Good morning. Coronavirus continues to dominate the news cycle. If you want a daily audio update about what's happening with the outbreak in Minnesota, subscribe to the Minnesota Today podcast, where every evening reporter Tim Nelson recaps the day's top developments. Here’s your Digest:
1. Classrooms closed, schools still reach out. It’s 8 a.m. on what would normally be a school day, and Melanie VanAlst’s school bus is ready to go. Van Alst will drive her rural Little Falls route and greet students at their regular stops as usual. But instead of giving them a lift to school, she’ll drop off much-needed meals to families affected by school closures. Schools across Minnesota shut their doors this week amid the COVID-19 outbreak, and districts are scrambling to provide meals to students who depend on them. Little Falls is one of several districts using bus drivers to deliver breakfast and lunch to school-age children. "Doing this for the kids is awesome,” VanAlst said. “Yesterday, we had so much gratitude.” MPR News
2. Coronavirus at the Capitol. Minnesota House leaders said Wednesday that they have a case of COVID-19 within their ranks. House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said an individual who works for the Minnesota House of Representatives has a presumed case of COVID-19. She did not say if the person is a legislator or a member of the staff. Citing health privacy laws, Hortman said she would not disclose any additional information. A human resources letter to staff said it was possible that employees working at the State Office Building and the Capitol may have been exposed. MPR News
3. State employees told to work remotely. Thousands of Minnesota state government employees are under work-from-home orders and others could be shifted to new assignments to help deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and the fallout. The work situation is being handled on an agency-by-agency basis, officials said. Gov. Tim Walz issued an order Tuesday night that ensures that any idled worker will be compensated, perhaps through paid leave if they have to stop working to care for children or other dependents. But he also asserted his ability to use “flexibility to hire staff, schedule, assign, and reassign employees without adherence to existing limitations in collective bargaining agreements.” It’s unclear just how many of the more than 35,000 state employees will still be asked to report to a job site. Correctional officers, for instance, have less flexibility than a clerk in a state agency office building. An official with the Department of Minnesota Management and Budget said it’s not immediately known how many employees will shift their job site or potentially be reassigned to other work. MPR News
4. GOP to take conventions online. Minnesota Republicans will hold their local party conventions online instead of in-person because of the coronavirus. “During these trying and ever-changing times, it is important that we continue moving forward and complete party business required of us to endorse candidates, elect presidential electors and have a voice at our national convention in August,” said Minnesota Republican Party chair Jennifer Carnahan, in a statement. “But it is crucial that while conducting party and political business, we do our part to keep our delegates, candidates, activists and the general public safe.” Wednesday’s announcement by the GOP comes one day after the Minnesota DFL’s similar move. MPR News
5. State seeks fed info on mining impact. Minnesota regulators have asked the Trump administration to provide the research from an aborted federal study about the impacts of copper mining on Superior National Forest and its Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, within 30 days. The federal study and its materials have been kept secret in defiance of multiple demands for their release, including from U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, D.-Minn., chair of the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee. The U.S. Department of Agriculture abruptly canceled the Forest Service study in September 2018, after nearly two years of work, saying the analysis “did not reveal new scientific information” and was a “roadblock” to minerals exploration in the Rainy River Watershed. What has been made public — 60 pages of redaction, with blacked-out pages that say “deliberative process privilege” in red — was released to The Wilderness Society only after it sued. Star Tribune
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