MN News

STUDENT TEACHER-SENTENCED        Ex-Minn. student teacher gets month in jail, fine        HASTINGS, Minn. (AP) – A former Simley High School student teacher has been sentenced to a month in jail for sending a nude photo of herself to a 17-year-old student.        Twenty-seven-year-old Jenna Anne Schultz of Minnetonka also sentenced Tuesday to two years of probation. As part of her sentence, Schultz was ordered to pay restitution, complete a chemical dependency evaluation and pay a $500 fine.        Schultz pleaded guilty last November in Dakota County to contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a gross misdemeanor.        Prosecutors say the charge stemmed from a nude photo Schultz sent to a male student while she was a student teacher at Simley High School in Inver Grove Heights last spring.

RANDOM FATAL SHOOTING-MINNESOTA        Minn. police seek motive in fatal random shootings        OAKDALE, Minn. (AP) – Police are trying to determine why a 34-year-old man randomly shot at passing vehicles in a suburban St. Paul neighborhood, wounding a female driver and killing her 9-year-old son.        A witness tells The Associated Press that the man identified by police Tuesday as Nhan Lap Tran of Oakdale, was nonchalantly walking down the block the night before when he began firing.        Nine-year-old Devin Aryal of Oakdale was killed. His mother, 39-year-old Melissa Aryal, was shot in the arm. A woman in another vehicle also was injured, but was expected to survive.        Police Chief Bill Sullivan says it appears Tran legally owned the handgun used in the attack, and that Tran has no apparent history of mental health issues.        Prosecutors were expected to file charges Wednesday.

TRAIN COLLISION-NTSB        NTSB blames crew error for 2010 Minn. train crash        (Information in the following story is from: WDIO-TV, http://www.wdio.com)        MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Federal investigators blame crew error for a head-on collision between two Canadian National freight trains in northeastern Minnesota in 2010.        The National Transportation Safety Board issued its report Tuesday on the crash that hurt all five crew members. The NTSB says the probable cause was the southbound train crew’s error in leaving a siding before the northbound train had passed.        The NTSB found the southbound train pulling 116 cars loaded with iron ore did not have authority to operate on the single track. The northbound train pulling 118 empty cars did have authority.        According to the report, the trains were operating on a track with no wayside signals to tell engineers whether the track ahead is clear.

WDIO-TV reports the NTSB also noted crew fatigue contributed to the crash.        MENINGITIS OUTBREAK        Panel centralizes meningitis litigation in Mass.        BOSTON (AP) – A judicial panel has ruled that all suits filed against a pharmacy linked to a multi-state fungal meningitis outbreak will be heard in federal court in Massachusetts.        The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ruled Tuesday that the more 120 suits filed in the case against the New England Compounding Center will be assigned to judge F. Dennis Saylor.        Some plaintiffs had requested the cases be centralized in Minnesota.        But the panel said the litigation was best centralized in Massachusetts because the NECC is headquartered there, its bankruptcy case is pending there, and the primary witnesses and evidence will likely be located there.        The fungal meningitis outbreak, discovered in Tennessee in September, has been blamed on a steroid produced by the NECC. It’s sickened more than 650 and killed 46.

POLICE DOG STABBED-ST PAUL        Officers fatally shoot man who killed police dog        (Information in the following story is from: Star Tribune, http://www.startribune.com)        ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Authorities have shot and killed a man after he allegedly fatally stabbed a St. Paul police dog.        Police spokesman Sgt. Paul Paulos says law enforcement agencies went to a home about 1 p.m. Tuesday to talk to a person of interest. Officers went inside and the police dog found the man in the basement.        Police say the dog was fatally stabbed, and authorities shot and killed the man.        The Star Tribune reports St. Paul police, the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Marshal’s office responded to the incident.        No other details were immediately released.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST BILL        Minn. lawmakers open debate on interest disclosure        ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota lawmakers expect a tricky task when they begin refining legislation that more clearly define conflicts of interest and demands more financial disclosure from Minnesota public officials.        The House Elections Committee on Tuesday examined a proposal from state regulators that would impose stricter disclosure laws.        For the first time, officials in state and some local governments would have to disclose more details about their own income and that of a spouse. They would also have to do more to document potential conflicts that could cause them to refrain from voting.        Minnesota has been deemed to have among the weakest financial disclosure rules for officials. But lawmakers say they have to strike a balance between personal privacy of officials and public confidence that actions aren’t unduly influenced.

 

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