Newsletter: January 9th, 2025

Thursday- January 9th, 2025

NEWS
--On Wednesday at 11:40am, the Little Falls Fire Department was dispatched to 15182 263rd St in Ripley Township on a report of a shed on fire. The caller said they believed they got the fire out with fire extinguishers, but were not certain it was completely out. Firefighters arrived and found the fire was out. The only thing that burned was a riding lawn mower. The fire did not extend to the building or other shed contents, but caused some heat and smoke damage throughout the building. Firefighters made sure the fire was out by wetting the remains of the mower down and helped ventilate the remaining smoke from the building. We were assisted at the scene by Camp Ripley Fire Department. While on the shed fire in Ripley Township, we were also dispatched to a small grass fire in the ditch along Highway 10 near the Highway 371 split. A crew responded and extinguished that fire which started because of a car with a mechanical issue. On January 6th and January 7th, we were dispatched on a fire alarms at local businesses in the city of Little Falls, but were canceled while responding. Back on January 2nd at 12:09am we were dispatched to 1101 7th Street Northeast on a garbage can on fire. Police officers extinguished the fire with a fire extinguisher, but we continued and wet the debris down. That fire started because ashes from the woodstove put in the garbage.
--A St. Cloud woman will serve a 26-year federal sentence for playing a major role in a Mexican drug operation that funneled large quantities of meth, cocaine and fentanyl into the Midwest. Macalla Knott was sentenced last week in Fargo after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, money laundering conspiracy and continuing criminal enterprise. The 32-year-old will serve her time at a facility where she can undergo substance abuse treatment, be offered educational and vocational training, and have access to mental health services and treatment. An indictment filed against Knott and a handful of co-defendants accused them of engaging in a conspiracy with the Sinaloa Cartel that smuggled narcotics into Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Wisconsin and elsewhere in the U.S. for distribution. Part of the conspiracy involved using violence and the threat of violence to ensure payment and conceal their illegal activities. The indictment described Knott as "the leader, organizer, manager, and supervisor in this conspiracy." During a plea hearing in March of 2023, Macalla Knott admitted she had been living in Mexico for three years supervising, managing and leading more than five people in the drug smuggling enterprise while directing shipments of methamphetamine, cocaine, and fentanyl to various distributors across the upper Midwest. In turn, she also arranged payments to cartel suppliers in Mexico. Macalla Knott had previously been convicted at the state level of selling a controlled substance and served time in a Minnesota prison. Another woman from central Minnesota, 33-year-old Deanna Gerads of Freeport, has pleaded guilty to charges to conspiracy to distribute and possess controlled substances for her role in the same drug operation but has not been sentenced yet. Gerads was apprehended in Mexico after a year of being listed as a fugitive on narcotics trafficking charges.
--Sister Julien is reminding those are still openings for the blood drive today from 8:30am-2:30pm at the St. Francis Convent. Call for an appointment at 320-632-0663 or go to redcrossblood.org.

MORE NEWS
--Residents of a St. Cloud apartment had to be evacuated Tuesday after one of the units caught fire. The St. Cloud Fire Department responded to 605 15th Street South at around 1:30pm. Firefighters arrived to find flames coming out of multiple third-floor windows and residents evacuating the building. The fire department says the first engine began attacking the flames with other responding units helping residents evacuate, supplying additional water, and providing ventilation. The fire was quickly brought under control and no one was hurt. The St. Cloud Fire Marshal and St. Cloud Health Department determined the unit damaged by the fire was uninhabitable. All other residents were allow back to their homes.
--The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office announced charges Wednesday morning against a man for racketeering and five counts of felony theft by swindle. Chavis Willis billed Medicaid for services that were neither provided nor delivered under an agency he was prohibited from managing in the first place due to a previous conviction for aiding and abetting second degree murder. Willis is accused of using a Medicaid-funded business which claimed to provide home and community based services throughout Minnesota, which he used to bilk the Medicaid program out of over $7.3 million. Willis even impersonated his mother on a call with jail staff to ensure the biller was authorized for work release to continue working at the fraud business. His next court date is pending.
--Pequot Lakes schools' funding hopes are back on the table with a newly scheduled April referendum. The Pequot Lakes School Board voted unanimously at its January 6th meeting to hold a facilities bond and capital projects levy special election Tuesday, April 8. The proposed referendum includes a 10-year $600,000 capital projects levy to be used for technology and curriculum purposes, and a $55 million school building bond over a 21-year term. The bond would be used for improvements in campus safety and security, new career, technology, and trades spaces, and expansion and remodeling of current student instructional spaces. As an example of the tax impact, owners of a home valued at $400,000 would see a tax increase of $16 per month for the combined bond and levy, a decrease of $9 from the 2023 referendum.

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT
--Hunter and Emily Luedtke of Little Falls, a boy on Jan 6th.

DEATH NOTICES
--Robert “Bob” Holz, age 91 of Little Falls.

WEATHER
TODAY= snow likely, up to 1 inch, high 24.
TONIGHT= cloudy, low around 14.
FRIDAY= sunny skies, colder, high 18, low around 0.
SATURDAY= clouds increase, snow likely late day, high 17, low 9.
SUNDAY= snow likely, cloudy and windy, high 13, low of -5.

SPORTS
NFL= due to the wildfires in Los Angeles, the NFL is monitoring and may move the Vikings and Rams game Monday out of L.A. and to Arizona if need be for the wild card round if the fires continue.