Star Tribune
4 things expected to change for Minnesotans with the end of the COVID emergency
Thursday was the last day of the U.S. federal public health emergency in response to the spread of COVID-19, another big step in the slow shift back to normalcy after a pandemic that exceeded three years and forced major worldwide disruptions.
The end of the federal emergency means changes for hospitals and how they interact with COVID sufferers. Here are four things expected to change:
- Many health plans will continue to fully cover COVID vaccinations, but patients are likely to lose access to free at-home COVID-19 tests while also experiencing new or increased co-pays for COVID treatment.
- Small, rural critical-access hospitals are losing flexibility around the ability to increase bed capacities and keep patients checked in for longer. Joe Schindler, a vice president at the Minnesota Hospital Association, previously said that made small hospitals more effective in treating serious illnesses with aid from video consults by specialists — thus easing a bed crunch in urban hospitals.
- Hospitals are also pushing against the reinstatement of an old rule that required Medicare patients to be admitted for at least three days before they could be transferred to nursing facilities.
- A 20% rate increase in Medicare payments for hospital treatment of COVID-19 is lifting, though Schindler said the switch won’t hurt hospitals too much because the number of patients with COVID-19 has declined.
Star Tribune
Moorhead man arrested after driving into squad cars, police say
A Moorhead, Minn., man was arrested on Saturday while he fled the scene in his vehicle and rammed into squad cars, according to police.
At about 1 p.m. Saturday, officers responded to the 3200 block of 9th Street S. on a report of a domestic incident. Police said they spoke with a 19-year-old man at the scene and he was “uncooperative and argumentative,” according to a department news release.
The Minnesota Star Tribune does not typically name suspects until they are charged. The man allegedly fled in his vehicle and backed into a squad car. An officer pursued the man, who rammed into another squad car before leaving, police said.
He eventually returned to the scene where officers took him into custody. He was booked into the Clay County Correctional Facility a short time later.
The officer who pursued the suspect sought medical attention for pain after their vehicle was struck, police said. Two squad cars were damaged during the incident.
According to the county sheriff’s booking report, the man was arrested on charges including assault of a peace officer causing bodily harm, fleeing police in a motor vehicle, assault inflicting serious bodily harm with a dangerous weapon as well as damage to property over $1,000.
Star Tribune
Coloring book duo teams up again to highlight St. Paul’s Rondo history
Kosfeld used family photographs and old newspaper pictures as the basis for her illustrations. She also researched clothing of the period. It was important to her, she said, that her drawings “were respectful. No cartoons or caricatures.”
“Rondo,” Kosfeld said, “can be a heavy subject to some communities. But I wanted to show it was just beautiful. Playful.”
The project took nearly two years to complete from January 2023 to early 2024. Kosfeld and Kronick published the coloring book themselves. The Rondo book can be found at several shops and bookstores in St. Paul, including Next Chapter Books, Red Balloon, Wet Paint, Waldmann Brewery, Subtext Books, the Minnesota Historical Society gift shop and St. Paul Children’s Hospital.
Kosfeld is working on a third coloring book with a St. Paul focus, this one on the art, architecture and history of the St. Paul park system, to be published by the Ramsey County Historical Society.
Star Tribune
Harris goes to church while Trump muses about reporters being shot
LITITZ, Pa. — Kamala Harris told a Michigan church on Sunday that God offers America a ”divine plan strong enough to heal division,” while Donald Trump gave a profane and conspiracy-laden speech in which he mused about reporters being shot and labeled Democrats as ”demonic.”
The two major candidates took starkly different tones on the final Sunday of the campaign. Less than 48 hours before Election Day, Harris, the Democratic vice president, argued that Tuesday’s election offers voters the chance to reject ”chaos, fear and hate,” while Trump, the Republican former president, repeated lies about voter fraud to try to cast doubt on the integrity of the vote and suggested that the country was falling apart without him in office.
Harris was concentrating her Sunday in Michigan, beginning the day with a few hundred parishioners at Detroit’s Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ. It marked the fourth consecutive Sunday that Harris, who is Baptist, has spoken to a Black congregation, a reflection of how critical Black voters are across multiple battleground states.
”I see faith in action in remarkable ways,” she said in remarks that quoted the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. ”I see a nation determined to turn the page on hate and division and chart a new way forward. As I travel, I see Americans from so-called red states and so-called blue states who are ready to bend the arc of history toward justice.”
She never mentioned Trump, though she’s certain to return to her more conventional partisan speech in stops later Sunday. But Harris did tell her friendly audience that ”there are those who seek to deepen division, sow hate, spread fear and cause chaos.” The election and ”this moment in our nation,” she continued, ”has to be about so much more than partisan politics. It must be about the good work we can do together.”
Harris finished her remarks in about 11 minutes — starting and ending during Trump’s roughly 90-minute speech at a chilly outdoor rally at the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, airport.
Trump usually veers from subject to subject, a discursive style he has labeled ”the weave.” But in Lancaster, he went on long tangents and hardly mentioned his usual points on the economy, immigration and rote criticisms of Harris.
Instead, Trump relaunched criticisms of voting procedures across the nation and his own staff. He resurrected grievances about being prosecuted after trying to overturn his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden, suggesting at one point that he ”shouldn’t have left” the White House.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings