Duluth News Tribune

Last Place owner Jim Carlson arrested again, one day after posting bail

If it wasn't already clear, it's now more apparent than ever that Duluth officials are bound and determined to shut down the Last Place on Earth once and for all.THE BACKSTORY: Jim Carlson's son allegedly sold bath salt used in recent overdose to an undercover agent Just one day after posting $480, ... More >>

Jim Carlson, owner of Last Place on Earth, arrested, says "The Nazis got me again"

By his own estimation, in 2011, Jim Carlson, owner of the Last Place on Earth in downtown Duluth, made $6 million selling synthetic marijuana and stimulants. But those high times have come to a crashing end.Last summer, Carlson's store was raided by feds. In December, he was charged with 54 violatio ... More >>

Man with chest wound enters Duluth detox center, says ex-roomie "hit me with a goddamn sword!"

On Monday night, a man police are identifying as R.W.S. staggered into the Duluth Detoxification Center was a stab wound in his chest.SWORD-WIELDING MADNESS:-- Chris Meusburger of St. Paul allegedly wanted to sword-fight his 62-year-old female neighbor -- Man allegedly threatened to behead girlfrien ... More >>

Oldest known wild bear in the world lives in Minnesota [PHOTO]

The oldest known wild bear in the world by a longshot lives in the woods near Marcell, Minnesota.FROM LAST MONTH: Lily the black bear gives birth to two cubs live on webcam [VIDEO]She doesn't have a name, but is simply called Bear No. 56 by DNR officials. And at 39 years of age, she's six years olde ... More >>

Judge orders Wisconsin deadbeat dad to use worst pickup line ever

"Hey baby, you're looking good tonight... by the way, I have to tell you I'm a convicted felon who didn't pay my child support for four months a couple years ago."SEE ALSO: Wisconsin couch humper makes Colbert Report [VIDEO] Sound awkward? It's supposed to, and it's the pickup line a Hayward, Wiscon ... More >>

Lily the black bear gives birth to two cubs live on webcam [VIDEO]

Early Saturday morning, internet sensation Lily the black bear gave birth to two cubs at the North American Bear Center in the woods near Ely, Minnesota.SEE ALSO:-- Frogtown black bear shot and killed by DNR-- Hibernating bears have remarkable wound healing capabilities, finds Minnesota researchers- ... More >>

County Attorney Scannell had relationship with teen months after being shot by sex offender

Cook County Attorney Tim Scannell has been hit with a court order to stop communicating with a 17-year-old girl with whom he was romantically involved.SEE ALSO: -- Carlton County Attorney Thom Pertler's 0.234 DUI arrest: The dashboard footage [VIDEO]-- Kerry Gauthier sex scandal: Are these his oral ... More >>

Duluth roiled by two recent blackface incidents [VIDEO]

In recent weeks, video of two young Duluth women wearing blackface and uttering absurdly offensive racial slurs went viral (the footage can be seen below the jump). Just a week later, a photo of a Pizza Luce employee wearing blackfare at a Halloween party has surfaced.SEE ALSO: 11 white supremacists ... More >>

St. Luke's becomes first hospital in state to follow NYC's lead, ban sale of sugary drinks

A month after New York City approved a ban on sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces, Duluth-based St. Luke's Hospital has taken the next step and is banning the sale of all sugary drinks on hospital premises. SEE ALSO:-- MN Blue Cross' new anti-obesity ads spark controversy: Do they shame fat people? ... More >>

Kaydi Hooey, 13, concussed by deer hit and run during soccer practice

Kaydi Hooey, a 13-year-old Two Harbors resident, was the victim of a hit and run last Thursday. The perpetrator? A deer.SEE ALSO: Deer shot by police after rampaging through St. Catherine UniversityHooey has handled the situation with an admirable amount of humor and good cheer, but the fact is she ... More >>

Duluth officer Richard Jouppi brutally beat a drunk man in a wheelchair [VIDEO]

Duluth police officer Richard Jouppi, 34, has been placed on paid administrative leave and is under criminal investigation after brutally beating a drunk man in a wheelchair at the Duluth Detoxification Center on September 21.SEE ALSO:-- MPD officer Blayne Lehner shown choking and pepper-spraying pr ... More >>

Raccoon becomes part of road as striping crew paints over Duluth-area roadkill [PHOTO]

SEE ALSO:-- Gauthier decides not to seek reelection after DFL Rep. Huntley calls him a "child molester"-- Duluth's Last Place on Earth raided as new synthetic drug crackdown goes into effect-- Duluth flooding sets zoo seal free downtown [PHOTOS]In his last life, he was a raccoon. Now, he demarcates ... More >>

Thom Pertler, Carlton County Attorney, is back at work five weeks after 0.234 DUI arrest

