DULUTH, Minn. – A Duluth man on probation for a 2016 drunken driving conviction is now dead along with two others in a wrong-way alcohol-related crash on Interstate 35 in Duluth. The accident happened 1 a.m. Monday on southbound I-35 near 40th Avenue West. The Minnesota State Patrol says a 1997 Toyota 4Runner was traveling north in those southbound lanes…
WINONA, Minn. (AP) – A Winona man is accused of leading police on a chase in a stolen semi that went on for 50 miles through at least seven Minnesota communities. A criminal complaint charging Michael Kronebush with assault with a dangerous weapon and fleeing from police says he rammed the semi into squad cars at least twice during the…
(AP) – A new large study suggests infants who are given antacids like Zantac or Pepcid are more likely to develop childhood allergies, perhaps because these drugs may alter their gut bacteria. Early use of antibiotics also raised the chances of allergies. The researchers analyzed health records of nearly 800,000 U.S. kids covered by a military insurance program. They couldn’t…
(AP Photo/Andy Wong)BEIJING (AP) – China has raised import duties on a $3 billion list of U.S. pork, apples and other products in an escalating dispute with Washington over trade and industrial policy. The government of President Xi Jinping said Monday it was responding to a U.S. tariff hike on steel and aluminum. But that is just one facet of…
RICHFIELD, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota’s suicide crisis hotline could be shut down next month unless funding is found. Crisis Connection is the only center in Minnesota that takes calls from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Manager Laura Weber says the Richfield center will be forced to start shutting down May 21 unless it can find financial backing. The St. Paul…
(Joe Ahlquist/The Rochester Post-Bulletin via AP)ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) – A growing number of students in Minnesota are participating in competitive shooting as young people across the U.S. push for stricter gun laws. The Post Bulletin reports that the Minnesota State High School Clay Targets League added 15 to 20 teams this year. John Nelson is vice president of the USA…
(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Sacramento police shot Stephon Clark seven times from behind, according to autopsy results released Friday by a pathologist hired by Clark’s family, findings that call into question the department’s assertion that the 22-year-old black man was facing officers and walking toward them when he was killed. Dr. Bennet Omalu, whose study of a degenerative…
(Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)MOSCOW (AP) – The Russian military says it has successfully tested its latest intercontinental ballistic missile. The Defense Ministry said Friday’s launch from Plesetsk in northwestern Russia tested the Sarmat missile’s performance in the early stage of its flight. Sarmat is intended to replace the Soviet-designed Voyevoda, the world’s heaviest ICBM known as “Satan”…
ALEXANDRIA, Minn. (AP) – A search warrant filed in a fatal hit-and-run case in Alexandria says the owner of the SUV believed to have been involved in the incident told dispatchers he or she believed they may have struck the victim, but thought they had hit a curb. Twenty-six-year-old Travis Penning was struck and killed the evening of March 19….
(AP) – Walmart may be looking to dive deeper into the rapidly evolving health care market by acquiring the insurer Humana, according to The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper says the retail giant is in early talks with Humana, a major provider of Medicare Advantage coverage for people age 65 and older. Citing anonymous sources, the Journal says the companies…
ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) – A judge has ordered Stearns County to return thousands of pages of FBI documents in the Jacob Wetterling investigation to the federal agency. County officials had planned to release the case file after Danny Heinrich confessed to the 1989 abduction and killing of 11-year-old Jacob. But Patty and Jerry Wetterling sued to keep some pages…
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Scientists haven’t rendered a verdict on whether coffee is good or bad for you but a California judge has. He says coffee sellers in the state should have to post cancer warnings. The culprit is a chemical produced in the bean roasting process that is a known carcinogen and has been at the heart of an…
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – The widow of the gunman who killed 49 people at a gay Orlando nightclub has been acquitted on charges of lying to the FBI and helping her husband in the 2016 attack. Noor Salman was found not guilty of charges of obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization. Salman was married to Omar Mateen…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A former FBI agent in Minnesota is charged with leaking secret documents to a national media organization. Terry J. Albury faces two counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information. The charges say one document relates to how the FBI assesses confidential informants. Albury’s attorneys say he accepts full responsibility, and that as the only African-American agent…
St. Paul, Minn. – Legislation carried by Rep. Jason Metsa (DFL – Virginia) to rename the Highway 53 bridge just south of Eveleth after a U.S. Army veteran who lost his battle with PTSD cleared its first committee hurdle. The bill, which would designate the bridge passing over Fayal Road and Highway 37 as the “Specialist Noah Pierce Bridge,” passed…
(Tristan Fortsch/KATU News via AP)MENDOCINO, Calif. (AP) – A Washington state couple who lived next door to a family whose SUV plunged off a California cliff say they called authorities because they were concerned that one of the children was going hungry. Bruce and Dana DeKalb said Wednesday that they called child welfare officials Friday after becoming concerned that one…
(AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Corn has been dethroned as the king of crops as farmers report they intend to plant more soybeans than corn for the first time in 35 years. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says in its annual prospective planting report released Thursday that farmers intend to plant 89 million acres in soybeans and…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Protest organizers could be financially and criminally liable if their event leads to property damage in Minnesota under a proposed bill. The House Public Safety committee advanced the Republican-backed bill Wednesday over objections from Democrats and civil rights groups. Republicans argue the bill would help prevent damages to public infrastructure and hold groups who encourage…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Gov. Scott Walker has signed into law a bill strengthening the penalties for legally buying a firearm with the intent to provide the weapon to someone barred from having a gun. Walker on Wednesday signed the bill increasing penalties from a misdemeanor to a felony for “straw” purchases. It was one of 41 bills he signed….
