(Merck & Co. via AP) WASHINGTON (AP) – Drugmaker Merck has asked U.S. regulators to authorize its promising antiviral pill against COVID-19, setting the stage for a decision within weeks. If cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, it would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19, adding a new, easy-to-use weapon to the world’s arsenal against the pandemic….
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota officials have blocked the importation and movement of deer into and within the state to slow the spread of chronic wasting disease. The state Department of Natural Resources announced the move early Monday morning. The decision comes after a CWD-positive game farm in Wisconsin shipped nearly 400 deer to farms in seven states. Minnesota…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Federal prosecutors say they won’t file charges against a white police officer who shot Jacob Blake in Wisconsin last year. Officer Rusten Sheskey shot Blake, who is Black, during a domestic disturbance in Kenosha in August 2020. The shooting left Blake paralyzed from the waist down and sparked several nights of protests. An Illinois man shot…
BRAINERD, Minn. (AP) – Sheriff’s officials say a woman was found fatally shot in a cabin in Crow Wing County after deputies responded to a call about gunfire and arrested an armed man. Dispatchers received a shooting complaint about 11 p.m. Thursday. The caller said several gunshots were heard in Lake Edward Township. Law enforcement officers responded and encountered a…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The second of two brothers charged in the fatal shooting of an off-duty firefighter in St. Paul has been sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to manslaughter. A 67-month prison sentence for Dante Caraway was stayed Thursday and he was given credit for 686 days spent in jail. Earlier this year, Caraway’s brother, Blake Caraway, was…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Minnesota health leaders are warning that the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is putting a heavy strain on hospitals and health care workers statewide as the coronavirus burns through the unvaccinated population. They also told reporters Thursday that transmission in schools and among children is a particular concern, with pediatric ICU beds in short supply. Health…
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. employers added just 194,000 jobs in September, a second straight tepid gain and evidence that the pandemic still has a grip on the economy with many companies struggling to fill millions of open jobs. Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate fell sharply to 4.8% from 5.2% in August. The economy…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Some Minnesota government employees say that a month into the COVID-19 vaccine policy for state workers, their agencies are ramping up discipline for employees who either won’t get the vaccine or submit to weekly testing. State officials say more than 500 employees have declined both options, Employees who decline to be vaccinated or tested can…
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week, another sign that the U.S. job market and economy continue their steady recovery from last year’s coronavirus recession. The Labor Department said Thursday that unemployment claims were down by 38,000 to 326,000, the first drop in four weeks. Since surpassing 900,000 in early January, the weekly…
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci) WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says an agreement has been reached with Republicans to extend the government’s borrowing authority into December. That temporarily averts a debt crisis. Schumer made the announcement as he opened the Senate on Thursday. He said he hoped the Senate could vote later in the day. Republican leader Mitch McConnell…
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – A federal judge has ordered Texas to suspend a new law that has banned most abortions in the state since September. The order Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman freezes, for now, the strict abortion law known as Senate Bill 8. It bans abortions once cardiac activity is detected, which is usually around six weeks….
(AP) – Pfizer is asking the U.S. government to allow the use of its COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 5 to 11. If regulators agree, shots could begin within a matter of weeks. Pfizer already had announced that a lower dose of its vaccine worked and appeared safe in a study of the youngsters. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech…
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Los Angeles leaders have voted to enact one of the nation’s strictest vaccine mandates. The sweeping measure requires the shots for everyone entering bars, restaurants, nail salons, gyms, and even a Lakers game. The City Council on Wednesday voted 11-2 in favor of the ordinance. Supporters say it’s a way of preventing more COVID-19 surges. Critics…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday denied former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin’s request to have a public defender represent him as he appeals his murder conviction and sentence in the death of George Floyd. The state’s high court said Chauvin has not established that he is entitled to a public defender. The justices made that decision…
(Arlington Police Department via AP) ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) – Police in Texas have arrested a student suspected of opening fire during a fight at his Dallas-area high school, leaving four people injured. Police say 18-year-old Timothy George Simpkins fled from Timberview High School in Arlington and drove away in a 2018 silver Dodge Charger after the Wednesday morning shooting. Simpkins…
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — A Dallas-area school district said Wednesday that law enforcement was responding to reports of an “active shooter situation” at a high school. The Mansfield Independent School District said in a news release that Timberview High School was on lockdown Wednesday morning. The school is in Arlington, which is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. An…
