Bemidji cleaning up damage from

4th of July EF-1 tornado

BEMIDJI, Minn. (AP) — The northern Minnesota city of Bemidji is cleaning up the damage from a Fourth of July tornado.

The National Weather Service says the EF-1 tornado touched down just west of Bemidji State University just before 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. It packed winds of 100 mph and caused significant damage to buildings and trees along a path seven-tenths of a mile long and 200 yards wide during its minute on the ground.

Beltrami County Emergency Management Director Christopher Muller says nobody was injured, but the damage included a garage that was moved off its foundation.

Straight-line winds also damaged a wide area north and south of the path.

Muller says Bemidji barely got its power back on after last week’s severe weather before Wednesday’s storms hit. He says it’s “getting really old.”

Reward offered in slaying of

northern Minnesota man

HIBBING, Minn. (AP) — State authorities are offering a reward for information in the death of a northern Minnesota man killed in his home last year.

Sixty-year-old Brian Joseph Nelson was stabbed and found dead in his house behind The Bottle Shop liquor store last July in Hibbing. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Thursday it will pay $25,000 for information that moves the case forward.

Nelson was a longtime Hibbing resident and owned the liquor store. Authorities have made no arrests despite an extensive investigation.

Police believe Nelson was killed sometime between 10:30 p.m. July 8 and July 10.