(Saul Loeb, Pool via AP) WASHINGTON (AP) – Addressing a concerned nation and anxious world, President Joe Biden has vowed in his first State of the Union address to check Russian aggression in Ukraine, tame soaring U.S. inflation, and deal with the fading but still dangerous coronavirus. Biden declared Tuesday night that he and all members of Congress, whatever political…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The Wisconsin Supreme Court is grappling with whether to allow a woman accused of killing a man to argue at trial that the homicide was justified because she was a sex trafficking victim. The case could help define how far immunity extends for trafficking victims across the country. Prosecutors allege Chrystul Kizer shot Randall Volar in…
(Queensland Fire and Emergency Services via AP) BRISBANE, Australia (AP) – Tens of thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate their homes and hundreds of thousands more have been told to prepare to flee as parts of Australia’s southeast coast are inundated by the worst flooding in more than a decade. The flooding has claimed at least 10 lives….
(AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) (AP) – Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have fired at the Kyiv TV tower and Ukraine’s main Holocaust memorial, among other civilian sites. Ukraine’s State Service for Emergency Situations said the strikes on the TV tower Tuesday killed five people and left five more wounded. The head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said on Facebook that…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesotans who use medical marijuana now have a new way of consuming cannabis. Starting Tuesday, everyone who is registered for medical marijuana can apply to get it in its purest form, dried flower. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, more than 30,000 people in the state are in the medical marijuana program. So far,…
STANDISH, Mich. (AP) – Scientists have fanned out across the Great Lakes’ frozen surfaces to learn what happens underwater during winter. U.S. and Canadian teams have visited all five lakes in recent weeks. They’ve drilled into the ice to take samples and gather data. Researchers have long done such fieldwork at other times of the year, assuming not much is…
SUPERIOR, Wis. – On Wednesday, the President and the First Lady will travel to Superior to discuss how the $1 trillion infrastructure law will improve the State’s roads and bridges, among other things, and create jobs. This planned stop comes the day after delivering his State of the Union speech in Washington. The UW-Superior website says the President will speak…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota’s already-huge budget surplus has become even more enormous, growing to a projected $9.25 billion, the Walz administration announced Monday. The updated forecast was $1.5 billion more than the whopping $7.7 billion surplus that Minnesota Management and Budget projected in December for the current two-year budget period. The budget agency cited higher incomes, consumer spending,…
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – A top adviser to Ukraine’s president says the first round of talks with Russia about ending the fighting in Ukraine has concluded, and more talks could happen soon. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president has signed an application for his country to join the European Union, in a bid to solidify its bond with the West. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has…
NEW YORK (AP) – Workers at Target stores and distribution centers in places like New York, where competition for finding and hiring staff is the fiercest, could see starting wages as high as $24 an hour this year. The Minneapolis-based discount retailer said Monday that it will adopt minimum wages that range from $15 to $24 an hour, with the…
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Several Democrats in the Minnesota House have proposed a gasoline tax holiday from Memorial Day until Labor Day to help lessen the burden of rising gas prices on motorists. Rep. Stephenson, of Coon Rapids, said the proposal is an effort to combat rising inflation. GOP Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller, of Winona, said the…
ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) — A school bus crash in Rochester left 10 people injured Friday. KAAL-TV reported the crash occurred just after 9 a.m. on U.S. Highway 52 and U.S. Route 14. According to the Minnesota State Patrol, a car lost control and slid into the school bus before colliding with another car. The driver and a passenger in the…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota Senate Republicans on Thursday announced a tax cut proposal that would cost more than $8.5 billion over the next three years. Republican lawmakers say the proposal is the largest tax cut in the state’s history. It would reduce the lowest-tier income tax rate from 5.35% to 2.8% and eliminate taxes on all Social Security…
(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russian troops are bearing down on Ukraine’s capital, with gunfire and explosions resonating ever closer to the government quarter. The invasion of a democratic country has fueled fears of a wider war in Europe and triggered worldwide efforts to make Russia stop. Amid growing casualties from the deadly warfare, the Kremlin said Russia…
