Entire BWCA closing due to wildfires

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) will be closed starting Tuesday due to persistent wildfires in the area that are being made worse by a heat wave. BWCA permit holders who were intending to enter the wilderness through Friday will have their reservations refunded. “On Sunday, Gov. Tim Walz declared a peacetime emergency and mobilized the National Guard to assist in battling the 17 wildfires raging in the area,” CBS News reports.

There’s a “heat dome” covering the Twin Cities this week causing hot, dry and steamy conditions. After the summer’s relatively slow start, this week will likely double the season’s number of 90-degree days. “An extreme heat warning remains in effect across much of the Northland, while portions of central Minnesota are under a heat advisory. The core of the Twin Cities metro is also under an extreme heat warning through Tuesday evening, as dangerously hot temperatures combined with tropical humidity push heat index values into the upper 90s and low 100s,” according to MPR News.

After refusing to do so for months, the Justice Department has quietly shared a substantial amount of evidence in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti with Minnesota officials. “The evidence, which has been changing hands for several days without acknowledgment by the federal government or Minnesota law enforcement officials, includes the SUV Good was driving when she was shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] agent Jonathan Ross,” reports the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Gov. Walz announced that he will pull Minnesota National Guard members from Washington, D.C. early after they were seen patrolling neighborhoods far from the National Mall, NPR News reports. Minnesota’s guard members were sent to D.C. ahead of the official America 250 celebrations “with specific orders that they would be used only to help with those events near the national monuments.”

The bodies of three missing boaters were recovered in Lake Pepin on Sunday night after a pontoon boat overturned. “Lake City Fire Chief Dan Patterson says at least 15 different agencies have assisted with search efforts on Sunday,” Fox 9 reports.

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