MPR News PM Update
 
Good morning.

Here comes the rain. A mild day becomes wet this evening with 1" of rainfall likely into Thursday. Things keep getting colder and we are expecting temperatures in the 30s Friday. [More weather on Updraft]
The Minnesota Capitol remained lit at 1 a.m. Legislative candidates are announcing runs despite uncertainty about district lines that will not be redrawn until February. Brian Bakst | MPR News 2017
By Kirsti Marohn

Along with chillier weather, Minnesota homeowners should brace for a sharp increase in heating costs expected to hit pocketbooks this winter.

Last month, the federal Energy Information Administration predicted that U.S. households will spend 30 to 50 percent more money to heat their homes this winter, depending on the type of fuel and the severity of the winter weather.

The higher bills are coming as many families are already struggling due to COVID-19, and the rising cost of food, housing and other expenses. And many natural gas customers are also paying a monthly surcharge stemming from a price spike after last February's cold snap in the southern U.S.

Roughly 1 in 8 families were already behind on their utility bills before the latest surge, Levenson-Falk said.

"The fact that so many people are still struggling in this economy is going to make a real strain on many families,” said Annie Levenson-Falk, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota, which advocates for utility consumers.
 
By Catharine Richert

Dr. Christopher Foley was a beloved natural medicine doctor with dozens of patients who said he helped them manage their chronic illnesses. But Foley also spread misinformation about COVID-19. In October, he died from the virus.

The circumstances of Foley's life and death reveal a problem that's vexed the medical profession throughout the pandemic: some licensed practitioners are fueling COVID's spread, seeding doubts about widely accepted research and medical practices, including vaccinations, that have been saving millions of lives for decades. [Read more]
 
What else we're watching
Judge OKs livestreaming ex-cop's trial. Citing the ongoing pandemic, the judge in the Kimberly Potter case will let media record, broadcast and livestream the high profile late November trial. Potter is charged in Wright’s killing during a Brooklyn Center traffic stop.

Walz declares ‘effective end’ to veteran homelessness in central Minn. Minnesota’s governor cited efforts by state and local governments, nonprofits and landlords that help veterans overcome barriers to finding housing. He said the state is on track to become the fourth in the nation to eliminate veteran homelessness.

Socialism comes to the Minneapolis City Council. In an election year where Minneapolis voters returned an incumbent mayor to office and rejected a proposal to restructure the city’s public safety system, it might seem like the status quo triumphed. But voters also elected a block of young, diverse Democratic Socialists to the City Council for the first time in modern history.

The body found 41 years ago in Texas finally identified as missing Stillwater teen. Authorities in Texas say a body found on the interstate between Houston and Dallas in 1980 has been finally identified as that of a teenage girl, Sherri Ann Jarvis, long missing from Stillwater, Minn. The Walker County Sheriff's Office said that new mitochondrial DNA technology helped them track the unidentified remains to relations among a handful of possible family members.
– Matt Mikus, MPR News
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