Free Republic

State Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, was arrested Monday morning in Detroit Lakes and booked into the Becker County Jail for suspected first-degree burglary. Detroit Lakes Police Chief Steve Todd said at 4:45 a.m. on Monday, a 911 dispatcher received a call from a homeowner on Granger Road who reported that there was a burglar inside their home. Todd said officers arrested the woman inside the home and she was identified as Mitchell. Mitchell, 49, was booked into Becker County Jail and was still listed on the jail’s roster early Monday afternoon. Mitchell was elected to the Senate in 2022 and...

That’s not constituent service. A Minnesota state senator was arrested early Monday on suspicion of first-degree burglary — hundreds of miles from her home turf. Nicole Mitchell, a 49-year-old first-term Democrat who reps the Twin Cities suburbs of Woodbury and Maplewood, was taken into custody after a homeowner called police in Detroit Lakes — 220 miles to the northwest — to report an intruder, according to local reports. Mitchell, a former TV and radio meteorologist and a commander in the Air National Guard, was booked into the Becker County Jail, where she remained as of Monday afternoon, according to online...

A team of journalists and a retired Woodbury police officer have followed the Jodi Huisentruit case and held a dedication ceremony in June 2018 for new billboards placed in Mason City, Iowa on what would have been her 50th birthday. The TV show “48 Hours” promises to reveal “new information” Saturday in the unsolved case of Iowa anchorwoman Jodi Huisentruit, who disappeared 23 years ago. The 27-year-old Minnesota native vanished while heading to work one morning in June 1995, leaving behind evidence of a struggle in her apartment parking lot but few clues as to who assaulted her. In the...

The GOP, with 1,639 accredited delegates, adopted a pre-arranged slate of running mates for Rell, whom they hope will be able to take advantage of her soaring popularity in November. They never had a roll call vote, unlike Democrats in Hartford, who battled all afternoon over their gubernatorial candidates. Alan Schlesinger of Woodbridge, a former Derby mayor and state representative, won the GOP nomination to run for U.S. Senate on a voice vote after Rell's speech emptied the gym. Paul Streitz, a Darien businessman, dropped his bid for the nomination on an immigration-reform platform, but was given platform time in...

HARTFORD -- A former mayor of the state's smallest city is thinking big and aiming high. Alan Schlesinger, a former two-term mayor of Derby and six-term state representative, announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate on Monday. Schlesinger is running for the seat Democrat Joseph I. Lieberman has held for 18 years. He is not the only Republican interested in the party's nomination. Schlesinger's announcement Monday coincided with the filing deadline for federal income taxes in Connecticut. "What better day to announce than on 'Tax Day' because I am really concerned our hard-earned tax dollars are...

The National Weather Service said Tuesday that a small tornado touched down briefly in the area of 140 Great Hollow Road on June 9. The bulk of the damage in the area was caused by a microburst, which had strong straight line winds moving from southwest to northeast. A tornado has rotating wind. ... The tornado left a path about 30 yards wide and moved about 100 yards before breaking up. A National Weather Service spokesman said it was on the ground less than a minute. The estimated maximum wind speed was 100 mph.

There is a passionate debate going on in the small Vermont town of Woodbury, regarding the Pledge of Allegiance – but it isn't what you may think. No, this isn’t your garden-variety, everyday, atheistic attempt to remove the “offensive recitation” from school, as we’ve seen on numerous occasions before.This debate has a new twist.It isn’t a “what” issue … it’s a “where” issue.Specifically, it concerns whether or not the Pledge of Allegiance can be said in the classrooms of the school or if it needs to be done in a different place within the school, like the gymnasium.It is a...

A flight attendant angry about his work route set a fire in an airplane bathroom, forcing an emergency landing, authorities said. The Compass Airlines flight carrying 72 passengers and four crew members landed safely in Fargo on May 7 after smoke filled the back. No injuries were reported. The plane was flying from Minneapolis to Regina, Saskatchewan, authorities said. Eder Rojas, 19, appeared in court Thursday, following his arrest a day earlier in Minneapolis, and ordered held without bail, prosecutors said. The charge of setting fire aboard a civil aircraft carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

A driver trying to escape a what Woodbury police called a traffic stop lost control of his car and crashed into a house early this morning. Shortly after midnight the driver of a red Acura led police on a brief chase before crashing into a house

A Woodbury native whose father was killed in the crash of a restored World War II fighter a year ago was one of two Marine Corps fighter pilots who died this week when their planes apparently collided over south-central Iraq. The military notified the family of Kelly Hinz that he was killed in the Monday collision, WCCO-TV reported late Wednesday. The 30-year-old Hinz, a 1993 graduate of St. Thomas Academy, an all-boys Catholic military school in Mendota Heights, is married and has a 7-month-old daughter. He had been stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. Hinz's mother,...