Morning Edition

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Morning Edition, with Cathy Wurzer in St. Paul and NPR hosts in Washington and Los Angeles, brings you all the news from overnight and the information you need to start your day. Listen from 4 to 9 a.m. every weekday.

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Chauvin trial: MPD instructor says cops aren't trained to use knee on neck
A Minneapolis use-of-force instructor testified that officers aren't trained to use their legs or knees on somebody's neck, while another police official told jurors that Derek Chauvin received extensive training in how to defuse tense situations.
Chauvin trial: Floyd restraint violated cops' training, ethics, chief says
Derek Chauvin should have stopped subduing George Floyd once Floyd stopped resisting, Medaria Arradondo told the court in Chauvin’s murder trial. The chief said Chauvin’s use of force on Floyd was not reasonable and outside the bounds of department policy.
Billions from feds: Headache or blessing for Minn. budget writers?
Almost $8 billion — more if you count other assistance — will come into Minnesota as part of the latest federal pandemic legislation. It throws a curveball into state budget negotiations.
Passenger rail backers hope Biden’s infrastructure plan could return train service to Duluth 
Backers of a long-proposed passenger rail service between Duluth and Minneapolis are giddy over the infrastructure plan President Joe Biden unveiled earlier this week. Biden is calling for an $80 billion investment in rail — including, potentially, more than $500 million in funding for the proposed Northern Lights Express project.
‘The Year of the Plague’: The pandemic, through a storyteller’s eyes
Ojibwe storyteller Anne Dunn has been totally alone in a little house on the Leech Lake Reservation for more than a year, wondering — as storytellers do — how to weave the pandemic into a coherent narrative.
An MPR News listener wanted to know whether there are days in Minnesota that have seen record high and low temperatures spanning more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
April 2 update on COVID-19 in MN: Vaccination pace rising; new case counts climbing
While vaccinations remain firmly on the upswing, new COVID-19 cases are pushing higher again. Minnesota reported 2,553 new cases Friday, the most in one day since Jan. 4. Intensive care needs are at their highest level in more than two months.
Chauvin trial: MPD homicide chief says officers' use of force 'uncalled for'
“I saw no reason why the officers felt they were in danger, if that’s what they felt, and that’s what they would have to feel to be able to use that kind of force,” Lt. Richard Zimmerman said. He came upon the scene hours after George Floyd was killed in police custody.
'I live with Standing Rock in my heart': Massive pipeline protest resonates 5 years later
Tribal members who gathered at a small protest camp near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota were trying to stop the Dakota Access pipeline from crossing under the Missouri River nearby. The camp grew to thousands, and became an international movement. Its influence is still felt at pipeline and climate change protests, and in the lives of those who were at the camp.   
Chauvin trial: Police supervisor says force on Floyd went too long
David Pleoger’s testimony capped a day in court that included testimony from paramedics who believed Floyd was dead at the scene yet still tried to revive him and from Floyd’s girlfriend who, with laughter and tears, told of their life together and their addiction struggles.