(AP) – Pfizer says a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine appears to offer important protection against the new omicron variant. Pfizer and its partner BioNTech tested how well vaccine-produced antibodies could neutralize omicron in lab dishes. They found significant weakening after the standard two doses. But a booster dose increased antibody levels by 25-fold. The companies said two doses…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Two views of the Minnesota police officer who killed Daunte Wright will collide in opening statements at her manslaughter trial. The defense claims that Kim Potter made an innocent mistake by pulling her handgun instead of her Taser when she shot Wright in April as he sought to pull away from a traffic stop. The prosecution will…
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Eleven students from a private Milwaukee school were taken to the hospital after a chlorine buildup in the pool area caused air quality to deteriorate. Fire officials say the children from St. Augustine Preparatory Academy were treated for breathing problems at Children’s Hospital Wisconsin Monday. Battalion Chief Andrew Hargarten says the students were participating in a swimming…
MINNEAPOLIS – The number of people hospitalized in intensive care in Minnesota has reached the highest level yet during the coronavirus pandemic. The state is reporting a 98% occupancy rate in adult ICU beds when COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients are included. Nearly 350 people are receiving intensive care. M Health Fairview doctor, Andrew Olson, is urging people to get vaccinated…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Monday sent the first three Minnesota National Guard skilled nursing teams to care facilities statewide on Monday as part of an effort to fix staffing woes amid the current wave of COVID-19 infections. Fifty Guard members were to begin providing care Tuesday at facilities in New Hope, Onamia, and Fergus Falls. Walz…
(Court TV, via AP, Pool) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Attorneys and a judge hammered out jury instructions Monday for the trial of a white Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Black motorist Daunte Wright, with the judge denying defense requests that would have made the instructions more expansive for the former officer’s benefit. Kim Potter, 49, is charged with first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo announced Monday that he won’t accept a third term as chief. It’s a blow to a department that has been reeling since four officers were charged in George Floyd’s death. The 54-year-old Arradondo said it was time for new leadership at the department. He’ll step down in January, with Mayor Jacob Frey…
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — A strong storm that created blizzard-like conditions in several Upper Midwest states left behind more than a foot of snow in some places, closed interstate and dozens of schools, and contributed to numerous accidents, including one that was fatal. High winds whipped up the snow and reduced visibility on roadways in northern Minnesota where a slick…
(AP) — U.S. health officials say that while the omicron variant of the coronavirus is rapidly spreading in the country, early indications suggest it may be less dangerous than delta, which continues to drive a surge of hospitalizations. President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told CNN’s “State of the Union” scientists need more information before drawing conclusions…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Bob Dole, who overcame disabling war wounds to become a sharp-tongued Senate leader from Kansas, a Republican presidential candidate and then a symbol and celebrant of his dwindling generation of World War II veterans, died Sunday. He was 98. His wife, Elizabeth Dole, said in an announcement posted on social media that he died in his sleep. Dole…
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — Michigan authorities say they’re searching for two parents charged with involuntary manslaughter in a high school shooting. Jennifer and James Crumbley are the parents of Ethan Crumbley, who is charged with murder and terrorism in the deaths of four students at Oxford High School on Tuesday. Crumbley’s parents were charged Friday. A prosecutor says they gave…
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service plans to reduce the number of entry permits for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness next year, citing damage to natural resources, crowding, and congestion. The Forest Service didn’t say how many permits would be eliminated, nor which entry points into the million-acre wilderness would be impacted. Superior National Forest spokeswoman Joanna…
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) – A prosecutor has filed involuntary manslaughter charges against the parents of a 15-year-old accused of killing four students and wounding seven other people at a Michigan high school. James and Jennifer Crumbley were charged Friday with four courts each. Authorities have said Ethan Crumbley opened fire shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday at Oxford High School, roughly…
WASHINGTON (AP) – America’s employers slowed the pace of their hiring in November, adding a still-solid 210,000 jobs, the fewest in nearly a year. Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate fell sharply to 4.2% from 4.6%. That is a historically low level though still above the pre-pandemic jobless rate of 3.5%. Overall, the November…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Patients with COVID-19, most of them unvaccinated, are packing Wisconsin hospitals at levels not seen for a year, a worrying development even before the new omicron variant has been detected in the state. Amid concerns about the new and little-understood omicron variant, Wisconsin health officials on Thursday urged people to get vaccinated and take other steps…
(Court TV via AP, Pool) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Prosecutors and attorneys for the suburban Minneapolis police officer charged in Daunte Wright’s shooting death have seated nine of the 14 jurors needed for her trial, including a woman who said she owns a stun gun. Kim Potter, who is white, is charged with manslaughter in the April 11 shooting of Wright,…
(Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP) OXFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan teenager has been charged with murder, terrorism, and other charges for a shooting that killed four fellow students and injured others at Michigan’s Oxford High School. Charges against 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley were announced Wednesday, a few hours after authorities reported the death of a fourth teen from…
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci) WASHINGTON (AP) — A person in California became the first in the U.S. to have an identified case of the omicron variant of COVID-19, a U.S. official told The Associated Press on Wednesday. It comes as scientists continue to study the risks posed by the new strain of the virus. The Biden administration moved late last month…
(Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP) OXFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) – Authorities say a 17-year-old boy has become the fourth student to die from a school shooting in Michigan. The Oakland County sheriff’s office identified the teen Wednesday as Justin Shilling. The shooting occurred Tuesday at Oxford High School in Oakland County. The suspect remains in custody. Seven other people…
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) WASHINGTON (AP) – Abortion rights are on the line at the Supreme Court in historic arguments over the landmark ruling nearly 50 years ago that declared a nationwide right to end a pregnancy. The justices on Wednesday are weighing whether to uphold a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks and overrule the 1973 Roe v….
