MN News

WCCO This Morning

Weekend Entertainment Best Bets
Lyn Lake Street Festival
Art-A-Whirl [Gallery Of Artists]
Grill Fest

Frozen Yogurt
FreeStyle Yogurt, 500 Lexington Pkwy. S., St. Paul, 651-699-1992
The Yogurt Lab, 3100 Excelsior Blvd., Mpls., 612-926-8212
Freeziac, 375 N. Mall of America, 952-303-6801; 16532 W. 78th St., Bloomington, 952-934-4748; 4105 Vinewood Ln. N., Plymouth, 763-383-0300
Tutti Frutti, 7781 Main St. N., Maple Grove, 763-416-0362
Menchie’s, 750 Cleveland Ave. S., St. Paul, 651-797-6428
Chilly Bill’s Frozen Yogurt, 314 15th Ave. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414, 612-843-4278

(credit: WCCO)

One (1) Grand Prize winner will receive four (4) passes to Diana: A Celebration exhibition at Mall of America, valid anytime from February 4th- June 10th, 2012.

One (1) secondary prize winner will receive a $50 gift card from Cold Stone Creamery. 

More about Diana: A Celebration at Mall of America:
February 4th – June 10th, 2012 | Mall of America | Level 4
An award-winning exhibition celebrating the life and work of Diana, Princess of Wales. Direct from England, experience nine galleries with over 150 objects including Diana’s royal wedding gown, 28 designer dresses, family heirlooms, personal mementos, priceless jewels and rare home movies.

To purchase tickets for Diana: A Celebration at Mall of America:
www.ticketmaster.com | 1-800-745-3000 | In person: Exhibition Box Office (no service fees)
Group Sales: Discounts available for groups of 15 or more. 
For group tickets, please contact:  952-883-8809 | groupsales@mallofamerica.com

More about ColdStone Creamery:
Reignite your love for Cake Batter Ice Cream with our signature Birthday Cake Remix Creation or Cake Batter Confetti Cake today! All made with Cold Stone’s famous Cake Batter Ice Cream. Cold Stone Creamery, the Ultimate Ice Cream Experience.

For more information about Cold Stone Creamery:
www.coldstonecreamery.com

Click here to enter

Click here for official rules

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Wednesday was close to average with a high near 70. With the light wind, dry conditions and sunshine, some would say it was close to perfection.

The first thing you will notice over the next few days will be the wind. It will blow from the south 15-25 mph through Saturday. Warmer and more humid air will ride the wind and change things around here.

Expect a high near 90 on Friday with temps pushing into the upper-80s again on Saturday. Moisture will be limited with scattered showers possible early on Friday.

The best chance of rain arrives with the passage of the cold front on Saturday. It is still too far out to nail down the timing, but do know that it will cool down and dry out later on Sunday.

Sorry, it won’t be as nice as last weekend.

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – They are shocking allegations set in one of Minnesota’s top tourist attractions: a brutal sexual attack in the Boundary Waters while the system designed to protect her points fingers.

Julia visited the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness last summer with three friends for a five-day camping trip. She asked us not to use her last name as she still has fears for her safety.

Thirty minutes from that cool summer night will forever haunt the young woman.

“It was really hard, and it still is,” Julia said.

The time has left a family and a deputy desperate for a different outcome.

It was late afternoon on Julie’s group’s last night when they encountered a group of men on the water.

“We were just talking, and they were drinking,” Julia said. “They were offering us all shots.”

Julia said she took a couple, but her group ended up going their own way.

Hours later, after the women set up camp for themselves, some of the men were back.

Julia said they sat around the fire watching the men drinking and smoking pot.

One by one, her friends started to go to bed. Another left with one of the men, until it was just Julia alone with two of them.

“One of them put his arm around me and was like, ‘Hey you should have this shot. You haven’t had anything all night,’” Julia said.

She agreed and said within minutes she felt sick, like she was going to pass out.

That’s when she said the two men dragged her by her shoulders deep into the woods, more than a quarter-mile from her campsite.

“I’m like ‘Stop. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this,’” she said.

The next 30 minutes would leave Julia bruised and her spirit broken. She said both men took turns in a brutal sexual assault. Then, a third man came back and held her down while it continued.

Finally, a friend started coming down the trail, calling her name. Julia said the men were startled and they stopped.

“As they were finally getting off our little island, you could hear them all high-fiving and being like, ‘Yeah, three-way,” Julia said.

