MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minneapolis mayor and police chief say officers will no longer be allowed to turn off their body cameras to talk privately when they respond to calls. The move announced Monday is one of several changes that followed the death of George Floyd and was an issue in another widely-publicized Minneapolis police killing. Floyd, who was Black…
RIVER FALLS, Wis. (AP) — Two people are hospitalized after suffering injuries when a house exploded and caught fire in River Falls. Neighbors helped the victims escape the fire following the explosion Monday night, according to city officials. One of the victims was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota and the other to the hospital in River Falls….
(AP) – “Saved by the Bell” star Dustin Diamond died Monday after a three-week fight with carcinoma. His spokesman confirmed Diamond’s death. He was 44. Diamond, best known for playing Screech on the hit ’90s sitcom, was hospitalized last month in Florida and his team disclosed later he had cancer. “Saved by the Bell” aired from 1989 to 1993, and…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsinites will be able to sign up online to get their coronavirus vaccinations later this month. The state is working with Microsoft to set up an online signup system. Wisconsin Public Radio reports the system will launch in 10 communities on Feb. 15. The state’s plan is to use those communities as a test of the software before…
(William Glasheen/The Post-Crescent via AP) GRAND CHUTE, Wis. (AP) — Police say they are looking for a teenager suspected in a shooting at a mall in northern Wisconsin that left one person dead and another wounded. Police say 17-year-old Dezman Ellis is being sought after gunfire erupted around 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Fox River Mall in Grand Chute. Police…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to meet Monday with a group of 10 Republican senators who have proposed $618 billion in coronavirus aid, about a third of what he’s seeking. The Republicans propose slimmer benefits, including $1,000 in direct payments to individuals earning up to $40,000 a year, or $80,000 for couples. White House press secretary Jen…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota health officials are expected Monday to announce “significantly more” coronavirus vaccine will be allotted to people 65 and older. The state has run a two-week pilot of community vaccination clinics since the federal government lowered the recommended age for vaccinations to 65 and up. But getting appointments has been difficult since states are getting far less…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A large Minnesota school district has been forced to return to distance learning after an outbreak of COVID-19 among its transportation workers. Bloomington Public Schools brought back preschoolers through second graders on Jan. 19 and had planned to bring back third to fifth graders on Monday. But the district informed parents Thursday evening that the plan is…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has admonished rival Republicans for trying to repeal his statewide mask mandate, saying killing the order would be akin to abolishing speed limits. Senate Republicans voted Tuesday to end Evers’ health emergency declaration, which would end the mask mandate. Assembly Republicans were poised to follow suit on Thursday but delayed a vote…
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) – Michigan’s environmental agency is approving the construction of an underground tunnel to house a replacement for a controversial oil pipeline in the Great Lakes. State officials have awarded permits to Enbridge for the $500 million tunnel project. The company is resisting Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s order to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5 in the Straits…
(from left, Derek Chauvin, Tuo Thao, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Prosecutors in Minnesota have appealed a judge’s ruling that split the trials of four Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s death and kept the first trial scheduled to start in March. Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill ruled earlier in January that Derek Chauvin, the…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are rejecting a Republican pitch to split President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue plan into smaller chunks. Democrats and the White House appear ready to leave their GOP opponents behind and push the sweeping economic and virus aid forward on their own. Despite Biden’s calls for unity, Democrats say the stubbornly high unemployment numbers and…
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A new coronavirus variant identified in South Africa has been found in the United States for the first time. South Carolina officials say two such cases have been diagnosed in the state. Viruses mutate constantly, and many variants of the coronavirus are circulating around the globe, but scientists are primarily concerned with three that appears to…
(courtesy: WI Dept of Health Services via AP) MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Assembly has backed off on voting to repeal Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ mask mandate. The retreat Thursday came in the face of broad criticism from the state’s health, school and business leaders and out concern the move would jeopardize more than $49 million in federal…
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Authorities say two police officers who were on the scene when a white officer shot and partially paralyzed a Black man in Wisconsin have returned to duty. The update announced Wednesday comes as Officer Rusten Sheskey, who shot Jacob Blake seven times on Aug. 23 in Kenosha, remains on administrative leave while a police review board…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The fight has heated up over whether Minnesota should tighten its election laws or make voting easier. A key Senate panel Wednesday backed a Republican proposal to require voters to present photo identification. Sen. Scott Newman framed it as aimed more at increasing voter confidence in election results than at preventing fraud. But Democratic Secretary of State…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Stuck in the grip of a viral pandemic, the U.S. economy grew at a 4% annual rate in the final three months of 2020 and shrank last year by the largest amount in 74 years. For 2020 as a whole, a year when the coronavirus inflicted the worst economic freeze since the end of World War II,…
(Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File) LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cloris Leachman, a character actor whose depth of talent brought her an Oscar for “The Last Picture Show” and Emmys for her comedic work in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and other TV series, has died. She was 94. Leachman died of natural causes at her home in Encinitas, California, publicist…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The state Department of Natural Resources policy board has overwhelmingly approved new rules that would dramatically raise costs for nonferrous mining in Wisconsin. The rules require mining applicants to pay more for permits and licenses and supply more detailed plans to the department. The DNR estimates the changes could cost applicants about $502,000 more per project….
