Mankato Public Safety was called At 2:30 a.m. Friday morning to the report of a tree branch that had fallen on an occupied tent in Land of Memories Park, 409 Amos Owen Lane. Officers located a 4-year-old girl with life threatening injuries and began lifesaving measures. The child was transported to the local hospital and later pronounced deceased. Other family occupants in the tent were unharmed. The victim in the incident at Land of Memories Park has been identified as Nytalia I. Ashes, age 4, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

A possible E. coli contamination is prompting Dole to recall some of its parsley.  The cases of conventional curly leaf parsley were harvested on August 18th and 19th.  It was distributed to Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Missouri.  The parsley was shipped in 30 and 60-count cases to be broken up for individual sale.  The FDA says the recalled parsley should be immediately thrown out.

Senator Amy Klobuchar has disclosed she has been diagnosed with Stage One-A breast cancer and that the treatment has gone well.  Klobuchar says she learned of the cancer during a routine mammogram in February that she had delayed because of the pandemic.  The senator announced the diagnosis yesterday on her personal blog.  She encouraged everyone to catch up on any exams or physicals they had postponed because of the pandemic.

The House Ethics Committee has launched an investigation into First District Congressman Jim Hagedorn's office finances. Hagedorn's attorney issued a statement that says the matter in question was self-reported last year and the investigation is a waste of taxpayer funds. Last year, the Minnesota Reformer reported Hagedorn's office used $100,000 dollars in taxpayer funds for campaign mailings from a company partly owned by one of Hagedorn's staffers. Last fall, it was reported Hagedorn's office had allegedly not paid rent for a Mankato space used as it headquarters.  A donor reportedly provided the office space.

Attendance and profits are down at this year's Minnesota State Fair.  Attendance as of the weekend is the lowest since the 1960s.  Vendors estimate sales are roughly half what they normally would be.

A special panel is now working on deciding which front-line workers will share in 250 million dollars of COVID bonuses approved by the legislature.  House Democratic Majority Leader Ryan Winkler suggests all front-line workers be eligible for a meaningful amount of money, say $1,500, but they might not get all of it right away because only 250 million dollars is appropriated so far: "Send those checks out based on how much we have and say that any amount that we are not able to send out, the next legislature should consider... providing the last round of checks." Republicans have a different [...]

The Minnesota Historical Society has announced all visitors to the 26 museums and other properties will have to wear masks indoors starting today. The new policy also includes extra cleaning procedures, hand-sanitizing stations and social distancing. The announcement is in response to the continued spread of COVID-19 and the delta variant within the state.

Minnesota has reached over 300 traffic deaths so far this year, marking the state's fastest climb to that number since 2007.  According to the State Department of Public Safety, 303 people have died on Minnesota roads since January 1st, which has resulted in increased speed-related and unbelted deaths compared to 2020.  Men accounted for almost 75% of those reported deaths.  Now, officials say extra DWI speed patrols will be out on the road through September 6th.