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, file)WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is firing Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and replacing him with the White House doctor in the wake of a bruising ethics scandal and a mounting rebellion within the VA. Trump tweets that he intends to nominate “highly respected Admiral Ronny L. Jackson, MD, as the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs.”…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Gov. Mark Dayton says he’d veto a bill that would kick start construction of a crude oil pipeline replacement across northern Minnesota. The years-long review process for the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline is nearing its conclusion. The Public Utilities Commission approved the final environmental review of the pipeline replacement earlier this month, meaning the commission…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Four state senators want to prevent driverless vehicles from being tested in Minnesota until their developers can prove they’re safe. Republican Sen. Jim Abeler says the death of a woman who was struck by a self-driving vehicle in Tempe, Arizona last week confirmed his concerns about the technology. Minnesota Public Radio says Abeler and three…
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is floating the idea of using the military’s budget to pay for his long-promised border wall with Mexico. Trump raised the idea with House Speaker Paul Ryan at a meeting last week, according to a person familiar with the discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity. And he’s tweeted that building “a…
ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) – Police say five people were stabbed and a sixth person was critically beaten after a knife fight erupted at a party in Rochester. Officers were called to an apartment building about 12:20 a.m. Tuesday after four men showed up who weren’t wanted at the party. That’s when the fight broke out and someone was armed with…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Minnesota’s state demographer says adding a question about citizenship status to the 2020 U.S. Census will make the count less accurate. Susan Brower said Tuesday research shows fear about the population count taken every 10 years keeps people from responding, and those fears are often highest among immigrants. Minnesota has seen waves of Somali and Hmong immigrants…
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration is ending a program that allows citizens of Liberia living in the U.S. to avoid deportation. But it’s allowing a one-year “wind-down” period to ease their return. Liberians have been eligible for Deferred Enforcement Departure since 1999. The program allows them to live and work in the U.S. A memorandum issued by…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A new report says bumper crops and occasional upticks in prices weren’t enough to save most Minnesota farmers from a fifth straight year of thin profits in 2017. The annual analysis from University of Minnesota Extension and the Minnesota State colleges and universities system finds that nearly one-third of Minnesota farmers saw their net worth decrease in…
VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) – Three boys have found a part of a mastodon jawbone while exploring family property in Mississippi. The Vicksburg Post reports that two brothers and a cousin made the discovery on plowed land near Bovina, a small community east of the Mississippi River. The newspaper says the three were on spring break from school when they found…
( AP Photo/Ferdinand Ostrop)BERN, Switzerland (AP) — Scientists now have the dirt on the rubber ducky: Those cute yellow bath-time toys are — as some parents have long suspected — a haven for nasty bugs. Swiss and American researchers counted the microbes swimming inside the toys and say the murky liquid released when ducks were squeezed contained “potentially pathogenic bacteria”…
(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File) BATON ROUGE, La. – Louisiana’s attorney general has ruled out criminal charges against two white Baton Rouge police officers in the fatal shooting of a black man whose death fueled widespread protests. Attorney General Jeff Landry’s announcement Tuesday comes nearly 11 months after the Justice Department ruled out federal criminal charges in Alton Sterling’s July 2016…
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File) The news that Facebook’s Android app has been collecting call and text histories is yet another black eye for the social media giant. But just why was Facebook able to siphon off records of who its users were contacting — and when — in the first place? The short answer: Because Google let it. The longer…
(AP Photo/Chris O’Meara, File)CHANHASSEN, Minn. (AP) – A toxicology report shows Prince had exceedingly high concentrations of fentanyl in his body when he died. Prince was 57 when he died of an accidental overdose on April 21, 2016. A fentanyl overdose was listed as the cause. A confidential toxicology report obtained Monday by The Associated Press shows the concentration of…
(Cory Morse/The Grand Rapids Press via AP, File) EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) – A Michigan State University official who oversaw a clinic where former sports doctor Larry Nassar worked is facing criminal charges for allegedly inappropriately touching a student and storing nude photos of female students on his work computer. William Strampel, who was dean of the College of Osteopathic…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Court documents say the boyfriend of a pregnant teenager admitted to fatally shooting her in St. Paul, but said it was an accident. Luis Chacon-Villeda has not been charged in the death of 18-year-old Eileen Viveros-Varga on March 9. The St. Paul Pioneer Press says one of the search warrants filed in Ramsey County District…
