Palmer Lake veterans feel like MnDOT is treading on them.

For eight years, the Palmer Lake VFW flew the stars and stripes on the Highway 610 overpass in Brooklyn Park. But in April, MnDOT ordered that the flag, along with four others, come down.

The reason? MnDOT cited a state statute that makes it illegal to "paint, print, place or affix any advertisement or object within the limits of a highway." Palmer Lake veterans complied with the order, but they're not happy and are planning a let-us-fly-the-flag-once-again rally this Sunday.

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Tim Poe during his debut performance on America's Got Talent.

Tim Poe, the America's Got Talent singer whose battle injury claims were disputed by the Minnesota National Guard, was cut from the show last night.

Poe sang George Strait's "The Chair" at the Las Vegas finals before he was booted rather anticlimactically from the competition.

"I don't know that he holds up to other singers on this show at all," said judge Howie Mandel.

Howard Stern, another judge, waited to make his decision. "We have a lot of great singers that we saw," Stern said.

"Let's look at more and we'll make a decision," Mandel conceded.

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Baune becomes the 29th Minnesotan to die during Operation Enduring Freedom.

Three months after marrying his high school sweetheart, 21-year-old Taylor Baune is dead.

Baune, a Marine corporal, was killed in combat yesterday in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He was a 2009 graduate of Andover High School.

In March, shortly before shipping off to Afghanistan, Baune married his high school sweetheart, Colleen Crooker. Randy Crooker, Baune's father-in-law, told KARE 11 that Taylor was a "happy-go-lucky guy" who was always smiling and "always lit up the room when he came in."

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Tim Poe on America's Got Talent last week.

America's Got Talent singer Tim Poe is now claiming to be divorced from reality as an explanation for why he told a false story about being wounded in combat.

Last week, Poe told the TV show's judges that he was injured in a grenade blast while serving in Afghanistan, causing him to stutter. The next day, the Minnesota Army National Guard said that although Poe indeed served in the army, its records don't support his claim about his injury.

Poe was criticized by former fans on Facebook, his ex-wife, and a staff sergeant whose photo Poe used on America's Got Talent in place of his own.

On Friday, Poe, now a resident of Texas, sobbed through an interview with WFAA-TV in Dallas and apologized for embellishing -- but not lying about -- his story.

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Tim Poe is still singing the blues.

Tim Poe has been through hell this week ever since the Minnesota National Guard issued a statement Tuesday that the singer was not injured in a grenade blast in Afghanistan as Poe had claimed the day before on America's Got Talent.
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Tim Poe on America's Got Talent.

It looks like America's Got Talent favorite Tim Poe is a bit of a con artist.

According to a statement issued by the Minnesota National Guard yesterday, Poe was not injured by a grenade while serving in Afghanistan in 2009 as the singer claimed on the popular TV show Monday night.

Poe indeed served as a supply specialist in the Minnesota Army National Guard from December 2002 until May 2011. His military records also indicate that he served with the Minnesota National Guard in Kosovo from October 2007 until July 2008, and that he was deployed to Afghanistan from July to August 2009. But he wasn't wounded in combat.

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NORAD proposes reducing the Duluth base's on-call time because of Defense Department cuts.

​A proposed one percent reduction in the Defense Department's more than half-trillion-dollar budget could result in a mission reduction for Duluth's Air National Guard base.

The base is currently on call around-the-clock. Fighter jets are prepared to scramble and intercept any air threat, including hijacked planes. But, needing to trim their budget, the North American Aerospace Defense Command is proposing that the Duluth base scale back its on-call hours.

According to the Duluth News Tribune, the mission change would cost the Duluth unit 71 of the roughly 450 full-time jobs it now provides.

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