Minnesota wildfires continue; Cyberattack targets Minnesota water

Minnesota today is supported by Granite Partners, over 20 years of growing Minnesota-based companies that source and sell around the world. Granite Partners, growing companies, enhancing communities. You can learn more at granite.com. This is Minnesota today for Tuesday, July 28th. I'm Emily Reese, and here's what's happening in Minnesota. Wildfires in northeast Minnesota have taken a heavy toll on Ely's tourism economy, with some business owners reporting profits are down as much as 70%. Governor Tim Walz is considering a special legislative session to address wildfire recovery. Ely Mayor Heidi Omerza says she encourages the special session. If I had a magic wand, I'd want everybody to be made whole, like the event never happened. I want businesses to have faith in what could happen. And I would like all the businesses that are in Ely, I want them to be able to stay viable and to be able to be open for business next year. While overnight permits will be allowed later this week for parts of the boundary waters, entry points near Ely still are closed. State officials say more than 30 local water systems in Minnesota were hit by a cyber attack this week. The attack took out some automated monitoring systems. Health officials say no water was contaminated, but the attack is causing extra work and concern for local utilities. Michael Thompson is the public works director in Plymouth. He said the city has extra staff monitoring the water system while automated operations are offline. We plan for these types of events. We just had to physically go out to lift stations or the water towers just to ensure they were functioning and running properly. State and federal agencies are investigating the cyber attack. There's no word yet on who's responsible. IT officials are reminding cities to prioritize cybersecurity after several attacks on local governments and school districts across the state in recent years. A massive solar project in central Minnesota continues to grow. Kirstie Morone reports. For decades, the Sherko plant in Becker burned thousands of tons of coal every day to generate electricity. The plant's owner, Excel Energy, is retiring the plant and building a massive solar facility at the site. The third phase of Sherko Solar began delivering electricity to the grid last month. Will Mulhern is with the nonprofit Fresh Energy. He says the project is an important step as Excel aims to meet the state mandate for carbon-free electricity by 2040. It's certainly not going to get them all the way to where they need to go, but it's a huge project and something that we're very excited that Excel has been taking out. Excel says it will file plans with state regulators to add a fourth phase of the solar project, plus a battery system to store electricity. I'm Christian Morone. Gas and diesel prices across Minnesota have dropped slightly over the past day, halting a recent rise amid ongoing uncertainty and military strikes in the Middle East. AAA reports regular gas is averaging 402 a gallon in Minnesota today, down a couple cents from yesterday. Diesel is averaging 5.10 a gallon in Minnesota today, and that's down 3 cents overnight.

Summer heat with a little less humidity continued today across Minnesota. NPR meteorologist Sven Sundgard says Mike DeWine points will rise a little tomorrow, which could bring a chance for isolated storms. A better chance for rain arrives in the region from later Thursday into Friday. This next cool front, I should develop widespread scattered showers and thunderstorms. Many models are dumping one to two inches of rain across central and southern Minnesota. We really could use that, but it's, of course, not a guarantee, and we're talking about thunderstorms. Sven says behind that front, it'll be slightly cooler for the weekend. Overnight tonight in Minnesota, patchy smoke with a chance of showers and lows will be in the upper 50s to the low 70s. Sunny tomorrow with patchy smoke, highs will be in the upper 80s to the mid-90s. In sports, the twins start a series against the Kansas City Royals tonight in Minneapolis. And the Minnesota Lynx play the Toronto Tempo tonight in Minneapolis. Link star in Fisa Collier is making her home debut after missing. the start of the season following an ankle injury. That's it for Minnesota today. Thanks for listening. You'll have a new update from Phineas Pope on Wednesday morning.