MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A new report suggests people are buying dramatically more alcohol as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on. Revenue from state excise taxes on alcohol during the fiscal year that ended June 30 totaled $73.8 million, up almost 17% from $63.3 million the previous year, according to preliminary data from the state Department of Revenue cited in the…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Republican Paul Gazelka was set to announce his long-expected run for governor on Wednesday. Gazelka planned a 9 a.m. announcement at the Capitol in St. Paul. Gazelka, of East Gull Lake, gave up his post as Senate majority leader last week in what was widely seen as a step toward a campaign. Gazelka joins a…
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – More than 400,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana still don’t have power nine days after Hurricane Ida. The state Public Service Commission said Tuesday that 98% of utility customers in the four hardest-hit parishes remain without electricity. In contrast, nearly all power has been restored in the capital city of Baton Rouge, and 73% of homes…
(courtesy: Fox 9) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A prominent Minnesota GOP donor who is charged with multiple counts of child sex trafficking is now being sued by an underage girl who was one of his alleged victims. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court alleges Anton Lazzaro’s attorneys offered $1,000 in hush money to the girl and her parents to…
(AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt File) FARGO, N.D. (AP) – A federal judge has thrown out the death sentence for a man convicted in the 2003 slaying of a North Dakota college student. Judge Ralph Erickson ruled Friday that misleading testimony from a medical examiner and limitations on mental health evidence violated Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.’s constitutional rights. He ordered a new sentencing…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Some parents of students at Minnesota K-12 schools that have not required face coverings have filed a lawsuit asking the governor to enact a statewide mask mandate because of the spike in COVID-19 cases. The complaint filed in Ramsey County Friday by a group calling itself “Parents Advocating for Safe Schools” cites a provision in…
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The night before Alan Arellano died of COVID-19, his wife recorded a short audio message with their two youngest sons. Miami doctors had placed the 49-year-old man in a coma after he suffered a heart attack while being treated for the virus. His family wasn’t allowed to visit him, but after nearly 20 years of…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Divers at the site of an ongoing oil spill that appeared in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Ida have identified the apparent source as one-foot diameter pipeline displaced from a trench on the ocean floor and broken open. Talos Energy, the Houston-based company currently paying for the cleanup, said in a statement issued Sunday evening that…
(courtesy: Fox 9) MADISON, Wis. (AP) — More than 8,000 refugees from Afghanistan were being temporarily housed at Fort McCoy in western Wisconsin as of Friday and the military base has a capacity to host up to 13,000 as they are resettled across the country. Cheryl Phillips, a spokeswoman for a task force overseeing the refugees at the base, said…
(Minnesota Senate / Supplied via Fox 9) ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota Senate Minority Leader Susan Kent has announced she is stepping down from her role as minority leader and plans to retire when her term ends next year. Kent, a Woodbury Democrat, has served in the Senate for nearly 10 years and said in a statement Thursday that…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s $100 reward program for those receiving the COVID-19 vaccine will be extended two weeks until Sept. 19, Gov. Tony Evers announced Friday. Extending the incentive, which began Aug. 20 and was originally scheduled to end on Monday, will give an opportunity for even more people to get vaccinated, Evers said. Between Aug. 20 and Sept….
WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers added just 235,000 jobs in August, a modest gain after two months of robust hiring at a time when the delta variant’s spread has discouraged some people from flying, shopping, and eating out. The unemployment rate dropped to 5.2% from 5.4% in July. The August job gains the government reported Friday fell far short of…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A second Republican legislator says he doesn’t support suing the University of Wisconsin System over its COVID-19 protocols. Sen. Steve Nass, the co-chair of the Legislature’s rules committee, has threatened to sue system officials if they don’t submit their COVID-19 plans to the committee for approval by Thursday. System President Tommy Thompson has refused to capitulate,…
SUPERIOR, Wis. (AP) — A grassroots citizen group is pushing back against a Duluth company’s proposal to bottle and sell water from a well near Lake Superior. Opponents say allowing Kristle KLR to go forward would exploit a loophole in a landmark agreement barring water diversions from the Great Lakes and it could threaten water resources in the region. An…
WASHINGTON (AP) — A deeply divided Supreme Court is allowing a Texas law that bans most abortions to remain in force. The court’s action, for now, strips most women of the right to an abortion in the nation’s second-largest state. In an unsigned order just before midnight, the court voted 5-4 to deny an emergency appeal from abortion providers and…
(AP) – The nation’s most far-reaching curb on abortions has taken effect in Texas, with the Supreme Court silent so far on an emergency appeal to put the law on hold. If allowed to remain in force, the law would be the most dramatic restriction on abortion rights in the United States since the high court’s landmark Roe v. Wade…
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Residents of Louisiana communities hit hard by Hurricane Ida are seeing small signs of progress amid the need for a monumental recovery. About 11,000 people in New Orleans saw their lights come back on early Wednesday. But officials say full restoration could still take weeks, and more than 1 million homes and businesses in Louisiana and…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota officials are reopening four free coronavirus testing sites this week as circulation of the highly contagious delta variant renews demand for testing. The reopened sites include the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul and a former Department of Motor Vehicles building in Bloomington, augmenting existing metro area sites in Brooklyn Park and at the Minneapolis-St. Paul…
FINLAND, Minn. (AP) — Containment of a wildfire in northeastern Minnesota has risen to 37% as hundreds of firefighters expand their defensive lines. The Greenwood Lake fire has burned nearly 41 square miles in the Superior National Forest since it was spotted on Aug. 15, but it hasn’t grown much in the past week. As many as 2 inches of…
