>>Governor Walz Delivers SOS Address Tonight
(St. Paul, MN) — Governor Tim Walz delivers this year’s State of the State address at 7 p.m. tonight (Wed) from the House Chamber at the State Capitol. This is the governor’s first State of the State address in his second term, and his first since the legislative “trifecta” took over, with Democrats now controlling the Minnesota House as well as the Senate. It’s a good bet the governor will highlight several high-profile bills passed and signed in roughly the first 100 days of the 2023 session: abortion rights, driver’s licenses for undocumented residents, felon voting, free school lunch and breakfast, and “Clean Cars,” among others. It’s also likely that he’ll stress the need for additional what Democrats term investments in education, transportation, and other areas — even as the Republican minorities in the House and Senate clamor for significant permanent tax cuts when the state has a 17-plus-billion-dollar surplus.
Just over one month remains in the legislative session with a May 22nd adjournment deadline.
>>Duluth Man Arrested for Making Alleged Threats on Facebook
(Duluth, MN) — Police in Duluth say a man is in custody for making alleged threats of violence on Facebook. Officers say they began investigating just before noon and a tactical response team arrested the suspect around 8 o’clock Tuesday night. The 30-year-old Duluth man was taken to a hospital for evaluation and later booked in jail. Authorities in Superior, Wisconsin also responded to several 9-1-1 calls related to Facebook threats to cause explosions in public infrastructure.
>>BNSF analyzing fractured rail section, but NTSB investigators not saying whether it caused March derailment and fire in Raymond
(Washington, DC) — National Transportation Safety Board investigators say B-N-S-F railroad is analyzing a section of fractured rail but didn’t say definitively whether it caused last month’s derailment and fire that forced the evacuation of about 800 from their homes in the west-central Minnesota community of Raymond. No one was hurt, but the fire burned into the following day, and it’s estimated the derailment caused nearly two million dollars in damage to equipment and tracks.
>>Ex-firefighter charged with assault, racial slurs against former Gophers football star
**MEDIA REFERENCE**
(Minneapolis, MN) — A former firefighter, 54-year-old Eric Jagers, is charged with second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon — after prosecutors say he made a racial slur against a former U-of-M Gophers football star and fired a gun in a south Minneapolis alley. The Star Tribune reports 44-year-old Tellis Redmon, Gophers running back from 1999 to 2001, was not injured even though the gun was fired next to his head as the two fought for the weapon. Investigators say a half-hour before, Jagers fired a handgun outside a fire station on the city’s north side, later telling authorities “He thought it would be funny to do so.” Jagers’ defense attorney said his client has mental health issues he will be addressing, and regrets if his actions reflect badly on his former profession as a Minneapolis firefighter.
>>Mora Man Found Guilty of 2019 Iron Range Murder
(Duluth, MN) — A Mora man could face up to 40 years in prison after being convicted of the October 2019 killing of a friend on the Iron Range. A St. Louis County jury found 56-year-old J. Nicholas Cramer guilty Tuesday of the second-degree murder of 47-year-old Frank Meyer in Makinen (MACK’-uh-nin). Prosecutors said Meyer was found dead in his garage and had been beaten, shot, and suffocated. Investigators testified that Cramer’s D-N-A was on a pipe used to beat Meyer and gun casings located at the scene matched a pistol recovered from his camper. Cramer will be sentenced on May 12th.
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