The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will conduct aerial elk surveys in the next few weeks when conditions allow. DNR staff will survey the Kittson County and Grygla elk herds in northwestern Minnesota and the border elk herd in both Minnesota and Manitoba.
The surveys are typically conducted yearly during the winter, weather and snow cover permitting.
Aerial survey information is used to monitor elk populations and help the DNR make decisions about future elk management and harvest regulations.
“We currently have sufficient snow cover to start our elk surveys,” said Doug Franke, area wildlife supervisor and elk survey coordinator. “We will start the surveys soon and hopefully be completed within two weeks.”
DNR pilots will fly surveys during daylight hours at an altitude of approximately 200 to 300 feet.
The DNR is also asking for help from those who have recently seen elk in their area. People are encouraged to contact their local DNR office with sighting information:
Karlstad area wildlife office, 218-772-1261
Thief Lake Wildlife Management Area, 218-633-7671
Thief River Falls area wildlife office, 218-219-8587
“Thank you to everyone who has reported elk sightings to us,” Franke said. “These reports provide an important supplement to data from our aerial surveys and help us better understand elk movement and distribution in Minnesota.”
Thanks to the combined efforts of the Crookston Fire Department and Auxiliary, the City of Crookston, and all who donated and helped to wrap toys, Santa and his helpers are out this morning delivering Toys for Tots around Crookston. Thank you to all who helped make this year’s campaign a success. Happy Holidays.
The Climax Public Library invites youth ages eight and up to create a quilted treasure. A Quilting Craft class is scheduled for Thursday, January 2, at 2 p.m., led by local quilting club members, including Denise Kiser.
This program is offered free of charge, and all are welcome. Discover more programs at your library by visiting larl.org/events.
On Monday, the House Ethics Committee released its report into former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz that found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz paid women for sex and engaged in sexual activity with a minor. The House Ethics Committee voted in secret earlier this month to release its findings into the conduct of Gaetz after it first decided to keep it under wraps.
Gaetz, who was President-elect Donald Trump’s first nominee for attorney general, was found by congressional ethics investigators to have paid numerous women — including a 17-year-old girl — for sex, and to have purchased and used illegal drugs, including from his Capitol Hill office.
Among the findings in the 37-page report (seen in full HERE) showed that Gaetz violated multiple state laws related to sexual misconduct while in office. The report lists payments to 12 different women totaling more than $90,000, noting that “from 2017 to 2020, Representative Gaetz made tens of thousands of dollars in payments to women that the Committee determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and/or drug use.” In addition, the committee found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz violated Florida’s statutory rape law by having sex with a 17-year-old girl in July 2017 when he was 35.
The report stated: “The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”
Gaetz, who has publicly denied the allegations included in the report, said filed a civil lawsuit Monday in a Washington federal court in a failed last-ditch effort to block the report’s release, saying that he is now a private citizen and not subject to the jurisdiction of the committee. However, the committee released it a short time later.
Gaetz resigned his seat in Congress in November, after Trump announced plans to nominate him for attorney general. But after facing opposition from some fellow Republicans, Gaetz withdrew from consideration a week later.
Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, pleaded not guilty to state murder and terror charges in New York on Monday. Mangione, 26, entered court with his hands and feet shackled, wearing a white collared shirt under a maroon sweater and light colored pants in his arraignment before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro.
Mangione replied “not guilty” to the charges listed in the 11-count indictment in connection with the shooting, which include: first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree. Judge Carro ordered Mangione to remain in custody, in lieu of $1 bail, which was set by Carro was a perfunctory act (since Mangione is being held in federal custody without bail, and has no realistic chance of freedom until trial).
Prosecutor Joel Saidman said the Manhattan district attorney’s office will try the case before Mangione faces federal charges as it has “primary jurisdiction” in the case. If convicted of the state charges, Mangione faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. Mangione could face the death penalty from the federal murder charge but it would have to be signed off on by the attorney general. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York did not indicate last week if he will seek the death penalty.
Meanwhile, Mangione’s defense attorneys allege that police are parading their client around in “perp walks” that are “perfectly choreographed, utterly political.” Karen Friedman Agnifilo, an attorney for Mangione, said she was concerned the spectacle surrounding her client’s case: “I am very concerned about my client’s right to a fair trial. He is a young man and he is being treated like a human ping pong ball, between two warring jurisdictions here. These federal and state prosecutors are coordinating with one another at the expense of him. They have conflicting theories in their indictments, and they are literally treating him like he is some sort of political fodder, like some sort of spectacle. He was on display for everyone to see in the biggest staged perp walk I’ve ever seen in my career. It was absolutely unnecessary. He’s been cooperative with law enforcement. He had been in custody for over a week. He waived extradition.”
Friedman Agnifilo also took issue with Mayor Eric Adams’ presence when Mangione was returned to New York was “political…there was absolutely no need whatsoever, and frankly the mayor should know more than anyone of the presumption of innocence that he too is afforded when dealing with his own issues, and frankly I submit he was trying to detract from those issues by making a spectacle of Mr Mangione.”
Mangione is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after he appeared in federal court last week. His next New York City court date was set for Feb. 21.
The new Apple TV+ series Cape Fear will star Javier Bardem, who also joins Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg as executive producers on the project.
