Recently in Local News Category

Minnesotans with new tattoos can now donate blood without delay, according to the St. Cloud Times.

They used to have wait one year before donating blood, but The American Red Cross Blood Services Minnesota lifted the stipulation Monday, according to the St. Cloud Times.

The Red Cross lifted the waiting period because of a new state law that requires all body art technicians to be licensed, CBS Local News said. According to the St. Cloud Times, before the Tattoo and Body Art bill was passed in 2010, the Red Cross banned people with new tattoos to donate blood right away to prevent the potential spread of disease by unlicensed stores reusing needles and inks.

Sue Gonsior of American Red Cross Blood Services Minnesota told CBS Local News 1000 additional donors are expected now the rule is lifted. 3,000 more people could be saved each year, Gonsior told the St. Cloud Times.

Three of the Hennepin Country suburban courts have installed facilities to screen visitors for weapons starting this Monday, according KARE.

Walk-through metal detectors are now installed at the Brookdale court in Brooklyn Center and the Ridgedale court in Minnetonka, while guards with handheld devices will start to station at the Southdale court in Edina, according to the Star Tribune.

The measures are responses to fears raised by a county judge who refused to hear suburban cases for safety reasons and a recent shooting in a northeastern Minnesota courthouse, the Star Tribune said.

The screening, which costs approximately $234,000, would be temporary, according to KARE. The Hennepin County Board voted in March to implement these measures after District Court Judge Lloyd Zimmerman publicly raised his concerns about the lack of security and safety measure at the Brookdale court, KARE said. according to the Star Tribune, until a permanent solution is set, the measures would be implemented.

About $1.6 million is now spent annually on weapon screening at the county's Government Center in downtown Minneapolis, where most of the county's courts are located, according to the Star Tribune.

Investigators continue to look for the suspect spotted fleeing from the scene of a triple murder on a BMX bike, according to the New York Daily News. The transcript from the 911 call was released last week, CBS Local News said.

The transcript was a call from the woman who found the death of the three people while dropping off her son at daycare, according to CBS Local News.

The three victims of the murder belonged to the same family. DeLois Brown, 59, was shot in her daycare center in Brooklyn Park, Minn., according to the New York Daily News. Her parents, James Bolden, 83, and Clover Bolden, 81, were also found dead at the scene, the New York Daily News said.

The witness saw a suspicious man outside the daycare center the day the Browns were shot, CBS Local News said. She was prompted to "go inside to make sure everyone is OK," and found the three covered in blood, CBS Local News said.

DeLois Brown's brother James Bolden told the Associated Press that it is "devastating" to lose his sister and parents all "in one day," according to the New York Daily News.

According to CBS Local News, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner concluded that DeLois Brown died of a gunshot wound to the head.

The number of death resulted from heroin overdose almost tripled in the Twin Cities in 2011 and heroin purchased in the Twin Cities had the highest potency in the nation, according to the Star Tribune.

Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek told KARE heroin addicts usually starts in the medicine cabinet because heroin are cheaper, alternative painkillers. Will Connell, a staff member of a chemical addition treatment program in Minnesota who was a past addict, told the Star Tribune it was the reason why he became addicted to heroin.

Sheriff Stanek told KARE Minnesota has heroin with a high purity rate because the drug comes directly from its source in Mexico and therefore is never diluted from its initial state, and the drug sells off at a higher price with higher purity.

The overdose problem is seen as "an old problem returns," according to the Star Tribune. Ramsey County Sheriff Matt Bostrom told the Star Tribune the drug was a major problem a generation ago. The high purity of the drug makes it easier to overdose, according to the Star Tribune.

Occupy Minnesota is expected to bring hundreds of protesters in downtown Minneapolis Saturday and new rules from the police, according to CBS Local News.

The Minneapolis Police Department has set up cameras at Peavey Plaza and Loring Park, where the protesters are expected to gather, CBS Local News said. A new rule is also established, prohibiting the participants to stay in the park overnight.

"By ordinance, parks close between midnight and 6 a.m., and that will be enforced," Minneapolis park police Sgt. Jason Ohotto told the Star Tribune. Demonstrators will be allowed to put up tents but not sleeping in them, park police told the Star Tribune.

Co-organizer Ben Egerman told CBS Local News that he was "terribly surprised" and "a little bit saddened" for the police to set up cameras for the protest, which is "being protected by the Constitution."

Egerman told the Star Tribune they chose Loring Park and Peavey Plaza for the "flexibility and the opportunity for more people to get involved and more actions to happen."

Occupy Minnesota would resume Saturday at noon at both sites, according to the Star Tribune.

A Minneapolis man admitted to charges for robbing several St. Paul drugstores this year, according to the Star Tribune.

A Forest Lake couple was disappointed when the police officer who shot two wild deer just feet from their house was not pleaded in violation of state law or police procedures, the Star Tribune said.

