Minnesota News Briefs: Fire crew contain Nimrod fire

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NIMROD, Minn. - Fire crews continue to mop-up the Jeep wildfire three miles south of Nimrod in north-central Minnesota.

Rebecca Barnard with the Interagency Fire Center says so far 16-hundred acres have burned. She says they still have two National Guard Black Hawk helicopters to dump water on the blaze if necessary. The winds are fairly strong and gusty again today. Barnard says five structures have been lost in the fire including a residence with an attached garage, three outbuildings and one mobile home that was being used as a hunting shack.

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The Brooklyn Park Police Department is offering a ten-thousand-dollar reward for information leading to a conviction in yesterday's shooting which left three people dead at a home daycare. Police investigator Todd Milburn says they have been working around the clock following up on leads and gathering evidence. Police are looking for a black male in his mid-20s. He was last seen leaving the area on a BMX bike wearing blue jeans and a blue sweatshirt with a gray hood and a pair of one-inch white stripes down the back. The names of the victims have not been officially released but we do know the daycare was owned by 59-year-old DeLois Brown. It's believed Brown's parents were also killed. Anyone with information should contact the Brooklyn Park Police Department.

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A Melrose native has been killed in a plane crash in California. Twenty-four-year-old David Ostendorf died in the crash near the Monterey Airport on Sunday. His father, Gary Ostendorf, says his son was an air traffic controller at that airport and met a man with a stunt plane and asked for a ride. The pilot, a 32-year-old man from Yuma, Arizona was also killed. Witnesses say they saw the plane doing aerobatic rolling maneuvers just before it fell out of the sky. Ostendorf was a 2006 graduate of Melrose High School, and a 2010 graduate of St. Cloud State University. Funeral arrangements are pending with the Patton Schad Funeral Home in Melrose.

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The teen birth rate has dropped again in Minnesota. The Centers for Disease Control reports Minnesota had 22.5 births per one-thousand teens. That's the 43rd-lowest rate out of the 50 states. The C-D-C credits increased use of contraceptives and better overall pregnancy prevention efforts. The state with the lowest teen birth rate is New Hampshire at 15-point-seven percent. The highest again was Mississippi with 55 out of every one-thousand girls. But even that high percentage was down from previous surveys.

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Best Buy Company CEO Brian Dunn is stepping down from the Minnesota-based electronics retailer. Best Buy announced Dunn's resignation today saying it was a mutual decision. Board member Mike Mikan will serve as interim CEO while the company looks for a new chief executive and director. Best Buy lost one-point-seven-billion dollars in the fourth quarter and is closing 50 stores nationwide and laying off 300 employees in the state.

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A former Republican presidential candidate will headline an annual tax cut rally at the state Capitol later this month. The Taxpayers League of Minnesota has announced Herman Cain will be the featured speaker at the April 28th event. Cain dropped out of the presidential race in December and was best-known for his "9-9-9" tax plan to overhaul the U.S. tax code.

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Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak is holding the first of two community forums tonight on the proposed Vikings stadium in south Minneapolis (Lake Nokomis (Tues 7-8:45pm). Rybak says a new publicly-owned stadium near the Metrodome site in downtown Minneapolis will require no new taxes and support more than 13-thousand jobs. Rybak's proposal calls for redirecting convention center taxes to fund the stadium project. The Minneapolis City Council has a public hearing on the Vikings stadium plan April 24th. The second public forum is tomorrow night at the Logan Recreation Center in northeast Minneapolis (Wed 6:30-8pm).

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The former girlfriend of NFL Hall of Famer O.J. Simpson is facing drug charges in Moorhead. Thirty-seven-year old Christie Prody is accused of stealing pain-killers from the home of a Moorhead couple where she worked as a nurse's aide. Clay County prosecutors says Prody was caught on video surveillance installed by the couple. She faces burglary and drug charges. Prody is a graduate of St. Anthony High School and dated Simpson for 13 years after he was found not guilty in the murders of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in California. Prody has relatives in Moorhead and her father lives in Fergus Falls.

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Minnesotans got off to a cold start around the state this morning -- with temperatures in the upper teens to the north and 20's across central and southern Minnesota. Meteorologist Kerry Hanko says that is actually not too far from what we normally see this time of year - but we've been so spoiled this spring. Hanko expects another cold night ahead with more freeze warnings. As for fire danger, Hanko says that's still high across western and southern Minnesota but there are no red flag warnings issued because conditions aren't as windy as yesterday.

