A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
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While Minnesota’s current upswing in Covid-19 is relatively mild compared to earlier surges, state officials are warning that the pandemic is not over yet and that those who are not vaccinated are especially vulnerable to a rapidly growing variant of the disease. Briefing reporters for the first time in nearly two months, state public health leaders didn’t unveil any new policy changes Monday, but they placed a heavy emphasis on the need to boost vaccinations to head off the highly contagious Delta strain, which they said is now driving 75 per... 
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Minnesota's air quality has been exceptional for all the wrong reasons this week. On Thursday, an air quality monitor in Brainerd recorded the highest particulate reading ever recorded in the state, since the monitors were installed about 20 years ago. "And then a couple hours later, that smoke moved down to St. Cloud, and we broke that record in a matter of hours — at like 422 micrograms,” said Nick Witcraft, an air quality forecaster for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). “That was quite impressive to see." And those two recor... Website
A state court on Monday sent a key air emissions permit for the planned PolyMet copper-nickel mine back to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for further consideration and additional findings. The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled that the MPCA did not adequately explain its reasons for granting the permit, after environmental groups and the Fond Du Lac tribe alleged that PolyMet was engaging in so-called “sham permitting” by planning a much larger mine than what it applied for. It’s a setback for what would be the state’s first copper-... Website
Minnesota has a new $52 billion, two-year state budget, but it didn’t come easy. The Legislature needed almost all the time between the end of the regular session on May 17 and the end of the fiscal year at midnight Wednesday to finish the budget. The special legislative session was one of a series over the past year and marked the first time many lawmakers were able to meet face to face in months. The budget came together without any of the tax increases that DFL Gov. Tim Walz and House Democrats had proposed earlier in the year, when the s... Website
The Minnesota Court of Appeals handed a major victory to Enbridge Energy this week, affirming state utility regulators’ approval of the Canadian company’s Line 3 oil pipeline replacement project. A three-judge panel ruled 2 to 1 that there is substantial evidence to support the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission’s approval of the project. The PUC approved a certificate of need for the Line 3 project twice — in 2018, and again last year. The commission also granted the project a route permit, along a different route than the current Line 3....
Oxygen levels are falling in freshwater lakes in Minnesota and across the globe — a trend likely driven by climate change and human development, a new study suggests. The findings could be a sign that trouble is ahead for Minnesota lakes that provide important habitat for coldwater fish species, and could have more harmful algal blooms in their future. The study, published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature, was the first to look at temperature and oxygen changes across a large number of lakes across the globe. Its research team include... Website
Minnesota lawmakers walked out of the state Capitol in broad daylight after the 2021 session came to an end. In most years, that alone would be a banner accomplishment. This year, it produced howls of protest. The objections stem from the fact that the Legislature didn't complete a single budget bill by Monday's deadline. It's a point Republican House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt dwelled on. "Basically, I think Democrats were waving the white flag of surrender. This was the least productive...
Active cases and hospitalizations are ebbing in Minnesota, but the vaccination pace remains at a relative crawl even as state public health leaders plead with unvaccinated adults to get their shots. More than 60 percent of state residents 16 and older have had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. But with the pace only inching forward now, it’ll take longer to reach 70 percent — the threshold Gov. Tim Walz linked to ending the statewide mask mandate. A few weeks ago, the state was on pace to hit the 70-percent mark in mid-May; now it’s push... Full story
Kirsti Marohn MPR News The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says contamination from PFAS — so-called “forever chemicals” — has been detected in groundwater at nearly 60 closed landfills, at amounts higher than the state’s acceptable levels for safe drinking water. Fifteen of the closed, mostly unlined landfills have PFAS contamination at least 10 times higher than the state’s health-based advisory values. One — Gofer Landfill near Fairmont in Martin County — is more than 1,300 times higher. Carlton County’s former landfill near the current...
By John Enger / MPR News Almost exactly a year after they were put in place, Minnesota is easing back some of its COVID-19 restrictions, taking another step toward some semblance normalcy into the spring. Gov. Tim Walz announced the new, more lenient restrictions Friday morning, citing strong vaccination progress and falling infection numbers. Beginning noon March 15, bars and restaurants will be allowed to serve customers at 75 percent capacity. Salons, barber shops and churches won't have... Website
Tim Nelson / MPR News The state will hit its goal of vaccinating 70 percent of Minnesotans age 65 and older weeks ahead of schedule, and is rolling out Covid-19 vaccines to a wider array of people. Gov. Tim Walz announced the expanded guidelines in a statement Tuesday, March 9, hours after health officials posted data indicating that 66 percent of older Minnesotans had already been vaccinated, and the 70-percent benchmark was near. "We asked most Minnesotans to wait patiently while we protected Minnesotans at higher risk and got shots to at... Full story
Vaccination acceleration may finally be here. The Health Department on Wednesday reported about 32,000 new vaccinations in Minnesota, nearly twice the number from last Wednesday. The seven-day trend is running at nearly 39,000 shots daily now, the highest since vaccinations began in late December. State public health leaders have said for weeks that they’d be ready to ramp up when they got more supply. With the federal government now promising enough vaccine to inoculate every adult American by the end of May — two months earlier than exp... Website
Mprnews.org The Minnesota State High School League Board of Directors on Thursday approved a tentative plan for winter state tournaments, with many of those events being held several weeks later than usual to end the pandemic-affected season. Among the changes, state quarterfinals for high school hockey and basketball will take place in the last week of March. Boys and girls hockey semifinals and championship games will be held at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on April 1-3. Boys and girls basketball semifinals and title games will be... Full story
A federal judge says Enbridge Energy can proceed with construction on its contentious Line 3 oil pipeline, less than a week after a state appellate court panel also denied a request from Minnesota tribes and environmental groups to temporarily block work on the project. The Red Lake Band of Chippewa, White Earth Band of Ojibwe, the Sierra Club, and the Native American-led environmental group Honor the Earth filed suit in federal court in December, seeking to overturn a key permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. At the same time,... Website
A report out this month says Minnesota’s air quality is good overall, but isn’t the same in all parts of the state. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is required to report to the Legislature every two years on how clean the state’s air is. The most recent report, sent to the Legislature on Jan. 1, says Minnesota is meeting federal standards for air pollution. But it also says people in some areas experience pollution levels high enough to affect the health of children, the elderly and those with underlying health conditions. “In areas t...
