Welcome to Wednesday,. Here are top headlines to start your day with. Expect some slick roads on your Wednesday commute. Lingering snow today and meltwater from yesterday's wintry mix frozen overnight could leave a slippery mess. Highs will be in the upper 20s to the mid-30s. Find the latest on Updraft. Wholesale prices of natural gas skyrocketed in the last few days, but your February gas bill will likely be within the normal range, for now. Natural gas prices have spiked as high as 100 times normal in many parts of the country as the severe weather hit the southwestern U.S. Minnesota utility regulators and big energy companies in the state are assessing the damage the price surge has brought, and will do, to Minnesotans. PUC financial analyst Bob Harding says that for now, customers will pay the price that their utilities had initially predicted for February as any big costs that companies incur are dealt with later in the year in the state. Companies are considering options to ease the burden on customers as well as how they can better plan for severe weather events in the future. Read more. Minnesota on Tuesday reported only one new COVID-19 death -- for two days in a row. It’s the first time since Minnesota’s second recorded death on March 26 that the state has reported one or fewer COVID-19 deaths two days in a row. The state currently has about 6,500 known/active cases. Here are Minnesota’s latest COVID-19 statistics: - 6,434 deaths (one new)
- 480,091 positive cases (513 new), 467,147 off isolation (97 percent)
- 7.2 million tests, 3.4 million Minnesotans tested (about 59 percent of the population)
- 13.7 percent of Minnesotans vaccinated with at least one dose
Minnesota's vaccine picture, however, didn't improved much in the latest data. Tuesday's Vaccination count continued to reflect the supply delays driven by the winter weather across the nation week. Administered doses fell to just 7,400 in the latest tally -- only about a quarter of the daily average over the last week. In a letter to Gov. Tim Walz, AARP Minnesota calls for “ongoing improvements” to streamline Minnesota’s vaccination process, saying anecdotal stories from older Minnesotans show people “demoralized when their efforts to secure a vaccine come up empty.” The governor has said that he is optimistic that the state will be able to give Minnesotans a better sense in the next couple of weeks of when they’ll be vaccinated based on age and health conditions. With the key metrics heading the right direction, and vaccinations expected to increase, are the pandemic's darkest days still ahead as U of M's Michael Osterholm indicated? We get a second opinion. “What we're seeing is basically the lull before the storm,” the Minnesota epidemiologist told MPR News last week. But not everyone agrees with his outlook. At 9 a.m. host Kerri Miller will get a second opinion on the pandemic from two medical professionals closely watching the disease. With less than two weeks left until the trial begins, a state appeals court decides to hear argument on adding a third-degree murder charge against Derek Chauvin. A state appeals court said Tuesday that it'll hold a hearing next Monday on reinstating a third-degree murder charge to the case against the former Minneapolis police officer charged in the death of George Floyd. Chauvin is already facing charges of second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the May 25 killing of Floyd, and his trial is poised to begin with jury selection March 8. Today at noon, join our conversation about the challenges faced by formerly incarcerated Minnesotans upon re-entry into the community and how we can become a more welcoming state. Sign up here for the latest in Focus event, "In Focus Locked Out: Exploring the Path from Incarceration to Inclusion," partnered with Tech Dump and hosted by Angela Davis. We'll also be continuing the conversation in our new Facebook group. Join here and help shape this series of discussions and our coverage going forward. — Jiwon Choi, MPR News | Find me on Twitter @ChoiGEE1 | 
