ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Gov. Tim Walz says he will relinquish the special powers that he has been using to manage the COVID-19 pandemic by Aug. 1, ending a peacetime state of emergency that has been in effect since March 2020. He says about three dozen states are still under a state of emergency. Walz told reporters Friday that…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a Virginia school board’s appeal to reinstate its transgender bathroom ban. Over two dissenting votes, the justices left in place lower court rulings that found the policy unconstitutional. The case involved former high school student Gavin Grimm, who filed a federal lawsuit after he was told he could not use the…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A judge has rejected former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin’s request for a new trial in George Floyd’s death. Judge Peter Cahill denied the request Friday. He says defense attorney Eric Nelson didn’t show that the court abused its discretion. Cahill also rejected a defense request to impeach the jury’s verdict for alleged juror misconduct, citing insufficient…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The Biden administration has signaled that it does not plan to cancel federal permits for Enbridge’s Energy’s Line 3 oil pipeline project, despite pleas by Native Americans and environmental groups for the president to intervene. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used a court filing this week to defend its decision to grant Enbridge a water permit…
SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) – Search and rescue teams are trying to detect any sounds coming from survivors of the collapse of a beachside condominium complex near Miami. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava says 159 people are still unaccounted for. The mayor says it’s “incredibly motivating” to watch the search and rescue teams risking their lives to find victims. Crews…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin is set to learn his fate as a Minnesota judge sentences him for murder in the death of George Floyd. The 45-year-old Chauvin faces decades in prison, with several legal experts predicting a sentence of 20 to 25 years. He still faces a federal trial on civil rights charges in Floyd’s…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Minnesota’s court system could allow expanded camera coverage of criminal proceedings following the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer in George Floyd’s death. Chief Justice Lorie Gildea says it’s time to consider amending the current rules to accommodate broader public access. Gildea’s order doesn’t specifically cite Derek Chauvin’s trial, which was Minnesota’s first criminal case in…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Opponents of Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 oil pipeline project are worried about the potential impact of the company’s plan to temporarily pump as much as 10 times more groundwater out of the construction area than once planned. Enbridge has encountered more groundwater than anticipated as it digs trenches for the replacement pipeline across northern Minnesota. Earlier…
SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) – Authorities say nearly 100 people are still unaccounted for after part of a 12-story beachfront condo building collapsed in a town outside Miami. The collapse in the community of Surfside killed at least one person and trapped others in rubble and twisted metal. Rescuers pulled dozens of survivors from the tower Thursday morning and continued to…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin faces sentencing Friday in the death of George Floyd, with a judge weighing a prison term experts say could be as much as 30 years. Chauvin, 45, was convicted in April of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter for pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for about 9 1/2…
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden has announced that “we have a deal” – a bipartisan agreement on a $953 billion infrastructure plan. The agreement, reached in a meeting Thursday at the White House, means a breakthrough after arduous negotiations on the president’s top legislative priority. Biden invited members of the bipartisan group to discuss the pared-down plan that has…
NEW YORK (AP) – An appeals court has suspended Rudy Giuliani from practicing law in New York because he made false statements while trying to get courts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the presidential race. An attorney disciplinary committee said in its motion to suspend Giuliani’s license that there was “uncontroverted evidence” that Giuliani had made false statements to…
REGINA, Saskatchewan (AP) – Leaders of Indigenous groups in Canada say investigators have found 751 unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school for Indigenous children in Saskatchewan. The discovery follows last month’s report of 215 at another school in British Columbia. Chief Cadmusn Delmore of the Cowessess First Nation made the announcement at a news conference Thursday….
CUMBERLAND, Wis. (AP) – Two people are dead in a collision involving a dump truck and car in Barron County. The sheriff’s department says the truck was eastbound on Highway 48 near Cumberland Wednesday afternoon when a westbound car crossed the center line and the two vehicles crashed. The driver of the car, 19-year-old Damien Weiss, of Turtle Lake, and…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has extended the nationwide ban on evictions for 30 days to help tenants who are unable to make rent payments during the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, extended the evictions moratorium until July 31. It had been scheduled to end on June 30. The White…
(Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP) SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) – A wing of a 12-story beachfront condo building has collapsed in a town outside Miami, killing at least one person while trapping residents in rubble and twisted metal. Scores of rescuers pulled survivors from the debris Thursday as a cloud of dust floated through the neighborhood. Surfside Mayor Charles…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Another piece of Minnesota’s budget picture fell into place when the House passed a $7 billion transportation funding bill. The bill includes money for two new bus rapid transit lines for the Twin Cities. It preserves the Northstar commuter rail line. It includes money for a second daily Amtrak train between St. Paul and Chicago….
