Here's the latest news from across the state to start your day. ☕
WEATHER
🌞 We’ll see plenty of sunshine Wednesday and the return of warm air. Highs will be in the 50s to even low 60s in southern Minnesota with 40s north.
🌡️ It looks likely we’ll see the first 70-degree temperatures of the year in the Twin Cities Friday afternoon.
⛈️ We’re still tracking a significant spring storm system that will deliver thunderstorms late Friday, some of which could be strong, and rain, turning to snow Saturday.
Democrat David Gottfried defeated GOP opponent Paul Wikstrom in a Tuesday special election to fill a vacant House seat representing Roseville and Shoreview. The result brings the House into a tie — with 67 Republicans and 67 Democrats — and prompts a reset at the Capitol under a bipartisan power-sharing agreement reached earlier this year.
Minnesota’s paid family and medical leave program is in the crosshairs even before it even gets off the ground and is shaping up as one of the legislative session’s big bargaining chips. The program is supposed to start in January, but Republicans want to slow it down or change who is eligible.
📝 Alliance Bank Center tells tenants to vacate ‘immediately’. Business owners with shops in Alliance Bank Center downtown were told late Monday they had to immediately vacate the premises — although the tenants now say the city has promised to keep the lights on until April 1.
🗳️ DFLer Osberg announces challenge to 7th District incumbent Michelle Fischbach. With the DFL primaries still a year away Osberg identified agriculture, education and health care as his top priorities. He also pledged to use that time to meet voters in their communities.
🌪️ Meteorologist-turned-lawmaker advocates for life-saving supplemental weather radar. Nearly 2.5 million Minnesotans live in a low-level weather radar gap. The National Weather Service has a network of weather radar to track storms, but there are eight places in Minnesota in atmospheric blind spots.
🎧 Getting to Green: Can Minnesota get to carbon-free energy? there are questions about how President Donald Trump’s tariffs and opposition to wind and solar energy might affect an energy transition. MPR News correspondents Dan Kraker and Kirsti Marohn talk about the progress toward green energy and what the future holds.
🎧 Program connects Midwest dairy farmers with migrant worker's family in Mexico. Dairy farms in Minnesota and around the country rely on immigrant workers, many of whom are undocumented. A group of farmers in Minnesota and Wisconsin have been following these connections to Mexico to meet the families of their employees.
