State employees delay potential strike date two weeks

ST. PAUL (AP) -- Minnesota state employees are postponing a threatened strike for two weeks in response to the terrorist attacks on the East Coast.

Union leaders representing 60 percent of state workers met with officials Wednesday morning and decided to delay the earliest strike date from Monday to October 1.

Hutchinson council rejects restaurant smoking ban

HUTCHINSON (AP) -- Hutchinson will not have a smoking ban in bars and restaurants, at least for a while.

The city council rejected a resolution Tuesday calling for the ban.

However, some council members said the "no" vote was not necessarily a vote against the ban. Some felt the ordinance wasn't fair to either supporters or opponents.

Suspects in beating of elderly couple to face federal charges

ST. PAUL (AP) -- Local prosecutors will have to wait to get their hands on the two men charged in the beating of a New Brighton couple in their home.

Federal prosecutors in Wyoming informed Ramsey County authorities that they intend to prosecute the men first, said Peter Lindstrom, a county attorney's office spokesman.

Patrick Engelbrecht, 18, and Thomas O'Flanagan, 19, both of Superior, Wis., are charged with burglarizing park property in Yellowstone, where they were arraigned Monday. They were ordered held for three days pending a detention hearing.