MPR News PM Update
 
Good morning,
A quick update on that rain we teased yesterday: the heaviest rainfall will likely happen in southern Minnesota, with the Twin Cities catching the edge. Stay tuned as forecast models try and refine timing and totals into today. The latest on the Updraft.
People line up before 6 a.m. to get into the first day of the Minnesota State Fair in Falcon Heights, Minn., on Thursday, August 26, 2021. Evan Frost | MPR News

Making good on a promise to decide the issue before the start of the Minnesota State Fair, Ramsey County District Court Judge Laura Nelson denied a call to suspend a ban on people bringing firearms onto the state fairgrounds even if they have a permit to carry.

The State Agricultural Society, which operates the fair, has argued that the gun restrictions are aimed at protecting public safety. The gun owners group contends they weren’t properly enacted and aren’t valid under state law.

“Both parties have articulated harms,” the judge wrote in her 13-page order. “The court finds, however, that the plaintiffs have long been aware of the society’s position on guns at the State Fair and that their extensive delay undercuts their claim of irreparable harm. This factor slightly favors denying the injunction.”

Read more in the full report by Brian Bakst.
Indigenous elders including Mary Lyons, center, stand at the front of the crowd gathered for the Treaties not Tar Sands rally at the Minnesota State Capitol on Wednesday. Evan Frost | MPR News
Hundreds gathered outside the Minnesota Capitol Wednesday as part of a week of events protesting Enbridge Energy's Line 3 pipeline project.

The Minnesota segment of the pipeline is approaching 90 percent completion, but dedicated environmental activists like Jaike Spotted Wolf said they are not giving up.
"All these weather events that are definitely not normal, and all that money going into oil that's continual and perpetual could be going into those green energy projects," Spotted Wolf said.

The protest comes the same week that the Minnesota Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from pipeline opponents, eliminating many of their legal options.

Read more in the full report by Nina Moini and find more photos and video from the protest by Evan Frost.
Superior National Forest officials say 12 homes or cabins have been destroyed in the Greenwood Fire that has burned around 22,000 acres in northeast Minnesota and is not contained. An additional three dwellings were damaged.

Read more from Dan Kraker and Tim Nelson.
Here's what else we're watching
Violent crime in rural areas: Host Brandt Williams talked with two criminologists and a public policy expert about how crime trends are impacting Minnesota's smaller towns and communities. They explored domestic violence, gun violence, addiction, and policing in exurban and rural areas.

Cash for COVID shots at State Fair: Gov. Tim Walz announced the program offering $100 Visa gift cards for the first 3,600 people to get a shot is being revived at the Minnesota State Fair.

J&J booster shot: Johnson & Johnson said that when it gave study participants a second jab after six months, their antibody levels were nine times higher than they were 28 days after a first dose of the COVID vaccine.
– Sara Porter, MPR News
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