NEWS
--A look at how Morrison County voted at the State Primary on Tuesday again not full totals but county totals from Tuesday. Top vote getter for U.S. Senate was Jason Lewis 2,348 votes, second was Senator Tina Smith 1,103 votes, U.S. Representative District 8 was first Pete Stauber 2,993 votes then DFL Candidate Quinn Nystrom at 1,156 votes. State Senate District 9 was Senator Paul Gazelka receiving 2,764 to Richard Dahl at 424 votes, DFL candidate A. John Peters received 1,136 votes. The only local race in Morrison was the Morrison County Commissioner District 3 mentioned on yesterdays newsletter with the top two being Commissioner Randy Winscher and Al Doty moving on to the November election. Some notes from around the state in House District 8 at the primary Congressman Pete Stauber received 32,120 votes to the DFL candidate (who ran unopposed) Quinn Nystrom who had 39,819 votes. U.S. Senate for all of District 8 showed Senator Tina Smith 40,474 votes to candidate Jason Lewis for Republicans receiving 23,806 votes. In District 7 for U.S. Senate Tina Smith 28,416 where Republican Jason Lewis received 28,302 votes, in District 7 House Race, Congressman Collin Peterson received 25,307 is other two candidates received just over 8,000 votes combined, on the Republican side Michelle Fischbach received 24,637 votes other candidates Dave Hughes 9,200 votes, Noel Collis 6,188 and two others under 1,000 votes in the race. State Senate Distirct 9 in District 7 showed Senator Paul Gazelka 1,257 to candidate Richard Dahl at 348 votes and on the DFL side A John Peters received 704 votes. The general election is on November 3rd.
--Wednesday, Governor Tim Walz announced his appointment of Brigadier General Shawn Manke to serve as Minnesota’s next Adjutant General, filling the vacancy created upon the resignation of Major General Jon A. Jensen, who was recently promoted to Lieutenant General. Jensen assumed his new role as Director of the Army National Guard at a ceremony on August 10. Governor Tim Walz stated that in recent months, the Minnesota National Guard has been called to serve our state in unprecedented ways, and we are grateful for General Jensen’s service and steady leadership. General Manke, a native of Cambridge, Minnesota, has served in a number of leadership roles in the Minnesota National Guard since 2003. Manke currently serves as the Assistant Division Commander of the 34th Infantry Division based in Rosemount, Minnesota, providing training and readiness oversight for ten National Guard brigades with more than 23,000 Soldiers across Minnesota and eight other states. General Manke also recently served as Chief of Staff at the Joint Force Headquarters, where he was an advisor to the Adjutant General. Prior to that, he served as the Commander of the 34th Combat Aviation Brigade, leading nearly 1,300 Minnesota Soldiers, and approximately 3,000 Soldiers total. Since joining the Minnesota National Guard, Manke has also served in overseas deployments to Kosovo and Iraq. Prior to his service in the Minnesota National Guard, General Manke had a career in the United States Army, being commissioned as an Army aviator in 1991 and serving overseas with the C Company, 6-159th Aviation Regiment in Turkey, Iraq and Germany. Manke’s military service also includes service at Ft. Rucker, Alabama and Ft. Hood, Texas, before coming back to Minnesota to join the Minnesota National Guard in 2003. He lives in Cambridge with his wife Mary, a teacher and their two children, Kalie and Lucas, who both serve as Lieutenants in the United States Army.
--Minnesota Department of Health numbers from Wednesday statewide were 470 new positive tests and 12 newly reported deaths linked to the virus. Morrison remained at the 93 reported cases (no new cases for two days), Morrison County was at 80 cases-14 days earlier meaning that the current number of cases would be 13 in the past 2 weeks. That is less than the 10 for 10,000 people ratio county wide which the schools recommend in order to allow all students back in classrooms for the September 8th start. Little Falls Schools Superintendent Stephen Jones will give the latest update on schools on Friday at 8:30am on AM960 KLTF and fallsradio.com.
--Brenna Connelly, a 19-year-old college student from Byron, Minnesota, representing Olmsted County, was crowned the 67th Princess Kay of the Milky Way at a private ceremony that was streamed virtually last night. Connelly will serve as the official goodwill ambassador for nearly 3,000 Minnesota dairy farm families. She is the daughter of Craig and Heather Connelly and attends the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. Emily Benrud of Goodhue, representing Goodhue County, and Maggie Molitor of Rockville, representing Stearns County, were selected as runners-up. Katherine Maus of Freeport, representing Stearns County, along with Benrud and Connelly, were named scholarship winners. Molitor was also named Miss Congeniality. Connelly’s first official duty as Princess Kay will be to have her likeness sculpted in a 90-pound block of butter at the Dairy Building on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds today with the other 9 finalists in through August 23rd, no public allowed but will be on the Princess Kay facebook page.
--Governor Walz also issued an executive order extending his emergency powers another 30 days through September 11th.
--Authorities have released the name of the woman killed in a crash in St. Cloud last week. She's been identified as 26-year old Tia Cochran of St. Cloud. Police say Cochran was heading west on 40th Street South when she collided with a dump truck. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the dump truck was identified as 28-year old Kevin Wickham of Becker.
NATIONAL NEWS
--Democractic Candidate for President Joe Biden picked California junior Senator Kamala Harris to be his running mate for Vice-President in the upcoming November election.
DEATH NOTICES
--Geralyn “Gerry” Wotzka, age 90 of Little Falls
--Jerome Bruder, age 95 of Long Prairie
--Arthur “Art” Saulter Jr., age 89 of Little Falls.
WEATHER
TODAY= mostly cloudy, chance of a PM storm, high 85.
TONIGHT= storms likely, heavy rains possible, low 67.
FRIDAY= storms likely afternoon, some severe, high 84, low 54.
SATURDAY= sunny and breezy, less humid, high 78, low 55.
SUNDAY= sunny and comfortable, high 72, low around 50.
SPORTS
TWINS= Byron Buxton homered twice as the Twins rout the Brewers Wednesday 12-2 to take the series. Twins are off today.
CLASS B= Sobieski remains in Class B tournament, host Brainerd Bees Saturday if they win they would play on Sunday.