SEE ALSO:-- Thom Pertler, Carlton County Attorney, reportedly blew a ridiculous 0.336-- Thom Pertler, Carlton County attorney, had nearly empty bottle of vodka in car-- Thom Pertler, Carlton County attorney, quits teaching gig after showing up to class drunkDespite two recent incidents where he made ... More >>

Gauthier decides not to seek reelection after DFL Rep. Huntley calls him a "child molester"

SEE ALSO:-- Kerry Gauthier says he intentionally OD'd on pills as news of rest stop oral sex circulated-- Kerry Gauthier sex scandal: Are these his oral sex-seeking Craigslist posts?-- Rep. Gauthier, 56, claims rest-stop oral sex with Craigslist boy, 17, was consensualYesterday, Rep. Kerry Gauthier ... More >>

Kerry Gauthier says he intentionally OD'd on pills as news of rest stop oral sex circulated

SEE ALSO:-- Rep. Kerry Gauthier says he's running for reelection despite rest-stop sex scandal-- Kerry Gauthier sex scandal: Are these his oral sex-seeking Craigslist posts?-- Rep. Gauthier, 56, claims rest-stop oral sex with Craigslist boy, 17, was consensualThis afternoon, Rep. Kerry Gauthier, D-D ... More >>

Rep. Gauthier, 56, claims rest-stop oral sex with Craigslist boy, 17, was consensual

SEE ALSO:-- Rep. Kerry Gauthier under investigation for "suspicious activity" at highway rest stop-- Rep. Kerry Gauthier reportedly sexed 17-year-old boy in Duluth-area rest stopRep. Kerry Gauthier, D-Duluth, won't face charges for having oral sex with a minor at the Thompson Hill rest stop near Dul ... More >>

Fargo Forum reverses course, decides to publish gay marriage notices after backlash

SEE ALSO:-- MN Marriage amendment: Majority support one man-one woman definition, says new survey-- Catholic school teacher forced to resign after disagreeing with church's gay marriage stance-- Marriage amendment means it's a great time to be in Minnesota's media businessThe Fargo Forum's managemen ... More >>

Duluth flood: Lake Superior looks like it was infused with chocolate milk [PHOTOS]

The effects of last month's unprecedented flooding can be seen in aerial shots of Lake Superior, which show chocolate milk-colored waters stretching all the way from the Twin Ports to Wisconsin's Chequamegon Bay.Erik Brown, acting director of the Large Lakes Observatory at the University of Minnesot ... More >>

Duluth flood: PETA wants Lake Superior Zoo prosecuted for animal drownings

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals alleges that Lake Superior Zoo staff acted negligently when 13 or 14 animals died during Wednesday's flash flood.The animal rights group says the animals shouldn't have been left in a position to drown. Kristin Simon, senior cruelty caseworker for PETA, po ... More >>

Duluth flood update: Images from after the rain [PHOTOS]

Two days after a massive deluge flash-flooded the Duluth area, the scope of the damage wrought by the natural disaster is becoming clearer.Authorities preliminarily estimate that the flood caused at least $100 million in damage. In Duluth, 30 percent of the homes suffered water damage, and in the sm ... More >>

Duluth flooding sets zoo seal free downtown [PHOTOS]

The Lake Superior Zoo is one of the hardest-hit victims of the torrential rainfall and subsequent flooding that has the Duluth area on lockdown today.According to the Duluth News Tribune, the zoo's Polar Shores exhibit, which housed seals and a polar bear, has been completely flooded out. The zoo's ... More >>

Thom Pertler, Carlton County attorney, quits teaching gig after showing up to class drunk

​Carlton County Attorney Thom Pertler resigned his adjunct teaching job at the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College because he showed up to class three sheets to the wind.February 27 was the first day of a law enforcement class Pertler teaches about Minnesota statutes. The class began at 6 p.m ... More >>

11 white supremacists turn out in Duluth, get pelted with snowballs

​It probably wasn't the sort of showing members of the Supreme White Alliance had in mind, but really, what else did they expect? Eleven members of the white supremacist group took part in an anti-Un-Fair Campaign march in downtown Duluth on Saturday morning, only to be vastly outnumbered by count ... More >>

Duluth: "Pro-white" rally to protest anti-racism billboards

A pro-white group plans to rally in protest of Duluth's controversial anti-racism billboards.​Backlash against the Un-Fair Campaign's "It's hard to see racism when you're white" billboards continues. Stormfront -- a "white nationalist" group devoted to promoting white pride throughout the world -- ... More >>

Amy Klobuchar declares war on wolves

​Amy Klobuchar is substantive, smart, hard-working, avoids controversy, rarely makes a public verbal misstep -- save for the vaguely northern accent, she's sort of the anti-Sarah Palin. But now Minnesota's respectable senator has revealed what she has in common with Alaska's inescapable former gov ... More >>

