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 | 