Recently in Local News Category

It's officially bird cam watching season.

Just this week cameras captured the first peregrine falcon eggs at Xcel Energy's power plant nest boxes, reported KSTP.

Bird Cams A. S. King plant in Oak Park Heights and Sherburne County (Sherco) plant near Becker, Minn., have nesting boxes and cameras offering streaming video, reported the Star Tribune.

From now through mid-summer, you can watch the falcons going about their daily lives on streaming video, reported KSTP.

The first Bird Cam was installed at the King Plant in 1997, reported the Star Tribune.

When the World Trade Center towers collapsed on 9/11, rubble fell near Manhattan's historic St. Paul's Chapel where George Washington once worshipped. No damage was done to the chapel; instead, an old sycamore tree took the blow, reported the Star Tribune.
Sculptor Steve Tobin paid tribute to that sycamore tree and 9/11 by creating a monumental 20-foot bronze casting of the tree's stump and roots. This sculpture, called the Trinity Root, is the only piece of art memorial on display near the site of the tragedy, reported the Star Tribune.
The project was a turning point in Tobin's life, as he felt he could no longer create another piece made from bronze that was comparable to the Trinity Root. He switched to steel and his style switched from naturalism to modernism, according to the Star Tribune.
As a result, a series of sculptures called Steelroots, will be on display at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chanhassen starting Saturday, reported the Star Tribune.
Total, there will be 16 giant sculptures located throughout the Arboretum, reported the Chaska Herald.

A man and a woman died Friday after being shot in the break room of a Brooklyn Park grocery store by another store employee.
Abigail M. Fedeli, 20, was shot in the neck and died at the scene. Michael Habte, 22, was taken to North Memorial Medical Center, where he later died, reported Fox 9.
The shooters name was not released, but Brooklyn Park Deputy Chief Craig Enevoldsen identified the shooter as the dead woman's ex-acquaintance, reported the Star Tribune.
The shooter immediately left the area after the incident and police tracked him down to Minneapolis via his cell phone, reported Fox 9.
As police authorities closed in on him, he shot himself near West River Parkway and his body was found under the Washington Avenue Bridge, reported the Star Tribune.
Festival Foods was closed Saturday and expected to re-open on Sunday, reported the Star Tribune.
"Our hearts go out to the families of the victims and we ask that you keep them in your prayers and continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time." reads a statement sent to Fox 9 News by Lauri Youngquist, President of Festival Foods.

A St. Paul house caught fire Wednesday, causing a mother and her five children inside the home to flee for their lives.
According to the St. Paul Fire Department, the fire broke out around 11 p.m. in the 1000 block of Wilson Ave. in the Dayton's Bluff neighborhood, reported the Star Tribune.
A 7-year-old girl said she was plugging in an electric heater in her bedroom when sparks flew onto her bed and started it on fire, reported the Pioneer Press.
When the fire started, the mother called 911 and fled the house with her children, reported the Star Tribune.
When the firefighters arrived, the single-story house was already engulfed in flames.
Everyone in the house escaped safely and the only injury was a burn to the 7-year-old girl's finger who was plugging in a space heater when it sparked.

A St. Paul man who pleaded guilty in February to stealing tools and more than 20 mounted animals from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources was sentenced Thursday.
Timothy Heidenreich, 38, apologized to the DNR at his sentencing, where he was ordered to pay $8,204.74 in restitution to the DNR, reported the Star Tribune.
He was given a stayed sentence of one year and nine months in prison and was put on probation for five years, reported the Star Tribune.
Heidenreich is one of three men that broke into the DNR building in January and stole $40,000 worth of property, reported CBS Minnesota.
Shane J. Rylander, 40, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the stolen property, reported the Star Tribune. Terry K. Cotton, 37, pleaded not guilty to the same charge.

The economy in the Midwest and in Minnesota continues to improve as agricultural and manufacturing businesses grow.
The Star Tribune reported that Minnesota suppliers enjoyed their 20th consecutive month of improvements to employment, sales, production, and inventories in March, despite declines in other parts of the Midwest.
The overall economy in the Midwest remained strong, though, as shown by the Mid-America business conditions index, reported Bloomberg Businessweek. The index had declined to 61.4 in March from February's 63.2, but any index above 50 indicates economic growth.
In Minnesota, fifteen out of eighteen manufacturing sectors reported growth that was significantly above the neutral level, reported the Star Tribune.
The Minnesota index for March was 58.7, reported the Star Tribune. Minnesota's other indexes were high, too: 80.2 for new orders; 72.3 for production/sales; 66.5 for delivery lead time, and 61.9 for inventories.
Economics professor at Creighton University, Ernie Gross, noted that employment in the Midwest continued to grow, reported Bloomberg Businessweek. "Our surveys over the past several months indicate that the region will add another 100,000 by the end of 2011 leaving the region down 379,000 jobs, or 3.0 percent, since beginning of the recession."