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The financial state of the Minnesota Republican Party is being called "precarious." A confidential memo that has become public says the GOP has already missed a couple rent payments on it's St. Paul headquarters this year. The party owes vendors nearly a million-dollars for services previously provided and is working to pay off federal penalties and a credit line. The party's deep debt problems contributed to a turnover in leadership last year and has caused internal worries about its ability to assist candidates this fall.

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We'll see how these cold nights affect early planting across Minnesota. The latest USDA Crop Report shows strong advances for farmers planting spring wheat,oats and barley -- with more than five days of good weather for field work last week. Land is also being prepared for this season's top crops. There's even been a very small percentage of corn already planted in southern Minnesota.

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The most recent records show that at least 44 persons in Minnesota have been charged with impaired driving even though they had ten of more prior DWI violations. Just last week, a Rochester man was sentenced to prison for his 11th impaired driving conviction. Prosecutors say state laws have been tightened to deal with repeat offenders of this kind.

Dakota County Attorney Jim Backstrom says serial offenders often think nothing of getting behind the wheel even though their drivers license was taken away.

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Business is humming at the twin ports of Duluth-Superior as the shipping season moves into high gear. As usual, iron ore is leading the parade of outbound cargo. The Duluth Seaway Port Authority's Adele Yorde says they have high hopes for coal shipments that took a sharp drop last year. The plan this year is to ship coal from Duluth-Superior to European markets where coal demand is high.

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In North Minneapolis last night, a man was found shot to death in the street. Police found the unidentified male dead-on-arrival and there are currently no suspects in custody. Homicide invetigators ask people to call the Minneapolis Police Department's Tip Line: 612-692-TIPS.

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Former Minneapolis Park Police Chief Bill Jacobs will be spending the next 18 years in prison. Jacobs admitted to three counts of criminal sexual conduct and possession of child porn, following his arrest in 2010. Jacobs was sentenced Monday and could be eligible for release when he is 80.

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There's a special election today to fill the seat of the late state Senator Gary Kubly of Granite Falls. The 68-year old died last month after a long battle with ALS. The three candidates vying to serve the last seven months of Kubly's term are DFL Representative Lyle Koenin, Republican Gregg Kulberg and the Independence Party's Leon Greenslit. Senate District 20 includes all of Big Stone, Chippewa, Lac qui Parle, Lincoln, Renville, Swift and Yellow Medicine counties. The results will be certified on Friday and an election certificate could be issued as soon as next Tuesday.

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One item on state lawmakers' plate when they return from Easter-Passover break will be how much to spend on renovating the aging Minnesota Capitol building. The House has proposed $220-million to do required work over the space of a few years. But Senate Majority Leader Dave Senjem says they're not ready for that yet because it would take 35-thousand square feet of space out of service. House Speaker Kurt Zellers says it's their job to take care of the Capitol because it is one of our historic assets in Minnesota and in the Midwest.

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Representative Tim Walz (DFL-Mankato) is optimistic Congress will pass the Veterans Skills to Jobs Act this year. The bill would help veterans use skills they learned in the military to find employment when they return home. Walz says combat medics are performing heroically in the line of duty, but they come back and they're not certified to be EMT-qualified on an ambulance. Walz says they are also asking the Pentagon to give soldiers who drive trucks in Afghanistan extra credit hours so they can earn commercial drivers licenses.

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Governor Dayton vetoed the photo ID constitutional amendment yesterday even though he has no power to prevent it from appearing on the November ballot. If passed, it would require picture identification for citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Dayton called the proposed amendment a "proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing" and says it dismantles Minnesota's best-in-the-nation election system. He warns that it would end same-day voter registration and severely restrict absentee voting, mail-in voting and balloting for military members overseas. The governor is urging Minnesotans to reject it in November.

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A southwestern Minnesota woman could face up to 30 years in federal prison if convicted on one count of embezzlement by a bank officer. Sixty-five-year-old Carolyn Hampel of Jackson is charged with taking more than $108,000 from customer accounts at United Prairie Bank of Mankato between January of 2005 and last August. Hampel allegedly used the stolen funds for her personal use and to pay down a family member's loan balance. A trial date has not yet been scheduled.

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A 30-year-old woman is recovering after a tree fell on her in Birchdale Township. Todd County Sheriff Pete Mikkelson says it appears high winds caused the tree to topple over on the woman Sunday morning around 11:30. The woman was found a short time later near Minnesota Highway-28 with chest and shoulder injuries.

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