NEWS
--A Sauk Rapids man suffered serious injuries in a crash in northern Minnesota. The Minnesota State Patrol says the incident happened after 6pm Saturday in Cass County near Staples. Sixty-eight-year-old Lenee Ross was driving south on Highway 64 when his vehicle left the road and rolled. He was taken to Lakewood Hospital and HCMC with life-threatening injuries. Troopers say alcohol was a factor.
--A Princeton man was hurt in an early morning crash. The Minnesota State Patrol says the incident happened at about 1am Sunday on Highway 169 in Mille Lacs County near Onamia. Forty-three-year-old Derek Anderson was driving north went his jeep went off the road, went into the ditch, vaulted, and hit a large tree. He has been taken to Mille Lacs Health System with non-life-threatening injuries. A passenger was not hurt.
--Two people were hurt in a single-vehicle crash in Todd County. The Minnesota State Patrol says the incident happened at about 7pm Sunday on Highway 71 near Long Prairie. Thirty-nine-year-old Walter Guerrero of Hoffman was driving south when his car left the road and went into the ditch. He was taken to CentraCare Hospital in Long Prairie with non-life-threatening injuries. A passenger, Joro Montenefro of Hoffman, had non-life-threatening injuries but was not hospitalized. A second passenger was not hurt. The Minnesota State Patrol says alcohol may have been a factor in the crash.
--A Sartell man is charged with multiple felonies for allegedly committing tax crimes from 2017 through 2021. The Minnesota Department of Revenue has announced that the Ramsey County Attorney's Office has charged Mark Zajackowski with five felony counts of failing to pay income tax, four felony counts of filing a false or fraudulent return, and one felony count of willfully failing to file individual income tax returns. The complaint alleges that despite multiple letters from the Department of Revenue demanding he file his returns and pay income tax, Zajackowski spent his money on gambling, a boat, and related properties in Florida. The department alleges Zajackowski owes more than $152,000 in income tax including all penalties and interest.
--There's a large infrastructure project beginning this spring that you may not notice but is critical to St. Cloud's regional sanitary sewer system. The system carries the wastewater from all of the area cities to the wastewater treatment plant near the I-94 Business Park. This two-year project will replace three miles of pipe installed in the early 1970s with a new 42-inch force main pipe. The work will take place from the lift station at 33rd Street South near the St. Cloud Country Club to the wastewater treatment plant near the I-94 Business Park. The work is expected to have only minor impacts on users of the Beaver Island Trail and traffic on Clearwater Road near McStop.
--Profundity. That was the winning word for a Royalton 8th grader at the Region 5 Spelling Bee. William Rausch will be going to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May for the second consecutive year. Rausch says he practices for about 1-2 hours a day using the "Word Club" app that will pronounce the word and give him the definition before he spells it. He says he hopes to do well at nationals: Rausch has been involved with spelling bees for four years and this was his third time at the regional event. The National Scripps Spelling Bee will take place in the Washington DC area starting on May 26th.
--A reminder that this week is Severe Weather Awareness Week and there will be two tornado drills on Thursday in Minnesota with sirens soundly locally at 1:45pm and 6:45pm. Other topics include lightning and hail, severe heat and flooding each day this week. Morrison County Sheriff's Emergency Management has more details to show.
--The second year of the Highway 10 and Highway 23 construction project is ramping up into high gear. MnDOT Project Manager Rob Abfalter says they switched the Highway 23 traffic to head-to-head on Friday, so they can start working on the eastbound lanes. He says by the end of this week, Highway 10 will be head-to-head traffic on the southbound lanes, so they can start working on the northbound lanes. By the time the project is done in early November, motorists will notice two new traffic lights on Highway 23 on either side of the bridge over Highway 10. The new traffic signals are necessary because all of the on-and-off ramps will be on the south side of Highway 23 down to Highway 10. Abfalter says there will have to be a couple of intersection lane closures this year with 14th Avenue Southeast by Kwik Trip closing for 28 days, and the east half of East St. Germain Street by Wendy's closing for 35 days. There's no timeline yet on when those will happen. Abfalter says crews will be working on three big projects. They are going to have three different crews here working on the various projects. The Highway 23 bridge, the new 4th Street bridge, along with the noise wall. The entire project is scheduled to be completed by early November.
--The Brainerd Ski Loons will be performing three FREE water ski shows at Ruttger’s Bay in Deerwood on June 17th, July 8th, and July 24th. All shows at at 6:30 pm and are open to the public. Please bring blankets or lawn chairs for seating. The mission of the Brainerd Ski Loons is to provide opportunities for personal development, teamwork, and community involvement through water sports. The Ski Loons are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Brainerd. For more information, find the Brainerd Ski Loons on Facebook or visit their website www.skiloons.com.
DEATH NOTICES
--Janet Nelson, age 80 of Little Falls formerly of Austin, MN.
WEATHER
TODAY= partly cloudy skies, chance of sprinkles, high 57.
TONIGHT= sprinkles possible, then clearing, low 41.
WEDNESDAY= sunny skies, high 67, evening showers, low 46.
THURSDAY= showers early, breezy, temps dropping from 55.
SPORTS
TWINS= Dodgers beat the Twins 4-2 last night at Target Field. The Twins and Dodgers game 2 tonight 6pm on Q92 WYRQ
NCAA= Connecticut repeats at NCAA Men's Champion in basketball beating Purdue last night 75-60 for the title.
WNBA= The WNBA Draft is Monday in Brooklyn, the Indiana Fever has the first pick and are already printing tickets with Iowa Hawkeye star Caitlyn Clark on them, making the world know their intentions to taking her first in the draft next Monday. Minnesota currently holds the 7th pick in the draft on Monday night.
HS BAB= weather permitting, scheduled today to have Little Falls at Pierz in High School Baseball at 5pm on AM960 KLTF.