MN News

MISSING-SOMALIS        Witness: Minn. man funded al-Shabab terror recruit        MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A man who admitted traveling from Minneapolis to Somalia to train with al-Shabab has testified against a Minnesota man accused of helping supply the terror group with fighters.        Abdifatah Isse (EE’-say) testified Thursday in the trial of 46-year-old Mahamud (mah-hah-MOOD’) Said (sy-EED’) Omar.        Isse says he attended secret meetings in Minneapolis in 2007, and saw Omar give $500 cash to another man traveling to Somalia and wish him good luck.        Omar is charged with five terror-related counts, including conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.        Prosecutors allege that since 2007, more than 20 young men have left Minnesota for the war-torn East African nation to join al-Shabab. The FBI and relatives say at least six have died.        Minnesota is home to the largest Somali population in the U.S.

LAKE SUPERIOR FISH-MERCURY        Minn. wins grant to reduce fish mercury exposure        MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Minnesota has won a federal grant to reduce mercury exposure for women and children living along Lake Superior’s north shore.        The U.S.  Environmental Protect Agency has awarded the Minnesota Department of Health a $1.4 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant.        Excessive blood mercury levels have been documented in infants in the Lake Superior area. The money will be used to improve health screening and develop more effective fish consumption advisories.        EPA Regional Administrator Susan Hedman says mercury contamination leaves many Great Lakes fish unsafe to eat. Hedman says the project will help women make choices to minimize their exposure to mercury but maximize the health benefits of eating fish.        The Grand Portage Chippewa Tribe and the Sawtooth Mountain Clinics in Grand Portage and Grand Marais will participate in the project.

WHOOPING COUGH-MINNESOTA        Whooping cough outbreak slowing in Minn.        (Information in the following story is from: Minnesota Public Radio News, http://www.mpr.org)        ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota health officials say an outbreak of whooping cough appears to be slowing in the state.        Minnesota Public Radio News reports in the past two weeks another 190 cases were confirmed. That’s nearly the same number of cases that were reported for just one week in mid-September.        Claudia Miller of the Minnesota Department of Health says the drop in cases is a good sign. But she says there is still a lot of the disease circulating in the community.        Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, causes a persistent, severe cough that sometimes lasts for months.        In total, Minnesota has confirmed more than 3,700 cases of the bacterial infection. That’s the highest number since the 1940s, before a vaccine was developed.        Three-quarters of the cases have occurred in vaccinated people.

DROUGHT-SEVERITY-MINNESOTA        Drought keeps getting deeper across Minnesota        MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The drought keeps getting deeper across Minnesota.        New maps from the U.S. Drought Monitor on Thursday show that 96 percent of the state is in a moderate to extreme drought, up from 77 percent a week earlier.        The driest parts of the state include several counties in northwestern Minnesota and several counties from southwestern to south-central Minnesota.        Only two parts of the state aren’t in drought, but they’re both rated abnormally dry — Cook County at the northeastern tip of Minnesota, and a patch of Scott, Dakota, Rice and Goodhue counties south of the Twin Cities.

POLICE OFFICER-DETOX HITTING        Minn. police officer charged in detox hitting        (Information in the following story is from: WDIO-TV, http://www.wdio.com)        DULUTH, Minn. (AP) – A Duluth police officer seen hitting a man on a surveillance video is now charged with two misdemeanors.        A special prosecuting attorney on Thursday charged Officer Richard Jouppi (JOH’-pee) with fifth-degree assault and disorderly conduct.        WDIO-TV reports the charges come after a Sept. 21 incident at the Duluth Detoxification Center was captured on surveillance video.        The video shows Jouppi hitting Anthony Jackson several times after Jackson strikes at Jouppi. Jackson is pulled out of his wheelchair during the incident.        Defense attorney Fred Bruno tells The Associated Press Jouppi will plead not guilty. Bruno says the charges are not surprising, given that police released the video.        Jouppi has been with the Duluth Police Department for two years. He remains on paid administrative leave.        A court date has not been set.

TWINS-COACHES FIRED        Twins fire 3 coaches, head trainer in shakeup        MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The Minnesota Twins have fired three coaches and their head athletic trainer in the wake of a second straight last-place finish in the AL Central.        The Twins announced the moves on Thursday.        Longtime bullpen coach Rick Stelmaszek, third base coach Steve Liddle, first base coach Jerry White and head athletic trainer Rick McWane did not have their contracts renewed for 2013. The team also says bench coach Scott Ullger and hitting coach Joe Vavra have been reassigned. Ullger will work with the outfielders and Vavra the infielders.        Earlier this week, coach Ron Gardenhire said he would prefer to have his staff back next season. Four of the five coaches have been with Gardenhire since 2002. Vavra joined the team in 2006.        Stelmaszek has been with the organization since 1978.

VOTER ID-RITCHIE        Voter ID complaint targets Minn. election official        ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota’s top election official is the target of a complaint from Republican senators who accuse him of misleading voters on a proposed voter identification requirement.        Sens. Mike Parry of Waseca and Scott Newman of Hutchinson filed the complaint Thursday with the Office of Administrative Hearings.        It alleges that Secretary of State Mark Ritchie broke state campaign laws by claiming on his official website and in local newspaper interviews that the voter ID constitutional amendment could cost $50 million to implement, end same-day voter registration and disenfranchise military voters. It also accuses the Democratic secretary of state of using state resources to work against the amendment.        Ritchie says in a statement that he won’t comment on litigation, but is referring voters to the website cited in the complaint.        Newman says state money won’t be used to pay for the complaint, but legislative staff distributed a news release about it on official stationery from Parry’s office.

MENINGITIS OUTBREAK        Several Minn. clinics gave drug tied to outbreak        ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – The Minnesota Health Department says patients at several Twin Cities clinics were given a steroid product now linked to a widening national outbreak of a rare kind of meningitis.        The agency said in a release Thursday that it is working with Medical Advanced Pain Specialists in Edina, Fridley, Shakopee and Maple Grove, and the Minnesota Surgery Center in Edina and Maple Grove to contact the patients. The department says they are the only providers know to have used the product in Minnesota.        State officials haven’t identified any cases of the meningitis so far.        The outbreak has sickened 35 people in six states. Five have died. All had gotten steroid shots for back pain.        Federal officials are warning doctors and hospitals to avoid any product from the New England Compounding Center of Framingham, Mass.

SUSPICIOUS DEATH-CLOQUET        Police investigate suspicious death in Cloquet        (Information in the following story is from: WDIO-TV, http://www.wdio.com)        CLOQUET, Minn. (AP) – Police are investigating after a body was found on the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation in northeastern Minnesota.        Investigators discovered the body on a property in the city of Cloquet (kloh-KAY’) about 5 p.m. Thursday.        Police have questioned several people, but no charges have been filed.        WDIO-TV reports several law enforcement agencies are investigating, including the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.        The body will be sent to the Ramsey County medical examiner’s office for an autopsy and formal identification.        Police are expected to provide more details at a news conference Friday.

 

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