MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A baby fox has tested positive for the bird flu in Minnesota, the first confirmed case in a wild mammal in the state, according to the Department of Natural Resources. The kit found in Anoka County died, as did two red fox kits in Ontario, Canada who tested positive for the avian flu last week, the first…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Severe storms brought damaging winds, heavy rain and a few reports of tornadoes to Minnesota, where one person died in a crash that authorities said was caused by downed power lines. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses were without power across southern Minnesota on Thursday morning after Wednesday night’s storms cut service to more than 75,000…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota lawmakers are considering a lifting a cap on growler sales, a high priority for the state’s craft brewers, and letting local distilleries sell normal-sized bottles of their spirits direct to drinkers. The bill slated for debate in the House on Wednesday would further chip away at a system that long required most beer, wine…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate fell far short Wednesday in a rushed effort toward enshrining Roe v. Wade abortion access as federal law, blocked by a Republican filibuster in a blunt display of the nation’s partisan divide over the landmark court decision and the limits of legislative action. The almost party-line tally promises to be the first of several efforts in Congress…
KANKAKEE, Ill. (AP) — President Joe Biden vowed to help American farmers try to ease a global spike in food prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as he visited a family farm Wednesday and unrolled policies meant to increase harvests in ways that the administration believes could also help to reduce grocery bills at home. “I stand here today to thank American…
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge said Wednesday he will lift his contempt of court order issued against Donald Trump if the former president meets certain conditions, including paying $110,000 in fines racked up for being slow to respond to a subpoena issued by the state’s attorney general. Judge Arthur Engoron said he will conditionally lift Trump’s contempt finding if,…
NEW YORK (AP) — More than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, setting another tragic record in the nation’s escalating overdose epidemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated Wednesday. The provisional 2021 total translates to roughly one U.S. overdose death every 5 minutes. It marked a 15% increase from the previous record, set the year before….
WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation slowed in April after seven months of relentless gains, a tentative sign that price increases may be peaking while still imposing a financial strain on American households. Consumer prices jumped 8.3% last month from 12 months earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday. That was below the 8.5% year-over-year surge in March, which was the highest since 1981….
RED WING, Minn. (AP) — Unconditional bail was set at $1.5 million Tuesday for the Minnesota woman charged with leaving her newborn son to die beside a lake nearly 20 years ago and who authorities say abandoned another infant in the Mississippi River years earlier. Jennifer Matter, 50, appeared in court in Goodhue County via video on two counts of second-degree murder…
LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk said he will reverse Twitter’s permanent ban of former President Donald Trump if the Tesla CEO follows through with his plan to buy the social media company. Musk, speaking virtually at a Future of the Car summit hosted by the Financial Times, said Twitter’s Trump ban was a “morally bad decision” and “foolish in the…
ASSOCIATED PRESS — Testing for COVID-19 has plummeted across the globe, making it much tougher for scientists to track the course of the pandemic and spot new, worrisome viral mutants as they emerge and spread. Experts say testing has dropped by 70 to 90% worldwide from the first to the second quarter of this year — the opposite of what…
ASSOCIATED PRESS — A former Alabama jail official has died after shooting herself when she and the murder suspect she was accused of helping to escape were captured Monday in Indiana after more than a week on the run, according to officials. The capture ended the manhunt through three states but did not resolve the mystery of why Vicky White,…
ASSOCIATED PRESS — A former Alabama jail official and the murder suspect she is accused of helping escape from custody were apprehended Monday in Indiana after more than a week on the run, law enforcement officials said. Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton of Alabama said the two fugitives were caught near Evansville, Indiana, after U.S. Marshals pursued their pickup truck….
Constructed four generations ago, the massive rock and clay dam at El Capitan Reservoir is capable of storing over 36 billion gallons of water, enough to supply every resident in San Diego for most of a year. Today, it’s three-quarters empty, intentionally kept low because of concerns it could fail under the strain of too much water. During “a big…
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool) UZHHOROD, Ukraine (AP) – Jill Biden spent several hours in Ukraine on Sunday, driving from the border with Slovakia to a town 10 minutes away to see first lady Olena Zelenska on Mother’s Day. Biden is the latest high-profile American to enter Ukraine during the war, while Zelenska’s public appearance was her first since Russia invaded…
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Joe Biden on Friday authorized the shipment of another $150 million in military assistance for Ukraine for artillery rounds and radar systems in its fight against Russia’s invading forces. Biden says the latest spending means his administration has “nearly exhausted” what Congress authorized for Ukraine in March and called on lawmakers to swiftly approve a more…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The 2026 Special Olympics USA Games will be held at the University of Minnesota, officials announced Friday. Gov. Tim Walz said he is “incredibly proud” to have Minnesota host the seven-day event, which is expected to draw as many as 4,000 athletes, 10,000 volunteers, 1,500 coaches and 75,000 fans from all 50 states, Canada and the Caribbean….
