KTOE Noon News 7-1-25

Top Stories for Noon 7-1-25: 

• Join the North Mankato Activities & Business Association for the 2025 Fun Days celebration from July 9th – 13th! Tickets and wristbands are available for purchase at City Hall through Wednesday, July 9th. Enjoy carnival rides & games, the North Mankato Fire Department’s beer garden, live music, BINGO, food & drink, kiddie parade, a roll-in car show, and more! Learn more about Fun Days on their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/NMFunDays or their website: www.northmankatoactivities.com

• Detour for Highway 22 resurfacing project between St. Peter and Highway 111 begins July 14

• Several new laws go into effect today (TUES) as the state’s new fiscal year begins. This comes after lawmakers agreed on a sixty-six billion dollar budget for the next two years. Some of the new laws include necessary boating permits for those twenty-one and younger wanting to drive a motorboat, increased oversight of public programs to prevent fraud, an increase from ten to fifteen percent for gross receipts tax on cannabis sales, lane splitting and filtering for motorcycles, free water for ticketed events of one hundred people or more, and much more.
• A Rochester man accused of firing at a vehicle during a botched drug deal is pleading not guilty. Katavion Leggins was arrested on June 17th. He was on probation when the incident took place. The defendant has been charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, reckless discharge of a firearm, and possession of a firearm as a felon. Leggins is scheduled to face trial on April 28th.
• Minnesota legislators are setting aside 325 thousand dollars to send a statue of Hubert H. Humphrey to the nation’s capital. The sculpture is expected to be erected in the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Lawmakers passed a bill earlier this month that would allow the Humphrey statue to replace the existing statue of Henry Mower Rice. The sculpture depicts the image of Humphrey, who served as mayor of Minneapolis in the 1940s and was vice president to Lyndon Johnson. He was also a U.S. senator for more than two decades.
• Anoka County authorities say human remains discovered over the weekend have been identified as 16-year-old Manny Collins, Jr. Collins was last seen on May 8th in Columbia Heights. Deputies say Collins’ body was found in the Waste Management Landfill in Elk River, and they are still searching there for additional evidence. The Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office did an autopsy, and the results are still pending. Investigators say every available resource is being directed toward the arrest of the suspect in Manny’s death. They have identified a person of interest in the case but have not publicly named them.
• Richfield police are investigating the death of a woman after she was found in her Richfield apartment during a welfare check last month. Officers responded to the request around 9 a.m. on June 17th. The woman’s parents stated that their twenty-two-year-old daughter, Kayli Arseth, hadn’t shown up for work and hadn’t been contacted. Police say she was found shot dead in her apartment, with signs of a struggle. No arrests have been made.
• Signs are now up along Highway 169 in northeastern Minnesota recognizing the ” Senator David J. Tomassoni (tom-uh-SOH’-nee) Memorial Cross Range Expressway.” MnDOT crews installed the new signs between Itasca County Road 69 in Marble and St. Louis County Road 7 in Mountain Iron. State lawmakers passed a bill last year renaming it in honor of the late Senator Tomassoni from Chisholm. He pushed for state funding to complete the four-lane stretch of highway on the Iron Range. Tommasoni died of A-L-S in August 2022.
• A child on a bike was injured after being struck by a car on a Fergus Falls street. Police and emergency personnel responded to the scene Sunday afternoon around 2:30. The child’s legs were pinned under the car until firefighters lifted the car, and the child was transported to Lake Region Healthcare for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. Police say that no charges are being filed against the woman driving the car.