MPR News PM Update
Dec. 17, 2020

It’ll be mostly cloudy tonight with lows in the 20s, and Friday's weather looks pretty similar, with highs in the 30s. Check out the latest from Updraft.


Several bars and restaurants are facing lawsuits from the state for reopening in defiance of Gov. Tim Walz’s latest executive order. Attorney General Keith Ellison sued two businesses, and is seeking fines and restitution.  Ellison says they pose health risks and their actions are unfair to the majority of establishments that are complying with the rules.

Neighbors on the Rum owner, Joe Holtz, said he opened one of his three locations on Wednesday while keeping safety precautions in mind.

“We’re safe people. We do everything right. We mask up. We sanitize. We have laminated menus. We use all the right products for safety protocols. We do everything in our possible creation right,” Holtz said Thursday. “And you tell me I can’t let my people make money. You’re going to take livelihoods away from people at Christmas time?”

He said he couldn’t stay closed any longer. “I’m done,” Holtz said. “I’m going to fight for my employees, my business, my life, my family.”

“I know it’s tough out there for businesses and employees and help is already on the way — but what these establishments are doing is wrong,” Ellison said in a news release. “Not just wrong in breaking the law — wrong in exposing their loved ones, their customers, their employees, their communities and potentially every Minnesotan to COVID-19. People will get sick, and some will die because they’re breaking the law.”

Even as case numbers and hospitalizations decline, Minnesota continues to succumb to COVID-19.

There are 83 newly reported deaths from COVID-19 in the latest Minnesota Department of Health data. That brings the total death toll to 4,658, with nearly half of those occurring in the last six weeks. There were 2,775 newly reported cases.

Grim numbers are offset slightly by the lower daily caseloads and hospital admissions as they continue to slow from their late November, early December highs. 

You can get more of the latest news, in just a few minutes, via the Minnesota Today podcast. — Hannah Yang | MPR News
 
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