She told her friends about the attack the next day. Her friends had already suspected something bad happened in the woods that night. Julia reported a sexual assault 72 hours later at a hospital near her mom’s home.

Investigators said it’s behavior common for rape victims to wait. They want to feel safe before saying anything.

Cook County Sheriff Mark Falk said when you visit the BWCA, visitors know they are usually on their own.

“It’s very rugged, very remote,” he said. “There’s no roads, there’s no telephones, there’s no cell service. You have to be really self-reliant.”

The BWCA is made up of more than one million acres, and a third of them are within Cook County’s boundaries. There are no regular police patrols on the land beyond periodically checking access points, simply because the area is so large.

“What if there’s somebody just like her, canoeing with their friends, their church group, their women’s group, their family, and the same thing happens,” said Julia’s mother, Maggie. “And that’s the only thing that got her to report it.”

Deputy Julie Collman works on criminal sexual conduct cases in Cook County and was assigned to Julia’s case.

“So many things fell together that I never doubted what they were telling me was true,” Collman said.

When Cook County got the case, Collman didn’t have much to go on, beyond descriptions of six men.

After spending weeks scouring through permits, paddling out and photographing the site, and questioning Julia’s friends, Collman was convinced she had the guys in the group. They all lived in the Twin Cities.

Collman said due to overtime concerns in her small department, she asked an agent at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in St. Paul to conduct the interviews.

“I understood it made more sense for the BCA to intervene at this point, and interview the suspects,” Collman said.

Records show Collman first notified the BCA of the case about a month after Julia went to police. The agency was asked to interview each man at the campsite that night.

Two weeks later, Collman asked about the BCA’s progress in an email. The agent told her he had a heavy case load.

A month after that, Collman was told two different agents were taking over and that no interviews had yet taken place.

Drew Evans is a Senior Special Agent at the BCA. While he wasn’t directly involved with the case, he spoke to WCCO after studying the files.

“We’re always trying to conduct everything as quickly as they’re able,” Evans said, “depending on schedules and the constraints of the case.”

One man told agents he had “no knowledge of any sexual activities taking place.”

Another said Julia willingly went back into the woods.

The third said he saw “consensual sexual activity, but didn’t take part.”

Another man lied to agents about who he was and then refused to talk.
Two more never returned the agents’ calls.

“Things they were saying weren’t adding up with what another one said,” Collman said. “Their stories weren’t adding up.”

“I think the agents conducted the interviews they were requested to do,” Evans said.

The Cook County Attorney got the case back at the end of November to consider charges. Tim Scannell said he didn’t read the full report until December, just before a suspect in an unrelated case put him in the hospital with three gunshot wounds.

“A number of files went out to other counties because of the shooting,” Scannell said. “And this was one of them.”

Hennepin County took over in January and considered charges for two more months.

Then in March, nine months after that camping trip, Julia was told her case would be dismissed, in a voicemail left on her phone.

“I’ve tried 100 percent in my capability to stop these guys from doing this again,” Julia said. “But I don’t really trust in the justice system anymore. If they’re going to not even take these prosecutors who are supposed to be on my side, and help me through this to get these guys to justice, and then say they don’t believe in sex crimes and that they believe in me, I don’t see why I should believe in them.”

Said Collman, “I worked really hard and was just surprised it was dismissed.”

In her decision to dismiss, Hennepin County prosecutor Amy Sweasy wrote “something went wrong in the woods between Julia and the suspects. It is not at all clear to me that Julia consented to the sexual acts that took place. On the other hand, I believe the evidence is insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the sexual encounters in this case were forced or coerced.”

“You can’t accuse people if you don’t believe you can prove your case out in a court of law,” Scannell said. “And that’s what I believe happened here.”

It was the final word Julia didn’t think was possible after so much time.

“The fact that my life has changed, and has flipped upside down, and people don’t believe that,” Julia said. “It’s just incredulous.”

Said Collman, “Every other crim sex case I do from now, I’m sure I’ll think about her.”

Julia has a blog to help other sexual assault victims, check it out by clicking here.

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Hundreds of thousands of people will spend part of their summer vacation on amusement park rides. North America has more than 600 roller coasters and people ride them more than two billion times every year.

Thinking about being on a roller coaster right now? You know the feeling.

“Like your hearts up here and you’re down here,” said one rider at Nickelodeon Universe inside Mall of America.

“You feel like your stomach’s floating in your chest,” said another.

So what’s happening, medically, when it feels like your stomach drops on a roller coaster?

