Night and for this week. Thank you for being with us. I'm Brian Williams. We'll look for you right back here Monday evening. Have a good weekend. Good night.
Saturday, he killed in the shadows of London Street.
How did he do this? Why did nobody see him?
Jack the Ripper, our special series on result mysteries only on NBC.
You're watching Carol of the News in High Definition.
A former Northwest Airlines baggage handler accused of stealing from passengers bags. Plus, the reason grandma's here today is because of Jonathan and Parker.
Two young heroes honored. Then, a fatal crash shuts down a busy stretch of roadway for hours. But first,
Ridiculous to have to go to two places to get your groceries and wine.
A new push that would allow you to buy wine in the grocery store along with your dish.
Good evening. We'll have those stories for you in a moment, but we begin with a developing story affecting nearly 10% of the school buses in use in Minnesota.
We've learned within the last hour, the state patrol has issued a maintenance alert because of a potential problem that could lead to break failure. Carol of the News, Janice Schroeder was in the newsroom with more on this important alert.
Well Mike and I, the state patrol is asking every school district in the state to immediately inspect its school buses to look for a specific modification to the brakes.
The patrol says the brakes in 1,300 buses are at risk of failure. That's 10% of the state's fleet of 13,000.
The buses in question are GMC and Chevrolet models that use something called the Bendix Hydro Max Power Brake System.
The patrol says the problem is with the buses that have had any modifications made to this particular brake system.
If the district finds such a modification, it must immediately take that bus out of service and call the state patrol.
Now the state patrol says one carrier in Minnesota is known to have made this type of brake modification. It is issuing this alert to find out if any other carrier has done the same.
It's possible that the number of buses affected here is very small, but at this point the fact is the state patrol doesn't know for sure how big or small this problem really is. Mike and I?
Is there anything for parents to be concerned about? Did they check with anybody in particular on this?
There's not much parents can do at this point being today the kids were not in school and they're out of school on Monday too.
So that gives them a little bit of time, these different bus companies and the school districts, to fix this problem before it becomes an even bigger problem.
Thank you Janice.
Sure.
Well the Minnesota State Legislature will debate again this year whether to allow you to buy wine with your groceries.
Thirty-three states already allowed, including Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota, but Minnesota does not.
And some lawmakers say citizens who want to buy their wine and their groceries at the same place stand to benefit. Here's Carol Evans and John Croman.
A busy Friday afternoon at Kowalskis in St. Paul and at the checkout counter a friendly reminder that wine with dinner is on the menu again at the Capitol.
I think it should go through. It's ridiculous to have to go two places to get your groceries and wine.
Janice is from one of thirty-three other states that allow wine sales in grocery stores.
You can buy beer and wine.
With your groceries?
Uh huh.
And here?
Here it's uncivilized.
Just down the road liquor store owner Mike Thomas worries about the hit he'd take with all the new competition.
But I mean it would be bad, especially with Whole Foods right up the street and we got Kowalskis down there.
The store has been in the Thomas family three generations and relies on variety and service to stay competitive.
We'd be protected somewhat, you know, especially having the nice liquor and what not, but still it hurts.
The beverage industry also argues that alcohol sales would be much harder to police with other players in the game.
You know, when you come into a liquor store we have one purpose. Our purpose is to make eye contact with you and are you of age and are you intoxicated?
That's the job of a liquor store.
Grocers say they'll be just as strict.
You know, your grocers are very, very responsible people. First of all, they're members of your community so they aren't going to do anything to jeopardize the well-being of anyone in the community.
Secondly, we manage other restricted products very, very responsibly.
Of course, this isn't the first time it's been on the agenda down here at the Capitol.
The grocery store industry has been trying to get the wine with dinner on the laws here in Minnesota since about 1999.
Of course, the Beverage Association has been fighting it hard.
This year the grocers are armed with a report from the legislative auditor who says that Minnesota wine drinkers, at least, stand to save about $15 million a year if they can buy it in grocery stores because of the competition factor.
We'll see what happens. Governor Polanyi is on record as saying that he does not want this so it would take a pretty big majority to make it law.
