Minnesota Now: Recent Episodes
Minnesota Public Radio
Live, down to earth, unscripted interviews that aim to connect, inform and entertain. Real people share real stories with Cathy Wurzer. It’s journalism that doesn’t take itself too seriously and puts people first.
The crop art exhibit at the Minnesota State Fair has become a must-see. This year has already seen long lines of people winding through the Agriculture Building and waiting to get an up-close view of the intricate art made from seeds.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talked with MPR News reporter Melissa Olson about this year’s bumper crop of artworks.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
At least four county sheriffs and two local police departments have announced they are pulling school resource officers out of schools following a law change limiting use of physical restraints on students, with additional announcements expected to come this week.
And Wednesday morning, some of those groups, along with GOP lawmakers, pressed for a special session to clear up the law.
MPR News political reporter Dana Ferguson and education reporter Elizabeth Shockman joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about this latest debate over school safety.
Police departments pull school officers due to Minnesota restraint law
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
Hurricane Idalia made landfall Wednesday morning on Florida’s Gulf Coast as a powerful Category 3 storm. Already we are seeing photos of homes and vehicles underwater and streets turning into rivers.
Meantime back in Minnesota, we have much calmer weather. But things may heat up again soon. MPR’s chief meteorologist Paul Huttner joins MPR News host Cathy Wurzer with a look at what is happening at home and in Florida.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
Two years ago, the last United States military forces left Afghanistan and the Taliban declared victory from the Kabul airport tarmac.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans fled their homes, sometimes waiting months for a way out of their home country or a chance to leave refugee camps. Many are still waiting.
Between Sept. 2021 and 2022, Minnesota resettled more than 1,300 Afghans who have started over in an unknown place, carrying the weight of war and the uncertainty of what comes next. We talked to five Afghans about their journeys here and their lives today.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
Imagine pulling a tuba behind you while traveling the length of the Mississippi River — by tricycle.
At least four county sheriffs and two local police departments pulled officers out of schools in protest of a new state law. Two years ago today, the last United States forces left Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans fled their homes, some to Minnesota. We hear from five Afghans about their lives today. While a hurricane hits Florida's gulf coast, things look pretty calm here in Minnesota. We learn how long the mild weather will stick around. And we meet a man cycling the length of the Mississippi river... with his tuba!
It’s a bumper year for the Minnesota State Fair’s crop art exhibit.
Artist Liz Schreiber, a veteran of the crop art competition, is this year’s State Fair commemorative artist. That means her work appears prominently on the fair’s official poster seen around the grounds, as well as on display in its original form.
Another case in point, Superintendent of Farm Crops Ron Kelsey — whose collection of vintage seed bags adorns the walls of the crop arts hall — was elected to honorary life membership in the Minnesota State Agricultural Society. The society is the governing body of the fair.
The crop arts exhibit continues to be a fair favorite. This year’s exhibit features hundreds of entrants who have submitted in over two dozen categories. The seed mosaics include tributes to Barbie, memorials to the late comedian Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman and cheeky turns of phrase in praise of seed art.
‘It’s meditative’
Made from 29 kinds of seeds, Schreiber’s commemorative art pays tribute to what she loves most about the fair: its iconography.
“It’s an amalgamation of a lot of different things that are very Minnesotan, like the variety of grains we grow, and our long winters, when we have more time on our hands and need something to keep us occupied,” Schreiber explained in June.
Encircled by a Ferris wheel and Skyride cars, the poster features a Guernsey cow. She drew inspiration from the cattle on a Como Avenue sign — a reminder that “even in the dead of winter, the fair is coming.”
Entering the competition for this year’s commemorative art, Schreiber made a small departure from the rules governing the seed art contest.
“A friend of mine’s mom knew that I did crop art. And she sent me this giant jug of palm seeds. She put a piece of tape on it and wrote, ‘For Nancy’s friend.’”
The friend’s mom had collected the large oval seeds from palms in Arizona.
“I took a little liberty there,” the artist said.
The original piece, which consumed 300 hours, not including the time spent crafting the frame, will be on display through Sept. 4 in the Fine Arts Center.
On the steamy first day of this year’s fair, she affixes the tiny seeds using a toothpick and Elmer’s glue.
“It’s very meditative. It’s kind of like doing a puzzle,” Schreiber said. “I like the challenge of trying to make something look like someone or something three-dimensional.”
‘We’re very much corn people!’
Another familiar face in the Horticulture building, Ron Kelsey, superintendent of farm crops, is back for his 76th year. His father entered corn in the fair for 52 years. Kelsey began attending the fair alongside his dad beginning at age 7.
“We’re very much corn people!”
Kelsey told an audience he is proud of his 1,400 cloth seed bags. “But who’s counting?”
On the first day, Kelsey rolls up his sleeve to reveal a forearm tattoo of an ear of corn — a gift from his children last year.
“If you get a tattoo at this age, and you don’t like it, you don’t have to live with it that long anyways,” Kelsey joked.
The crop art exhibit is visited by over 200,000 visitors each year, Kelsey, the organizer said.
As in the past puns abound. Rapper Snoop Dogg extolls viewers to “crop it like it’s hot.” A sandhill “grain” takes flight across a pond. A silver train darts by on “high seed rail.”
There are plenty of honorific portraits. In addition to Pee-wee Herman balanced on a bicycle, there’s a laughing Tina Turner and a side-smiling Prince. Pieces celebrate trans people and Minnesota women in politics.
Earlier this year at the Evangelical Covenant Church’s annual conference, Alyssa Paulson stood in front of delegates denomination-wide. She was there to defend her church.
“You think that if you can just get them to see, like, ‘Hey, here I am just another human bopping around in this world … then the rest won't matter,” Paulson said later.
Awaken West 7th in St. Paul, where she is an elder, was removed from the Evangelical Covenant Church, or ECC, in late June. The removal was due to being “out of harmony” with the denomination’s policies and teachings on homosexuality and gay marriage.
“It's not OK that my pastor could perform my funeral, but he can’t perform my wedding,” Paulson said, adding that she was seeking acknowledgment that queer Christians who want to marry exist.
“You can speak on my love in death, but not in life.”
Reevaluating the conversation
Awaken West 7th's removal from the ECC is just the latest episode in a wider conversation for churches about the place LBGTQ+ people have in their congregations.
At the conference, Paulson says that it seemed most people had already made up their minds, even before she gave her defense statement.
“I'm talking to everybody making friends, and everyone was kind and loving and accepting,” Paulson recounts. “The second people found out that I was from Awaken, and who I was — literally eyes shot the other direction.”
For Awaken West 7th, run-ins with church leadership have a more extended history. In 2017, Lead Pastor Micah Witham was suspended for giving a blessing over a same-sex couple in his congregation. His decision to officiate a same-sex wedding in 2020 ultimately led to the church's removal. Witham said he met “with the Board of Ordered Ministry, like five different times.”
Witham believes everyone should be able to participate fully in church life at Awaken. He decided to officiate the same-sex marriage ceremony partly to make the ECC reevaluate its rules for pastors and churches.
“The last time this happened was 1996. That's almost 30 years ago, right?”
Witham is referring to a resolution on human sexuality. It was adopted as the basis for Church policies in the 2000s.
“Gay marriage wasn't legal in the United States of America at that time. To say we've already had this conversation is just so ... inadequate.”
A grieving fellowship
The ECC’s official stance currently is “faithfulness in heterosexual marriage, celibacy in singleness — these constitute the Christian standard. When we fall short, we are invited to repent, receive the forgiveness of God and amend our lives.”
Updated guidelines from the 2010s state that pastors can attend as a congregant but can't bless, pray, officiate or participate in same-sex weddings. ECC member churches are also prohibited from hosting same-sex weddings.
According to Witham, these new guidelines were not voted on or discussed by the majority of pastors in the denomination. This discussion and voting process is typically required before adopting such measures.
When the church updated these guidelines, Witham said that there were “no pastor[s] who dissent[ed] on this theologically in the room.”
Like Paulson, Witham spoke at the annual national conference to argue against removal. He made his case for LGBTQ+ acceptance but didn't seek to change the ECC's overall stance. Instead, he wanted more dialogue and for individual churches in the denomination to make their own decisions.
In the end, 75 percent of delegates voted to remove Awaken from the Evangelical Covenant Church.
Awaken also isn’t the first church involuntarily removed. In 2019, First Covenant Church in Minneapolis was also removed for adopting similar policies accepting LGBTQ+ congregants to participate fully in church life, including marriage.
In an announcement to media, Evangelical Covenant Church Executive Board Chair Tim Rodgers said, “We are always grieved when fellowship is broken ... we pray for God’s blessing on Awaken and the Covenant Church as we each continue to join God in mission.”
The Evangelical Covenant Church did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.
The situation isn't unique to the Twin Cities. Quest Church in Seattle, Wash., voluntarily left the denomination over similar issues this year.
“The Evangelical Covenant Church leadership at that time was very dogmatic in opposition to that,” said Brent Carlson, leadership chair at First Covenant. “Unfortunately, that is not the tradition of the [ECC].”
The financial factor
Carlson and Witham have repeatedly said that, in their view, the ECC has historically valued having various opinions on religious beliefs and interpretations.
“The Covenant Church was about dialogue, community, love within the community ... it seems to have changed, and that's unfortunate,” Carlson said.
“For a lot of people, this topic brings up a lot of fear about what's next. Kind of the classic slippery slope argument,” Witham said.
He also believes money plays a big part.
“There are a lot of churches who have said, if the covenant moves on this, we will leave.”
The end of polite disagreement
The politicization of evangelical Christianity means churches risk losing their base if they move towards LGBTQ+ inclusion, said Anthea Butler, chair of the religious studies department at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on evangelicalism.
“Sexuality has always been a part for evangelicals to be, not just a moral issue, but a political issue as well,” Butler explained.
In her opinion, the time for polite disagreement within churches, especially evangelical ones, is over, and she doubts it ever truly happened.
“This is a theological issue. And so, [for the ECC] the theology says, ‘We don't do same-sex marriage.’”
Since First Covenant in Minneapolis was removed from the ECC, they have concentrated on social justice issues, mainly housing and homelessness. They are considering how churches must adapt, down to the language they use.
“We don't call them services anymore. We call them gatherings because we want to get away from the traditional preaching down from on high,” Carlson said.
Awaken is not currently seeking to join a new denomination. A recent annual budget increased by 20 percent. Witham questions if being removed might hurt the ECC more than it hurts Awaken.
“If a Christian church is in the sweet spot of God's heart, where the Spirit is leading, it will produce good fruit,” Witham said, borrowing from a passage from Galatians.
“[If you] look around at Awaken, there's fruit everywhere. So, [in] some ways, I'm sad for the Covenant.”
A crowd gathered Monday at the corner of Judson and Nelson for another Minnesota State Fair tradition: Mark Seeley’s annual state fair weather quiz. It’s a chance to get answers to your weather and climate questions — and to answer some Minnesota weather trivia yourself.
Seeley was unable to join for the broadcast, under the weather instead of on top of it as he usually is.
Instead, MPR News host Cathy Wurzer was joined by Kenny Blumenfeld, a Senior Climatologist at the Minnesota State Climate Office and adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources.
When we last heard from Ryan Mackenthun in 1994, as a FFA and 4-H kid at the Minnesota State Fair, the then-18-year-old was confident farming was in his future.
Nearly 30 years later, it's still his passion.
MPR News guest host Tim Nelson catches up with Mackenthun about where life has taken him.
Sixty years ago today, more than 250,000 people crowded the National Mall in Washington D.C. for the March on Washington. It went on to become one of the most famous rallies in U.S. history.
A portion of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech from that day has been engrained in our collective memories. And he was just one of 10 people who spoke to the enormous crowd.
Yohuru Williams is the distinguished university chair, a professor of history, and founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas. He joined MPR News guest host Tim Nelson to talk about a book he co-authored, “More Than a Dream: Sixty Years After the March on Washington,” which comes out Tuesday.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
Every year prices seem to creep up at the State Fair, from admission to your favorite food. For example in 2017 a bucket of Sweet Martha’s cookies was $16. Now it’s up to $19. Many think it’s worth the price. But what if you’re on a budget? Is there a way to have a cheaper day at the fair? MPR News reporter Nicole Ki wanted to find out. She joined guest host Tim Nelson to talk about what she learned.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
A stifling week for Twins and Vikings and a heated moment in the Lynx stands: Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson join MPR News host Cathy Wurzer with the latest sports news.
Langfellow is the creator of Minnesota Score Magazine and host of 10,000 Takes sports talk show. Nelson is co-host of 10,000 Takes and the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports’ Eye on the NFL.
If you have a question about Minnesota sports or a favorite sports moment from the past week, send an email or voice memo to minnesotanow@mpr.org.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
This summer, an evangelical church in Minnesota was kicked out of its denomination because of the congregation’s support of same sex marriage — and it likely won’t be the last.
Intrepid fair reporter Tim Nelson spent the morning at the fairgrounds and joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer with an update.
Student performance in math, reading, and science was basically flat compared to last year, which means scores remained about 10 percentage points lower than in 2019.