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (AP) — The mother of Daunte Wright, who was fatally shot by a suburban Minneapolis police officer, said she was injured while she was briefly detained by one of the same department’s officers after she stopped to record an arrest of a person during a traffic stop. Katie Wright said Thursday she was worried about what the Brooklyn Center officers…
WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers added 428,000 jobs in April, extending a streak of solid hiring that has defied punishing inflation, chronic supply shortages, the Russian war against Ukraine and much higher borrowing costs. Friday’s jobs report from the Labor Department showed that last month’s hiring kept the unemployment rate at 3.6%, just above the lowest level in a half-century….
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Bird flu is killing an alarming number of bald eagles and other wild birds, with many sick birds arriving at rehabilitation centers unsteady on their talons and unable to fly. “It’s quite a sight to see an eagle with a six-foot wingspan having uncontrollable seizures because of highly pathogenic avian influenza,” said Victoria Hall, executive director of…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday named Karine Jean-Pierre to be the next White House press secretary, with incumbent Jen Psaki set to leave the role next week. Biden is also bringing back longtime Democratic strategist Anita Dunn as his senior adviser. She had served in the Biden White House last year for several months after Biden was…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — State law enforcement officers will help Minneapolis with patrols as the city deals with a police force that has seen its ranks reduced in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. The arrangement announced Wednesday by city and state officials has state troopers patrolling city streets three nights a week beginning Thursday and agents from the Minnesota Bureau…
LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 15 million people were killed either by coronavirus or by its impact on overwhelmed health systems in the past two years, more than double the official death toll of 6 million. Most of the fatalities were in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas. In a report Thursday, the U.N. agency’s…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Record-low mortgages below 3%, reached last year, are long gone. Credit card rates will likely rise. So will the cost of an auto loan. Savers may finally receive a yield high enough to top inflation. The substantial half-point hike in its benchmark short-term rate that the Federal Reserve announced Wednesday won’t, by itself, have much immediate effect…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The judge overseeing the federal civil rights cases of four former Minneapolis police officers in the killing of George Floyd said Wednesday that he has accepted the terms of Derek Chauvin’s plea agreement and will sentence him to 20 to 25 years in prison. Chauvin pleaded guilty Dec. 15 to violating Floyd’s civil rights, admitting for the first…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Federal regulators are recommending that the Army Corps of Engineers decline to reissue a key permit for the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine. The Environmental Protection Agency says the project could raise levels of mercury and other pollutants downstream from the site in northeastern Minnesota. It’s just a recommendation, but Minnesota Public Radio reports it could…
SUPERIOR, Wis. (AP) — Officials at a northwestern Wisconsin oil refinery knew about equipment issues years before a 2018 explosion there, according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration documents obtained by Wisconsin Public Radio. WPR secured nearly 1,300 pages of documents from OSHA that shed new light on what those officials knew in the days leading up to the explosion at…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota could become a destination for abortion services for women from other states if the U.S. Supreme Court throws out the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, and the state’s abortion providers said Tuesday that they’re preparing for the anticipated surge. That’s because abortion would remain legal, at least for now, under a 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court…
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces Tuesday began storming the steel mill containing the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol, Ukrainian defenders said, just as scores of civilians evacuated from the bombed-out plant over the weekend reached relative safety in Ukrainian-held territory. Osnat Lubrani, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said that thanks to the evacuation effort, “101 women, men,…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday blasted what he called a “radical” leaked draft opinion suggesting the Supreme Court is poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide, warning that a “whole range of rights” are in jeopardy if it holds. Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One, Biden said he hoped the…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Employers posted a record 11.5 million job openings in March, meaning the United States now has an unprecedented two job openings for every person who is unemployed. The latest data released Tuesday by the the Bureau of Labor Statistics further reveals an extraordinarily tight labor market that has emboldened millions of Americans to seek better paying jobs,…
WASHINGTON (AP) — A draft opinion circulated among Supreme Court justices suggests that earlier this year a majority of them had thrown support behind overturning the 1973 case Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide, according to a report published Monday night in Politico. It’s unclear if the draft represents the court’s final word on the matter. The Associated Press…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Among the scathing findings of an investigation launched after the police killing of George Floyd is that Minneapolis police used covert or bogus social media accounts to monitor Black individuals and groups despite having no clear public safety rationale for doing so. The report released Wednesday by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights echoes numerous past revelations that the FBI and…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The Minnesota Department of Health said it’s investigating several severe cases of hepatitis among children and has reported the cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC continues to investigate cases of the sudden liver disease in nearly 200 children that has health authorities in several countries racing to find answers. The illness is…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Both chambers of the Minnesota Legislature pushed through a bill to give bonuses to workers who were on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic and to replenish the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund following months of negotiations, and Governor Walz signed it into effect on Friday evening. Legislative leaders struck a deal late Wednesday…