Chip Cravaack stunned: Not everyone on Iron Range is a tea partier

Aren't we all Americans here? Not on the Range.​It's no wonder Republicans in control of the Legislature want to gerrymander our congressional districts to get Chip Cravaack off the Iron Range. When he shows up there, he draws rabid crowds - and not the good kind of rabid. That's hardly the k ... More >>

Minnesota newspapers banner Osama bin Laden's death

All the news that mattered Monday morning.​Front page editors around Minnesota were doubtless biting their fingernails last night as the White House kept pushing back its official announcement that Osama bin Laden had been shot and killed in a firefight outside Islamabad, Pakistan. But confir ... More >>

Lonnie Dupre backs off Mt. McKinley peak attempt

Dupre retreats.​After hunkering down in an ever-more claustrophic and unsanitary snow cave for six days just below the summit of Alaska's Mt. McKinley, Lonnie Dupre of Grand Marais has called off his attempt to claim its first January ascent. He's headed down. But he might try to bag the pea ... More >>

Tom Horner's newspaper endorsements: The ghost in the machine

There may be more to Horner's newspaper endorsements than his qualifications.​​With the election only days away, Tom Horner's chance at moving into the Governor's Mansion are looking pretty slim. After all, leading political statistician Nate Silver gives Democrat Mark Dayton an 85% chance of vi ... More >>

Dustin Kenneth Nelson, sex offender, at home in the Moose Lake woods

Dustin Nelson's going down to the woods in Moose Lake​Gampers Restaurant, out on County Road 61 in Moose Lake, is a fine family establishment, popular with the locals for its bowling alley, and a fine plate of loaded-to-the-gills nachos. So why in tarnation is level-3 sex offender Dustin Kenne ... More >>

Richard P. Richey brings sword to hammer fight and loses anyway

Photo: lifeontheedgeA worthy opponent​When the cops caught up with itinerant criminal Richard P. Richey one night a year ago in April, he had blood all over his face, hands and clothes, and gash on his head. Sword play, he told the cops. But that guy back at the apartment laying on the floor ... More >>

Soldier's mom sues over "deceased" stamp on returned letter

A peace activist says the government is to blame for a letter she received suggesting her Army son was dead.

La-Z-Boy comes after Minn. DWI motorized chair, auction restarts

La-Z-Boy came after the police department, claiming the chair wasn't really an actual La-Z-Boy and couldn't be advertised as such.

Minn. native accused of shooting friend in head while checking football scores

When we're hanging out around the house with our buddies, we can't skip an opportunity to point guns at our friend's head just for the heck of it.

Duluth man intentionally exposes woman to HIV, gets 90 days in jail

Apparently spreading a deadly and lifelong disease to people isn't a big deal in the court of law.

Rubber ball slasher sentenced to year in prison

All of Duluth's rubber balls can rest in peace after the city's infamous rubber ball slasher has been put away for a year.

Oberstar on Bachmann: "There are voices other than God that are informing her"

He's pretty sure she's hearing some weird voices in her head and they sure aren't from God anymore.

Man with AIDS virus charged with having unprotected sex, not informing partners

A Duluth man who has been diagnosed with the AIDS virus for a decade was having unprotected sex and not telling his partners about his disease, prosecutors say.

Duluth merchant selling offensive shirts apologizes to all American Indians

One day after the media reported on a Duluth tourism store along Canal Park selling shirts offensive to some American Indians in the community, the store owner publicly apologized to all American Indians for selling the merchandise in his store.

Dog thrown from Wis. bridge, police say

Police are looking for anyone connected to an incident Saturday afternoon where a dog was taken from a Wisconsin home and thrown off a bridge. The dog was so severely injured that it had to be put down.

Teen's skunk prank goes bad, so he pulls out a gun instead

Johnson decided it would be funny to place a dead skunk on his 20-year-old sister's car in the parking lot of a gas station. When the prank backfired, he pulled out a gun.

Serial flasher and the serial Senate race

Franken, my dear, they give a damn

City Pages wins 27 SPJ Page One Awards, 15 first place honors

City Pages took home 27 awards, including 15 first-place honors at the annual Minnesota SPJ Page One Awards Banquet.

Duluth city clerk to Franken: Pay up or get lost

How was Franken's legal team going to reimburse him for his travel, meals, and work time lost? A whopping $105.

Pray for me, Frank Stallone

Embattled boxing commissioner goes 10 rounds with Satan

More scenes from Duluth's Homegrown Music Festival

Toward a one-newspaper town, part two

Duluth leftovers

Duluth won't be erased

A Piece of the Action

The sexual harassment movie that Pawlenty won't pay to see