MPR News PM Update
Sept. 17, 2020

Autumnal start to weekend.It’ll be partly cloudy tonight, with lows near 30 in northeastern Minnesota to the lower 40s southwest. Friday will be sunny with highs near 60. It’ll be clear again tomorrow night with lows in the 40s. More on the Updraft weather blog.

$300 weekly unemployment boost in Minnesota dries up. The weekly boost in unemployment aid has now expired in Minnesota. It ran for six weeks, and state Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove said he asked for a seventh, and was denied by federal officials.

No symptom, no insurance required: Free COVID-19 testing sites to pop up across MinnesotaState officials are launching a 4-week statewide COVID-19 testing push to stop community spread of the virus. Tests at these sites are available to anyone, even if they have no COVID-19 symptoms. Testing is free, and won't require insurance or ID. The first test clinics will be in Grand Rapids, Pine City and Waseca. 

931 new cases reported today, with high testing numbers. Thursday’s COVID-19 daily data report showed 931 new confirmed infections in Minnesota, one of the highest single-day reports in the pandemic. But that came along with big testing numbers, suggesting this case spike may be largely due to more testing rather than greater community spread.

It's a big day tomorrow: Biden, Trump campaign in Minnesota, as early voting kicks off. President Trump will be making an airport stop in Bemidji, and former vice president Joe Biden will visit a union training center in Duluth. Friday is also the first day Minnesota voters can cast their presidential ballots. Find the latest news from the campaign visits tomorrow on MPRNews.org

You can get more of the latest news, in just a few minutes, via the Minnesota Today podcast.

-- Tim Nelson | MPR News
 
UMD student group builds support for Black men
Hundreds of students peacefully marched through the campus of the University of Minnesota Duluth Wednesday evening, demanding racial justice and an end to police brutality. The protest was organized by a relatively new student group on campus: Black Men Serving Excellence.
In Duluth: Confronting racism with a 'Hello'
MPR News with Angela Davis: Fighting racism in Greater Minnesota
 
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St. Paul City Council OKs guaranteed income pilot project
The St. Paul City Council has voted unanimously to approve Mayor Melvin Carter’s proposal to guarantee $500 in monthly income to 150 low-income families affected by COVID-19.
 
300 and counting: Push by feds to arrest in U.S. protests
Attorney General William Barr says he wants prosecutors to be aggressive in charging demonstrators who cause violence.  
Barr blasts his own prosecutors:'All power is vested in the attorney general'
 
Trump aims to boost rural turnout in critical Wisconsin
Making his fifth visit to the pivotal battleground state this year, President Donald Trump views success in the state’s less-populated counties as critical to another term.
 
U.S. Highway 14 receives $22 million federal grant to expand, finish six-decade project
After decades of impasses and financial shortcomings, southern Minnesota will finally be able to fix and finish a highway expansion project that has been ongoing for 60 years.
 
Half million homes are same-sex marriages 5 years after ruling
Five years after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriages around the U.S., more than a half million households are made up of married same-sex couples.  
 
Pence returns to Minnesota, Wisconsin after Trump, Biden visits
The vice president will start a bus tour Sept. 24 in Eau Claire, Wis,, where he will speak at the building materials company Midwest Manufacturing Inc. before traveling to Minneapolis to meet with Cops for Trump.
Trump vs. Biden: How to make sense of recent political polls in Minnesota
Campaign ads: It's getting hard to miss them in Minnesota
Visits Friday:  Walz urges Trump, Biden to follow Minnesota's COVID-19 rules
 
Secretary of State Steve Simon answers your questions as voting begins Friday
Secretary of State Steve Simon, Minnesota’s top elections official, is Mike Mulcahy’s guest on Politics Friday to answer questions about all aspects of our voting and elections system.
 

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