Minnesota News Roundup: Ailing horses, llamas seized from farm
Minnesota News-- Inhumane conditions resulted in law enforcement seizing 11 horses and three llamas last week from a farm six miles southeast of Vergas. An additional six horses were found dead.
VERGAS, Minn. -- Inhumane conditions resulted in law enforcement seizing 11 horses and three llamas last week from a farm six miles southeast of Vergas. An additional six horses were found dead.
One of the rescued llamas, a baby, later died at the rescue ranch from complications of septicemia, probably due to a lack of colostrum, which is found in a healthy mother’s breast milk. Criminal charges were pending against the owners of the farm, Bill and Penny Fick.
The rescued animals were taken to High Tail Horse Ranch and Rescue near Hawley to begin a long road to recovery. There were six quarter horses, a draft horse, a pony, an Arabian and two paints.
High Tail owner Charlotte Tuhy said the animals were in “various stages of hunger and underweight. Some of them are in quite a bit of pain.” She and volunteers from the ranch worked on the rescue with the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Department and the Minnesota Humane Society.
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GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. -- A Bovey who admitted shooting two people, one fatally, and kidnapping his estranged wife was sentenced as expected Thursday to 52½ years in prison.
William Levi Payne, 26, pleaded guilty last month in State District Court in Grand Rapids to second-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, kidnapping, terroristic threats, first-degree burglary, second-degree assault and violating an order for protection.
According to the terms of the plea agreement reached last month and accepted by the judge Thursday, Payne will receive a prison sentence of 52½ years, of which he will have to serve at least 35 years, followed by 17½ years of supervised release.
According to court documents, Payne knew his estranged wife, Sarah Payne, and a male friend, Paul Russell Johnson, 32, were at Johnson’s Grand Rapids home when he went there Dec. 22. Payne shot Johnson and his mother, Rosemary Oberg-Johnson, 59, and kidnapped his wife. Mother and son were both critically wounded and airlifted to hospitals in Duluth. Oberg-Johnson died of her wounds Dec. 27. Johnson is said to be recovering.
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ALEXANDRIA, Minn. -- As hybrid hype rages through the nation, one public transit company has ditched the technology that promised fewer greenhouse gases and lower fuel costs because it didn’t deliver.
Rainbow Rider received $845,000 in 2010 as part of the federal stimulus program to purchase eight electric hybrid buses. After two years of complications with Variable Torque Motors, Rainbow Rider has decided to go back to straight gasoline. VTM provided an add-on component that works in conjunction with gas engines to create an electric hybrid system.
Harold Jennissen, director of Rainbow Rider, said the company worked with VTM and Cummins Crosspoint through four version changes on each bus without success. After not seeing any mechanical advantages or fuel savings, Rainbow Rider decided to remove the system last month.
Jennissen said Cummins is working to upgrade the hybrid system, and if it is successful, the hybrid motors that Rainbow Rider still owns could be upgraded and reinstalled.
Courtesy of Forum News Service
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