Trending
Fareway bans tobacco use by employees
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- A major Iowa grocery retailer has announced it will no longer allow its employees to use tobacco products on company property, including stores in Nebraska.
Des Moines television station KCCI reports that Fareway Food Stores implemented the policy, effective Monday. Under the new policy, smoking and the use of any other tobacco or tobacco-like products such as electronic cigarettes and chewing tobacco is banned on all company property.
Store officials say employees will only be allowed to use FDA-approved nicotine products aimed to help smokers quit.
Caitlyn Ferin, a member of Fareway's Corporate Wellness Team, says it's important to the company to "create a healthy work environment for our employees."
Fareway operates more than 100 stores in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Illinois and Minnesota.
Man pleads guilty to killing mechanic
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- A 32-year-old man who shot and filled a mechanic who was working on a food truck in north Minneapolis has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
The Hennepin County attorney's office says the plea deal calls for Henry Cousins, of Minneapolis, to serve 21 years in prison for the Nov. 6 killing of 26-year-old David Ryman, of Mounds View.
Cousins said during his plea hearing that he considered Ryman as family and the two had shared living arrangement sin the past. But Cousins said he was angry with Ryman for not finishing work on three different cars after paying the mechanic $700.
Cousins added that he didn't mean to kill Ryman, only to hit him in the head with the gun.
Sentencing is set for Feb. 13.
Crews harvest ice for winter carnival
SPICER, Minn. (AP) -- Crews are busy making thousands of big ice blocks at a lake in central Minnesota that will be used to build the ice palace at a winter carnival later this month.
Workers need about 3,700 blocks to build the 70-foot-tall palace for the St. Paul Winter Carnival, which begins Jan. 25, Minnesota Public Radio reported . Each block weighs nearly 600 pounds.
Green Lake, located near Spicer, is known for creating thick, clear ice, said Mike Gutknecht of Park Construction of Minneapolis, which is the general contractor for the project.
“When we go back to St. Paul and shine the lights through it, you can get all the visual effects,” Gutknecht said.