NEWS
--At 10:40pm Monday the Little Falls Fire Department was dispatched to 612 4th Street NE in Little Falls on a report of a shed on fire. Upon arrival firefighters found that the storage shed was fully involved in fire. Firefighters extinguished the fire. The shed was a total loss. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Firefighters were on scene for less than one hour.
--All City of Pierz electric customers will experience a scheduled power outage on today at 1:30pm for approximately one hour. Minnesota Power will be replacing equipment that was damaged during Monday night’s storm. Thank you for your patience.
--Morrison County Sheriff Shawn Larsen stated yesterday morning that the storms and heavy rain from Monday night made for massive street flooding, some county and township roads were flooded over. A power pole in Pierz was snapped causing a large outage last night in the Pierz area, a vehicle was struck by lightning in southeast Little Falls with no injuries in call 14 incident reports were taken by the sheriff's office who also helped with stalled vehicles and some reports of flooded basements in the city of Little Falls. Heavy rains totalled from less than 1 inch is spots to 9+ inches in others Monday night.
--Governor Walz announced that, thanks to the collaborative partnership between the Walz-Flanagan Administration, the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota (U of M) the state has completed more than half a million COVID-19 tests and has reached the milestone of developing a daily capacity of 20,000 COVID-19 tests. To date, the state has completed a total of 592,955 tests. As part of the state’s testing command center, the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota are now able to provide additional testing capacity to more than 265 health care organizations across the state. When health care providers need more testing capacity than they have available at their local laboratories, or an outbreak emerges, the state initiative’s testing command center connects the provider with COVID-19 diagnostic testing through Mayo Clinic Laboratories or U of M labs. The state has deployed this resource for numerous pop-up testing events, including Duluth, Moorhead, St. James, Faribault, Mower County, and in Minneapolis and Saint Paul following protests and large gatherings in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
--St. Cloud man suffers a medical emergency while on a boat on Sauk Lake. Around 3:00pm Friday Stearns County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a medical on a boat on Sauk Lake near the 44000 block of Brickyard Road just outside Sauk Centre. 70-year old Morton Tullis of St. Cloud, was fishing with this wife, 69-year old Patricia Tullis of St. Cloud. Morton was working on his depth finder when he suffered a medical and fell into the lake. The boat was approximately 30 feet from shore. Numerous Good Samaritans were able to bring him to shore and began CPR. Sauk Centre Ambulance transported Morton to the Sauk Centre Hospital.
--Four juveniles involved in personal injury crash north of Freeport. Around 3:00pm on Saturday Stearns County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a personal injury crash north of Freeport near the 43000 block of County Road 35. A juvenile male was attempting to turn into a driveway as he turned too wide and the vehicle went off the driveway and tipped onto its side. The driver, 2 juvenile male occupants and one juvenile female occupant suffered minor scrapes and bruises. One of the occupants to the hospital for minor injuries. The other juveniles were turned over to their parents.
--The Little Falls Area Chamber of Commerce announced that the July Employee of the Month is Judi Poepping of Productive Alternatives in northwest Little Falls. Judi has been a Employment Training Specialist (job coach) for the past 4 years. Congratulations to Judy Poepping the chamber's employee of the month for July.
--Sister Carol Schmitt of the St. Francis Convent spoke on KLTF Tuesday and said at this time the visitors restrictions remain in place and they are asking no visitors come to the convent to visit the sisters at this time, she even mentioned that sisters that live off the convent campus have not been able to visit the sisters inside even at this time. She stated that the convent has cancelled all events through the end of August and that includes the annual Green Fair event this year will not happen and is scheduled to return in 2021. Sister Carol said that none of the Fransciscan Sisters in Little Falls have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus and that is why the restrictions will continue for the time being. Questions call 632-2981.
--Tuesday's numbers from the Minnesota Department of Health show 444 new cases of COVID-19 with 6 new deaths. Morrison County remains at 58 positive cases and 1 confirmed death.
--Those who look at the moon will see a prenumbral lunar eclipse on Saturday July 4th from 10pm to 1am Sunday July 5th. During this time the Moon will graze over the Earth's shadow causing the Lunar style eclipse for those to view if the skies are clear. Also is the middle of July Jupiter and Saturn will be the most visibile to view with a telescope in the sky and the days of July there will be a double meteor shower expected to take place in the overnight hours around July 28th or 29th with peak time around midnight central time.
--The fireworks show over Lake Mille Lacs will go on this Saturday night. The Garrison Commercial Club and Garrison VFW Post 1816 are planning to hold their annual 4th of July fireworks display around 10:00pm. Spokeswoman Reenie Phillips says, because they do not have a concentrated festival connected to the fireworks, they decided to shoot the fireworks off and still maintain social distancing.
ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
--comedy legend Carl Reiner who created “The Dick Van Dyke Show” in the early 60s and appeared in over 100 television or movies credits died Monday evening. Reiner was 98 years old.
WEATHER
TODAY= thunderstorms possible, hazy and humid, high 84.
TONIGHT= thunderstorms early, then clearing, low 64.
THURSDAY= sunny and humid, high 91, low around 70.
FRIDAY= sunny, hot and humid, high 93, low around 68.
SPORTS
TWINS= The Minnesota Twins stated on Tuesday that there will be no fans allowed at Target Field when Major League Baseball games resume later this month on the 23rd or 24th. The President of the Twins said that no fans at least at the start of the season with the hope since each state's governor has the say on if fans can go will allow fans before the end of the 60 game season but for now there will be no fans at Twins games when regular season begins.
VL= a light schedule of Victory League this week, one game tonight and another Sunday late day. Because of that there will be no game of the week this Sunday but a game Saturday 11th and one on the 12th of July next weekend live on AM960 KLTF. Listen for details.