After a surge of visitors brought an increase in litter and damage to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness last year, officials are taking steps to head off similar problems this year. The Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota announced Friday that because of the pandemic, it once again will offer alternatives to issuing wilderness permits in-person. But in a change from last year, it’ll require people acquiring their permit online to watch three leave-no-trace education videos and review BWCAW rules before they receive their p... Full story
The FBI says members of a far-right group that wants to foment a second civil war scouted out the Minnesota State Capitol ahead of a pro-Trump rally planned for this weekend. A memo to law enforcement from the FBI's Minneapolis field office says that "a few Minnesota-based followers of the Boogaloo movement" identified police sniper locations and said buildings with snipers would "need to be blown up" to protect Boogaloo fighters. The Dec. 29 memo says the group did not plot a specific attack, b... Website
Minnesota Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber says he wants to move forward and heal the nation after this week's violent storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump. On MPR News last Friday, Stauber, who represents the 8th District in northeast Minnesota, called the attack "unacceptable," saying Trump bears some responsibility for his heated rhetoric ahead of the incident. But the Republican congressman stressed that the tone of politics on both sides needs to "calm... Website
The state will allow bars and restaurants to offer indoor dining again next week — with limits — and also allow for movie theaters, museums and other entertainment venues to reopen after being closed since mid-November. The new order, announced Wednesday by Gov. Tim Walz, is set to take effect Monday. It will allow bars and restaurants to operate at 50-percent capacity, with no more than six people to a table or parties of two at the bar. Reservations are required and dine-in service must end by 10 p.m. “Business owners are pretty innov... Full story
Minnesota is expected to receive 183,400 doses of CovidD-19 vaccines this month, and they’ll be targeted toward health care workers and the state’s most vulnerable residents, Gov. Tim Walz said this week. The vaccines will come from two makers, Pfizer and Moderna, which are seeking emergency use from the federal Food and Drug Administration. The agency was expected to decide on Pfizer’s vaccine on Thursday and Moderna’s on Dec. 17. That timeline could position Minnesota to start vaccinating people as early as next week. “It is happening. It is... Full story
Kirsti Marohn MPR News A nonprofit organization has purchased more than 70,000 acres of northern and central Minnesota forest formerly owned by the paper and lumber giant Potlatch. Potlatch once owned 330,000 acres across Minnesota, on which it managed and harvested trees for its paper mills. Now called PotlatchDeltic and based in Spokane, Washington, the company sold off most of that land over the past few decades. This month, The Conservation Fund finalized a deal to purchase the remaining...
It has been a difficult few weeks in Minnesota, as Covid-19 continues its rampant spread across the state, leaving record-smashing case numbers and a devastating toll of hospitalizations and deaths. Gov. Tim Walz announced an effort Tuesday to tamp down the spread, as he imposed new statewide restrictions on bars, restaurants and social gatherings. What do the new restrictions entail? Starting Friday, bars and restaurants can no longer serve alcohol and food to in-person customers after 10 p.m., but they will be allowed to sell to-go orders. Pe... Website
State health officials have said for months that accurate and accessible testing is a key tool in understanding and combating Covid-19 in Minnesota. The most commonly administered Covid-19 tests in Minnesota are diagnostic tests, which determine whether you are infected with the coronavirus at the moment you're tested. Those are the tests that the state reports in its daily updates - and the tests that help epidemiologists understand the spread of Covid-19 across the state. There are two types... Full story
Gov. Tim Walz made it clear Wednesday that the Covid-19 pandemic will get worse in the near term before it gets better. “We’ll be unfortunately announcing numbers today: positivity rates above 20 percent and unfortunately we are going to have the highest death count since this began with 56 Minnesotans dying,” he said in an MPR News interview Wednesday. “This is just inevitable if we do not change our behaviors and take some mitigation efforts, this will continue to spike.” Minnesota’s previous record was 36 deaths, reported last Friday. On... Full story
Story by Catharine Richert / MPR News Just after midnight, President Donald Trump revealed on Twitter that he tested positive for COVID-19 — a virus that has infected more than 7 million people nationwide. His diagnosis comes after a close adviser, Hope Hicks, tested positive, but also after a whirlwind week of campaign stops and travel, including to Minnesota on Wednesday, where he attended a fundraiser at a private home in Shoreview and a rally in Duluth. Trump’s diagnosis raises myriad questions, including how public health officials wil... Website
