CLEAR LAKE, Iowa (AP) - The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says a Minnesota man was injured while racing a snowmobile on Clear Lake in northern Iowa.
The DNR says 29-year-old Tyler Hall of Twin Lakes, Minn., had finished a run as part of the Jack Helgren Memorial Race near Clear Lake State Park on Saturday morning when he lost control of his snowmobile.
Hall had completed his run while traveling 75 mph when his snowmobile veered off the route and hit a snow drift. He was thrown from the snowmobile and slid about 100 feet on the ice.
Hall, who was wearing a helmet, suffered a broken collar bone. He was taken to a Mason City hospital, where he was being held overnight for observation.
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The Minnesota Vikings’ Metrodome has deflated for the last time.
Officials from the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority opened the stadium’s relief vents to begin the deflation at 7:15 a.m. Saturday in downtown Minneapolis. Fans providing the air that supports the roof were turned off. The 10 acres of Teflon-coated fabric were done deflating in 35 minutes.
Bill McCarthy, vice chairman of the authority, called it “a sad and exciting day at the same time.” The deflation and the demolition of the Dome beginning next week will make way for construction of a new $1 billion Vikings stadium.
The muffin-shaped dome opened in 1982 and was once a focal point of Minnesota professional sports. In addition to being the home field for the Vikings and the Twins - who won two World Series there - the Timberwolves played their first NBA season in the Metrodome in 1989. The Twins left in 2009 for Target Field, leaving only the Vikings as the Metrodome’s major tenant.
The authority gave the go-ahead despite concerns about weather conditions. According to the National Weather Service, between 4 and 5 inches of snow fell in the area overnight. Winds were a steady 5 to 10 mph Saturday morning.
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - A Minnesota man is now facing two felonies in the killing of two horses.
William Henry St. Sauver Jr. is charged with animal torture in connection with the November shootings of two American Saddlebreds on his family’s Scandia farm.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports (https://bit.ly/LlIHGs) the 30-year-old initially said hunters had killed them. But a witness came forward after reading a newspaper report, saying he heard gunshots and saw a horse shot in the head, with blood on its nose. He claimed to see St. Sauver nearby.
The mares were being boarded at the farm and were to become training horses in less than a week.
A man who answered the phone at the farm Saturday and identified himself as a family friend said no one wanted to comment.
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The U.S. attorney’s office is suing Sen. Sean Nienow and his wife, alleging they failed to make payments on a Small Business Administration loan.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in Minneapolis, claims the Republican lawmaker and his wife, Cynthia, stopped making payments on the $613,000 loan in July 2010, according to the Star Tribune (https://strib.mn/1kJEVa2https://strib.mn/1kJEVa2 ).
The suit alleges they owe nearly $748,000 with costs. A message left Saturday at his home in Cambridge wasn’t immediately returned.
The couple borrowed the money in 2009 for their former company, the National Camp Association Inc., which was described in media accounts as an organization that helps parents select a camp.
The association, which is listed on the Minnesota secretary of state’s website at the Nienows’ address, also was sued.
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