Med City Beat is no longer publishing new articles, though archives from 2014-2022 remain accessible to the public.
Med City Beat is a Rochester-based news project rooted in fairness, transparency and civic responsibility.
Est. 2014
Parents of elementary schoolers inside Rochester Public Schools are becoming increasingly frustrated with the district’s decision to delay a return to in-person learning, as districts across Minnesota gear up to welcome students back to class and the governor allows leisure establishments to open starting next week.
The Olmsted County Housing and Redevelopment Authority made the decision to keep the warming center open continuously after receiving a $1.1 million COVID-19 Emergency Solutions Grant from the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ Office of Economic Opportunity.
Jeff Fieseler, owner of Legends, said it had been a “tough year” dealing with Covid-19, but the final nail in the coffin for his establishment came from the city.
Southern Minnesota Congressman Jim Hagedorn voted to object to counting the Electoral College votes from two states Wednesday, loyally sticking by President Trump’s false and dangerous narrative of widespread election fraud.
In a marathon discussion that lasted nearly four hours Monday night, the Rochester School Board approved a plan to slowly bring elementary schoolers back to the classroom. However, the plan that was approved does not go as far as what was originally recommended by the district, pushing a decision on in-person learning back by roughly a month.
Monday afternoon marked the beginning of a new era in Rochester city government, as four new representatives were sworn in to four-year terms on the City Council — capping an election cycle that resulted in a governing body that is now made up of majority freshman members.
The transaction was made official on December 29, property records show. As part of the deal, the previous owners of the property, Mark and Kris Kramer, made a charitable contribution to Mayo in excess of $3.7 million.
To mark the end of this momentous year, here are the storylines from the past 12 months that defined life — and our reporting — in Rochester.
In collaboration with Olmsted County Public Health, Med City Beat asked local musicians to get creative in quarantine on how to celebrate the holidays safely.
Mayor Kim Norton has joined more than a thousand local leaders, businesses, universities, and others in committing to a ‘national mobilization’ to combat global climate change.
As Covid-19 vaccination efforts begin to ramp up, Mayo Clinic says it’s receiving far fewer doses than it expects or needs from the state and federal government — leaving a higher proportion of its frontline health care workers at risk than other hospital systems across Minnesota.
Both Mayo and OMC began their vaccinations on Friday morning, prioritizing critical care staff who have worked with Covid-19 patients throughout the pandemic.
While Olmsted County’s Covid-19 situation remains serious, a positive trend has taken hold, according to the top official at Olmsted County Public Health: new cases are down, hospitalizations are down, and optimism on vaccines provides the clearest path yet to ending the pandemic.
As the surge of Covid-19 cases in Minnesota starts to wane, Gov. Tim Walz announced updated guidelines for Minnesota’s restaurants, bars, fitness centers and other settings Wednesday afternoon, slightly scaling back most restrictions while keeping indoor dining fully shut down through the end of 2020.
Under the Walz administration’s plan, elementary schools will be allowed to operate in-person beginning January 18.
Rochester’s residential speed limits will come down slightly in 2021, but not as much as originally thought, after the Rochester City Council settled on a compromise with the city engineer in the last council meeting of 2020.
The Rochester City Council voted Monday to temporarily overhaul its liquor license fees for nearly all of the city’s bars and restaurants, in an effort to give some relief to an industry hammered by Covid-19 restrictions. A late-added amendment to the measure, however, will keep two troubled downtown bars from cashing in.
Just days after the federal government approved the first Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in America, Olmsted Medical Center became one of the first medical facilities in the country to receive a shipment — meaning the Covid-19 vaccine is officially in Rochester.
The board’s decision came in response to the revelation that Munoz plagiarized a thank-you note to district staff in late November — first reported by Med City Beat.
There is optimism on the Covid-19 front inside Mayo Clinic, as encouraging news on hospitalizations and daily new cases — combined with Gov. Tim Walz’s announcement on Minnesota’s vaccine allotment Tuesday afternoon — provided some hope that the Upper Midwest has possibly moved past the worst of the late fall surge.
