May 26, 2021
Tonight will be mostly cloudy with lows in the 30s north to upper 40s south. Thursday will be positively dreary, with cloudy skies, rain and highs in the upper 40s to mid-50s. More rain Thursday night with lows in the 30s.
Minnesota State Fair officials say they've disbanded their police department, just months before the gates are poised to reopen after a year-long hiatus because of COVID-19. Fair general manager Jerry Hammer says the retirement of the force's police chief prompted the decision, and the fair is seeking another agency to take over the responsibility. But it isn't clear which one. The Ramsey County Sheriff's office provides police services in Falcon Heights, outside the fair's gates, and sheriff Bob Fletcher says he believes police are key to keeping the fair safe. “We're trying to build this team that could provide a safe and secure environment,” Fletcher said. “We're not going to commit unless we know we can get the job done right. And it's critical that the job be done right, because there's 2 million people that come to this fair ... It's just too important not to have the right level of safety there.”
Fletcher says he's trying to put together a force of 200 officers quickly and is also going to ask the state for assistance. In COVID news, Minnesota reported a fourth straight day of new cases under 500, which hasn't happened since last fall. The numbers are making for the lowest midweek total of new cases since early September — although the Labor Day holiday data anomaly makes the current numbers more comparable to the cases reported last June. Newly confirmed infections have been plummeting for the last week of May. The daily average of new hospitalizations has also now been cut in half in the last month and active cases have dropped below 5,000 for the first time in 2021, and the test positivity rate is at its lowest point since April 1, 2020. New vaccinations also picked up slightly in the latest data, with the state now passing 64 percent of Minnesotans 16 and over with at least one shot. Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday will roll out incentives designed to nudge unvaccinated Minnesotans to get their shots.
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