Aug. 7, 2020
Severe storms ahead of a steamy weekend. Keep an eye out for alerts in your area as most of central Minnesota braces for a thunderstorm watch, in effect until 1 a.m. The watch zone runs roughly from a Fargo to Duluth line, and southward to the Twin Cities. Saturday and Sunday will stay summery with highs in the 80s both days. More on the Updraft weather blog. Are you ready to vote this Tuesday? If you haven’t voted absentee yet, there’s still time to vote by mail or in person. Here’s everything you need to know about primary election day. We’ve also teamed up with the League of Women Voters Minnesota on a voter guide to let you compare candidates and their positions on key issues in the 2020 election. Coronavirus cases are surging, and contact tracers are struggling to keep up. The United States needs as many as 100,000 contact tracers to fight the pandemic, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Congress in June. We need billions of dollars to fund them, public health leaders pleaded in April. Today, America has neither the staff nor the resources to be able to trace the contacts of every new case. Learn more in this analysis by NPR. The latest on COVID-19 in Minnesota: Cases, hospitalizations flatten. But officials warn these are 'fragile gains' Experts renewed their overall worry that Minnesotans are backsliding in efforts to stem COVID-19 as the disease ripples through communities, fed by people returning to public spaces. Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm once again pointed to the upcoming rally in Sturgis, S.D., as an event that may bring trouble back to Minnesota. -- Sara Porter | MPR News | 