The Pioneer’ Press Deanna Weniger writes: “Some Minnesotans expressed confusion on social media Saturday after receiving a message from the state health department saying their vaccine appointment had been canceled. … The Minnesota Department of Health issued a swift response saying the message was an error that had been corrected. … The original message was intended for around 20 Minnesotans who, through an error in the Primary Bio system, had been able to register for an appointment despite being ineligible to do so. … MDH said the vendor has fixed the error.”
For MPR, Andrew Krueger writes: “St. Paul police say they’re looking for at least one suspect after a shooting that left a woman and two children dead on Saturday afternoon. The shooting was reported just after 3 p.m. at a home on the 700 block of Jessie Street, on the city’s east side about a mile northeast of downtown. … A woman in her 30s and a girl in her early teens were pronounced dead at the scene. A boy, who police said was about 8 to 12 years old, was transported to Regions Hospital and died several hours later.”
Also in the Pioneer Press, Josh Verges writes: “Elementary schools throughout St. Paul will open their doors to students Monday for the first time in 47 weeks. The state’s second-largest district is among the last to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic. The chance to learn from others’ mistakes, along with declining Ramsey County cases and a growing scientific consensus around prioritizing in-person instruction for younger students, gives Superintendent Joe Gothard confidence it can be done safely.”
The Star Tribune’s Christopher Snowbeck writes: “The finding in Minnesota last week of the nation’s first COVID-19 infection from a more contagious Brazilian variant is raising concerns that pandemic cases could accelerate, although more information is needed on the exact nature of the threat. … But health officials don’t know for sure if it’s spreading in Minnesota.… It’s also not clear the extent to which immune system protection that’s been stimulated by vaccines or a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection will work against the Brazil variant.”
The AP reports: “A carjacking suspect who died in an encounter with St. Louis County sheriff’s deputies had shot himself in the head and was not hit by law officers’ gunfire, authorities said Saturday. A news release from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension says the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office identified the man as 34-year-old Scott Michael Jordan of Duluth. …The St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office said the incident began Friday evening when a woman and her 16-year-old son were carjacked by an armed man outside the Super One Foods grocery store in Pike Lake, near Duluth.”
The Star Tribune’s Jim Buchta writes: “It took just two days for a split-level house near Stacy to sell this month. Put on the market on a Friday for $284,900, it was shown 18 times and drew five offers by that Sunday, all above asking price. … The modest 1970s-era house some 40 miles northeast of downtown Minneapolis had taken much longer to sell and for a much lower price just a few years ago. But the COVID-19 pandemic is turning the housing market in the Twin Cities inside out. Some of the hottest housing markets in the metro are now outlying communities and rural townships, supplanting many urban neighborhoods and inner-ring suburbs….”
