MANKATO, Minn. (AP) - The highway was dry between St. Peter and Mankato when a car crossed the center median and hit an oncoming truck, killing three and injuring three others, authorities said.
Minnesota State Patrol Sgt. Jesse Grabow said a Dodge Caliber crossed the centerline Sunday and collided with a Ford F-150 pickup on Highway 169.
Lindi Paul, 36, of St. Peter and her 5-year-old daughter, Emma Paul, were killed in the Caliber. Michael O’Boyle, 65, of Marion, S.D., who was driving the pickup, also died.
A 4-year-old girl in O’Boyle’s pickup was taken to a hospital with serious injuries. The other passengers - a woman and an 8-year-old boy - didn’t have life-threatening injuries.
Lindi Paul graduated from St. Peter High School and was studying criminal justice at Rasmussen College. She was working in the office of Davisco Foods International in Le Sueur, The Free Press of Mankato reported.
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A judge has dismissed indictments against two defendants accused of poaching walleye and other fish from the Leech Lake and Red Lake reservations.
U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle dismissed indictments against Thomas Sumner and Brian Holthusen on Monday. He did not provide reasoning, but prosecutors asked for the dismissal last week “in the interests of justice.”
Sumner and Holthusen were among 10 people indicted last April. In November, U.S. District Judge Tunheim dismissed cases against five defendants, saying an 1837 treaty guarantees hunting and fishing privileges.
Attorneys for Sumner and Holthusen argued they were also members of the Red Lake tribe and should also have their cases dismissed.
Cases against two other defendants are pending. Another has pleaded guilty and has been trying to withdraw his guilty plea.
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - With tax breaks on everything from child care expenses to college tuition hanging in limbo, Minnesota lawmakers appear increasingly unlikely to meet Gov. Mark Dayton’s goal of enacting a substantial relief package this week.
The Senate is still assembling a bill to match up with the House’s approved $500 million in cuts. Failure to adopt a compromise bill soon could mean taxpayers have to file amended returns to reap tax cuts, if they bother with the hassle at all.
Senate Taxes Committee Chairman Rod Skoe said Monday he hopes to pass a bill by the end of the week. He didn’t say what he’ll include or leave out of the bill, but strongly hinted it will differ from the House’s measure. That means more steps - and more time - to get a final version to Dayton.
Minnesota’s budget situation has improved dramatically since last year. The 2013 Legislature raised $2.1 billion in taxes to help close a deficit. The state now has a projected $1.2 billion surplus.
Some of the tax breaks would be achieved by lining up Minnesota’s tax code more closely with federal deductions and exemptions. Some of the exemptions would be retroactive to 2013, while others wouldn’t be applicable until next year. Working family credits averaging $300 for low-income households would start immediately, but an adjustment to the standard deduction for married filers averaging $115 would wait.
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BEMIDJI, Minn. (AP) - A 22-year-old Bemidji woman was charged Monday with manslaughter for allegedly leaving her 6-year-old cousin to freeze to death on a subzero night last month.
Rachel Stacey Downer appeared in court in Beltrami County on a second-degree manslaughter charge and was released on $100,000 bond, the Star Tribune (https://strib.mn/1iwx6Bhhttps://strib.mn/1iwx6Bh ) reported.
Downer’s young cousin, Mercedes Mayfield, was found curled up on the front step of a Bemidji apartment building early on Feb. 27. The child’s mother, Malika Peoples, called emergency services around 6:30 a.m. to report her daughter was stiff, frozen and unresponsive.
The girl was dressed in a winter coat and hat, with a boot on her left foot. Her right boot and her mittens were found on an outside step. Temperatures that night hovered around 19 degrees below zero, with a wind chill of 32 below, the criminal complaint said.
The last time the child was seen alive was the evening before. Downer was going to take her cousin to her apartment to baby-sit her that night, but changed her mind and didn’t tell Mercedes’ mother, according to the complaint. Mercedes helped Downer carry her things to her car. Downer said she watched the girl enter the building, then got in her car and left. Downer told police Mercedes had shut the apartment’s safety door gently, so it would not lock her out.
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