“The honest answer is that no one knows with absolute certainty,” said Dr. Brad Sagura, a surgeon at University of Minnesota’s Amplatz Children’s Hospital.

“There’s a cast network of nerve connections within the body, handling messages between the spinal cord, the brain and other structures,” Sagura said.

When you hit the peak of a roller coaster and start dropping so quickly, things inside start to shift around.

“The liver and spleen are relatively secured by suspensory ligaments,” Sagura said. “But the intestines themselves are relatively mobile. While your body is secured by your seat belt, the organs are free to move about by some extent. That contributes to the free-fall floating sensation that either calls us back for more, or has us running to get sick from nausea.”

The movement isn’t only the movement of the organs, it is also the movement of what’s inside the organs.

“The intestines, the stomach, they hold liquid,” Sagura said. “The bladder; the same thing. “It’s relatively fixed, but the fluid within those structures probably plays a role in that sudden drop.”

Sagura said there’s no long-term danger from your organs slightly shifting around. They go back to where they started. But the movement is enough for your nerves to notice that something’s happening, he said.

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Some Minnesota dog owners asked lawmakers to change how body grip traps are used. Lawmakers responded, but not in the way some dog owners had hoped.

John Reynolds, whose dog was killed in a body grip trap, says the law that passed is worthless.

“It won’t stop dogs from dying,” he said.

Body grip traps are supposed to kill bobcats and raccoons. But in December, Reynolds’ springer spaniel, Penni, got caught in one and died. The same thing happened to Scott Slocum’s dog, Phillip.

“They passed nothing,” Slocum said. “They passed something that looked like something, but it was nothing.”

Loren Waalkens had to use CPR to save his beagle, Frisbee, after she got caught in a body grip trap.

“The clock is ticking. It’s a matter of time before one of my dogs dies in these traps,” Waalkens said.

None of the men are happy about the new law regulating body grips. Reynolds, who is a trapper, wanted to see the traps elevated 5 feet off the ground, where dogs can’t reach them. Lawmakers decided to make it three feet instead.

The law also allows body grips to be set on the ground, so long as they are in a box with a 7-inch cover over the front.

“The only thing that’s changed is they put a 7-inch awning on it,” Reynolds said. “Somehow we are supposed to believe that a dog won’t stick its head in that trap.”

But Rep. Tom Hackbarth, who helped author the bill, said the changes will help.

“I think you will find this is a good compromise,” he said. “I think you will find there won’t be any dogs caught in these.”

Hackbarth said the traps are humane, and elevating them five feet off the ground would have rendered them useless.

“That really eliminates that trap from use,” he said. “You aren’t going to catch anything in that trap.”

But Reynolds argues the trap that killed his dog last December is essentially the same one that will be used this fall. And all three men plan on coming back to the Capitol until they feel their dogs are no longer in danger.

“Nothing was solved. My dogs are no safer today than they were before,” Waalkens said.

Reynolds said he’s not going to stop speaking out until dogs stop dying.

Reynolds said body grip traps have killed about 30 dogs in Minnesota over the past two years. He has a petition with over 2,500 signatures and he plans on forming an organization to push for another law change.

Trappers against future changes say dogs can be trained not to go into body grips and that if dog owners manage their dogs on public land they won’t have a problem.

DETROIT (AP) — Starter Nick Blackburn was already done for the night, and with the score tied at 6 in the third inning, the Minnesota Twins needed to figure out a way through the rest of the game.

Reliever Jeff Gray took the mound: groundout, groundout, groundout.

Then Gray came back for the fourth: groundout, flyout, flyout.

Gray and the bullpen kept the Detroit bats under control, and the Twins went on to win 11-7 on Wednesday night. Jamey Carroll hit a two-run double in the sixth to give Minnesota the lead, and the sloppy Tigers couldn’t overcome their four errors.

After a wild beginning to the game, Gray retired the first six hitters he faced on only 14 pitches.

“Huge,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “He was getting first-pitch swings, and those were huge, and then a lot of guys came in after that.”

Blackburn was pulled at the end of the second inning, having allowed six runs and six hits. He was bothered by a problem with his left thigh. The Twins also placed catcher Ryan Doumit on the 15-day disabled list after the game because of a strained right calf. They will recall outfielder Ben Revere from Triple-A Rochester for Thursday’s game at Detroit.

Miguel Cabrera hit an RBI double off Gray in the fifth to give the Tigers a 7-6 lead, but Carroll came up with men on first and second an inning later. His double off Duane Below (2-1) scored both runners.

