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Parts of Minnesota under fire weather watch, air quality alert Sunday

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Parts of Minnesota are under a fire weather watch and an air quality alert Sunday, raising some outdoor risks over the holiday weekend.

The fire weather watch, for areas of northern and western Minnesota, lasts from noon to 9 p.m. Sunday. It comes after a red flag warning was posted for northwestern Minnesota on Saturday, raising concerns about fires spreading quickly and out of control under the conditions, including low humidity and high wind.

The fire weather watch cites the combination of strong winds, low humidity and high temperatures to discourage any outdoor burning. It includes these parts of counties: West Polk, Norman, Clay, Kittson, Roseau, Lake Of The Woods, West Marshall, East Marshall, North Beltrami, Pennington, Red Lake, East Polk, North Clearwater, South Beltrami, Mahnomen, South Clearwater, Hubbard, West Becker, East Becker, Wilkin, West Otter Tail, East Otter Tail, Wadena and Grant.

Also Sunday, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is raising air quality concerns because of ground level ozone for east central Minnesota, starting noon on Sunday and lasting until 8 p.m. Monday.

“Air quality is expected to reach the Orange (unhealthy for sensitive groups) AQI category across east central and southeast Minnesota,” the MPCA said, because of sunny skies, warm temperatures and low humidity.

The area covered by the alert includes the Twin Cities metropolitan area, St. Cloud, Hinckley, Mankato, Albert Lea, Rochester, and the tribal nations of Prairie Island, Leech Lake, and Mille Lacs.

The weather worries are expected to lift by Tuesday, “when a weather system will move across the state and bring increased moisture, clouds, and scattered thunderstorms to eastern Minnesota.”

Until then, Sunday is expected to be sunny, with temps warming into the low to mid-80s. Monday could be even warmer in the Twin Cities metro.



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Former Hubbard County official, school bus driver gets six-year sentence for sex crimes against students

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A former Hubbard County commissioner and school bus driver was sentenced Friday to six years in prison for sex crimes involving minors.

Daniel J. Stacey, 60, was charged in April 2023 with criminal sexual conduct and electronic solicitation of a minor, both felonies, in Beltrami County District Court. He was then charged in November with nine additional felony counts related to criminal sexual contact with a minor.

Stacey pleaded guilty in June to four felony counts as part of a plea deal that dropped the remaining charges. His attorney, Joseph Tamburino, declined to comment Friday on the sentence, and officials with the Nevis school district did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.

Stacey resigned from the Hubbard County Board in January 2023 and was placed on leave from his school bus job during an investigation by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) that began after the parent of a Nevis student filed a complaint.

In an email Friday, Hubbard County Administrator Jeffrey Cadwell said he had no comment other than that Stacey’s actions “did not occur within the course and scope of his duties with the County and the County was completely unaware of them.”

According to a criminal complaint, Stacey offered to mentor a 13-year-old male on his bus route. He brought the boy to his property, asked him to watch pornography and tried to touch him in a sexual manner, court documents state.

The boy told investigators that Stacey told him not to tell anyone, and helped him rehearse what to say about doing chores at his property. Investigators said they found footage showing times Stacey would deactivate the school bus camera when the boy was the only student left on the bus.

A second criminal complaint outlines similar allegations against Stacey with a minor who was 14 years old.



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Woman charged as investigation into attack on north Minneapolis homeless shelter continues

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A 33-year-old woman has been charged with two felonies in connection with an attack on a north Minneapolis homeless shelter that forced 54 women and children to relocate last week.

Eureka D. Riser, 33, of Minneapolis, is charged with second-degree rioting with a dangerous weapon and first-degree damage to property, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. She was in custody Friday, a day after Minneapolis police confirmed her arrest.

Riser, also known as Eureka Willis, is alleged to have been in a group of at least three people who on Sept. 5 went to St. Anne’s Place, 2634 Russell Av. N., and threatened residents, smashing doors with a baseball bat.

Residents were forced to vacate the shelter, leaving it boarded with plywood and watched over by armed security. Building managers estimate that property damage amounts to more than $10,000, according to the county attorney’s office. Additional charges may be brought against others involved.

“This violent attack on some of our most vulnerable community members, unhoused women and children, in a place where they had gone to seek shelter and safety cannot be tolerated,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement.

Hoang Murphy, the CEO of People Serving People, which operates the shelter, said earlier this week that the four-hour episode was the culmination of an argument between shelter residents and neighbors over street parking that started days earlier and spilled over into violence.

According to the criminal complaint, which cites surveillance footage, Riser allegedly swung a baseball bat against the shelter’s doors, shattering glass while residents were inside. Another member of the group pointed what appears to be a gun at the front door of the building, the complaint says.

Residents have since been relocated to a hotel for safety reasons, costing People Serving People $9,000 a night — a figure that Murphy called unsustainable.



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6 months in jail for man shot by Minnesota deputies while resisting arrest

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A man who was shot and wounded by sheriff’s deputies in east-central Minnesota while resisting arrest received a six-month jail term Friday.

Leo H. Hacker, 71, was sentenced in Pine County District Court in connection with his guilty plea in two cases of assault, and obstructing and fleeing law enforcement in connection with his clashes with deputies in February 2023.

Hacker’s sentences will be served concurrently and includes Judge Jason Steffen setting aside a three-year sentence sought by the County Attorney’s Office. Steffen’s terms also include five years’ probation and community work service.

According to the charges in each case and related court documents:

On Feb. 21, deputies tried to pull over Hacker’s pickup truck on a gravel road about a mile from his Pine City home. As two deputies approached his vehicle, he drove toward them. Both deputies opened fire on Hacker and wounded him.

Hacker was wanted at the time on charges of second-degree assault and obstructing law enforcement in connection with allegations that he pointed a gun at a deputy outside his home on Feb. 14 and angrily defied orders to drop the weapon.

At one point, Hacker warned the deputies that if they did not leave, he would return with “something bigger,” the charges quoted him as saying.

The deputy was there to seize Hacker’s SUV stemming from a dispute over his unpaid attorney fees, the charges read. However, law enforcement outside the home “determined that based on the totality of circumstances, it was in the interest of safety to leave the scene at that time” and instead seek a warrant for Hacker’s arrest, the criminal complaint continued.



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