Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Severe storms went through portions of Minnesota yesterday. Little Falls saw just rain through the day, with the airport reporting around 1.4 inches of rain Monday into early Tuesday. A line of severe storms went through Annandale to Kimball then northeast into Royalton to Morrill and through eastern Morrison County into Mille Lacs. Another round of severe storms struck parts of Crow Wing and Cass County last night. There were reports of some heavy straight line winds and hail. Tornado warnings were issued but the National Weather Service reports as of right now one report of a touchdown in southern Minnesota hear Faribault which is being investigating today where barns were destroyed and some outbuildings in the the area. Xcel Energy reported over 4,000 customers were still without power as of 5am this morning in the Twin Cites Metro Area from the storms.
Sourcewell held their Students of Character 2025 event at Maddens on Gull Lake. This year included from Little Falls Community High School Julia Erwin and Carie Gerwing, Pierz Sophie Leidenfrost and Luke Thomsen, Royalton Damien Bishop and Sascha Duevel, Swanville Ingrid Anahi Meza and LaKiesha Kuhl, Upsala Paul Blonigen and Samatha Pilarski, Pillager Cooper Colgrove and Chelsea Williams, Staples-Motley Josiah Critten and Violet Dahlvang were awarded honors for Students of Character this year.
The Upsala fire department will be conducting a mock car crash on Friday May 2nd in the morning. There will be increased emergency vehicles in town for this event prior to the Prom in Upsala this weekend.
A small town bar in Remer of Cass County was destroyed in a fire. The Cass County Sheriff's Office says they received a 911 call at about 5:30am. Sunday for a structure fire on Highway 200 in Remer. Deputies and first responders arrived on the scene and found "The Pub" bar engulfed in flames. Fire Departments from Remer and Longville responded. There is significant damage to the building. The fire is under investigation with the help of the State Fire Marshal's Office.
This week, traffic signal work will start on University Drive, which may gum up the works for a few days. The City of St. Cloud say there will be upgrades to the signals from Cooper Avenue to Kilian Boulevard. The road will be open to drivers, but they are being warned to anticipate delays as the signals will be on flash mode while the work is in progress. Updates to the signals include installation of flashing yellow arrows for many left turn signals. A flashing yellow signal allows for left turning traffic to proceed if it is safe to do so, meaning they must yield to oncoming traffic or pedestrians.
An Iowa judge has unsealed parts of a search warrant involving a one-time acquaintance of Jodi Huisentruit's who became a person of interest in her 1995 disappearance in Mason City. Cerro Gordo County Judge James M. Drew ruled on March 27, 2025 that most parts of a 2017 warrant application to place GPS tracking devices on two vehicles owned by John Vansice be made public except a supporting affidavit, which contains information the judge deemed important to the integrity of the ongoing Huisentruit investigation. Judge Drew's order mandated that the released section of the warrant would be made public within 31 days. Jodi, a native of Long Prairie, Minnesota, was a morning news anchor at KIMT TV in Cedar Rapids when she failed to show up for work. Evidence recovered in the parking lot of her apartment building suggested she may have been abducted. The case has not been solved. Vancise was a local seed salesman who became a social acquaintance of Huisentruit's, and eventually, a person of interest in her disappearance. In 2017, police investigator Terrance Prohaska applied for a search warrant that would allow him to place the tracking devices on Vansice's vehicles after learning he would be driving from his home in Arizona to Iowa to comply with a federal grand jury subpoena requiring him to provide DNA, fingerprints and palm prints to the FBI office in Cedar Rapids. The portion of the warrant released Monday included the fact that investigators tracked Vansice's vehicle between March 2-5 when he drove from Baxter, Iowa to his new home in Phoenix, Arizona. The excerpt included stops Vansice made on his trip south, technical latitude and longitude data, but little else. The battle over the warrant began when attorneys Nellie O’Mara and Jesse Marzen filed a motion on behalf of private investigator Steve Ridge, asking a judge to unseal the search warrant after Vansice passed away in December. The attorneys argued they wanted to lift a cloud of suspicion over Vansice and his family and provide closure for them. Prosecutors and Huisentruit's family opposed making the contents public, concerned it could impact the ongoing investigation.
The Randall Business Group invites all to Randall this Wednesday through Friday for garage sale days and a reminder to residents of the City of Randall that the cleanup day is Saturday May 3rd. The City of Royalton will have their clean up day May 15th from 5-8pm and May 17th from 8-11am at the city compost site.
Death Notices- Harvey M. Britz, age 86 of Buckman.
Weather- Tuesday partly sunny and cool, high 55 wind gusting to 30mph early the diminishing late day, clear skies tonight cooler temps low around 32. Wednesday sunny and warmer, high 67, low around 44 with showers developing late Wednesday night through Thursday with isolated T-storms, high 62, low around 39. Friday sunny and 60.
Sports- Twins bash Cleveland 11-1 yesterday with 2 homers and 17 hits by Twins batters. The Twins continue series with Cleveland today at 4:30pm on Q92 WYRQ. Wild at Las Vegas tonight for Game 5 of the NHL playoffs tonight at 8:30pm, game 6 is in St. Paul on Thursday night. All of Monday's high school schedule was washed out. Tuesday at 5pm Little Falls at Pierz Softball on AM960 KLTF.