Fired for insult; autism service dog; chicken lawsuit

AFFTON, Mo. — Drivers pulled over by police in the Affton area of St. Louis County for a minor traffic violation recently got a surprise: No ticket, but a suggestion to instead donate money to a food pantry or some other worthy cause.

The "pantry ticket" or "courtesy card" are issued only to drivers who would just get a warning anyway, and Chief Jon Belmar said he wants to spread the initiative countywide to help improve relations between residents and police, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Last year's fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a now-former Ferguson police officer brought attention to the tension between law enforcement and the public. A Justice Department report criticized many St. Louis County municipalities whose finances depended heavily upon their officers to produce traffic fine revenue. County police have been critical of that practice, and Belmar said he sees the food pantry warning cards as a way to underscore that.

"There has been an inordinate amount of attention being paid to traffic tickets being issued for the wrong reasons," Belmar said. "This is a nice community engagement piece and I want to move on this with all due haste."

County police Capt. Christopher Stocker addressed the same in a note explaining the concept to officers under his command. For some, traffic enforcement evokes images of "bias-based policing, speed traps, quotas, all for the purpose of revenue generation."

"For me, the same term means safe roads, engaged and responsive policing and a proactive police department that professionally and fairly enforces the rules of the road," he wrote.

Stocker said he isn't aware of other departments asking minor violators to donate to causes, but said some out-of-state agencies have used warning programs asking motorists to donate holiday toys.

Police Officer Paul Gordon pulled over Toni Albrecht for rolling through a stop sign. A license check found that she didn't have any arrest warrants nor history of traffic violations. So Gordon issued her the pantry ticket, which had the addresses of two food pantries.

"I think it's a good way to pay it forward," Albrecht said.

Gordon said most motorists have reacted positively in receiving the pantry card and noted the card can brighten what starts as a negative encounter.

OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska woman's six backyard chickens have ruffled her neighbors, who want a judge to force her to immediately get rid of the birds.

Stacy Williams has chicken coops, a compost pile and a fruit and vegetable garden in her backyard, the Omaha World-Herald reported. Her Trendwood neighbors Bradley A. and Lynn M. Perry, have filed a lawsuit over them because they're concerned about property values, according to the plaintiffs' attorney.

The lawsuit states that Williams "has removed virtually all of the lawn in her backyard and is endeavoring to establish something akin to a small urban truck garden and compost production area." It contends that the backyard activity is "an annoyance and nuisance to the neighborhood."

Williams said she has offered to install a fence to assuage the Perrys, but to no avail.

"I'm not a bad neighbor," Williams said. "I'm quiet. I'm respectful. I've tried to work with them."

Russ Miller, the president of the neighborhood association that serves the Trendwood, Montclair, Georgetowne and Parkside neighborhoods, routinely checks out problem properties and said that Williams' yard isn't one of them.

"It's a well-kept property," he said. "I could show you 25 places that are in worse shape. To me, it's just not a questionable piece of property at all."

The Trendwood neighborhood has covenants that bar homeowners from raising livestock and poultry. But in 1969, Trendwood was annexed by Omaha, which has a city ordinance that allows backyard chickens so long as the prospective chicken owner gets a county permit and maintains the birds.

The lawsuit raises the question of whether city ordinance or Trendwood's decades-old covenant over the chickens rule. A hearing has been set for mid-August.

Williams got her permit last year, and she said she'll fight for the birds, largely because her 17-year-old son loves them. Her son took the birds as a literal pet project last year at the urging of a therapist to help him deal with depression and anxiety.

Williams said she plans to appear in court without a lawyer to fight the suit.

"I don't have any extra money to hire an attorney to defend a couple of chickens and some tomatoes," she said. "I don't know what I'm going to do. It's kind of a rotten situation."

FARGO, N.D. — The owner of a North Dakota vegetable processing plant who was convicted of recruiting and hiring illegal workers must serve time in custody despite a joint sentencing recommendation calling for no prison time, a judge said Monday.

Monte Benz pleaded guilty in April to one count of harboring illegal workers who were employed at his KIDCO Farms plant near Dawson. Authorities said there were about two-dozen illegal workers who were recruited from Arizona in 2013.

