Democratic Gov. Tim Walz launched his campaign for a second term Tuesday, saying he made the tough calls necessary to beat back the COVID-19 pandemic and revive the economy.

Former state Sen. Scott Jensen is among the more prominent GOP candidates; Jensen has become the early apparent frontrunner on a platform of skepticism about vaccines and pandemic restrictions.

China’s Shenzhou-13 spacecraft carrying three Chinese astronauts docked Saturday at its space station, kicking off a record-setting six-month stay as the country moves toward completing the new orbiting outpost.

The crew will do three spacewalks to install equipment in preparation for expanding the Tiangong space station.

They will be assessing living conditions in the Tianhe module of that station and conducting experiments in space medicine and other fields.

Twenty-nine positive COVID-19 cases were reported to the Center for Well-Being during the week of October 15, which is the highest number of positive cases so far this semester.

Twenty-eight of these cases came from the St. Paul campus with one positive case from the Minneapolis campus. Francisca Aravena can be reached at france.aravena@stthomas.edu.