A server is accused of altering tip amounts on credit card receipts at the Waseca restaurant where she worked. Kate Isabelle Moses, 18, of New Ulm, was charged last week with felony financial transaction card fraud in Waseca County Court. A criminal complaint says a manager from the Mellow Mushroom in Waseca contacted investigators in February to report that Moses had been altering credit card receipts.  The manager learned about the situation after receiving calls from two customers questioning discrepancies in their charges from the restaurant.  The manager then found 27 total tran ..read more

Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development Several businesses are the recipients of state grant funding to expand broadband to thousands of homes and businesses throughout the state. The $53 million in grants from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development’s Office of Broadband Development will fund 24 expansion projects statewide.  DEED will open another $50 million grant round later this month. Providers plan to use the grant funding to expand high-speed broadband in 25 counties. Border-to-Border grantees: Easton Telephone Company will receive $4 ..read more

Brown County Courthouse, LBG A New Ulm man was sentenced to 90 days in jail last week in Brown County Court for sexually assaulting a minor. Tanner Gene Johnson, 19, was convicted of 4th-degree criminal sexual conduct with a victim age 14 or 15 by a person in a position of authority. A charge of 3rd-degree criminal sexual conduct was dismissed. Johnson will serve his jail time in three staggered 30-day blocks, the first beginning on February 16.  His remaining jail time will be served in 2025 and 2026. Judge Robert Docherty also ordered that Johnson be placed on supervised probation moni ..read more

Minnesota State Patrol A New Ulm woman was hospitalized following a single-vehicle crash yesterday evening. The state patrol says Justine Anderson, 23, was northbound on Highway 22 near the airport when her Ford Escape left the roadway at 243rd St and struck a tree.  Anderson was transported to Mayo Clinic Mankato with non-life threatening injuries ..read more

Brown County Courthouse, LBG A pair of TikTokers were cited for allegedly exploring an iconic, abandoned New Ulm site. Ethan Daniel Clerc, 26, and Colin Grant Clerc, 24, both of Mankato, were charged Friday with misdemeanor trespassing in Brown County Court. The Clercs run TikTok and Facebook accounts named Yessir_Crew.  The TikTok account contains videos of the two men exploring various locations, including abandoned homes in Mankato and Faribault, and tunnels under the River Hills Mall. In a video since removed from the account, the Clercs allegedly explore the decrepit Geroge’s Ballro ..read more

Ambulance A New Ulm man was injured Tuesday when he lost control of his pickup between Lafayette and Winthrop. Thomas Gene Blickem, 67, was transported to New Ulm Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries following the 8:40 a.m. crash in Cornish Township, in Sibley County. The Minnesota State Patrol says Blickem was southbound on Highway 15 when he lost control of his Chevy Colorado, entered the ditch, and hit a power pole. The Sibley County Sheriff’s Office and the Lafayette Fire Department assisted at the scene.   ..read more

Gavel A New Ulm man is accused of propositioning someone he thought was a 13-year-old boy online, not realizing he was actually speaking to an investigator conducting an online sting. Roger Myron Yarger, 56, was charged Tuesday in Freeborn County Court with felony counts of engaging in electronic communication describing sexual conduct with a child and distributing material relating to sexual conduct with a child via electronic communication. A criminal complaint says Yarger created an ad on the dating and meetup website DoubleList.com requesting a “boy toy for older.” A Freeborn County Sheri ..read more

Jesse Hedlund, Minnesota Department of Corrections A New Ulm man who abused and sexually assaulted four children in his care was sentenced to prison last month. Jesse Craig Hedlund, 42, was sentenced to 275 months – nearly 23 years – in prison on November 29 in Brown County Court. In January, Hedlund and Alisha Miller, the children’s mother, were each charged with four felony counts of 3rd-degree assault.  The couple was accused of inflicting long and torturous punishments on Miller’s children, including forcing one of the children to keep soap in their mouth for 13 hours. In February, H ..read more

Nicollet Mayor Fred Froelich, Lt Gov Peggy Flanagan, Senator Amy Klobuchar, State Senator Nick Frentz, Rep Paul Torkelson, Rep Jeff Brand, Congressman Brad Finstad Highway 14 from New Ulm to Nicollet reopens to traffic today, making it a continuous four-lane highway all the way to Rochester, a project decades in the making. The 12.5-mile stretch of roadway has been closed since April 2022, with traffic detoured to Highway 68 and local roads. The Minnesota Department of Transportation held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday, which was attended by Governor Tim Walz and Senator Amy Klobuchar, alo ..read more

Ryan Busch, Go Fund Me The body of one of the New Ulm men who went missing while canoeing in Wisconsin has been found. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office says searchers recovered the body of 26-year-old Ryan Busch Wednesday evening. Busch and his friend Andy DeRock, 27, went missing on the Minong Flowage in Wascott after they went out on the canoe on October 28.  They were reported missing after family members found their capsized canoe early the next morning. The search efforts for DeRock are ongoing. The families of both men have started fundraising efforts as the recovery mission con ..read more