Driver in critical condition after his car, semitrailer truck collide

A Brooklyn Park man was in a medically induced coma on Thursday after a semitrailer truck and a car collided Wednesday night on Interstate Hwy. 94 in Maple Grove.

Ajay Uppal, 51, suffered a broken left arm, broken leg and severe facial cuts when his vehicle hit a jackknifed semitrailer truck about 8:40 p.m. near County Road 81, the State Patrol said.

Uppal was taken to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, where he was still in critical condition Thursday afternoon, said Robert Prevost, a hospital spokesman.

Uppal was driving eastbound on I-94 when the trailer of the westbound semitrailer truck began to hydroplane. The truck slid through the median and hit Uppal's Toyota Sienna, the patrol said.

Martin Loesch, 41, of Maple Grove, who was a passenger in Uppal's vehicle, was not seriously injured. The truck driver, Robert Rose, 41, of Winnebago, Wis., was not injured.

TIM HARLOW

Couple killed in crash married 63 years The couple killed in a collision of their vehicle and a semitrailer truck in northern Isanti County were married for 63 years.

Robert Coldren was driving west on Hwy. 107 about 8:30 a.m., when it hit the semitrailer truck, said County Sheriff Mike Ammend.

The intersection has a stop sign for the westbound traffic on Hwy. 107 and not for northbound Hwy. 65, Ammend said.

The truck driver, Mark Felde, of Ogilvie, was not seriously hurt.

A paid newspaper obituary for the Coldrens in the Star Tribune said they had been married for 63 years.

PAUL WALSH

Myron David Norcross, 49, received the lengthy sentence partly because of the vulnerability of the victim and his failure to call 911, said Hennepin County Court Judge John Hedlund.

Assistant Hennepin County Attorney John Halla said: "The sentence is an appropriate punishment for the senseless loss of life of Sheri Schaumburger." According to a criminal complaint, Norcross used a butcher knife to stab Schaumburger a dozen times on the morning of Dec. 15 in a hall of the ninth-floor of a Minneapolis public housing apartment building.

The two had been arguing in his apartment before Schaumburger left, and Norcross chased her down and stabbed her. A witness told police that she heard Schaumburger yell, "Help! Myron stabbed me!"

Officers saw Norcross trying to leave the building. He was covered with blood. He told officers he stabbed Schaumburger "multiple times," the complaint said.

TIM HARLOW

Judge Peter Irvine gave 34-year-old Kenneth Andersen the life sentence.

Authorities say Andersen shot Chad Swedberg, 33, of rural Ogema, twice with a high-powered rifle on April 13, 2007, while Swedberg was out gathering maple syrup.

The two had grown up together and worked at the same construction job until Swedberg was killed.

Andersen maintains his innocence and plans to appeal. He told the court he's not a coward who shot his best friend.