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Hoax email prompts Wright County sheriff visit to Rep. Tom Emmer’s Delano home

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Someone tried to draw police and a hostage negotiator to the Delano home of U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer over the weekend by claiming a murder had taken place inside, the Wright County Sheriff’s Office says.

The five-term Republican posted about it on X Saturday. “Tonight my family and I were the target of a ‘swatting’ incident involving a 911 prank call that wrongly diverted a police presence to my home,” Emmer wrote. He noted that other elected officials around the country have been similarly targeted recently.

A person who claimed to live at the house emailed the Wright County Attorney’s Office to claim he’d killed a man with whom his wife had been cheating. He requested a hostage negotiator and said he had her tied up inside, according to a copy of the police report.

A Wright County deputy identified the residence as Emmer’s home. Emmer was not in the state at the time.

“Thankfully, no one was home or injured,” Emmer wrote on X. “I condemn this illegal abuse of police resources.”

A Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said U.S. Capitol Police are investigating the incident.

The call came about a month after other high-profile Republican lawmakers reported having police summoned to their homes amid fake reports of violence. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, reported a similar incident on Christmas.

Several Minnesota schools and Jewish facilities were also the subjects of fake bombing and shooting threats in early December.

The term “swatting” came into prominence over the last decade as fully kitted out police departments and SWAT teams made headlines by responding to fake reports of shootings across the country. Those encounters sometimes turned deadly.

A St. Cloud man was held by police at gunpoint in 2015 when someone called local law enforcement with a fake tip. Nearly two dozen officers from six agencies responded to a hoax call at a Minnetonka man’s home in 2019 — Edina had even sent an armored vehicle.

A Kansas man was shot and killed in one such incident in 2017 after police were summoned to his house after a game of “Call of Duty” ended badly. A man suspected of making that and similar calls in 17 other states was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2019.





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Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town

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LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.

But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.

Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.

The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.

Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.

In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.

“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”

Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)

School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.



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Snow and rain on Halloween

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Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.

Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.

“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.

The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.

It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.

“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.

“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.

The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.



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Alcohol use suspected by off-duty deputy in injury crash in Afton, patrol says

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An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.

The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.

Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.

Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.

The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.

Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.

The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.



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