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney Spears asked a judge Wednesday to end court conservatorship that has controlled her life and money since 2008. The dramatic request at a Los Angeles hearing came with her first words in open court in the conservatorship in its 13-year existence. Spears called the conservatorship “abusive,” and condemned her father and the others who have…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The state Senate is set to approve a bill that would allow government officials to shoot beavers and muskrats causing damage near a roadway. Wisconsin law allows the Department of Natural Resources to capture, shoot, trap or relocate a wild animal that is causing damage but bars anyone from opening fire within 50 feet of the…
(AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File) WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Kamala Harris is set to make her first visit to the U.S. Mexico border since taking office. The visit to El Paso is planned for Friday and it comes after she’s received criticism from members of both parties for failing to go there despite taking on a leading role in the…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The employer of a man who was run over by a large forklift while working on a northern Minnesota oil pipeline project has been cited by state regulators and fined $25,000. Jorge Villafuerte III was checking a list of materials at the Enbridge Energy Line 3 site near Hill City while standing behind an industrial forklift when…
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. government is stepping up efforts to get younger Americans vaccinated for COVID-19 amid growing concern about the spread of a new variant that threatens to set the country back in the months ahead. The push is underway as the delta variant has come to represent more than 20% of coronavirus infections in the U.S. in…
(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File) MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The Wisconsin Assembly has passed a Republican-backed bill that would penalize local governments that attempt to defund police. The bill passed Tuesday, which the Senate passed earlier this month, is expected to be vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers. The proposal would mandate that any municipality that decreases the number of police, firefighters,…
DALLAS (AP) – American Airlines is cutting flights to protect its network from getting overloaded as summer travel season arrives. American scrubbed more than 130 flights by Tuesday afternoon, according to tracking service FlightAware. An American Airlines spokeswoman says the cancellations will average 50 to 60 flights a day the rest of June and between 50 and 80 a day…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin officials have launched a new program to test school children for COVID-19 this fall, the state Department of Health Services announced Tuesday. DHS Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said participation will be voluntary. The DHS will work to connect schools that opt-in with labs that the agency uses to confirm COVID-19 tests. The labs…
EAGAN, Minn. (AP) – Police in a Twin Cities suburb arrested a group of juveniles after a fireworks display was set on fire in a grocery store. The display went up in flames Monday afternoon at the Hy-Vee store in Eagan. Police spokesman Aaron Machtemes says firefighters extinguished the flames and no one was injured. The store had to be…
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Gov. Tim Walz has requested funding to outfit Minnesota State Patrol troopers and officers working at the state Capitol with body cameras. The $7.5 million to buy and maintain the cameras for the officers and troopers is contained in a transportation funding package that could come up for a vote later this week. The bill also…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The Wisconsin Assembly plans to send bills to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers that would limit opportunities for absentee voting, make it more difficult for the elderly and disabled to cast absentee ballots, and prohibit officials from filling in missing information on the envelopes of returned absentee ballots. Evers is expected to veto all of the Republican-backed…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The Minnesota Legislature is on track to hand out serious tax relief to thousands of businesses and unemployed workers this year. The final tax bill agreed to by lawmakers late last week features nearly $1 billion in tax cuts over the next four years. The bill includes about $650 million in tax relief on federal emergency loans…
MINNEAPOLIS – Officers from the Minneapolis Police Department and the University of Minnesota will begin patrolling the Dinkytown area near the university in an effort to curb violent crime. Dinkytown has been a popular spot for students over the years and is home to numerous restaurants, bars, entertainment venues, and apartments. Crime near campus has surged recently, much of it…
(AP) – The U.S. is reaching a pair of encouraging milestones as the COVID-19 pandemic’s grip on the nation continues to loosen. COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have dipped below 300 a day for the first time since the outbreak’s early days in March 2020. Meanwhile, nearly 150 million Americans are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. COVID-19 was the third…
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (AP) – Owners of a group of restaurants, hotels, and bars in Eau Claire have eliminated tipping and have raised their minimum wage to $16 an hour. The Pablo Group says it’s following a trend that aims to improve pay equity for all employees. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Wisconsin’s hourly wage for tipped workers…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – School leaders in Milwaukee and Madison are planning to protest Republican legislators’ plan to fund K-12 education in the next state budget. The Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee decided to give schools $128 million more over the next biennium. The state needed to spend almost $400 million more than that to secure $2.6 billion in federal coronavirus…