And I already, of course, already have wine with dinner with my five-year-old whining at the table.
It's spelled a little differently.
Some cheese with that wine. Thank you, John. It's on Cromartie Capital tonight.
Well, one person died in a crash that shut down a stretch of 35W southbound per hour today. It happened just before 8 this morning in Lionel Lakes.
The state patrol says an SUV heading north crossed the median and hit a semi going the other way.
The driver of the SUV, a 30-year-old Minneapolis man, died in the crash.
The semi driver was treated for minor injuries.
And Patty Fowl heard the accident from her home next to 35W.
It was kind of an echo. And then when I heard the first one, it was like boom, and I went, oh, tire blew.
And then I heard consecutive boom, boom, boom, and it was like, oh my gosh, you know, that wasn't a tire. That was an accident.
The state patrol is reconstructing the accident. Authorities still don't know the cause.
A MnDOT worker is in critical condition after being hit by a van while working in a highway construction zone near Pillager.
The state patrol says a driver who failed to follow a road construction lane change struck 57-year-old Larry Potter of Brainerd, who was working as a flag man along Highway 210 yesterday.
Potter suffered head and leg injuries.
A baggage handler at Duluth International Airport is facing felony charges for allegedly stealing from a passenger's suitcase.
Authorities say a Northwest Airlines passenger reached his destination and discovered that his bottle of prescription pain pills that was in his checked luggage was empty.
An investigation led to the arrest of Kathy Curry.
Authorities say Curry admitted to stealing the medication and to an earlier similar theft.
Well, it says it was only a joke, but a high school student's prank has led to felony charges.
Authorities say 18-year-old Colin Orth brought brownies laced with laxatives to Lyle High School last week, served them to several students and staff, seven employees, five students got sick.
Prosecutors say Orth admitted to buying the laxatives and making those brownies.
Well, here's your chance to own a piece of Minnesota political history.
The childhood home of former Vice President Walter Mondale is for sale on eBay.
It's located in the southern town of Elmore on Mondale Street.
When Mondale launched his 1984 presidential bid, he did so from the back steps of the 1,500-square-foot house.
The current owners of the home spent three years refurbishing it.
The starting bid is $50,000.
Well, two brothers are getting rock star treatment today for their quick thinking and decisive action.
Last spring, Parker and Jonathan Huss were at their grandmother's house in Wasicka County when she tumbled down the stairs and suffered a brain injury.
Unable to wake her, the boys grabbed the phone, called 911, and today, Parker and Jonathan got a big pat on the back in front of their Jordan Elementary classmates.
And Jonathan and Parker did the right thing, a good thing. What do you think they did?
Called 911, didn't they?
The reason Grandma's here today is because of Jonathan and Parker.
So I think we should give them a hand, huh?
The guys walked away with a really cool hero plaque as well, and of course, the unending adoration of their grandma, Mary.
You again.
Still hit tonight at 6 o'clock. We're going to honor one of Carol Evans' heroes, who is now officially a retired man.
Plus, some places that you can go this weekend that will have you thinking spring, Ben.
Well, enough with playing. We've got work to do. Come on.
All right. Well, coming up in Growth Care, we're going to talk about actually how to take care of your real birds that live in your yard.
At this time of year, Nicole.
That's right.
And today, a sight rarely seen this winter in northern Minnesota.
And for us, we'll be thinking spring here come next week. We've got a big warm-up to talk about, and we will in a few minutes.
This is an update on Saturday. Two millionaire brothers died to violent death, one drugged by a milkshake.
I said, Rob, I think Nancy's trying to kill you.
One of them dead. The milkshake in the orders.
Saturday, 7 Central on NBC.
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I'm Diana Pierce with some simple tips on heart-healthy eating.
Go for variety in your food.
Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.
Focus on nonfat and low fat in your dairy products.
And avoid trans fats by checking product labels for hydrogenated vegetable oil.
Just a few tips that can lead to a healthier meal.
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Get to the White Bear Lake Super GM Store and you'll save $4,000, $5,000, $6,000, $7,000
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A little taste of spring has arrived in the Twin Cities.
