(Update) Minnesota News Roundup: Accused double murderer reportedly set to hire high profile Twin Cities lawyer
Minnesota News-- The man accused of killing two teenagers Thanksgiving Day after they allegedly broke into his house in Little Falls is expected to retain a high profile Twin Cities lawyer today.
LITTLE FALLS - The man accused of killing two teenagers Thanksgiving Day after they allegedly broke into his house in Little Falls is expected to retain a high profile Twin Cities lawyer today. Reports are surfacing that 64-year-old Byron Smith is close to hiring well-known attorney Steve Meshbesher. Smith is accused of shooting and killing 17-year-old Nick Brady and his cousin 18-year-old Haile Kifer. He is due back in court in December
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Enrollment is down at the state's largest university in the MnSCU system. St. Cloud State University is reporting a four-and-a-half percent decline in enrollment this year. That's about 775 fewer students than last year. SCSU was at its largest in 2010, when it had over 18-thousand-300 students. This year there are just under 16-thousand-500 students enrolled. MnSCU says system-wide among the seven universities, enrollment fell about one-and-a-half percent this year.
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Once again, America's list of largest private companies is topped by Wayzata-based Cargill, ahead of Koch Industries and Mars. Forbes reports Cargill's 140-thousand employees were part of a company which made nearly 134-billion-dollars last year. However despite that success, Cargill still layed off two-thousand people during that time. Other private Minnesota companies which made the Forbes list: Holiday, Schwan, M-A Mortenson, Rosen's Diversified and Andersen Corporation.
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The Houston Rockets had a tough day on Wednesday on and off the court. The Rockets attended the funeral of head coach Kevin McHale's 23-year-old daughter Alexandra "Sasha" McHale, who passed away Saturday after a long battle with lupus, an auto-immune disease. The funeral was in Minneapolis yesterday. The Rockets then flew to Oklahoma City to take on the Thunder, who beat the them 120-98. McHale, a former Wolves coach and Golden Gopher star, took a leave of absence earlier this month to be with his daughter. Assistant coach Kelvin Sampson has been coaching the team in McHale's absence.
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No Minnesotans will be able to "call-in rich" after winning last night's massive Powerball. That's because the winning tickets were bought by players in Arizona and Missouri, who split the jackpot worth more than 580-million-dollars. Across the nation, 25 players won a million-dollars each, and seven others won two-million as ticket sales mushroomed over the last three days.
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An Eagan couple is accused of mistreating their 15-year-old son. Reports say 44-year-old Gregory Danner and 41-year-old Angela Danner allegedly forced their son to live in a room with no outside light and no bed. In addition, the victim, who suffers from a form of autism, told police that his parents made him do military-style exercises on a daily basis, and says he is under constant video surveillance. The boy, who has since turned 16, now lives with his natural father.
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A former student teacher at a school in Inver Grove Heights has pleaded guilty to sending a naked picture of herself to a 17-year-old male student. Twenty-six-year-old Jenna Schultz of Minnetonka remains free on bail. Her sentencing on the gross misdemeanor plea is set for February 12th. Schultz was a student teacher at Simley High School.
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There were no Minnesotans among the biggest winners in last night's multi-state Powerball drawing worth more than $580-million. There were two winning tickets, bought by players in Arizona and Missouri. One person in our state won a million dollars by matching five numbers -- while six others matched four numbers and the Powerball, worth 10-grand. The one-million-dollar ticket was purchased in Winona County. To give you an idea how many players there were, more than 167,000 Minnesotans won some sort of prize last night.
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The influenza virus is still circulating at low or sporadic levels across Minnesota. The state Department of Health reports 11 hospitalizations in the past week and a total of 41 since the start of the flu season in October. There have been no flu-related deaths in Minnesota so far. Seven schools reported flu outbreaks last week but there were none in the state's nursing homes. State health officials encourage everyone over six months of age to get vaccinated.
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A Crookston man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for a September 2011 chase that killed a Thief River Falls man. Twenty-four-year-old Ricardo Mello fought with police and was Tased and maced at a bar before getting away in a squad car. Mello lost control of the stolen police vehicle a few blocks away and struck the driver's side of a pickup, killing 78-year-old Eddie Briggs. Mello pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, criminal vehicular operation and felony assault. He will receive credit for time already served.
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Recent weather could be a danger for Minnesota's stored crops that survived the drought. Big temperature fluctuations like we saw over Thanksgiving week, with 60 degrees one day and 30 degrees the next, can damage harvested grain. Kent Thiesse, farm management analyst for MinnStar Bank, says if grain in the middle of the bin is at 60 degrees and grain on the outside walls goes down in temperature, there's moisture movement which could cause it to spoil. Much of the state is about to see another temperature swing from lows in the teens this past week to highs in the 40s and even 50 over the weekend and early next week.
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The group Environment Minnesota is urging federal lawmakers to extend the "production tax credit" for wind energy, set to expire at the end of the year. Activist Michelle Hesterberg says uncertainty about the tax credit is putting not only the wind industry at risk, but also its environmental benefits. She says the tax credit could end up being part of the federal budget deal but adds "we can't throw wind power off the fiscal cliff."
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