The negotiated agreement between Benz and the government called for him to serve six months of home confinement, a deal that U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson criticized as a "huge home-field advantage" that should not be allowed in the federal system. Erickson cited a recent similar case in which he sentenced a Texas man to six months in prison.

"The question is, what makes this case different, other than the guy happens to be from North Dakota?" Erickson asked. "It's hard for me to look at the joint recommendation and see no prison time."

Erickson sentenced Benz to three months in prison and three months of electronic home monitoring.

Investigators said that Benz and a second defendant, Richard Shearer, found housing in Dawson and Steele for the workers, who were transported to and from the plant in a van and occasionally driven to nearby Bismarck to buy groceries and incidentals. When a local bank started asking about the workers' identities, the defendants set up a separate entity as a way to pay them, prosecutors said.

Erickson called it a "serious human trafficking crime" that resulted in mostly homeless people being transported across state lines and forced to live in "vile and inhumane" conditions.

Benz's attorney, Shannon Gregor, argued that her client had limited "level of involvement and knowledge" in the scheme. She said Benz's company is important to the area economy and he has support from a "wide variety of people," including about 30 of whom showed up at Monday's hearing.

"I'm not saying that he shouldn't have looked further into it," Gregor said. "That is why he pleaded guilty."

Benz has agreed to pay back $100,000 in illegal proceeds. A couple of the illegal workers have filed claims for a total of about $25,000, but the two sides have not come to an agreement about any restitution.

Shearer was sentenced to 30 days in prison and ordered to forfeit $20,000. The joint sentencing recommendation in that case called for three years of probation, with a condition of three months' detention served in Shearer's home in Moses Lake, Washington.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hundreds of public entities are seeking a share of the state's $11.5 million settlement with two rock salt producers that were accused of colluding to drive up prices.

The state alleged that Morton Salt Inc. and Cargill Inc. agreed not to compete with each other to inflate prices, leading to state and local governments paying above-market prices for rock salt to de-ice roads, highways and bridges.

Entities like cities and universities that bought salt from Morton and Cargill between July 2008 and July 2011 could be eligible for a share of the settlement announced in June to end the state's lawsuit. The Ohio Attorney General's Office had received more than 670 claims by midday Monday and more were expected before the deadline Friday.

Some, such as Kinsman Township in Trumbull County, reported only a few thousand dollars in applicable salt purchases in each of those years, while others tallied in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to claim records from the office. City officials in Cincinnati and Cleveland said they spent millions.

The attorney general's office will determine how much each eligible claimant gets. The largest buyers would get more of the settlement, spokesman Dan Tierney said. The office also plans to establish a minimum payment to ensure that even the smallest payouts are substantive and worth the effort of processing the claim.

"What we don't want to have happen here is where somebody's proportional payment is only going to be a few dollars," Tierney said.

He said the office's goal is to validate claims and send settlement checks by fall, before the first snowflakes hit the roads.

Minnesota-based Cargill will pay $7.7 million of the settlement, and Chicago-based Morton agreed to pay nearly $3.8 million. Both companies denied wrongdoing.

MONROE, Neb. — A Platte County couple is determined to help their ailing infant daughter live life to the fullest in the little time she may have left.

Paige Wiese, 25, and her husband, Shawn Wiese, 28, say the bucket list they've created for 15-month-old Alexus is all about being together as a family. The Monroe couple also have a son, Weston.

Alexus was diagnosed with a rare disease called cystic encephalomalacia shortly after her birth in April 2014, the Columbus Telegram reported. It is caused by pockets of fluid and cysts that grow throughout the brain, causing the brain to stop growing. The earlier it can be diagnosed usually means the shorter the life span of the afflicted child, doctors have said.

"We don't know how long she has, but if it's only a month, at least we know we tried to do as many things as we could with her," Paige Wiese said.

The Wieses lost a 14-month-old daughter, Joselyn, to the disease in 2011, but doctors told them it is not genetic. Their son, Weston, has not been diagnosed with it.

Her mother said she handled Joselyn very fragilely, not ever wanting to leave the house or have people visit. She said she noticed she was treating Alexus the same way, but began to wonder: "Why not let her live?"

The bucket list was started.

Two weeks ago, they returned from Adventureland in Iowa — their first family vacation. It was followed by a private meeting with Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts. Among the items still on the list: a trip to Disneyland and a tour of Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.

