The Minnesota unemployment rate dropped by a tenth of 1 percent in May and the labor force participation rate grew for the first time in three months as the state’s economy recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The United States is devoting more than $3 billion to speed development of treatments for COVID-19 and other dangerous viruses. There are some antiviral pills in development that could begin arriving by year’s end, pending the completion of testing.

Minnesota’s seven-day new-case average is at its lowest since April 2020. Known, active case counts may drop below 1,000 this week — Minnesota had 15,000 such cases just last month. The languishing vaccination pace is the biggest worry right now.

Also, Dameun Strange’s 24-hour Sol Soundgarden installation has music blooming across the Rondo and Frogtown neighborhoods in St. Paul, and Gwen Partin’s show pairs paper and textile arts in Minneapolis.

A program that helps Minnesotans with low incomes buy produce at farmers markets could be a victim of budget negotiations at the state Capitol, and some legislators are scrambling to find a way to save it. 

Nicholas Kraus, 35, allegedly crashed a Jeep SUV into a car that was parked across the traffic lanes to protect people protesting the police killing of Winston Smith. The force of the collision pushed the car into Deona Erickson and others nearby. Erickson was killed.

The decision marks a triumph for a new brand of conservatism on the court, which is putting the Constitution's guarantee to the free exercise of religion at the highest level of protection.

In the wake of heated debate over the unproven lab leak theory, the world is calling on China to cooperate with investigations. But efforts to delve into this matter seem to be stalling.

In the wake of 9/11, Congress approved two measures giving the president expansive war powers. The House voted to repeal one of those measures, the 2002 authorization of force in Iraq.

More than 250 landowners who live along an oil pipeline corridor that cuts across northern Minnesota can expect to receive additional information in the mail in the next few weeks about removing those pipelines from their land.

Websites and mobile apps were disrupted in the second major tech outage this month affecting large corporations around the globe.

The decision threw out the challenge to the law, on grounds that Texas and other objecting GOP-dominated states were not required to pay anything under the mandate provision. The vote was 7 to 2.

MPR News is creating two new programs — one weekly and one daily — and making other changes to our program schedule.

Experts say mixing and matching different two-dose COVID-19 vaccines is likely safe and effective, but data still needs to be collected to be sure. COVID-19 shots are all designed to stimulate your immune system to produce virus-fighting antibodies, though the way they do so varies.

The United States will soon have a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the nation. The House passed a bill 415-14 on Wednesday that would make Juneteenth, or June 19th, a federal holiday.

Some institutions have dropped the name Columbus Day or switched to celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Day. One New Jersey school district came up with a new solution: eliminate all holiday names.

Minnesota prosecutors say the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murder and manslaughter in George Floyd's death should not be granted a new trial.

Our rivers will likely get even lower. Less than 1 inch of rain for much of Minnesota in the next week.