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mike Richards is out as executive producer of “Jeopardy!”, days after he exited as the quiz show’s newly appointed host because of past misogynistic and other comments. Richards is also no longer executive producer of “Wheel of Fortune,” according to a memo to staff that was confirmed by Sony, which produces both of the shows. “We…
WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin school district has reversed a decision to leave a federal free meals program following widespread criticism and loud protests from parents and others. Waukesha school board members said they received threats in the wake of national attention after voting to opt-out of the program that was providing free breakfast and lunch to all students in response…
(AP Photo/Dawn Villella, File) MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A coalition of animal rights groups is planning to file a lawsuit Tuesday to stop Wisconsin’s wolf hunt this fall. The action comes after the state Department of Natural Resources board this month set the quota for the fall hunt at 300 animals, disregarding pleas from multiple groups to cancel the season after…
(AP Photo/Wali Sabawoon) KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A Taliban guard at the Kabul airport says the last U.S. planes have flown out after 20 years of war in Afghanistan. Hemad Sherzad tells The Associated Press the last five planes departed just after midnight on Tuesday. Celebratory gunfire erupted across the city. U.S. officials have not yet confirmed the withdrawal of…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The Minnesota Court of Appeals has affirmed a decision by state pollution regulators to issue a water quality certification for Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 crude oil pipeline. It’s the latest setback for opponents as the project nears completion. The court ruled that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s approval was “supported by substantial evidence in the record.” Under…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The surge in the coronavirus delta variant has coincided with a high demand for hospital beds across Minnesota, according to health officials. The state Department of Health says 95 percent of intensive care unit beds are occupied and 91 percent of overall hospital beds are in use. The numbers are even tighter in metro areas…
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Ida is now a tropical storm after spending 16 hours as a hurricane over Louisiana and Mississippi. Residents are now waiting for daybreak for rescues from flooded areas to begin and damage to be assessed. Power remains out for the entire city of New Orleans, taking down the backup system for the city’s pumps. Ida’s storm…
(AP Photo/Jim Mone, File) ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota troopers on Friday removed some demonstrators protesting Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 replacement pipeline project on the lawn of the state Capitol. Videos posted on social media showed troopers carrying protesters onto a bus as dozens of law enforcement officers surrounded a small remnant of the 1,000 or more protesters who…
FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) – First-day attendance at the Minnesota State Fair was down by roughly half as the fair returned after missing last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. With simmering concern over the delta variant, and fair officials declining to require masks or proof of vaccinations, Thursday’s attendance was 61,983. That’s less than half of the 2019 record…
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt says a 12-state law enforcement operation rescued 47 victims of human trafficking and led to the arrest of more than 100 people. Schmitt said most of the arrests were made Thursday night into Friday morning. The effort, called Operation United Front, used undercover officers who arranged to meet potential human…
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court is allowing evictions to resume across the United States, blocking the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban that was put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic. Roughly 3.5 million people in the United States said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to Census Bureau data from early August. The…
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – Two suicide bombers and gunmen have targeted crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport, in the waning days of a massive airlift that has drawn thousands of people seeking to flee the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. An Afghan official says at least 60 Afghans were killed and 143 wounded. U.S. officials said 12 U.S. service members…
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. Capitol Police officers who were attacked and beaten during the Capitol riot are suing former President Donald Trump, his allies, and members of far-right extremist groups. The suit accuses them of intentionally sending a violent mob on Jan. 6 to disrupt the congressional certification of the election. The suit in federal court in Washington alleges Trump…
UPDATE: KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Two suicide bombers and gunmen targeted crowds massing near the Kabul airport Thursday, in the waning days of a massive airlift that has drawn thousands of people seeking to flee the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. At least 13 people were killed and 15 wounded, Russian officials said. A U.S. official said the complex attack was…
(Brian Peterson/Star Tribune via AP) ISABELLA, Minn. – The Greenwood wildfire has now grown to nearly 26,000 acres. Officials on Thursday updated the size of the fire to 25,991 acres and reported that 12 homes or cabins and 57 outbuildings have been destroyed in the fire. Forest officials decided to keep the popular Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness closed another…
ISLE ROYAL, Mich. (AP) – An official says a wildfire on Michigan’s remote Isle Royale has been about 15% percent contained and crews have saved some historic cabins from encroaching flames. The fire began Aug. 10, apparently sparked by a lightning strike on the drought-stricken wilderness island. Liz Valencia, a spokeswoman for Isle Royale National Park, says the wildfire has…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A Wisconsin man accused of killing and dismembering his father has been charged with committing the same crimes against his mother. The new charges brought Wednesday against 23-year-old Chandler Halderson means he now faces two counts each of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, hiding a corpse, and providing false information on kidnapped or missing persons…
(AP Photo/David Goldman) (AP) -Delta Air Lines will charge employees on the company health plan $200 a month if they fail to get vaccinated against COVID-19, a policy the airline’s top executive says is necessary because the average hospital stay for the virus costs the airline $40,000. CEO Ed Bastian said that all employees who have been hospitalized for the…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesotans who get their first COVID-19 vaccine dose at the State Fair can walk away with a $100 Visa gift card. Gov. Tim Walz announced the State Fair edition of the state’s $100 reward program Wednesday. The first 3,600 Minnesotans to get their first dose at the fair can claim their gift cards immediately afterward….
