Update: One of Adrian Peterson’s sons dies after alleged assault

Update: The Star Tribune at 4:38 p.m. Friday reported the death of the 2-year-old son of Viking Adrian Peterson: “The Sioux Falls police department released news this afternoon that one of Adrian Peterson‘s children, a 2-year-old son, has died from injuries sustained in alleged assault by the boyfriend of the child’s mother. Police are withholding the child’s name at the request of the family.”

In the early going, it was a confusing story about a 2-year-old boy assaulted in South Dakota. Is it Adrian Peterson’s kid, or not. Earlier, City Pages has reported it both ways. Says Aaron Rupar: “Adrian Peterson spent the last couple days away from the Vikings in Sioux Falls to deal with a situation a ProFootballTalk source characterized as “tragic.” This morning, TMZ is reporting that AP’s two-year-old son is in critical condition after being beaten by a man who is dating his mother.” And now … “A source in South Dakota says the victim was Adrian Peterson’s son, but not Adrian Peterson Jr. From an email she sent us: ‘Just a heads up, TMZ is reporting incorrect information, it’s not AP Jr who is in the hospital in Sioux Falls, it’s [name withheld]. I live here in Sioux Falls and have been kept up to date via friends of [the child’s] mom…. The woman went on to provide a link to the CaringBridge page of the injured child. Other local media members have told us they’re also hearing the child involved isn’t AP’s Jr.’ ”

John Hult and Josh Verges of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader say: “A 2-year-old Sioux Falls boy remains in critical condition this morning, but police aren’t saying if his father is Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson. Sioux Falls Police Department spokesman Sam Clemens said many people have asked about the identity of the boy’s father. ‘At this point, we’re not going to confirm anything. Who the father is does not come into play in this investigation, so we’re not going to be releasing any information as far as that goes,’ he said.” Oh, OK. That’s helpful.

At the PiPress Joe Lindberg and Sean Jensen are saying: “One of Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson’s sons is in critical condition at a South Dakota hospital, Adrian Peterson’s father confirmed Friday morning. In a brief phone interview with the Pioneer Press, Nelson Peterson said the injured boy is not Adrian Jr. but is a grandson. … Christian Ponder’s wife and ESPN sideline reporter [Samantha Ponder] tweeted about the development Friday morning: ‘Devastated for Adrian. Also angry with so much bad info (and) pics of the wrong son. Pray for comfort’!” Minutes ago, Peterson declined to talk about the situation, calling it a private matter.

This could be big … especially when government food inspectors aren’t on the job. Dan Gunderson of MPR writes: “Researchers at North Dakota State University have discovered a way to make the E. coli bacteria less dangerous to human health, a finding that could improve safety in food and medical devices. Bacteria can make people sick, and the organisms are much more dangerous when they form a social network called a biofilm that allows them to communicate and protect each other. According to the National Institutes of Health, biofilms cause 60 to 80 percent of microbial infections.    E. coli could soon become less of a threat thanks to the work of Meredith Irsfeld, a graduate student researcher at NDSU who fed bacteria a neurotransmitter found in the brain called phenylethylamine, or PEA. When the E. coli bacteria consumed PEA, they stopped growing the hair-like appendages called flagella they need to move and attach to surfaces and each other.”

The new, online voter-registration system is going to need a review. Says Rachel Stassen-Berger in the Strib: “Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie launched an online voter registration system last month with little fanfare, but now the state’s legislative auditor is underscoring lawmakers’ questions about whether he had any authority to do so. Ritchie created the system without explicit permission from the Legislature. A nonpartisan analysis, which Legislative Auditor James Nobles highlighted on Thursday, said the secretary of state could have followed the lead of top election officials in other states and asked for lawmakers’ approval before creating the online system. … Republican lawmakers also are questioning the new system’s security measures.”  It could be hacked by thousands of computer genius felons attempting to vote for Democrats.

At the lefty website Think Progress, Travis Waldron can’t resist the story of GOP Rep. Pat Garafolo standing for the precious constitutional right to … sell guns in the Vikings stadium-to-be: “The new Minnesota Vikings stadium has as many problems as it will one day have seats. The revenues meant to finance it have already fallen short even before construction begins. Vikings owner Zygi Wilf is facing massive fines for his involvement in a fraud and racketeering case in New Jersey. The Vikings, the benefactors of this all, are sacrificing some of the stadium’s luscious amenities because, well, ‘there’s only so many things’ you can pay for with $975 million. … Selling guns in a building where people consume copious amounts of alcohol and live on the emotional edge of football games and often get into fights and confrontations in the middle of large crowds of people is obviously a bad idea. Limiting where and when guns can be sold and who can buy them, particularly in public event space, isn’t an infringement on anyone’s rights. There are plenty of places to buy those weapons legally that aren’t football games with 73,000 people in attendance — 73,000 people who’d probably prefer that the drunk guy sitting two rows down isn’t waving his newly-acquired pistol in the face of the fan he’s arguing with over Leslie Frazier’s botched 3rd-and-short call.” I think Garafolo was talking about gun shows, but you get the idea.

Venerable rock venue First Avenue has bought St. Paul’s Turf Club. Andrea Swensson at the Current writes: “First Avenue has been booking occasional shows at the Turf Club since 2000, and as general manager Nate Kranz tells it, the club’s staff have a long history of not only working with the club professionally but also frequenting it as patrons. ‘I love that place,’ he says. ‘It’s one of my favorite places to hang out. I was just talking to [current Turf Club owner] Tom [Scanlon] one day, and it kind of came up that he was ready — he said he owned one too many bars. I told him we were in the market, and we were able to work out a deal. We do a lot of stuff, but this is one of the things that is personally really exciting to me.’ Kranz says that he and First Avenue owner Dayna Frank just filed the majority of the paperwork for the purchase at St. Paul’s City Hall yesterday.”

Whistleblower … threatened. Jeremy Olson of the Strib says: “The State Patrol is investigating a threatening phone call allegedly made against a whistleblower who raised concerns about hospital payment practices by the Minnesota Department of Human Services. DHS purchasing manager Paul Olson said he was at home about 10 p.m. Wednesday when he received the threat, which according to Caller ID was made from his own desk at work. A TV news piece on the concerns he raised aired until about 10:04 p.m., though the report didn’t name him. ‘At 10:06,” he said, ‘the phone rang.’ He couldn’t identify the voice, which was muffled. ‘You’re marked,’ the voice said before the call was disconnected.”

She’s our walking, talking reverse barometer … Paige Lavender at The Huffington Post writes: “Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said House Republicans are ‘completely unified.’ During an appearance on CNN’s ‘New Day,’ Bachmann addressed questions about Republicans’ poor approval rating and growing unpopularity. ‘We as a House were completely unified, from the moderates to the Tea Party Republicans,’ Bachmann said, noting that GOP unity is what she values over polling numbers. ‘We were unified in standing together that we need to represent the interests of the people, that we have a problem with debt. We have a problem with spending. And we need to get our economic house back in order.’ ”