Brian Dozier hit a three-run homer for Minnesota in the second, and Trevor Plouffe’s two-run shot in the ninth made it 11-7.

Minnesota’s Justin Morneau went 1 for 5 with a double in his first game back after being on the disabled list with a sore left wrist.

Alex Burnett (1-0) got the win. He was the second of five Minnesota relievers.

Detroit is 9-16 since a 9-3 start and is now dealing with injuries to closer Jose Valverde (strained lower back) and center fielder Austin Jackson (mild abdominal strain). Both are day to day. Jackson left Wednesday’s game after hitting a flyout in the fourth inning.

“You score seven runs, you have to win the game,” manager Jim Leyland said. “If you don’t, you have problems.”

In a sign of things to come, first baseman Prince Fielder dropped a routine throw with one out in the first. Joe Mauer followed with an RBI double, and shortstop Ramon Santiago’s throw home was wild for another error.

Josh Willingham’s double made it 2-0.

It was 2-1 in the second when second baseman Ryan Raburn’s two-out error kept a Minnesota rally alive. Dozier, the next batter, made it 5-1 with a homer to left.

Detroit came back immediately, scoring five runs in the bottom of the inning. Raburn drew a one-out walk, and the next five hitters — Brennan Boesch, Ramon Santiago, Jackson, Andy Dirks and Cabrera — all hit singles. Fielder’s second sacrifice fly of the game gave the Tigers a 6-5 lead.

Doumit’s RBI single in the third tied the game at 6, and Cabrera — the third baseman — made Detroit’s fourth error of the game later that inning. The Tigers became the first team since the New York Yankees in 2009 to have errors from all four infield spots in a game, according to STATS, LLC.

Gray came on in the third and immediately slowed Detroit’s offense.

“These guys are really aggressive. When they see a fastball, they’re swinging for sure,” Gray said. “Making sure that you keep them off balance, and putting your fastball where you want it, is a big deal with these guys.”

Detroit starter Rick Porcello allowed six runs — two earned — and six hits in four innings.

Down 9-7 in the seventh, the Tigers put men on second and third with one out. Alex Avila and Raburn struck out to end the threat.

NOTES: Minnesota OF Denard Span (right hamstring) was initially in the starting lineup but was scratched about an hour before the game. … The Twins beat the Tigers for the fifth time in their last 23 meetings. … Detroit optioned INF Danny Worth to Triple-A Toledo and are expected to recall RHP Brayan Villarreal. … Detroit’s Doug Fister (0-1) faces Minnesota’s P.J. Walters (0-1) on Thursday.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The 3,500 hospital workers who are part of the Service Employee International Union (SEIU)  reached a tentative contract agreement with eight metro-area hospitals, averting a strike that was authorized by the union earlier this week.

Details of the agreement will not be released until the members of SEIU have an opportunity to review and vote on them.

Negotiators representing both workers and the hospitals met all day long on Wednesday, and voting on the tentative agreement is scheduled for next week.

The affected hospitals include: Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina, Fairview Riverside Hospital in Minneapolis, Children’s Hospitals in Minneapolis and St. Paul, HealthEast Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul, HealthEast St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood, North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale, and Park Nicollet/Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Michael Scott Luedtke, 25, was indicted Wednesday in federal court for his role in the New Year’s Eve armed robbery of a Quiznos sandwich shop in Roseville, according to the United States Attorney’s Office.

Luedtke, a felon with three prior violent convictions in Hennepin County, was charged with one count of interference with commerce by robbery, one count of possession of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, one count of possession of an unregistered sawed-off shotgun, and one count of possession of a firearm by an armed career criminal.

The indictment alleges that on Dec. 31, 2011, Luedtke attempted to rob the Quiznos store by threatening an employee with a sawed-off shotgun.

If convicted, Luedtke faces a potential maximum penalty of life in prison.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A judge sentenced a 21-year-old Red Lake man to three years of supervised release Wednesday in the death of a juvenile who flew out of the back of the man’s truck nearly three years ago, the Department of Justice said.

Judge Michael Davis sentenced Kyle Hardy to time served and three years of supervised release on one count of involuntary manslaughter.

Hardy pleaded guilty in November of 2011. In his plea agreement, Hardy admitted to driving a pickup truck under the influence of alcohol on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in the early hours of Aug. 28, 2009, the department said.

On that night, two juveniles were riding in the open bed of Hardy’s truck. Hardy failed to negotiate a turn, went off road and the juveniles flew out of the truck bed. One broke an ankle. The other died.