The stress of the unpredictable nature of farming and our changing climate has been rough on the mental health of some farmers.
Excessive heat warnings and heat advisories were posted not only for southern and central Minnesota but for other parts of the nation.
Natalie Hudson will be the first chief justice of color and the first Democratic-appointed judicial branch leader in 25 years.
After record-breaking hot weather across the state Tuesday, Wednesday did not look much better. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz named a new chief justice of the state supreme court, making history. The state Department of Agriculture set aside funding for a rural mental health program that is free to all Minnesota farmers. Plus, we sit down with the new state fair CEO ahead of opening day. And we follow the journey of one of the fair's hottest selling items from a Waverly, Minnesota farm to the fairgrounds.
On Thursday, Minnesotans will begin to pour through the gates of the state fairgrounds for what’s usually one of the biggest events of the year.
MPR News digital producer Nicole Johnson is going to the fair for the first time this year.
And she wrote a guide to help newcomers and seasoned fairgoers make the most of the Great Minnesota Get-Together. Guest host Emily Bright talked with her.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
Parts of Minnesota are under scorching heat Tuesday and Xcel energy asked customers to turn up their thermostats a couple degrees. We'll talk to an Xcel representative about how to prepare the grid for extreme weather.
The school year is fast approaching for most students in Minnesota and for some, it has already begun. We'll learn about a program that aims to give students extra support with mental health and other struggles.
We'll find out what's next for a charter school that was evicted from a North Minneapolis church.
We’ll cover all you need to know heading into this year's State Fair.
Most schools in Minnesota start in just two weeks. But until Friday, students at JJ Legacy School didn't know where they'd be reporting to class.
The school was evicted from its former home, Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church in North Minneapolis, after a messy battle over building repairs.
Becky Dernbach is a reporter with Sahan Journal who has been following the story and she joined guest host Emily Bright to get us up to speed.
School isn’t just a place for academics— it is a place to explore your personality and build relationships. The REACH program started in Hutchinson seventeen years ago and aims to support thousands of students to do just that. It’s now expanded to 43 schools across Minnesota and South Dakota. Guest host Emily Bright spoke to the program director of REACH, Chad Harlander, and the Executive Director of Academics and Accountability at Albert Lea Area Schools, Tonya Franks.
It’s been more than 58 years since the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and Beatlemania hit American shores. At the time, critics believed the Lads from Liverpool — John, Paul, George and Ringo — would be a flash in the pan. But we’re still talking about them and their music.
Here’s a curious fact: The Beatles toured the United States from 1964 to 1966 but only appeared once in Minnesota — Aug. 21, 1965 — and their management swore they’d never come back.
Lori Lundstrom’s father David Lundstrom owned a Minneapolis ambulance company and provided limos to the Beatles during their stay. Lundstrom joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about her father’s connection to the legendary performers.
Another mass shooting in south Minneapolis over the weekend leaves the community wondering: what else can be done to deal with gun violence? We hear from a leader from a community partnership to help gun violence victims get back on their feet.
Interim U of M president Jeff Ettinger talks about enrollment issues, security and more in the upcoming school year.
Many Minnesotans with physical disabilities are out of luck getting the home healthcare help they need. We hear from one woman who is taking matters into her own hands.
Plus, today marks 58 years since the Beatles' first — and only— appearance in Minnesota. It got pretty chaotic.
At a recent University of Minnesota Board of Regents meeting, members were told the university has seen a nearly 6 percent drop in enrollment, system wide since 2019.
It's part of a nationwide trend: There are fewer high schoolers enrolling in post-secondary institutions.
How is the University of Minnesota dealing with these headwinds? MPR News host Cathy Wurzer asked interim president Jeff Ettinger.
You probably don’t associate dressing up as Taylor Swift or Barbie with getting the vital health care treatment you need. But Minneapolis resident Jen Onsum has taken it upon herself to stand out from the crowd with fun clothes and funny posts on social media to attract a personal care attendant, or PCA, to work for her.
She is one of hundreds of Minnesotans with a physical disability affected by a national shortage of home health care workers — the most recent data shows that there are more than 7,000 vacancies in Minnesota’s personal care industry.
Minnesota leaders say the state is in a home health care crisis. State lawmakers passed an increase in money for people with disabilities to use for hiring PCAs. Those wages will jump from $15.25 an hour to $19 an hour starting on Jan. 1.
Onsum is hoping that higher wages in 2024 will help her attract more help. She talked with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
A barrage of bullets in south Minneapolis sent eight people to the hospital last night. Minneapolis police say five of the victims are boys under 18. Another was an 18-year-old. Along with a man and woman in their forties.
The shooting happened in front of a grocery store near East Franklin and Chicago Avenues.
No arrests have been made. It's the second mass shooting in Minneapolis in 10 days — a total of 14 people who were shot or grazed, and one person who died.
And when those victims go to the hospital, there is now a network of support helping them get back on their feet, making sure they don't end up shot and in the hospital again.
It's called "Next Step" and is a partnership between the city of Minneapolis and Hennepin Healthcare, North Memorial and Abbott Northwestern.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talked with Kentral Galloway, the director for Next Step.
The Lower Sioux Indian Community in southwestern Minnesota is quite literally growing houses. They are the first in the state to build what is being called a Hemp House. It’s an environmentally-friendly home, built using the material “hempcrete.”
The alternative is just beginning to blossom, with potential to provide affordable and quality homes for the Lower Sioux community.
MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer talked with Lower Sioux Indian Community Council Vice President Earl Pendleton and Hemp Construction Project Manager Danny Dejarlais about the effort.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
As a parent advocate and trainer for the non-profit PACER Center, Robbi Weil works to demystify the process around Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs.
Council members voted 7-5 Thursday morning to send an ordinance to Mayor Jacob Frey that would raise wages and add other protections for rideshare drivers.
Bodycam footage released Thursday details the moments before and after the killing of Fargo police officer Jake Wallin last month.
Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson, co-hosts of the 10,000 Takes sports talk show, joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer to talk about all things professional sports.
Would you celebrate losing your job? Getting hit by a car? Breaking your ankle? For some Minnesotans, making note of life's morbid anniversaries has helped them make sense of their past.
Our producer Gretchen Brown talked to a few of them.
The summer of smoke is not quite over... effective Thursday, an air quality alert hangs over most of the state.
Minneapolis singer-songwriter Mayyadda released “Try&Remember: The Acoustic Album” last month.
Each episode of the award-winning journalist’s new podcast begins with a simple request: tell me about your mama's kitchen.
Federal prosecutors announced charges against 14 alleged Minneapolis gang members. There is possibility for more severe weather later today ahead of wildfire smoke expected to fill the skies tomorrow. We talk to the Minnesota-born creator of a podcast about what happens in “Your Mama’s Kitchen”. And Minneapolis artist Mayyadda talks about her new music.
Federal prosecutors Wednesday charged 14 more people with gun and drug violations, bringing the total to nearly 60 this year.
Minneapolis leaders are required to ask community members about its police reform efforts. It's part of a settlement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. We'll talk about what to expect from the public meetings, which begin Tuesday evening.
What if you didn't have to wait as long for a seedling to turn into a full-grown shade tree? We'll learn about a new poplar variety developed by scientists in Duluth.
Bus and train commuters, Metro Transit has a new general manager. We'll hear her plans for safety, hiring, and more.
You can have a great business idea, but what if no one hears about it? We'll talk about an effort to spotlight five small businesses owned by Black women as part of National Black Business Month.
Starting a small business is hard enough. But once that business is off the ground, spreading community awareness of your business? That's key to success. And it can be really difficult if a business owner doesn't have extra funds left over for marketing. August is National Black Business Month, and last week, Sheletta Brundidge made a big investment that got five black women entrepreneurs that chance to put their small business on the big screen -- right in front of the U.S. Bank Stadium for thousands of people to see. Sheletta is a media producer in the Twin Cities. She joined MPR News Cathy Wurzer to talk about the businesses she is supporting.
The City of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department will hold their first of several required community engagement sessions Tuesday evening. The goal is to get feedback from Minneapolis residents about what types of changes they want to see in the coming years. Potential changes are coming after a report by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights ripped the MPD for what it called an illegal pattern of discrimination and abuse against Black residents. Reporter Nina Moini joined Minnesota Now to discuss how people can get involved.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota in Duluth recently unveiled a new kind of tree after 20 years of research. The “InnovaTree” is a cottonwood-poplar hybrid that can grow up to eight feet per year, which is remarkably fast for a tree. That means it could be taller than a two-story house in just a few years.
The scientists behind the new tree see it as a possible quick solution to getting shade in residential areas and removing toxins from soil. Jeff Jackson is a University of Minnesota extension educator who has been working on the new tree. He joined Minnesota Now to talk about how the new “InnovaTree” could shape the future.
Brandon Pinney, from New Hope, Minnesota moved to Lahaina three and a half years ago. He is one of the many with a story of survival. He talked with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.
A mass shooting at a punk rock show in Minneapolis has left a tight-knit arts community in mourning. We hear more about that from a community member.
A Minnesotan living in Maui is here to talk about surviving the catastrophic wildfire last week. He describes the scene to us.
Nearly half a million Minnesotans are foreign-born. A new citizenship law might affect immigrants trying to become citizens of Minnesota.
And ballet fans, this one is for you — an organization is getting dance classes to Minnesotans not traditionally welcomed in the art form. We get more on that from an organizer.
Ballet fans out there will recognize the name Misty Copeland – the first African American principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater. Copeland began her ballet career at 13 with a free class at her local gym.
Emilia Garrido Vásquez is hoping to give more young people a chance to fall in love with ballet — an artform that has traditionally been focused on white Europeans with many barriers to entry. She is leading three days of no-cost, bilingual dance classes for children aged 7 to 9 who belong to communities that are underrepresented in the ballet world. The program is called “Ballet Explorers,” and those interested can sign up here.
In Minnesota, nearly half a million people, or one in 12, are foreign-born. And that number is growing every year, as people come to our state in search of a better life.
And for those who settle here, becoming a citizen of the United States is no easy task. To even qualify, most immigrants have to first be a permanent resident for at least 5 years. After that, comes filling out complicated forms, learning a new language, and taking classes... and one of the final steps, the citizenship test. Right now the federal government is piloting some big changes to the test. U.S. authorities say the test was due for an update after 15 years. But there are worries the changes could hurt test takers of lower levels of English proficiency.
To explain possible changes and their impacts, Mya Shaftel, an English as a second language and citizenship class teacher with Literacy Minnesota, spoke with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.
A friend has identified August Golden as the man killed in a mass shooting at a Minneapolis punk show on Friday night.
Alex Stillman owns a local business called Outta Wax that presses vinyl records. Stillman was at the show and talked about Golden, what she saw and how this will impact the community.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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How are you doing?
It's the question that we keep asking each other and you can’t answer it. I think a lot of us are still reeling and in shock with what's happening and just trying to support each other, but relatively okay.
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1 dead, 6 injured after mass shooting at Minneapolis punk show
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Latest Best friend mourns bandmate killed in Minneapolis punk show mass shooting
Tell me about the person who died, identified by friends and bandmates as August Golden.
He was just a beautiful human who joined our community in the last couple of years to be closer to friends, but I didn't know him before he moved here. But just based on our common interests, and love for this specific DIY ethos and every kind of art that comes along with it, I knew immediately that we would be close friends.
I think that's kind of how it is in our community is. We take people in quickly, because it's easy to pass these judgments when you know you have the same ethos.
What about the space that was involved in this incident? What does it mean to you and the community?
I mean, this is a long-standing strong hold space from even beyond. Before it became Nudieland, it had been a place in our community where artists have met and and lived and I have been going to events in that space for over a decade.
Do you do you think you'll still feel safe going to punk shows in Minneapolis given what happened?
I absolutely will continue to go to these spaces in the future. I think yeah, there definitely needs to be some conversations about how to make people feel comfortable. But I think also these spaces create a place for healing and they always have and I think people will continue to want to be a part of these spaces.
Have you had any national responses from other punk communities?
Yeah, internationally, we have received words. I mean, a lot of this is a tight-knit community where a lot of us know each other personally. And even if you don't know each other personally, you understand what the spaces mean. And we've had international outcry. A situation like this has never been seen in in our community before and it comes as an absolute shock.
What's the impact on the southside of Minneapolis?
Yeah, I think a lot of us are drawing parallels between what happened to us in the summer of the uprising and having that trauma be brought up again. I don't know how many times you can hug your friends in the middle of the night and thank them and tell them that you're happy that they're alive.
Inflation in the Twin Cities is at just one percent, according to new data the Bureau of Labor Statistics released this morning.
Inflation in the Twin Cities is at just one percent, new data shows. A University of Minnesota medical student and EMT spent the last two months behind the front lines in Ukraine as a combat medic. School starts in just a few weeks, and some school districts are struggling to find staff. Plus, we hear another story of kindness in our latest "Thank You, Stranger" installment.
MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer talked with Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson about the latest in Minnesota sports.
24-year-old Sergey Karachenets had no military experience, but wanted to give back to the country where he was born.