(AP Photo/Jim Mone) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Prosecutors and defense attorneys for the suburban Minneapolis police officer charged in Daunte Wright’s death are to resume jury selection Wednesday after seating four jurors the first day. Kim Potter sat quietly in a pink sweater Tuesday as attorneys and Judge Regina Chu probed potential jurors for what they knew about the case and…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 has surged above 1,500 in Minnesota, causing further strains on those working to care for them. Monday’s 1,532 coronavirus hospitalizations included 343 people in intensive care. Hospitals are trying to reduce non-COVID-19 admissions by delaying some non-emergency surgeries, officials said. The record 1,864 coronavirus hospitalizations on Nov. 29, 2020, combined…
UPDATE: OXFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Authorities say eight people were wounded in an attack at a Michigan high school in which three students were killed. Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe said at a news conference that two of the wounded were undergoing surgery as of 5 p.m. Tuesday and that the six others were in stable condition. He identified…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – An attorney for the suburban Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright says the former officer will testify at her trial. Attorney Paul Engh said Tuesday that Kim Potter will speak directly to jurors about the April 11 traffic stop that ended with Potter killing the 20-year-old Black motorist. Potter has said she meant to…
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden will visit a Minnesota community college Tuesday to highlight how his $1 trillion infrastructure law will create jobs and help train workers. The trip occurs at a crucial pivot point for Biden. He is facing the threat of the new omicron strain of the coronavirus and dealing with high levels of inflation even as…
(Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department via AP) WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) – Prosecutors have added a sixth homicide count against a Wisconsin man accused of driving his SUV through a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee. Investigators allege Darrell Brooks Jr. injured dozens of people and killed six when he turned his vehicle into the parade in Waukesha on Nov. 21. He was…
Bill Cosby (Reuters) PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Prosecutors asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision that overturned Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction. In a petition filed Monday, they wrote that courts should not equate a supposed promise made by a former prosecutor to lifetime immunity. They believe the Pennsylvania Supreme Court erred when it overturned Cosby’s conviction in June…
NEW YORK (AP) – It’s an omnipresent truth: Merriam-Webster has declared vaccine its 2021 word of the year. Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for the dictionary company, tells The Associated Press that lookups for the word vaccine increased 601% over 2020. Even more telling, searches on the Merriam-Webster website increased by 1,048% over 2019, before the COVID pandemic took hold….
BRUSSELS (AP) – Nations around the world sought to keep the new omicron variant at bay with travel bans and further restrictions, even as it remains unclear what it means for the COVID-19 pandemic. Japan announced Monday it would suspend entry of all foreign visitors. New cases of the variant identified days ago by researchers in South Africa appeared as…
MILWAUKEE (AP) – Children’s Wisconsin said seven patients injured in last weekend’s Christmas parade crash in suburban Milwaukee are still being treated at the hospital. The facility originally received 16 patients after the driver of a red SUV roared through the parade in Waukesha, killing six people and injuring more than 60. One Children’s Wisconsin patient was released on Sunday,…
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) – All three men charged in the death of Ahmaud Arbery were convicted of murder Wednesday. The jury reached its decision after more than 10 hours of deliberations following a trial in which prosecutors argued that the defendants provoked a confrontation with Arbery and defense attorneys said their clients were acting in self-defense. Father and son Greg…
(AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn, file) EAGAN, Minn. (AP) – The Minnesota Vikings have sent psychologists to the home of defensive end Everson Griffen. They’ve been working with police on guiding Griffen through another alarming mental health situation. The 12th-year player has been refusing to come out of his house, according to police. Griffen took a leave from the team in 2018…
SAXON, Wis. – Authorities say a Minnesota man was shot and killed in an apparent hunting accident in northwestern Wisconsin. The Iron County Sheriff’s Office says dispatchers received a call around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the town of Saxon. The caller reported an accidental discharge of a firearm, which left one man with serious injuries. When responders arrived on the…
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits plummeted last week to the lowest level in more than half a century, another sign that the U.S. job market is rebounding rapidly from last year’s coronavirus recession. Jobless claims dropped by 71,000 to 199,000, the lowest since mid-November 1969. The drop was much bigger than economists expected. The…
MINNEAPOLIS – A former middle school principal serving a prison sentence was found dead in a Minnesota jail. Christopher Jerome Endicott had previously been sentenced to prison for identity theft, stalking, and burglary, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported. Crow Wing County Sheriff Scott Goddard says that Endicott was found unresponsive at the jail in Brainerd and efforts to save…
(AP) – Prosecutors in Wisconsin have charged a man with intentional homicide in the deaths of five people who were killed when an SUV was driven into a Christmas parade. Prosecutors say a sixth person, a child, has died and additional charges are pending. Darrell Brooks Jr. was charged with five counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the crash Sunday…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – The top Republican in the Minnesota Senate says he’s willing to postpone a debate over the confirmation of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm to help break the stalemate over a special session. Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller says if Democrats agree to discuss Republican proposals on coronavirus measures, the GOP would drop threats to oust Malcolm….