Hardy was 18 years old at the time.

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Fourteen-year-old Maddie Gourley is off to quick start on her high school track career.

Actually, she’s not even in high school yet and she’s excelling in the sport.

“Since I was like in second grade, I’ve been wanting to run in high school track,” Gourley said. “It’s pretty fun to finally come out here and do it.”

Eagan High School track coach Rob Graham has seen Gourley’s progress firsthand, even from those early days.

He said he would see her when she was little, running the track, her hair in pigtails, on Saturday mornings.

“I’ve known about Maddie Gourley for quite a while,” he said.

The Dakota Hills Middle School student is in her first year on the Eagan High School varsity track team, where she’s just trying to take everything in stride as she competes against more experienced runners.

“I kinda just try not to focus on anything, just try to run my own race,” Gourley said. “So then I won’t get nervous about how they’re older.”

The 8th-grader is among the top sprinters in the state and her clear focus is helping her put up some amazing times.

“When the chips are down, she really challenges herself,” Graham said. “So far, every single time that we’ve seen it, she’s risen to the occasion.”

Gourley pushes herself in the present and the long term a very specific objectives. She said that for every meet she attends, she has a goal to beat.

“It’s not really about like the place I come in,” she said. “Each time I want to try to get a better time.”

Gourley has already set a school record in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.46 seconds. Her best time in the 400-meter is 58. 19 seconds.

She hopes she’ll make it to the state tournament.

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A 10-year-old Minneapolis boy has been waiting for two years to get back on the basketball court.

Just last week, he got to lace up his shoes once again. What initially appeared as simply a swollen knee was actually the early sign of a severe staph infection.

DuJuan Simmons is now the remarkable survival story of a boy who never gave up faith.

While from the outside, it may look like any ordinary basketball practice, the drills Simmons completes bring him one step closer to his idol.

“Michael Jordan. When I saw him do a dunk on tape, it made me want to top that,” Simmons said.

Heart is something the 10-year old knows a thing or two about. Just ask his mother.

“When I come in the house, everybody’s doing their own thing. But DuJuan runs to me,” mother Angela Young said.

It was two years ago, after a basketball practice, when DuJuan’s mom noticed his swollen knee.  She was told from one doctor to go immediately to Gillette Children’s Hospital.

“It didn’t feel real, it felt like my soul had walked away,” Young said.

“His knee was red and it was very warm, the circumference of his thigh was about twice normal,” said Dr. Deb Quandeck, Simmons’ pediatric orthopedic surgeon.

It was a severe staph infection that was spreading quickly. DuJuan went in for what would be the first of seven surgeries that would eventually kill the bacteria.

Now two years later, DuJuan is finally working on that dunk again. He’s left with a scar that tells his story and a gratitudee for his doctor he wishes to share.

“I appreciate her, and I hope God blesses her,” Simmons said.

It’s that undying faith, both in himself and that which you can’t see, that’s helped him defeat the odds.

“If you came to visit him, he would tell you, would you hold my leg and pray for me, and I want to hear you say it cause I want to repeat what you say so that God can hear us,” Young said.

One look today, shows God did. Doctors at Gilette say they don’t know what caused DuJuan’s infection.  He was perfectly healthy and had no open wounds.

They caution parents, if you ever notice swelling in your children’s joints, get it checked out.  They say it could be the sign of an injury, arthritis or possibly an infection.

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The city of St. Paul honored fallen heroes Wednesday afternoon.

It was the 50th-annual St. Paul Police Memorial Day Service, remembering 31 officers who died in the line of duty.

“The bell will ring 31 times, and each toll of the bell will remind us of a moment when the city was diminished,” Mayor Chris Coleman said. “When we became less of a city because of the loss of one of our heroes.”

The first St. Paul officer was killed in the line of duty in 1882. The 31st was Gerald Vick, who died in May 2005.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Golfers in Eagan are in jeopardy of losing their only 18-hole course.

Staff at Parkview Golf Club confirmed there’s a purchase agreement to buy the 80-acre course to build more than 170 single family homes.

“I can just tell you that we’re going to run the golf course as is until further notice,” said Jesse Malsom, the club’s GM.

Eden Prairie-based Hunter Emerson is the developer looking to build the homes. The Sun newspaper reports the 43-year-old course was recently purchased by Hunter Emerson. The homes would range in price, from $200,000 to $650,000.

The news of the possible development has many golfers upset.