In this episode of Thank You, Stranger, Minneapolis resident and printmaker Kolean tells her tale of travelling to Italy and making an unexpected friend.
If this story reminds you of help or even friendship that came from a stranger, we want to hear from you! Call 612-361-1252 and leave a voicemail.
In the final weeks before K-12 students return to school for the fall semester, some schools are still working to fill open positions for teachers and other staff.
The race for mayor in Duluth shaping up to be one of the most competitive in more than fifteen years. We find out what last night’s primary means in that election.
And we get an update on how undocumented immigrants who are victims of crime are treated in Minnesota.
Plus, we hear about one of the largest performing arts festivals in the Midwest.
And a new book is out detailing the most harrowing shipwrecks that have taken place along the North Shore. The author tells us some good stories.
Lake Superior is historically home to some of the largest shipping enterprises North America has ever seen.
While the Great Lakes have been vital to the American economy, they've also shown the ships — and the crews of people on them — harrowing, sometimes life-threatening storms.
The power of Lake Superior is not lost on Michael Schumacher. He's written multiple books about just how dramatic life can be on deck in the throes of Lake Superior. And he's got a new book. It's called "Too Much Sea For Their Decks" and it's chalk-full of short sea-stories and shipwrecks along Minnesota's North Shore and Island Royale.
Did you know that we just hit the traditional middle of summer a few days ago? It might feel like a relief to some that there is still plenty of summer left.
MPR's chief meteorologist Paul Huttner chats with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about what we can expect for the peak of the summer season across the state.
We are about halfway through one of the largest performing arts festivals in the Midwest: Minnesota Fringe.
It is in its 30th year of highlighting more than 1,000 local artists on stages across the Twin Cities. The festival kicked off last week, but there is still a full slate of performances heading through Sunday.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Alex Church, a writer whose show “Primary” is taking the Fringe stage.
Undocumented immigrants who are victims of a crime may hesitate to report it, out of fear of deportation or being separated from loved ones. All the way back in 2000, Congress created U visas. They grant status to survivors of some crimes who cooperate with law enforcement.
Since then, the list of pending applications has grown to more than 190,000 nationwide. And behind each one is someone waiting years for a decision.
Temporary work permits are also available for those waiting. But even this interim status can take years to come through. These applications make up a large chunk of the caseload for Lenore Millibergity, an attorney with the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.
The race for mayor in Duluth shaping up to be one of the most competitive in years.
A challenger, no stranger to Minnesota politics, comfortably defeated Duluth’s two-term incumbent Mayor Emily Larson in a primary last night. Former DFL state Senator Roger Reinert earned 63 percent of the votes, and Mayor Larson secured the second spot on November’s ballot with 35 percent of the votes. They were among five candidates in the primary.
Larson ran with the governor’s backing and the DFL Party’s endorsement even though the office is technically nonpartisan.
Reinert served in the Legislature as a DFLer until 2017 but said he’d run without party backing in this race.
Larson is vying to be the city’s first three-term mayor in about two decades. She didn’t make public remarks to supporters after polls closed, but in a statement to the media said, “There are many challenges we still face in Duluth and over the next three months, our campaign will be working to build the coalition we need to win in November."
For more analysis on the primary, MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talked with Cynthia Rugeley, an associate professor and head of the political science department at University of Minnesota-Duluth.
There’s another air quality alert that parts of Minnesota is dealing with Tuesday. Heavy ground level smoke from Canadian wildfires is drifting across Northern Minnesota. The air quality alert includes cities like Brainerd, Alexandria, Hinckley, Ortonville, Moorhead, International Falls, Two Harbors, Hibbing, Ely, Duluth, Roseau, and Chisago, Isanti, Mille Lacs, Kanabec, and Morrison counties. The alert lasts until Wednesday afternoon.
Tuesday is the 41st day with bad air quality in Minnesota this year. Most of the alerts have been due to wildfires raging across Canada. And unfortunately we are currently in peak wildfire season. David Brown is an Air Quality Meteorologist with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and he joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about his work.
Northern Minnesota is under yet another air quality alert until Wednesday. A scientist from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency joined the show to talk about what the state is learning from this summer of smoke.
That smoke is coming from Canadian wildfires. Minnesotans have been helping fight those fires this summer. One of them joined the show to talk about what she saw there.
People with substance use disorder are more likely to check themselves out of the hospital against their doctor's advice. Listen for why.
DFL Representative Dean Phillips still hasn't confirmed whether he plans to challenge President Joe Biden in a Democratic primary. MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke to him about it.
You’ve seen it and you’ve smelled it all summer long: smoke from the wildfires in Canada. Over the past three months, more than 5,000 wildfires have burned across Canada, scorching more than 27 million acres. Some Minnesotans have been on the front line of fighting the flames.
Our state has been answering the call for help thanks to something called the Great Lakes Forest Fire Compact. It’s a partnership where Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Manitoba and Ontario have all agreed to help each other out with firefighting. So far three different groups of Minnesota firefighters have been sent to Manitoba. Lori Barrow is a Forester with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and joined Minnesota Now after spending 18 days working to fight wildfires.
Only a small share of M Health Fairview patients leave the hospital early, against their doctor’s advice. But according to new reporting in Sahan Journal, that number is five times higher for people who use opioids or meth, and and 10 to 12 times higher for people of color with those addictions.
Doctor Ryan Kelly is working to reverse that trend. He’s a general medicine hospitalist, primary care physician and also treats opioid dependence at the Community and University Health Care Center. He spoke with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about why people with drug addictions check themselves out of the hospital early, and what is being done about it.
If you visit the farmers market, or even pay attention to what's local at your grocery store — you've probably seen a lot of cucumbers, tomatoes and sweet corn.
That's because August is high time for that produce — along with a bunch of other food — to get harvested.
Meg Cowden is busy this time of year with her enormous garden. And she's back as usual to give tips for all of us who might have a little less than a green thumb.
This morning former Minneapolis Police Officer Tou Thao was the last of the four officers to be sentenced for his role in George Floyd’s murder. But the story is far from over... we hear more on that.
And we explore new state policy remaking adoption regulations.
We get a peek at MPR's new clean energy series, "Getting to Green."
And gardening expert Meg Cowden answers listener questions about how to keep their gardens going through late summer and fall.
The murder of George Floyd is a part of history. It led to riots, a racial reckoning and a promise for reform. And today – more than three years later – a chapter of that history is closing. This morning, former Minneapolis Police Officer Tou Thao was the last of the four officers to be sentenced for his role in Floyd’s murder.
MPR News reporter Matt Sepic was at Thao’s sentencing — he tells host Cathy Wurzer what happened.
And the story is far from over. Yohuru Williams, founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas joins Wurzer to reflect on how we got here and what’s next.
Lost in the hubbub over legalizing marijuana and a massive budget surplus at the Minnesota Capitol this year were nine lines of state statute remaking adoption policy. They were tucked into the state's massive 909-page health policy bill. Those few sentences are now poised to unlock decades of potential family secrets held by the state -- secrets that even many who held them have been battling for decades to reveal.
Tim Nelson has been talking to some of the people affected by this change.
The law has been a long time coming for advocates like Penny Needham. She is an adoptee who has pushed to unlock birth records since the 1990s. Needham talked with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.
If you haven't heard of Donnie and Joe Emerson, neither had most of the world — until their album was rediscovered by crate diggers in 2008.
In Stillwater, on the St. Croix River, a two-and-a-half block section of Main Street is closed for the next two months for construction. Local businesses are coming together to throw a dance party.
The Minnesota Senior games kicked off in St. Cloud Thursday. Hundreds of Minnesotans over fifty will participate in more than twenty different sports.
It was a bit of a last-minute rush, but just after 10 a.m. Thursday morning White Earth Nation’s tribal dispensary in Mahnomen opened for sale of recreational marijuana.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety on Thursday released the name of the state trooper who shot and killed a man on I-94 in Minneapolis early Monday morning.
Body camera and dashboard video has been released showing the incident that led to the shooting death of a Black motorist in Minneapolis. The victim’s family is stunned. Will the state troopers be charged?
It is August and the weather is hot and humid. Paul Huttner shares a weather update. A St. Paul Pizzeria owner tells us how he started his business.
And a Minnesota doctor talks about using storytelling to communicate the human side of medicine.
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Let’s talk pizza. Specifically, Tommie’s Pizza. The shop's owner, Tommie Daye, opened Tommie’s Pizza on Selby Avenue near Snelling in St. Paul in October 2018.
It is the only Black-owned pizza shop in St. Paul and it specializes in New York style pizza. MPR News economics contributor Chris Farrell went to check it out and talked with MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer about what he found.
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We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
The first week of August has been appropriately warm. MPR Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner shared a weekly weather update with MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer.
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Every word has a history, but some of those histories are more troubled than others. An installment of the series It Happens Here: The Roots of Racial Inequity on the North Shore untangles the meaning of one word in particular.
Staci Drouillard and Leah Lemm co-host the series, which is also written and produced by Drouillard for WTIP North Shore Community Radio in Grand Marais.
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An investigation is underway into what happened in the early hours of Monday morning that led a state trooper to shoot and kill a man during a traffic stop and attempted arrest on I-94 in Minneapolis.
Ricky Cobb, a 33-year-old Black man, died of multiple gunshot wounds during a confrontation that escalated very quickly and was captured on body camera video released yesterday.
The video shows the interaction between Cobb and state troopers as they attempt to arrest Cobb for allegedly violating an order for protection. Cobb keeps asking troopers why they pulled him over and one of the troopers repeatedly asks Cobb to hand him the car keys.
About 30 seconds later, another trooper opens the passenger door and the trooper who had been speaking to Cobb opens the driver’s door. One of them shouts at Cobb to get out. Things move quickly at this point. With both doors open, Cobb speeds away, the troopers fall to the ground, and the trooper on the passenger’s side fires his handgun, hitting Cobb.
Following the release of this video there are now calls to charge the trooper who shot Cobb. Former Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about what the next steps may be.
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August first means more new laws go into effect in Minnesota. From legalizing cannabis to cracking down on catalytic converter thieves, there are a lot of new policies that kick in. Private sales and transfers of guns will be subject to a criminal background check. How will this work? MPR News host was joined by Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges.
Aug. 1 marks the 10th anniversary of marriage equality in Minnesota, a long-fought battle that made Minnesota the 12th state to give LGBTQ+ people equal marriage rights.
The very first legal same-sex wedding that took place in Minnesota ten years ago today was between Margaret Miles and Cathy ten Broeke's wedding at midnight at Minneapolis City Hall.
They were married, surrounded by a crowd of people, by former Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak, who married 46 other couples in the City Hall rotunda in the wee hours of that morning.
One Minnesotan who fought for those rights is Monica Meyer. Monica worked with Minnesotans United for All Families and OutFront Minnesota, which are LGBTQ equality nonprofits. She joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to reflect on the fight for marriage equality in Minnesota.
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Uber and Lyft drivers in Minnesota continue to fight for higher wages. Minneapolis is now considering an ordinance that would create minimum payment levels for rideshare drivers in the city.
Alfonzo Galvan has been following the story. He covers work, labor, small business and entrepreneurship for Sahan Journal.
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A bunch of new Minnesota laws go into effect August 1. A police chief will break down new rules around buying and transferring guns. Plus MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with MPR reporter Melissa Olson from Red Lake's dispensary, which is now selling cannabis for recreational use.
Ten years ago on August 1, gay marriage became legal across the state. MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with someone who fought for marriage equality.
Uber and Lyft drivers are asking Minneapolis to require minimum pay for rideshares. Listen for what's in the proposed ordinance.
We'll revisit a conversation with a survivor of a tragic bridge failure in Minneapolis.
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Minnesota DFL congressman Dean Phillips may challenge President Biden in the 2024 Democratic primary. We have details.
Tomorrow marijuana will be legal to grow and use in Minnesota. Growing the plant from seed will be the first frontier. We hear about how that works.
Workers at Kowalski's grocery stores just called of their strike over unfair labor practices. It's the most recent in a series of grocery stores that were close to a strike. We get history on that.
And we get the latest on state geology from Professor Jim Cotter.
With last week's heat, the impact of humans on global climate was a hot topic of conversation (no pun intended.)
There's a new name for this time period of climate change in earth's history: it's called the Anthropocene.
Every so often on the show, we get some insight into earth's history from Jim Cotter, professor of geology at the University of Minnesota – Morris.
Tomorrow, Minnesotans will legally be able to grow, possess and use marijuana. But it will still be a while until people can buy weed in most of the state. We're about a year away from having licensed dealers in the Twin Cities. Instead, tomorrow, the Red Lake Nation will sell recreational cannabis from its dispensary. The White Earth tribe is expected to follow.
The new law means Minnesotans 21 and older will be able to grow up to eight cannabis plants at a time. MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Peter Morrell about the science behind growing the plant.
He's a professor in the department of agronomy and plant genetics in the college of food, agricultural and natural resource sciences. He teaches a class each fall on the science of marijuana.
Sources say this week, Minnesota DFL congressman, Dean Phillips will meet with potential donors in New York, as he mulls a primary challenge to president Joe Biden. Phillips says he is considering challenging Biden.
