St. Paul OKs pilot project

ST. PAUL (AP) — The St. Paul City Council has voted unanimously to approve Mayor Melvin Carter’s proposal to guarantee $500 in monthly income to 150 low-income families affected by COVID-19.

The council was poised last week to approve using $300,000 in federal CARES Act funding to launch the pilot program, but decided to wait a week after U.S. Rep Betty McCollum questioned whether the plan would meet legal requirements for spending the coronavirus aid or endanger participants’ eligibility for other aid programs.

The mayor has said philanthropy will fund most of the $1.5 million, 18-month project, which is aimed at stabilizing the finances of disadvantaged families.

Potential health care data breach

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Patients and donors to at least four different health care providers in Minnesota are being notified that their personal information may have been compromised.

The potential data breach involves hundreds of thousands of patients and donors at Children’s Minnesota, Allina Health, Regions Hospital and Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare.

More than 200,000 patients and donors from Allina Health hospitals and clinics and more than 160,000 patients and donors at Children’s Minnesota have been notified of the possible data breach.

Pence returns to upper Midwest

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence returns to the upper Midwest next week following visits this week by President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, the Trump campaign announced Thursday.

Pence will start a bus tour next Thursday in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where he will speak at the building materials company Midwest Manufacturing Inc. before traveling to Minneapolis to meet with Cops for Trump. The vice president is returning to the region after multiple Wisconsin visits this month and nearly a month after visiting Duluth in northern Minnesota.

The visit was announced a day before Trump and Biden make dueling campaign stops in northern Minnesota. Trump will hold a rally in Bemidji, while Biden will visit a union training center in Duluth.

Gov. Tim Walz sent a letter to both the Trump and Biden campaigns on Tuesday urging both candidates to abide by the state’s public health guidelines to slow the spread of coronavirus.