June 23, 2020
Sunny, not-too-hot Wednesday. Our clear, sunny skies are returning with highs in the 70s and 80s tomorrow. The pleasant summery weather will stay in Minnesota for the coming two days, and storms and showers come back on the weekend. Bob Kroll won’t leave his post anytime soon, Mpls. police union leaders say. Minneapolis police union head Lt. Bob Kroll and other union leaders on Tuesday spoke to MPR News and other media for the first time since the killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day. The union leaders say they don’t plan to challenge now-fired officer Derek Chauvin’s termination and are willing to discuss some of the demands made by community members. However, Kroll is not going away anytime soon, they said. No Twin Cities Marathon this year. Like many other events canceled amid the pandemic, all of its running events scheduled for the Fourth of July will go virtual. Registered participants will get credit, but no refunds will be offered, organizers say. Top Senate Republican: It’s too late to take on police reform this session. “Minneapolis wanted to defund the police. The Democrats of the House wanted to do alternatives to policing. We didn't approve of dismantling the police, nor felon voting, which in the end, they took that one off,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka told MPR News host Cathy Warzur. “They just added too much at the end, and there was no way we were going to get done, even in weeks.” Listen to his full interview on MPR News here. COVID-19 in Minnesota today: Hospitalization, ICU cases’ curves stay downward; 9 new deaths. The total number of Minnesotans who died from COVID-19 since the pandemic is now 1,393, but the daily rate of deaths continues to slow -- Today marked the first time since mid-April that the daily death count remained in the single digits for three consecutive days. — Jiwon Choi, MPR News | @ChoiGEE1 | 