Aug. 27, 2020
More potential storms, then a calm weekend. There’s a chance of showers and thunderstorms late tonight and early tomorrow morning across the state. Highs tomorrow in the 70s up north to the low 80s in the south. Looks like a gorgeous weekend to get outside across Minnesota with sunny skies and highs in the mid to upper 70s. Find more details on the Updraft blog.
Mayor Jacob Frey announces curfew will again be in place Thursday in Minneapolis. The order followed looting and vandalism that broke out downtown Wednesday night and spread into southwest Minneapolis. The mayor and Police Chief Medaria Arradondo say the unrest was fueled by rumors spread on social media suggesting that a police officer had shot a Black man, when in fact the man had died by suicide. Stores like Target and Foot Locker were hit. Minneapolis city councilor Lisa Goodman said small, minority-owned businesses were targeted too. The Lotus Restaurant, family owned for 50 years, was severely damaged. The owner, Yoom Nguyen, said that when people broke into his business, the very first thing they did was try to tear down a picture of his family that was on the wall. Nguyen said the picture represented generations of work at the Lotus to bring the family to the point where they could own a business in the city.
Gov. Walz is expected to hold a press conference addressing public safety concerns at 6 p.m. tonight.
The number of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in Minnesota is unusually high today. The Health Department reported a record 1,158 new confirmed cases of COVID-19. But that includes 265 cases from the backlog of tests from Valley Medical , which has three Twin Cities testing locations and a lab in Burnsville. After follow-up from the state, Valley Medical provided almost 19,000 test results from the last two weeks. Nearly 4,700 of those results are included in the latest numbers. The state says there were 13 newly reported deaths, all in the metro area. Twins cancel game scheduled for Detroit. Twins players voted to not play tonight’s game in solidarity with athletes in other pro sports leagues who are also sitting out games following the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The WNBA cancelled all of its games last night to make a statement against racial injustice. That included the Lynx scheduled game against the LA Sparks in Florida. You can get more of the latest news, in less than five minutes, via the Minnesota Today podcast.
~Dan Kraker, MPR News | 
