June 15, 2020
Good afternoon. Heat and humidity are on the way up this week. A hot and increasingly humid air mass is blowing northward into Minnesota Monday. Temperatures still hovered in the cool 60s in northern Minnesota. But temperatures soared well into the 80s to near 90 degrees in southern Minnesota. In her grief, a north Minneapolis organizer renews her commitment to action. Roxxanne O’Brien is confronting the anguish of seeing yet another black person die at the hands of police. She is now working with others on the north side of Minneapolis to make changes for greater community safety and accountability. “It’s fine to be sad,” she said. “But if you can get out of it, get out of it because it makes you paralyzed.” Social media rumors fuel protest after St. Cloud police officer shot in hand. The incident began shortly after midnight when two St. Cloud police officers were investigating a report of a person with a firearm outside a business. They subdued the suspect and took him into custody, St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson said. But rumors quickly began to circulate on social media that police had shot a black man. Chief Anderson said the group headed to the police station in downtown St. Cloud sometime after 3 a.m. "We had information that when they arrived here, their intent was to damage property and take over our police station,” he said. “That didn’t happen." Latest on COVID-19 in MN: 1,304 deaths; hospitalizations fall. The number of people currently hospitalized fell to 353 — about 40 percent lower than at the end of May — while the daily count of those needing intensive care remained at 186, stable from Sunday but still significantly below its late-May peak. The state Health Department also issued new guidance on window visits for long-term care, and they're also looking at developing outdoor visit guidance. Minnesota parents will know how the school year will look by late July. State education and health officials say they’ll announce a decision on what the school year will look like for 2020-2021 by the week of July 27. -- Matt Mikus | MPR News | 