Phillips, who is 54, and several other democrats have openly called for a contested primary with younger candidates against President Biden, who is 80. Joe Biden is the oldest sitting president in U.S. history and at the start of a potential second term, he would be 82.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talked with University of Minnesota political science professor Kathryn Pearson to hear her take on Phillips’ potential candidacy.
It's been six years since former president Donald Trump signed an executive order banning immigration from Muslim-majority countries. It's been two years since President Biden rolled back the ban.
But many Minnesota refugee families are still waiting to be reunited. Sahan Journal reporter Hibah Ansari joined MPR News host Emily Bright to give a sense of the scale of the family reunification backlog.
A northern Minnesota historical society recently went to court to return Native American artifacts to their original owners. We'll learn why the Bemidji museum took up the cause.
And there's an ongoing need for great childcare providers. We'll talk to a team in rural Northwest Minnesota about solutions and resources.
It's been two years since President Biden rolled back the so-called "Muslim ban," but many Minnesota refugee families are still waiting to be reunited. More on their stories.
Plus, our “Thank You, Stranger” series is back. We'll have two stories of small acts of kindness. You'll want to hear these.
If you're a working parent, you know there's a special kind of stress that hits you right in your gut when you're searching for someone awesome to care for your kids while you're at work. Childcare is a major cost for parents. Meanwhile, childcare workers put in long hours for low pay. In rural northwest Minnesota, a team of professionals has been working together for the past five years to help more people get into the childcare profession and stay there--and they're seeing success.
MPR’s Emily Bright spoke about childcare challenges and solutions with three of those leaders: Maria Steen, Child Care Connections Director with CCAP in Moorhead; Missy Okeson, Program Officer with Northwest Childcare Foundation in Bemidji; and Kim Lage, childcare licenser for White Earth Reservation Tribal Council.
The weather hasn't been kind to Minnesotans this week — we're seeing blazing heat and another air quality alert on top of the overnight storm that left snapped trees and power outages in its wake.
And a study shows that these heatwaves are a direct result of climate change — we talk to a scientist about what it means for the future of Minnesota's climate.
All summer, we've been highlighting festivals happening around the state — this one will encourage you to sing along.
And a new documentary sheds light on opioid addiction in Minnesota's East African community — we hear from the filmmaker.
The opioid epidemic is a serious issue in Minnesota. Opioid deaths here have more than doubled since 2019.
Some communities are more impacted than others. Black Minnesotans are more than three times as likely to die from a drug overdose than white Minnesotans.
A new documentary zeroes in on opioid addiction in the East African community. It's called "The Forgotten Ones: Unveiling the Opioid Effect."
You can see the film at a screening this Friday at Macalester college in St. Paul.
MPR News guest host Emily Bright talked with producer Abdirahman Warsame about the inspiration behind the film.
Categories are a convenient way to organize information — but they come with problems. Rather than represent the world perfectly, they tend to reflect the worldview of whoever created them. And that means other truths get left out or treated as an afterthought, when it comes to people, that can cause real harm.
It Happens Here: The Roots of Racial Inequity on the North Shore takes a closer look at this idea. The series comes to us from WTIP in Grand Marais.
We have a trifecta this week — overnight storms that caused damage, an air quality alert and a major heat wave that'll be swallowing up the state this week.
Of course, we need details. For those, we turn to our chief meteorologist Paul Huttner. He talked with MPR News guest host Emily Bright.
And new research this week suggests heat waves across the country are directly linked to climate change. For more on that news, Bright spoke with Suzi Clark — a postdoctoral associate at the University of Minnesota. She works on the Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership, a boundary organization that connects climate research to non-academic audiences across the state of Minnesota.
You already know we love listening to new music here on Minnesota Now- especially local music! And who better to talk about Minnesota musicians than Diane Miller. She joins us a few times a month to talk local music because she is host of a show called The Local Show on our sister station The Current.
A strong majority of American adults support Congress mandating background checks for all firearms sales and transfers. We get the details on the new national survey suggesting gun rights aren't as polarizing as we might think.
And Minnesotans are among the 30,000 people cycling across Iowa this week as part of the 50th RAGBRAI. We check in from the road with our producer who is along for the ride.
Plus, here in the Twin Cities, it’s fairly routine to hear about lake closures due to algae blooms. But what makes some algae harmful, and others harmless?
Plus, The Current's Diane Miller updates us on the music news we need to know.
A strong majority of American adults support U.S. Congress mandating background checks for all firearms sales and transfers. That’s according to a national survey suggesting gun rights aren't as polarizing as we might think. The survey is from APM Research Lab, which is an investigative division within Minnesota Public Radio and the American Public Media Group. Managing editor Craig Helmstetter joined host Emily Bright to break down the results.
This week, Iowans along a 500-mile stretch of road set up tents and tables to welcome a record-breaking 28,000 bicyclists crossing the state.
The register's annual great bicycle ride across Iowa, known as RAGBRAI for short, began 50 years ago this summer.
Minnesota Now Producer Alanna Elder is biking along with them. She talked with MPR News guest host Emily Bright.
If you happened to be at Allianz Field in St. Paul on Sunday, you heard fans singing ‘Wonderwall’ in unison. That's the sound of a Minnesota United win.
The Loons beat Mexican team Club Puebla Sunday night, four - nil. Emanuel Reynoso scored the last point, a free kick, in the game's 65th minute.
Andy Greder covers the team for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. He talked with MPR News host Emily Bright about the team’s success, the Minnesota Aurora’s equally strong season and rising star power in Major League Soccer.
Minneapolis-based musician Kashimana has had a busy summer, and it’s just getting started with the birth of their new album, “Phantom Cries,” which comes out this week. The album sings out about the joys and pain of motherhood, from the birth cries of the song “Only Human” to its concluding “Bigger Than My Body.”
MPR’s Emily Bright speaks with Kashimana about songwriting and motherhood.
We have entered into a week of seriously warm summer weather. The heat index is expected to reach 100 to 105 for southern Minnesota mid-week. That's just below the excessive heat definition.
Does that idea leave you feeling... sluggish? Perhaps overwhelmed? You’re not alone. Psychiatric studies show that extreme heat can have a negative effect on mental health. We thought here in Minnesota we might need a little support handling the hot weather this week, so MPR’s Emily Bright spoke with Dr. Kristi White, clinical health psychologist and professor at the University of Minnesota, about how heat affects our mental health.
If you've got young kids in your life, you know: life can get really stressful really fast. One minute, you're calmly eating lunch, and the next...somebody spilled milk, somebody kicked somebody else, and someone needs your help right this minute. It's a lovely practice to be present in the moment, even the hard ones, but that's easier said than done.
Bloomington’s Kelly Smith is a parent and has been teaching yoga and meditation to other parents for years. And they always had the same questions—’how can I be more present?’ And ‘how do I realistically start meditating’ when there's a whole lot of activity happening in my house? MPR’s Emily Bright speaks with Kelly about her book, "Mindful in Minutes: Meditation for the Modern Family" to answer those questions.
A week from tomorrow, recreational marijuana will be legal in Minnesota. We’ll explore how communities across the state are approaching retail marijuana sales.
And sometimes staying present with kids at home is tricky — we hear from a meditation coach on how the whole family can keep their cool this summer.
We're in for a blazing hot week — you might find yourself feeling sluggish. A psychologist tells us about the effects of heat on mental health.
Minnesota United had a big win this weekend — more on the team’s success.
And the amazing musician Kashimana shares music from her new album, out this week.
Around the country, Republican-led states have cracked down on gender-affirming care services for minors.
Twenty states have banned such care — including North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa. Meanwhile, 13 states – including Minnesota – have gone the opposite direction and enacted legal protections for patients seeking gender care and for providers.
On Sunday, National Public Radio is set to air a special feature that delves into the realities on the ground for transgender youth and their families, along with medical providers in two states – Utah, which has adopted restrictions, and Minnesota, which has added legal protections for care.
MPR political reporter Dana Ferguson talked with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about her reporting along with KUER reporter Saige Miller, who joined us from Salt Lake City.
Officials have released some details about the shooting of three Fargo police officers last week, and promised more details about the investigation Friday. They suggested the suspect, who was driving a car filled with weapons, was planning a larger attack somewhere in Fargo. Dan Gunderson reports.
A new drug is changing the conversation around obesity in the United States. Back in 2021, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new weight-loss medication, Wegovy in 2021. It has the same active ingredient — semaglutide — as the diabetes drug, Ozempic.
The drugs have become so popular that their manufacturers couldn’t keep up with demand and some pharmacies are still seeing shortages.
Some patients say they’ve vastly improved their lives. There are also critics who worry these drugs are being too widely used for cosmetic weight loss and feeding into an obsession with thinness. And then there’s the question of price and access.
Clearly, it’s a complicated issue! Here to help explain are two doctors: One, an obesity specialist, and another focused on eating disorders.
MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Dr. Aaron Kelly, co-director of the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine at the University of Minnesota, and Dr. Mary Bretzman, who specializes in eating disorders with Accanto Health, the parent company of The Emily Program.
Storms did a fair amount of damage across Minnesota Wednesday night.
On the plus side, some areas even got a helpful dose of rain. But overall, the state's drought condition is becoming more desperate as we deal with another year of what's called a "flash drought."
Since last week, drought conditions in spots of central and southeast Minnesota moved from "severe" to "extreme."
Assistant State Climatologist Pete Boulay spoke with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about the latest drought report.
Mary Jane Alm dipped a toe in the music business 50 years ago and since then has swept up numerous Minnesota Music Awards, including Artist of the Year.
The Mankato-born singer-songwriter is an inductee of both the Mid-America and Minnesota Music Halls of Fame.
She is looking back on her career with performances at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater on July 29 and 30. First, she shared a few stories with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.
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Summer is the season of outdoor music and small-town festivals. For the second summer in a row, the town of St. Peter, Minn., is hosting an event series that is a little of both.
The Minnesota Original Music Festival kicks off Wednesday and runs through Sunday, bringing together musicians in southern Minnesota for live performances and educational opportunities.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talked with festival director Eli Hoehn.
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School curriculum was a political flashpoint during the midterms around the country last year and there are signs it will loom large in the upcoming 2024 elections as well.
WTIP North Shore Community Radio recently looked at the debate over how to teach kids about Minnesota's past, with a focus on new statewide standards that will require schools to include indigenous history in their curriculum.
Staci Droillard and Leah Lemm co-host the award-winning podcast, It Happens Here: The Roots of Racial Inequity on the North Shore, written and produced by Drouillard.
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We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
Parts of Minnesota awaited possible severe weather Wednesday, with a heat wave crawling toward the state. MPR Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about the forecast, drought trends, and more.
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Severe weather could hit parts of the state today ahead of a big heat wave on the horizon. MPR meteorologist Paul Huttner shares how the weather could affect weekend plans.
Duluth musician Gaelynn Lea has been busy since she won NPR’s tiny desk contest in 2016. She has played hundreds of concerts around the world — now she debuts her next project.
Plus, midwest music icon Mary Jane Alm is sharing stories from fifty years in the music business. And we spotlight another festival, this time in St. Peter, Minn.
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In many ways, mobile home parks represent people's chance at the American Dream: home ownership. Northfield’s Cait Kelley reported that owning your mobile home while leasing the land under it puts people in a precarious position. In a new investigative podcast called Not Mobile, Kelley uncovered how the mishmash of federal, state, and local jurisdictions make it close to impossible for most mobile home park residents to get support when corporate park owners don't hold up their end of their deal. Her investigation all started in her hometown of Northfield a year ago, when she was with KYMN radio. It led her down a year-long uncovering of the challenges some mobile home dwellers in Minnesota face. Kelley spoke to MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about what she found.
Minneapolis City Council is voting on a new contract for mental health providers who answer emergency calls with police. We'll talk to a leader of the team who says the city has been neglecting that program.
Mobile homes are theoretically a more affordable path to home ownership. But what about the land underneath them? We'll talk with the creator of a podcast that digs into the challenges facing residents of mobile home parks.
The state is asking for public input on what to do with a stretch of interstate known for dividing and displacing the Rondo community in Saint Paul.
Did you have Barbie dolls growing up? We'll hear from a woman who may have designed some of your Barbie's outfits.
By now you've most likely heard the hype about Greta Gerwig's take on the Barbie Movie that's coming out on Friday. And if you've seen the trailers, you know that there are some major pink fashion choices in the film. Since her beginning, Barbie has been known for her great outfits. MPR's Sam Stroozas and Alex Cipolle interviewed a Minnesotan who worked as a fashion designer for the Barbie brand for 35 years. Carol Spencer lives in Los Angeles now, and she talked about her career making clothes for Barbie.
The Minneapolis City Council will vote on a new contract this week for the city's Behavioral Crisis Response team -- that's a team of mental health workers that responds to some 9-11 mental health crisis calls instead of police. The team received a pat on the back from the federal department of justice last month in its investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department. Mental health workers have responded to 12 thousand calls since December 20-21. But team leaders say their success has been not because of the city, but in spite of it.
MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Gina Obiri, who works with the BCR team as program manager in the city of Minneapolis' Office of Performance and Innovation.