(CBS News/60 Minutes via AP)WASHINGTON (AP) – Adult film star Stormy Daniels is now suing President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen for defamation. The new allegation is part of a revised complaint filed Monday by Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti. It comes a day after a ratings-grabbing “60 Minutes” interview in which Daniels said she’d had sex with Trump years…
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)NEW YORK (AP) — The pilot of a helicopter that crashed into New York City’s East River told federal investigators that he believed the aircraft’s fuel was cut off when a passenger’s restraint tether tangled with an emergency fuel cutoff switch, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report on the crash released Monday. The…
(AP Photo/Richard Drew)NEW YORK (AP) – The Dow Jones industrial average surged nearly 670 points, erasing nearly half the ground it lost last week and marking the biggest gain since August 2015. The broad gains Monday were led by technology stocks and banks, which took some of the biggest losses last week as trade tensions flared between the U.S. and…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A group of Minnesota lawmakers are proposing a bill that would slow a year’s long state effort to expand muskie stocking. The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that the bill would put a moratorium on the Department of Natural Resources’ fish stocking plans to slowly increase the number of lakes where muskies are stocked. It…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – The Minnesota Senate has signed off on raises for the state’s 30,000 public employees and voted to plug a budget shortfall in state pension plans. Underfunded pensions and state employee contracts have been controversial at the Capitol for years. Republicans on a legislative panel last fall rejected new contracts with a 2 percent raise for…
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. regulators and state attorneys general are increasing pressure on Facebook as they probe whether the company’s data-collection practices have hurt the people who use its services. Facebook’s stock, which already took a big hit last week, plunged further Monday after the Federal Trade Commission confirmed news reports that it was investigating. Separately,…
(Courtesy of KMSP)PAYNESVILLE, Minn. (AP) – A Paynesville man has been charged with killing his grandparents who had taken him into their home. A criminal complaint filed Monday charges 33-year-old Gregory Scheel with two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of 93-year-old Wilbert Scheel and 80-year-old Gloria Scheel. Their bodies were found in their car along a rural road…
KAUKAUNA, Wis. (AP) – Gov. Scott Walker has signed a school safety bill that would provide money to help district make building improvements, but places no limits on guns. The governor signed the $100 million measure at a Kaukauna elementary school Monday morning. The legislation comes at a time when young people have stood up, marched and urged politicians to…
(CBS News/60 Minutes via AP)WASHINGTON (AP) – A lawyer for Michael Cohen, a Trump attorney who has said he paid $130,000 to Stormy Daniels as part of a nondisclosure agreement, says Daniels lied in her “60 Minutes” interview about having an affair with Donald Trump in 2006. “The lying is all over that piece,” says David Schwarz, Cohen’s lawyer, on…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Research shows that rural Minnesota is seeing a shortage of day care options. Minnesota Public Radio reports that the Center for Rural Policy and Development found the northern and central parts of the state are particularly affected. The research estimates that roughly 2,500 children in the northwestern part of the state can’t get the day…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Republicans who control the state Legislature are officially calling themselves back into session to revise Wisconsin’s special election statutes. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald issued a joint statement Friday saying they were calling both houses back. Former Republican Sen. Frank Lasee and former Republican Rep. Keith Ripp both joined Walker’s administration…
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON (AP) – Thousands of protesters are gathering in Washington for what organizers hope will be a massive rally in support of stronger gun-control legislation. The demonstrators will assemble Saturday for a several-hour rally near the U.S. Capitol building that they predict will draw a half million people – many of them high school students. In the…
CRESTON, Iowa (AP) – Authorities in Mexico say they found no signs of violence when they discovered the bodies of an Iowa couple and their two children in a rented condo in the Yucatan Peninsula. The Quintana Roo state prosecutor’s office wrote in a tweet Friday that four bodies had been found in a tourist compound in Tulum. The office…
(Courtesy of KMSP)PAYNESVILLE, Minn. (AP) – Authorities say an elderly couple from central Minnesota reported missing along with a man who lived with them has been found dead in their vehicle. Stearns County sheriff’s officials say 93-year-old Wilbert Scheel and his 80-year-old wife, Gloria Scheel, were found dead in their Prius about 5 p.m. Thursday in Kandiyohi County. Officials say…
(AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File) NEW YORK (AP) – Stocks sank again, giving Wall Street its worst week in two years, as fear gripped investors that China and the U.S. were headed for a trade war. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 400 points, bringing its weekly decline to 1,400. Technology companies and banks sustained some of the biggest…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A new proposed plan aims to make Minneapolis taller, greener and more equitable. Minnesota Public Radio reports that officials released the first draft of the Minneapolis 2040 plan Thursday. It has policy recommendations about housing, transportation, economic development, public health, the arts and the environment. Created by the city’s Community Planning and Economic Development department, the plan…
