Good morning, Minnesota. Happy Wednesday!

Here's the latest news from across the state to start your day. ☕

WEATHER

⛅ Wednesday will bring another mild day with slowly decreasing cloud cover. Highs will be in the 40s and 30s mostly.

🌨️ Another disturbance brings a better chance at snow showers for northeast Minnesota Wednesday night. Some spots could see as much as 1 or 2 inches.

Get the latest weather news on Updraft.

Lengthy cleanup, outpouring of support for Minneapolis businesses affected by water main break

It’s been nearly two weeks since a broken water main in Minneapolis flooded a building housing several longtime small businesses. They’re still cleaning up and figuring out next steps, as friends, neighbors and customers show their support.

A century-old time capsule in Virginia, Minn., offers a glimpse into the towns past

St. Louis County officials opened a time capsule that’s been sealed for more a hundred years. Workers found the small copper box in the cornerstone of an old building that was recently demolished.

NEWS ROUNDUP

🫏Walz says no to U.S. Senate bid Gov. Tim Walz has officially ruled out a run for U.S. Senate. Walz had been giving it some thought since Sen. Tina Smith, a fellow Democrat, announced she wouldn't run in 2026 earlier this month.

🧶 ‘Just devastation’: Closing of Joann fabrics and crafts store creates a void for Minnesota creatives. Joann Inc., which was formerly known as Jo-Ann Fabrics, operates 21 stores in Minnesota, from Hutchinson to Hibbing. This week, the company announced the closure of all 800 stores.

💸 Minnesota economy is resilient, even as federal job cuts create uncertainty. Minnesota doesn’t have as large of a federal workforce as some other states, but nationwide reductions in the federal workforce have unleashed an unsettling fog of uncertainty about the labor market and the local economy’s health.

⚖️ Business owner tells court Feeding Our Future iced her out when she refused to pay kickbacks. Hanna Marekegn is one of 70 people implicated in what federal prosecutors say was a $250 million scheme, led by Bock, to defraud taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs during the pandemic.

📝 Report: Immigrants make up increasing share of Minnesota’s overall workforce. According to the report, nearly 60 percent of the state’s total labor force and employment growth came from foreign-born workers from 2019 to 2023.

🎿 At Welch Village, people living with disability learn courage through skiing. Since 1968, this ski resort in southeast Minnesota has been teaching downhill sports to students with a range of disabilities from blindness to cerebral palsy.

❄️ Dwindling snowpack causes Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon to move farther north. Race organizers said in a statement Tuesday that there’s almost no snow left at the traditional starting line and that moving the race start will ensure a safer trail for mushers and their teams.

🚕 Rideshare drivers would get power to unionize under Minnesota bill that faces long road. Greg Nammacher, president of SEIU Local 26, said the law adopted last year comprised the first steps and now is the time for Uber and Lyft drivers to have negotiating power over pay and working conditions.

🏛️ Appeals court upholds sex trafficking conviction against ex-GOP operative Lazzaro. At the time of Lazzaro’s arrest, the charges rocked the state Republican Party given Lazzaro’s big financial contributions and his ties to GOP leaders, all of whom denied knowledge of his sexual misconduct.

MUST LISTEN

🎧 How to save a life: Revived bill would prepare schools for cardiac emergencies. State Sen. Bonnie Westlin, DFL-Plymouth, is pushing a new bill to ensure schools are prepared when the unexpected happens. Should it pass, it would require Minnesota school districts and charters to develop a Cardiac Emergency Response Plan, or a CERP, and implement it by the 2026-27 school year.

🎧 Power Pair: The rabbi and the politician. MPR News host Angela Davis continues her Power Pair series with a conversation about faith, politics and the importance of strong relationships — in marriage and community with Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman and Frank Hornstein.

🎧 New bills look to track student absenteeism data faster, hopes to find solutions. According to the most recent data from the Minnesota Department of Education, in 2023, more than a quarter of students missed at least 10 percent of school. Some lawmakers say there needs to be more effective ways of tracking who is missing a lot of school and who completely withdraws.

🎧 Listen to today's headlines on our Minnesota Today podcast.