HUTCHINSON, Minn. (AP) – Authorities say an explosion at a 3M Co. plant in Minnesota injured three people, one of them seriously. Hutchinson Police Chief Daniel Hatten says a piece of equipment malfunctioned about 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Hatten says one person was seriously hurt while the other two suffered minor injuries. All three victims were taken to hospitals. A 3M…
WASHINGTON (AP) – Former FBI Director James Comey blasts President Donald Trump as “unethical” and “untethered to truth” in a new book. He calls Trump’s leadership of the country “ego driven and about personal loyalty.” Comey’s comments come in the new book in which he casts Trump as a mafia boss-like figure who sought to blur the line between law…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Gov. Mark Dayton has criticized a self-described millionaire who says he legally qualified for food stamps and took them to prove the system is vulnerable to abuse. Rob Undersander of Waite Park told a legislative committee Wednesday that he and his wife collected about $6,000 in benefits they didn’t need over 19 months, and then…
(AP Photo | Evan Vucci) WASHINGTON (AP) – The Kremlin spokesman is warning the U.S. and its allies against any steps that could destabilize the situation in Syria. Asked about possible U.S. strikes on Syria, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that “it’s necessary to avoid any steps that may fuel tensions in Syria.” He added that it…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton is criticizing his predecessor, Republican Tim Pawlenty, who has announced plans to seek his old office. Dayton told the Star Tribune on Wednesday he doesn’t know what Pawlenty is going to run on because, as Dayton put it, “his record as governor was so abysmal.” Dayton charges that Pawlenty left Minnesota…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota will spend $1.3 million to temporarily add staff to handle the fallout from the launch of the state Licensing and Registration System. The Star Tribune reports that the state Driver and Vehicle Services office will draw funds from the Highway User Tax Distribution Fund. Cassandra O’Hern is the deputy commissioner of the Department of…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton is calling on lawmakers to set aside $969,000 to keep the state’s only suicide prevention hotline from closing. The Minnesota Suicide Prevention Lifeline recently announced it would be forced to shut down next month without new funding. The 24-hour phone line links callers with local mental health professionals as well as…
(AP Photo/Jonathan J. Cooper, File)(AP) – Organizers are encouraging gun rights supporters to bring unloaded rifles to rallies at state capitols across the U.S. this weekend to counter a recent wave of student-led protests against gun violence. A group called the National Constitutional Coalition of Patriotic Americans is spreading word of the gatherings on social media. Coalition co-founder David Clayton…
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci) WASHINGTON (AP) – Another top National Security Council staffer is leaving the White House as new National Security Adviser John Bolton makes his mark. Deputy national security adviser Ricky Waddell will be exiting the administration, said two administration officials with knowledge of the decision who were not authorized to speak publicly. Waddell’s departure date has not yet…
WASHINGTON (AP) – Republicans have cleared a procedural hurdle to confirm a former coal industry lobbyist as the No. 2 official at the Environmental Protection Agency. If confirmed as deputy administrator, Andrew Wheeler would be next in line to lead if embattled administrator Scott Pruitt is forced out or resigns. The Senate voted 53-45 Thursday to limit debate on Wheeler’s…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – State officials say they will give up on efforts to collect a backlog of $30 million in MinnesotaCare premiums that weren’t paid because of problems with a computer system. The Minnesota Department of Human Services says the problem has been fixed, but identifying the people who had not been billed would likely cost more than…
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)NEW YORK (AP) – Mark Zuckerberg has faced two days of grilling before House and Senate committees to address Facebook’s privacy issues and the need for more regulation for the social media site. Yet the hearings in Washington managed to showcase the normally press-shy Zuckerberg’s ability to perform as an able and well-rehearsed, if a bit stiff, CEO…
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration is considering a plan that would allow states to require mandatory drug testing for some food stamp recipients. If adopted, the plan would give a win to conservatives seeking to cut the safety net program. An administration official briefed on the plan says it would be narrowly targeted, applying mostly to people who are…
FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) – Prosecutors have charged a man and a woman from Fergus Falls with murder in the death of a 6-year-old boy they were caring for. Forty-year-old Bobbie Christine Bishop and 44-year-old Walter Henry Wynhoff are charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and malicious punishment of a child. The boy was unresponsive when he was brought to a…
(Photo: Markus Schreiber / AP file)ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota plans to spend the first phase of its $47 million from the national Volkswagen settlement on replacing large, old diesel equipment with cleaner vehicles. Volkswagen agreed to pay the money after it was exposed for programming diesel cars to cheat on emissions tests. Minnesota gets $11.75 million in Phase…
ANSONIA, Conn. (AP) – Police say a Connecticut man with a crush on singer Taylor Swift robbed a bank and then went to the pop star’s Rhode Island mansion where he threw cash over a fence in an attempt to impress her. Bruce Rowley, of Derby, is charged with robbing an Ansonia bank on April 4. Police say “it seemed…
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)WASHINGTON (AP) – After Russia warned the United States against military strikes in Syria, President Donald Trump says missiles “will be coming.” Trump says on Twitter Wednesday: “Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’” Russian lawmakers have warned that Moscow…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan will not run for re-election, his office announced Wednesday, injecting another layer of uncertainty as Republicans face worries over losing their majority in the fall. Ryan’s plans have been the source of much speculation and will set off a scramble among his lieutenants to take the helm. A self-styled budget guru, Ryan…
