Stories from October 31, 2020

Our windy Halloween will be followed by some wintry temperatures on Sunday. We have your Sunday forecast details plus an update on the milder temps that are on tap for the coming week.
Ina Garten: 'All my books really are about comfort food'
Sometimes you want a really good salad, Garten says. But now is not that time. Her new book, “Modern Comfort Food,” is packed full of recipes for beef stew, chocolate chip cookies and Boston cream pie.
Trump blankets Pennsylvania, while Obama joins Biden in Michigan
The presidential campaigns began the final weekend before Election Day by making efforts to drive up needed support in a handful of key states.
The American government once offered widely affordable child care - 77 years ago
Affordable, quality child care was hard to come by even before the pandemic and now even more so. It's not for a lack of ideas about how to fix it. Is this the moment those ideas are taken seriously?
U.S. adds almost 100,000 new coronavirus cases in single day
The surge is particularly acute in the Midwest and Great Plains. Health experts say the increase is being driven in large part by people who aren't exhibiting any symptoms.
England faces new lockdown as UK virus cases pass 1 million
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday announced a new month-long lockdown for England after being warned that without tough action, a resurgent coronavirus outbreak will overwhelm hospitals in weeks.
Minnesota ballot-tracking website restored after going down; database issues slow voting
A website that Minnesotans can use to track their absentee ballots went down for more than an hour Saturday morning, along with other parts of the state’s online voter registration system — causing some longer wait times for early voting on an already-busy day.
We’re going to go deep into a story that first made headlines here in June. The Minneapolis City Council’s vow to dismantle the police department has been a source of bewilderment, celebration and outrage for Minneapolis residents. How did we get here, and where are we going? A special episode of Minnesota Today for Oct. 31, 2020. Hosted by Emily Bright and Tom Crann.
A windy Halloween, topped off with a "blue moon"
The only “hair-raising” part of our Halloween forecast will be the strong winds. We have details on that, plus the mild temperature forecast. Temps retreat this evening, and we have details about a chilly Sunday, followed by much warmer temps in the coming week.
In reversal, Walmart puts guns back on display
Walmart is returning guns and ammunition back to display shelves after earlier citing "isolated civil unrest" as the reason for temporarily taking them out of view as a safety precaution.
StoryCorps: Pulling off a Halloween prank during a deployment in Iraq
"We were doing an awful job in an awful time," veteran Garett Reppenhagen said in a StoryCorps conversation. "If I shed any joy to anybody on that base that day, then I think it was all worth it."
StoryCorps: A mother and daughter team up as poll workers to make a difference
"I know what's going on in the world right now. I know that tension is high, but think of all of the people like John Lewis and Dr. King getting ready to walk across Edmund Pettus Bridge. If they can do that, I can show up at the polls and work," Cherie DeBrest told StoryCorps.
Actor Sean Connery, the 'original' James Bond, dies at 90
Sean Connery, the charismatic Scottish actor who rose to international superstardom as the suave and fearless secret agent James Bond and then abandoned the role to carve out an Oscar-winning career in other rugged roles, has died. He was 90.
The campaign to wipe out polio was going really well - until it wasn't
It looked as if polio would be the second human disease to be eliminated, after smallpox. But "2020 has been a terrible year," the head of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative says.
Inks and colors rescue 'Blue In Green' from plodding plotting
Writer Ram V takes on a classic music-biz myth in his new graphic novel: The devilish crossroads deal. But it's illustrator Anand RK's loose, jazzy, clever art that really makes this book sing.
Oct. 31 update on COVID-19 in MN: Another day with 3,000+ new cases
Skyrocketing new caseloads made this one of the worst weeks in one of the worst months for Minnesota in the pandemic. Hospitalizations, new cases and deaths rose steeply in October and appear poised to spill into November.