DETROIT (AP) – Volvo is recalling nearly 260,000 older cars in the U.S. because the front driver’s airbag can explode and send shrapnel into the cabin. The recall is in addition to one from November of 2020, which was done after an unidentified U.S. driver was killed. The latest recall covers S80 sedans from 2001 to 2006 and S60s from…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Gov. Tim Walz is calling on lawmakers to approve a series of new measures to respond to the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, including vaccine and testing requirements for teachers and school staff, and for long-term care workers. The Democratic governor detailed his proposal in a letter to lawmakers that he released after meeting privately with…
(Renee Jones Schneider/Star Tribune via AP) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot a woman who called 911 to report a possible rape behind her home is being resentenced this month after the Minnesota Supreme Court threw out his murder conviction. Mohamed Noor was initially convicted of murder and manslaughter in the 2017 death of Justine…
(Antioch Police Department via AP) MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A judge has declined to dismiss a weapons charge against an Illinois man accused of shooting three people during a protest against police brutality in Wisconsin last year. Prosecutors charged Kyle Rittenhouse with homicide and other crimes, including being a minor in possession of a firearm, after he killed two men…
WASHINGTON (AP) – Johnson & Johnson has asked U.S. regulators to allow booster shots of its COVID-19 vaccine as the U.S. government moves toward shoring up protection in more vaccinated Americans. J&J said Tuesday it filed data with the Food and Drug Administration on giving a booster dose between two to six months after vaccination. The U.S. government last month…
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — After 40 drawings without a big Powerball winner, a single ticket sold in California matched all six numbers and was the lucky winner of the nearly $700 million jackpot prize, officials said. The winning numbers drawn Monday night were 12, 22, 54, 66, and 69. The Powerball was 15. Thanks to nearly four months of…
(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration is reversing a ban on abortion referrals by federally funded family planning clinics. Monday’s action by the Department of Health and Human Services lifts a Trump-era restriction as political and legal battles over abortion grow sharper from Texas to the U.S. Supreme Court. Groups representing the clinics say they hope the…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources officials have scaled back the number of wolves hunters can kill during the state’s fall season in defiance of the board that controls the agency. The DNR had originally proposed setting the quota at 130 wolves. The department’s policy board bumped that up to 300 wolves in August. But the department…
(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – After 40 drawings without a big Powerball winner, maybe the 41st attempt will be different. Thanks to nearly four months of futility, Monday’s Powerball jackpot has climbed to an estimated $685 million, making it the eighth largest in U.S. lottery history. No one has won the game’s grand prize since June 5….
ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) — A former central Minnesota middle school teacher and coach has been sentenced to probation for sexually assaulting a female high school student. Thirty-two-year Daniel Fragodt, of Melrose, pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct in Stearns County District Court. He was sentenced Friday to five years of probation. According to a criminal complaint, the victim…
(AP) – Facebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms were down in parts of the world on Monday. The company said it was “aware that some people are having trouble accessing Facebook app” and it was working on restoring access. The company did not say what might be causing the outage, which began around 11:45 ET. Users reported being unable…
(Robert Fortunato/CBS News/60 Minutes via AP) NEW YORK (AP) – Facebook prematurely turned off safeguards designed to thwart misinformation and rabble-rousing after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in last year’s elections in a moneymaking move that a company whistleblower alleges contributed to the deadly Jan. 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol. The whistleblower, former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen, also…
(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The giant Powerball jackpot has grown even bigger, with officials raising the estimated payout to $635 million ahead of Saturday night’s drawing. The grand prize was raised Friday from an earlier estimate of $620 million, reflecting a surge in sales from players attracted by the potential payoff. While the jackpot increases, the…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota lawmakers have $250 million in federal COVID-19 aid to give away, but they can’t agree on how to spend it. The Frontline Pay Working Group is tasked with figuring out how to divide the money among frontline workers. The panel blew past a Labor Day deadline, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that its…
The high court said in a press release Friday that Kavanaugh has no symptoms and has been fully vaccinated since January. Kavanaugh and all the other justices had a routine coronavirus test ahead of Friday’s ceremonial investiture for Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The court says Kavanaugh’s wife and daughters are also fully vaccinated, and they tested negative on Thursday. The…
(AP Photo) LOS ANGELES (AP) – Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar will perform for the first time together on stage at the 2022 Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show. The NFL, Pepsi, and Roc Nation announced Thursday that the five music icons will perform on Feb. 13 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Dre, Snoop…
WASHINGTON (AP) – With only hours to spare, Congress passed legislation that would avoid a partial federal shutdown and keep the government funded through Dec. 3. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. The votes will help avert one crisis, but efforts to stave off a second crisis seem likely to continue for the…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — State wildlife officials say two Minnesota farms received deer from a Wisconsin farm where chronic wasting disease was detected last month. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said Tuesday that the news was “extremely concerning” and the agency is “actively considering management responses” to the threat facing the state’s wild deer population. A recent report…
