Good morning, and welcome to Tuesday. I hope you had a chance to celebrate Juneteenth yesterday. MPR News has a roundup of how the state celebrated. Minnesota children ages 6 months to five years old can receive COVID-19 vaccinations beginning this week. MPR’s Catharine Richert looks at the preparations underway for those vaccinations. “This is an important and exciting time for many families as our youngest Minnesotans can now receive important protection against COVID-19 through vaccination,” said Minnesota Commissioner of Health Jan Malcolm in a statement. The Minnesota Supreme Court says Minneapolis needs to hire more police officers. The Star Tribune has a wrap up of the court ruling. "The Mayor has a clear legal duty under the Minneapolis City Charter to employ at least 731 sworn police officers,” said Chief Justice Lorie Gildea. In case you missed it, Gov. Tim Walz appeared on WCCO-TV Sunday. He had some comments about the impasse in negotiations for a special session. He also made it clear that he is still interested in the idea of sending part of the state budget surplus back to taxpayers in one-time payments. The comments also prompted a response Monday from Senate Republican Spokeswoman Rachel Aplikowski, who said in a statement: "During the legislative session, Senate Republicans passed permanent, ongoing tax relief of more than $8 billion dollars so every person who pays taxes would receive immediate relief that doesn't go away with the election." | 