Apple TV+ gave a series order to a series adaptation of “Cape Fear,” created by Nick Antosca and based on both John D. MacDonald’s novel “The Executioners” (which inspired the 1962 feature of the same name directed by J. Lee Thompson from storyboards devised by original director Alfred Hitchcock); as well as the 1991 remake directed by Scorsese.
Per the official logline, “A storm is coming for happily married attorneys Amanda and Steve Bowden when Max Cady (Bardem), a notorious killer from their past, gets out of prison. In Cape Fear, a storm is coming for happily married attorneys Amanda and Steve Bowden when Max Cady (played by Bardem), a notorious killer from their past, gets out of prison. The 10-episode series is a tense, Hitchcockian thriller and an examination of America’s obsession with true crime in the 21st century.”
Bardem recently portrayed José Menéndez in Ryan Muphy’s Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menéndez Story, and also appeared in the recent ‘Dune’ films.
Lady Gaga is joining the Season 2 cast of Netflix’s hit series Wednesday, currently in production in Ireland. Deadline confirmed that Gaga will share the screen series star Jenna Ortega, but no details about Gaga’s role were made immediately available.
Lady Gaga is coming off of her starring role in Joker: Folie a Deux. Her acting credits include A Star Is Born, House of Gucci and two seasons of FX’s American Horror Story.
New episodes of Wednesday are expected to premiere next year; the series also co-stars Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzmán, Isaac Ordonez and Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo, with Season 2 additions to the cast including Billie Piper, Steve Buscemi, Noah Taylor and Joanna Lumley.
See the Season 2 teaser trailer of Wednesday: HERE.
June Marion Schipper, 93, a Dothan, Alabama native, and longtime Crookston, Minnesota resident, passed away at Spring River Christian Village in Joplin, Missouri on Saturday, December 21, 2024.
June was born in Dothan on March 19, 1931 and was the daughter of Jack and Eula (Seaborn) Segler. She graduated from Dothan High School in 1949 and went on to receive a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Alabama’s University of Montevallo in 1953. She returned to her hometown after graduation and taught at Dothan High School during the 1953-54 school term. On June 12, 1954, June was united in marriage to Vance Duane Schipper in Dothan. Ready for whatever in life awaited her, she came with Vance to his hometown of. Crookston, Minnesota, settling on a farm Vance had purchased in Parnell Township. The next several years would see their family grow with the addition of four little ones: Ila, Quinn, Vana, and Leah. Even with the demands of her roles as wife and mom, June found time to teach for a term in 1957-58 at the Fisher (MN) High School, and later work as a copywriter for KROX Radio in Crookston from 1966 until 1977. For a period of time during the late 1970’s she served as an assistant teacher for Crookston’s Head Start program. June’s lifelong love of literature naturally brought her to employment with the Crookston Public Library, part of the Lake Agassiz Regional Library system, where she worked from 1979 until retirement. Later on, she became an RSVP volunteer there. In 2008, June was named Volunteer of the Year by the Friends of the Library. She dedicated many years of her life to the Crookston Community Theater, serving on the Board, doing grant writing, acting, and working with the stage crew. In February of 1999 she and Vance were honored by the City of Crookston as Experienced Americans. She and Vance moved from their farmstead to a new home just outside Crookston in 2005. In 2020, June moved to Webb City, Missouri to be nearer to her children.
June was a devoted member of the Church of Christ in Crookston. For many years she served as a Sunday School and Vacation Bible School teacher, and church organist. She was also very active for years in the Christian Women’s Fellowship and Mission Study. In Missouri, June attended Connect Christian Church of Carl Junction where she was active in Sunday School and a Ladies’ Home Bible Study.
June liked the challenge of doing crossword puzzles and playing Scrabble. It came as no surprise that she was an avid reader; but it was rather amusing to note that she also enjoyed the newspaper comic strips, which she called the funny papers; June and Vance enjoyed traveling, and very special to them were trips made to New Zealand and Hawaii. She had a quick wit and wonderful sense of humor and always saw the good in people. June found great joy in her family and taught them about love, faith, commitment, honesty, humor, and compassion.
Left to mourn June’s passing are her four children: Ila (Luis) Martinez of Wylie, TX, Quinn (Becky) Schipper of Bartlesville, OK, Vana (Peter) Buckland of Webb City, MO, and Leah (Steve) Hanson of Chetopa, KS; five grandchildren: Casey Pahlen, Madison Schipper, Audrey Buckland, Austin Buckland, and Alex (Sierra) Buckland; eight great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother, Sidney B. Segler; one sister-in-law: Audrey Schipper Murphy; and several nieces, nephews and cousins. June was preceded in death by her loving husband of 62 years, Vance, her parents, Jack and Eula Segler; Vance’s parents, Ed and Sylvia Schipper; two brothers-in-law: Dale Schipper and Burl Schipper: three sisters-in-law, ean Segler, LaVada Schipper Hanson, and Walda Schipper, and one granddaughter, Brenna Kelley.
June’s and Vance’s cremains will be inurned together at Oakdale Cemetery in Crookston, Minnesota. A celebration of June’s life will be held at a future time. Memorials may be given in June’s memory to a charity of your choice. For more information, please go to www.stenshoelhouske.com and follow the prompts to June’s obituary page.
