Good Monday morning. Cold northwest winds keep Minnesota from warming much on Monday, and much of the state will see light rain in the afternoon. More on this week's weather on Updraft Minnesota’s confirmed COVID-19 case count jumped by more than 2,500 over the weekend, as the state’s death toll from the pandemic surpassed 2,000.
State health officials on Sunday reported the third straight day with more than 1,000 new cases — the first time that's happened in Minnesota during the ongoing pandemic. Saturday’s report saw a record 1,478 newly confirmed cases.
The high number of cases has come as testing also remains at a high level — with Sunday marking the third consecutive day with more than 26,000 results reported, also a first for the pandemic in Minnesota.
The Minnesota Department of Health reported 10 more COVID-19 deaths on Saturday and four on Sunday, bringing the overall death toll to 2,008.
The number of Minnesotans newly admitted to hospitals for COVID-19 treatment dropped slightly in Sunday’s report, but the number of new COVID-19 admissions to ICUs continued to climb. The number of active confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state climbed to 8,474 — another record for Minnesota. (MPR News) Six months in, tribal nations cautiously optimistic about COVID-19 response A little more than six months since Minnesota registered its first case of COVID-19, tribal nations in Minnesota are measured in their optimism about the effects of their efforts to manage the pandemic — but looking cautiously ahead to what health officials warn will be a difficult fall and winter. -- Dan Gunderson, MPR News Minnesota Poll: Most think Senate should wait on Supreme Court confirmation The latest MPR News/Star Tribune/KARE-11 Minnesota Poll finds 55 percent of registered Minnesota voters think the Senate should not vote on Trump’s Supreme Court nominee before the November election. On Saturday, Trump nominated conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the open seat; the poll was completed before Barrett’s nomination. The poll also shows that incumbent Sen. Tina Smith has a lead over her challenger Jason Lewis. (MPR News)
On Saturday the Minnesota Poll published new numbers showing that Biden has an edge over Trump.
The president has paid little to no income tax in over a decade. An in depth report from the New York Times examined more than 20 years of Trump's returns . Since entering the White House, Trump has broken with tradition set by his predecessors by not only refusing to release his tax returns but by waging a legal battle to keep them hidden. The Times report suggests why that might have been so. It reported that many of Trump's top businesses are losing money, even as those losses have helped him shrink his federal tax bill to essentially nothing. (AP)
-- Michael Olson, MPR News | 