“The day I heard about it, I was so sick and so angry,” said Mark Dohmen, an Eagan golfer. “That’s all we’ve got, a golf course like this in the city. I love this golf course.”

An effort is now underway by neighbors to keep the city from re-zoning the area for housing.

On the No. 16 hole, a banner reading “Save Parkview Golf Course” is posted. And a petition to stop the development is hanging on a nearby fence.

“I’ve lived in Eagan for 24 years,” Dohmen said. “I’ve watched the city grow from 10,000 to 60,000 and we’re supposed to be a ‘star city.’ And now they’re going to take the only other golf course in Eagan.”

Staff at the course believe any development will take a number of years before a single home is built.

“You go somewhere else, it cost $70 bucks to play,” Erik Geertsema said. “And it cost us $38 to play here with a cart for 18 holes. I don’t know why anyone would want to get rid of this place.”

Eagan’s Planning Commission will meet Tuesday to discuss re-zoning.

NEW YORK (AP) — Target Corp. raised its profit outlook Wednesday after reporting better-than-expected first-quarter results that were boosted by increased spending on food and cheap chic fashions.

Like most retailers, Target has had the challenge of trying to find ways of luring cautious U.S. shoppers into stores amid a flood of mixed economic news that has them scrutinizing every purchase. The job and housing markets are still shaky, but falling gas prices have given consumers hope.

Target, which mixes stylish clothes and trendy decor under the same roof as toothpaste and cereal, recently has had success drawing customers into stores with two growth initiatives. It has been offering a larger selection of foods and a program it started in 2010 that gives shoppers a 5 percent discount when they pay with Target-branded credit and debit cards.

The retailer, based in Minneapolis, said profit rose 1.2 percent to $697 million, or $1.04 per share, in the quarter ended April 28. That compares with $689 million, or 99 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding costs associated with its expansion into Canada next year, the per-share results would have been $1.11. Revenue rose 5.9 percent to $16.86 billion.

Results beat the profit of $1.02 per share on revenue of $16.83 billion analysts polled by FactSet were expecting.

Revenue at stores opened at least a year rose 5.3 percent, the strongest performance in six years for that period. The measure is considered a key indicator of a retailer’s health.

The strong showing came despite a weak finish to the quarter. Like most retailers, Target’s business in April was disappointing as warmer-than-usual weather earlier in the year pulled sales forward.

To boost sales, the company has teamed up with unique specialty shops to offer limited edition merchandise, from dog biscuits to platform shoes. The shops were launched earlier this month. The discounter also plans to create mini shops of Apple Inc. products in 25 of its stores this year.

Additionally, Target has teamed up with designer Todd Oldham and will be launching an exclusive collection of art supply and activity kits for children under the name Kid Made Modern for the fall.

The company also preparing to expand into Canada next year, its first expansion outside the U.S. It’s poised to begin opening the first of between 125 and 135 stores in Canada at former Zellers locations acquired from Hudson’s Bay Co.

Based on better-than-expected first-quarter results, Target raised its full-year profit guidance by 5 cents. Target now expects earnings per share to be in the range of $4.60 per share to $4.80 per share. Analysts had expected $4.28 per share.

Target’s CEO Gregg Steinhafel said during an address to investors that company officials remain “confident in our strategy” despite that they expect “the current economic recovery will continue to be slow and uneven.”

Target’s stock rose 24 cents to close at $55.32 Wednesday.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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ST. PAUL (WCCO) — Gov. Mark Dayton’s controversial veto this week of the Republican second tax bill still has some GOP lawmakers fuming. It was the latest in an unusually high number of vetoes. But is Dayton that much different than previous governors? Here’s Pat Kessler’s Reality Check.

It’s only his second year, but Dayton is using his veto pen at a near record pace.

Dayton has vetoed 54 complete bills in two years, which is more than Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty did in his entire first term – and Pawlenty later made veto history.

Pawlenty holds the record for the most complete bill vetoes and line item vetoes in a single year: 88 in 2008.

And he’s also the veto king of Democrats.

Comparing apples to apples:

A governor of one party, and a legislature of another, Pawlenty vetoed 129 bills or line items from a DFL legislature in 2009 and 2010.

Since then, in 2011-12, Dayton vetoed 54 total Republican bills.

Governors seem to relish the veto: Gov. Arne Carlson had a “veto command center,” Gov. Jesse Ventura used a pig-stamp to veto pork, Pawlenty had a giant novelty pen and Dayton vetoes bills he has no right to — like constitutional amendments.

