Minnesota missed the fury of Mother Nature on Wednesday as a tornado touched down in western Wisconsin, damaging more than two dozen homes and farms. The National Weather Service reports the twister hit in Pierce County, near Ellsworth, causing at least one injury. Two other twisters were reported in Wisconsin.
While three twisters missed Minnesota Wednesday, causing damage in western Wisconsin, heavy rains pushed levels way up along the Whitewater River in southeastern Minnesota. The middle fork of the river is out of its banks between Plainview and St. Charles but forecasters say flood warnings will end later today.
Diamond Reynolds, the girlfriend of Philando Castile who live-streamed the aftermath of his shooting by a police officer, plans to travel the U-S next month for T-V appearances, plus make an August trip to London for an art exhibit created in her honor. The Star Tribune reports Reynolds’ attorneys informed a judge during a Wednesday court hearing when Reynolds pleaded *not* guilty to unrelated assault charges in connection with an alleged hammer attack on a woman in February.
Another all-nighter over the St. Croix River and the Stillwater Lift Bridge is back and operating on its normal schedule this morning. Crews fixed the electrical issues which caused the historic bridge deck to get stuck in mid-lift about 30-feet over the water on Tuesday.
A woman from Eden Prairie makes her first court appearance today as the third person charged with murdering a teenager during an attempted robbery in north Minneapolis earlier this month. 18-year-old Sequoia Bulson-Bratton turned herself in to police Tuesday night. Another defendant told police they targeted 17-year-old Austin Young because he’d been seen carrying a significant amount of money.
A woman from Cass Lake and three people from the Twin Cities have received sentences ranging from five to nine years for what federal prosecutors say was a methamphetamine distribution conspiracy on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation and in surrounding areas. During traffic stops in March of 2016, officers seized more than 14-hundred grams of meth that had been thrown into a wooded area, plus marijuana and cash. A search warrant netted an additional 400-plus grams of meth.