U.S. Army officials in South Carolina confirm a 19-year-old soldier from Minnesota has been found dead at Fort Jackson. A base spokesperson says the Army National Guard soldier was found unresponsive at a field location Wednesday morning. The soldier’s unit took life-saving measures while contacting emergency medical services but he couldn't be saved. The man was pronounced dead at a hospital. The Minnesota National Guard identifies the soldier as Pvt. Connor J. McGurran, a native of Owatonna, Minnesota, who enlisted in the Guard in September. An investigation into the cause of death is being conducted.

A Blooming Prairie woman has pleaded guilty to killing a Florida woman who prosecutors said was targeted because the two looked alike. Officials say 57-year-old Lois Riess will serve a life sentence in prison for the first-degree murder of Pamela Hutchinson. Officials say Riess targeted Hutchinson because they shared similar features and because Riess wanted to assume Hutchinson’s identity. Riess garnered national news attention as the “fugitive grandma” when she led authorities on a cross-country manhunt before she was captured in April 2018 in Texas. Riess’ saga began the month before when her husband was found dead at the couple’s Minnesota [...]

A pair from Minnesota face felony drug charges after a traffic stop in Nebraska turned up more than 2 pounds (0.91 kilograms) of marijuana, several packages of THC concentrate wax, vape pen cartridges and concentrated marijuana edibles. The Nebraska State Patrol says a woman in the car told them all the drugs were bought in Colorado as a 21st birthday present to her. The Kearney Hub says the drugs were found Sunday when the couple’s vehicle was stopped for speeding Sunday on Interstate 80 just west of Kearney. A 32-year-old man and the 21-year-old woman, both of Mankato, Minnesota, were arrested.

Bob and Corrine Johnson got married as teens in southern Minnesota’s farm country and lived together for 68 years. They were to be laid to rest Tuesday — after dying 33 hours apart, KARE-TV reported. They lived in their farm home near St. Peter until six months ago. After Bob was hospitalized with cancer, Corrine joined him there with congestive heart failure. He was 88. She was 87. Days before she died on Nov. 24, Corinne kissed her husband and whispered, “I love you.” “When mom passed, they pulled the curtain between the two beds, he just stared at the curtain,” said [...]

A suspect in the slaying of a Minnesota man whose remains were found in West Virginia has confessed in a letter to court officials and documents show he married his daughter after the killing. The Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports 55-year-old Larry Paul McClure Sr. said in a Nov. 4 letter that he participated in the killing of 38-year-old John Thomas McGuire of Owatonna, Minnesota, who was his daughter’s boyfriend. The letter goes into detail about how McGuire was hit in the head, injected with methamphetamine and strangled. McClure and his daughters, 31-year-old Amanda Michelle Naylor McClure and 32-year-old Anna Marie Choudhry, [...]

More than half of Minnesota's lakes, rivers and streams don't meet state pollution standards. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has added 581 waterways to its list of impaired waters in its biennial report to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released Wednesday. The 3,416 waterways represent 56% of the state's waters. They have a range of problems, including excess mercury, bacteria, phosphorus, nitrate and other pollutants, as well as struggling fish and insect populations. The impaired waters include a lower stretch of the St. Croix River, considered one of the Upper Midwest's most pristine waterways. About one-third of the waterways are impaired [...]

Sen. Amy Klobuchar says she and other top female presidential candidates wouldn't be on the debate stage if they had the same experience as Mayor Pete Buttigieg (BOO'-tuh-juhj). The Minnesota Democrat said Sunday on CNN that she believes the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is qualified but that she's the better candidate. Klobuchar says, "I'm the one from the Midwest that has actually won in a statewide race over and over again." She says of the female candidates: "Maybe we're held to a different standard." Buttigieg has been one of the surprises of the Democratic primary, rising from an unknown [...]

AITKIN, Minn. (AP) — An Aitkin County man is charged with murder after authorities say they found a missing woman's body buried in a crawl space under the home where he lived. The family of 35-year-old Michelle Mae, of Outing, reported her missing Oct. 3. Sheriff's officials say her Jeep was found near the defendant's residence a day later. WDIO-TV reports a criminal complaint says Mae met 34-year-old Joshua Karjala online. The complaint lists evidence of clothing, bedding and electronics that were found in a fireplace, crawl space and in the basement of the residence. The complaint alleges that Karjala told a [...]

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (AP) - A 16-year-old student at Bloomington Jefferson High School is charged with second-degree assault for stabbing another student multiple times. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman says a juvenile petition alleges the girl stabbed another female student six times during a fight at the suburban Minneapolis school on Tuesday. The school resource police officer responded to the fight that broke out in the school's main entrance. The victim was taken to a hospital.