Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page A1

INSIDE PAGES More of what matters to Minnesota. All day. Every day. SUBSCRIPTIONS: 612-673-4343 or go to startribune.com/subscribe ONLINE: startribune.com NEWS TIPS: 612-673-4414 COMMENTS: 612-673-4000 STAR TRIBUNE Minneapolis, St. Paul MN Volume XXXV No.

153 Sept. 4, 2016 PEQUOT LAKES, MINN. he moon over Lower Hay Lake set just before midnight, adding welcome darkness for a team of researchers on a mission to capture loons. From the rear of their meandering skiff, a crew member sounded a device that mimicked a crying baby loon. The wail echoed into the night with no response.

Up front, wildlife biologist Kevin Kenow raked a spotlight across the black water. Hours passed. If the strategy worked, an adult loon would answer the distress call and swim blindly into the beam. Kenow would then net the animal for tagging and sampling. are tough he whispered to everyone on board.

beloved loon population the largest in the U.S. is stable at about 12,000 breeding adults. But wildlife officials see a rising threat to vital nesting areas from relentless lakeshore development across the state that can pollute water, erase wild shorelines necessary for chick rearing and invite raccoons and other critters that attack nests. Loons stopped reproducing on lakes when shoreline development exceeded 25 buildings per kilometer, or about NEW PUSH TO PROTECT OUR ICONIC LOONS AARON LAVINSKY aaron.lavinsky@startribune.com Wildlife researcher Kevin Kenow of the U.S. Geological Survey gripped a recently captured loon with an assist from Lori Naumann of the state DNR.

By TONY KENNEDY tony.kennedy@startribune.com See LOONS on A13 Cooperation a significant step for historic Paris pact. By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY and JOSH LEDERMAN Associated Press HANGZHOU, CHINA Setting aside their cyber and maritime disputes, President Obama and President Xi Jinping on Saturday sealed their participation in last landmark Paris climate change agreement. They hailed their new era of climate cooperation as the best chance for saving the planet. At a ceremony on the sidelines of a global economic summit, Obama and Xi, representing the two biggest carbon emitters, delivered a series of documents to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon The papers certified that the U.S. and China have taken the necessary steps to join the Paris accord that set nation-by-nation targets for cutting carbon emissions.

is not a fight that any one country, no matter how powerful, can take Obama said of the pact. day we may see this as the moment that we finally decided to save our Xi, speaking through a translator, said he hoped other countries would follow suit China, U.S. join climate accord SUNDAY Minnesota: Last-ditch talks fail, strike by Allina nurses set to begin Labor Day Sports: Vikings trade for Sam Bradford in bid to keep hopes for a title on track NATION Biq quake rocks Oklahoma, Plains SCIENCE Concussions not just football risk Daylight hours waning; soggy week ahead. B14 VALUABLE COUPONS INSIDE Wellness programs land state in top four for rates. By HANNAH COVINGTON hannah.covington@startribune.com In St.

Cloud, many of the schoolchildren now walk to raise money rather than peddle cookie dough and pizza. In Blue Earth County, older residents are finding more fresh produce at senior dining sites. And visitors to Elm Creek Park in Maple Grove can now pack their picnic baskets with healthy snacks at the park concession stands. Across the state, health officials say, these experiments help explain why Minnesota was one of only four states in the country to see a drop in adult obesity rates last year. In a report released Thursday, researchers singled out Minnesota and its wellness projects as harbingers of what might, finally, be progress in the long struggle against an epidemic of obesity.

Minnesota joined Montana, New York and Ohio in reducing the share of overweight adults the most in a decade. Obesity rates held steady in most states and rose in two, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Trust for How Minn. got a handle on obesity See OBESITY on A12 See CLIMATE on A14 GLEN STUBBE As news of the discovery spread Saturday morning, flowers were left at the end of the driveway at the home of Patty and Jerry Wetterling in St. Joseph, Minn. By JENNIFER BROOKS, DAVID CHANEN and JENNA ROSS Star Tribune staff writers For almost three decades, Minnesotans kept their porch lights burning, hoping Jacob Wetterling might find his way home.

Those hopes were crushed Saturday when they learned that a longtime suspect in the 1989 disappearance had led authorities to the remains of the 11-year-old, whose abduction from St. Joseph stunned Minnesotans and changed the way parents watch over their children. hearts are mother, Patty Wetterling, texted to the Star Tribune on Saturday morning. have no Jacob was snatched off his bike, half a mile from his home, by a masked man with a gun on a dark October night. Danny Heinrich, a suspect first questioned shortly after disappearance and now in federal custody on child pornography charges, provided investigators with the information that led to the grave, hidden on a Paynesville farm.

At the time of JACOB REMAINS FOUND Crime cast a long pall over small town; now residents share grief. By JENNIFER BJORHUS jennifer.bjorhus@startribune.com ST. JOSEPH, MINN. When the news long been dreading finally came, it struck at the core of people in this small college town. The mystery of Jacob fate had haunted St.

Joseph for nearly three decades, a lingering legacy of uncertainty and fear. think of it almost like a said Cody Ireland 21, a host at the American Burger Bar on the edge of this central Minnesota prairie town of 6,500, where Jacob disappeared in 1989. definitely kind of an eerie feeling here in St. Joseph The years of apprehension gave way to a shared grief Saturday, but also relief and the strong hope that the discovery of remains will provide closure to his family. Lucy Laudenbach was here when the search for Jacob began.

She watched from the front porch of her rural home, just south of where the boy was abducted, as searchers combed the fields outside. On Saturday, TV news trucks worked over the area again as word spread that Inside Reaction from around the state; what we know so far about the suspect. A10-11 Online Latest developments, past coverage, photos and more at startribune Suspect led authorities to an unmarked grave in county where the boy vanished. Jacob in 1989 See WETTERLING on A10 See TOWN on A11 hearts are broken. We have no Related: Climate change takes toll on East and Gulf coasts.

A9 September 4, 2016 startribune.com.