A 41-year-old Mankato man is charged with possession of child pornography after Mankato Police detectives turned a cybertip from cloud storage provider Dropbox over to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in December. The Dropbox username "RSS Jones" was tracked by special agents to Resty Senecal and the company identified 182 files uploaded to his account that contained child pornography. Court records show Senecal is a registered sex offender and was convicted of possession of child pornography in Roanoke County, Virginia, in June 2015. The BCA was granted a search warrant for his home in Mankato but could not be served [...]

A Mankato man is charged with malicious punishment of a child and two counts of domestic assault after the 36-year-old was accused of beating a 13-year-old unconscious in December and spitting a mouthful of chewed chips on her while she was lying on the floor. A school social worker reported receiving an email from the student, saying that her father Bradley Suess dragged her off the bed and punched and kicked her several times. The message also said that Suess spat in her face and called her a, "Waste of oxygen." The victim said she was unconscious for about 30 seconds. [...]

The Minnesota Attorney General's office will review the case of a woman accused of killing her husband in southern Minnesota, then fleeing to Florida and killing a woman there. Lois Riess has not been charged in the fatal shooting of her husband, 54-year-old David Riess, at the couple's home in Blooming Prairie last March. Dodge County Sheriff Scott Rose says his investigators were at a "standstill" waiting for a handgun recovered from Lois Riess' hotel room after her arrest in Texas to be released by Florida authorities for ballistic testing in Minnesota. Rose says testing by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal [...]

The Mankato Makerspace is celebrating its first birthday with a party Friday night. Rick Esser says there will be three bands and a chili cook-off. The Makerspace has nine different shops to get you started on your project. The party goes from 6-11 Friday, February 22.

The next time you think about complaining about the snow on the roads, remember the snow plow drivers are human. . Jed Falgren of MnDOT says some employees have worked every day this month. Falgren also reminds drivers to give the plows plenty of room to avoid crashes and low visibility due to snow clouds.

The downtown Mankato Silo Art Project is nearing its fundraising goal. Noelle Lawton says with nearly 75 percent of the funds raised, this project is going to be a big part of the community. She is hoping the project will be completed in the fall of this year.

The Mankato Ballet Company is presenting a Midsummer's Night Dream. It will take place on March 2 at Bethany at 1 and 5 and March 3 at the State Street Theater in New Ulm at 2. Kelsey Chester says the performance brings something for everyone. This is one of three full-length productions the ballet presents each year.

A North Mankato State Senator said the snowy month of February has provided a good example of the need to raise the gas tax in order to fix Minnesota's crumbling roads and bridges. North Mankato State Senator Nick Frentz. Senator Nick Frentz fielded a call this week from a Minnesota Department of Transportation official who said, "Look, the roads are so bad where we're plowing that we're damaging the plows. You've got to get money for roads, you've got to increase the gas tax." In his recent budget proposal, Governor Tim Walz included a potential 20-cent per gallon increase [...]

A new report said black workers in Minnesota and across the U.S. would see the biggest boost if Congress raises the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. The Raise the Wage Act of 2019 would increase wages for 38 percent of all black workers, and for 23 percent of whites, according to the Economic Policy Institute report. The measure, introduced last month in Congress, would increase the federal minimum wage in six steps to $15 per hour by 2024. Wade Luneburg with the hospitality union Unite Here said Minnesotans who work full time, regardless of race, shouldn't have to live [...]

For decades, cash-poor American college students have joked about their "ramen noodles diet" but now more than ever, students say they have to choose between buying food and paying tuition. A first-of-its-kind federal government report found nearly two million college students are hungry., yet nearly 60-percent of low-income college students who may be eligible for food assistance did not report participating in a program in 2016. Frankie Becerra is president of the student advocacy group Lead M-N at Century College in White Bear Lake. He works full-time to pay for a college education he feels will help him climb the economic [...]