Police in Minnesota say an officer shot and killed a man early Sunday after spotting him stabbing a woman.

Marshall police said in a news release that the officer responded around 2:40 a.m. to a domestic disturbance. Authorities said the officer used a Taser on the man after seeing the woman was being stabbed. Ultimately, shots were fired, although the news release provided few details.

The news release said the suspect died at the scene and that the woman was flown to a hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in critical condition. Neither of their names were immediately released.

Police asked the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to investigate. The agency confirmed in a message posted on X, formerly Twitter, that it is looking into what it described as a “use-of-deadly-force incident.” It provided no other details.

— Associated Press

Cub workers, others plan strike this week

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 663, representing grocery workers at five Brainerd lakes area union grocery stores, announced the intention to have a four-day unfair labor practice strike from Dec. 22-25.

“Last week, our coworkers stood together and demonstrated our power as a union and voted to authorize a strike,” the union announced in a news release and via a YouTube video. “Quisberg’s and Miner’s have engaged in unfair labor practices meant to stop us from exercising our rights, despite our tireless efforts to serve customers every day. We are calling for an Unfair Labor Practices strike to be held from December 22 through Christmas at Cub Foods Brainerd and Baxter, Super One in Baxter and Crosby, and Pequot Lakes SuperValu,” the union stated in a news release Tuesday.

The union reported its bargaining committee welcomed future bargaining dates with employers. The union has been without a collective bargaining agreement since Dec. 3.

Boyd Hanson, director of human resources at Miner’s, said they started bargaining with the union prior to the close of the contract in late November and continued to Dec. 1 but they did not come to an agreement. Hanson said the union voted down an earlier offer, which was reiterated Dec. 11. The notice of the intent to strike came the following day. As for the union citing unfair labor practices, employers disagreed with that assessment.

Chris Quisberg, S & R Quisberg Inc. president, Cub Foods, said they would much rather talk with the union representatives at the bargaining table than in the press.

Quisberg said they are shortening the hours as a precaution and whether a strike happens or not, they had to make a call to notify the public ahead of time.

— Brainerd Dispatch

Gas plant gets fed OK, some in city not in favor

Federal regulators awarded a key approval to a natural gas-fired power plant planned for Superior.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service issued a Finding of No Significant Impact for the Nemadji Trail Energy Center, a 625-megawatt combined-cycle natural gas facility planned by Minnesota Power, Dairyland Power and Basin Electric Power Cooperative. It’s meant to provide power when solar and wind sources need backup.

Minnesota Power said construction could begin on the power plant in spring, pending approvals by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and city of Superior. Jennifer Cady, Minnesota Power’s vice president of regulatory and legislative affairs, said the project site needed to be rezoned and “there is a street on paper that needs to be vacated.”

City Councilor Jenny Van Sickle, one of four city councilors opposed to the project, said it also needed a stormwater permit.

Superior Mayor Jim Paine, who previously supported the project but is now opposed, called the agency’s findings “factually flawed.”

“The city’s process, we’re a long way from that,” Paine said in an interview with the News Tribune on Friday. “I guess they can ask for these decisions from us at any time, but we’re not in the habit of turning residential neighborhoods into industrial sites … but they have years of litigation ahead of them — at the state and federal levels. And I don’t see why the city would go making decisions for a project that’s almost certainly not going to happen.”

— Duluth News Tribune