PHOTO FLAP

North Dakota AG investigating failed photography company

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The North Dakota Attorney General’s office has subpoenaed a Bismarck photography firm that suddenly closed, leaving customers with no way to get their money back. Parrell Grossman, the director of the consumer protection division, says investigators are seeking relevant documents from Glasser Images and owner Jack Glasser. When Glasser Images closed in early October, the company apologized and said refunds would not be provided.  Grossman says more than 500 complaints have been received from customers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Colorado and other states. 

CAPITOL BREACH-LAWMAKER

Lawmaker wants donations for family charged in Jan. 6 riot

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota lawmaker is encouraging supporters to donate to a Lindström family facing federal criminal charges in connection with participating in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Sen. Mark Koran, a North Branch Republican, on Friday posted a link to a crowdfunding site launched by a member of the Westbury family — four members of which are charged with crimes related to the deadly Capitol riot. The crowdfunding campaign has a goal of raising $50,000.

FATAL POLICE PURSUIT-OFFICER CHARGED

Minneapolis cop charged in chase that killed innocent driver

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minneapolis police officer has been charged with manslaughter and vehicular homicide for a crash in July that killed an innocent motorist while the officer was pursuing a stolen vehicle. Authorities say Officer Brian Cummings was driving nearly 80 mph in Minneapolis with his siren and lights activated when his squad car slammed into a different vehicle, killing 40-year-old Leneal Frazier. Frazier was the uncle of Darnella Frazier, whose cellphone video of Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck in 2020 was viewed worldwide and helped launch a global protest movement against racial injustice. The Frazier family and their attorneys welcomed the charges, saying no innocent civilian should ever die because of unwarranted high-speed chases.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-MINNESOTA

COVID-19 cases rising faster on reservations in Minnesota

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — State health officials say Native Americans have contracted COVID-19 at two to three times the rate of white Minnesotans over the past month. The director of the Center for American Indian and Minority Health at the University of Minnesota, Mary Owen, says there are large pockets of unvaccinated people in the 18 to 49 age range in Minnesota’s tribal communities and across the country. Owen attributes that in part to access to vaccines. Owen says that’s especially concerning because Native Americans have high rates of health disparities that put them at higher risk for serious COVID-19 illness, such as diabetes, 

COAST GUARD CENTER-MICHIGAN

Center in UP to look at impact of oil spills in freshwater

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. (AP) — Lake Superior State University in Michigan’s eastern Upper Peninsula has been selected as a hub for a center that will look at the impacts of oil spills in freshwater environments. The school says the U.S. Coast Guard National Center of Expertise for the Great Lakes also will help develop effective responses to spills. Federal legislation established the Great Lakes National Center of Expertise in 2018. Lake Superior State is in Sault Ste. Marie and just off the St. Marys River which connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron. Lake Michigan is about 60 miles southwest of Sault Ste. Marie.

POLICE SHOOTING-MINNEAPOLIS-NOOR

Minneapolis cop gets nearly 5 years in killing of 911 caller

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman after she called 911 to report a possible rape behind her home has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison. The 57 months that the judge gave Mohamed Noor on Thursday was the maximum term possible for manslaughter under the state’s sentencing guidelines but is far shorter than the 12 1/2 years he received for a third-degree murder conviction that the state Supreme Court overturned. Noor was convicted of both charges in the 2017 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, but the high court later ruled that the third-degree murder statute didn’t fit the facts of the case. With good behavior, Noor could be freed by next summer.

AP-US-MED-RARE-DISEASE-AROMATHERAPY-SPRAY

Aromatherapy spray linked to US deaths faces recall

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials may have solved the mystery of how four people in different states came down with a serious tropical disease, even though none had traveled internationally. The four people may have been infected by an aromatherapy spray imported from India. Two of them died. One was a child. The others were from Kansas, Minnesota and Texas. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that its scientists found the same type of bacteria that causes the disease in an aromatherapy spray found in the Georgia patient’s home. The spray was made in India. The Consumer Product Safety Commission and Walmart issued a recall Friday for 3,900 bottles of the spray. 

BYSTANDER KILLED

2nd man charged in crash that killed woman in Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A second suspect has been charged in the death of a bystander who was struck and killed by one of two vehicles whose drivers were involved in an exchange of gunfire in downtown Minneapolis. Eighteen-year-old Autumn Rose Merrick was riding a scooter near Target Field when she was struck and killed while standing on a street corner Oct. 6. A passenger in one of the vehicles, 33-year-old Marvel Williams, was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder and illegal possessing a firearm. An arrest warrant has been issued for a second man, Christopher Walker of Minneapolis, who is accused of being one of the drivers. Walker is facing the same charges. 

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