A Fargo police officer was shot in the line of duty on Friday. We'll learn more about his life and what led up to the violence.
And the Minnesota Department of Human Services saysold emails will automatically be deleted in their system after a year. It's raising concerns about government transparency and public records.
And in our Minnesota Now and Then history segment, we'll hear about a new book about former Vice President Hubert Humphrey — and his mark on civil rights in the U.S.
Chris Farrell is back to talk all things small business — this time about a co-working space with big post-pandemic plans.
And jazz singer Leslie Vincent is here to thrill us with her amazing vocals. You won't want to miss her!
Minneapolis musician Leslie Vincent has been busy recently getting ready to put out her second solo album, '“About Last Night.”
Vincent has a background in jazz and many years of musical theater. She shared her influences and inspirations with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.
Roughly three years after the COVID-19 pandemic upended U.S. workplaces, more than a third of workers with jobs that can be done remotely are still working from home all of the time. That's according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
Many people use co-working spaces- a concept that came long before the pandemic, but have taken off for those who work from home.
A Twin Cities coworking space, The Coven, was founded in 2017 by four women who met while working in marketing. The space centers on the experiences of women, nonbinary, and trans people.
The Coven is starting to franchise its community-based coworking model — and our MPR News Senior Economics Contributor Chris Farrell went to check it out. He shared what he learned with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.
There are still many more buyers than sellers, but conditions have improved for those looking for a home.
Bidding wars are rarer than they were a couple of years ago and prices are more stable. Mark Zdechlik has a look.
Last week marked a significant milestone in U.S. political history.
It was 75 years ago on July 14, 1948 that a young Minneapolis mayor, Hubert Humphrey, got up before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia and implored the convention to adopt a civil rights plank to its platform, saying, “The time has arrived in America for the Democratic party to get out of the shadow of states’ rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.”
Humphrey's call to action swayed enough delegates, paving the way for advancements in the fight for equality and justice and helping to launch Humphrey's national political career. Humphrey would go onto to become a Minnesota U.S. senator and Vice President in Lyndon Johnson's administration.
The speech and what led up to it is the focus of a new book: "Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights.”
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with author Samuel Freedman about the book. Freedman is an award-winning author and journalist, a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, and a professor at Columbia University.
Next month, the Minnesota Department of Human Services will begin deleting emails after a year. Staff will decide which emails contain official records that should be saved, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports.
The DHS says this change will protect privacy, but transparency advocates are concerned that those deleted emails will contain information the public needs to have in order to hold government accountable.
Republican state Representative Jim Nash works in cybersecurity, and he's minority whip of the Minnesota House. He spoke with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.
Local and state law enforcement as well as the FBI are investigating the recent shooting of three police officers in Fargo. Two of the officers were wounded and Jake Wallin was killed.
He was from Saint Michael, Minnesota and had joined the department just three months earlier.
Reporter Dana Ferguson has more about the 23-year-old military veteran.
Another potential health care merger is brewing in the state between Duluth-based St. Luke's and Wisconsin-based Aspirus Health. This comes despite a new Minnesota law banning anti-competitive healthcare mergers. Will it put a wrench in the handful of other proposed deals?
And as Minneapolis grapples with police reform, public safety remains a big issue. We'll hear from a man and young woman who found themselves with a choice: criminal prosecution or something else.
Plus, public assistance is a conversation topic in Bemidji, Minn. after the closure this year of four subsidized housing buildings. It used to look a little different. We'll dive into the history of the “Poor Farm.”
And we’ll catch up with the week’s sports news.
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It’s been under public scrutiny and discussion for months, and under wraps for far longer: the proposed merger between Sanford Health and Fairview into one mega-hospital system. A law recently signed by Gov. Tim Walz outlines new ways for Minnesota’s attorney general to oversee hospital deals, but how that will work remains to be seen. Bill author and DFL Representative Robert Bierman joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer to talk about that regulation and the evolving future of health care in Minnesota.
MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer dove into some good news on the Minnesota sports scene with our regulars Wally and Eric. Wally Langfellow is the founder of Minnesota Score Sports Magazine and co-hosts 10K Takes sports show with Eric Nelson, the Vikings reporter for CBS sports radio's Eye on the NFL.
When Johnny Palka’s wife, Yvonne, was hit by a car and killed in November 2019, he had a choice: pursue traditional criminal prosecution for the driver, or something else.
The path he chose is commonly known as restorative justice, rooted in practices from Indigenous cultures around the world.
Public Safety is a big concern for many Minnesotans and a recurring issue as Minneapolis grapples with police reform. And restorative justice, while not new, is becoming more well known across Minnesota and beyond. During the 2023 legislative session, state lawmakers passed a bill to create a new office to promote restorative justice for juveniles.
MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Palka, Natasha Lapcinski, founder and director of Dialogue Up, and a young woman we are calling “D,” who was the driver in the crash.
We are not mentioning her name because of fear of being targeted.
This conversation originally aired in October 2022.
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We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
Forty-seven people in Bemidji were still out of their homes Thursday after the city evacuated a subsidized housing facility. Most residents of the Red Pine Estates were older or disabled adults. Public assistance used to look different in Bemidji. In the early 1900s, the Beltrami County Poor Farm gave care and shelter to folks in need. MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer looked back into that time period with historian Cecelia McKeig for the regular segment, Minnesota Now and Then.
Loneliness and isolation are an epidemic, according to the Surgeon General in a widely talked about recent report.
So that leads to the question: How do you expand your social circle? Where on earth do you make new friends? One group that exists for just this purpose is Break the Bubble. For the past 10 years the group has been coordinating meet-ups in public places around the Twin Cities. The goal is purely social--it's not a singles group, it's not a professional networking organization. And attendance at their events has skyrocketed since the pandemic. Jon Slock has been coordinating Break the Bubble for the past five years, and he joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about it.
The Public Health and Safety Committee of the Minneapolis City Council is looking at a new report Wednesday afternoon. It’s a blueprint to help the city transform public safety. The report, from Harvard University researchers, calls on the city to create a new model of services that enable community safety and wellness.
Former state representative, Carlos Mariani Rosa was the chair of the Minesota House Public Safety Committee who had a hand in state efforts around police reform. Mariani-Rosa is the current Executive Director of the Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. He joins MPR News Cathy Wurzer to talk about the report.
You may have heard a lot of chatter in the media and amongst friends about spotting the northern lights in Minnesota this week. But it might be too soon to tell, and some meteorologists say those predictions are just wrong.
Writer Bob King writes the blog “Astro Bob” for the Duluth News Tribune, and joins Cathy Wurzer to break down the technique in spotting the northern lights.
Businesses are preparing for legal cannabis — that brings up questions about drug tests, expungement and more. We'll get answers from a person who is advising Minnesota companies on the big change.
Minnesota trees are facing all kinds of ailments — we'll talk to an arborist who is coming to the rescue.
And you've probably heard some hype around the northern lights coming to Minnesota this week. But some astronomers are warning us not to get too excited. We'll hear from one about why the aurora is so hard to predict.
Plus, problems with special education teacher training in the state. We look into why that’s an issue— and where the state goes from here.
Hundreds of Minnesota special ed teachers don't have formal teacher training. Because of that, they're out of compliance with federal guidelines and because of that, the state is at risk of losing millions of federal dollars if they don't make a plan by this Sunday.
That’s according to Sahan Journal reporter Becky Dernbach. She talked with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about her reporting, and where the state might go from here.
Maybe you've seen this walking through the forest: an oak tree, green and normal-looking on the bottom, dead on top. Or this: A grand old black ash tree with a yellow ribbon tied around it, signaling that this tree has been selected for removal to prevent the spread of emerald ash borer. There is a lot that our trees are facing due the insects and extreme weather, and those who work with trees are worried.
The Minnesota DNR's forestry health program, working with the state Department of Agriculture and other partners, are the CDC of tree health in Minnesota. Together they survey state forests and work to problem-solve issues and pests addressing tree heath.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talked with Brian Schwingle about the problem. He is forest health program coordinator with the DNR.
Three weeks from today, lighting up a marijuana joint, vaping weed or ingesting marijuana edibles will no longer be a crime in Minnesota. And that means businesses have until then to determine how they are going to approach recreational cannabis use among their employees.
The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce has been meeting with employers around the state to answer questions about drug testing, workplace bans, and how the federal government fits into all of this.
Lauryn Schothorst is the chamber's director of workplace management and workforce development policy. She talked with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.
David Housewright of St. Paul has received national recognition for his tales of murder and mayhem set in Minnesota. MPR News regional editor Euan Kerr talked with Housewright about his secret for keeping the same character interesting, book after book.
There has been a new twist in the story of the hiring and firing of Minneapolis police officer Tyler Timberlake. Police Chief Brian O'Hara said Sunday that when he agreed to hire Timberlake, he was aware of an incident in which the officer was accused of assaulting on unarmed man. But O’Hara said at that time, he had not seen a video that captured the incident. MPR News reporter Matt Sepic joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer to parse out the details of the situation.
Chief Brian O'Hara has admitted to knowing about an officer's use of force history when he was hired last fall. We get more details on the controversy and where the Minneapolis Police Department goes from here. The Supreme Court recently struck down affirmative action and that is changing how Minnesota students and their families think about their next steps. Phyllis Wheatley Community Center ran Minnesota's only African-American-owned summer camp for more than 40 years. With new funding from lawmakers, the camp may finally reopen. Plus, if you're a fan of a good murder mystery, we have a Minnesota author you should meet.
In the 1960s, a woman named Carrie Hoffman Wallace drove kids from North Minneapolis to Minnesota’s only African American-owned summer camp.
Phyllis Wheatley Community Center ran Camp Katharine Parsons in Watertown for more than 40 years as a place for young people to canoe, swim, build fires and build relationships to nature.
The camp closed in the early 2000s, but the community center held onto the land. Lawmakers this past spring set aside $550,000 for the organization to restore the camp, which it plans to reopen by 2025.
Organizer Anthony Taylor joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about these plans and former camper Autumn Frazier shared her memories of visiting the camp with Wallace, who was her grandmother.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
It’s summer vacation for many students, but this is also a time when incoming high school seniors and their families are looking ahead to the next step. For some, this means checking out college campuses or planning for college applications. The application process will be different at many colleges and universities, after the United States Supreme Court recently struck down affirmative action in admissions. LaSueur Henderson Secondary School counselor Jessica Kirschner talked with MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer about the advice she plans to give students who are applying to college and the barriers some face to being admitted.
Minnesota counties are responsible for channeling most of the $568 million in opioid settlement money from drug and pharmacy companies into programs. The hope is that the funds will reach people who are struggling with substance use disorder and address a dire need. One organization that has already received settlement dollars is the nonprofit Housing for Inmates, which is based in Duluth. Founder Richard Howell joined MPR News Senior Producer Emily Bright to talk about his plans to provide housing and support to formerly incarcerated people.
Fourty-seven people in Bemidji have until 4 p.m. today to evacuate their apartment after city officials cited safety concerns. We hear about what rights tenants have when their living conditions become unsafe.
This past week Latino 9th graders attended a camp to learn about what it takes to be a lawyer. One 9th grader talks about her experience.
We have been following Minnesota's efforts to distribute 568 million dollars in opioid settlement money from drug companies — we’ll zoom in on one program that aims to use some of that money to house formerly incarcerated Minnesotans.
And our sports guys, Wally and Eric give the latest on the Twins, Lynx, United and more.
This year’s Latino Lawyer Camp just wrapped up in St. Paul. The camp gets rising ninth graders up close and personal to the legal profession.
MPR News host Emily Bright spoke with Jorge Saavedra, one of the attorneys behind the camp, and Soli Rangel, a graduate of this year’s camp and a rising ninth grader at Minnetonka High School.
You can read more about this year’s camp in an article written in Sahan Journal, an online news source covering BIPOC and refugee communities across Minnesota.
Registration for next year isn’t open yet, but you can follow any updates on Facebook and Instagram.
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We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
Some tenants are finally allowed back in their high rise building in Rochester, Minnesota this week, one month after the building was evacuated due to structural concerns. Meanwhile, the 47 residents of an apartment building in Bemidji have until 4 p.m. Thursday to evacuate their apartments, after city officials cited safety concerns about that building's structural integrity.
The city of Bemidji declined a request for comment from MPR News. But the situation raises questions about tenant rights in these cases.
MPR News guest host Emily Bright spoke with Samuel Spaid, a housing attorney and impact litigation and research director at HOME Line, a nonprofit Minnesota tenant advocacy organization.
A new survey finds Americans have positive attitudes toward democracy but tend to avoid talking about politics. One of the researchers behind the "Mood of the Nation" poll explains why.
If you struggle to sleep in the heat, know that cooler evening temperatures are in the forecast! We get the weather outlook from meteorologist Sven Sundgaard.
An expert gardener shares some tips for mid-summer planting and harvesting.
We meet an artisan who is crafting furniture — and snare drums! — out of a shop in St. Paul.
And Minneapolis journalist Katie Thornton takes us to Frankfurt, Germany - via an art exhibit - to find the story behind the design of the modern kitchen.