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The Minnesota Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal by opponents of Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 oil pipeline, letting stand a key decision by independent regulators to allow construction to proceed. The state’s highest court declined Tuesday to take the case, effectively affirming a decision in June by the Minnesota Court of Appeals. And it left…
(Sarah Shapiro/USDA Forest Service via AP) DULUTH, Minn. (AP) – U.S. Forest Service officials have extended the closure of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness as Minnesota’s largest wildfire doubled in size. The Greenwood fire burning in the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota grew to about 30 square miles Monday, and four new smaller fires started within the BWCA….
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson is pushing back against Republican lawmakers who claim campuses need their permission to implement COVID-19 policies. System schools implemented a range of protocols this month heading into the fall semester, including mask and testing mandates. Republican lawmakers responded by voting to block the system from implementing any COVID-19 policies…
LONDON (AP) – Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has died at the age of 80. Publicist Bernard Doherty said Tuesday that Watts “passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family.” The self-effacing and unshakeable drummer helped anchor one of rock’s greatest rhythm sections for more than half a century and used his “day job” to…
(AP Photo/Jim Mone,File) FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. – Around 150 vendors will be missing when the Minnesota State Fair returns Thursday from a one-year layoff due to the pandemic. Many pulled out due to COVID-19 fears, staffing shortages, and supply chain issues. The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that’s double the number of vendors that usually drop out. Several state agencies…
HAYWARD, Wis. (AP) – Authorities have discovered a body in a missing fire chief’s truck. The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram reports that Arcadia-Glencoe Fire Chief Jeff Halvorsen and his vehicle were reported missing on Friday. The Sawyer County Sheriff’s Office found the truck on Sunday in a remote wooded area near Hayward. The sheriff’s office said a body was inside the…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The University of Minnesota will require all students to get vaccinated against COVID-19. President Joan Gabel and Jakub Tolar, dean of the university medical school, issued a news release Monday hours after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fully approved the Pfizer version of the vaccine saying shots will be mandatory and students will receive an email…
FINLAND, Minn. – New evacuation orders were issued Monday afternoon due to the growing Greenwood fire. The U.S. Forest Service posted on their Facebook page Monday, “The Greenwood Fire is expected to cross State Highway 1 near the intersection of Lake County Highway 2. It has also moved to the northeast into the vicinity of McDougal Lake, requiring fire and…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin residents who get their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in the state between Aug. 20 and Labor Day will receive a $100 gift card. Gov. Tony Evers announced the incentive on Monday. The reward being offered just as students are returning to school is the latest incentive in Wisconsin designed to entice those who…
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Pentagon says it will require service members to receive the COVID-19 vaccine now that the Pfizer vaccine has received full approval. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby says that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is making good on his vow earlier this month to require the shots once the Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine. Kirby said the…
ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) – The Big Ten is the latest Power Five conference to announce that a team must forfeit if it doesn’t have enough players available for a league game because of COVID-19. The Big Ten said the team that forfeits will be assessed a loss in the conference standings and its opponent will be credited with a win….
(courtesy: Fox 9) ROCHESTER, Minn. – Igor Vovkovinskiy, the tallest man in the United States, has died in Minnesota. He was 38. His family says the Ukrainian-born Vovkovinskiy died of heart disease Friday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. He came to the Mayo Clinic in 1989 as a child. His size was due to a tumor pressing against his…
