A planned construction closure on Interstate 494 in Inver Grove Heights has been postponed for one week.

Both directions of Interstate 494 between Blaine Avenue and Babcock Trail in Inver Grove Heights will be closed beginning late Friday, May 16, while crews do demolition work on the U.S. 52 bridge over the freeway, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The closure originally was scheduled for Friday, May 9.

MnDOT crews will close the stretch of freeway beginning at 10 p.m. May 16 with reopening of all lanes scheduled for 5 a.m. Monday, May 19. Ramp closures are also associated with the work.

Detours will be posted.

The closure will allow crews to rebuild the bridge deck and repave the ramps.

The project is slated to be completed by November.

— Kristi Miller

Ex-worker sentenced for theft from city

A former contract employee for the city of Lakeland charged with stealing — and then pawning — several items from the city was given 18 months of supervised probation on Wednesday and put into a diversion program.

Shane Lawson Jacks, 44, of Lakeland, was charged with felony theft in Washington County District Court in August for stealing three chainsaws, two trimmers and a leaf blower from a city building on June 10 while working for People Service, the company that operates the city’s water treatment plant and also provides public works-related services.

The stolen items were valued at $2,180, and officials were able to identify Jacks by pawn shop surveillance video and his Minnesota driver’s license. The pawned items, with serial numbers that matched items missing from the city, totaled $1,410, according to the criminal complaint.

Jacks, who was fired by People Service, was accepted into Washington County’s diversion program, which allows first-time offenders to avoid convictions by successfully completing the conditions of probation. Jacks must complete 24 hours of community work service or three days on the county’s sentence to service program and pay $1,479.98 in restitution to the city.

— Nick Ferraro

Voter petition seeks new Congress maps

Democratic voters on Thursday asked the liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court to throw out the battleground state’s current congressional district boundaries after a similar request was rejected last year.

Republicans currently hold six of the state’s eight U.S. House seats — but only two of those districts are considered competitive. The petition seeks to have the state’s congressional district lines redrawn ahead of the 2026 midterms. Filed on Wednesday and made public Thursday, the petition comes from the Elias Law Group, which represents Democratic groups and candidates and also filed last year’s request.

The new petition argues that the court’s decision to redraw maps for state legislative districts a couple years ago has opened the door to revisiting maps for U.S. House districts. The petition asks for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take the case directly, skipping lower courts.

The chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party condemned the lawsuit.

— Associated Press

GOP lawmakers kill most of Evers’ priorities

Republicans who control the Wisconsin Legislature voted Thursday to kill most of the top spending priorities of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, including legalizing marijuana, even as both sides negotiate a tax cut.

The Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget committee voted along party lines to kill more than 600 budget proposals put forward by Evers, including spending more state money on child care providers, expanding Medicaid and raising taxes on joint tax filers those who earn more than $1 million.

Republicans did the same thing in each of Evers’ previous three budgets and had said they were going to do it again.

— Associated Press