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin will become one of only 10 states without statewide mask mandates when the Assembly votes this week to overturn Gov. Tony Evers’ order. More than two dozen public health organizations, as well as state and local health officials, have urged the Republican-controlled Legislature to reconsider. The vote to repeal the mask order, planned for Thursday,…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Some hospital systems around Minnesota are flouting the state and federal guidance on the hierarchy for receiving the coronavirus vaccine, according to health officials. The Minnesota Department of Health has deputized large health systems to distribute the vaccine as part of a public-private partnership. Currently, the state has prioritized vaccinating people who provide in-person health care services…
DETROIT (AP) — One of six men charged in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has pleaded guilty to conspiracy. Ty Garbin appeared in federal court in Grand Rapids, a few hours after prosecutors filed a plea agreement that’s loaded with details about the operation and his pledge to cooperate with investigators. The deal signed by Garbin…
(AP) – President Joe Biden says the U.S. is ramping up vaccine deliveries to hard-pressed states over the next three weeks and expects to provide enough doses to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the summer or early fall. Biden is calling the push a “wartime effort.” He said Tuesday that his administration is working to buy an…
WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Holocaust survivors will commemorate their lost loved ones and world leaders will issue pleas for tolerance on Wednesday as the world marks the 76th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Nazi German extermination camp is the most notorious of the death camps operated by Adolf Hitler’s regime during World War II to carry out the…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate voted Tuesday to repeal Gov. Tony Evers’ statewide mask mandate, despite warnings from virtually every sector of the health care community that doing so would impair efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Both legislative chambers have to pass the resolution in order to undo the mask requirement. The Assembly, controlled 58-30 by…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans have voted overwhelmingly against moving forward with Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial. The Senate on Tuesday rejected a Republican attempt to dismiss the trial, allowing the case on “incitement of insurrection” to move forward. Yet the support of 45 Republicans for declaring the trial invalid indicates that there are long odds for Trump’s conviction. The…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP/FOX9) — Gov. Tim Walz proposed raising taxes on the wealthiest Minnesotans and large companies Tuesday to help plug a projected $1.28 billion gap in the next two-year budget while increasing spending on education and on helping the state recover from the coronavirus pandemic. The Democratic governor’s budget proposal includes new spending of $745 million on education through 12th…
WASHINGTON (AP) — There were fewer air travelers in the United States last year, but a higher percentage of them were carrying guns. The Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday that screeners found 3,257 firearms on passengers or in their carry-on bags in 2020, or about 10 for every million travelers. About 83% of the guns were loaded. That was double…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The Wisconsin Senate plans to vote on repealing Gov. Tony Evers’ statewide mask mandate, while it remains unclear whether the Assembly would follow suit as required to undo the order. A joint resolution co-sponsored by 29 Republicans in the Legislature was up for approval in the Senate on Tuesday. Assembly Republican leaders have not yet said…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Gov. Tim Walz will today propose a two-year budget with a heavy focus on helping Minnesota recover from the impacts of COVID-19. The budget Walz is planning to announce at 12:00 p.m. is expected to top $50 million. It will emphasize assistance to small businesses, help for working families affected by the disease itself or…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Medical Society on Monday announced its opposition to a Republican-authored resolution that would overturn the statewide mask mandate put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The state Senate planned to vote Tuesday on the resolution. The Assembly, also in session on Tuesday, has not said if it will vote on the resolution….
