MPR News PM Update
 
Pine County, Minn., community health services administrator Samantha Lo tracks the spread of COVID-19 there. “We’re worried about obviously people still getting sick and going to the hospital and dying. You can see these really disastrous consequences happen.” | Mark Zdechlik, MPR News
 
 
Good morning,

Welcome to Tuesday, July 6.

Yesterday's heat was brutal. Today will be much different, as an overnight system brings showers and storms over the entire state — hopefully making an impact on our ongoing drought. Cooler air will funnel in along with the storm, too.

Much of Minnesota's pandemic data is looking quite positive: Average daily case counts are consistently below 100. Sixty-seven percent of people 16 and older have at least one shot.

But the rate at which your neighbors have been vaccinated depends a lot on where you live, Mark Zdechlik reports.

Take Pine County in east-central Minnesota. It's one of nearly a dozen counties where most people have so far chosen not to get vaccinated. And a recent wedding there resulted in several unvaccinated people contracting COVID-19.
 
Red oak leaves from a tree infected with oak wilt. Infected trees have wilting and bronze to reddish-brown discolored leaves that may also look water-soaked. | Wisconsin DNR

 
A disease that kills oak trees is spreading in Minnesota, and a discovery of it as far north as Crow Wing County has foresters and landowners worried.

Oak wilt slowly kills the leaves of oak trees and eventually kills the tree itself. It spreads naturally through root systems, sap beetles and open tree pores, but people accelerate the spread when they prune oaks and carry infected firewood across the state.

Here's what to watch for in oak trees and how to help stop the spread.
 
 
The Legislature passed the state's two-year budget bill before the July 1 deadline, but this special session is still not over. Today, the Minnesota Senate is reviewing agency leaders from Gov. Tim Walz's administration — and possibly voting on removing them.

The Senate has unilateral power to confirm or reject the governor's appointments. Several of Walz's commissioners have served for years without confirmation, which is not uncommon or required.

Commissioners from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the DNR and the Board of Animal Health are among many of the people under review today.
 
  • Minnesota's blood centers are in urgent need for donations. With the usual summer slump plus a shortage of workplace and school blood drives, inventories are stretched thin.
  • A recent outbreak of chronic wasting disease, the always-fatal deer disease, sparked outcry. Now, a new law gives the state's  DNR authority to inspect the state's 174 deer farms — previously a job just for the Board of Animal Health. And the two agencies have different priorities. 
– Grace Birnstengel, MPR News
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