Gov. Mark Dayton on Monday appointed Minnesota Court of Appeals Judge Wilhelmina Wright to the state Supreme Court. The 48-year-old St. Paul resident will be the first black woman to serve on the state's highest court.

Authorities are installing screening equipment similar to that in airports to scan visitors for guns, knives, mace and other such items. The change comes after a district court judge and the county sheriff said they were worried about the lack of security in suburban courtrooms.

The Honorable Michael Kirk will be the new judge for the Seventh Congressional District seat on the appellate court. Kirk has been a district court judge since 1989. He replaces veteran Judge Rodger Klaphake, who has reached mandatory retirement.

Without comment, the Minnesota Supreme Court on Friday rejected an effort by two groups – Center for Biological Diversity and Howling for Wolves – to block the state's wolf hunting season, which begins Nov. 3, the Associated Press reports. The state plans to let hunters and trappers kill 400 wolves out of an estimated population of about 3,000.

The county board recently voted to install the additional equipment after Judge Lloyd Zimmerman refused to hear cases in the suburbs because of lax security. Zimmerman's concerns were raised several weeks after the shooting in Grand Marais where a prosecutor and witness were critically wounded, the AP reports.

Judge Minge has served on the court since 2002 and plans to step down at the end of March. Governor Dayton will choose a successor from the second Congressional district, which Minge represented in Washington for eight years before he was named to the bench.