For Minnesota's gardeners, the start of July means that the summer harvest is just getting underway. We wanted to check back in with our resident gardener, Meg Cowden, about what she's seeing in her garden — and of course, her latest tips.
Meg is the author of the book “Plant Grow Harvest Repeat" and founder of the website "Seed to Fork" and the advice group "Modern Garden Guild."
In a nondescript garage on Selby Avenue in St. Paul is Gary Moore Custom Furniture.
Walk inside and the space, which is shared with another maker, is surprisingly large. There are plenty of machinery, tools, wood, and sawdust.
MPR’s senior economics contributor Chris Farrell has been highlighting different entrepreneurs and small businesses for Minnesota Now, and he recently visited the workspace to learn more about the business.
The rain wasn't ideal for your Fourth of July plans — but did it put a dent in the drought conditions across the state?
Let's find out from MPR meteorologist Sven Sundgaard. He talked with MPR News guest host Emily Bright.
If politics are a subject you avoid as much as possible...you’re not alone. That’s according to a new national survey from APM Research Lab, which is a different division within Minnesota Public Radio and the American Public Media Group. Managing editor Craig Helmstetter got to dive into that data, and he joined MPR News host Emily Bright to talk about it.
In the archives of the Minneapolis Institute of Art sits a kitchen. It doesn't look like any other piece of high art you might find in Mia. It just looks like a regular kitchen. But that kitchen holds a story of design and women's liberation not often told. The kitchen is called the Frankfurt Kitchen-- and the one that exists at Mia is one of just a few that remain in the world. There is a high likelihood that the design of your own kitchen replicates it. Minneapolis journalist and historian Katie Thornton reported a piece all about the fascinating history of this kitchen for the design podcast 99% Invisible. She joined Emily Bright to talk about her research.
On Thursday morning the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.
To explain exactly what was in the ruling — and what it means for the future of Minnesota’s students — Professor T. Anansi Wilson joined MPR News host Tim Nelson.
Wilson is the Founding Director of the Center for The Study of Black Life and The Law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
Our sports guys are here to talk all things Lynx, Twins, Wilds, and more.
Wally Langfellow is the creator of Minnesota Score Magazine and the host of the 10,000 Takes sports talk show. His co-host is Eric Nelson, who’s also the Minnesota Vikings Reporter for CBS Sports’ Eye on Football show.
It's no Taylor Swift concert — but six thousand people are expected in Minneapolis this weekend for the Elks National Convention.
The Elks are a national fraternal service organization, similar to the Lions, Kiwanis or the Moose. These days, fraternal organizations have a fraction of the members they had at their peak in the 1970s.
What relevance do fraternal organizations have in 2023? Past Elks national president Paul Ryan says it’s all about service.
MPR News host Tim Nelson talked with Ryan, who lives in Willmar.
The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action this morning... ending race-based admission at two elite east coast universities. We'll find out what this means for colleges here in Minnesota.
We talked about a situation no parent wants to be in. New legislation in Minnesota covers end-of-life care for children. We'll hear from one mom who fought for the bill.
6,000 people are expected in Minneapolis this weekend for the national convention of the Elks fraternal order. What does a fraternal service organization like the Elks or the Lions mean in 2023? We're talking about it.
No family should have to plan for the end of a child's life, but it happens and it is heartbreaking. Minnesota has one of the only children's hospices in the United States. Crescent Cove, located in Brooklyn Center, provides respite and end-of-life care to hundreds of children. During this year's legislative session, lawmakers from both parties approved a bill to help fund pediatric hospice. MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer talked with former Minnesota State Medicaid director and Crescent Cove board member Brian Osberg and Carrie Edberg, the mother of Leo Edberg, who received end-of-life care at the facility.
The most remote region of Minnesota is arguably the Northwest Angle in Lake of the Woods County.
It's completely surrounded by Cananda or water — in fact, it's the highest point in the lower 48. And the few locals in the area are preparing for a big celebration — and a transition.
Grace Prothero has run the remote Prothero’s Post log cabin resort alongside her late husband Dale for a whopping 60 years. At 91, now that her hearing has gone, Grace is retiring—and handing off the business to her granddaughter, Kellie Knight.
Next Thursday July 6 their community will hold a celebration for Grace’s retirement—and her 91st birthday.
Grace is full of stories from the region over the past 60 years. She shared some of them with MPR News host Emily Bright.
Minnesota lawmakers approved nearly a billion dollars in funding for nonprofit organizations around the state over the next two years– including some that have been waiting years for funding. But the legislature also pushed to increase oversight of these grants and make it easier to cut off money when problems arise. MPR News reporters Dana Ferguson and Brian Bakst reported on the state’s efforts to balance two goals: expanding access to funding and preventing fraud.
Updated: 2 p.m. Canadian wildfire smoke has blown into central and southern Minnesota, which is under an air quality alert through Wednesday night. The state has now surpassed its average air quality alert count ten times over.
The average number of air quality alerts in a year is two or three. This week marks 23. The previous record was 21 alerts issued in 2021.
Where is the worst air? Wednesday’s air quality alert comes from smoke from wildfires in Ontario and Quebec, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says.
The alert includes the Twin Cities metro, Albert Lea, Marshall, Worthington, Rochester, Hinckley, Winona, Mankato and the tribal nations of Upper Sioux, Prairie Island and Mille Lacs. The alert area no longer includes northeast Minnesota.
Fine particle levels are expected to reach unhealthy levels in the metro, Albert Lea, Rochester, Winona, Mankato, Marshall, Worthington and the tribal nations of Upper Sioux and Prairie Island. The MPCA says everyone in those areas should “limit prolonged or heavy exertion and time spent outdoors.”
Areas with air quality levels considered unhealthy for sensitive groups include Brainerd, Hinckley, Alexandria and the tribal nation of Mille Lacs. Sensitive groups should limit outdoors and exercise time, the MPCA says.
View an interactive map of air quality on the MPCA’s website.
A cold front is expected to move across the state Wednesday afternoon and bring cleaner air from the west by midnight.
Is this our new normal? Fire seasons are becoming more severe, longer and more frequent because of climate change, which is also causing more extreme weather.
Minnesota is getting wetter with time, but the state has seen record wet years in 2016 and 2019 followed by a few years of drought.
Canada is facing the same; droughts, extreme cold and wet periods have frequented the country.
The state will likely see more frequent periods of worsened air quality in the coming years, depending on weather patterns like flooding and wet periods.
Air quality index in Minnesota https://www.mprnews.org/wildfires
Behind the Canadian wildfires Fires in western Canada started this spring. Since then, hot and dry conditions started fires in eastern Canada that are still going strong — that’s where smoke has been coming from these past few weeks.
Those eastern fires are currently affecting areas beyond Minnesota: Haze has settled over most of the Great Lakes region, while unhealthy air has moved as far south as Kentucky and Missouri.
Rain plays a role in air quality, both for better and worse.
Precipitation earlier in June pushed wildfire smoke down to the surface and worsened the air quality. But a significant amount of heavy rain — like showers and thunderstorms expected Wednesday across parts of Minnesota — can clear up fine particulates and alleviate air quality concerns.
People can make their own indoor air filters by attaching furnace filters to the backs of box fans.
- Wildfire smoke in Minnesota: How to best protect your health and your home
- Minnesota sets record for most air quality alerts in a season
- The latest on wildfires in Minnesota
Quiet on the severe weather front Apart from Saturday’s storms, which accounted for 39 percent of Minnesota’s severe weather warnings this season so far, it’s been a quiet summer for intense storms.
The state is in its least-active severe weather season since 1995. Last year, Minnesota’s severe weather season kicked off with a record start.
Get the latest weather news, updates and forecasts on Updraft. The MPCA has updates on current air quality conditions.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation on Minnesota Now with MPR News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard and MPR News host Emily Bright.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
More than a year after the Feeding Our Future scandal that allegedly saw millions in stolen aid, Minnesota nonprofits are getting a billion dollars in funding.
Lawmakers say they have increased transparency and accountability measures to stave off wrongdoing.
And new information out today about the delays and cost overruns of the Southwest Light Rail Transit project, now a decade behind schedule.
Plus, another hazy, cloudy day in Minnesota. Sven Sundgaard shares our Fourth of July forecast and whether clear skies are in our future.
And we'll head to the Northwest Angle of Minesota for the story of a well-loved resort preparing for a big celebration... and transition.
State auditors released a third report Wednesday on the delays and cost overruns of the Southwest Light Rail Transit project. The 14.5-mile line from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie is running almost a decade behind schedule and nearly three times as expensive as initial estimates. MPR News reporter Tim Nelson joined senior producer Emily Bright to talk about the issues that have cropped up since construction began in 2019.
Reneka Evans has worked in health care in the Twin Cities for more than two decades — at the African American AIDS task force, the Red Door Clinic in Minneapolis, and now at the Minnesota Department of Health. As part of MPR News’ Changemakers series, health reporter Michelle Wiley spoke with Evans about her life, and her goals for the future.
It didn’t get a hearing in the 2023 Minnesota legislative session, but a bill was introduced that would allow people of sound mind, with a terminal illness, to choose the time of their death with a physician-prescribed dose of lethal medication.
There are other ways to hasten death. A Minnesota woman and her daughter were public about a specific exit strategy, a decision that resulted in her recent passing.
Cheryl Hauser, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2019, decided to end her life, on her terms, before the worst of the disease took effect. To do that, she planned to stop eating and drinking.
It’s a process known as V-SED, which stands for “voluntarily stopping eating and drinking.” And this spring, she did just that. Hauser died on June 2 at the age of 76 with her family and caregivers making sure she was comfortable and without pain or anxiety.
Her daughter, Wendy Longacre Brown, is an end-of-life doula and was active in helping to plan for and chronicle her mother’s death. She joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about it.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
The Supreme Court issued a major ruling today that rejects a legal theory that could have reshaped federal elections in this country, giving state legislatures power to set rules for federal elections. We talk with a Hamline University law professor about what this means for democracy.
Adults with felonies will be able to vote in the next round of elections in Minnesota. We'll talk with a formerly incarcerated man who is helping others with past convictions register to vote.
Terminal illness forces some families to determine how their loved one wants to die. We'll hear from a Twin Cities woman who helped her mother say goodbye on her own terms.
And an Elk River graduate is a contestant on a cooking new reality show. We'll hear his journey to becoming a chef... and get a preview of his time on the show.
On Saturday an estimated 55,000 Minnesotans with a felony on their records with be eligible to vote in any local, state or federal election.
They’ll be able to vote after they leave prison and before they complete parole. It’s the biggest act of voting franchisement since the voting age was changed from 21 to 18 in 1971.
Antonio Williams is the founder of Tone Up, an organization that helps formerly incarcerated people find a place back into their communities. He’s working on getting formerly incarcerated Minnesotans registered to vote now that they’re eligible.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
Leon Belmont just wanted to be left alone. But in 1880, he suddenly found himself at the center of a media frenzy—all because a girlfriend went to the Minneapolis police with the story that her dashing, curly-headed Belmont was really a woman. Lizzie Ehrenhalt, a Minnesota historian with a focus on gender and sexuality, is writing a book about Belmont. She’s calling it Curious and Romantic Sensation, a title derived from contemporary newspaper accounts.
An Elk River, Minn. native is a contestant on “Secret Chef” — a new reality cooking competition from Hulu. All episodes are out Thursday, June 29.
Josh Walbolt, a New Jersey-based private chef, grew up in the northwest suburbs of the Twin Cities. He spoke with MPR News host Emily Bright.
The Supreme Court issued a major ruling today that rejects a legal theory that could have reshaped federal elections in this country, giving state legislatures power to set rules for federal elections. The high court's ruling could have an important role in preventing political gerrymandering...the deliberate manipulation of electoral district boundaries that create an unfair advantage for a specific party.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer speaks with Jason Marisam, an Associate Professor of Law at Hamline University in St. Paul. He’s been following this case, and he wrote about it this spring for the Michigan Law Review...which happened to have been cited by the authors of three briefs in this specific case taken up by the High Court.
Dairy farmers around the region are facing an oversaturated market. One south metro dairy processor couldn't accept milk from farmers, leaving a dicey situation.
A $240 million bill will replace lead pipes throughout the state. But Minneapolis's lead problem goes beyond the plumbing. We'll hear how the city is working to reduce exposure.
Minnesota's woodpecker population is mysteriously declining, so researchers are using small recording devices to better understand the birds.
For some transgender people, a key part of their journey is getting their voice to reflect their identity. We'll hear from a doctor who helps folks find their voice.
Plus, we're traveling to the quaking bog at Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis. It's the inspiration behind a new children's book.
The state legislature passed a $240 million bill back in May focused on lead exposure in drinking water. But in older homes in Minneapolis, lead exposure doesn’t just come from the plumbing. It could be all over the home, from the walls to the window sills. Child lead exposure in Minneapolis is currently the highest it's been in four years, according to the city's health department. Alex Vollmer is working on a team that’s trying to reverse that trend.
Alex Vollmer is supervisor of health inspections at the city of Minneapolis and he spoke to MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about what they’re doing to keep lead exposure down.
