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A two-term Minnesota state senator facing a Republican primary challenger has confirmed reports that he had dinner with a gay adult film star. Sen. Paul Koering (KOHR'-ing) confirmed the meeting to the Brainerd Dispatch after several websites reported on it. The newspaper says Koering had dinner with Brandon Wilde at a Brainerd restaurant on Sunday. Wilde is described as a gay porn star in his Twitter profile and posted messages about the date on Twitter. Wilde did not immediately respond to a message sent through his Facebook account. Koering represents a conservative north-central Minnesota district that includes the cities of...

The retrial of Bill Cosby got off to a wild start this morning when a topless woman who once acted on "The Cosby Show" allegedly charged at the comedian as he arrived at a Pennsylvania court. The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office identified the suspect as Nicolle Rochelle, 39, of Little Falls, New Jersey. As a young girl, Rochelle appeared in four episodes of "The Cosby Show" between 1990 and 1992, playing a character named Danielle. She was charged with disorderly conduct, which the district attorney's office defined as "the intent to cause a public inconvenience annoyance or alarm or...

LITTLE FALLS, Minn. (AP/WCCO) — The Little Falls, Minn. man who shot and killed two teenagers after they broke into his home has been found guilty of all four counts of premeditated murder. After roughly three hours of deliberation, the jury found 65-year-old Byron Smith guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder for the shooting deaths of 18-year-old Haile Kifer and 17-year-old Nick Brady.

LITTLE FALLS, Minn. — A Minnesota man who killed two teenagers who broke into his home can be heard on an audio recording talking to himself for hours after the shooting and at one point, apparently describing the slain teens as "vermin." Byron Smith, of Little Falls, faces first-degree premeditated murder charges in the deaths of 18-year-old Haile Kifer and 17-year-old Nick Brady on Thanksgiving Day in 2012. Smith, 65, claimed he was defending himself and feared for his life after several break-ins at his home. Prosecutors, though, say Smith planned the killings. They say he sat in a chair...

The trial of a Little Falls man accused of fatally shooting two teenagers who broke into his house gets underway with jury selection today. 65-year-old Byron Smith faces two counts of first degree murder in the deaths of Haile Kifer and Nicholas Brady. Smith is accused of killing the unarmed cousins after they broke into his house north of Little Falls on Thanksgiving Day 2012. http://www.wjon.com/tags/byron/smith/ html://www.wjon.com/tags/byron-smith/

<p>MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Local officials knew the grisly killings of two teenagers who broke into a man's home on Thanksgiving Day would stir up strong emotions in their small central Minnesota town.</p> <p>Some believed the homeowner went too far by repeatedly shooting the unarmed teens, including one victim as she gasped for breath. But others said 64-year-old Byron Smith was within his rights to protect his remote Little Falls home.</p>

LITTLE FALLS, MINN. - Insisting the case crosses the line from self-defense to a cold-blooded double execution, Morrison County authorities filed second-degree murder charges Monday against a 64-year-old man who killed two teenage cousins after they'd broken into his home on Thanksgiving. This woodsy central Minnesota town of 8,000 was jolted as the gruesome details spilled out in a criminal complaint, alleging Byron David Smith put a handgun under the chin of wounded and gasping 18-year-old Haile Kifer for what he told police was a "good clean finishing shot." Smith, who according to a friend and a relative had endured...

A man who killed two teenagers in his home in Little Falls on Thanksgiving Day told investigators he shot and wounded the two at close range before "finishing" them with shots to the head. Byron David Smith, 64, was charged Monday, Nov. 26, in Morrison County District Court with two counts of second-degree murder without premeditation in the deaths of Nicholas Brady, 17, and his cousin Haile Kifer, 18. Smith claims Brady and Kifer broke into his home and he was "fearful" they had weapons, according to the criminal complaint.

On the outskirts of Little Falls, Minn., Crystal Shaeffel walked down the long driveway on Sunday, past the "keep out" sign, to see the house where her teenage brother and her cousin were shot to death on Thanksgiving Day. She was met in the driveway by the brother of Byron David Smith, the man who is in the Morrison County Jail on suspicion of second-degree murder after telling deputies he shot the pair when they broke into his house, where he lived alone. He is to make his first court appearance on Monday. The bodies of Nicholas Brady, 17, and...

A hostage situation ended with shots fired and a man wounded inside the Morrison County Government Center in Little Falls Tuesday morning. The Star Tribune reports on its website that the mayor of Little Falls says the hostage taker was killed. County authorities would not confirm that. In a news release at 12:30 Tuesday afternoon, Morrison County authorities did confirm they shot and wounded the hostage taker. They say he was taken to St. Gabriel's Hospital. But the hospital will not confirm anyone was taken there. KARE 11 News reporters at the scene say squad cars from Little Falls police...

Chief's headstone destroyed to disprove legend June 16 LITTLE FALLS, Minn. - There's a legend here that if anyone disturbs the nearly 160-year-old grave of an Ojibwe chief, Mother Nature will bring down a natural disaster on the town. Now the headstone of Chief Hole-in-the-Day I has been destroyed, but this central Minnesota town is still standing. The law, however, had landed on three men in their 20s who allegedly desecrated the burial site. "These knuckleheads were trying to disprove that theory and see if Little Falls would be destroyed by a tornado if they destroyed his grave," Morrison County...

AP) Little Falls, Minn. It has been reported many times that the residents of Little Falls were so angry with hometown hero Charles Lindbergh's comments that the U.S. should stay out of World War II that they painted over his name on the water tower. The story was part of a PBS documentary about the famous pilot. It was reported in a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography released in 1999. However, many experts doubt it happened. "I've heard the stories but I've never seen the documentation myself," said Marlene White, president of the Anoka-based Lindbergh Foundation. There are some newspaper articles from...

LA CROSSE, Wis. -- Friends and relatives have said their final goodbyes to Wisconsin high school senior Seth Hammes. Hammes, 17, was out using his camcorder as he explored the woods near Little Falls, Wis., last Saturday when the camera ended up recording his own fatal shooting. After searchers found his body that night, investigators ran the videotape, which had captured the crack of gunshots, the teen's screams and the voice of the shooter, promising help that never came. Police said the camcorder was the key to catching the man now charged with reckless homicide, 24-year-old Russell Schroeder. He told...

On Nov. 18 the Little Falls Police Department responded to a call that a large SpongeBob was missing from the top of the Burger King Restaurant. In place of SpongeBob was a ransom note stating in part, “We have SpongeBob. Give us 10 crabby patties, fries and milk shakes,” signed Plankton. The note also warned “Patrick is next.” According to members of the Little Falls Police Department, “Plankton always wants the recipe for crabby patties and he is unable to attain it. Patrick is SpongeBob’s sidekick.” The investigation continues. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Burger King’s SpongeBob is...

Knights keep Pledge with flag   Thursday, November 18, 2004 LITTLE FALLS - A new flag is flying on one of the municipal building's three flagpoles these days.With little fanfare, the Township Committee declared its support for the phrase "one nation under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance by agreeing to fly a pennant emblazoned with the words below the building's American flag. The municipality also flies a New Jersey state flag and a black MIA/POW flag outside the building."This is not about religion," said Mike Vaclavicek, a member of the Little Falls Knights of Columbus, the group that donated...