ST. PAUL (LEARFIELD)  --  13 more Minnesotans have died from COVID-19--including seven people who lived in long-term care facilities. There are 1,066 newly reported cases of coronavirus and more than 100,000 cases have been confirmed statewide. That's according to the Minnesota Department of Health. So far, 2,049 people have died from COVID-19 in Minnesota.

ST. PETER (LEARFIELD) - The Minnesota State High School League Board of Directors voted Thursday to adopt a shortened winter high school sports season schedule with a maximum of two contests per week. Teams will play 70 percent of their normal schedule of games. The schedule allows for only conference, section and local opponents. Boys hockey and basketball will begin on November 23rd, girls hockey will start on November 30th and girls basketball will begin December 7th.

ST. PAUL (KMHL) – A Republican state senator and doctor who has been critical of the Walz administration's response to COVID-19 is taking the Minnesota Department of Health to task for removing data on the amount of statewide hospitalizations from COVID-19 in its public reporting. In a video posted on Facebook, Sen. Scott Jensen (R-Chaska) says removing that data is undermining the Department of Health’s transparency in the eyes of the public. "If you're upset with the lack of transparency, you should be. If you think you're being played, you probably are," said Jensen. "If people want to complain at the Department [...]

MARSHALL (KMHL) – Today is the final day of community COVID-19 testing taking place at Red Baron Arena in Marshall. Local Health officials will be testing people from noon until 6 p.m. today Southwest Health and Human Services Director Carol Biren says getting tested is one way to help in the fight the spread of COVID-19. "You need to continue to do all of the other things that you have been doing for the last 6-to-7 months," said Biren. "Social distancing, definitely staying home when you're sick, wearing a mask, avoiding large gatherings and keeping your circle small and then getting [...]

UNDATED (LEARFIElD) - New research indicates that agriculture and forestry contribute more than 37-billion dollars to Minnesota's economy. Minnesota AgriGrowth and more than two dozen ag stakeholder groups released a study conducted by Decision Innovation Solutions. AgriGrowth executive director Tamara Nelsen says 37-billion dollars is "a tremendous number and hopefully in the next census of ag it’ll be 40-billion dollars. We will hopefully have recovered from COVID." She says the study also shows 388-thousand jobs are attributable to the ag sector.  Nelsen says the industry overcame numerous challenges "to ensure that Minnesotans get the food, fuel and fiber they need to [...]

ST. PAUL (LEARFIELD)  --  The Minnesota Department of Public Safety is working with CenturyLink to determine the cause behind a multi-state 9-1-1 outage Monday. CenturyLink’s preliminary review shows 135 calls to 24 Minnesota public safety answering points (PSAPs) failed to be routed during the 48-minute disruption.  In its own preliminary review, D-P-S believes the outage was longer and that a number of 9-1-1 calls that failed to be routed were not included in the list. CenturyLink says the problem originated on a partnering vendor’s platform when an internal networking component failed to correctly forward traffic. CenturyLink has said that the vendor [...]

ST. PAUL (LEARFIELD) - The Minnesota Department of Health is changing the way it reports hospitalization numbers surrounding COVID-19. Infectious disease director Kris Ehresmann says they will now put the focus on total hospitalizations, not the number of people in the hospital on a given day. "In order to best understand the severity of the disease, we want to look at the proportion of cases admitted to the hospital," said Ehresmann. "This is more useful than the number of people who are in the hospital at any given time." So far, since M-D-H started collecting data in late January, more than [...]

MARSHALL (KMHL) – Health officials are once again going to offer free COVID-19 testing in Marshall next week. The Minnesota Department of Health and local health officials are partnering to give people a chance to get tested if they would like to get tested. Health officials say the testing will take place starting Tuesday September 29 and going through Thursday October first at the Red Baron Arena and Expo Center.  The testing will take place between noon and 6 p.m. "The more we know, the more we can help reduce community spread," said Marshall Mayor Bob Byrnes. "Testing plays a key [...]

2017 Legendary Service Award winner Roger Ricke, congratulates 2020 award recipient Bob Richards. MARSHALL (KMHL) – A Marshall Hy-Vee employee has received the company's highest honor. Hy-Vee Fuel Station Manger Bob Richards received the Legendary Customer Service Award from Hy-Vee yesterday. The award is given annually to only 9 of Hy-Vee's 85,000 corporate employees. Richards has been an employee of Hy-Vee for 32 years. He began as a member of the night stock crew and has advanced to serving as Fuel Station Manager. Richards becomes the third Marshall Hy-Vee employee to receive the prestigious distinction. Cheryl Overland was recognized [...]

WORTHINGTON (KMHL) – The Minnesota Department of Health has announced plans to conduct COVID-19 serology testing in Worthington Oct 3-4. Health officials say the goal is to get 2,000 people between age 7 through adult to test during the two day research event at the Nobles County Fairgrounds. Officials say testing will occur between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Officials say any Nobles County residents and those who work, shop, play or worship in the county are invited to participate in the free testing.