Vergas man seriously injured during crash in Vergas on Monday night
Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – A Vergas man was seriously injured during a single-vehicle crash on South Pelican Avenue in Vergas Monday night.
According to the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office, on Dec. 18 at 9:37 p.m., a 2007 Ford Explorer, driven by 45-year-old Joshua Thomas Carlson of Vergas, was northbound on South Pelican Avenue when it left the roadway and struck several items including: parked cars, an embankment, and also a tree.
Damages also extended to a nearby home and garage.
During the crash, Carlson was ejected from the vehicle and suffered serious injuries during the incident.
He was transported via LifeLink helicopter to Essentia Health in Fargo for treatment.
The incident remains under investigation by the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office and law enforcement believes “impairment” may have factored into the crash.
4 arrested after drugs discovered during vehicle search in Moorhead on Monday
Four people from Minnesota are facing felony drug charges after an arrest in Moorhead Monday.
According to the Moorhead Police Department, an investigation led officers and other agencies to conduct a traffic stop on I-94.
During the vehicle search, they found over 2,500 M30 fentanyl pills valued at around $26,000.
Officers arrested 25-year-old Trevor Gabrick of Plymouth, 24-year-old Desmine Moore of Robbinsdale, 30-year-old Dupree Williams of Hopkins, and 32-year-old Steven Smith of Crookston.
They were all booked into the Clay County Jail.
Hammond steps down as executive director of the United Way of Otter Tail and Wadena Counties
The executive director for the United Way of Otter Tail and Wadena Counties will be stepping down at the end of the year.
In a news release, the nonprofit announced Summer Hammond will be resigning effective January 3rd, 2024.
They stated Hammond has been an integral part of the organization, playing a pivotal role in advancing the mission of United Way and contributing to the betterment of communities in Otter Tail & Wadena Counties.
Hammond stated, quote: “I have so enjoyed my time with United Way and have loved getting to know all of you and the wonderful programs and assistance you provide in Otter Tail & Wadena Counties. Thank you again for all your outstanding work you do in our communities.”
Hammond is a graduate of Barnesville High School and earned her Associates Degree in Administration at M State-Moorhead.
She joined the United Way of Otter Tail & Wadena Counties in September 2020.
ND to wait-and-see how MN carbon-free law is implemented before weighing lawsuit
North Dakota is still weighing whether to challenge Minnesota’s new carbon-free energy standard nearly a year after top officials sent a letter to Minnesota’s governor calling on the state to modify its plan.
The carbon-free energy plan, enacted by Minnesota lawmakers earlier this year, requires Minnesota utility providers to transition to 100% carbon-free electricity sources by 2040. That includes sources brought across state lines.
North Dakota officials are worried the plan could threaten the state’s gas and coal companies.
Over half of the electricity generated in North Dakota goes to out-of-state customers, and most of that supply goes to Minnesota, according to the North Dakota Lignite Energy Council.
The council also said, while the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission still has to iron out some of the details related to the plan, the uncertainty has already made it difficult for energy companies in North Dakota to plan for the future.
The North Dakota Industrial Commission — which made up of Gov. Doug Burgum, Attorney General Drew Wrigley and Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring — met in a closed-door executive session Monday afternoon to discuss legal matters related to the Minnesota plan.
After the executive session, Wrigley said the commission is waiting to see how Minnesota implements the standard before taking action.
Wrigley said North Dakota expects to file public comment with Minnesota regulators on the plan early next year.
North Dakota successfully sued Minnesota over a similar law the state adopted in 2007. That measure, which was ultimately struck down by the courts, barred Minnesota from buying energy from any new out-of-state coal plants.
A federal district court judge in 2014 ruled the law was unconstitutional because it effectively regulated the economies of other states.
Story by Mary Steurer / ND Monitor
Check out all the new Minnesota laws going into effect on Jan. 1
With the new year will come new laws in Minnesota.
One of them is the passage of the “red flag law,” which allows police, family members, or legal guardians to file an emergency petition to a court to take away someone’s right to own and keep firearms for up to a year. It must demonstrate the person is a clear and present danger to themselves or others. If granted, the person must turn over any guns within 24 hours, either to police or a licensed dealer. The firearms must be returned once the petition expires.