The Minnesota Home and Patio Show is underway at the St. Paul River Center.
The show features hundreds of many statuers and retailers there to get you inspired for
your upcoming home improvements and gardening projects.
The Home and Patio Show runs through Sunday.
Gardening expert Bobby Jensen will be at the Home and Patio Show this weekend.
But in this week's Grow with Care, Bobby and Belinda are focusing on winter bird care.
You know, with all the cold days we've had, many of you have been concerned about our
feathered friends.
So here's Bobby and Belinda.
Well, we're at the Wild Bird Store in Bloomington.
Where else to be?
All these birds, they all look good.
You know, birds need shelter, food and water.
But water's been difficult.
It's been very, very cold over the last three or four weeks.
And so a good idea, in fact, they say if you have some heated water in the winter, you'll
end up with three times more birds.
Over three times as many birds will come to your area.
Now the deal is, in the old days we used to just have one of these.
It's just a heating element.
You would drop it in there.
In a bird bath?
In a bird bath.
And what would happen is, you know, up to a certain temperature it would work.
But then the next generation is these rubberized mats that will heat the whole bird bath and
keep the whole thing open under any circumstances.
Right.
Other than water, the other big thing they need.
You gotta eat.
There's gotta be food in there.
Yeah.
And there's special food just for winter.
Our number one selling mix is this Joe's Mix.
It's mostly sunflower, has a little safflower, cracked corn, white millet, mixed nuts.
And it's formulated to what the birds like the most is what's in there.
And the sunflower is high in fats and oils for them, so they will have the fats and oils
to maintain their body temperature throughout the winter.
Four different suites.
This is the peanut treat, the most popular one that we sell.
It has peanuts in there, peanut butter, and some filler grains.
And then you go over here to premium suite, which is just plain old suite.
Most birds like to peck at this?
Oh yes.
The birds, you put this in a holder of one sort or other, and you just sit in and they
land out and peck at it.
Usually it's gonna be woodpeckers, chickadees, and nuthatches, because most of the suite
feeders are designed for cleaning birds.
It's high in fats and oils.
It's good for winter feeding.
If you'd like more details on bird care, you can go to careeleven.com and then click on
Grow with Care.
Well, you might want to spend some time outside this weekend.
Ben has a warmer forecast.
That's coming up.
And you're gonna hear what KG has to say as he gets ready to play in his 10th All-Star
game.
So, you've waited a little long to put that spring getaway.
What's still out there?
Where can you go?
And are there any bargains to be found at this late date?
Tune in, then pack your bags.
Tonight, in the Care 11 News Extra, 10.
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Is your furnace getting the job done this winter?
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And if it's time to replace that worn out furnace, keep an eye out for the ENERGY STAR logo
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Taco John's presents Whiplash in high-mexi roller.
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Researchers at the U of M are turning science fiction into science fact.
It's a very advanced research.
And a future where you can control everything from laptops to artificial limbs with nothing
more than thoughts is closer than you may think.
Sunday.
Tune to Comcast Channel 232 for Care 11 News, your favorite NBC sports, Prime and Jay Leno.
For 14 hours daily of the best in high-definition programming.
They're measuring the ice to get an idea of when the navigational season will begin on
the upper Mississippi River.
The U.S. Corps of Engineers drilled through the ice at Lake Pepin, which is located between
Red Wing and Wabasha.
It's the last part of the river to break up because of the slower current.
The Corps will use these measurements that they gather to determine when it's going to
be safe for towboats to break through the ice and begin towing to St. Paul.
And we have Sven here.
You can tell us when's the first ship typically expected up in Duluth.
That's usually in March.
The last one's usually like sometime in December and then March.
But this year actually because of the cold streak we've had for so long, there's actually
a lot of ice.
You can actually see on satellite quite a bit of ice in the St. Louis Bay.
But we get some warm weather and that can be gone in a hurry on that big lake.
We're going to be getting a little warm weather here.
It is.
You know, it's going to feel fantastic.
Well, it doesn't matter.
It's going to feel fantastic.