Jeff and Lee Ann Carpenter lodged a complaint on the four-year officer, whom Forest Lake police refused to name because of Data Privacy Laws, for "his reckless and dangerous cowboy antics," according to the Star Tribune.

According to the Pioneer Press, the Washington County sheriff's office determined that the complaint was "not sustained," a statement from Forest Lake Police Chief Rick Peterson said.

The officer was acting on orders from the Department of Natural Resources, which was granted the right to kill deer that "escape captivity" due to the potential health threat to the public, according to the Pioneer Press.

The Carpenters had been feeding the deer for years but the DPR thought the deer had escaped from a private game farm, the Star Tribune said. The DPR then alerted the police.

According to Carpenter's letter to Peterson, he expressed his fury for "not [being] notified of his presences or his intent which made for a dangerous situation," the Pioneer Press said.

The Andersons were furious that police opened fire on their dogs, causing one to die, while chasing after a fugitive, FOX 9 News said.

Police claimed that the dogs were approaching them aggressively outside Bobby and Leah Anderson's house as they ran after 42-year-old Roosevelt Montgomery, an escaped Level 3 sex offender, on Friday night, according to FOX 9 News.

Police spokesman Sgt. Steve McCarty told the Star Tribune that a Minneapolis officer was shot on the lower leg during the confrontation. Internal investigation on the cause of the gunshot was being launched, he said.

Montgomery was arrested Saturday afternoon near the border between Minneapolis and Golden Valley, McCarthy told the Star Tribune.

The Andersons showed FOX 9 News the damage in their house while the police searched for Montgomery. Montgomery was Leah Anderson's sister, according to FOX 9 News.

"My dogs didn't bark, didn't charge at them or anything," Bobby Anderson told FOX 9 News.

A Carver County judge released Wednesday a Minneapolis man who was accused of murdering in a Chaska bar in June, surprising the victim's family and attorney, the Star Tribune said.

The second-degree murder charge on Jesse J. Rogers, 32, was cleared because of a lack of sufficient evidence, CBS Local News said. Rogers was accused of involved in 35-year-old Justin David Foster's death on June 3, 2011, outside a Chaska bar, according to CBS Local News.

According to CBS Local News, Foster was stabbed during a fight involving Rogers and his brothers outside Kelley's Bar in Chaska, authorities said. Evidence in the trial showed Rogers stabbed Foster five times, but Rogers argued he was acting in self-defense, according to CBS Local News.

"[Foster's] family was obviously devastated and hurt and didn't understand why the jury didn't decide this case," Carver County Attorney Mark Metz told the Star Tribune. The family did not want to be contacted for comment, Metz told the Star Tribune.

Small-business companies in the Twin Cities are not competitive enough in the national market; many firms still "lack awareness about global export opportunities and resources," according to the Pioneer Press.

Local business leaders, economic development officials and the Brookings Institution studied business across the Twin Cities metro area and proposed to double the value of the area's foreign business over the next five years, the Pioneer Press said. They hoped it could help the state economy and job market to grow.

The Twin Cities "ranks 14th in exports among the 100 largest metro areas in the nation," according to the Pioneer Press, but the study showed that export growth rate in the state is still slow, ranking 67th in the nation.

The Brookings Metropolitan Export Initiative planned to start a new "export team" to help identifying "export ready" companies and create networks for them, bringing them to the national market, according to the Pioneer Press.

It is hard for small-business companies in the Twin Cities to grow nationally. At the same time, it is also tough for women to start a business in the metro, the Star Tribune said.

Just like the export business in the area, growth rate of women-owned businesses has slowed down though the number grows nationwide, according to a study sponsored by American Express, the Star Tribune said.

Janet Zahn, the founder of the Camden Music School in Minneapolis, told the Star Tribune it was "a desire for something different" when she decided to start the company.

Police released Friday surveillance photos of the suspects who robbed a cabdriver in north Minneapolis, the Star Tribune said.

The suspects were armed. Police only managed to get photos of one of the suspects, "described as a dark-complected black man, clean-shaven...wearing a black baseball cap," according to the Star Tribune. Police only have a few descriptions of the other suspect, Sgt. Stephen McCarthy told the Star Tribune.

The two men robbed the Yellow Cab driver Tekle Misgina, 41, of St. Paul inside his cab on March 18. "They drove the taxi about a half-block before fleeing on foot with cash and the driver's wallet and cellphone," the Star Tribune said.

Another Yellow Cab driver William Harper was shot to death on March 14, four days before the robbery on March 18, in Minneapolis, the Star Tribune said. According to Fox 9 News, cabdrivers have been calling for more protection after the fatal shoot.

Gary Schiff, a Minneapolis City Council member told Fox 9 News in-cab cameras, bullet-proof glass or a GPS tracking system were not enough to stop these crimes. He said it should be required by law for cabs to install either bullet-proof shields or cameras.

"When you look at the cost of a human life, I think we need to protect the driver," Schiff told Fox 9 News.