Get ready to pay more for gas and your vehicle. When the clock strikes midnight on January 1st, the state’s gas tax will increase by no more than 3%. That price hike is linked to inflation. Motor vehicle registrations and sales tax will go from 6.5% to 6.85%.
Starting January 1st, employees, including full time, part time and temporary workers, are entitled to earned sick and safe time. Employees bank one hour of sick time for each 30 hours worked up to 48 hours unless an employer agrees to allow more time off. That means a person can take a leave of absence that will be paid at the same hourly rate the employee earns as if they were there.
The minimum wage will increase to $10.85 an hour for large employers whose gross annual income is at least $500,000. It moves to $8.85 for small employers. The Department of Labor and Industry says the adjustment is due to inflation.
A new law also prohibits wage discrimination by addressing the pay gap. The Department of Human Rights says women and the BIPOC community are paid less than their male counterparts for the same job. This new law encourages employers to rely on skills and education, certifications and licenses and the job market to set wages. All employers must comply with the law and are prohibited from asking about current or past pay history during the hiring process and wage negotiations.
Story by Jennifer Lewerenz / KNSI
Rural Ponsford man sentenced to more than 2 years in prison for domestic violence charges
A rural Ponsford man was sentenced to more than two years in prison for multiple domestic violence charges stemming from a series of incidents between January and May.
According to court records, on May 22, Becker County deputies responded to a call of domestic assault at a Ponsford residence.
Upon arrival, they found 26-year-old Lukas Devlen Fineday, of rural Ponsford, sleeping inside a camper and a woman in the residence, who was found hiding under a bed.
The woman told the deputies the two were in a relationship and that Fineday choked her. She said the abuse had been occurring for more than five months and she began to experience tunnel vision during some of the choking episodes.
Fineday was arrested at the scene.
The woman also said, one night in March, Fineday zip tied her feet and hands behind her back and left her that way until morning when he cut the ties with a machete.
During an interview the following day with law enforcement, deputies noticed distinctive bruising around the woman’s neck, where it appeared as if someone was grasping her from the front with both hands. Bruising was also found on other parts of the woman’s body
In November, Fineday was sentenced to 28 months in prison with credit for 107 days served in addition to paying fines and court fees from his prison earnings.
ND ballot initiative looks to force ‘hand counting’ ballots for future elections
A ballot initiative in North Dakota is gathering signatures for a June 2024 referendum that could require all votes cast in future North Dakota elections to be only counted by hand.
The initiative may achieve a goal of activists across the country who distrust modern vote counting but, at the same time, dismaying election officials who say the change would needlessly delay vote tallies and lead to more errors.
Backers of the proposed ballot measure are far from gathering enough signatures, but if the plan makes the June 2024 ballot and voters pass it, North Dakota would have to replace ballot scanners with hundreds of workers across the state who would carefully count and recount ballots.
It’s a change other Republican-led states have attempted unsuccessfully in the years since former President Donald Trump began criticizing the nation’s vote-counting system, falsely claiming it was rigged against him.
Lydia Gessele, a farmer who is leading the effort to get the measure on the ballot, said: “We’ve always done hand counting before we got these machines. They can find the people to do the job, because there are people that are willing to come in and do the hand counting.”
Former Secretary of State Al Jaeger, a Republican who oversaw North Dakota’s elections for 30 years through 2022, rejected Gessele’s claims, saying, “There was nothing that took place that would have changed the outcome of a vote. Nothing at all.”
Earlier this year, Fox News reached a settlement with Dominion Voting Systems to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought over statements broadcast by the network that Dominion machines were rigged against Trump.
The North Dakota ballot measure proposes all voting “shall be done by paper ballots and counted by hand starting on the day of the election and continuing uninterrupted until hand counting is completed.”
North Dakota Republican Secretary of State Michael Howe said he opposes the proposed measure because hand counts are less standardized than using scanners. He likened it to having a computer rather than a human umpire a baseball game.
Howe said: “When you hand-count, you bring in the human element of umpiring. You could have a wide strike zone, you could have a narrow strike zone. What you get with a machine is one consistent strike zone every single time.”
Last year, 317 ballots took more than seven hours to count by hand in Nevada’s least populated county.
Legislators in at least eight states also proposed prohibitions, in some way, on ballot tabulators.
Nearly 44% of voters participated by early voting or by mail in North Dakota’s November 2022 election.
Story by AP
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