"She deserves the world, and we're going to make it happen," Paige Wiese said of Alexus.

DU QUOIN, Ill. — Some small southern Illinois cities are among dozens across the state that are allowing golf carts on roadways when deemed safe.

The latest is the city of Benton, where the City Council will consider a proposal to allow golf carts on city roads at its Aug. 10 meeting, The (Carbondale) Southern Illinoisan reported. Others in the region include Pinckneyville, Goreville, Sesser, Breese, West Frankfort, Eldorado, Galatia, Golconda, Goreville and Du Quoin.

"A few years ago, we had a BMW, and now look at us," said Brenda Toney of Du Quoin about her golf cart, which has been allowed on the city's streets for several years.

The idea started in retirement golf communities. It's been legal in Illinois since 1998 when the General Assembly voted to let municipalities open streets to golf carts with a vote of the local city council. State law limits their use to streets with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less.

Du Quoin Mayor Guy Alongi is among the nearly 90 city residents to pay a $35 city registration fee for operating the carts. Required safety features include turn signals, seat belts and a "slow-moving vehicle" warning sign visible in the rear.

Benton Mayor Fred Kondritz said residents have asked him in recent months about allowing golf carts.

"It's not just for the elderly who jump in and want to go to Hardee's, but for leisure drivers, too," he said.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The National Park Service has shelved a blistering internal report that details a "decade of dysfunction" as the agency allowed dozens of illegal construction projects to cause significant damage to an ancient Iowa burial ground that Indian tribes consider sacred.

Titled "Serious Mismanagement Report," the document blasts the park service's failed stewardship of the Effigy Mounds National Monument from 1999 to 2010 and says the case should serve as a wakeup call for agency employees at all levels to avoid similar violations.

Last week, NPS deputy regional director Patricia Trap told a resident who requested a copy of the 15-page report that it didn't exist. She later told The Associated Press that it did exist but hadn't been "agency approved." She said the document will contribute to — but be replaced by — another review that is looking at the root causes of problems as well as what went right during that time.

Critics say the agency is trying to suppress the harsh report to soften its findings.

"They're trying to avoid accountability, which goes all the way to the director. That's why this report 'doesn't exist'," said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which helped uncover the damaging projects. "Apparently, the park service doesn't want a wakeup call."

The monument, in northeast Iowa along the Mississippi River, includes more than 200 ceremonial and burial mounds that are considered sacred to the descendants of the builders, who are affiliated with numerous tribes.

The report says 78 construction projects costing a total of $3.4 million were approved there in violation of federal laws meant to protect archaeological resources and historic sites. The construction of boardwalks, bridges, roads and a shed damaged land around the mounds, and many had a "complete lack of compliance" as employees failed to conduct the mandatory environmental reviews and tribal consultation.

The report was written by a four-person review team led by National Park Service special agent David Barland-Liles, who conducted a lengthy criminal investigation into the violations. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Cedar Rapids declined to charge then-superintendent Phyllis Ewing and monument maintenance chief Tom Sinclair with violating the Archaeological Resources Protection Act in 2012 after concluding the agency's "weak and inappropriate initial response" undermined a criminal case and would make them sympathetic defendants, the report reveals.

NPS officials at the Midwest Regional Office in Omaha ignored employees who repeatedly went to them with evidence of mismanagement and failed to take action despite numerous other warning signs, the report says. Monument officials routinely misinformed regional administrators, who didn't follow up even when told of compliance problems.

"When oversight was finally provided, a decade of dysfunction was uncovered," the report says.

Ewing remained "willfully blind" to the laws in question and ignored and retaliated against monument employees who raised concerns, hurting the lives and careers of two valuable workers who left, the report said. Sinclair had an "inherent conflict of interest" because he was in charge of both completing projects and reviewing compliance.

"(Both) had an inexcusable lack of understanding of the fundamental importance of the archaeological resource they were assigned to protect, along with its complexity, pervasiveness, landscape qualities and history, which enabled them to discount concerns and justify gross physical and ethical violations of a site held sacred by many," the report says.

Ewing was transferred in 2010 after the agency learned of problems, then fired last year before the release of Barland-Liles' 700-page criminal investigation report. She is suing the agency for wrongful termination, claiming she was made a scapegoat.

