MPR News AM Update: Why don’t most apartments have sprinklers?
Good morning. Here’s what you need to know this Tuesday.
Another good break from the snow. The Twin Cities will be mostly sunny with highs in the lower 30s and winds between 5 and 10 mph. At night, the winds pick up a bit and temps run in the 20s. Statewide, partly cloudy with highs from the mid 20s to lower 30s. Overnight lows in the upper teens to mid 20s. More on Updraft. | Forecast
Most floors in the Minneapolis high-rise apartments where a fire killed five people didn’t have sprinklers. That’s because they were built before Minnesota building codes required them. About 10 percent of apartments in the state have sprinkler systems, and the deadly fire in a Minneapolis Public Housing Authority property has renewed calls to retrofit older buildings with sprinkler systems.
Minnesota isn’t meeting its climate change goals, but Gov. Tim Walz wants to change that. He announced the creation of a new climate change subcabinet whose members will suggest policy changes to help the state meet its goals of reducing emissions 30 percent by 2025 and 80 percent by 2050. The goal in question is the Next Generation Energy Act, and it’s more than a decade old.
A new homeless shelter is slated for downtown Minneapolis. The Star Tribune’s Kelly Smith reports Catholic Charities is working to open a $65 million facility that’ll more than double the number of rooms available downtown. A $5 million dedication from Hennepin County for the project marks the county’s biggest investment of all time in a single housing project.
This summer, there will be two more common conditions qualifying for medical marijuana. If you have chronic pain or age-related macular degeneration, you might be a candidate for a medicinal cannabis prescription. Regulators added those conditions to the medical marijuana program, effective in August, while announcing more proposed sites to access the drug and new ways to take it, including gums and lozenges. Gummies, however, will remain illegal.
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