1 killed as boat sinks on Lake Vermilion

DULUTH (AP) — Authorities are investigating after a boat loaded with seven people sunk on Lake Vermilion in St. Louis County, killing a 29-year-old man.

The St. Louis County sheriff’s office says that at about 3 a.m. Sunday deputies received a call of a water emergency on the lake near the Forest Lane Resort in Greenwood Township.

Two people in the boat swam to the resort. Four others were rescued by owner of the resort and brought to shore. They told deputies they were traveling from the Bayview Resort when the boat suddenly took on water.

The county rescue squad recovered 29-year-old Casey T. Gilbertson, who was pronounced dead at the scene. The department did not immediately release Gilberton’s home town.

Minn. woman files lawsuit over Iowa trampling

WAVERLY, Iowa (AP) — A Minnesota couple has filed a lawsuit over injuries from a horse trampling at the 2010 Waverly Midwest Horse Sale.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids says Martha Duban, of Faribault, was trampled in March 2010 when a team of horses was spooked. She was flown to a hospital for treatment of her injuries.

Duban and her husband, Thomas, claim negligence and unsafe conditions. They’re seeking unspecified monetary compensation.

The lawsuit cited by the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier names Waverly Sales, which organizes the sales, and auctioneer Dale Chupp, of Shipshewana, Ind. Numbers listed for Waverly Sales and Chupp rang unanswered Sunday.

Rare move: Minn. judge finds attorney in contempt

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Hennepin County judge, in a rare move, has found a defense attorney in contempt for failing to show up to the start of her client’s trial.

The relationship between Judge William Howard and attorney M. Tayari Garrett has been strained for months. Howard repeatedly denied a number of Garrett’s pretrial motions in a mortgage fraud case, and she claimed the judge violated several procedural rules.

Garrett eventually asked for Howard’s removal from the case on grounds of judicial misconduct and racial bias against her and the woman she’s representing. Both are black.

In Howard’s contempt order Wednesday, he said his decision was based on Garrett’s failures to show up for trial on May 2 or on any other date until she was discharged as counsel May 11. He also said she failed to provide a good reason for her absence.

Garrett said she made clear that she had a medical emergency in Dallas.

Ed. Sec. to discuss education reform in St. Paul

ST. PAUL (AP) — U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will be in Minnesota this week to talk about the planned overhaul of the nation’s most important education law, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Duncan is scheduled to visit on Tuesday students and teachers at Dayton’s Bluff Achievement Plus Elementary School, a public school on the east side of St. Paul.

He will then hold a round-table discussion with educators and Sen. Al Frankin, D-Minn., about the reauthorization of the law.

Duncan has pressed to have the overhaul done before the beginning of the next school year. However, the chairman of the House education committee, Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., has said it won’t be finished by then.

The committee is doing the overhaul in pieces. It passed the first bill on May 25.

Duluth police credit outreach for quieter parties

DULUTH (AP) — Duluth police say improved relations between university officials and local landlords have led to a dramatic decline in complaints about loud parties.

Police Lt. Eric Rish says the latest results are “nothing short of spectacular.”

During the last two weeks of school this spring at the University of Minnesota Duluth, police were called to seven parties.

That compares to 86 complaints in May of last year, 101 in the same month the previous year and 116 the year before that.

Rish attributes the improvement to UMD developing a student-conduct code for off-campus behavior, and police cooperating with school officials.

Stolen kayak returned to man on 10-week trek

ST. CLOUD (AP) — A kayak stolen from a California man who was passing through St. Cloud on a 10-week trip down the Mississippi River has been discovered in the Elk River.

Jeffrey Pearson of California spent the night in St. Cloud on Friday. When he returned on Saturday to the spot where he had locked up his gear, it was gone.

Pearson had planned to cut his trip short and fly back to California, but then a woman called police Sunday morning after finding the kayak washed up against some brush along the Elk River.

Pearson’s clothes, navigational charts, VHF marine radio and other gear were not recovered. A local resident has offered to lend him enough supplies to finish the trip.