The "Serious Mismanagement Report," dated April 2014, recently became public when an employee provided a copy to Timothy Mason, an activist with Friends of Effigy Mounds.

Mason asked Trap, the regional NPS official, for a copy last week. She responded, "Simply put, there is no such agency report."

Trap defended that denial to the AP, saying it isn't an "agency report" because administrators didn't approve the document. She said the agency instead has asked other employees from outside the region to conduct a separate review of the lessons learned at Effigy Mounds. She said that report will be completed and released this year.

She said the "Serious Mismanagement Report" was well-intentioned but team members were too close to the investigation and represented a narrow viewpoint. She said she took issue with the title.

"I'm not denying some serious mismanagement," she said. "But also there were actions taken along the way that were actually appropriate management."

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Online donations are pouring in for two brothers from Kalamazoo who were paralyzed in accidents eight months apart.

As of Monday afternoon, an account on the crowdfunding website GoFundMe had raised over $52,500 to help pay for expenses for Adam and Matt Chaffee. More than 700 people have donated money, with help coming from as far England and Scotland.

"It's definitely helping us be more positive about the situation," Matt Chaffee said of the outpouring of donations and support. "Because of this, Adam and I are probably going to be able to stay together and be independent."

Eight months ago, Matt Chaffee was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident, and his brother cared for him. Adam Chaffee, a senior at Western Michigan University, injured his spinal cord in a swimming accident late last month. He's in stable condition at Bronson Methodist Hospital, but is currently considered a tetraplegic, meaning he has completely lost the use of his limbs and torso.

After Matt Chaffee's accident left him a paraplegic, he moved into his brother's Kalamazoo apartment so he could receive help with everyday tasks. Both he and Adam hope to stay together and continue living independently.

"Because of this we think it's a real possibility," Matt Chaffee said. "It's definitely relieving a lot of financial worries. There's so many costs" with adaptive equipment and visits to doctors and specialists.

The brothers plan to use the donations to purchase a mobility van, which isn't covered by insurance, and voice recognition software, among other medical expenses.

Adam Chafee has begun to feel sensation on the top of his hand and nerve pain, which could be a sign of sensation below his collarbone returning, Matt Chafee said.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Relatives of a central Ohio woman who died after being sent home from a hospital while having a heart attack have reached a $275,000 settlement with the facility.

Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center doesn't admit any liability in the settlement approved last week by an Ohio Court of Claims judge.

The family's attorneys said in court documents that Ella Whitehead complained of chest pain in April 2012 but was sent home by doctors while they awaited test results to confirm whether she was suffering a heart attack. The 65-year-old Whitehead died the next day.

Her family's attorneys alleged negligence and argued the doctors didn't follow standards of care.

A message seeking comment was left Monday for the medical center.

ST. LOUIS — A man sitting atop a St. Louis billboard has come down, even though the city never made it a full week without a homicide.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 50-year-old Daniel "Boone" Fuller vowed last month that he would stay on the billboard until St. Louis went a week without a killing.

He ended the vigil Sunday even though that full week never quite happened. The city was a few hours from a murder-free week Sunday morning, when two killings occurred.

Fuller says he made his point and isn't going to quibble over a few hours.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A wandering turkey is in custody after causing a stir at the University of Michigan.

The bird attracted the attention of university students and staff as it roamed wooded areas, chased passers-by and got in the way of bus traffic. It also showed up on social media in people's selfies.

The Ann Arbor News reports the bird was captured Sunday and relocated to an animal rescue facility in southern Michigan. University police spokeswoman Diane Brown says a cage was put out to help capture the bird.

Brown says officials are "thankful the turkey and other people didn't get hurt."

Police say they started getting calls about the bird in late June and described it as aggressive. A second turkey on North Campus was fatally struck by a car.

By TAY FLORES

Journal & Courier

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Animal lover and trainer Julie Shaw wants you to meet Charlie, a 10-week-old Australian Labradoodle bred for calmness — not because he's so cute and cuddly, which is a bonus, but because it will help raise awareness about autism.

Shaw, director and owner of Lafayette-based Stepping Stone Animal Training and Behavior Modification, is training Charlie to be a service dog for Isaac Schultz, a 7-year-old Richmond boy on the autism spectrum.