DETROIT (AP) — Hyundai and Kia are recalling more than 550,000 cars and minivans in the U.S. because the turn signals can flash in the opposite direction of what the driver intended. The recall covers Hyundai’s Sonata midsize car from the 2015 through 2017 model years and Sonata gas-electric hybrids from 2016 and 2017. Kia’s Sedona minivan from 2015 through…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Department of Corrections has been more successful getting inmates immunized against the coronavirus than it has for its own employees, vaccination rates show. As of this week, about 80% of prisoners in Minnesota have been fully vaccinated, while the immunization rate for corrections employees is just over 65% and at some prisons, it’s…
WASHINGTON (AP) – Facing lawmakers’ outrage against Facebook over its handling of internal research on harm to teens from Instagram, a Facebook executive is telling Congress that the company is working to protect young people on its platforms. And she disputes the way a recent newspaper story describes what the research shows. Antigone Davis, Facebook’s head of global safety, was…
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose for the third straight week, a sign that the highly contagious delta variant may be slowing the job market’s recovery. The Labor Department said Thursday that claims were up by 11,000 last week to 362,000 the previous week. Since topping 900,000 in early January, applications have mostly fallen…
(courtesy: The Associated Press) LOS ANGELES (AP) – A judge has suspended Britney Spears’ father from the conservatorship that has controlled the singer’s life and money for 13 years. Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny agreed Wednesday with a petition from Spears and her attorney that James Spears needs to give up his role as conservator. The move is a major…
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon’s new robot can hear, see and follow you around the home, but it’s no Rosey the Robot. Amazon’s version, called Astro, doesn’t cook or clean like the animated character from “The Jetsons,” but it can check if you left the stove on while you’re out or send an alert if someone enters the house it…
(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) – Dollar Tree, the national chain of stores that promises everything for a buck, will begin introducing items on its shelves that will exceed $1. The company said this week that it’s responding to customer requests and said pushing the $1 barrier will allow for a better mix of products. “For decades, our…
EAGLE RIVER, Wis. (AP) – Federal aviation officials say three people have died in the crash of a small plane in northern Wisconsin. National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway says the information about the three fatalities comes from local law enforcement officials, who have not commented publicly on the deaths following Tuesday morning’s crash. The Federal Aviation Administration says…
(AP Photo/Jim Mone File) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Enbridge announced Wednesday that the upgrade and expansion of its Line 3 pipeline across Minnesota is complete and will become operational on Friday. The Canadian-based company’s President and CEO Al Monaco said in a statement that the pipeline “will soon deliver the low-cost and reliable energy that people depend on every day.” The…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Nearly 200 Minnesota health workers are suing their employers to block a pending requirement that they are vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk getting fired. The lawsuit was filed in federal court late Monday against federal officials and about 20 providers that operate hospitals and clinics across Minnesota. It contends the lack of alternatives to vaccination infringes on…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota’s total number of confirmed coronavirus cases has topped the 700,000 mark, while the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care at Minnesota hospitals fell below 200 for the first time in two weeks. The Minnesota Department of Health on Tuesday reported 6,203 new cases to raise the state’s total to 706,158 laboratory-confirmed cases. The…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Assembly is scheduled to vote on a Republican-authored bill that would require Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to spend $100 million in COVID-19 relief funding on mental health programs in schools. The measure up for approval Tuesday faces a nearly certain veto from Evers. He has already vetoed two similar bills that would direct how…
NEW YORK (AP) – R. Kelly has been convicted in a sex trafficking trial after several accusers testified in lurid detail how he subjected them to perverse and sadistic whims when they were underage. A New York City jury of seven men and five women found Kelly guilty Monday on a racketeering charge. Kelly was accused of running a Chicago-based…
(AP) – Instagram is putting a hold on the development of Instagram kids, geared towards children under 13, so it can address concerns about the vulnerability of younger users. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, wrote in a blog post on Monday that a delay will give the company time to “work with parents, experts, policymakers and regulators, to listen…
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday lauded another new abortion law that tightens limits on abortion-inducing medications, creating an additional layer of restrictions after a near-total ban on abortion in the state began this month. The new restrictions, which take effect in December, shrinks the window when doctors and clinics in Texas can give abortion-inducing medication…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)-Minnesota regulators have launched a court-ordered process for assessing the risks to clean water from waste from the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota. The Department of Natural Resources announced plans for a trial-like proceeding known as a contested case hearing, which was ordered by the Minnesota Supreme Court in April. The hearing will be confined…