(AP Photo/Jim Mone) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Gov. Tim Walz on Monday announced changes in the sign-up process for a community vaccine program for seniors, teachers, and child care workers after heavy demand last week crashed a website and angered many people who could not get through. State officials have shifted from a first-come, first-served system to a lottery that allows…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to issue an executive order to reverse a Pentagon policy that largely bars transgender individuals from joining the military. Doing so would dump a ban ordered by his predecessor, Donald Trump, in a tweet during his first year in office. A person briefed on the decision tells The Associated Press that the…
NEW YORK (AP) — For the first time since 1983, when Anheuser-Busch used all of its ad time to introduce a beer called Bud Light, the beer giant isn’t advertising its iconic Budweiser brand during the Super Bowl. Instead, it’s donating the money it would have spent on the ad to coronavirus vaccination awareness efforts. The decision to not do…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The number of Minnesotans who have received at least the first dose of the two-shot COVID-19 vaccine is nearing a quarter-million or less than 5% of the population, the Minnesota Department of Health reported Sunday. A total of 247,415 Minnesotans have received at least one dose. More than 63,000 people have received both shots to complete their…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is set to bring the impeachment article against Donald Trump for the Senate trial. But a growing number of Republican senators say they oppose the proceedings against the former president. That’s a sign of the dimming chances that Trump will be convicted on the charge that he incited a siege of the U.S. Capitol. House…
(courtesy CNN/Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Getty Images) (AP) – NBC will shut down the NBC Sports Network at the end of the year. NBC Sports Chairman Pete Bevacqua announced the move in an internal memo to staff. NBC Sports Network is best known for carrying NHL and English Premier League games as well as NASCAR and IndyCar races. It also carries a significant…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s statewide mask mandate would be overturned by the Republican-controlled state Legislature under a resolution that could be voted on as soon as Tuesday. Twenty-seven Republican lawmakers signed on to the resolution that was introduced on Thursday. It would have to pass both the Senate and Assembly in order to end the public health emergency and…
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will send the article of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate on Monday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made the announcement on Friday. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell wants to postpone the impeachment trial until February to give the former president time to prepare his case. The House impeached Trump on a…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota health officials reported Friday the state has now been allocated 871,650 doses of federally controlled COVID-19 vaccine, up more than 240,000 doses from a week earlier. The state’s snapshot of progress in administering vaccines also showed that 214,050 people have gotten their first dose of a two-shot series, with 49,604 people having completed the two shots….
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is pushing back against Republican legislators seeking to implement a wolf hunting season immediately. The DNR held three wolf seasons from 2012 to 2014 before a federal judge placed Great Lakes wolves back on the endangered species list. Former President Donald Trump’s administration removed them from the list earlier this…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority will spend $800,000 from a contingency fund to fix a water seepage problem at U.S. Bank Stadium. The authority’s chairman, Michael Vekich, says the repair payment was negotiated with the stadium’s general contractor and was short of the $3.2 million M.A. Mortensen Co. wanted. The $800,000 comes from a contingency fund created…
ATLANTA (AP) – The baseball great and one-time home run king Hank Aaron has died. The Atlanta Braves said he died peacefully in his sleep early Friday. No cause was given. Aaron endured racist threats with stoic dignity during his pursuit of Babe Ruth but went on to break the career home run record in the pre-steroids era. “Hammerin’ Hank”…
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The jackpot for the Mega Millions lottery game has grown to nearly $1 billion ahead of Friday night’s drawing after more than four months without a winner. That record drought is thanks to bad luck, poor odds, and reduced play partially blamed on the coronavirus pandemic. It’s only the third time a lottery jackpot has…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A proposal to ban the use of facial recognition technology by Minneapolis police and other city departments is advancing. The technology has raised concerns by some who worry it could be a dangerous step toward a surveillance state where people’s movements are tracked the moment they leave their homes. The technology uses machine learning algorithms to automatically…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell wants to postpone Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. McConnell on Thursday proposed delaying the trial until February to give the former president time to prepare and review his case. The idea could appeal to some Senate Democrats, who are eager to spend time confirming President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees. The House impeached Trump…
SAN DIEGO (AP) — President Joe Biden has ordered a “pause” on all border wall construction, one of 17 executive orders issued his first day in office. The move leaves billions of dollars in unfinished work under contract after his predecessor, Donald Trump, worked feverishly to successfully build 450 miles. A Senate aide tells The Associated Press that the government…
(AP) – Public health experts are blaming COVID-19 vaccine shortages around the U.S. in part on the Trump administration’s push to get states to vastly expand their vaccination drives to reach the nation’s estimated 54 million people age 65 and over. The push that began over a week ago has not been accompanied by enough doses to meet demand, leading…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota judge says he won’t reconsider his decision to hold a March trial for the former Minneapolis police officer who held his knee to George Floyd’s neck as the man said he couldn’t breathe. Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill ruled this month that Derek Chauvin will stand trial beginning March 8, as scheduled, and will be…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – More than a third of Wisconsin law enforcement agencies that responded to a new survey said they don’t use body cameras. The state Department of Justice released findings Thursday from a survey of 553 agencies conducted in November. Of the 434 agencies who responded to the request, 160 said they do not use body cameras. Another…
