Man charged in Minnesota battery acid attack

ST. LOUIS PARK (AP) — A 28-year-old man is charged with assault after allegedly throwing battery acid into the face of woman in St. Louis Park.

According to a criminal complaint, Jarso Adem of Minneapolis confronted the woman Tuesday on a sidewalk in St. Louis Park because he said she was spending less time with him.

The complaint says Adem told investigators he had poured liquid battery acid into a drink bottle, and when the woman refused to speak to him, he threw the acid in her face and ran away.

A jogger heard the woman’s screams and chased Adem into a parking lot where he was arrested. Police say the woman had red marks and swelling on her face, neck and hands.

Adem is being held Friday in the Hennepin County Jail. Court records do not show whether he has an attorney.

Families of 2 Americans still in Iran wait, wonder

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As Sarah Shourd prepares to spend her first weekend in more than a year outside a Tehran prison, the families of the two Americans left behind wonder what more they can do to win their release.

In many ways, they are in the same place they’d been for months. They have no details about Iran’s espionage case against Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal and are left with limited options given the tattered U.S.-Iran relationship.

But the mothers of Bauer and Fattal remain hopeful even as their sons’ fate may depend less on what they do and more on the power struggles inside the Iranian government.

“It’s a very helpless feeling,” Bauer’s mother, Cindy Hickey, told The Associated Press this week.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to travel to New York for the U.N. General Assembly next week. Hickey and Fattal’s mother, Laura Fattal, hadn’t decided Friday whether to push for a personal meeting with Ahmadinejad. They tried and failed to get one last year.

Bomb charges dropped against Prior Lake couple

PRIOR LAKE (AP) — Prosecutors have dismissed bomb-making charges against a Prior Lake couple because, officials say, there’s no evidence to support them.

The Star Tribune of Minneapolis reports the charges filed a year ago against Bob and Robbie Masters were dropped Thursday in Scott County District Court.

The charges alleged the Masters helped their son and his friends make pipe bombs that were planted in south-metro mailboxes. No one was hurt.

The couple and their attorney, Earl Gray, claim a Burnsville police officer wrote inconsistent reports, took statements out of context and lied to implicate the couple.

Gray says the officer had a grudge against Robbie Masters because she told teens not to talk with police without their parents present.

Burnsville police officials strongly denied those allegations.

Corrections officer admits to taking bribes

ST. PAUL (AP) — A former federal corrections officer has pleaded guilty to accepting $5,000 in bribes from the relatives of two inmates at the Federal Medical Center in Rochester.

Minnesota Public Radio News reports Friday that 53-year-old Cheryl Wheeler of Wabasha, pleaded guilty to one count of bribery of a public official.

Prosecutors say Wheeler admitted she demanded and received money from relatives of the inmates in exchange for giving the inmates tobacco. It happened from July 2009 to February 2010.

A sentencing date hasn’t been set.

Premiere of river pollution film postponed

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A filmmaker says she’s baffled after the University of Minnesota postponed the release of her documentary on agricultural pollution in the Mississippi River.

The university says “Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story” needs to be reviewed for balance and objectivity. The film, produced with $500,000 in state lottery proceeds and foundation grants, shows pollution problems in the Mississippi from farm chemicals and other sources.

The film’s Minneapolis-based director, producer and writer, Larkin McPhee, said she’s puzzled by the decision.

“I felt we had been through scientific review,” McPhee told the St. Paul Pioneer

Centerville man sentenced in road rage attack

ST. PAUL (AP) — A Centerville man has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison after witnesses said he ran down a woman in a Maplewood school parking.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports Friday that 21-year-old John Thomas Babcook was sentenced Friday morning in St. Paul to seven years and two months.

He had previously pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in the May 20 incident that severely injured a 23-year-old Oakdale woman.

The criminal complaint says that after a minor traffic altercation, Babcook followed the woman’s vehicle into the parking lot. When she got out, witnesses say he drove over a curb, through some grass and ran her down.

When police arrived, they found the woman on the ground. She had several spinal fractures and a head wound. Babcook later turned himself in.

Press. “In my mind, we had all signed off on the film a couple of months ago. I feel like I don’t understand what’s going on.”

About 60 troops returning from Afghanistan

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A special homecoming ceremony is being held for more than 60 Minnesota-based troops returning from Afghanistan.

The members of the U.S. Army’s 372nd Engineer Brigade have been deployed for just over a year. A ceremony to welcome them home is being held at 5:15 p.m. Saturday at the Army Reserve Center at Fort Snelling.

Lt. Col. Nathan Banks, a spokesman for the 372nd, said that while in Afghanistan, the troops cleared travel routes and found nearly 790 bombs.

They were also responsible for construction projects, including roads and buildings for bases and combat outposts in both eastern and northern Afghanistan. They also managed construction projects to support the recent troop surge.

The 372nd is based at Fort Snelling.

3 lesbian pastors to join Lutheran roster in Minn.

ST. PAUL (AP) — Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will preside over a St. Paul ceremony that officially receives three openly lesbian pastors onto the denomination’s roster.

Pastors Anita C. Hill, Ruth Frost and Phyllis Zillhart will take part in a service of reception Saturday afternoon at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in St. Paul. All three are in committed lifelong relationships, and were prohibited from joining the ELCA roster until a denominational assembly voted last summer to liberalize its gay clergy policy.

Hill is pastor at St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran. Frost and Zillhart are both hospice pastors in the Twin Cities.

The Rev. Peter Rogness, bishop of the ELCA’s St. Paul Synod, will preside over the ceremony.

ATV enthusiasts gather for convention

NASHWAUK (AP) — The All-Terrain Vehicle Association of Minnesota holds its annual fall convention this weekend in Nashwauk.

ATV enthusiasts are encouraged to attend Saturday and Sunday and join in organized rides, an ATV pull, helicopter rides, a cheerleader ATV wash and an auction.

The Minnesota group’s president, Ken Irish, says Nashwauk has some of the best ATV trails in the state.

Nashwauk is between Hibbing and Grand Rapids.