Today is Wednesday, Oct. 8, the 281st day of 2025. There are 84 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Oct. 8, 2005, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake on the Pakistan-India border killed an estimated 86,000 people.

Also on this date:

In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire began; more than 300 people died and more than 17,000 structures were destroyed during the three-day blaze.

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In 1956, Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in a World Series as the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5, 2-0.

In 1997, scientists reported the Mars Pathfinder had yielded what could be the strongest evidence yet that Mars might once have been hospitable to life.

In 2002, a federal judge approved President George W. Bush’s request to reopen West Coast ports, ending a 10-day labor lockout that was costing the U.S. economy an estimated $1 billion to $2 billion a day.

In 2016, Donald Trump vowed to continue his campaign after many Republicans called on him to abandon his presidential bid in the wake of the release of a 2005 video in which he made lewd remarks about women and appeared to condone sexual assault.

In 2020, authorities in Michigan said six men had been charged with conspiring to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in reaction to what they viewed as her “uncontrolled power.”

In 2022, an explosion caused the partial collapse of a bridge linking the Crimean Peninsula with Russia, damaging an important supply artery for the Kremlin’s war effort in southern Ukraine.

In 2024, two pioneers of artificial intelligence — Canadian John Hopfield and American Geoffrey Hinton — won the Nobel Prize in physics for helping create the building blocks of machine learning that is revolutionizing the way people work and live.

Today’s Birthdays:

Actor Paul Hogan is 86.
Civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson is 84.
Comedian Chevy Chase is 82.
Author R.L. Stine is 82.
Actor Sigourney Weaver is 76.
Musician Robert “Kool” Bell (Kool & the Gang) is 75.
Producer-director Edward Zwick is 73.
NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott is 70.
Comedian Darrell Hammond is 70.
Actor Kim Wayans is 64.
Gospel singer CeCe Winans is 61.
Olympic gold medal swimmer Matt Biondi is 60.
Actor Karyn Parsons is 59.
Singer-producer Teddy Riley is 58.
Actor Matt Damon is 55.
Actor-TV host Nick Cannon is 45.
Singer-songwriter Bruno Mars is 40.
Actor Angus T. Jones is 32.
Actor-singer Bella Thorne is 28.

The driver in the west-central Minnesota crash of a fire truck that killed one passenger and severely injured another is suspected of having been under the influence of alcohol, according to a search warrant filed in Yellow Medicine County District Court.

According to the search warrant, first responders found several beer cans in the ditch where the Wood Lake Fire Department truck crashed on Sept. 26 while returning from a local high school homecoming parade.

Patrick Steven Remiger, 43, of Wood Lake, was identified as the passenger who died at the scene of the 6:30 p.m. crash. Reminger was found underneath the truck, according to the Yellow Medicine County Sheriff’s Office. He was a retired firefighter, according to the Wood Lake Fire Department.

Authorities believe that Andrew Vanhecke, 37, of Wood Lake, was driving the truck. Vanhecke, a current member of the Wood Lake Fire Department, was hospitalized after the crash, as was his 6-year-old son, Beaux Vanhecke. Authorities obtained a blood sample from Andrew Vanhecke at the Marshall hospital. A blood-alcohol analysis by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is pending.

No criminal charges had been filed as of Tuesday. The search warrants were filed Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. A search warrant request has also been filed in Lyon County, where the fire truck has been impounded, seeking data from the vehicle’s electronic control module.

According to the warrants, the initial investigation determined that the fire truck veered onto the shoulder, struck a mailbox and overcorrected. It rolled on the roadway several times before coming to rest in the ditch on the opposite side of the road.

Reminger was ejected from the fire truck. According to the Minnesota State Patrol, none of the occupants was wearing a seat belt and no airbags deployed. Road conditions were reported as dry.

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DULUTH, Minn. — A massive freeway project to untangle Duluth’s “Can of Worms” interchange is nearing completion.

Gov. Tim Walz and other local, state and federal officials gathered Monday for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the $435 million reconstruction of the junction of Interstate 35, Interstate 535 and U.S. 53.

The work began in 2020 and required an intricate rerouting of the busy interchange, which connects Superior, Wis., via the Blatnik Bridge.

According to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the interchange sees an average daily traffic of 5,320 heavy commercial vehicles.

“Today does mark a major milestone for Duluth and for our region,” Duluth Mayor Roger Reinert said. “After years of construction, we are finally able to reconnect the backbone transportation system of northern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin. This completion today is not just about a safer, more efficient travel system, but again, a better-connected Twin Ports.”

Safety improvements include the elimination of left exits and blind merges, improved merging sight distance and increased lane continuity.

Funding was provided by MnDOT and federal funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed by President Joe Biden in 2021.

The interchange is scheduled to open to traffic on Oct. 24.

Duluth-Superior will have only a brief reprieve from disruptive road construction.

The deteriorating Blatnik Bridge, which spans the St. Louis River, is due for replacement itself starting next year.

The $1.8 billion project, which is expected to wrap up in 2031, is funded by MnDOT, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

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A 26-year-old Minneapolis man is charged in a June hit-and-run that critically injured a pedestrian on St. Paul’s East Side.

Arlandis Shamar Walls crashed into the back of a car, sped away and soon hit a 28-year-old woman as she was crossing Phalen Boulevard south of Maryland Avenue, the charges allege.

St. Paul police said Tuesday the June 10 hit-and-run left the Brooklyn Park woman paralyzed.

Walls was charged in Ramsey County District Court by warrant on Friday with two counts of criminal vehicular operation resulting in great bodily harm. He had not been arrested as of late Tuesday. His court case does not list a defense attorney.

The criminal complaint gives the following account:

Police officers saw two cars speeding north on Johnson Parkway about 10:50 p.m. and a Nissan Sentra with severe front-end damage abandoned at the intersection of Maryland Avenue and Phalen Boulevard.

A 911 call was then made about someone who was struck a few blocks away near the south entrance to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Officers found the woman on the side of the road conscious, but not knowing what happened or where she was. Her legs appeared broken and she had road rash on the side of her face and back. During her transport to Regions Hospital, she went into cardiac arrest.

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A man and woman at the scene said the driver of a Nissan had rear-ended their car at Johnson Parkway and East Seventh Street and sped into oncoming traffic to get away. They drove after the Nissan to try to get the license plate information and saw the car hit the woman, who flew over the car’s roof from the impact. They estimated the car was going 50 mph.

They said the driver of the Nissan sped away, but soon crashed a third time and then ran.

Officers searched the Nissan and found Walls’ wallet on the driver’s side floor of the car, which was registered to someone in Brooklyn Center.

Video from the northeast intersection of Maryland Avenue and Phalen Boulevard showed the Nissan nearly struck a vehicle while driving north, then crashed into a traffic signal pole. It showed a man get out and run east on Maryland Avenue.

DNA was collected from inside the Nissan, including the steering wheel, airbag and keys. An analysis by the BCA showed the major DNA profile matches Walls, the complaint says.