Storm whips up blizzards, dumps snow in Dakotas, Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS — Post-holiday travelers were finding driving difficult as a winter storm dumped heavy snow and whipped up gusty winds across parts of the Dakotas and Minnesota on Thursday.

Up to 11 inches (28 centimeters) of snow had fallen in the Moorhead-Alexandria area of western Minnesota by mid-afternoon Thursday, and it was still snowing, said meteorologist Tyler Hasenstein of the Twin Cities National Weather Service.

The line of snow ended just northwest of the Twin Cities around Elk River, Hasenstein said. The snowfall peaked around 3 inches (8 centimeters) at the Minneapolis airport, then rain starting early Thursday melted the snowpack.

Officials in North Dakota issued a no-travel advisory for the eastern part of the state due to icy roads and reduced visibility. Blustery winds were causing blizzard conditions in Jamestown, North Dakota, and in northern South Dakota, where transportation officials reported visibility was down to a quarter-mile along a stretch of Highway 10.

Bus service for Fargo, North Dakota, and neighboring Moorhead, Minnesota, was suspended Thursday afternoon because of worsening road conditions. Service is expected to resume Friday with a normal schedule.

The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for central South Dakota, eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota. The storm was expected to drop more than a foot of snow in the region before ending Friday.

The Minnesota State Patrol tweeted that road conditions are poor across much of western Minnesota. Transportation officials said road conditions across much of the central and northern areas of the state are completely covered with ice and snow, with windy conditions causing even more travel issues.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation said it might be better to wait for conditions to improve if travel isn’t necessary.

The weather service said an estimated 18 inches of snow had fallen by early Thursday afternoon near Finland on Minnesota’s North Shore.

The North Dakota Highway Patrol issued a travel alert for parts of North Dakota including Bismarck and Devils Lake due to whiteout conditions. Eastern North Dakota was expected to deal with winds gusting up to 50 mph, creating blizzard conditions mainly in the Red River Valley.

University campuses, courthouses and municipal buildings across North Dakota are among the places closed on Thursday, including the University of North Dakota campus in Grand Forks.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

8 people injured during stabbing attack at Minnesota mall

ST. CLOUD, Minnesota — A knife-wielding suspect who was dressed in a private security uniform and made references to Allah while attacking at least eight people during a mass stabbing incident at a Minnesota shopping mall was shot dead by an off-duty police officer, authorities said.

St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson said during a news conference that eight people were taken to St. Cloud Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries following the attack first reported about 8:15 p.m. Saturday at the Crossroads Center. One person was admitted. No further details were released.

Anderson said an off-duty police officer from another jurisdiction shot and killed the unidentified suspect, who was armed with a knife and wearing a private security firm uniform at the time of the attack. Anderson did not say where the off-duty officer serves.

Anderson also said the suspect made at least one reference to Allah during the attack and asked at least one person whether they were Muslim.

But Anderson declined to call the attacks an act of terrorism, saying the motive for the attacks isn’t known yet. “We will be diligent and get to the bottom of this,” Anderson said. “Starting tomorrow, things won’t be the same here.”

Local police had three previous encounters with the suspect, most for minor traffic violations, Anderson said, adding that the FBI had offered to help with the investigation.

Authorities “have no reason to believe” anyone else was involved in the attacks, Anderson said. He said the stabbings occurred in several places within the mall, including corridors, businesses and common areas.

“The entire mall is an active crime scene,” Anderson said.

The mall remained on lockdown following the incident, but authorities expected those remaining inside to be released early Sunday. Photos and video of the mall taken hours after the incident showed groups of shoppers waiting to be released, including some huddled together near a food court entrance.

Harley and Tama Exsted of Isle, Minnesota, who were in St. Cloud to watch their son play in a college golf tournament, were in the mall when the incident occurred.

“All of a sudden I heard pop, pop, pop,” Harley Exsted told the St. Cloud Times. “I thought someone tipped over a shelf. All of a sudden these people started running. I just saw everybody running our way.”

