Gov. Mark Dayton on Monday appointed Minnesota Court of Appeals Judge Wilhelmina Wright to the state Supreme Court. The 48-year-old St. Paul resident will be the first black woman to serve on the state's highest court.

The Honorable Michael Kirk will be the new judge for the Seventh Congressional District seat on the appellate court. Kirk has been a district court judge since 1989. He replaces veteran Judge Rodger Klaphake, who has reached mandatory retirement.

Authorities are installing screening equipment similar to that in airports to scan visitors for guns, knives, mace and other such items. The change comes after a district court judge and the county sheriff said they were worried about the lack of security in suburban courtrooms.

Without comment, the Minnesota Supreme Court on Friday rejected an effort by two groups – Center for Biological Diversity and Howling for Wolves – to block the state's wolf hunting season, which begins Nov. 3, the Associated Press reports. The state plans to let hunters and trappers kill 400 wolves out of an estimated population of about 3,000.

The county board recently voted to install the additional equipment after Judge Lloyd Zimmerman refused to hear cases in the suburbs because of lax security. Zimmerman's concerns were raised several weeks after the shooting in Grand Marais where a prosecutor and witness were critically wounded, the AP reports.

A panel of judges in St. Paul on Thursday will hear arguments about whether to revive a lawsuit brought by two Missouri residents who object to the law's requirement that they buy health insurance. The argument has drawn support from critics nationwide as well as Republican lawmakers in Minnesota. A lower court dismissed the case, saying the challengers failed to show that the law would harm them directly.