Good morning, Minnesota. Happy Friday!

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

WEATHER

☁️ We should see partly cloudy skies Friday with temperatures running about 10 degrees below normal.

🥶 The weekend will see very similar temperatures with highs mostly in the teens south and near zero north. Saturday will be brighter, with clouds increasing Sunday.

Get the latest weather news on Updraft.

Minnesota prosecutor wants to keep word ‘senator’ out of Nicole Mitchell trial

Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald asked Judge Michael Fritz to restrict how Mitchell’s attorney talks about her role as a state senator — and how a conviction could impact her work as a lawmaker.

Monticello nuclear plant gets federal approval to keep operating until 2050

Xcel has said continuing to operate its two Minnesota nuclear plants, at Prairie Island and Monticello, is critical to its transition to carbon-free electricity. The Monticello plant produces enough energy to power more than half a million homes in the Upper Midwest.

NEWS ROUNDUP

🐕 Beargrease sled dog race postponed until March because of lack of snow. Race officials say that assessments of the 300-mile trail, which stretches from just north of Duluth to Grand Portage, found insufficient snow and icy terrain that creates hazardous conditions for mushers and their sled dogs.

🏢 Residents of condemned St. Paul apartment building suddenly displaced again. Former residents of St. Paul’s Lowry Building apartments have been suddenly displaced twice in the last month, after the troubled downtown building was condemned.

💸 Million-dollar Minnesota Lottery prize goes unclaimed, is forfeited to the state. The person holding one of the two million-dollar tickets — sold at Coborn’s grocery store in Delano — had a one-year window to claim the prize, but did not. That prize is now forfeited and goes into the state of Minnesota’s general fund.

🏒 Britta Curl-Salemme’s OT goal helps Frost beat Fleet 4-3. Curl-Salemme scored a goal with 13 seconds remaining in overtime to help the Minnesota Frost beat the Boston Fleet.

🏈 Fleck looks to extend Minnesota’s bowl streak against Virginia Tech in Duke’s Mayo Bowl. The Minnesota Golden Gophers put their seven-game bowl win streak on the line Friday night in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl against a Virginia Tech squad that has been decimated by transfers and opt-outs.

New Orleans inches toward normalcy while mourning victims of deadly New Year’s rampage. A mix of law enforcement, street performers and football fans is filling New Orleans’ blocks as the city inches back to normalcy. A deadly New Year’s truck attack along Bourbon Street killed 14 people, along with the driver.

Soldier shot self in head before Cybertruck exploded outside Trump's Las Vegas hotel, officials say. The highly decorated Army soldier inside a Tesla Cybertruck packed with fireworks that exploded outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas shot himself in the head just before detonation, authorities said Thursday.

🚨 Still on the hunt, the FBI shares new details about pipe bombs placed ahead of Jan. 6. Officials are still trying to identify the person who placed bombs outside of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee offices in 2021. Now they have fresh details.

MUST LISTEN

🎧 Talking Sense: Why grief has the power to unite us or divide us. MPR News host Angela Davis and her guests talk about the different ways we express grief, what we can do to support people who are grieving and what can happen when we suppress grief.

🎧 A glimpse into the year 2050, from Minnesota fiction writers. As we begin a new quarter-century, MPR News asked Minnesota fiction writers Bryan Thao Worra, Mubanga Kalimamukwento and Benjamin Percy to imagine the state 25 years from now, in the year 2050.

🎧 Extreme weather events push up insurance rates for Minnesotans. Grace Arnold, commerce commissioner for Minnesota, explains how extreme weather events linked to climate change are contributing to the rising cost of homeowner and car insurance across the state.

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

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