You know, these 20s have been feeling pretty good.
We saw a couple of them this week in between some more cold air.
But next week we're talking 30s.
But it looked like winter in Duluth today.
Look at the snow.
They have been seeing a lack of snow.
They saw an inch today.
That's their heaviest snowfall so far this month.
How sad is that for Duluth?
About three feet below where they should be for this season's total of snowfall.
Average year in Duluth they receive 84 inches of snow, nowhere near that this year.
We've seen more than them in many cases.
So a little bit up there today, about an inch.
We got missed by that system, of course.
Didn't see many flakes.
But we are expecting to see a couple of light snow showers here during the course of the
evening.
Let's take a look at some of the numbers for today.
We got up to about 20 degrees.
We're sitting at 19 right now, just down a degree from that high temperature of 20.
And we saw a couple of those this week.
Sunday and Monday were in the 20s.
And then today, with a few of those chillier days in between, those are behind us.
From here on out things are going to get progressively warmer, and even quickly warmer once we move
towards Monday.
Southwest winds five miles an hour.
That is light for now.
But the winds will be picking up tonight.
You're going to notice a little chilly breeze.
Here's the last 24 hours of the snow.
One little band of snow to the south, another band up towards Duluth in between.
Not a lot at all here.
There's that band up towards Duluth, the two separate areas.
It's about an inch and a half, some spots close to two inches in southwestern Minnesota,
about an inch in Duluth, in between nothing yet.
But we are going to see some light snow showers here the course of the evening.
Take a closer look.
You can see that light snow lining up to the west.
This is what will be moving in.
Not expecting really any accumulations out of that.
Probably just a dusting or so.
But we will see a little bit for a little while.
Most of the heavier stuff will move just to the southeast, the Twin Cities.
But all this pretty light, and we are surrounded right around from Wilmer to St. Cloud and
down even further southwest of that.
If you're planning on enjoying some activities, winter activities, this might be it after
this week of warm temperatures and considering the lack of snow for most areas.
So tomorrow looking pretty good, around 20 again in the metro.
You go outside of that, probably some upper teens, maybe even single digits along the
Canadian border.
But not a bad weekend to try and enjoy some winter activities.
While the little bit of snow we have is still around, but the pattern is changing.
That trough we've been in for three weeks, keeping us cold, is moving off to the east.
Mild air will be building in again.
A zonal flow, straight west to east.
That's very mild for us this time of year.
30s, maybe even some 40s at some point headed our way.
So tonight, a couple flurries, light snow showers here the first part of the evening.
We'll see that over the next few hours as that moves in.
Then the winds will pick up.
Temperatures dropping to around 12 tonight.
Still we're still going to have that cold breeze.
So temperatures will be about the same, close to 20, but look at the winds, about 10 to
20 miles an hour.
This will make it feel a little cooler.
A mix of some sun and clouds.
22 on Sunday and then here's the big jump, 32.
The freezing mark Monday, maybe a little drizzle or a couple light snow showers as that warmer
air tries to push in.
It looks as though it's going to succeed.
Mid-30s Tuesday, upper 30s by Wednesday.
And again, there may even be a 40 in our near future.
Unbelievable.
Wow, 40.
We're missing about four weeks almost.
Yeah, big that.
Absolutely.
Thank you, son.
All right, Randy's in now.
It's going to be an exciting weekend for Gophers hockey fans.
It will be and next weekend will probably be just as big because they play St. Cloud
State next weekend.
But the Gophers lead the WCHA by four points, which means their weekend series at Colorado
College is very important.
They swept CC earlier this season, but you know the Tigers will be ready for revenge
starting tonight.
Charles Gonzalez has more.
Finnelli again looking for three.
The Gophers get back to competition tonight after their first hockey-free weekend in almost
two months.
And that rest couldn't have come at a better time.
We desperately needed a break right now.
It allowed us to get some guys back.
I think we're as healthy as we've been in a long time.
We didn't have practice every day, which is nice.
You know, you can kind of get caught back up in school and all that stuff and get a
little more sleep than you're used to.
Hopefully the break will pay off.