"We need these kids in our communities because they see the world differently and they are going to help us make the world better," she said. "But if we don't help them when they're children, how are they going to get there?"

The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder has risen over time. For instance, in 2000 the prevalence rate was 6.7 per 1,000 children or 1 in 150 and by 2010 it was 14.7 per 1,000 children or 1 in 68, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But why does Shaw want you to meet Charlie?

Interacting with the public will help socialize Charlie and expose him to the many people and places he might encounter as a service dog. Shaw plans to have Charlie out and about all over Greater Lafayette at parks, schools, and inside businesses — all places he'll be trained to go with Isaac.

Service dogs are trained to do work or perform tasks for the disabled, such as guiding the blind, alerting the deaf or calming a person who has post-traumatic stress disorder. There are no certification or registration requirements, however, specified by the American with Disabilities Act.

The animals are typically trained by state contractors or private companies, such as Paws with a Cause, said Ancel Montenelli, bilingual ADA technical assistance specialist with the Great Lakes ADA Center.

But owners also can train service dogs, he said.

Krista Schultz, Isaac's mother, said she discovered information about service dogs for autism online.

"I realized that this is something that would really help our son," Schultz said. "He has a high level of anxiety."

When researching costs and wait lists for service animal training, Krista said she became discouraged. She found wait lists as long as three to five years and costs ranging from $10,000 to $25,000.

With the support of their community, however, the Schultz family raised $15,000 to pay for Charlie's training.

Schultz explained that every child on the spectrum experiences different symptoms. Isaac doesn't sleep well at night, repeats behaviors, and is overstimulated by loud noises, big crowds and bright lights.

Sometimes the over-stimulation sends him into a "meltdown," in which he loses emotional control, cries, yells and lays on the floor.

Shaw, a veterinary technician specialist in behavior, said she will train Charlie to lay on top of Isaac when he has a meltdown.

"The pressure is calming to them," she said. "We don't know why."

The overall goal is to train Charlie to recognize Isaac's symptoms, act as a diversion and calm him when necessary.

"The comfort that comes from these animals is amazing," Schultz said.

Charlie also will help alleviate stress, build Isaac's confidence and act as a social bridge, helping him interact with other children, Shaw said.

She hopes he will be ready in six to nine months — an ambitious goal, she said.

Typically, dogs are placed in the home between 18 months and 3 years old. They have to be ready to go unnoticed in public places.

"The goal is to get him into the home and helping Isaac as soon as possible," she said.

MAPLETON, Iowa — It has been about five years since a man won $1 million in the Iowa Lottery Mega Millions game, and he mostly has kept the same lifestyle.

Bob Boehm, 66, still lives in the same home in Denison and works at GFG Agri-Services in Charter Oak, where he's worked for around 25 years, the Sioux City Journal reported.

"He hasn't changed a bit," friend Mark Lorenzen said about Boehm. "We knew he wouldn't."

Boehm said he can't remember his 2010 winning numbers; the machine picked the winning combination.

He recalled standing at a convenience store the day after the drawing, presenting the ticket to a clerk who had mentioned that someone had purchased a winning ticket worth $1 million at the business.

The machine didn't sound its bells and whistles when the clerk sent Boehm's ticket through the first time. The second check took longer. Boehm said the clerk stared at the computer before looking up at him and saying, "We don't have enough money here."

Boehm figured he had won around $2,000 but the clerk said he was wrong and informed him that he'd won $1 million.

Boehm tucked the receipt away and headed to work. Co-workers had urged him to drive to Des Moines to claim his prize. Ultimately, a friend drove Boehm to the Iowa Lottery headquarters, where he took a lump-sum payment of $700,000 after taxes.

With his winnings, Boehm has purchased two trucks and gone on a cruise this year to the Bahamas. He also paid for his nieces and nephews' trip to Germany, which cost around $14,500, for them to retrace the steps he took while service there for the U.S. Army about 45 years ago.

Other than those occasional splurges, Boehm lives by himself and said he's content to be surrounded by his friends.

LANSING, Mich. — One out of every five Michigan lawmakers doesn't have a formal degree in higher education.

The finding comes through research by The Detroit News. Those without degrees include state Sen. Tom Casperson, who is in his second term in the Senate after serving three terms in the state House.