Like it or not, the sound of your voice can say a lot about you. For some transgender people, a key part of their journey is getting their voice to reflect their identity. Those who use hormone therapy to change their appearance and voice to affirm their gender, and even those who don’t, may want tips to get more comfortable with their voice. Some doctors even say it is medically necessary. That’s where M Health Fairview vocologist Lisa Butcher comes in. Lisa is dedicated to helping her clients, many of whom identify as transgender or gender nonbinary, through the journey of finding their true voices. She’s also a former opera singer. She joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about how our voice is part of our identity.
Dairy farmers around the region are facing an oversaturated market. It’s been made worse for some farmers in the region when the Metropolitan Council temporarily cut off sewer service to the Hastings Creamery, after the company was notified of six violations of industrial waste permits including a recent leak of milk into the city’s sewer system. Now the creamery is hauling wastewater to a plant in St. Paul. The situation is affecting about 45 dairy farmers in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Minnesota Milk Producers Association Executive Director Lucas Sjostrom joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about it.
The Minnesota Twins finish up their four-game series at Target Field today. They're also catching heat for trading away Luis Arraez, the reigning American League batting champ. MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer catches up on that sports news and more with Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson.
June has been abnormally dry and nearly half the state is under some kind of drought. We'll look at how this drought stacks up and whether relief might be on the way.
Public records show Minnesota's food companies are especially vulnerable to cyberattacks. And hackers have seriously threatened operations at big food companies over the past few years — which means Land O’Lakes or Hormel could become targets. The reporter digging into the documents tells MPR News host Cathy Wurzer what that means.
Swedish settlers have a long history in Minnesota. A tiny Wisconsin border town got a big win at the legislature this year that will help them tell that story.
And sports guys Wally and Eric talk Timberwolves, Minnesota Aurora and that head shaking Twins trade.
General Mills, Land O’Lakes, Hormel… sound familiar?
Minnesota is home to quite a few giant food companies. Here’s something you may not know: Meatpackers and other food processing companies are vulnerable to cyberattacks.
That’s what Madison McVan found when she dug into records following one hack of a high-profile company. McVan covers the meat industry for the news organization Investigate Midwest.
She shared her findings with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced that the driver in Friday's crash that killed five young women in south Minneapolis has been charged with 10 felonies related to the crash. Derrick John Thompson who is 27, faces five counts of criminal vehicular homicide and five counts for leaving the scene of the crash. Thompson has other driving incidents on his record, including a 2018 crash in California that seriously injured a woman. He was released from prison earlier this year. Thompson is the son of former state legislator John Thompson, who served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2021 to 2023, and lost re-election after several controversial events.
The U.S. Justice Department’s report listing civil rights violations by the Minneapolis police department confirmed what many in the city’s Native American community say they have experienced. The impending consent decree, which could put some legal teeth into policing reform, may help repair relations with Twin Cities BIPOC communities.
Host Cathy Wurzer speaks with MPR News reporter Melissa Olson, who has been talking with community leaders and gauging reaction to the report.
Drought conditions continue to expand across Minnesota, according to the latest US Drought Monitor Update, released this morning. More than 90 percent of the state now is considered to be abnormally dry or in formal drought status. The area considered to be in severe drought has doubled since last week
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer speaks with Assistant State Climatologist Pete Boulay about the latest drought findings and forecast.
The town of Scandia in northern Washington County, near the Wisconsin border, is small--it has fewer than 4000 people--but it got a big win from the legislature this year. Tucked into the state bonding bill are $2.2 million toward rebuilding Scandia's iconic water tower barn and creating an arts and cultural heritage center in the town’s center. The water tower barn is an example of A group of dedicated volunteers have been dreaming and planning about this center for over a decade...and the story they want to tell encompasses the first Swedish settlers in Minnesota.
Host Cathy Wurzer speaks with Susan Rodsjo, a founding member of the Scandia Heritage Alliance, who has been working on this project since its inception.
This week marks the one year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the federal right to abortion. MPR News reporters look back at how that decision has effected Minnesota this year.
It’s been a long week of temperatures above 90 degrees in many parts of the state, a doctor explains how to stay safe in extreme heat.
This week hasn't been just hot — it's been hazy, too! MPR's chief meteorologist Paul Huttner gives the latest on air quality and weather.
One of the groups making day-to-day weather decisions: summer camps. The leader of one camp will join us to talk about how theirs is adjusting to climate change.
And the Twin Cities Jazz Fest is this weekend, get ready to listen to some great music.
Wednesday, the summer solstice, is hot and hazy. Just one week ago, the air smelt like burnt tires from wildfire smoke. This time around, it is not smoke but ozone bringing about the milky skies. MPR's Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner joined MPR News Senior Producer Emily Bright to explain what is causing the haze and when it will let up.
Camille Thurman, Christian McBride, Paquito D'Rivera and a whole line up of talented nationally and internationally acclaimed musicians perform Friday and Saturday at Mears Park in downtown St. Paul and over 15 venues across town.
This weekend is the Twin Cities Jazz Festival — one of the largest free jazz festivals in the country. This year there’ll be a passing of the torch.
Founder Steve Heckler has served as director of the organization since 1999. He is now working alongside a new co-director, Dayna Martinez – who will fully take the reins after this year’s event.
The pair talked with MPR News host Emily Bright about what it’s like to pass the torch — and why the jazz fest has had so much staying power for the last 25 years.
One year ago this weekend, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal right to an abortion and kicked the authority to decide legal guidelines back to the states. MPR News reporters Dana Ferguson and Michelle Wiley dug into what happened in Minnesota and the surrounding region in the months that followed. They joined MPR News Senior Producer Emily Bright to talk about what they learned from looking back on the first year since the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Poor air quality is affecting all kinds of traditional summer fun activities — picnics and sports outside, time at the lake, and yes, summer camp.
Camp Teko, a Jewish summer camp in Long Lake, to the west of the Twin Cities metro area, is one of those camps affected. And they have plans in the works to respond to climate-related changes to the area.
Marcia Zimmerman is Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel in Minneapolis, which runs Camp Teko. She talked with MPR News host Emily Bright about how camp is going this year, plus their plans to make the camp carbon-neutral.
St Paul’s Monastery in St. Paul is celebrating its 75th anniversary this weekend. The sisters there live in community according to the rules of St. Benedict. They’re committed to values of hospitality, prayer, silence, and social responsibility, among others. But though the group now is small, their actions over the decades have been large and lasting. MPR News host Cathy Wurzer speaks with SubPrioress Sister Linda Soler more about St. Paul’s Monastery’s past, present, and plans for the future.
You already know we love listening to new music on Minnesota Now- especially local music! And who better to talk about Minnesota musicians than Diane Miller. She joins us a few times a month to talk local music because she is host of a show called The Local Show on The Current.
The last time the U.S. hosted a World's Fair, back in 1984, gas was a dollar a gallon and Ronald Reagan was president.
Minnesota, specifically Bloomington is vying for a World Expo to come to town in 2027. We should find out early Wednesday morning if Minnesota's bid is successful. Minnesota is up against Argentina, Serbia, Spain and Thailand. John Stanoch is president of Minnesota's bid committee for the 2027 world expo and he joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about it.
All this month as part of our Changemakers series, MPR has profiling trans and nonbinary leaders making a difference in Minnesota.
Today we'll hear more about Representative Alicia Kozlowski, who made history last November as the first nonbinary person elected to the Minnesota Legislature. The 35-year-old Minnesotan represents their hometown of Duluth, where they live with their partner and nine-year-old daughter.
Kozlowski, who is nonbinary and two spirit, previously worked as community relations officer under Duluth mayor Emily Larson. They also helped form a community healing group in Duluth called KwePack [Kway-pack], which is a group of women and gender-expansive people who meet to run, mountain bike and rock climb together.
Reporter Nicole Ki spoke with Kozlowski about their life before becoming a legislator.
Today on Minnesota Now:
It's been nearly 40 years since the U.S. hosted a World's Fair. Officials in Bloomington MINNESOTA are vying for a World Expo to come to the state in 2027. We hear about how the city is working on that bid.
A St. Paul monastery is celebrating its 75th birthday. We hear from the monastery’s subprioress about how things have changed over the last three quarters of a century.
A company that believes they can supply the minerals needed for a carbon-free economy is expected to submit plans to build an underground nickel mine in Northern Minnesota. We'll get more on those plans.
Plus, as part of our June Changemakers series, we hear more about Duluth Representative Alicia Kozlowski on what moved them to run for office.
And we listen to five local songs provided by the Current's own DJ Diane Miller!
MPR host Cathy Wurzer speaks with Taylor Ngiri [[in-GEAR-ee]] Seaberg, leader of the band Black Velvet Punks, which mixes punk and hip hop with jazz and soul. Seagerg has been playing music since they were about four years old, growing up as a military kid in a lot of different places. But at this point, they are rooted in the Minneapolis music scene.
After the death of George Floyd and the uprising that followed, they organized a concert fundraiser and later an album, which was released in 2021. The gender non-binary, third generation Kenyan-American multi-instrumentalist, photographer, videographer, community organizer, and playwright has worked with many local artists, including performer and writer Joe Davis. They are playing this afternoon at the Soul of the Southside Juneteenth festival in Minneapolis.
The war in Ukraine has entered a new phase, with a counteroffensive trying to push Russian troops out of the territory they’ve held for more than a year. MPR reporter Tim Nelson has been following developments in the fighting with his former St. Paul Pioneer Press colleague Brian Bonner.
Brian is a long time Ukraine watcher. He lives there and was the former editor of the Kyiv Post, Ukraine’s premiere English language newspaper. Brian has been working most recently with a Polish NGO, which has published extensive analysis of the situation in Europe.
The federal Department of Justice now enters into negotiations with the City of Minneapolis over what will be a legally binding plan to reform the city's police department. That's after the DOJ, Friday, issued its investigation into the department, sparked by the death of George Floyd and after decades of complaints about its treatment of people of color.
The report shows the department's culture and practices created systemic problems that made the police killing of Floyd possible.
The Justice Department was also critical of the Minneapolis Police Department's treatment of people having mental health crises. But the report had positive things to say about the city's behavioral crisis response team. The report praised the unarmed mental health professionals who answer certain 911 calls and says the program should be expanded.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Marisa Stevenson, the interim program manager with Canopy Roots, the group that runs the program.
The music stream, Carbon Sound, has reached its first anniversary. That’s one year of celebrating the depth, breadth, and beauty of Black musical expression. Carbon Sound is supported by MPR and the Current, in partnership with KMOJ. To look back on this first year and to look ahead to the future, MPR host Cathy Wurzer checks in with Carbon Sound’s content director, Julian Green.
The war in Ukraine has entered a new phase, with a counteroffensive trying to push Russian troops out of the territory they’ve held for more than a year. We get an update from a former St. Paul journalist in Ukraine.
And the top official on Minnesota's highest court is stepping down. We hear from Chief Justice Lorie Gildea about her decision.
The federal department of justice has been critical of the Minneapolis police department's treatment of people with mental health issues. But the department praised the unarmed mental health response teams who answer certain 9-11 calls. We'll hear from the leader of that program.
And on this Juneteenth, we'll celebrate one year of Carbon Sound ahead of events all over the state today.
Governor Tim Walz has a decision to make: Who will become the next Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court?
That's because the current Chief Justice, Lori Gildea, announced last week that she is stepping down.
Gildea is one of the longest-serving Chief Justices on the State high court in its history.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Gildea about her decision.
Many Minnesotans woke up this morning to air quality alerts this morning, and while air quality is expected to improve throughout the day and into Friday, as of noon the air in Southwest Minnesota is still classified as unhealthy for people with lung or heart disease, older people, and the very young. Yesterday smoke from Canadian wildfires settled over the middle of the state, casting what looked like low-level smog over us, causing record poor air quality for the metro. If you were outside at all, you felt it, you could almost taste it, and it wasn’t good.
Experts say this will probably not be the last time the air will be smoky this summer. Host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Mayo Clinic Dr. Greg Vanichkachorn about the short- and long-term health impacts of breathing wildfire smoke. MPR meteorologist Sven Sundgaard puts the Air Quality Index in context and gives us the weather forecast.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer chats about the Twins, Lindsay Whalen’s contract buyout, high school basketball, and Minnesota United with sports guys Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson.
Wally is the founder of Minnesota Score magazine and the cohost of "10,000 Takes" sports talk show. Eric is the other host and also the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio "Eye on Football."
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
If you're out when it gets dark, perhaps sitting around a campfire or lingering at a park, you might see a bat swoop through the shadows, gobbling up insects like they’re M & M’s.
We are getting into the "busy season" for bats. Baby bats that were born this spring will soon start to fly out on their own, which can occasionally lead to some surprising encounters with humans--especially if bats wind up somewhere you're not expecting, like inside your house. THAT might lead you to call the Minnesota Department of Health. The MDH fields several thousand calls a year from people concerned about rabies after encountering bats.
To get more information, MPR host Cathy Wurzer speaks with Carrie Klumb, senior epidemiologist and Rabies Surveillance Coordinator for Minnesota Department of Health and she's the Rabies Surveillance Coordinator.
