Minnesota briefs: Minnesota plower finishes third in world championship

A Minnesota man finished third in the World Ploughing Championship, held recently in this northern Minnesota community.

Gene Gruber of Richmond, Minn., finished behind contestants from Scotland and the Republic of Ireland in the conventional plowing division. In 2017, Gruber won the world title in Kenya, the only American ever to take the crown.

Tourism officials estimated that as many as 7,000 to 8,000 people attended the event, held over Labor Day weekend in Baudette, a city of 1,000 residents. Next year's championship will be held in Russia.

JOHN REINAN

A man convicted in the brutal beating of a fellow Blue Earth Area High School football player faces new charges after allegedly assaulting three people at college parties in Mankato over the Labor Day weekend.

Wyatt Tungland, 20, of Frost, Minn., was convicted of felony assault in the 2017 attack on a Blue Earth teammate at a house party. His sentence was stayed for five years on condition that he adhere to a long list of conditions, including no assaultive behavior and no drinking alcohol.

According to a police report, a drunken Tungland punched three people at two separate parties in Mankato's "Collegetown" neighborhood the night of Sept. 2. One alleged victim had a chipped tooth; another had a broken nose. A third suffered an eye injury.

JOHN REINAN

Now that five paintings honoring the major military branches have been completed and installed at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery, a granite monument honoring veterans and those who donated to the project will be unveiled Sept. 22.

After 10 years in the making, local artist Charles Gilbert Kapsner, who used local veterans as models for the paintings, finished the final piece earlier this year, and it's now hanging with the others in the Committal Hall.

The paintings depict the history of each branch — the Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard.

The dedication ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. in Committal Hall at the cemetery, which is across the Mississippi River from Camp Ripley.