WASHINGTON (AP) – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says his company is “working with” special counsel Robert Mueller in his probe into Russian interference. Earlier this year Mueller charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies in a plot to interfere in the 2016 presidential election through a social media propaganda effort that included online ad purchases using U.S. aliases and…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – President Donald Trump has formally nominated a Minnesota judge to be the state’s next U.S. Attorney. Erica MacDonald has been a judge in Dakota County since 2009. Before that, she was an assistant U.S. attorney in Minnesota for eight years, focusing on cases dealing with violent crimes, drugs, human trafficking and child pornography. MacDonald’s nomination to the…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The state has paid nearly $600,000 over the last decade to settle allegations of sexual misconduct by University of Wisconsin-Madison employees. New documents obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel show 20 sexual harassment cases have been filed against UW-Madison workers since 2008. Six cases led to payouts totaling $591,050. The largest…
Bill Cosby (Reuters) NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Bill Cosby’s lawyer launched a blistering courtroom attack on the comedian’s accuser Tuesday, portraying her as a con artist whose goal was “money, money and lots more money.” Lawyer Tom Mesereau told jurors in his opening statement at the former TV star’s sex-assault trial that Andrea Constand wasn’t attracted to Cosby but was…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Gov. Scott Walker plans to sign nine welfare overhaul bills into law that include increasing the work requirement for food stamp recipients and imposing it on parents for the first time. Walker planned to sign the bills Tuesday in Wausau, River Falls and Milwaukee. Republicans were united in support of the bills, saying the changes will…
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s homeland security adviser is resigning in the latest White House departure. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Tuesday that Thomas Bossert would be leaving his post. She said that Trump was “grateful for Tom’s commitment to the safety and security of our great country.” Bossert was…
SAUK CENTRE, Minn. (AP) – A former Sauk Centre school bus driver has pleaded guilty to driving a bus full of children while he was drunk. Sixty-three-year-old Thomas Richard Bromen pleaded guilty last week to a misdemeanor count of driving a commercial motor vehicle while intoxicated. Bromen picked up 50 students from school by bus on Feb. 5. According to…
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal agents carrying court-authorized search warrants have seized documents from President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen. That’s according to a statement from Cohen’s attorney, Stephen Ryan. He says the search warrants were executed by the office of the U.S. Attorney for Southern District of New York but they are “in part” related…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has proposed a new 10-year plan to manage the state’s deer population. The plan sets a statewide harvest goal of 200,000 deer. The Star Tribune reports that’s about 25,000 below what the state’s largest deer group wants. Leaders of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association have said a harvest closer…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A Minneapolis center that serves abused and neglected children is expanding to meet a growing need for services fueled by the opioid epidemic and increased recognition of abuse. Minnesota Public Radio reports that CornerHouse will add space in Rogers. CornerHouse is located in south Minneapolis, but center officials say children’s needs extend beyond the city. Rogers police…
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Chicken salad contaminated with salmonella bacteria made by an Iowa food processing company and distributed by Fareway Stores has sickened 265 people in eight states and caused one death in Iowa. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the outbreak which sickened people from early January through mid-March appears to have ended. Food…
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, file)PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said Monday that 225 members of the state’s National Guard were heading to the U.S.-Mexico border to support President Donald Trump’s call for troops to fight drug trafficking and illegal immigration. More of the state’s Guard members will be deployed on Tuesday, said Ducey, a Republican. The Arizona troops…
(AP)WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has condemned the “heinous” suspected poison gas attack in Syria and said he’ll make a decision on the U.S. response within 24 to 48 hours. Speaking in the White House Cabinet Room Monday, Trump vowed to find out who is responsible for the attack that reportedly killed at least 40 people. Trump said during…
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) – Four people were injured when a car crashed into a house on Green Bay’s west side, pushing it almost a foot off its foundation and shearing off a gas line. Fire Department Battalion Chief Mike Vanden Avond says the house was left uninhabitable after the Saturday afternoon incident. The Green Bay Press Gazette reports that…
TOWN OF DANE, Wis. (AP) – A 35-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman are dead after a two-vehicle head-on crash in the Town of Dane. The Dane County Sheriff’s Office says car driven by the man crossed the center line of Highway 113 and struck a van being driven by the woman about 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Both drivers died at…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A pizza delivery man is recovering after being shot during a suspected robbery. WCCO-TV reports that the man was found slumped on the sidewalk about 8 p.m. Thursday with a gunshot wound to the head area. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that police say the man suffered a grazing bullet wound. A spokeswoman for Hennepin County Medical…
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File) NEW YORK (AP) — Get ready to find out if your Facebook data has been swept up in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Starting Monday, the 87 million users who might have had their data shared with Cambridge Analytica will get a detailed message on their news feeds. Facebook says most of the affected users (more than…
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, file)AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Arizona will deploy about 150 members of the state National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border next week. Gov. Doug Ducey announced the troop call-up in a tweet Friday and said he was working closely with the defense and homeland security departments. More details are expected to come from the state Guard. The…
(Photo: Gene J. Puskar / AP, file)NEW YORK (AP) – Target is paying more than $3.7 million to settle a lawsuit that said its hiring process, which automatically rejected people with criminal backgrounds, disproportionately kept blacks and Hispanics from getting entry-level jobs at its stores. As part of the settlement, Target has agreed to hire outside experts to review how…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A $42 million biomedical research grant to the University of Minnesota is one of the biggest federal grants the school has ever received. The university is announcing the National Institutes of Health grant Friday morning. The Star Tribune says the five-year grant will pay for a variety of research, especially into new devices, tests and treatment methods….
KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) – A Florida mother says a day care center didn’t have her permission to share a video on social media of her 2-year-old’s terrified reaction to an Easter bunny’s visit. Cassandra Bryson tells WESH-TV that she signed a waiver that prohibits officials at the Kissimmee day care from taking photos or video of her child. The viral…
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. employers added a modest 103,000 jobs in March after several months of bigger gains, though the government’s jobs report suggests the labor market remains healthy. The Labor Department says the unemployment rate remained 4.1 percent, a 17-year low, for the sixth straight month. Average hourly pay ticked up, climbing 2.7 percent compared with a year earlier….
(AP Photo/Andy Wong)WASHINGTON (AP) – China’s government says it will “counterattack with great strength” if President Donald Trump goes ahead with plans to raise U.S. tariffs on an additional $100 billion worth of Chinese goods. A Commerce Ministry spokesman said Friday that negotiations were impossible after Trump responded to Beijing’s protests about his earlier plan to raise duties on $50…
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)PHOENIX (AP) – President Donald Trump has said that he wants to send between 2,000 and 4,000 National Guard members to the US-Mexico border. Speaking on Air Force One Thursday, Trump gave his first estimate on guard levels. Asked about the cost, he said the administration was looking at it. Trump says he plans to keep the guard…
(AP) – Delta Air Lines says customers’ payment information may have been breached in a cyberattack last fall. The airline said Wednesday the incident involved (24)7.ai, a chat-services provider used by Delta and other companies. Delta says only “a small subset” of customers were affected, with payment information exposed from Sept. 26 to Oct. 12. It says no other personal…
Surgeon General Jerome Adams (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)ATLANTA (AP) — The nation’s chief doctor wants more Americans to start carrying the overdose antidote naloxone to help combat the nation’s opioid crisis and save lives. Speaking at the National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit in Atlanta on Thursday morning, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams issued his office’s first…
AP Photo/Evan Vucci/newsfileWASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump will be signing a proclamation directing the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to work together with governors to deploy the National Guard to the southwest border. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen made the announcement at the White House on Wednesday. She says he’ll sign the proclamation later in the day. Nielsen…
(AP Photo/Andy Wong)WASHINGTON (AP) – The American Soybean Association, a lobbying group that says it represents 21,000 U.S. soybean producers, says China’s proposed 25-percent tariff on soybeans would be “devastating” to U.S. farmers. China is the largest consumer of U.S. soybeans, buying about one-third of all U.S. soybean production each year, the group says. Association President John Heisdorffer, an Iowa…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Minneapolis police officers who fail to comply with a stricter body camera policy will face discipline ranging from unpaid suspensions up to termination. Mayor Jacob Frey says the policy has teeth for the first time. Failure of an officer to activate the camera when required can now result in a 40-hour suspension for the first offense, and…
EAGAN, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota health officials say operators of a senior living community neglected to check on a resident who had likely been dead for days. The Pioneer Press reports that 92-year-old June Alice Thompson could’ve been dead for two days before her daughter discovered her body Oct. 26 at the Commons on Marice in Eagan. The medical examiner…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says the win by a liberal candidate for state Supreme Court deals a “serious blow” to the conservative movement. Walker is issuing the warning in a fundraising email following a torrent of tweets the Republican incumbent sent Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Liberal Milwaukee judge Rebecca Dallet trounced conservative opponent Michael Screnock…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A judge has sentenced a western Wisconsin woman to the maximum 90 days in jail for a crash that killed a Minnesota woman nearly two years ago. Thirty-six-year-old Destiny Xiong of Hudson, Wisconsin, was sentenced Tuesday on a misdemeanor count of careless driving. A jury earlier had acquitted Xiong of the most serious charges she…
