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Parents sue after Volkswagen tracking firm refused to find stolen SUV with kidnapped boy

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:25 GMT

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. (WGN) — The parents of a toddler who was kidnapped during a carjacking earlier this year are suing the automaker.The incident happened in Libertyville, Illinois, in February when Taylor Shepherd, who was pregnant at the time, was returning home.Shepherd explained to Nexstar's WGN that as she went to retrieve her 2-year-old son from the car, an assailant pulled up behind her 2021 Volkswagen Atlas, assaulted her, and knocked her to the ground. According to the lawsuit, the assailant then stole the Volkswagen Atlas, with the 2-year-old boy inside, and fled — running Shepherd over and causing serious injuries to her pelvis and extremities. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Men steal car from Libertyville driveway with 2-year-old boy inside, run over pregnant mother Shepherd was still able to call 911, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said earlier this year.Attorneys for the family claim Volkswagen refused to assist authorities in tracking the car until payment of t...

Senate to consider unusual funding package passed by House to avoid shutdown

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:25 GMT

WASHINGTON (Nexstar) -- The U.S. House passed a package to prevent a government shutdown. But it's unusual because it funds different agencies through different dates.The Senate will soon be taking up the unusual funding bill the House passed on Tuesday."This latest proposal is very much untested," commented White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says the two-step funding measure is far from perfect, but says he'll work on getting it passed anyway, because it leaves out what Democrats considered the worst provisions."It will avoid a government shutdown and it will do so without any of the cruel cuts or poison pills that the hard right push for," Sen. Schumer said.The White House expressed skepticism about funding some government agencies through January and others through February. Multiple funding deadlines mean there will be more instances where the government could have a partial shutdown. Still, all but two Democrats in the Hou...

Kaitlin Armstrong moves not to testify in her case

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:25 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) - After eight days of calling witnesses, state prosecutors rested their case against murder suspect Kaitlin Armstrong Wednesday morning.Police believe Armstrong shot and killed pro cyclist “Mo” Wilson on May 11, 2022 at an east Austin apartment. Wilson was in town for a nearby gravel race and staying with a friend.  PREVIOUS: Kaitlin Armstrong’s first interview with APD played during murder trial Once defense attorneys finished questioning their witnesses, the jury was excused - and Armstrong and her attorneys approached the judge. At that point, Judge Brenda Kennedy asked Armstrong if she wished to testify and she indicated she did not. State prosecutors called an additional witness after that - a DNA expert. The State’s final witness Tuesday was Pamela Mazak, an intelligence analyst with the Texas Attorney General’s Office. She showed the jury an interactive timeline of events of the day Wilson died by tracking location data on Wilson’s and Armstrong’s phones...

Minnesota adds 20 wild rice lakes and streams to impaired list

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:25 GMT

Minnesota regulators identified another 20 bodies of water used for wild rice production that exceeded the state’s wild rice sulfate water quality standard, placing the 13 lakes and seven streams on its biennial impaired-waters list.In doing so, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency opted to follow the federal Clean Water Act over a 2015 state law that sought to prevent the MPCA from adding impaired wild rice waters to the list and to prevent the agency from enforcing sulfate reduction if it cost the permit holder any money.Sulfates — discharged into water by industrial activities like mining, wastewater treatment and other industrial facilities — at high levels harm wild rice when the sulfate is converted to hydrogen sulfide in the sediment.Minnesota’s sulfate limit for wild rice waters is 10 milligrams per liter, which the mining industry had long argued was too stringent .The 2015 state law was designed to largely prevent the MPCA from enforcing the existing standard until it es...

MN revenue department to reissue 150,000 rebate checks

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:25 GMT

The Minnesota Department of Revenue is reissuing nearly 150,000 one-time tax rebate checks that went uncashed and expired.The department on Wednesday announced it is mailing a first round of unclaimed checks this week. A second batch will go out in the mail in early December.Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in May signed a $3 billion tax bill authorizing an estimated $1.1 billion in one-time tax rebates for more than two million Minnesotans. The final amount ended up being just less than $1 billion.Payments started reaching mailboxes and bank accounts in August and September. People who got checks had 60 days from the issue date to cash them in.Single filers earning up to $75,000 a year were eligible for $260 checks, joint filers earning up to $150,000 were eligible for $520 checks, and households got $260 for each dependent up to three. A married couple with three children could receive up to $1,300.The Revenue Department determined eligibility based on adjusted gross income in 2021.Reissue...

