NEWS
--Morrison County Sheriff Shawn Larsen recently addressed some items including ice safety, as mentioned on previous newsletter that anglers should check their ice surroundings to make sure of thickness as ice could be solid to venture out on by the shoreline, then 100 feet in be open water. Another item maybe not as much in Morrison County but an issue statewide is accidential 911 phone calls coming from what is believed to be anglers, hunters and others not knowing they are calling the emergency number on their phones. Maybe best if possible to make sure your phone is not where calls like these could be made. Larsen also stated that scams are on the rise and holiday related, family related, end of year money and gift items scams are on the rise and this is even more dangerous as many are in the giving mood. Please remember to never give out personal information over the phone, by mail or email if you did not initiate the contact and if it sounds to good to be true, it usually is. Sheriff Shawn Larsen will be the guest today at 8:30am on AM960 KLTF.
--Cases of COVID-19 keep dropping in Morrison County. On Wednesday's report 294 active cases and of those 125 in Little Falls Zip Code, 60 in Pierz and 39 in Royalton. All other zip codes in the county are 11 or under in active cases from the County Website yesterday. On the State Website it was reported 4,539 new cases and 82 new deaths linked to the virus. Morrison County had 25 new cases. The Department of Health also announced following the Governor's announcement Tuesday that the first wave of COVID-19 vaccines are expected in Minnesota by December 21st.
--Wreaths for the Fallen is a program whose mission is to provide wreaths for the Minnesota Veterans Cemeteries in December each year. The program started at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery in Little Falls but has expanded to include sites in Duluth and Preston. Due to COVID-19, Wreaths for the Fallen has had to suspend their wreath laying ceremony that would have been this month. The program continues to monitor the latest developments of COVID-19, but at this time there is no wreath laying ceremony this year.
--Royalton Public Schools has been working through several confirmed cases of COVID-19 dating back to last week, affecting the Royalton Elementary and Middle/High School Communities. These four confirmed cases had exposures of November 30th and December 1st. They have worked with MDH to identify those people that were in close contact with the cases and have communicated with those affected directly by phone. The risk of exposure for other individuals present on November 30th or December 1st poses no greater risk of contracting the virus in the general community when taking precautions. They are confident that all close contacts have been identified and communicated with. The school district announced that effective Monday, December 14th preschool will be going back to in class learning, however, all other grades K-12 will remain in distance learning through January 11th at this time.
--A Meeker County home was destroyed in a fire Tuesday. Around 3:15pm fire crews responded to a house fire in the 53000 block of US Highway 12, just west of Grove City. Crews arrived to find the home, owned by Dewaynn and April Rogers, fully engulfed. The sheriff's office says April's two teenage kids were home at the time of the fire, but were able to escape unharmed. Authorities say it's believed the fire started in the kitchen and was the result of cooking.
--The Pierz City Council meets Monday at 7pm at Pierz City Hall.
--Little Falls Police reported theft reports from December 8th from different residents on northeast and southeast Little Falls. Also on December 8th police reported a counterfeit $20 bill was found at a local credit union and was scanned to be sent to the U.S. Secret Service to investigate. The department also took a number of suspicious activity calls in the past two weeks by residents.
--Little Falls Radio was informed yesterday by Sgt. Neil Dickenson of the Minnesota State Patrol that he has formally retired from the state patrol. Sgt. Dickenson personally wanted to thank Melanie and Steve of Party Line for the years working with them and all at Little Falls Radio and every listener/caller on what they had done for Neil over the past years in helping me get the message out for traffic safety. He had a blast working with and being on in his workds a top notch radio station. Dickenson was unaware if someone will be handling his position in the future and hopes that individual will continue working closely with Little Falls Radio to keep getting the message out.
--Pierz Schools Superintendent George Weber will give an update on what is happening for Pierz Schools Friday at 8:30am on KLTF.
--A reminder if you picked a tag from one of the trees of the Holiday Gift Giving Program please either return the tag to the store or church with the item or contact Judy Buckingham so they can fill the tag for that person. Her number is 630-8497. Need them in by Monday, December 14th for distribution of gifts on December 19th.
WEATHER
TODAY= partly sunny, windy in afternoon, still mild, high 42.
TONIGHT= cloudy and windy, low 24.
FRIDAY= cloudy, few flurries possible, high 32, low 20.
SATURDAY= sunny and chilly, high 27, low around 14.
SUNDAY= partly sunny and chilly, high 25, low around 10 above.
SPORTS
NFL= New England and LA Rams tonight at 7pm on AM960 KLTF. Sunday the Vikings take on Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Kickoff is at noon Sunday in Florida.
COL FB= The Big Ten has changed its policy that teams must play six games to be eligible for the conference championship game paving the way for undefeated # 4 Ohio State to face Northwestern on December 19th for the Big 10 Championship. This after the Michigan/Ohio State game this Saturday was cancelled because Michigan players had too many positive COVID-19 cases, not Ohio State. The policy was approved by the NCAA officials last night.
GOPHERS= Gophers at Nebraska Saturday 11am on KLTF. Coach P.J. Fleck said they are working with Wisconsin still to play a possible exhibition game this season (would not count on conference record) so that the team could play for Paul Bunyan's axe. Fleck said he just sent out the invite last night and is waiting to hear back on this.
TODAY IN HISTORY
IN 1869= Wyoming votes to give women the right to vote, making the first territory (as not a state yet) to do such thing.
IN 1901= first Nobel Prizes (including first Nobel Peace Prize) are awarded on the annivesary of the death of Alfred Nobel.
IN 1927= The Grand Ole Opry officially makes its first radio debut.
IN 1963= Osmond Brothers first appear on Andy Williams Show.
IN 2012= Little Falls native Brian Kobilka and Robert Leftkowitz were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for G-protein receptors.