ALERT :
- The Waldorf College Theatre Company's performance of The Tempest at Lund Pond on the Waldorf campus has been postponed to Tuesday, May 21 at 6:30 p.m. due to pending weather conditions. In case of rain on Tuesday, the performance will take place in the Atrium.:
- 5/20/13, The Forest City Parks and Rec has cancelled all ball practices at Pammel Park for today. :
- 5/20/13-No Forest City Park and Rec Baseball practice today at the Waldorf Field.:
MN News
5TH DISTRICT DEBATE Ellison, Fields spar in heated 5th District debate MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – U.S. Representative Keith Ellison and Republican challenger Chris Fields had some heated moments in a 5th District debate. At one point, Ellison called Fields “a low-life scumbag” and a “gutter dweller.” The debate Thursday on KFAI Radio meandered from a conversation about equal pay for women to a restraining order Fields’ ex-wife filed against him in 2006. Fields accused Ellison and the Minnesota DFL of using campaign contributions to dig up and make public that order, which Fields says he never received. Ellison called Fields “stupid” for bringing up the allegations against Fields. The Democratic congressman said he “wasn’t going to say a thing about it.” Minnesota Public Radio reports Fields launched into accusations about Ellison’s child support payments. Ellison responded: “You are a low-life scumbag.”
MISSING SOMALIS Minn. man convicted of aiding Somalia terror group MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A Minneapolis man has been convicted of helping send young men to Somalia to join the al-Qaida-linked terrorist group al-Shabab. The federal jury on Thursday convicted 46-year-old Mahamud Said (mah-HAH’-mood sy-EED’) Omar on all five counts he faced. He could be sentenced to up to life in prison. Omar was the first person to stand trial in the government’s investigation into what it says was the recruiting of more than 20 men who left Minnesota for Somalia to join al-Shabab, a U.S.-designated terrorist group blamed for much of the violence in the East African country. Prosecutors say Omar helped young men from Minnesota’s large Somali community buy plane tickets to Somalia and buy weapons once they arrived. Omar says he wasn’t a member of al-Shabab and didn’t do anything wrong.
STEEL-LABOR TALKS Steelworkers ratify contract with ArcelorMittal PITTSBURGH (AP) – The United Steelworkers say that workers have ratified a three-year contract with ArcelorMittal USA that negotiators agreed to last month. The contract covers nearly 14,000 workers at ArcelorMittal USA’s flat carbon, long carbon and iron ore mining locations in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana and South Carolina. The USW says in a statement released Thursday that 94 percent of the ballots were in favor of the contract. ArcelorMittal said in a statement last month that it was pleased to have reached a “fair and equitable outcome without disruption to our business operations.”
BIG SHOES TO FILL Tallest man in US gets custom-made tennis shoes (Information in the following story is from: Post-Bulletin, http://www.postbulletin.com) ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) – It was a tall order to fill, but the tallest man in the United States now has his own custom-made tennis shoes. Igor Vovkovinskiy (voh-kov-IN’-ski) stands just over 7 feet, 8 inches tall. He’s long struggled to find shoes for his size 24, 10E feet. But the 30-year-old Minnesota man received three custom-made pairs Thursday from Reebok that took five months to make. As he tried on a pair, he said it felt as if he were “walking on pillows or mattresses.” For as long as he can remember, he’s had one pair of shoes. He says he’s had 16 foot surgeries in six years because of damage caused by ill-fitting shoes. The Post-Bulletin reports that Vovkovinskiy knew who he’d tell first about his new shoes, saying: “My mom.”
PEANUT BUTTER RECALL-SMUCKER’S Smucker’s Uncrustables sold to schools recalled MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Officials have told school lunch programs across the country to check to see if they have Smucker’s Uncrustables sandwiches that might contain peanut butter from a New Mexico company subject to a nationwide recall over salmonella contamination – and not to serve them. The J.M. Smucker Company says it used peanut butter from Sunland Incorporated in “limited production runs” of 72-count bulk packs of the sandwiches that went to schools under the National School Lunch Program. A spokeswoman says testing showed no problems. But as a precaution schools have been told to check if they still have any of the sandwiches from the recalled lots, which all have expired or expire soon. Thirty-five illnesses in 19 states have been linked to Sunland. None have been linked to the Uncrustable sandwiches.
OBIT-MARTIN Hall of Fame guard Slater Martin dies HOUSTON (AP) – Slater Martin, the Hall of Fame guard who won four NBA titles with the Minneapolis Lakers and one with the St. Louis Hawks, died Thursday. He was 86. Martin died Thursday at a skilled nursing facility in Houston after a sudden illness, daughter-in-law Becky Martin said. She said he was admitted to the nursing home Monday. Martin was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982. He went into the University of Texas’ Longhorn Hall of Honor in 1962, entered the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1964, and the school retired his Number 15 in 2009. The 5-foot-10 Martin averaged 9.8 points and 4.2 assists in 745 NBA regular-season game with Minneapolis, New York and St. Louis from 1949 to 1950 to 1959 to 1960.