State fire marshal gives holiday safety tips

ST. PAUL — Minnesota’s top fire official warns the same holiday traditions that give you a warm glow can lead to fires.

Last winter, structure fires in Minnesota caused nearly $3 million in property damage and killed two people between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day.

State Fire Marshal Jerry Rosendahl said cooking, open flames and heating account for 70 percent of Minnesota structure fires year-round.

For keeping your home safe this holiday, Rosendahl says never leave a hot stove unattended, and never use water to extinguish a stovetop grease fire — smother the fire with a pan lid instead.

Always leave 3 feet between a lighted candle and anything that can burn, and never burn giftwrap in a fireplace.

And keep space heaters at least 3 feet from walls, furniture and drapes.

 

Latest check on Minn. unemployment rate on way

ST. PAUL — The latest snapshot of unemployment in Minnesota is on its way.

Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development officials are scheduled to release statistics Thursday describing job gains and losses in various sectors for November. The state has seen a net gain in jobs over the last year. An updated unemployment rate is part of the report.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has remained well below the national average. Federal statistics released a couple of weeks ago showed the national jobless rate for November was 7.7 percent.

 

Ex-nurse wants aiding-suicide conviction reversed

MINNEAPOLIS — An attorney for a former Minnesota nurse convicted of going online and encouraging two people to kill themselves says his client was merely supporting his alleged victims and had no influence on their actions.

William Melchert-Dinkel was convicted last year on two counts of aiding suicide. His attorney is asking the Minnesota Supreme Court to overturn those convictions.

In court documents filed Wednesday, attorney Terry Watkins said Melchert-Dinkel did not directly participate in the suicides of an English man and a Canadian woman.

Watkins also cites case law he says shows that his 50-year-old client had no legal duty to stop the suicides.

He faces about a year in jail unless his conviction is overturned. Melchert-Dinkel, who lives in Faribault, remains free pending appeal.

 

Health officials warn of holiday norovirus threat

ST. PAUL — ‘Tis the season for giving, but health officials said too many Minnesotans are giving and receiving something nobody wants: the norovirus.

Noroviruses affect the stomach and intestines, leading to vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramping. Other symptoms can include low-grade fever or chills, headaches and muscle aches. They’re highly contagious, and they’re the leading cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in Minnesota, infecting thousands of people each year.

The virus lurks in the stools or vomit of infected people, and makes its way to food, water or surfaces via the hands of infected people who haven’t washed them properly. Uncooked shellfish from contaminated waters can also harbor it.

Kirk Smith, foodborne disease supervisor at the Minnesota Department of Health, said the season of giving should also be the season of good hand-washing.

 

Charges filed in crash that killed 1, injured 2

ST. PAUL — Criminal charges have been filed in an interstate crash in St. Paul that killed one person and caused two others to lose legs.

A criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County said 63-year-old Eugene Farrell slammed into an overturned vehicle and directly or indirectly struck Marcus Andary, Keith Barnes and the driver they were trying to help out the overturned car, Alicia Kaufenberg.

The complaint said Farrell admitted drinking before the crash.

Andary, a 21-year-old college student from Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., was thrown into the roadway and hit by another car. He died at the scene.

Barnes and Kaufenberg suffered life-threatening injuries. Both lost their left legs.

Farrell is charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and four counts of criminal vehicular operation.

 

Red Lake school shooting survivors head to Newtown

MINNEAPOLIS — Survivors of the 2005 school shootings on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota left for Connecticut on Wednesday to help comfort those grieving the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School and repay the support Red Lake received from Columbine survivors.

Most members of the contingent belonged to the Red Lake High School Class of 2008. Now in their 20s, they were teens when a 16-year-old classmate killed his grandfather and grandfather’s girlfriend and then drove to the school, where he killed five students, a teacher and a security guard before killing himself. Five others were wounded in the shooting spree.

Soon after, two survivors of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado traveled to the Ojibwe reservation in northern Minnesota with a kind of sympathy few others could demonstrate. They presented a plaque to Red Lake students that the delegation now plans to pass on to the students and teachers in Newtown with an added inscription for Sandy Hook.

“They understand. They’ve walked through this before,” said Stephanie Hope Smith, who worked with other Rotary Club members to organize the trip.

Justin Jourdain, a 2008 graduate of Red Lake High School, was in the school during the March 21, 2005, shooting. He came up with the idea of going to Connecticut and said the visit from the Columbine survivors was helpful.

“It helped a lot, just knowing there are other people out there who understood what we were going through,” Jourdain said Tuesday night before the group left.

Thirteen people set out from Minnesota in three cars Wednesday, Smith said, while several other Red Lake Nation members including a youth honor drum group planned to fly.

The group planned to meet with school staff in Newtown today and attend students’ holiday musical on Friday.

They’re going as “a ministry of presence, just about being there and supporting,” Smith said. Like the Columbine survivors who visited Red Lake, they plan to offer whatever support they can in hopes of bringing “a step of closure” to Newtown, with a message “that healing can come and will come,” she said.

Exactly how they’ll help hasn’t been determined, Smith said, but they might be able to work behind the scenes to relieve the burden on school staff or community volunteers, perhaps giving them a chance to step away from the phones and catch their breath.

“They’re very sensitive to the idea of not creating a burden,” Smith said.

 

Student facing charges in Olmsted County

DOVER — A 17-year-old student is facing charges in Olmsted County where he’s accused of carrying a knife and threatening to harm or kill students.

Sheriff’s officials said the boy had a “hit list” and threatened to stab students in the eyes at Dover-Eyota High School Tuesday.

The teen was armed with a large folding knife.

 

Gun found in staffer’s locker at Minneapolis elem. school

MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis police said a staff member brought a gun to an elementary magnet school in response to last week’s Connecticut school massacre.

Police said the woman had a .357-caliber Magnum in her pursue inside her locker at Seward Montessori School in Minneapolis. She mentioned the gun to a co-worker, who contacted authorities.

The woman has a permit to carry the gun, but bringing a gun to school is against Minnesota law and violates Minneapolis Public Schools policy.

Minneapolis police secured the gun. The staff member was removed from the school Wednesday and is on administrative leave.

The school said no staff members or students were harmed or threatened. The school was placed on Code Yellow, which means students remained in their classrooms the rest of the day.