A team that could do no wrong has turned somewhat ordinary.
Four and four over their last eight games.
With six games remaining, their lead is down to four points.
We know exactly what we have to do to hopefully wrap up the MacNaghten Cup in the next two
weeks.
You know, if we get eight points in the next two weeks, we get the MacNaghten Cup, so we're
really going to try to do that.
We're just going to try to play the rest of the games like it's playoffs, so just try
to get ready for that.
And I don't know, we're just going to try to be intense, play our game, and hopefully
we'll get all four points in insurance.
The Gophers take the best road record in the league to Colorado, where the CC Tigers have
the best home record in the league.
The Gophers outscored the Tigers 10-1 in an October sweep at Mariucci.
Results they aren't counting on again.
It's not only who you play, it's when you play them.
And we caught them when they were injured.
They had three of their top forwards who were out that weekend, and I think that's one of
the reasons why we beat them two to nothing, and I believe it was eight to one the second
night.
If the Gophers remember, you can be sure the Tigers haven't forgotten about their last
meeting either.
Charles Gonzalez, Carol Evans Sports.
And a reminder, the Gophers in Colorado College will square off around 8.30 tonight.
We'll have early game highlights in our sportscast tonight at 10.
Timberwolves hit the all-star break in playoff contention, and the weekend rest will do them
some good.
Kevin Garnett, however, does not get a break.
He's a starter in the all-star game Sunday in Las Vegas.
People ask me all the time, does it get old, does it get old?
And it never gets old because you're in a new city, and there's always something new
to do.
There's always something new to see.
Every city has its own personality, has its own attractions, and me and my family has
always enjoyed that.
So I look forward to it.
All-star festivities get started tomorrow.
The state Nordic ski championships push back an hour in hopes of warmer weather.
The event is over at Giants Ridge in Boavic.
We don't have complete results.
We do know the freestyle winners from earlier today.
Jo DuBae of Coon Rapids was the winner in the freestyle for boys.
Jessica Diggins, the freshman from Stillwater, won the girls.
We're still waiting for the pursuit results and the team champions.
We will have some highlights and all the results for you tonight at 10 o'clock, and also tonight,
girls section hockey.
Winner's going to state.
We're shooting a couple of those games tonight, too.
And you're heading to Florida Sunday?
Monday.
Enjoy that.
Clock is ticking.
Lucky.
40 degrees here.
We'll double that.
We'll double the degrees.
Yes.
Always.
Well, up next, we are going to say so long to a really good friend.
Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.
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On Shakespeare.
But I have six weeks.
I'll give myself six weeks, too.
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Good luck with your report.
How's that report coming?
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Still?
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Anna and Danny Lynn's last photo.
The last man to see Anna alive breaks the silence.
Who's getting Anna's body?
And the thousand pound man drops half his weight next.
Hi, everybody.
I'm Julie Nelson in the newsroom with a look at what you'll see tonight on Carol Levin
News at 10.
Doctors in England save a premature baby's life and what they use to do it is capturing
attention around the world.
It is a drug that is famous for an entirely different reason.
And in the extra, ah, sand, sun, and surf.
Many folks are ready to trade our sub-zero weather for a trip south.
Tonight, last minute deals on warm weather getaways.
What you need to know before you book.
Just keep looking at those pictures, shall we?
Plus, we are gathering new information about that statewide alert regarding possible break
problems on Minnesota school buses.
We'll have that and more coming up tonight at 10.
Thank you, Jill.
Well, finally tonight we say a fond farewell to a Carol Levin legend.
This has been an honor, a privilege.
I cannot imagine being luckier than to work with a bunch of people like you guys.
It has just been so cool.
We have done so many neat things together.
It's been neat.
It's a privilege for us to have nearly three decades of reporting prepared and especially
retired.
Today was his last day on the job and we certainly will miss having his smiling face around the
newsroom as well as his big laugh.
And we wish him well as he begins the next chapter in his life.
He was the one guy that when he left, he would rock the building.
Yes, he was.
True gentlemen.
We wish him well.
Have a great night.
Good night.