NEWS
--A Randall woman and a Swanville man were taken to the hospital after their snowmobiles crashed off of a 30-foot cliff in St. Louis County Friday evening. The crash happened at about 10:45pm near Highway 53 and Forest Road 614, about 15 miles north of Orr, Minnesota. A group of eight were traveling in the ditch of Highway 53 on snowmobiles. Two of the travelers, 52-year old Victoria Spandl of Randall and 69-year old Howard Hedin of Swanville, went over a cliff and landed at the bottom of a ravine. Crews responding to the incident used toboggans, ropes and an ATV to rescue both of them. They were both taken to St. Mary’s Hospital in Duluth with non-life threatening injuries.
--Fire crews started battling a blaze at a downtown St. Cloud bar early Monday morning. St. Cloud Fire Chief Dean Wrobbel says they have called in mutual aid from Sartell and Sauk Rapids for a fire at the Press Bar. The fire report came in at 2:40am. The chief says they had to pull all firefighters out of the building over structural concerns and went into defensive firefighting mode to protect the adjacent buildings. Wrobbel says the origin of the fire started in the basement of the building but the exact cause is under investigation. The building is a total loss and the rest of the debris the fire department said they will let it fall on its own. The fire was concealed but the heavy smoke could be seen and smelt for miles away. Several streets in the downtown area were closed to traffic Monday morning while they secured the scene. He says it appears there was no fire extension to any of the other adjacent businesses in St. Cloud.
--The Little Falls Community Schools was well represented at the National Conference on Digital Convergence earlier this month. Two staff members were honored as finalists for national awards. Cheryl Moore, kindergarten teacher at Lindbergh Elementary, and Wade Mathers, Middle School Principal, received national recognition at the closing banquet in front of over 400 educators from across the country. Cheryl earned the national Personalized Learning Classroom of the Year award for her work towards reinventing and personalizing her Kindergarten classroom at Lindbergh Elementary, providing her five and six-year old students incredible opportunities towards owning and managing their own learning. Wade was one of three national finalists for the Change Management Leader of the Year award. Although Wade did not win the overall award, the work towards developing student centered classrooms at Little Falls Community Middle School created much interest at the conference.
--A true-crime podcast turned into a TV series is bringing fresh eyes to the unsolved case of missing Iowa newscaster Jodi Huisentruit during its two-hour season premiere, which aired last Saturday night on the Oxygen network. Huisentruit, a native from Long Prairie and a morning and noon anchor for CBS affiliate KIMT-TV, was abducted from the parking lot of her Mason City apartment around 4:30am on June 27, 1995. Huisentruit’s body has not been found. In the years after her disappearance, investigators followed up on thousands of tips and interviewed more than 1,000 people. Although names of several people of interest emerged, no arrests have been made. Huisentruit was legally declared dead in May 2001. Oxygen’s “Up and Vanished” aims to bring new voices and information to the case in the hopes of providing Huisentruit’s family with the answers they’ve awaited for more than 24 years. The show from Saturday can now be downloaded from the Up and Vanished website.
--It only took a little bit of snow to remind motorists of February in Minnesota. A coating to ½ inch fell in Little Falls yesterday while 3-6 inches fell southeast of the area. The Minnesota State Patrol reported from 9am-6pm yesterday nearly 100 accidents and another 150 spinouts from slippery roadways from the snowfall. Drive carefully.
--The American Welding Society (AWS) Foundation, in partnership with Miller Electric Mfg. LLC, announced the recipients of the inaugural Light a Spark Grant. One of the recipients is Swanville High School, the only high school in the U.S. to be awarded the grant. Swanville high school will receive a turnkey Miller® welding starter pack including equipment, supplies, and personal protective equipment valued at more than $12,000, allowing the schools to introduce welding to their students. Joel Rieffer, the industrial technology teacher at Swanville High School applied for the grant. Rieffer plans to fully incorporate a basic welding and an intermediate welding class into Swanville’s program. With more training his goal is to offer an advanced welding course in the future.
--After implementing body camera's nearly a year ago, the Benton County Sheriff's Office is now adding a drone. Sheriff Troy Heck says just like with their body cameras, he views drones as another tool at their disposal. There is so many things you can do with a single person operating that drone, verses what it would take to have boots on the ground to conduct the same thing. Heck says the expectation is the use the drone for situations involving a missing child or to help find a suspect. Currently he says they've had about 10 deputies go through the training needed to operate a drone, with hopes to start using them this year. The Stearns County Sheriff's Office has been using drones within their department since 2017.
--Governor Tim Walz has announced this week Minnesota School Board recognition week. The governor is asking school district member take time to thank the members of your school board for their work and dediciation in finding ways to increase the education benefits from our local Minnesota schools.
--The Little Falls City Council meets tonight at 7:30 at City Hall.
ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
--Actress Lynn Cohen died on February 14th at age 86. She was in the TV Series Sex in the City in HBO and in the Hunger Games movies.
--Drummer Paul English died February 12 at age 87. He was the drummer for Willie Nelson since 1966, and named in Me and Paul.
DEATH NOTICES
--Jerry Cochran, age 38 of Little Falls
WEATHER
TODAY= morning flurries, then partly sunny, temps dropping.
TONIGHT= clearing skies, cold, low -14, wind chills near -25.
WEDNESDAY= sunny and cold, high 7, lows around -15.
THURSDAY= increasing clouds, high 18, temps rising overnight.
SPORTS
HS BHK= Sartell at Little Falls to open playoffs, tonight 7pm on Q92
HS BBB= Detroit Lakes at Little Falls tonight 5:45pm on FM94.
HS GBB= Mora at Little Falls tonight 7:30pm on FM94 KFML.
DAYTONA= Denny Hamlin wins the Daytona 500 Monday after being postponed Sunday due to weather. A crash in the final lap though seriously injured driver Ryan Newman.