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Duluth man pleads guilty to criminal sexual conduct with girls

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DULUTH – With freshly selected jurors waiting nearby for the start of an expected days-long trial, a Duluth man facing criminal sexual conduct charges took a last-minute plea deal instead of facing the women he abused when they were children.

Clint Franklin Massie, 49, pleaded guilty Wednesday morning at the St. Louis County Courthouse to the four counts from incidents dating back to 2008-09 when two of his victims were young girls. The deal dismissed one of the counts against him. His sentencing is scheduled for March 20, and he could end up with more than nine years in prison. Massie, who was initially charged in February 2023 and has been out on $300,000 bail, was released until his sentencing.

In each case, the victim was known to Massie — whether they were related or through their shared membership at Old Apostolic Lutheran Church. He was friends with their parents and regarded as a fun, child-free uncle, according to reports from the investigation.

Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Michael Ryan told the court that the victims were satisfied with the deal.

“They have been involved in talking this through,” he said to Judge Dale Harris.

After Massie pleaded guilty, would-be witnesses and their supporters filed into the courtroom filling rows. Massie, dressed in a dark suit coat and khaki pants, turned to look. Ryan questioned him on the victims’ accusations — four specific scenarios where he had touched girls: during a sleepover at his house, when alone on a tractor, or beneath a blanket while others were in the room.

Massie said in court there were a lot of big gatherings and shared meals within this the group. It wasn’t unusual for one of the many children to sit on his lap.

At times Massie paused and said he couldn’t remember exact details or motives. At other times he deferred to what he told investigating officers last year. In each instance he ultimately agreed with the scenario presented by the prosecution.



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Here is the 2025 St. Paul Winter Carnival button

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St. Paul Winter Carnival legendary characters King Boreas, Vulcanus Rex, the Queen of the Snows and Klondike Kate unveiled buttons featuring scenes from some of the midwinter festival’s most popular events during kickoff Saturday at Union Depot.

Button sales also commenced as part of a run-up to the 139th edition of the “Coolest Celebration on Earth,” which runs from Jan. 23 to Feb. 2 at sites across the Capital City.

Carnival officials tapped local artist Heather Friedli to create four designs featuring ice carving, snow sculpting, the puzzle competition and the Grande Day Parade, which this year moves from downtown to Grand Avenue.

“It’s a great honor to be a part of this,” said Friedli, who has participated in the snow sculpting competition 14 out of the past 15 years and regularly takes her two sons, Orion and Sirius, to carnival events. The buttons are “the heart and soul of what the Winter Carnival means in my life.”

Though Friedli said she does not have a favorite among the four 2025 button designs, the image featuring the jingle dress dancer she and her team members made for the 2021 snow sculpting competition may get the nod. The creation, which won the People’s Choice Award that year, was aimed at bringing healing during the pandemic, she said.

The button design, she hopes, also will bring more attention to the medium, which does not get as much as ice carving, perhaps because the events take place on the State Fairgrounds and not downtown.

Friedli, who runs an art gallery on W. 7th Street and is an oil painter, is also fond of her image highlighting the parades, complete with ticker tape and the diversity of people who take in the spectacle.

“It brings the community together,” she said.



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Ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “Oz,” stolen and missing for years, are sold at auction for $28M

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A bidder paid $28 million for the storied pair of ruby slippers worn by actor Judy Garland and featured prominently in the classic film “The Wizard of Oz,” during Heritage Auctions’ live event Saturday in Dallas.

It was not immediately clear who won the slippers, but whoever it was paid a total of $32.5 million when you count the buyer’s premium and the extra fees going to the auction house.

The slippers, creating a buzz that went beyond the Yellow Brick Road, were discovered among vintage Hollywood costumes decades ago and purchased by a collector. They were then stolen in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minn., while on loan there, in a late-night smash-and-grab that went unsolved for more than a decade.

Since then, two Minnesota men with criminal histories have been tied to the crime: Terry Jon Martin, of Grand Rapids, who admitted he stole them, and Jerry Hal Saliterman, who is accused of burying them in a container in the backyard of his Crystal home. Martin pleaded guilty this year, and Saliterman’s trial starts in January in federal court.

Staffers from the Garland Museum planned to attend the Texas auction, backed in part by $100,000 from the Legislature and fundraising efforts. Janie Heitz, the museum’s executive director, said earlier this week that they were traveling with documentary filmmakers who have been following the story.

If the shoes weren’t within the museum’s budget, there were plenty of other pieces of “Oz” history for the museum’s keepers to consider. Thirty-two lots in the auction had ties to the movie, including photographs, a script, books and the witch’s hat.

But the auction’s centerpiece was the ruby slippers — an unmatched pair made by Innes Shoe Co. The slippers — red silk faille heels with hand-sequined silk and rhinestone rimmed bows — have Judy Garland’s name written on them. They’re actually mismatched; the right slipper matches the left slipper, and vice versa, for the pair displayed by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, according to expert Rhys Thomas.



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FBI increases reward for Brian Thompson’s killer to $50,000

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As the manhunt for the masked man who executed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk entered its fourth day on Saturday, the FBI upped a reward for tips on the identity of the killer to $50,000.

No new breakthroughs in the search have been announced since Friday evening, when law enforcement officers discovered the suspected killer’s backpack in Central Park.

According to the New York Post, Mayor Eric Adams told reporters at a police holiday party on Saturday that the “net is tightening.”

Authorities believe the person wanted in Wednesday’s shooting has left the city on a bus. Thompson, who was gunned down outside a Hilton in midtown Manhattan, was in New York to attend an investors’ conference for UHC’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, a health insurer and the nation’s fourth-largest company with headquarters in Minnetonka.

Investigators have relied on the web of video cameras spread out throughout New York City to locate Thompson’s suspected killer. Officials say the gunman arrived in New York on Nov. 24 on a bus that originated in Atlanta. Video footage captured the man briefly removing his mask while checking into an Upper West Side hostel and purchasing a water bottle and snacks at a Starbucks on the morning of the shooting.

After shooting Thompson, the suspect sailed off into Central Park on a bike. Video later tracked him entering a bus station on the northwestern edge of Manhattan.

The cold-blooded shooting of Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two who lived in Maple Grove, drew reactions of shock and outpourings of grief from across the nation, including public officials, colleagues, and Thompson’s own community in the west metro suburbs.

But the killing of the insurance executive, who once led a business unit that has been scrutinized for denying health care claims, has sparked a public debate about the role and power that insurers wield in the American health care system.



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