Author: Jim Monk

More Minnesota inmates vaccinated than corrections employees

St. Cloud State PrisonST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – The Minnesota Department of Corrections has been more successful getting inmates immunized against the coronavirus than it has for its own employees. As of this week, about 80% of prisoners in Minnesota have been fully vaccinated, while the immunization rate for corrections employees is just over 65% and at some prisons, it’s…

Rural Wahpeton cemetery vandalized

WAHPETON, N.D. (KVRR/KFGO) – Don Resler says he was shocked when he went to Calvary Cemetery southwest of Wahpeton Sunday and discovered gravestones had been vandalized.  No arrest has been made. Resler, the cemetery groundskeeper, says three large stone markers were knocked over but were not broken. Several large metal vases were also damaged and will have to be replaced….

Update: Moorhead High School fight involved 8 students

MOORHEAD, Minn. (KVRR) – Police say a confrontation that erupted Thursday morning at Moorhead High School started between two girls who were fighting over a boy. Capt. Deric Swenson says investigators determined that a total of eight students were involved in the fight.  He says several other students nearby tried to separate the people who were fighting. “A school resource…

CDC says vaccine recipients are considered fully vaccinated without booster

(AP) – Am I fully vaccinated without a COVID-19 vaccine booster? Yes, people who got a two-dose vaccine or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot are considered fully vaccinated — even without a booster. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says you’re fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving a second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or…

Belcourt man sentenced for sexual abuse of a child

FARGO (KVRR) – A Belcourt, N.D. man has been sentenced to 36 1/2 years in prison for sexually assaulting an 11 year-old. Forty-year-old Adam Jason Poitra was charged with Aggravated Sexual Assault of a minor. Federal prosecutors say Poitra sexually abused the child “countless times” between September, 2017 and May, 2018. U.S. District Court Judge Peter Welte also sentenced Poitra…

Indigenous filmmaker Myron Dewey, who documented DAPL protests, dies

Myron Dewey (Facebook)CARSON CITY, Nev. – An Indigenous filmmaker who helped draw worldwide attention to the concerns of Native Americans fighting an oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation has died. Myron Dewey was a citizen of the Walker River Paiute Tribe. He died Sunday after his car crashed in rural Nevada. The 49-year-old won acclaim for his footage…

Caregiver pleads not guilty in death of toddler

WATERTOWN, S.D. – A Watertown woman has pleaded not guilty to felony charges in the death of a toddler who was in her care. A Codington County grand jury indicted 30-year-old Amanda Walder on one count of second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree manslaughter and aggravated battery. First responders answered a call about an unconscious child at Walder’s unlicensed day…

Clay County Sheriff ‘inundated’ with theft reports

MOORHEAD, Minn. (KVRR) – Clay County Sheriff Mark Empting is asking property owners to help reduce a growing number of thefts across the county. In a social media post, the sheriff’s office says it’s been “inundated” with burglary and theft reports in recent months.  Investigators say the thieves have been targeting rural properties and rural residential and commercial construction sites. “These…