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden will nominate federal appeals court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. That word comes from people familiar with the matter. In selecting Jackson, Biden delivers on a campaign promise, moving to further diversify a court that was made up entirely of white men…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will significantly loosen federal mask-wearing guidelines to protect against COVID-19 transmission on Friday, according to two people familiar with the matter, meaning most Americans will no longer be advised to wear masks in indoor public settings. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday will announce a change to the metrics it uses…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Three former Minneapolis police officers have been convicted of violating George Floyd’s civil rights. Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane were charged with depriving Floyd of his right to medical care when Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes as the 46-year-old Black man was handcuffed and…
(AP) – Federal regulators are suing to block UnitedHealth Group’s purchase of the technology company Change Healthcare, a deal announced more than a year ago. The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday that the proposed deal would hurt competition in markets for health insurance and technology used by insurers to process claims and cut costs. UnitedHealth said in January 2021…
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A presidential adviser says Ukraine lost control of the Chernobyl nuclear site, where Ukrainian forces had waged a fierce battle with Russian troops. Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told The Associated Press that Ukrainian authorities did not know the current condition of the facilities at Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster. “After the absolutely senseless…
(Minneapolis Police Department via AP, File) ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Jurors resumed deliberations Thursday in the trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights when he was pinned to the ground for 9 1/2 minutes as fellow Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into his neck. Jurors met for about seven hours Wednesday,…
(courtesy: Fox 9) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Unions representing teachers and school staff in the Twin Cities have filed the paperwork that begins a 10-day countdown to potential strikes. The notification is required by state law. It means possible strikes by more than 8,000 educators in Minneapolis and St. Paul could begin as soon as March 8. The strikes could affect…
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks tumbled worldwide Thursday after Russia’s attack on Ukraine sent fear coursing through markets and upped the pressure on the high inflation already hurting people and businesses around the world. The S&P 500 sank 2% to continue its dismal start of the year. It’s now down almost 14% from the record high it set in early…
(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Russian troops have launched a broad assault on Ukraine from three sides. The attack began before dawn and brought explosions to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and other cities. Ukraine’s leadership said Thursday at least 40 people have been killed so far in what is called a “full-scale war” targeting the country from the east,…
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday announced a military operation in Ukraine and warned other countries that any attempt to interfere with the Russian action would lead to “consequences they have never seen.” He said the attack was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine – a claim the U.S. had predicted he would falsely make to…
NEW YORK (AP) – To combat slumping ratings, the Academy Awards are undergoing a radical slimming down, with eight awards to be presented off-air during next month’s telecast. Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences President David Rubin wrote in a letter sent to members Tuesday about the change. The letter says the awards for film editing, production design, sound,…
(Cedric Hohnstadt via AP) ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Jurors are deliberating in the federal trial of three fired Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao are charged with depriving Floyd of his right to medical care when Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – The jury hearing the case against three former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights needs only to get instructions from the judge before starting deliberations. Prosecutors and defense attorneys spent a full day Tuesday in closing arguments that recapped a month of testimony and sought to sway the jury toward their…
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russia began evacuating its embassy in Kyiv, and Ukraine urged its citizens to leave Russia. Those moves come as the region braced for further confrontation Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin received authorization to use military force outside his country. Hopes for a diplomatic way out of a new, potentially devastating war appeared all but sunk as…
MOSCOW (AP) — The White House on Tuesday began referring to Russian troop deployments in eastern Ukraine as an “invasion” after initially hesitating to use the term — a red line that President Joe Biden has said would result in the U.S. levying severe sanctions against Moscow. Several European leaders said earlier in the day that Russian troops have moved…
(Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin is ordering forces to maintain peace in eastern Ukraine. But it is not immediately clear whether or when troops would enter the country. The announcement follows a day of fast-moving developments in which Putin announced the recognition of separatist regions in Ukraine….
