Star Tribune
Minnesota State Patrol investigating fatal crash on I-35 near Faribault
At least one person died Friday afternoon in a crash along a stretch of Interstate 35 near Faribault that has been the scene of other accidents this month, one of them fatal and another a six-car pileup that sent two women to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Few details of this latest crash were available Friday evening, but the Minnesota State Patrol confirmed that it was investigating a fatal crash on northbound I-35 near milepost 53, just south of Faribault. Freeway construction near that spot reduces traffic to one lane, and the crashes appear to be happening as traffic slows down before the merge.
It’s near the same spot where Mona Lee Bengtson, 63, was killed Aug. 11, also while driving in the northbound lanes of the interstate, when her Toyota Highlander collided with a Dodge Ram traveling in the same direction, according to the State Patrol. The other driver was not injured.
In a crash on Aug. 20, two women were seriously hurt when their Chevrolet Suburban collided with a semi-trailer truck as both vehicles traveled in the northbound lanes. The crash caused a chain reaction of collisions involving four other cars. Three people had injuries that were not life threatening, according to the State Patrol.
One woman has since been discharged from the hospital, while the other remains in the intensive care unit of Mayo Clinic Hospital, according to hospital officials.
A portion of the interstate between Owatonna and Faribault was reduced to one lane for much of Friday for the crash investigation.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
Star Tribune
Moorhead man arrested after driving into squad cars, police say
A Moorhead, Minn., man was arrested on Saturday while he fled the scene in his vehicle and rammed into squad cars, according to police.
At about 1 p.m. Saturday, officers responded to the 3200 block of 9th Street S. on a report of a domestic incident. Police said they spoke with a 19-year-old man at the scene and he was “uncooperative and argumentative,” according to a department news release.
The Minnesota Star Tribune does not typically name suspects until they are charged. The man allegedly fled in his vehicle and backed into a squad car. An officer pursued the man, who rammed into another squad car before leaving, police said.
He eventually returned to the scene where officers took him into custody. He was booked into the Clay County Correctional Facility a short time later.
The officer who pursued the suspect sought medical attention for pain after their vehicle was struck, police said. Two squad cars were damaged during the incident.
According to the county sheriff’s booking report, the man was arrested on charges including assault of a peace officer causing bodily harm, fleeing police in a motor vehicle, assault inflicting serious bodily harm with a dangerous weapon as well as damage to property over $1,000.
Star Tribune
Coloring book duo teams up again to highlight St. Paul’s Rondo history
Kosfeld used family photographs and old newspaper pictures as the basis for her illustrations. She also researched clothing of the period. It was important to her, she said, that her drawings “were respectful. No cartoons or caricatures.”
“Rondo,” Kosfeld said, “can be a heavy subject to some communities. But I wanted to show it was just beautiful. Playful.”
The project took nearly two years to complete from January 2023 to early 2024. Kosfeld and Kronick published the coloring book themselves. The Rondo book can be found at several shops and bookstores in St. Paul, including Next Chapter Books, Red Balloon, Wet Paint, Waldmann Brewery, Subtext Books, the Minnesota Historical Society gift shop and St. Paul Children’s Hospital.
Kosfeld is working on a third coloring book with a St. Paul focus, this one on the art, architecture and history of the St. Paul park system, to be published by the Ramsey County Historical Society.
Star Tribune
Harris goes to church while Trump muses about reporters being shot
LITITZ, Pa. — Kamala Harris told a Michigan church on Sunday that God offers America a ”divine plan strong enough to heal division,” while Donald Trump gave a profane and conspiracy-laden speech in which he mused about reporters being shot and labeled Democrats as ”demonic.”
The two major candidates took starkly different tones on the final Sunday of the campaign. Less than 48 hours before Election Day, Harris, the Democratic vice president, argued that Tuesday’s election offers voters the chance to reject ”chaos, fear and hate,” while Trump, the Republican former president, repeated lies about voter fraud to try to cast doubt on the integrity of the vote and suggested that the country was falling apart without him in office.
Harris was concentrating her Sunday in Michigan, beginning the day with a few hundred parishioners at Detroit’s Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ. It marked the fourth consecutive Sunday that Harris, who is Baptist, has spoken to a Black congregation, a reflection of how critical Black voters are across multiple battleground states.
”I see faith in action in remarkable ways,” she said in remarks that quoted the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. ”I see a nation determined to turn the page on hate and division and chart a new way forward. As I travel, I see Americans from so-called red states and so-called blue states who are ready to bend the arc of history toward justice.”
She never mentioned Trump, though she’s certain to return to her more conventional partisan speech in stops later Sunday. But Harris did tell her friendly audience that ”there are those who seek to deepen division, sow hate, spread fear and cause chaos.” The election and ”this moment in our nation,” she continued, ”has to be about so much more than partisan politics. It must be about the good work we can do together.”
Harris finished her remarks in about 11 minutes — starting and ending during Trump’s roughly 90-minute speech at a chilly outdoor rally at the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, airport.
Trump usually veers from subject to subject, a discursive style he has labeled ”the weave.” But in Lancaster, he went on long tangents and hardly mentioned his usual points on the economy, immigration and rote criticisms of Harris.
Instead, Trump relaunched criticisms of voting procedures across the nation and his own staff. He resurrected grievances about being prosecuted after trying to overturn his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden, suggesting at one point that he ”shouldn’t have left” the White House.
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