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A Hennepin County judge has upheld Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s vaccine-or-test mandate for bar and restaurant customers after several business owners asked for a temporary restraining order against the initiative. The mandate that took effect this month requires customers to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative virus test within three days to dine at restaurants licensed by the city. (1/30)

A federal judge in Cincinnati Friday granted a plaintiff's motion to dismiss a lawsuit that sought to block COVID-19 vaccine mandates at five southwest Ohio hospital systems. In his decision, U.S. District Judge Timothy Black accepted a request to dismiss the civil case with prejudice, meaning the plaintiffs listed cannot refile the same case in his court. "This is not the first time plaintiffs have dismissed an action based on the same claims against the same defendants as in this case," the judge wrote. (Sutherland, 1/28)

A New Jersey gym owner who became known during the pandemic for defying the state’s COVID-19 closures is running for the U.S. House. Ian Smith, the owner of Atlis Gym in Bellmawr, announced on Twitter on Sunday that he is seeking to oust Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) to represent New Jersey’s third congressional district in Washington. (Schnell, 1/30)

COVID-19 vaccine mandates are the "worst thing that has ever happened in America," U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., told a crowd in a suburban hotel just north of Cincinnati. About 200 people greeted "Hillbilly Elegy" author J.D. Vance and his new ally Greene on Sunday. The rally was heavy in praise for former President Donald Trump and criticism for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, and COVID-19 vaccine mandates. (Wartman, 1/30)

The El Campo Impact 13-and-under girls volleyball team was down by one point in their opening tournament of the year. It was Kamryn Thompson’s turn to serve, and it was a winner. Cheers and screams rose from the packed crowd of hundreds of maskless coaches, parents and siblings in a mid-January gathering that felt as if the coronavirus had never hit. About 15 miles away, Gabriela Hernandez was trapped behind a glass partition in a pediatric intensive care unit jammed with severely ill children battling covid-19. Her daughter, Kimberly, who is immunocompromised, had tested positive for the virus, and now her body was going haywire. Hernandez and the hospital’s medical teams were frustrated about the choices that have helped propel the virus’ spread and put vulnerable people like Kimberly at risk. (Cha, 1/28)