux people after being sold at auction. The Lower Sioux Indian Community unsuccessfully tried to stop the sale. Minnesota Public Radio reports the pipe was auctioned in Boston on Saturday for $40,000,…
MACOMB TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) – Police are digging in woods northeast of Detroit near where the body of a 13-year-old girl who went missing in 1986 was found more than a decade ago. Authorities believe up to half a dozen bodies of missing girls could be buried in a wooded area northeast of Detroit. Dwyer says “there’s maybe four to…
WINONA, Minn. (AP) – Winona police say a Wisconsin man was struck and killed by a freight train over the weekend. Police say 35-year-old Sherod Frazier of La Crosse was walking when he sped up and tried to beat the train early Sunday. The train operator sounded the horn and applied emergency brakes but could not stop in time. The…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A former Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed an unarmed Australian woman last summer after she called 911 to report a possible assault didn’t speak in a brief court appearance. Mohamed Noor is charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the July 15 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Amy Sweasy said…
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is preparing to tell the world whether he plans to follow through on his threat to pull out of the landmark nuclear accord with Iran and almost surely ensure its collapse. There are no signs that European allies enlisted to “fix” the deal have persuaded him to preserve it. In…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – The Minnesota Senate has passed a handful of measures aimed at loosening restrictions on child care providers. The push comes following lawmaker’s concerns that certain regulations are leading to a shortage of child care facilities, especially in rural areas. A handful of measures relaxing restrictions on training and licensing requirements overwhelmingly cleared the Senate Monday….
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota officials say standard driver’s licenses should be accepted for domestic flights until October 2020 as stronger Real ID requirements roll out. That’s been an open question for years as the state has struggled to satisfy the federal Real ID Act. The 2005 law requires upgraded security standards for licenses and took effect in January….
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Many of Minnesota’s most popular lakes still have ice as the state’s fishing season opener approaches on Saturday. But one of the coldest and snowiest Aprils on record has given way to a warm, sunny May that’s causing rapid melting. That’s giving hope to anglers, resorts and bait shops. While most big walleye lakes across the northern…
LENGBY, Minn. (AP) – A school bus crash in northwestern Minnesota resulted in no serious injuries. Grand Rapids Public Schools says 22 students and one staff member were traveling to the Great Plains Youth Institute in Crookston on Monday when their bus was involved in a crash. The driver and 3 students were transported to the Fosston Hospital. 9 students…
photo: LinkedInMINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Politicians, communities and companies in the Twin Cities are making a united pitch for a new military headquarters. The Star Tribune reports that the Department of Defense’s Army Futures Command will be a research and development headquarters that intends to partner with local talent on the next generation of technology innovations. Michael Langley is CEO of…
(AP) MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is scheduled to take part in an announcement Monday about site development for the Foxconn Technology Group campus in the southeast corner of the state. The governor’s press office says Walker will join business owners and workers from across Wisconsin for announcements planned in Black River Falls, Brownsville and Racine. Foxconn…
MINNETONKA, Minn. (AP) – Authorities have declared ice-out on Lake Minnetonka in the western Twin Cities, tying the record for the latest ice-out on the big lake. The Freshwater Society and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office Water Patrol declared the ice-out just after noon Saturday. This year’s ice-out ties 1857 for the latest on record. The Freshwater Society reports this…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A man and a teenage boy were arrested after shots were fired near crowds celebrating Cinco de Mayo in St. Paul. The Pioneer Press reports that no one was injured in either shooting on Saturday. The Cinco de Mayo event has been plagued with gang violence in the past, but police did not say whether…
COON RAPIDS, Minn. (AP) – A man and a woman have died in a fiery crash in Coon Rapids. Anoka County sheriff’s authorities say 911 callers reported the crash just after 9 p.m. Saturday. Officers found a vehicle had struck a concrete power pole and caught fire. After the fire was extinguished, the bodies of two adults were found in…
(AP Photo/Barbara Rodriguez)DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Friday signed a law banning most abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected, or at around six weeks of pregnancy, marking the strictest abortion regulation in the nation — but setting the state up for a lengthy court fight. The Republican governor signed the legislation in her…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Former Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau has endorsed a Republican running for governor, but it’s not the man she was elected with twice. Molnau endorsed Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson on Friday. She served from 2003 to 2011 as the second-in-command to former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who is also running for his old job. Molnau says…
