Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man convicted of kidnapping a Wisconsin girl and killing her parents told police after his arrest that he never thought Jayme Closs would escape because she was petrified, and that after holding her captive for two weeks, he believed he’d get away with his crimes, according to a transcript of a police interview.

“I know that she was just (expletive) terrified of me,” Jake Patterson said following his arrest in January.

PAYNESVILLE, Minn. (AP) — In the midst of a difficult harvest slowed by muddy fields, Jeff Ampe wasn’t thinking much about elections or impeachment. When prodded on his congressman, he’s all positive: Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson, he says, has done “a good job for agriculture, standing up for us all the time.”

Still, ask the central Minnesota farmer whether he’ll vote next year for Peterson or his likely Republican opponent, former state senator Michelle Fischbach, and he takes a long pause to consider.

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota National Guard says the three soldiers who were killed when their helicopter crashed near St. Cloud this week were part of a unit that returned last May from a nine-month deployment to the Middle East.

The Guard identified the men who were killed in Thursday’s crash as Chief Warrant Officers 2nd Class James A. Rogers Jr., 28, and Charles P. Nord, 30, and Sgt. Kort M. Plantenberg, 28.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Five people died and three were injured when a fire broke out on the 14th floor of a public housing high-rise in a heavily immigrant neighborhood of Minneapolis early Wednesday.

While the cause of the blaze was still under investigation, Fire Chief John Fruetel told reporters that investigators believe the fire was an accident, but he didn’t explain why. The building is in part of Minneapolis known as Little Mogadishu for the many Somali immigrants who have settled there.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Democrats, Muslims and other groups condemned President Donald Trump on Friday for criticizing the state for welcoming so many Somali refugees, and they called out Republican leaders for failing to criticize his statements.

At his campaign rally Thursday night in Minneapolis, which is home to the largest Somali population in the U.S., Trump said Washington leaders had sent “large numbers of refugees to your state from Somalia without considering the impact on schools and communities and taxpayers.”

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — President Donald Trump was defiant in the face of an impeachment probe Thursday as he sought to convert the threat to his presidency into a weapon on the campaign trail, with biting and unsupported attacks on potential Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

Confronting an investigation provoked by his unprecedented calls for Ukraine and then China to assist in digging up dirt on his political rivals, Trump continued to lay into Biden and his son Hunter, whom he and his allies have accused, without evidence, of illegally profiting off his father’s office.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The opioid crisis has hit virtually every pocket of the U.S., from rural towns in deeply conservative states to big cities in liberal-leaning ones. But a curious divide has opened up.

The nation’s Republican state attorneys general have, for the most part, lined up in support of a tentative multibillion-dollar settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, while their Democratic counterparts have mostly come out against it, decrying it as woefully inadequate.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The livestreamed video of the final minutes of Brian Quinones’ life before he was fatally shot by police show him calmly driving a car and listening to music, running at least one red light as he leads officers on a chase through two Minneapolis suburbs.

At one point, the video shows, Quinones got out of the car with what appears to be a knife. Moments later, someone shouted an unintelligible command and multiple shots rang out. Quinones, 30, died at the scene.

His brother said afterward that Quinones had been having suicidal thoughts.

LONG PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) — Authorities say the son of a former NFL lineman wanted on murder charges in Minnesota for the shooting of his parents was arrested Saturday in Mexico.

The Todd County Sheriff’s Office says 22-year-old Dylan John Bennett was arrested on second degree murder charges at a hotel Saturday in Cancun.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib sharply criticized Israel on Monday for denying them entry to the Jewish state and called on fellow members of Congress to visit while they cannot.

Omar, of Minnesota, suggested President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were suppressing the lawmakers’ ability to carry out their oversight role.