Voter group sues Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota voter advocacy group is suing Minneapolis to block it from accepting money to help cover a shortfall in funding to carry out the November election amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Minnesota Voters Alliance filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota this week, arguing that the city cannot accept funds from private organizations for election costs, the Star Tribune reported.

Minneapolis is currently applying for a grant between $2 million and $3 million from the Chicago-based nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life. The city is planning to use the money to cover a shortfall of roughly $1.4 million for election costs due to coronavirus precautions.

The Minnesota Voters Alliance calls the grant an “entanglement of public and private interests” in its lawsuit.

Minneapolis City Attorney Jim Rowader said the grant money would be used to increase voter access regardless of party affiliation.

Iowa City man shoots woman

IOWA CITY, Iowa. (AP) — An Iowa City man shot a woman living with him before turning the gun on himself, police say.

Iowa City police said Tuesday that their investigation showed that no other people were in the home that 49-year-old Floyd Lowell Rush and 45-year-old Latoya Patrice Smith shared when they died Sept. 15. Police also said both died from injuries from a single handgun found at the scene.

Police said the deaths occurred between 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sept. 15. Emergency responders were called to the home at about 8:30 p.m. Sept. 15 by concerned family members who saw through a window that Smith was lying on the bathroom floor.

Police said Rush shot Smith several times before shooting himself.

South Dakota reports new cases

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Department of Health officials on Sunday reported 412 new cases of the coronavirus, for a total of 2,849 positive tests in seven days and 21,541 cases since the pandemic began.

The number of active cases increased by 48, to a record 3,790. Hospitalizations rose by three to 216 and the death toll remained unchanged at 218, health officials said.

South Dakota ranks second in the country behind North Dakota in the number of new cases per capita in the last two weeks, according to The COVID Tracking Project.