COHASSET, Minn. – Governor Tim Walz announced Monday the Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation Board approved $15 million to construct a new wood products manufacturing facility in Cohasset. The mill was expected to bring about 150 jobs to the region that have a median hourly wage of $31 plus benefits. “Something like this, the once in a 40-year deal that…
WASHINGTON (AP) – In a ruling that could help push changes in college athletics, the Supreme Court has unanimously ruled the NCAA can’t enforce certain rules limiting the education-related benefits that colleges can offer to athletes – things like computers and graduate scholarships. The high court ruled Monday that NCAA limits on the education-related benefits that colleges can offer athletes…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Sunday’s rain in Minnesota will help ease drought conditions and elevated fire danger, but experts say it’s not nearly enough to make up for the current rainfall deficit. The entire state is classified as abnormally dry and more than half of Minnesota is experiencing drought. The St. Croix River at Stillwater and the Minnesota River at Henderson…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is marking another milestone in his quest to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control. Biden announced Friday that 300 million COVID-19 vaccine shots have been administered in the 150 days since he took office on Jan. 20. Biden is crediting scientists, companies, the American people and his whole-of-government effort. The president noted that 65%…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Time is running out for the winner of an unclaimed $1 million lottery ticket purchased in Milwaukee. The Wisconsin lottery says the Megabucks ticket was purchased at Lisbon Express on Jan. 6. An appointment to cash the ticket with state lottery officials in Madison must be made by July 2 or it will go unclaimed. The…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A truck driver who drove through a large crowd of protesters on a Minneapolis highway last year during demonstrations over George Floyd’s death will have criminal charges dropped if he remains law-abiding for the next year. Hennepin County prosecutors entered into a “continuance without prosecution” agreement with Bogdan Vechirko, of Otsego, on Friday during a virtual court…
(Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio via AP) PARK RAPIDS, Minn. (AP) — Opponents of the Enbridge Energy Line 3 oil pipeline project in northwestern Minnesota continued their protests this week by disrupting traffic in front of an Enbridge equipment site, leading to 31 arrests. Hubbard County Sheriff Cory Aukes said the incident began about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday when a van pulled in front…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s unemployment rate was unchanged for May at 3.9%, the state Department of Workforce Development reported Thursday. The nationwide unemployment rate in May was 5.8%. A year ago, in May 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic was worsening, Wisconsin’s unemployment rate was 10.4%. Wisconsin added 3,400 private-sector jobs in May, bringing its total to 201,100 more than…
LANSING, Mich. — Michigan will lift all indoor capacity restrictions and mask requirements next week, 10 days sooner than planned amid vaccinations and plummeting COVID-19 infections, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Thursday. The state’s main coronavirus order will expire at the end of Monday instead of July 1, bringing an end to mandatory 50% occupancy limits inside restaurants, gyms and entertainment…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota House launched into a long, contentious debate Thursday as it held its first votes on big-budget bills that lawmakers were unable to pass before time ran out on the year’s regular session last month. The House had four bills teed up for final floor votes. But minority House Republicans were unhappy with being shut out…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Department of Health Services is tracking a new variant of COVID-19 with more than two dozen cases in the state. The Delta strain has been elevated to a “variant of concern” in Wisconsin. The strain is fueling the coronavirus surge in the United Kingdom and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will soon have a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery. President Joe Biden is scheduled to sign into law on Thursday a bill to make Juneteenth, or June 19th, the 12th federal holiday. The House approved the bill 415-14 on Wednesday. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week for the first time since April despite widespread evidence that the economy and the job market are rebounding steadily from the pandemic recession. Jobless claims rose 37,000 from the week before. As the job market has strengthened, the number of weekly applications for unemployment aid has…
(David Joles/Star Tribune via AP,File) ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota has reached 3 million residents who’ve had at least one COVID-19 shot, health officials said Wednesday. The Minnesota Department of Health said 3,005,706 Minnesotans had received at least their first dose as of Monday, while 2,774,889 had completed the series. The department logged 5,979 new vaccinations Monday. The 3…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve signaled that it may act sooner than previously planned to start dialing back the low-interest-rate policies that have helped fuel a swift rebound from the pandemic recession but have also coincided with rising inflation. The policymakers forecast that they would raise their benchmark short-term rate — which affects many consumer and business rates, from…
(Steve Apps/Wisconsin State Journal via AP) MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Assembly plans to vote on bills banning transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. The measures being debated Wednesday in the middle of gay pride month are all but certain to be headed for a veto by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Even though they are…
(Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office via AP) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A St. Paul man has been charged with intentional second-degree murder for allegedly driving into a group of protesters in Minneapolis. Prosecutors say 35-year-old Nicholas Kraus was drunk Sunday night when he tried to “jump” a car that was being used as a barricade by protesters in the city’s Uptown neighborhood….
