Fire burns thousands of acres in northern Minnesota

by MinnPost staff 05/01/201805/01/2018

A fire has started to burn. The Duluth News Tribune’s Brad Dokken reports: “Firefighters are working to control a large grass fire that started Sunday night about 15 miles northwest of Greenbush in western Roseau County. … Known as the ‘County Road 7 Fire,’ the fire had burned about 5,800 acres of grass and brushland as of Monday afternoon, said Adam Munstenteiger, area forestry supervisor for the Department of Natural Resources in Warroad, Minn. ‘We have been having a hard time turning the corner today on the fire,’ Munstenteiger said in an email Monday afternoon. ‘Seems like they make progress but then take a step backwards.’”

Cold cash preferred. The Fargo Forum’s Helmut Schmidt reports: “At least seven people were treated at the Mahnomen Health Center after money used to pay for an item at a local gas station and convenience store injured an employee Monday, April 30, according to the Mahnomen County Sheriff’s Office. … Emergency workers, including a hazardous materials team from Moorhead, descended on the Community Co-op Cenex store at U.S. 59 and Minnesota 200 after a clerk felt a burning on her hand after accepting cash from a customer paying for an item, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.”

A Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputy. The Associated Press reports (via the Pioneer Press): “A sheriff’s deputy from Minnesota is jailed in northwestern Wisconsin on felony child sex crimes. … Jeffrey Masek, 60, is charged in Barron County with child enticement-sexual contact, attempted second-degree sexual assault of a child and using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime. … Masek, of Cottage Grove, is a Hennepin County sheriff’s deputy. The sheriff’s department says Masek has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation. Court documents do not list a defense attorney who could speak on Masek’s behalf.”

No joke. The Star Tribune’s Judy Keen reports: “Al Franken edged back into the spotlight Tuesday, speaking at a cybersecurity conference in Lisbon, Portugal, four months after resigning from the U.S. Senate amid sexual misconduct allegations. … The Minnesota Democrat criticized tech giants Facebook and Google for carelessness with users’ data and said that more federal regulations might be necessary to constrain their conduct.”