Feb. 16, 2021
We just ended a streak of 116 hours of below zero temperatures in the Twin Cities. (That's not a record, but it's still impressive.) Our cold eases as we go through the rest of this week. A little light snow on Tuesday, maybe an inch in many spots, and we're in the teens for highs this week and a warming trend arrives this weekend with the potential for 30 degrees Sunday, maybe 40 next Monday. Find the latest from Updraft. This winter blast that’s stretched down as far as Texas is hitting power generation in parts of western Minnesota.Officials have been warning residents and businesses of rolling blackouts this week.
Moorhead Public Service General Manager Travis Schmidt said electricity was cut to one area of Moorhead, Minn., for a half hour Tuesday morning after demand exceeded available electricity. The electric grid quickly stabilized and the rolling blackouts were called off.
Approximately 9,800 customers were impacted by the rolling power outages.
But Schmidt said the electric grid will likely remain unstable for a couple of days, with more rolling blackouts possible tonight and tomorrow morning.
"I would suspect that the threat will be here until temperatures, get above 32 degrees, probably down in that southern tip of Texas all the way up to Kansas, Nebraska area," Schmidt said.
Owners of businesses ransacked during last year’s Twin Cities riots made personal appeals Tuesday to Minnesota lawmakers for help with rebuilding.
The House Capital Investment Committee heard from several store owners from Minneapolis and St. Paul who could benefit from a proposed $300 million borrowing package. The plan advanced to another panel on an 11-8 party-line vote.
Gov. Tim Walz has also proposed a publicly managed redevelopment fund, although his measure is half the size of the House DFL plan.
But legislative Republicans say they’re leery of the amount of borrowing and routing the money through cities whose leadership they don’t trust.
In COVID-19 news today, health officials confirmed only 456 new cases, comparable to the week of Labor Day last year. The number of active cases also fell below 7,000 for the first time since late September. The daily death toll in the latest data fell to two, for the second day in a row. The day also marked the first time the state hit its goal of administering 90 percent of available vaccines within three days of reaching providers. But state health officials also warned that winter storms in the south may interrupt vaccine shipments and appointments, even in Minnesota.
You can get more of the latest news, in just a few minutes, via the Minnesota Today podcast. — Tim Nelson | MPR News | 