There also were reports of some shots fired during the attack.

The couple were unharmed and said they helped another woman who was running from the scene to her car.

Adonis Samuels, 42, of St. Cloud, was outside the mall where his wife Roxanne is employed as a manager at Clinique at Macy’s.

“She called me on the phone and told me she was hiding under the counter with a customer,” Samuels said. She later called and said she was safe in a secured area.

Samuels remained outside, watching for her. He said he’d seen her through the glass doors at one point so he knew she was safe./rga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

More ground turkey is recalled over salmonella

Cargill recalls 185,000 pounds of ground turkey for the same reason as its recall last month: A sample of meat processed at the same facility tested positive for the same strain of salmonella.


The Minnesota food company that recalled 36 million pounds of ground turkey last month linked to a salmonella outbreak is pulling an additional 185,000 pounds of turkey for the same reason.

The voluntary recall, announced Sunday by Cargill Inc., comes in the wake of one of the largest meat recalls in U.S. history: As of mid-August, health officials had linked a strain of salmonella found in contaminated turkey products to 111 people falling ill in 31 states and at least one death in California.

That recalled meat, which included fresh and frozen ground turkey, was produced at Cargill's processing plant in Springdale, Ark.

The latest recalled turkey came from the same Arkansas Cargill plant. Health officials said that, as in the previous recall, the turkey being recalled might contain Salmonella Heidelberg, a strain that is resistant to most commonly prescribed antibiotics.

Salmonella can cause fever, diarrhea and abdominal pain. It can be fatal to young children, older people and those with compromised immune systems.

The recalled turkey was produced at the Arkansas plant Aug. 23, 24, 30 and 31, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service. Federal health officials said samples they tested Aug. 24 contained the same genetic strain of S. Heidelberg as seen in the earlier outbreak.

Although the two recalls are strikingly similar, there is at least one key difference: timing.

The first recall was prompted by reports of people getting sick, said William D. Marler, a Seattle attorney who specializes in food-safety litigation.

This time, however, the recall was voluntarily prompted by Cargill's own test results from samples it took: Agriculture Department officials said Sunday that they have not identified any reported cases of people falling ill because of turkey involved in the current recall.

"This is how it should be done," Marler said. Cargill is "treating salmonella like the beef industry treats E. coli O157, as an adulterant" — a substance that may make a product harmful — and is being more quick to respond by removing potentially problematic meat from the nation's food chain.

In a statement, Cargill said it has halted all production of ground turkey at the facility until it can identify ways to eliminate the problem.

The latest recalled products are labeled with the brand names Honeysuckle White, HEB and Kroger, Cargill said. The packages include a label with the establishment number P-963 inside the USDA mark of inspection.

The company urged customers who bought packages of the recalled turkey to return them to the stores where they were bought for a full refund.

"Out of an abundance of caution, we are acting quickly in response to USDA's sample testing," Steve Willardsen, president of Cargill's turkey processing business, said in the statement. "Although there are no known illnesses associated with this positive sample, it is the same Salmonella Heidelberg strain that resulted in our voluntary recall on Aug. 3, 2011."

The turkey recalls are the latest in a string of salmonella outbreaks to rock the nation's food industry this year.

In March, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found that cantaloupes from a Guatemala farm were connected to 12 cases of salmonella poisoning. The FDA later concluded that the cantaloupes were imported into the U.S. by Del Monte Fresh Produce. As of June, 20 people had become sick from the outbreak of Salmonella Panama, including two people in California, the CDC said.

In July, a Texas produce company recalled papayas that were contaminated with salmonella that health officials say made nearly 100 people in 23 states ill. That same month, an Idaho company recalled alfalfa and spicy sprouts that were also contaminated with salmonella and caused at least 21 to become ill in five states.

The August turkey recall was one of the nation's largest food recalls ever.

The biggest was in 2008, when Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. recalled 143 million pounds of beef after an investigation into animal cruelty at its slaughtering plant in Chino. The meat included 50 million pounds that had been sent to school lunch programs.

Source:  latimes.com