Elsie Mitchell has been a volunteer and worker in the medical field for most of her life, and she has volunteered at the Fairview Southdale Hospital since she was 90 years old.
Mitchell began her volunteering at Fairview Southdale Hospital by delivering items to various departments. Then she moved on to pushing patients around in wheelchairs, but when that became too heavy for her, she maintained the lobby outside the heart center, reported the Sun Current.
Over the past decade, she has given the hospital gifts and donations that reach into six figures, but that wasn't enough for her, reported the Star Tribune. Mitchell wanted to give something that gave people "peace and comfort", so the planning and building of the new meditation sanctuary began.
The Elsie O. Mitchell Meditation Sanctuary was completed in fall 2009 and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, reported the Sun Current.
"[The sanctuary] is a beautiful, beautiful facility and it meets the needs of so many people in the hospital," Fairview Southdale President Brad Beard told the Sun Current. "We literally have hundreds of people go there every week. We feel very fortunate to have her be the driving force behind it."
Last month, Edina Mayor Jim Hovland marked Thursday, Feb. 10, "Elsie O. Mitchell Day" for her service to the community, reported the Sun Current.
"I am proud of it," she said. "I'm really happy that I did something good for people," she told the Star Tribune.

Alfred Schwan, the former chief executive of The Schwan Food Co. died March 18 at his home in Kansas at the age of 85.
The Pioneer Press reported that Schwan played a key role in the building of the firm's frozen pizza business.
His brother, Marvin Schwan, launched the company in 1952 and Alfred joined the business after returning from the U.S. Navy in 1964, reported the Star Tribune.
At this time, the company was growing rapidly, and Alfred played important roles such as guiding the frozen-pizza operations and then all manufacturing facilities, reported the Pioneer Press.
After the death of Marvin in 1993, Alfred was appointed CEO and chairman, according to the Pioneer Press.
"Alfred was an iconic, inspirational and charismatic leader who spent more than half his life contributing to the success of the company," Schwan's Chief Executive Greg Flack told the Star Tribune.
Alfred is survived by his five sons and his wife Doris, reported the Star Tribune.

A three-alarm fire in South Minneapolis destroyed a medical clinic early Wednesday.
Minneapolis firefighters were called to the Bloomington Lake Clinic on the 3000 block of Bloomington Avenue at around 3 a.m. where flames already engulfed the building, Kare 11 reported.
Assistant Fire Chief Cherie Penn told the Star Tribune that firefighters tried three times to battle the fire from the inside, but were prevented because the fire's location on the roof created a danger.
Dr. Walter Hinck has worked at the clinic since 1985. "We've prided ourselves on being able to provide care for people in the area who arrive by bus," Hinck told the Star Tribune. It will be a few days before he figures out a plan for many of the patients.
Firefighters began tackling the fire from above, but the chemicals in the clinic made the fire extremely difficult to extinguish, Kare 11 reported.
According to the Star Tribune, the fire burned for several hours, disturbing traffic at a busy intersection and the lives of many neighborhood residents.
A spokesperson for the clinic told Kare 11 that all computer medical records were safe, but all paper records kept inside the building were destroyed.

The St. Paul City Council is expected to approve a $270,000 police brutality settlement for a woman who was thrown into a glass door by a police officer, requiring her to get more than 300 stitches.
Cosetta Morris, 35, claimed that an officer forcefully grabbed her in an attempt to break up a fight between her and her roommate and tossed Morris across the room, making her arm go through a glass door, reported the Pioneer Press. She needed surgery to repair tendon damage.
Morris, represented by attorney Bob Bennett, needed more than 300 stitches inside her arm and on her skin. "It's a decent deal...she was cut really bad," Bennet told the Star Tribune.
It is St. Paul's second largest settlement for a police misconduct case, second only to the $400,000 to the family of Charles Craighead, who was accidentally shot and killed by police in 2001 as he tried to protect his fiancé from a carjacker, reported the Star Tribune.
On March 15, 2009, Morris and her roommate got into a fight and her roommate had called the police for help. Officer Adam Bailey and his partner arrived at the apartment at 9 p.m.
According to the lawsuit, the police officers arrived to find Morris pinning her roommate to the couch, trying to get a ring off of her roommate's finger, reported the Pioneer Press.
Bailey told Morris to get off of her roommate twice, reported the Star Tribune, but before she could obey, Bailey grabbed her and threw her several feet across the room, causing her arm to go through a glass pane.
The Pioneer Press reported that Morris was taken to Regions hospital as her roommate was escorted from the apartment.
The settlement contains the city's denial of liability or misconduct, reported the Star Tribune.