Duluth airport bars Pence

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Duluth airport officials prohibited Donald Trump’s campaign from holding a rally there with Vice President Mike Pence last month after the president flouted state coronavirus guidelines at the airport three weeks earlier.

The Duluth Airport Authority’s executive director, Tom Werner, told his board in an email Oct. 22, that he had rejected a Pence rally application for Oct. 26, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported Thursday.

“The Trump Campaign is in breach of their previous agreement with the DAA on a couple of significant items,” Werner wrote. “Therefore, I will not allow the event to take place at our airports.”

Pence instead rallied at Hibbing’s airport, where about 650 people heard him speak eight days before Election Day despite Minnesota’s 250-person cap on events.

Trump tested positive for COVID-19 two days after his Sept. 30 rally in Duluth, which officials estimated 2,500 to 3,000 people attended. The campaign had agreed in its contract to obey the capacity rules.

Emails and other documents obtained by the newspaper through a public records request show that local officials worried Trump’s rally would violate the rules but felt they could do little to hold the campaign to its word.

The state traced four coronavirus cases to Trump’s rally in Duluth and 16 cases to a Sept. 18 Trump event in Bemidji. Another four cases were traced to counterprotests in Bemidji.

Officers search for man who punched officer

COLLEGEVILLE (AP) — Law enforcement officials are asking people who live near St. John’s University in Stearns County to lock their doors and windows Thursday as they search for a man who assaulted a state trooper and may possibly be armed.

The university was also locked down while the manhunt continued near St. Joseph, according to the Minnesota State Patrol. Stearns County sheriff’s deputies are also involved in the search.

According to the State Patrol, a trooper stopped a man suspected of driving drunk. After a preliminary breath test, the man punched the trooper and fled on Interstate 94.

An officer involved in the pursuit saw the suspect reach his arm out of his vehicle while holding something black in his hand, possibly a firearm, the patrol said.

Spike strips were used to stop the vehicle and the suspect fled on foot in the area of the university. Law enforcement officials are using drones and search dogs as they try to track down the man.