WINONA, Minn. (AP) — According to the State Patrol, a central Wisconsin woman has died in a crash with a wrong-way drunken driver in Minnesota. Twenty-year-old Hannah Goman, a Winona State University student from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, was killed in the crash in Winona early Saturday. The Minnesota State Patrol says Goman was a passenger in a car that was…
ASSOCIATED PRESS – Krystal Guerra’s Miami apartment has a tiny kitchen, cracked tiles, warped cabinets, no dishwasher and hardly any storage space. But Guerra was fine with the apartment’s shortcomings. It was all part of being a 32-year-old graduate student in South Florida, she reasoned, and she was happy to live there for a few more years as she finished…
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – U.S. President Joe Biden says he’s “convinced” that Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to launch a further invasion of Ukraine, saying Friday he has “reason to believe” it will occur in the “coming days” and will include an assault on its capital, Kyiv. Tensions are spiking along the militarized border with attacks that the West…
(Cole Burston/The Canadian Press via AP) OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Police in Canada say they have arrested at least 70 people and made progress in clearing out truckers who have paralyzed Ottawa for three weeks in a protest against the country’s COVID-19 restrictions. Hundreds of police moved into the capital’s downtown Friday morning and began taking protesters into custody and…
(Court TV via AP, Pool, File) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The former suburban Minneapolis police officer who said she confused her handgun for her Taser when she fatally shot Daunte Wright was sentenced Friday to two years in prison, a penalty below state guidelines after the judge found mitigating factors warranted a lesser sentence. Kim Potter was convicted in December of…
(Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP) OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) – Authorities in Canada are beginning to arrest protesters who have paralyzed traffic in Ottawa for three weeks in a demonstration against the country’s COVID-19 restrictions. Police in Ottawa say some protesters are surrendering and being arrested downtown Friday morning. One person being led away was carrying a sign that says…
(courtesy: Fox News/Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn, a conservative Republican from southern Minnesota who followed his father’s footsteps into Congress, has died after a battle with kidney cancer. He was 59. Jennifer Carnahan said in a Facebook post on Friday that Hagedorn “passed away peacefully last night.” Hagedorn was diagnosed with stage IV kidney…
(Court TV via AP, Pool, File) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The former suburban Minneapolis police officer who said she confused her handgun for her Taser when she killed Daunte Wright will be sentenced Friday for manslaughter. Kim Potter was convicted in December of both first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11 killing of Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist. She’ll be…
(Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP) OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) – Hundreds of truckers clogging the streets of Canada’s capital city in a protest against COVID-19 restrictions aren’t budging and bracing for what could be a possible police crackdown. The nearly three-week faceoff in Ottawa seems to be escalating as busloads of officers arrived Thursday near Parliament Hill. The city’s interim…
NEW YORK (AP) – Health officials say an anime convention in New York City last year was not a superspreader event. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that widespread masking, vaccinations, and good airflow at the Javits Center prevented the highly contagious omicron variant from spreading widely. Investigators found 119 infections from about 53,000 people who…
LORAIN, Ohio (AP) – President Joe Biden says the bipartisan infrastructure law will pump $1 billion into a Great Lakes restoration program. Biden went to Lorain, Ohio, on Thursday to highlight the measure’s benefits for the lakes and the regional economy. Much of that extra money will help finish the cleanup of harbors and rivers polluted with industrial wastes in…
(courtesy: Fox 9) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A 22-year-old Black man who was killed by Minneapolis police serving a search warrant will be eulogized in the same church where Daunte Wright’s funeral was held. Amir Locke’s Feb. 2 death has provoked an outcry against no-knock warrants and a push by his family and others to ban them. The Rev. Al Sharpton…
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) – President Joe Biden’s administration says the bipartisan infrastructure law will pump $1 billion into a Great Lakes restoration program. Biden travels to Lorain, Ohio, today to highlight the measure’s benefits for the lakes. Much of that extra money will help finish the cleanup of harbors and rivers polluted with industrial wastes in the last century. Thirty-one…
(Minnesota Department of Corrections via AP) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Minnesota prosecutors have apparently backed away from their pursuit of a longer-than-usual sentence for the suburban Minneapolis police officer who said she confused her handgun for her Taser when she killed Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist. Kim Potter is scheduled to be sentenced Friday following her December conviction of first-degree…
(Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP) OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) – Police in Canada’s capital are telling protesting truckers who’ve paralyzed the city for more than two weeks that it’s time to leave. Ottawa police began handing out notices and threatening arrests Wednesday near the Parliament building. Authorities are warning truck drivers that they could lose their licenses if they don’t…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – University of Wisconsin System officials say they plan to end their campus mask mandates by spring break. UW System President Tommy Thompson announced Wednesday that widespread vaccinations and waning case numbers on system campuses and across the state justify the move. Thompson says vaccines and tests will still be available on campus and students and employees…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Schools and bus companies across Minnesota have been given $3.5 million in grant money to outfit school buses with stop-arm cameras. The Minnesota Legislature has awarded grants to 32 schools and bus companies to purchase and install the cameras, as well as buy supporting software programs. According to the state Department of Transportation, Minnesota was…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Tony Evers used his election year State of the State address on Tuesday to call on the Republican-controlled Legislature to approve his plan to send $150 to every taxpayer in Wisconsin, saying inaction by lawmakers now while people are suffering is “baloney.” Republicans reiterated after the speech that the plan is dead on arrival and the special session Evers…
MINNEAPOLIS – Minnesota regulators have told the company behind the stalled copper-nickel mine project near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness that it’s stopping work on the state’s environmental review. The Department of Natural Resources says it will “redirect staff resources to other high priority projects.” The agency has concerns about the location for the large amount of semi-dry processing…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A Minnesota panel of five judges released newly drawn congressional and legislative district maps on Tuesday. Minnesota’s 2nd District in Congress, represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, got smaller and less rural due to increases in suburban population growth over the last decade in the northern part of the district. Despite the shifts in…
