Star Tribune
With plentiful sunshine, it will feel like summer this weekend in the metro, southern Minn.
Step aside spring, summer-like conditions will invade the Twin Cities and the southern half of Minnesota as the warmest air of the season arrives just in time for the weekend.
“Comfortable” with plentiful sunshine and no humidity, said Ryan Dunleavy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chanhassen. “Very nice.”
The burst of warmth will send the mercury into the 70s from Fergus Falls, Brainerd and St. Cloud south to the Iowa border Saturday and Sunday. In the metro area, shorts and t-shirts may be the attire of choice as temperatures move into the mid-70s, Dunleavy said.
By Monday, it may be even warmer, especially in places such as Marshall, New Ulm, Mankato and Willmar, where bank thermometers could be blinking 80 degrees or slightly above.
The weekend will get off to a cool start by those standards with a high of around 60 degrees on Friday, which is a few degrees above average for the middle of April, according to the Minnesota State Climatology Office. But under sunny skies, temperatures will rise from there for at least three straight days and likely will bring the season’s warmest day so far, which was 74 degrees on March 3 at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
No records are expected over the weekend. That happened last year when a heat spell set high-temperature records of 88 degrees on April 12 and 87 degrees on April 13, according to the Climatology Office. The hottest April day of all time was 95 degrees on April 21, 1980.
The sunny and warm conditions come with a downside as it will be breezy.
“That elevates the fire concern,” Dunleavy said, noting the persisting dry conditions. “Be mindful if you burn,” especially from Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon, he added.
Fire danger as of Thursday was labeled as high across western and far northwestern Minnesota, the Department of Natural Resources said in its weekly report. The danger was moderate across the north metro and in counties along I-35 just to the north, and low in most other places in the state, the DNR said.
Rain is in the forecast on Monday and Tuesday. Temperatures in the metro area will fall from about 78 degrees Monday into the upper 60s Tuesday and to right around 60 degrees Wednesday, the Weather Service said.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
