| Oct. 27, 2020 The wintry week goes on. It’ll be mostly cloudy tonight with lows in the mid-20s to lower 30s. Tomorrow, it should warm up with highs in the upper 30s to mid-40s. COVID-19 cases and testing data took a marked turn for the worse today, with the highest daily positivity rate for testing the state has seen since May. The state reported nearly 2,200 new cases Tuesday. It’s only the third time the state has topped 2,000 cases in a single day. The jump came as the state experienced the usual slump in testing. With only 14,000 new tests, the positivity rate statewide has spiked to over 15 percent. Officials also reported an all time high of new hospitalizations, at 141. Anoka-Hennepin school district voted to keep high school sports and other extracurricular activities going, even after deciding to end in-person classes for its schools. The move defies state direction on schools and COVID-19 precautions, which requires districts to at least qualify for in-person learning to keep sports going. Minnesota’s extended window for receiving ballots is in the hands of a federal appeals court panel, which is weighing whether mailed ballots that arrive after Election Day should be counted. The lawsuit contests a grace period that will allow ballots sent in by Nov. 3 to count if they are received within the next seven days. $3 billion Fargo-Moorhead diversion project is a go. A new compromise with upstream landowners and cities provides millions in mitigation help and ends legal challenges to the project. Officials hope to finish the diversion before 2028.
You can get more of the latest news, in just a few minutes, via the Minnesota Today podcast — Tim Nelson | MPR News | 
