Star Tribune
Minnesota’s first electric firetruck launches in St. Paul
With a chime, automated message, and hum of its battery-powered engine, Minnesota’s first electric fire truck whirred to life Friday to mark its first day of service in St. Paul.
City officials and state legislators cut a ribbon before praising the Rosenbauer RTX truck, which was assembled in Wyoming, Minnesota with features especially tailored towards St. Paul. Mayor Melvin Carter praised the truck’s features and design before taking a test drive Friday. Carter said the truck’s compact size allows ease of access to more businesses, adding that its features will help protect residents and firefighters. The new engine’s arrival comes amid one of the deadliest fire years in St. Paul’s recent history, including a January blaze that claimed the lives of four young children.
“It does so many things and creates so many operational advantages for our fire department,” Carter said. “This will help us to improve the level of service that we provide to both our community and for our fire fighters.”
The rig’s height adjusts for firefighters to grab equipment with more ease, and to traverse rain and snow that has stranded diesel fire trucks in St. Paul before. Its wheels rotate, allowing the rig to pivot and turn around tight corners. Cameras show a 360 degree view around the engine, ditching side mirrors in order to save space, and a backup generator keeps the truck running through shifts that can stretch past 12 hours.
“This truck is all wheel drive, so that’s going to be very very beneficial in the wintertime. That’s not something you would typically find on a fire apparatus,” Todd McBride, Rosenbauer America’s Sales and Marketing Manager, said at Friday’s ceremony.
Additional trucks are on order for the cities of Roseville, and Superior, Wisconsin.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, center, in gray suit, cuts the red ribbon in front of the electric fire truck with St. Paul Fire Chief Butch Inks, St. Paul City Council member Nelsie Yang , in beige coat, and her son Txongka Xiong, 2, along with other St. Paul Fire Department officials during a press event at St. Paul Fire Station 1 in St. Paul on Friday. (Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Fire Department Chief Butch Inks is excited for the new rig, explaining that it’s the first time St. Paul’s added to its total number number of fire engines in 66 years. Inks expects it will cut money his department spends pumping 2,000 gallons of fuel into diesel trucks every year. But Inks said he is most excited for the truck’s impact on firefighters’ health.
According to the nonprofit Minnesota Firefighter Initiative, fire service workers across the state suffer cardiac disease, emotional trauma, and cancer “at rates nearly twice as high as the general public.” Much of that is caused by fires and by diesel engines spewing fumes where firefighters sleep.
Iowa law enforcement officials last month searched a property in Winsted, Minn., as part of the investigation into the 1995 disappearance of TV news anchor Jodi Huisentruit.
It’s not known publicly what brought investigators to the city of 2,200 about 40 miles west of Minneapolis, or whether the search represents a significant development in the case.
But Caroline Lowe, a veteran TV journalist who has followed the case closely for FindJodi.com, said it’s the first known law enforcement activity surrounding the case since 2017.
Lowe said she’s unaware of any connections Huisentruit had with Winsted, and added that it’s a development she and others did not see coming.
“It’s intriguing people,” Lowe said of the search. “Why Winsted?”
Huisentruit, a 27-year-old native of Long Prairie, Minn., and a graduate of St. Cloud State University, was an anchor at KIMT in Mason City, Iowa, when she disappeared on June 27, 1995, as she was heading to work.
She is believed to have been abducted, though her body has never been found. No one has been held accountable in the case.
For several days in mid-October, officers with the Mason City Police Department followed up on a lead and searched a property in Winsted, according to Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley and Winsted Police Chief Justin Heldt.
Hegseth has been married three times, according to court records. He married his first wife, Meredith, in his early 20s and they divorced in 2009, according to Minnesota court filings. The couple agreed that the reasons for the split were an “irretrievable breakdown” of the marriage and Hegseth’s “infidelity,” according to a filing in their divorce case. She declined to comment.
He married his second wife, Samantha, in 2010. Hegseth fathered a child with another woman, Jennifer Rauchet, then a Fox News producer, in August 2017, during that marriage. According to court records, Samantha Hegseth, who did not respond to a request for comment, filed for divorce in September – a month after the child was born. Following his second divorce, Hegseth married Rauchet.
Hegseth is one of several Trump Cabinet picks who could face resistance in the Senate. His selection caught many by surprise. The Fox News host, who served in the Army National Guard, has echoed Trump’s complaints that the military is too “woke” and, during Trump’s first term, successfully encouraged the president to pardon Army officers accused of war crimes over objections from the Pentagon.
Trump’s team began formally vetting Hegseth after Trump called him Nov. 7 to ask whether he was interested in becoming defense secretary, a person familiar with the conversations told The Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private meetings.
Trump’s pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, also faces renewed scrutiny of sexual misconduct allegations ahead of a potentially contentious confirmation fight. The Justice Department last year dropped an investigation into allegations that Gaetz violated sex trafficking laws in a case involving a 17-year-old girl, but the House Ethics Committee has been reviewing the matter more recently and was about to vote on releasing a report when Gaetz resigned from Congress this week – just after Trump’s decision to tap him for attorney general. Gaetz has denied wrongdoing.
The president-elect himself has also been accused over the years of sexual harassment and assault – allegations he denies. A jury in a civil trial last year found Trump liable for sexual abuse of the writer E. Jean Carroll and ordered him to pay damages.
Star Tribune
E. coli infections traced back to Red Cow restaurants and Hen House Eatery in Minnesota
Ten cases of E. coli have been identified from customers who ate hamburgers at several locations of the Red Cow restaurant chain and at Hen House Eatery in downtown Minneapolis, the Minnesota Department of Health announced Friday.
The ground beef product connected to those infections was also distributed to other unidentified establishments, according to the Health Department. Additional cases from other locations could be identified, and other potential cases were already under investigation.
The confirmed cases involve meal dates from Oct. 31 through Nov. 7, and illness onset dates from Nov. 4 through Nov. 9, according to the department. Those affected range in age from 9 to 70 years, and two of them have been hospitalized.
Red Cow and Hen House Eatery owners are fully cooperating with the investigation and have already made product changes to prevent further illness, the department said. Red Cow has a total of six locations in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Wayzata and Rochester.
Symptoms of E. coli typically include stomach cramps and diarrhea, often with bloody stools. Illness can set in anywhere from one to eight days after exposure. About 5% of cases can lead to severe complications such as acute kidney failure.