The Republican from Escanaba says life experience "is as deeply as important" as higher education. Casperson started working in his father's log trucking business when he was 11, and owned the business before starting in politics.

Eastern Michigan University professor Ed Sidlow says lawmakers without college degrees can be at a disadvantage, saying the experience helps people think systematically.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 34 percent of Americans age 25 to 29 had a bachelor's degree in 2014, up from 23 percent in 1990.

ELKHART, Ind. — Police say five people were taken to the hospital after a part of a tree landed on several people watching a soccer game in northern Indiana.

Elkhart police say a strong gust of wind caused part of the tree to fall on people in the bleachers Sunday afternoon at Studebaker Park. Five people were taken to Elkhart General Hospital, and one was later taken to Riley Hospital for Children.

According to police, city officials have contacted family members of those who were hurt.

ISLE, Minn. — On the wind-swept shores of Lake Mille Lacs, the abrupt end to this year's walleye fishing season sunk in Monday with a mix of nervousness, resentment and resolve.

Mille Lacs, one of Minnesota's "Big Six" sport-fishing lakes, is synonymous with the walleye, the official state fish that draws fishermen from far and wide and breathes millions into the local economy. Now, with its population plummeting, the Department of Natural Resources ordered an unprecedented moratorium on walleye fishing effective at 10 p.m.

For Dereke Voge, the closure is a test of how much his two-boat fishing guide business depends on walleye. He was taking a tour out for "one last hurrah" Monday night. He said his sales have been sliced in half over the last three years as the DNR has imposed stricter walleye harvest quotas. Daily trips out on the lake are a thing of the past.

"It's gotten down to where we're only going out a couple times during the week. The weekends aren't multiple trips like it used to be," he said. "We've pretty well seen it coming. It's still hard to handle."

Resort owners are bracing for cancelations once word gets out that walleye are off-limits — even though the lake is still a prime place for small-mouth bass, northern pike and muskie.

"We'll weather it," Nelle Phillips, a manager at Hunter Winfield's Resort, said on the 132,000-acre lake's southern end. "It's going to have an impact for sure."

It's such a big deal that Gov. Mark Dayton is weighing a special session for a Mille Lacs bailout.

"It's a dark day for Minnesota fishing and certainly the people of Mille Lacs," Dayton said in St. Paul on Monday, announcing he would travel to the lake Saturday to fish for bass and other species thriving in Mille Lacs in hopes of promoting continued tourism.

Dayton was to speak with top legislators about scheduling an emergency session for later this month. It could include approving low-interest loans, tax abatements, potential grants and other assistance to resort owners, bait shops and charter operators affected by the walleye halt.

The DNR ordered the ban after its census showed anglers and Indian tribes with fishing rights had already exceeded the 40,000-pound quota, which was already lower than previous years. Commissioner Tom Landwehr said younger fish are having trouble growing and surviving because of natural predators in the water and hovering above it, warmer water temperatures changing the ecosystem and other pressures. He said there are signs the walleye is poised for a comeback, but tighter restrictions are needed to facilitate it.

"Hopefully the lake is beginning recovery," Landwehr said, adding that there were no immediate plans to begin a walleye stocking program or push off the start of next spring's season opening.

Theories abound around the central Minnesota lake for what's behind the precipitous walleye population decline, with many faulting the DNR and even questioning whether they've got their numbers right.

"Just leave this lake alone," Phillips said of the DNR. "It will fix itself."

Business owners and local residents have lashed out at state officials for letting it get to this point and have complained about tribal netting. On Friday, leaders of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe — the largest of eight tribes with fishing rights under an 1837 treaty — said they would suspend netting for a year.

Some in the area have called for Landwehr to lose his job, but Dayton expressed "great confidence" in his outdoors chief. Even so, Dayton said he was considering changes to the region's top DNR personnel amid difficult community relations. "We're going to set a new tenor to the relationship there," he said.

Walleye fishing remains strong on other Minnesota lakes. Leech Lake went through a similar downturn about a decade ago, leading the DNR to authorize a controlled hunt of thousands of cormorant birds that were eating walleye.

A legislative working group will begin meeting soon to try to reach a deal on an assistance package.

If Dayton calls a special session, he said he would insist that it be limited to the Mille Lacs plight. He said he would veto an assistance package that strays off topic. "This is not going to be an open season," Dayton said.