WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits edged higher last week to 745,000, a sign that many employers continue to cut jobs despite a drop in confirmed viral infections and evidence that the overall economy is improving. Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that jobless claims rose by 9,000 from the previous week. Though the…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Allowing schools to open earlier and bolstering their summer school offerings are both being floated by Gov. Tony Evers as ways to help students catch up after a year of virtual learning during the coronavirus pandemic. Allowing schools to open before Sept. 1 for the 2021-2022 academic year would require a law change. The Legislature has…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin launched an online registry Wednesday where people can sign up to receive the coronavirus vaccine if they are eligible and appointments are available near where they live, but so far only one health department is participating. The registry was supposed to launch on March 1 but was delayed as those testing the system worked to fix problems and migrate…
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democratic official says President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats have agreed to tighten the upper-income limits at which people could qualify for stimulus checks in the party’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill. That’s a major concession to moderates as party leaders prepared to move their legislation through the Senate. As part of Democrats’ legislative thrust on…
(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) (AP) – Legislators in more than 20 states have introduced bills this year that would ban transgender girls from competing on girls’ sports teams in public high schools. Yet in almost every case, sponsors are unable to cite an instance in their own state or region where such participation has caused problems. Asked about actual cases with…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Capitol Police say they have intelligence showing there is a “possible plot” by a militia group to breach the U.S. Capitol on Thursday. The revelation was detailed in a statement from the Capitol Police. The threat appears to be connected to a far-right conspiracy theory, mainly promoted by supporters of QAnon, that Trump will…
LANSING, Mich. (AP) – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has announced the further loosening of Michigan’s coronavirus restrictions, easing capacity limits in restaurants and a host of other businesses while also allowing for larger indoor and outdoor gatherings. The revised state order takes effect Friday. The Democratic governor says families will be able to visit nursing homes after being tested for COVID-19….
EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — An Eagan woman is accused of threatening neighbors with a machete and cutting wires inside a utility box last week, leaving dozens without phone or internet service. A criminal complaint filed in Dakota County charges 32-year-old Kathryn Joyce with threatening violence and first-degree criminal damage to property, which are felonies. According to the complaint, officers were…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Transgender athletes would be banned from participating in girls’ and women’s sports in Wisconsin from kindergarten through college under bills introduced by Republican lawmakers. The proposals unveiled Tuesday come as more than a dozen other states consider similar measures. The Wisconsin proposal faces an almost certain veto from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers should it pass the…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin will receive 47,000 doses next week of the newly approved coronavirus vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, an amount Gov. Tony Evers calls a “game-changer” in the state’s fight against COVID-19. The news came the same day that teachers, child care workers, grocery store employees, and others in a group of about 700,000 became eligible for…
(AP Photo/Steven Senne) BOSTON (AP) — The business that preserves and protects Dr. Seuss’s legacy has announced it will stop publishing six titles because of racist and insensitive imagery. Dr. Seuss Enterprises tells The Associated Press in a statement on Tuesday, the author and illustrator’s birthday, that the books portray people in ways that are hurtful. It says the decision…
(AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A record number of permits to carry handguns were issued in 2020, a surge attributed to a rise in violent crime in the Twin Cities and the civil unrest that followed the death of George Floyd. A report from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension shows that more than…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A state-run COVID-19 vaccine registry touted as a one-stop-shop for people seeking vaccinations in Wisconsin is set to launch by the end of the day. The registry announced last month is going live Monday, just as teachers, child care workers, and others in a group of about 700,000 become eligible for the vaccine. The Wisconsin Department…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A preliminary study shows that deer throughout Minnesota have been exposed to a certain class of insecticides, the state Department of Natural Resources said Monday. The DNR said further analysis is required to determine if the presence of neonicotinoid pesticides is high enough to adversely affect deer health. Additional study results should be completed this spring. Neonicotinoids…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin has departed from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance by not prioritizing individuals with chronic health conditions as it rolls out the coronavirus vaccines in the state. The state committee that set Wisconsin’s vaccine priority failed to follow CDC advice that says people age 16 to 64 with underlying medical conditions should be…
PARIS (AP) — Across Africa and Southeast Asia, governments and aid groups, as well as the World Health Organization, are increasingly calling on pharmaceutical companies to share their coronavirus vaccine know-how and technology more broadly. They say it’s the only way to meet a huge global shortfall in a pandemic that already has claimed over 2.5 million lives. The Associated…
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health advisers have endorsed a one-dose COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson that’s expected to provide an easier-to-use option to fight the pandemic. The panel of Food and Drug Administration experts ruled on Friday that J&J’s vaccine protected against COVID-19 and should be made available for adults. The FDA is expected to quickly follow the recommendation…