A veto is a governor’s tool, but it’s become a political weapon, too.

The vast majority of Minnesota governor vetoes since 1939 have come in just the last 10 years.

Here are some of the sources we used for this Reality Check.
All MN bills, all vetoes
Vetoes by Governor
History of Minnesota Veto

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Medical device maker Medtronic Inc. said Wednesday that federal prosecutors have closed their investigation of the company’s InFuse bone graft.

The world’s largest medical device company was being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. The government first subpoenaed documents from Minneapolis-based Medtronic in October 2008.

InFuse contains a genetically engineered protein that can stimulate bone growth. In June, a medical journal alleged that Medtronic downplayed the risks of InFuse and did not disclose millions of dollars in payments to the authors who wrote the initial studies of the product. InFuse brought in most of the revenue from Medtronic’s spinal business, the company’s second-largest division, but the reports have hurt sales.

InFuse is approved for use in spinal, oral and dental graft procedures, but most of the time it was used in neck surgeries and other procedures. Physicians are allowed to use drugs and medical products off-label as they see fit, but companies cannot market their products for off-label uses. Use of InFuse in neck surgeries can lead to problems swallowing, breathing and speaking. Some patients had to have other surgeries because of those problems.

“After several years of investigation, we are pleased that the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office have come to the decision to close their investigation of the company related to InFuse Bone Graft,” said Chris O’Connell, executive vice president and group president of Restorative Therapies Group, which includes Medtronic’s spinal business.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined comment.

On March 30 Medtronic agreed to pay $85 million to resolve a federal class-action lawsuit brought by a shareholder, the Minneapolis Firefighters Relief Association. The association manages pension funds for Minneapolis firefighters and their families, and it alleged Medtronic did not disclose how much of the company’s revenue from InFuse came from “off-label” uses, or uses that have not been approved by regulators, did not disclose the side effects that some of those patients were suffering, and did not disclose what the plaintiffs described as illegal marketing.

Medtronic said it did not make any misrepresentation and did nothing wrong.

Shares of Medtronic rose 7 cents to $38.22 Wednesday and were unchanged aftermarket.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The sudden cold snap that interrupted Minnesota’s warm spring five weeks ago doesn’t appear to have been as big a disaster for the state’s apple crop as first feared, but it still has left some growers hurting and worried.

The frost bit hard on the nights of April 9 and 10 while many apple trees were blooming unusually early. That will affect the size of the crop, but researchers and growers said Wednesday it looks like the losses won’t be as bad as they could have been. They’ll find out for sure in August and September when growers start picking their Zestars, SweeTangos, Honeycrisps, Haralsons and other popular regional varieties.

“There’s no question that the crop has been impacted statewide. The question is whether there’s a 15 percent reduction or an 80 percent reduction. The people I’m talking to are saying this isn’t as bad as we thought,” University of Minnesota apple breeder David Bedford said.

The Le Crescent area of far southeastern Minnesota, one of the top apple-growing regions of the state, is in fairly good shape, said Ralph Yates, owner of Fruit Acres and secretary of the Minnesota Apple Growers Association. Ridge-top orchards like his can expect “a pretty nice crop” but some colder, low-lying orchards there suffered losses with early-blooming varieties, he said.

“We’ve got a long ways to go until harvest,” Yates said. “Fortunately at this point we do have a nice crop to work with.”

For some growers, though, the damage is bad. It’s giving heartburn to Mike Dekarski, owner of Apple Jack Orchards in Delano and president of the association. He was left with very few early-maturing Zestars and Chestnut Crabs, though he’s still expecting a good crop of late-season Regents and Sweet 16s.

Dekarski said and several other growers he knows are dreading the “June drop,” when trees go through a self-thinning and might ordinarily shed 10 percent of their fruit. He said he’s heard from growers who thought they survived the frost but lost everything this past week.

Jacobson’s Pine Tree Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake hired a helicopter both nights to fly patterns low over its trees and prevent the cold air from settling in. Co-owner John Jacobson said his family thinks it worked.

“Mother Nature certainly did deal us a little bit of a setback, but to what degree? It’s going to be August and September when people see what made it and what didn’t. I’m optimistic there will be apples out there,” Jacobson said.

Thaddeus McCamant, a specialty crops management instructor at Northland Community and Technical College in Detroit Lakes who’s been visiting orchards across the state since the frost, said some growers he’s seen have lost 75 percent of their crop. But he’s seen others who should get a full crop if the weather cooperates for the rest of the summer.

