MPR News Update
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Good morning and welcome to Wednesday. Here’s what you need to know to start your day. 


We might hit the freezing mark on Wednesday. The upcoming weather, as Paul Huttner reports, is warm yet dicey in some spots: “The short-range forecast models favor an icy tongue of moisture across southern Minnesota overnight into Wednesday morning. Some of that precipitation may graze the Twin Cities as light snow.” More on Updraft. | Forecast


Day one of President Trump’s impeachment trial didn’t go Mitch McConnell’s way. The Republican Senate majority leader had hoped to cram opening arguments into the trial’s first two days, via late nights. But, as the AP reports, McConnell didn’t get his way, “exposing a crack in the GOP ranks and the growing political unease over the historic impeachment proceedings unfolding amid a watchful public in an election year.”


Our snow cover is quite deep in Minnesota. Here’s a selection via Updraft: 

  • Twin Cities: 8 inches

  • Rochester: 7 inches

  • Alexandria: 17 inches

  • Fargo, N.D.: 19 inches

  • International Falls: 25 inches

  • Duluth: 28 inches

  • Babbitt: 30 inches

  • Island Lake: 34 inches

  • Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center: 45 inches


Amy Klobuchar is certain she can handle campaigning and impeachment. The Minnesota Democratic senator is running for president, but she’s also a juror in President Trump’s trial. Her reasoning on why she can handle both, as MinnPost reports: “I am a mom. I can do two things at once.”


As Trump’s impeachment trial begins, nearly a third of U.S. senators are also revving the engines of their 2020 reelection campaigns.The APM Research Lab analyzed the class of  senators whose terms are expiring this year and compiled data from their most recent elections.


Did Minnesota regulators break their own rules in granting Polymet its mine permits? That question is in the courts now and Dan Kraker is  covering the latest in the contentious northeastern Minnesota mine proposal saga.

— Cody Nelson, MPR News
New generation pushes Hmong mental health concerns into the light
Project Tshav Ntuj volunteers say they want to break through the silence on mental health, which often isn’t discussed by the older generation who may struggle with their own unaddressed trauma and not see it in their children. | Minnesota struggles to catch up as minority mental health needs grow | Students fill a gap in mental health care for immigrants
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Homeless count may reveal yet more people living on the street
The federal government mandates that every state count its homeless. The result likely will underestimate the actual number of people sleeping outside or on transit, but the annual survey provides at least a minimal point-in-time read on the problem. Last year's effort found about 1,650 unsheltered homeless people across the state. That was up from 841 in 2016.
Legislators ask Sherburne County to be ‘sanctuary’ from new gun laws
Several Minnesota legislators are asking Sherburne County to become a “Second Amendment sanctuary” by prohibiting the enforcement of new gun control measures they say would violate the Constitution.
Minnesota man exposed as commander of Nazi-led unit dies
Michael Karkoc, whose family maintained that he was never a Nazi or committed any war crimes, lived quietly in Minneapolis for decades until AP's review of U.S. and Ukrainian records in 2013 uncovered his past and prompted investigations in Germany and Poland. Karkoc died Dec. 14, according to cemetery and public records. He was 100.
Top ag banker: Optimism remains, despite tough times in farm country
Crops are still standing in snow-covered fields in parts of the Upper Midwest, including Minnesota. They weren’t harvested last fall because rain left the ground too soggy for farm equipment — and then heavy snow buried many fields. Those wet fields will likely be a challenge again during spring planting.

What's on the radio today?

9 a.m. — MPR News with Kerri Miller


In a recent study of college students, almost half of those polled said they aren’t confident in how to tell the difference between real and fake news on social media platforms. We turn to two experts to understand how we interact with information today, the challenges different generations face when it comes to issues like disinformation and tools to help.


10 a.m. — 1A


In his Federalist papers, Alexander Hamilton defined impeachment as a "method of national inquest into the conduct of public men alleged to have violated the public trust." What will senators make of the two articles now before them? And what answers are you looking for? 


11 a.m. —  MPR News with Angela Davis


After eight years as chair of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, Charlie Vig has decided to retire. We talked to him about the challenges he faced, his accomplishments and the future of his community.


12 p.m. — MPR News Presents

Live NPR coverage of Senate impeachment trial of President Trump.

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