DETROIT (AP) — Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. is recalling more than 430,000 light truck tires in the U.S. because they can develop sidewall bulges that could lead to tire failure. The recall covers certain Discoverer, Evolution, Courser, Deegan, Adventurer, Hercules, Back Country, Multi-Mile, Wild Country, and Big O tires in several sizes. The company says in documents posted Friday…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota’s budget outlook has swung from a nearly $1.3 billion deficit to a $1.6 billion surplus, state economists announced Friday, an improvement that sets up debates for the rest of the legislative session over taxes and spending. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz called for raising taxes on the wealthiest Minnesotans and large companies as part of the $52 billion…
MILWAUKEE (AP) — The case of a 15-year-old boy charged with shooting and wounding eight people at a suburban Milwaukee mall last year will remain in juvenile court. The Milwaukee teen in a petition for juvenile delinquency faces eight felony counts of first-degree reckless injury and one misdemeanor count of possessing a firearm while under 18 in connection with the…
(Renee Jones Schneider/Star Tribune via AP) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The former Minneapolis police officer convicted of third-degree murder in the 2017 fatal shooting of an Australian woman is asking the Minnesota Supreme Court to take his case. Mohamed Noor is seeking to have his conviction in the death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond overturned after a Court of Appeals panel upheld…
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A former U.S. Olympics gymnastics coach with ties to disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar has died by apparent suicide after being charged with two dozen crimes, including forms of human trafficking. Michigan’s attorney general announced John Geddert’s death on Thursday afternoon. It came about three hours after a news conference where Nessel announced that Geddert was…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The number of people eligible for the coronavirus vaccine in Wisconsin is about to grow. Teachers and child care workers in Wisconsin will have priority for the coronavirus vaccine starting Monday. They are part of a group of 700,000 people who will be newly eligible, as about half of those over age 65 have been inoculated…
(AP Photo/Dawn Villella, File) MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Hunters and trappers have exceeded the state’s wolf kill target by almost 100 animals. Registration data the state Department of Natural Resources released Thursday morning show hunters and trappers have killed 215 wolves, blowing past the state kill target of 119. The hunt began Monday and was supposed to run through…
(Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune via AP, Pool) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — At least 70% of Minnesotans age 65 and older will get at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine before the state moves on to the next phase of vaccinations, according to Gov. Tim Walz. The governor is expected to announce the next phase of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan Thursday,…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply last week but remained high by historical standards. Applications for benefits declined 111,000 from the previous week to a seasonally adjusted 730,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. It is the lowest figure since late November. Before the virus erupted in the United States last March, weekly applications for…
(AP) MOUNT PLEASANT, Wis. (AP) — Foxconn Technology Group said Wednesday it has signed a deal with a California startup to build electric cars, conceivably at Foxconn’s facility in Wisconsin. Details of the agreement with electric car company Fisker are expected in the coming months. However, Fisker chairman and chief executive Henrik Fisker told the Wall Street Journal that Foxconn’s…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Ballot drop boxes would not be allowed anywhere other than election clerk offices in Wisconsin under a new Republican-authored proposal in the state Legislature. Another bill unveiled Wednesday would require that only voters, not elections officials, could fill out the information on absentee envelopes. The latest bills add to a growing list of GOP-authored measures addressing…
(AP Photo/Jim Mone, File) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Supreme Court has reversed an appeals court’s rejection of a critical air emissions permit for the planned PolyMet copper-nickel mine and sent the case back for further proceedings. The court ruled Wednesday that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency was not required under federal law to investigate allegations of “sham permitting.” The…
(USPS) WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service says it has chosen Oshkosh Defense to build its next-generation mail-delivery vehicle. It’s part of an effort to make the USPS more environmentally friendly by switching a portion of its massive fleet to electric vehicles. Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense will assemble 50,000 to 165,000 of the new Next Generation Delivery Vehicles at its…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Court of Appeals has agreed to consider a prosecutors’ request to reinstate a third-degree murder charge against the fired Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death. Jury selection begins March 8 for Derek Chauvin, who is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. The appeals court set oral arguments for March 1 on the question…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota’s largest gas utilities are warning about sky-high heating bills because of the historic cold wave in the South and the state’s stretch of subzero weather. At a special meeting by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission Tuesday, members were told February heating bills could be $400 more. The additional charge isn’t expected to show up on customers’…
