Amid concerns of potential tariffs on Mexican imports, U-S Senator Tina Smith says farmers are happy about the Trump Administration's approval to allow e-15 blended gas to be produced year round. But Smith says the issue of refinery waivers issued by the administration is still a problem. "That's actually taking a bigger bite out of market share than we are gaining back by year-round e-15. Waivers being given to refineries so that they don't have to blend. Nobody knows who's getting it or why they're getting it, and it's not helpful at all." Smith did say the move will have positive [...]

A Duluth man is charged with second-degree murder after authorities say he fatally stabbed his wife during an argument Sunday night after she told him she wanted a divorce. Investigators say 40-year-old Ryan Jazdzewski told them he got into a "horrible fight" with his 41-year-old wife Nicole at their Chester Park home, took a knife she grabbed for self-defense and stabbed her 10 to 12 times. Responding officers found the couple's seven-year-old daughter with blood all over her clothing, arms and legs. The other children were removed from the residence. Jazdzewski's arraignment is set for tomorrow (Wed).

Peak mosquito season hasn't really begun yet. We asked an expert just how bad it could be this summer.... "We've had plenty of moisture input so far this year, and mosquitoes like wet conditions overall, so there's been plenty of water for them. What we're waiting to see is just how warm of a summer we have the hotter it is the more mosquito production we'll have." The state Health Department's Dave Neitzel says the risk of mosquito-borne disease--such as West Nile--increases in late summer. And he's reminding Minnesotans that the peak season for tick-borne diseases is already underway.

Next Friday through Sunday (June 7,8,9) is "Take a Kid Fishing" Weekend and Minnesota residents can fish without a license if they take someone 15 or younger out angling.   The D-N-R's Jeff Ledermann says he started his kids fishing when they were two: "My younger one is now 22 and I'm going out with her on Friday -- so you build that interest at a young age and you'll have a partner to go fishing with for life." Ledermann says fishing connects people to wild places right outside their door.

"Pretty significant disappointment," says the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities about the legislature *not* passing a bonding bill for state public works projects during this year's session. Spokesman Bradley Peterson contends it's time for lawmakers to re-think the approach to bonding: "For years, since I think the '90s, we've been living under this notion that a bonding bill can't be bigger than a billion dollars -- and I think it's time that we move our thinking beyond that." In recent years the debate over bonding bills has been tangled up with attempts to provide more funding for roads and bridges.