Letters: Is this parking lot another car accident waiting to happen?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:25 GMT

Need a better parking lot designStarbucks needs better parking lot designers. The drive-through on Marshall and Snelling was a foregone conclusion. Now, the Davern and West Seventh Starbucks is another car accident waiting to happen. It doesn’t matter which direction you are coming from, NE, SW, or N, there is only one way in and one way out. The same way out is the way in.On the way out, a driver cannot take a right at the stop sign into the Sibley Plaza parking lot to enter West Seventh, the light northeast of the intersection. The person panhandling on the boulevard obscures the oncoming traffic traveling north on Davern, making a left turn dangerous. How does Starbucks come up with these parking lot designs?Leah Shiely Swenson, Lilydale What’s down there? PeopleIn the Nov. 9 edition of the PiPress, Marilyn Bach raised a concern for the Summit Regional Trail that recently passed the Met Council with overwhelming support. Along with notable opponents Gary Todd, th...

North St. Paul gun heist that turned deadly: Shooter, 18, sentenced for murder

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:25 GMT

A teen was sentenced to 20 years in prison Wednesday for fatally shooting a 24-year-old man during a gun heist in North St. Paul.Abo Eshun Essilfie, who turned 18 in September, pleaded guilty in adult court in August to aiding and abetting second-degree intentional murder in the June killing of Anthony Robert Rojas, who was shot in the head at his apartment.Abo Eshun Essilfie.(Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)Essilfie, of St. Paul, faced between 23 and 32 years in prison based on state sentencing guidelines. The prosecution requested 27 years, while Essilfie’s attorney asked for a downward departure to 13¾ years. Judge JaPaul Harris granted a departure of 20 years.Most inmates in Minnesota serve two-thirds of their sentence in prison and the remainder on supervised release. Essilfie has credit for 146 days served since his arrest in the case.After the sentencing, one of Rojas’ family members said the sentence was not long enough.“He got off light,” said the family member, who di...

In aftermath of assault, Angie Craig says she had to move from D.C. apartment, received death threats

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:25 GMT

Minnesota U.S. Rep. Angie Craig revealed Tuesday that she encountered death threats and had to move from her Washington apartment following media coverage of her assault earlier this year.In a victim-impact statement filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Craig said the assault caused physical and mental injuries. She asked the court to hold the man who attacked her, Kendrid Hamlin, to account.“I received a flurry of additional targeted physical violence and death threats to myself and my staff,” Craig wrote. “Yes, I fought Mr. Hamlin off and escaped. And I feel very fortunate to not have been more physically injured. However, I wish to the court’s attention that his actions have resulted in significant adverse consequences.”In February, the 27-year-old man followed the congresswoman into an elevator, demanded to go to her apartment, then punched her in the jaw. Craig suffered bruising and a cut lip. But she escaped after dumping hot coffee on Hamlin.Authorit...

UAW Wentzville workers reject to ratify GM contract offer

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:25 GMT

WENTZVILLE, Mo. - It's down to the wire as to whether UAW will have enough votes to apprved a new contract. Members at the Wentzville General Motors plant voted down a tentative agreement. United Auto Workers in Wentzville voted in two different groups on a new contract. The proposal passed among the skilled trades group with a 54% vote in favor of the new UAW contract. It was rejected among the production group with a 45% vote in favor as opposed to 54% against it. More than 3,000 workers voted between the two groups, including more than 2,700 people in the production group. UAW Local 2250 has around 3,700 members. Mayor resigns, hired weeks later in new job making 6x more Katy Deatherage, president of UAW Local 2250, shared her reactions with FOX 2. "I don't know if I expected it," she said. "Our members have been very vocal about some of the demands that they wanted to see in this contract that were not quite there, but it was not a landslide loss by any means."Bob Dyche, an el...

Crowd control at SoFi Stadium isn’t limited to people

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:25 GMT

With a wingspan of three feet and a menacing beak, Sol has an important job at SoFi Stadium.To limit the number of nuisance birds."She's a predator. They're prey,” says George Herrera, SoFi Stadium’s official falconer.Sol is a female Harris hawk who is part of an eco-friendly program that was set up before the Inglewood stadium opened in 2020. When she swoops in, other birds scatter.Sol, a Harris hawk, scares away seagulls at a Rivers Lake at SoFi Stadium. November 2023. (KTLA)“They see a threat coming right at them,” Herrera says.Seagulls, ducks, pigeons and geese often find easy snacks at the stadium when thousands of fans gather for NFL games, other sporting events, or concerts. With these nuisance birds come heaps of droppings and shredded trash. The L.A. Rams are moving their practice facility Sol's job is to simply be herself. She doesn’t typically harm the other birds but, to them, the threat is real."There could be birds on the ledge, as soon as they see me pull up, they l...