| Pat Christman | Mankato Free Press file
Oct. 28, 2020 An outbreak of bad numbers: 15 more deaths, nearly 2,200 more cases | |
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Good morning. Partly to mostly cloudy throughout the state. Highs in the mid-30s to lower 40s. Check out Updraft for more weather coverage.
Minnesota’s COVID-19’s toll continued its grim ascent this week with the Health Department on Tuesday reporting 15 more deaths, nearly 2,200 more cases and a record number of hospitalizations.
Tuesday’s report came with an extra concern: Newly confirmed cases were up on relatively low testing, skyrocketing the positive test rate above 15 percent. It’s unclear yet if this is an anomaly or evidence of a problematic trend that could signal even more rampant spread.
Here are Minnesota’s current COVID-19 statistics:
2,368 deaths (15 new)137,536 positive cases (2,178 new), 122,100 off isolation2,724,320 tests, 1,791,688 people tested7.4 percent, seven-day positive test rate Many traditional Halloween traditions, like trick or treating, involve face-to-face interactions with lots of different people. But this year, in order to prevent the spread and protect each other from COVID-19, some parts of Halloween may need a little updating. Here are five tips and a few great ideas to celebrate the holiday.
A Minnesota Republican candidate's bid to delay voting in his congressional race to February due to the death of a third-party candidate was rejected Tuesday at the Supreme Court.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, who handles emergency requests from the federal appeals court that oversees Minnesota, denied the request from Tyler Kistner. As is typical when the court acts on an emergency basis, Gorsuch did not say anything in denying the request. But he also didn't ask Kistner's opponent to respond in writing or refer the question to the full court, suggesting it wasn't a close question.
When Bradley Harrington was an 11-year-old growing up on the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation, members of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe were in court, arguing that a treaty their ancestors made with the U.S. government gave them the right to harvest fish on Mille Lacs Lake.
That was Harrington's first taste of the discord that still lingers in the Mille Lacs region, one of the state’s best-known fishing destinations.
Harrington, who serves as the state tribal liaison for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, is running for a seat on the Mille Lacs County board of commissioners against Dave Oslin, a retired business owner who has represented District 5 for eight years and is seeking a third term. Harrington says the local government body sets the temperature for the community. He said he hopes to set a new, less divisive tone.
Almost five months after a majority of the Minneapolis City Council stood on a stage with large letters in front of it spelling out “DEFUND POLICE,” some see the effort as a failure, blaming the sentiment for boosts in violent crime and the council for inaction.
While it remains to be seen where those efforts to vastly reimagine public safety will land, an MPR News survey of Minneapolis council members show that there’s still significant common ground among the council for changing the city’s relationship with the police department, including transferring police responsibilities to social workers, leaving police to focus on responding to and investigating crime.
~ Matt Mikus, MPR News (@mikusmatt)
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