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Golf star Tiger Woods was injured Tuesday in a vehicle rollover in Los Angeles County, authorities said. Woods had to be extricated from the vehicle with the “jaws of life” tools, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. Woods was taken to the hospital with unspecified injuries. The vehicle sustained major damage, the sheriff’s department…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top developers of U.S. COVID-19 vaccines are set to face questions from Congress about limited supplies of the shots needed to end the pandemic. The pace of vaccinations is picking up nationwide, but demand for the shots continues to outpace limited supplies distributed by the U.S. government. A House panel will question executives from five companies…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin will open four more community vaccination clinics across the state amid a push to inoculate people for the coronavirus in underserved areas. One clinic is already running in Janesville. Gov. Tony Evers announced Tuesday that new community clinics will be in La Crosse, Racine, and Marathon counties, with the fourth split between Douglas and Barron…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wolf hunters and trappers filled nearly half of their statewide quota during the first 24 hours of the season, wildlife officials said Tuesday. The Department of Natural Resources launched a week-long wolf hunt on Monday. As of Tuesday morning, hunters and trappers had taken 52 wolves, filling nearly 44% of the 119-animal state quota. The central…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is set to hear from former security officials about what went wrong at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. That’s when a violent mob laid siege to the Capitol and interrupted the counting of electoral votes. Three of the four testifying Tuesday resigned under pressure immediately after the attack, including the former head of the Capitol…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — No COVID-19 deaths were reported Monday in Wisconsin, marking the first time since early September that the state has had two such days in a row. The last time Wisconsin went two or more days without a single reported death from the coronavirus was the three-day stretch of Sept. 6 through Sept. 8. The state’s seven-day…
BAYFIELD, Wis. (AP) — The striking ice caves on Lake Superior will not open this season. Officials at northern Wisconsin’s Apostle Islands National Lakeshore say the caves won’t be accessible because of poor ice conditions as well as the coronavirus pandemic. Although it’s been plenty cold the past two weeks, ice coverage on Lake Superior was only about 50 percent…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin wildlife officials have opened an abbreviated wolf season. The hunt got underway Monday across six management zones and is slated to run through Sunday. The kill limit is 200 animals, which means some zones could close early as hunters near the limit. The Trump administration removed wolves from the federal endangered species list in January,…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — While the Minnesota Twins are working out in Florida, the club back in Minneapolis is laying plans to bring twins back to Target Field this season. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports the team is hoping to persuade state officials that they can safely host about 10,000 fans, or about 25% of the park’s capacity, for each game….
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a significant defeat for former President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court has declined to step in to halt the turnover of his tax records to a New York state prosecutor. The court’s action Monday is the apparent culmination of a lengthy legal battle that had already reached the high court once before. Trump’s tax records are…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Public school enrollment in Minnesota has dropped by about 17,000 students as families turned to homeschool, private schools, and delaying entry into kindergarten amid the pandemic. The figures from the Minnesota Department of Education represented a 2% drop. Because of the per-pupil formula the state uses to allocate school funding, that aid will drop by about $10,000…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Extreme winter weather is dealing the first major setback to the Biden administration’s planned swift rollout of coronavirus vaccines just as the national vaccination campaign was hitting its stride. The disruptions caused by frigid temperatures, snow, and ice left the White House scrambling to work with states to make up “lost ground.” White House coronavirus adviser Andy…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden is making his first big appearance on the global stage as president Friday. He’ll offer Group of Seven world leaders and others a glimpse into his plans to dramatically reshape U.S. foreign policy even as he deals with a number of international crises coming to a head at the start of his presidency. Biden is…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesotans have now received more than 1 million doses of coronavirus vaccine. Updated figures from the administration of Gov. Tim Walz show that more than 728,000 Minnesotans have received at least one dose, including close to 287,000 who’ve completed the two-dose series. The seven-day rolling average of doses administered is now close to 30,000. Minnesota…
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA rover has landed on Mars in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on the red planet. The space agency says the six-wheeled Perseverance hurtled through the thin, orange atmosphere and settled onto the surface Thursday in the mission’s riskiest maneuver yet. Mars has long been…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin health officials said Thursday they plan to launch a new online COVID-19 vaccine registry next month. People will be able to log into the registry, determine if they’re eligible, and schedule appointments for shots through their local health departments. The registry also will remind people about scheduling for a second dose and help people monitor…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The deadly winter storms that knocked out power for millions in Texas and other states have exceeded the worst-case scenarios of many U.S. utilities. They also fit a pattern of worsening extremes under climate change and demonstrate anew that local, state, and federal officials have failed to do enough to prepare for greater and more dangerous extremes….
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson announced Thursday that he wants 75% of classes to be taught in-person this fall. Thompson said in a column that he’s directed system campuses to ensure students will have what he called “as classic a UW campus experience as possible.” He said the system’s social distancing, masks, and aggressive…