Moderna is asking U.S. regulators to open its COVID-19 vaccine to the nation’s youngest children. Kids under 5 are the only group in the U.S. not yet eligible for vaccination. Frustrated parents are waiting impatiently for a chance to protect them. Moderna submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration Thursday. The company hopes the FDA will rule in time…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A majority of respondents to the Wisconsin Conservation Congress’ spring survey say they support limiting the state’s wolf population to 350 animals. The congress is an influential group of sportspeople who advise the state Department of Natural Resources on policy. The congress holds a survey each spring asking respondents for their thoughts on a host of…
(AP Photo/Steve Karnowski) ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota legislative leaders have reached a deal to refill the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund and to pay bonuses to frontline workers. The tentative agreement includes $2.7 billion to replenish the trust fund and pay back a debt to the federal government for jobless aid, and $500 million for frontline worker bonus…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The former Minneapolis police officer found guilty of murder in the killing of George Floyd has appealed his conviction, saying among other things that the jury was intimidated by ongoing sometimes violent protests and prejudiced by excessive pre-trial publicity. Derek Chauvin asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals in a court filing Monday to reverse his conviction, reverse…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – President Joe Biden plans to speak at a memorial service on Sunday for former Vice President Walter Mondale, who died last April at age 93. The service was delayed by the pandemic. Biden will travel to Minneapolis for the event at the University of Minnesota. Biden has described Mondale as a “dear friend and mentor” and “one…
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge found former President Donald Trump in contempt of court and set in motion $10,000 daily fines Monday for failing to adequately respond to a subpoena issued by the state’s attorney general as part of a civil investigation into his business dealings. Judge Arthur Engoron said a contempt finding was appropriate because Trump…
ASSOCIATED PRESS — Elon Musk reached an agreement to buy Twitter for roughly $44 billion on Monday, promising a more lenient touch to policing content on the platform where he promotes his interests, attacks critics and opines on social and economic issues to more than 83 million followers. The outspoken Tesla CEO, who is also the world’s wealthiest person, has…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Republican business owner Tim Michels is entering the Republican primary for Wisconsin governor. Michels comes late to an increasingly crowded field but has the personal wealth to back his campaign. Michels filed paperwork Friday to run. He joins former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, former U.S. Marine Kevin Nicholson and state Rep. Tim Ramthun in the race…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Sarah Shulze, a runner on the University of Wisconsin’s track and cross country teams, has died. She was 21. Shulze’s family announced on April 15 that she had died two days earlier, and gave the cause of death. “Sarah took her own life,” the family said. “Balancing athletics, academics and the demands of everyday life overwhelmed her…
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Friday to dissolve the private government Walt Disney World controls on its property in the state, punishing the entertainment giant for opposing a new law that critics call “Don’t Say Gay.” The move is expected to have huge tax implications for Disney and further sour the relationship between the…
WASHINGTON (AP) – Police and federal agents swarmed into a northwest Washington neighborhood on Friday after at least three people were shot in a flurry of gunfire. City officials warned people to stay inside because of an “active threat” as dozens of officers in tactical gear were searching for the suspect. The law enforcement officers responded to the scene in…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — More Wisconsin communities are encouraging residents to keep their lawnmowers in the garage next month to boost the population of bees and other pollinators. Appleton became the first city to adopt the “No Mow May” initiative a couple years ago and others have followed, including Wausau, Oshkosh, Fort Atkinson and Stevens Point. The idea is to…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Researchers plan to study a group of Minnesotans who dunk themselves in icy Lake Harriet every winter day. The Star Tribune reports that researchers from Rockefeller University’s Cohen Laboratory of Molecular Metabolism are studying so-called brown fat that generates heat in cold conditions in humans. They’re currently investigating blood biomarkers of brown fat in young New Yorkers…
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge in Florida on Monday voided the national mask mandate covering airlines and other public transportation as exceeding the authority of U.S. health officials in their response to the coronavirus pandemic. The mandate, recently extended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, covered a vast array of transportation, from airplanes and trains…
LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) – The La Crosse Common Council has voted to remove a Russian flag from the city’s airport. The La Crosse Tribune reported the council voted Thursday to remove the flag in a show of support for Ukraine, which is fighting to blunt a Russian invasion. The council debated whether the move would amount to an insult…
