Here's the latest news from across the state to start your day.
WEATHER
🌧️ Our latest round of rainfall will taper off through the morning hours Friday, but we’ll see the potential for more spotty showers and thunder popping up Friday afternoon and evening.
⛅ Saturday will be mostly dry. An isolated shower can’t be ruled out and we’ll have quite a bit of lingering cloud cover. We’ll likely see increasing peeks of sun Saturday afternoon.
Schools and youth sports organizations say the unruly parent problem is getting worse, with some coaches saying they're increasingly being harassed and even threatened by parents, making it more difficult to keep and recruit coaches.
The change to state rules around American Indian mascots will allow public school districts to seek support from the nearest tribal nation when seeking an exemption. Under the previous bill, districts had to seek support from all 11 tribal nations in the state and the Tribal Nations Education Committee.
The renowned Wedge neighborhood cat tour has some company this year. A new cat tour is starting in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood of St. Paul.
NEWS ROUNDUP
🏛️ Walz, Democratic governors defend immigration policies before Republican-led House panel. Republicans in Congress called several Democratic governors to Washington on Thursday to question them over policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
🚌 New rapid transit bus line connecting the Twin Cities is set to open Saturday. The Metro B Line essentially replaces Metro Transit’s slowest bus, Route 21. The 13-mile line is expected to run faster and stop less between Union Depot in St. Paul and Lake and France streets in Minneapolis
🕯️ Memorial planned for man found dead alongside road in Hastings. A 74-year-old Denmark Township resident known as “Ike,” was found dead in February alongside a roadway in Hastings. Friends have expressed concern that he was vulnerable and may have been targeted because of his gender expression.
⚖️ Lake Street protester freed, pleads not guilty to assaulting federal agents. Isabel Lopez, 27, was among a group of about 100 people who protested what they thought was an immigration raid at a Lake St. restaurant on June 3. 🚨 Two face federal charges in separate shootings at high school graduation ceremonies. 20-year-old Hamza Said of Coon Rapids and 18-year-old Amiir Ali of Circle Pines are charged with illegal possession of machine guns. Prosecutors allege both men were involved in gang-related activity tied to the shootings.
🎧What new limits on international students mean for Minnesota. MPR News host Angela Davis and her guests talk about how halting interviews for new student visa applications and banning travel from some countries could affect higher education in Minnesota.
🎧 Despite EV boom, Minnesotans slower to embrace electric vehicles than many other states. The indication that there might be a slowing popularity for the brand had some experts blame the company’s CEO Elon Musk and his relationship with American politics. Even Gov. Tim Walz took at jab at Musk and the company’s business woes.
