Welcome to Wednesday. Here are top national and local headlines to start your day: Expect more rain today, plus cooler temperatures. Rain/snow totals will reach an inch or 2 in many locations across Minnesota by this evening, but some locations from Grand Rapids through Ely could see 2 to 5 inches of wet snow by later today. Highs today will be in the 30s for northern Minnesota and near 50 for south. Dry skies and more sunshine return tomorrow. Get the latest from Updraft. A new initiative aims to create solutions for Black Minnesotans shaped and led by the Black community. More than 80 leaders representing Black communities in Minnesota are announcing the new multi-year initiative today to address racial inequities that have defied repeated efforts to repair. The new effort, with the working title of the Alliance of Alliances, will rely on a strategy called Black-Centered Design, which ensures that solutions for the Black community are created by the Black community. The alliance has already raised more than $3 million from the private sector toward a $4 million goal to get the project off the ground. Here’s what we know about the 15 jurors seated in the Derek Chauvin trial. The group of six men and nine women was finalized after just over two weeks of questioning by a judge. It’s more racially diverse than Hennepin County: Nine are white, four are Black, and two identify as multiracial. Only 12 will deliberate in the end, and the judge said he’s planning to excuse one of the three alternates on Monday if the other 14 show up as planned. If Minnesota’s yearlong battle against COVID-19 were a horror movie, we’d be at the point now where we think the evil’s gone only to hear the eerie music quietly starting again. The music in this case is a low but growing hum of new infections, driven by the highly contagious U.K. COVID-19 strain. Public health leaders are increasingly anxious about cases tied to the U.K. variant and to youth sports as they have confirmed 479 cases of the strain in recent weeks. Cases tied to the variant, officials say, are becoming a sizable part of Minnesota’s new COVID-19 caseloads. Over a quarter Minnesotans have received at least one COVID shot, and more shipments are expected next week into April. That includes nearly 855,000 people — about 15.4 percent of the state’s population — who have completed their vaccinations. Nearly 80 percent of Minnesotans age 65 and older have received at least one COVID-19 shot. With the expected increase in the vaccine supplies, Minnesota’s pandemic picture is not so dark despite the recent flattening vaccination pace. Here are Minnesota’s latest COVID-19 statistics: 6,789 deaths (7 new) -
507,231 positive cases; 97 percent off isolation 26 percent of Minnesotans with at least 1 vaccine dose 79 percent of Minnesotans 65 and older with at least 1 vaccine dose
A brave police officer, a dedicated employee at the supermarket, a father who walked his daughter at her wedding just this past summer were among the 10 victims of the Colorado shooting this week. Ten people died in the shooting at a Colorado grocery store on Monday. The victims ranged from age 20 to 65. Some of them were shopping at the store; some of them worked there. One was a police officer who arrived to help. Here's what we know about the lives that they lived. A ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines “will save lives” President Joe Biden urge in the wake of the Boulder shooting. Saying he was devastated by the attack, the president is calling on the Senate to pass to bills to tighten gun laws. Biden said assault weapons and high-capacity magazines should once again be banned and that loopholes in background checks should be closed. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer indicated he would bring the bills, passed in the House earlier, to the Senate floor, but their fate is uncertain in the tightly split chamber. Minnesota’s “green” agencies are largely white. So programs like this are aiming to change that. Minnesota’s key environmental agencies, MPCA and DNR, are disproportionately white, so they are making a concerted effort to diversify their workforces through programs like the “Minnesota GreenCorps.” Another major component of the programs is conducting targeted outreach, including attempts to reach diverse communities and non-English speakers. “We understand that fishing isn’t just a white people sport,” says Steven Yang who worked on the GreenCorps program and now leads a public awareness campaign with MPCA. Read more from Sahan Journal reporter Andrew Hazzard on this effort. A conversation at 9 a.m.: Why anti-Asian violence is on the rise — again. Attacks on Asian Americans are on the rise. Women are twice as likely as men to be targeted. Why? This morning, host Kerri Miller will discuss the problem of anti-Asian violence with two experts who know the history and the tropes that shape the Asian experience in America. — Jiwon Choi, MPR News | Find me on Twitter @ChoiGEE1 | 
