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Friday, December 5, 2008

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STATE BRIEFS

Friends buy light tower next to Duluth lift bridge

Associated Press

DULUTH - Two friends have purchased the light tower next to Duluth's Aerial Lift Bridge for $31,000.

Steven Sola and Matt Kampf want to preserve the tower, but they aren't sure yet what else to do with it.

Sola says buying the light tower was something they just couldn't pass up. They made the winning bid for the tower on Monday.

The 67-foot-tall tower is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has a white, iron lantern room suported by steel framework and a central cylinder that has a cast-iron cylindrical staircase.

The federal government decided last year that it didn't need the light, which was first lit in 1901.

Grand Rapids man suspected in 17 burglaries

DULUTH - A Grand Rapids man is in custody and suspected of committing over 17 burglaries at various businesses in northern Minnesota over the past two years.

The Itasca County sheriff's office says the 24-year-old man is being held in St. Cloud prison on a previous burglary conviction pending formal charges in the latest cases.

Stolen items, including computers and money bags, were recovered when authorities executed a search warrant on the man's property.

The burglaries were reported in Itasca and Aitkin counties and the cities of Grand Rapids, McGregor and Cohasset.

Sun Country restores employee wages

ST. PAUL - Sun Country Airlines says it will restore employee wages that were deferred due to a cash flow problem this fall.

The airline says Thursday the wages will be restored to pre-bankruptcy levels immediately. An additional wage increase will occur on Jan. 1, to make up for voluntary paycuts taken in early 2008.

Sun Country CEO Stan Gadek says in a statement the restored wages are possible because a U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge approved financing for the airline on Wednesday.

Gadek says the line of credit means the airline can keep flying.

Sun Country Airlines announced in late September that employees would only receive 50 percent of their wages because of a cash flow problem. That amount was later changed to 70 percent.

Ritchie to ask Legislature to allow exit polling

MINNEAPOLIS - The Minnesota secretary of state plans to urge the Legislature to change a law that would have kept exit pollsters far away from polling places on Election Day.

A group of news organizations, including The Associated Press, sued the state in September to allow exit pollsters to get within 100 feet of buildings where polling places are located.


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