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden has ordered 50 million barrels of oil released from the strategic reserve to help bring down energy costs, in coordination with other major energy-consuming nations, including China, India, and the United Kingdom. The move is aimed at global energy markets but also aimed at voters who are coping with higher inflation…
WASHINGTON (AP) – More than 90% of federal workers have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Monday’s deadline set by President Joe Biden. Biden announced in September that all federal workers were required to undergo vaccination, with no test-out option, unless they secured an approved medical or religious exemption. A U.S. official said the vast majority…
(AP Photo/Jim Mone, File) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Poet Robert Bly, who authored the men’s movement classic “Iron John,” has died. Bly spent most of his life in his native Minnesota and was an active poet for more than 50 years. “Iron John,” his meditation on modern masculinity, was released in 1990 and spent more than two years on the New…
WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — The man suspected of plowing his SUV into a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee, killing at least five people and injuring 48, had been in a domestic disturbance just minutes before, Waukesha’s police chief says. Police Chief Dan Thompson says there is no evidence the crash on Sunday was a terrorist attack. He says police are…
WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Kamala Harris will announce the Biden administration is investing $1.5 billion from the coronavirus aid package to address the health care worker shortage in underserved communities. The funding being announced Monday will go to the National Health Service Corps, Nurse Corps, and Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery programs. They’re all federal programs that offer…
WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) – A person taken into custody after an SUV plowed into a crowd of holiday parade marchers in Wisconsin, killing at least five people, has been identified as 39-year-old Darrell Brooks. Police haven’t yet identified the “person of interest” they are holding. But two law enforcement officials briefed on the matter provided the identification to The Associated…
NEW YORK (AP) – Target will no longer open its stores on Thanksgiving Day, making permanent a shift to the unofficial start of the holiday season that was suspended during the pandemic. To limit crowds in stores, retailers last year were forced to turn what had become a weekend shopping blitz into an extended event with holiday sales beginning as…
As Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted in two killings that he said were self-defense, armed civilians patrolled the streets near the Wisconsin courthouse with guns in plain view. In Georgia, testimony in the trial of Ahmaud Arbery’s killers showed that armed patrols were commonplace in the neighborhood where Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was chased down by three white men and shot. The…
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. is opening COVID-19 vaccine boosters to all adults, and urging them for anyone 50 and older. The decision Friday seeks to simplify what has been a confusing list of who’s eligible. Now for anyone 18 or older, the only requirement is to be at least six months past their last dose of a Pfizer or…
MADISON, Wis. – A Wisconsin judge says the Department of Natural Resources violated the law by not immediately scheduling a wolf hunting season after federal protections were removed in February. In an order Thursday, Jefferson County Judge Bennett Brantmeier said the agency must hold a hunt immediately any time federal protections are lifted during the statutory hunting season, which runs…
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) – The Kenosha County jury found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty of all charges against him. Rittenhouse killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz in August 2020 during chaotic protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. The jury came back with its verdict after close to 3 1/2 days of deliberation. Rittenhouse, 18, could…
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) – The jury at Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial deliberated for a fourth day Friday, as prosecutors argued against defense requests for a mistrial. The prosecutors argued there’s “no factual or legal basis” for the judge to grant the requests. The 18-year-old Rittenhouse is on trial for killing two men and wounding a third with a rifle during…
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) WASHINGTON (AP) – A sharply divided House has approved the Democrats’ sweeping social and environment bill, a big victory for President Joe Biden. Republicans solidly opposed the measure, but Democrats prevailed after the party’s progressives and moderates ended months of disputes over its size and scope. The legislation now moves to the Senate, where moderates like…
