Star Tribune
Veteran lost his legs after IED blast, but not spirit
CLEVELAND, MINN. – Avid hunter. Trap-shooting mentor. Son. Dedicated father and husband. Loyal friend. Southern Minnesota enthusiast.
Jack Zimmerman embraces all those personas. Yet he’s inevitably best known for another role: U.S. combat veteran.
As a member of the 101st Airborne Division, Zimmerman served Operation Enduring Freedom in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, for nine months during 2010 and 2011 — until he stepped on an improvised explosive device, or IED, in the midst of a battle, and his world changed forever.
“I was 21 and a half years old when I becaa me double amputee,” said Zimmerman, 35, “and in the hospital I learned that with a good attitude I could overcome everything and with a bad attitude, I couldn’t overcome anything.”
In the intervening years, Zimmerman has worked through many physical and psychological obstacles en route to creating a rewarding life that’s altogether different from what he envisioned as a teen.
“I’ve referred to him as a hometown hero,” said fellow Cleveland resident Cheri Rohlfing.
“What hits me the most about Jack is he had this horrible thing happen to him but he came back and made the best out of it.”
Blue Earth County’s Veterans Service officer and Marine Corps veteran Mike McLaughlin praises Zimmerman for his efforts to encourage, mentor and support other veterans of every stripe.
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department unsealed criminal charges Friday in a thwarted Iranian plot to kill President-elect Donald Trump before this week’s presidential election.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan alleges that an unnamed official in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed a contact this past September to put together a plan to surveil and ultimately kill Trump.
If the man, identified as Farjad Shakeri, was unable to create a plan by then, the complaint said, the official told him Iran would pause its plan until after the presidential election because the official believed Trump would lose and it would be easier to assassinate him then, the complaint said.
Shakeri told the FBI he didn’t plan to propose a plan to murder Trump within the seven days the official had requested, according to the complaint.
The plot, with the charges unsealed just days after Trump’s defeat of Democrat Kamala Harris, reflects what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target U.S. government officials, including Trump, on U.S. soil.
Star Tribune
Tiny amount of propane gas enough to ignite blast in near Bagley that critically burned man, his 5 boys
A “residual” amount of propane gas in a tank was all that was needed for a flicker from a cigarette lighter to ignite an explosion and fire that critically burned a man and his children in a northwestern Minnesota storage unit, state officials said Friday.
Emergency responders arrived to find the man and children ages 6 to 14 with burns, the Sheriff’s Office said. The boys’ sister said the brothers were with their father at the time of the incident.
The State Fire Marshal said in an update Friday that the six victims remain in critical but stable condition in HCMC in Minneapolis.
Kyra Frank identified the five children to the Star Tribune by their first names as her brothers, according to an online fundraising page that she started to help the family with expenses related to the explosion. They are Keegan, 6; Kaeto, 8; Braedynn, 10; Tannen, 12; and Zander, 14. She said their father, 55-year-old Randy Ritchie, was the man with them at the time.
State fire investigators determined that a 100-pound propane cylinder, “believed to be empty, contained enough residual gas to fill the storage container to dangerous levels,” a statement from the State Fire Marshal read.
Ritchie and his children entered the storage unit to retrieve toys, the statement continued. Unaware of the danger, the children entered first and did not recognize the distinct odor of mercaptan, the additive that gives propane its telltale “gas” smell. Moments later, a cigarette lighter’s sparked set off the explosion.
“This family faces a long road to recovery, but they are bravely sharing their story so that nobody else experiences such a devastating accident,” the statement quoted State Fire Marshal Dan Krier as saying. “We hope this family’s tragedy serves as a reminder to take precautions when storing and handling propane.”
ST. CLOUD – An updated vote count in the House 14B race has widened the gap between DFL Rep. Dan Wolgamott and Republican challenger Sue Ek.
The updated totals come after Sherburne County election staff identified absentee ballots received by the U.S. Postal Service that weren’t included in the unofficial totals uploaded to the Minnesota Secretary of State website on election night, according to a statement issued Thursday night by Sherburne County Administrator Bruce Messelt.
Messelt said the delayed upload was limited to one ballot scanner and “involved an incomplete transfer of data from that scanner to the state election reporting system.”
“This is why election results are unofficial until all tabulations and totals are checked and double checked, and the Canvassing Board meets and certifies the election results,” Messelt said in the release. “This is also why procedures and multiple checks and balances are in place to identify and correct such challenges, should they arise, in the processing and counting of all cast ballots.”
On Wednesday morning, the Secretary of State’s office showed Wolgamott had a 28-vote lead over Ek. The updated results show a difference of 191 votes; Wolgamott now has 50.36% of the vote, with Ek having 49.4%.
For legislative races, taxpayer-funded recounts occur when the results are within 0.5% of the total votes cast.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