That’s a big if, as growers will attest.

Minnesota’s largest orchard, Pepin Heights near Lake City, survived the frost in reasonable shape, said Tim Byrne, vice president for sales and marketing. The moderating effects of nearby Lake Pepin probably bought the orchard “a critical degree or two,” so by the end of April he was expecting about 80 percent of a normal crop.

That changed May 2, when hailstorms pelted a long stretch of southern Minnesota and hammered one of Pepin Heights’ farms. The focus at that property is triage, trying to protect the damaged trees from disease. Any apples that part of the operation produces will likely be good only for cider.

On the positive side, Byrne said, Pepin Heights has ties with growers in other states and Canada that should ensure adequate supplies for the supermarkets the company serves. And the Minnesota-grown crop should start arriving 2½ to 3 weeks ahead of schedule, probably around Aug. 15-20 for Zestars and SweeTangos.

“While we’re not going to have as much fruit as we did last year, we should have enough fruit to take care of our best customers through the season, provided we don’t get whammied again,” Byrne said.

Yates said orchards in his area should be able to supply apples to other Minnesota growers who don’t have enough for their own farm stores.

“They really need the support of their local customers to make it through what could be a difficult growing season for them,” Yates said.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A 26-year-old Kenyon man is accused of trying to hire another man to kill the new boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend, according to charges filed Wednesday by the Rice County Attorney’s Office.

Jesse Allen Helgeson has been charged with conspiracy to commit premeditated first-degree murder in connection with the incident, which happened sometime between May 9 and Monday.

“This is something you see in the movies,” Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn said. “And when you hear this happening in your own backyard, we want to do everything we can to protect citizens out there.”

According to the complaint, Helgeson contacted an unnamed person via text message and wanted the new boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend killed. Helgeson and his ex-girlfriend had a child together, the complaint states. Helgeson told the person he wanted the new boyfriend killed because he had threatened him and the child.

Helgeson told the person he did not have any money to pay, but would give the person a golf cart and a four-wheeler, the complaint states.

“He stated he already lost a truck trying to hire somebody else to do this,” Dunn said. “So we took this very seriously and tried to move as quickly as possible.”

The person contacted police after Helgeson reached out. An undercover officer made contact with Helgeson and arranged for a meeting at the Flying J Truck stop in rural Northfield on Monday. That’s where he was arrested and taken into custody.

The complaint also shows Helgeson is facing burglary and assault charges in connection with a incident in Mower County back in January. It states he broke into the home where his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend were sleeping, wearing a ski mask and beat the man with a flashlight.

If convicted, Helgeson faces up to 20 years in prison.

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A Gaylord area man is gaining some notoriety for driving an off-road-rigged Jeep using only hand controls.

Jesse Honl appears in the July issue of Petersen’s 4-Wheel & Off-Road, a national magazine dedicated to four-wheel-drive vehicles.

And just a few pages in, under the “Readers’ Rides” heading, is a photo of Honl driving his highly modified 1979 Jeep down a steep pile of boulders.

While there is nothing unusual about a rural Minnesota guy driving his Jeep for fun, there is something unusual about Honl’s Jeep. It has a Chevrolet V-8 engine that runs on propane instead of gasoline, the axles are from a heavy-duty truck, and the tires are huge — 42 inches in diameter.

But the really unusual part of the Jeep is its driver.

“I, ah, was in a car accident about ten years ago, and I ended up breaking my neck,” Honl said.

That means Honl drives his Jeep using hand controls. His brother, Bert Holn, helps him get into his Jeep, because Honl can’t use his legs.

Once he is behind the wheel, Honl uses race-car seat belts to stay in position, and he has to tie his left leg to the door, so it won’t hit the steering wheel or brake controls.

Honl wants to remind everyone to always use seat belts: he was not belted the night he was injured.

In his Jeep, the right hand controls the brake and gas and the left hand controls the steering wheel.

Honl says his Jeep is the ultimate power wheelchair. It allows him to reconnect with nature.

“For me, it’s a way to see something I can’t see from a wheelchair,” he said. “There is scenery that I would never be able to see if it weren’t for this Jeep, so it’s a very good feeling when you get back on a trail.”

Honl said that when he’s in his Jeep, no one can tell he’s in a wheelchair.

“Get in it and you’re just one of the guys,” he said.

Honl likes to ride in the Iron Range off-road park near Gilbert, Minnesota.

Honl supports Crawl for the Cure, a Jeep event that raises money for MS research. You can learn more about the event here.