Good morning, Minnesota. Happy Wednesday!

Here's the latest news from across the state to start your day. ☕

WEATHER

🧊 Extreme cold warnings continue through portions of western and central Minnesota Wednesday morning. Wind chill values are in the 25 to 40 below zero range mostly this morning.

🌡️ Highs in the teens become more widespread Thursday along with a return to brighter skies. We are still on track for a significant warm up this weekend with highs returning to the 30s and 40s and persisting into next week.

Get the latest weather news on Updraft.

Dangerous cold across Minnesota leads to more school delays for Wednesday

Some Minnesota school districts have announced they’ll be starting classes late or moving to online learning on Wednesday, Feb. 19, as a stretch of dangerously cold conditions continues across the region. Extreme cold warnings and cold weather advisories are in place into early Wednesday.

Troubled downtown St. Paul light rail station could see $130 million development

The development would be built in two towers on both sides of the light rail line. They would be connected by a skyway. Currently, the 1.66 acre plot is mostly empty except for a small building connecting the rail station to the skyway.

Win tickets to Autumn Knight Live at the Walker

Enter to win a pair of tickets to Autumn Knight Live at the Walker, 2025.
Enter before Wednesday, Feb. 19, at 11:59 p.m. The winner will be chosen on Thursday, Feb. 20.

Enter here

NEWS ROUNDUP

👮 DOJ asks for pause in Minneapolis police federal consent decree. The DOJ asked to stay the proceeding until March 20 after Trump’s DOJ leadership issued a memo directing attorneys to provide notice of any court-enforceable agreements to reform police agencies that had been finalized within the last 90 days.

🏛️ Prosecutor says Feeding Our Future defendant approached witness in effort to ‘corrupt’ process. The lead prosecutor in the second Feeding Our Future trial said that a defendant who’s slated for trial later this year approached a witness in the courthouse on Tuesday and asked to speak with him in a bathroom.

🌿 Retail recreational marijuana, take two. Lawsuits last fall led to the cancellation of a planned lottery geared toward a smaller set of business applicants. Starting now, both social equity and general applicants can throw their hats in the ring for back-to-back lotteries sometime around May or June.

🛫 ‘We were all scared:’ Minnesotan on Delta plane recalls Toronto crash. Pete Carlson of Northfield remembers blowing snow and strong winds on his Monday flight from Minneapolis to Toronto. It felt like a normal flight — until it wasn’t.

✊🏽 Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier welcomed home after release from prison. Native American activist Leonard Peltier traveled to Belcourt, N.D., to the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Reservation on Tuesday after being released from a Florida prison.

❌ Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota eliminates staff positions. In a statement, Senior Vice President of Services Alexis Oberdorfer said, "With no federal funding for refugee resettlement services, we are in the unfortunate position of having to reduce our staffing for this work."

💰 From ICT: Tribal funding caught in crossfire from Trump administration. Since the Trump funding freeze was announced in January, tribes have had difficulty accessing digital portals to receive reimbursement, according to Native leaders who were not authorized to speak on behalf of individual tribes.

🕯️ Burnsville marks one year since first responders‘ deaths with wreath tribute, special ceremony. During a ceremony at City Hall, Burnsville city leaders praised their fallen colleagues as heroes while also describing the emotional toll the events of last year have taken on them all.

MUST LISTEN

🎧 Exit interview: After 5 decades in journalism, Minnesota Star Tribune reporter Randy Furst retires. Longtime newspaperman Randy Furst joined Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer for an exit interview as he retired from the Minnesota Star Tribune.

🎧 How President Trump is reshaping transgender people’s rights. In recent weeks, President Donald Trump has enacted a series of executive orders that significantly reshape transgender rights in the United States, sparking debate among lawmakers and advocates across the country. MPR News host Angela Davis and her guests break down the policies and talk about their legal and social implications.

🎧 Toronto plane crash sparks questions on passenger safety. Andrew Tangel is a Wall Street Journal Reporter covering aviation safety and regulation. He's based in Minneapolis. Tangel joined Minnesota Now with more context on the crash.

🎧 83 years after mass incarceration, Japanese Americans warn it could happen again. Vinicius Taguchi, president of the local chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, said he sees parallels between this troubling history and the present.

🎧 Listen to today's headlines on our Minnesota Today podcast.

Community event: My family's immigration story — and yours

How do we remember the journeys that brought us to Minnesota? And why do those stories matter, now more than ever? Join immigration reporters Sarah Thamer from MPR News and Katelyn Vue from Sahan Journal on Feb. 20 for an evening of arrival stories, inspiration and advice on preserving your own family's history and culture. Get more information and register at MPREvents.org.