It's Pride month, and for our ongoing Changemakers series, MPR News is featuring trans and nonbinary individuals who are making a difference in our community.
One of those Changemakers is Rox Anderson. They're a longtime Minneapolis resident with decades of experience serving LGBT communities as an activist, a creative, and a health worker. Anderson is the director of the Minnesota Transgender Health Coalition and a former Bush Fellow. They're currently working on a campaign to improve health outcomes for queer people across the region.
Reporter Feven Gerezgiher talks with Anderson about their work creating safe spaces for LGBT people, especially those who are most marginalized.
The US Supreme Court has upheld the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, also known as ICWA. The case was closely watched by tribal communities in Minnesota and across the country. The law gives priority to tribal families in the foster care and adoption cases of Native American children. MPR News host Cathy Wurzer speaks with Professor Angelique EagleWoman, director of the Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
The Supreme Court has upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act, also known as ICWA. The law gives priority to tribal families in the foster care and adoption cases of Native American children. We'll hear from a legal expert about what that means for Minnesota.
That pesky wildfire smoke still hangs in the air for much of the state-- we'll hear from a Mayo doctor about what we can do to protect our lungs. Plus we'll get the latest air quality forecast.
We'll hear from a nonbinary leader who is creating ripples of change in their community.
And we’re entering bat season! The Minnesota Department of Health fields thousands of callers a year with concerns about rabies after encountering bats and other wildlife. A bat expert gives us advice.
We'll hear the latest in sports news from our sports experts Wally and Eric.
The forest service has closed parts of the Boundary Waters as a wildfire burns about 30 acres of the wilderness area. MPR News host Cathy Wurzer hears the latest.
Paul Huttner updates on air quality and air quality in the region.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a wave of healthcare worker shortages, but now some hospitals are seeing relief. More on what hospitals have done to recruit and retain staff.
Just in time for festival season, we'll hear what it takes to win a turtle race.
And a little history lesson: It was a huge story when the heir to the Hamm’s fortune was kidnapped. It’s a gangster’s tale you won’t want to miss.
If you visit Perham, Minnesota this Friday, you’re bound to see some turtle races.
They're happening as part of Perham's annual Turtle Fest, along with a whole slate of activities, live music and food.
For more on the history of the long-running festival, MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talks with Dan Shroeder. He was a longtime director of Perham's chamber of commerce and is currently the chamber's membership sales director.
More wildfire smoke is drifting south from Canada, and that's creating hazy skies once again across much of Minnesota--with an air quality alert to go with it.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer gets the latest update from MPR Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner.
MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer turned to WTIP producer Staci Drouillard and Native Lights Podcast host Leah Lemm for a story about the creation of the U.S.-Canada border. Drouillard and Lemm co-host the podcast "It Happens Here: The Roots of Racial Inequity on the North Shore,” which is produced by Drouillard. In a recent episode, they discuss how the border upended spatial relationships in Ojibwe communities.
The Minnesota Hospital Association says it appears a pandemic-induced worker shortage may be easing a bit. Because of thousands of unfilled positions, hospitals have been forced to get creative about their efforts to recruit medical staff. Dani Holtzclaw is a provider recruiter for Winona Health. She joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer to talk about what the hospital has done differently to recruit and retain medical staff since the pandemic.
Crews were preparing Wednesday morning to begin suppressing an approximately 30-acre wildfire in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The U.S. Forest Service noticed smoke from a survey plane in the evening Tuesday, the same day the agency announced a campfire ban in the wilderness area because of dry conditions. MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer talked with with Joe Friedrichs is news director of WTIP North Shore Community Radio in Grand Marais, which is about 40 miles from the fire.
Ninety years ago this week, a St. Paul brewery magnate was kidnapped in broad daylight — snatched by four men on his way home.
The dramatic kidnapping of Hamm’s brewery heir, William Hamm Jr. made regional and national headlines in 1933.
His kidnappers asked for $100,000 ransom — equivalent to over $2 million in today’s money.
The story paints a picture of 1930s St. Paul. The so-called “O’Connor System,” named after the city’s police chief John O’Connor, made the city a refuge for criminals, Paul Maccabee told MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.
Maccabee is author of "John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crooks' Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul."
A new child tax credit aims to lower poverty in Minnesota. We'll dig into how the credit works, who qualifies and whether it can really change the course.
There have been developments in drug settlements with opioid manufacturers. We spoke to the Attorney General about what that means for Minnesota.
24 community leaders from Minnesota and the Dakotas are the newest 2023 Bush Fellows. They're a diverse group-- and they work in mental health, community storytelling, food accessibility, and much more. We heard from one of them on their win and plans for the future.
What are you reading this summer? We'll get book recommendations from BookTok for summer and pride month from Zoe Jackson.
Maybe you’ve heard the predictions about the potential impact of a brand-new child tax credit created this year by Minnesota lawmakers. Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan said in May that the new child tax credit will lower child poverty by a third.
You're not alone if you have questions about how the credit works, who will qualify and whether it can really change the course for families struggling with financial insecurity.
Political reporter Brian Bakst decided to dig into the program and MPR News guest to talk it through.
On Tuesday morning the Bush Foundation announced its 2023 Bush Fellows. They are 24 community leaders from Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and 23 Native nations who will be eligible to receive a flexible grant up to $100,000 to pursue education. Their work stands to have a profound ripple effect across the region in the areas of mental health, community storytelling, food accessibility, and much more.
MPR News guest host Emily Bright spoke with just one—her name is Nadine Graves. She’s been a Hennepin County Public Defender and is Deputy Director, of Community Legal Services at the Legal Rights Center. She is especially passionate about using storytelling to shift concepts of justice. Her own trauma-filled youth led to a criminal record at a young age. Now, she’s interested in undoing the dehumanization she felt from the criminal justice system.
If the drug company Mallinkrodt files for a second bankruptcy, it could jeopardize opioid settlement payments to individuals as well as state and local governments. Minnesota is part of that deal reached in 2020. The news comes just days after Attorney General Keith Ellison announced finalized settlements with four companies, bringing the state’s total opioid settlement money to more than $560 million. Ellison joined MPR News Senior Producer Emily Bright to talk about settlement money coming to Minnesota and other top stories moving through his office.
Books make great company for our well-earned, long summer evenings in Minnesota. Lately, BookTok-er Zoe Jackson has been taking her reads to one of the beaches in Minneapolis. Zoe reads about a book a week and has more than 57 thousand followers on her TikTok account, @zoes_reads. She also posts about books on Instagram @libraryofzoe. Zoe shared summer reading tips with MPR News Senior Producer and Ask a Bookseller Host Emily Bright.
In celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, throughout June MPR News is featuring stories about transgender and nonbinary Minnesotans making an impact.
We heard from Seal Dwyer, a non-binary licensed marriage and family therapist from St. Cloud, who focuses on helping people heal from trauma that can impact every part of their lives.
Dwyer is a passionate advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, especially young people. She is helping start a queer community center in downtown St. Cloud to provide a safe space and resources. Dwyer ran for St. Cloud City Council in 2022. She also teaches dance and yoga classes that focus on body positivity.
MPR reporter Kirsti Marohn shared a conversation she had with Dwyer.
Minneapolis Public Schools are in financial crisis — and face a $70 million gap in funding once pandemic money runs out. It may lead the Minnesota Department of Education to step in.
That’s according to new reporting from Deena Winter at Minnesota Reformer. Winter talks with MPR News host Emily Bright about her reporting.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
You may already know that Pride Month began as a riot against police harassing LGBTQ people at a gay bar in New York City called The Stonewall Inn. Gay bars have long been lauded as safe spaces for LGBTQ people to celebrate who they are and explore their identity. But over the past thirty years, the number of lesbian bars in the U.S. has shrunk from 206 to just about 20. To Northfield author Krista Burton, these closing gathering spaces represent a huge loss. Her new book, ‘Moby Dyke’, follows her journey to visit the last 20 lesbian bars remaining in the country. She joined producer Ellen Finn to talk about it.
Krista Burton will be giving an author talk at Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis on Monday June 12 at 7p.m. along with State Senator Erin May Quade. She will also be at Content Bookstore in Northfield at 7p.m. on Thursday June 15.
Allina Health has paused a policy that allegedly kept people with a certain amount of debt from getting medical care. Listen for more about that.
A queer therapist in St. Cloud is setting out to heal body trauma, we heard about their work.
Minneapolis Public Schools are in financial crisis – and face a $70 million gap in funding once pandemic money runs out. We found out how they're trying to make it work.
The number of lesbian bars in the U.S. have dropped dramatically in recent years. We'll hear from a Northfield author who wrote a book about her quest to visit all of the remaining lesbian bars in the country.
Allina Health has paused a policy that allegedly kept people with a certain amount of debt from getting medical care.
This pause comes after the New York Times published an investigation on Allina, which said that, while the organization would provide urgent or emergency care, it could require those with debt to pay it off in full before they could make new appointments.
MPR News host Emily Bright talks with MPR News health reporter Michelle Wiley about the controversial policy and the allegations that sparked the change.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer checked in with our sports guys: Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Wally is the creator of Minnesota Score magazine and is the host of the Ten Thousand Takes sports talk show. Eric Nelson co-hosts that show; he’s the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports’ Eye on Football show.
Cathy, Wally, and Eric talked about what’s new for the Twins, Vikings, and Lynx, as well as in the world of golf.
Has someone ever taken you by surprise with a kindness that made a big difference in your life? Our series, "Thank You, Stranger," looks at those special people and their impact. To celebrate pride this week, we have the story about a life-changing friendship.
If you have the story of a stranger who meant something to you, leave a voicemail with your story at 612-361-1252, or email us at MinnesotaNow@mpr.org.
This year, June 19 — or Juneteenth — is a Minnesota state holiday for the first time. But lots of people don’t understand why we celebrate it.
Rose McGee is sharing that story across the state through her new play, “Kumbayah: The Juneteenth Story.” The free show runs in Mankato, Rochester, St. Cloud and the Twin Cities.
McGee is also the president and founder of Sweet Potato Comfort Pie, a catalyst for caring and building community. The third annual sweet potato pie showcase will be held at the Mill City Farmer’s Market in Minneapolis on Saturday, June 10.
The event is not a competition but an occasion to share the stories behind homemade sweet potato pies.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
A new report released today shows that a large swath of Minnesota -- about 72 percent of the state—is abnormally dry; about 12 percent of the state is in a moderate drought. Those figures have increased since just last week. MPR News meteorologist reports that all models forecast BELOW normal precipitation into early July.
Minnesota roller coaster weather patterns of late have had major effects on farmers. Late, heavy snowfall and flooded fields delayed planting in parts of the state. And now that plants are in the ground, it's dry. With the outlook threatening a third year of drought, farms of all sizes could soon be under stress. We spoke with John Beaton, grows vegetables and flowers at Fairhaven Farms near Duluth, in an area seeing moderate drought conditions.
Despite spring flooding, we are inching back into another summer drought. MPR meteorologist Sven Sundgaard talks about the dry conditions with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer. Plus, Wurzer spoke with a Duluth-area farmer about how he’s adapting.
Juneteenth is a state holiday this year, but what's the meaning behind the day? A playwright and local changemaker shared with Wurzer how she's spreading the story.
Old age comes for everyone, but trans elders face unique challenges. We heard from the folks behind a study casting a light on those issues.
And sports guys Wally and Eric gave us the lowdown on the Twins, Lynx and that big PGA tour news.
Prince Rogers Nelson would have been 65 years old today. Instead, we’re left remembering the Minneapolis-born musician’s legacy. He died in 2016 at age 57.
This weekend, an annual birthday celebration is back at Paisley Park marking seven years since we lost him.
And most notably, the event will feature more previously unreleased music from Paisley Park’s collection, the so-called “Prince Vault.”
For more, Andrea Swensson is with me. She is a music journalist and host of the Official Prince Podcast.
Four years ago, 33-year-old Heather Mayar’s death was ruled a suicide. It was a story Heather's mother never believed, and she felt police weren’t doing enough to track down other explanations.
Police reopened Heather's case after her mother pored over records, text messages, and social media posts. She also took the story to Star Tribune crime and policing reporter Andy Mannix, whose story about Heather’s death and investigation was published recently.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Mannix about his investigation into this case. Please note, this next story involves sexual violence and may be sensitive for some listeners.
For gardeners, early June is a time of watering plants and watching them start to shoot out of the ground. MPR host Cathy Wurzer talks with gardening expert Meg Cowden about gardening tips, what’s in season, and what she’s planting, growing and cooking right now.
Cowden is the author of the book “Plant Grow Harvest Repeat" and founder of the website "Seed to Fork" and the advice group "Modern Garden Guild."
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
MPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner gives an extended forecast.
There is still smoke in the sky, but air quality improves today for much of Minnesota. Mostly moderate conditions are in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday.
The list of Republicans running for president is growing by the day. And North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum just threw his name in the hat. A Fargo, N.D. reporter tells MPR News host Cathy Wurzer more.
Wurzer also talks to a leader with a local foundation that is paying $50 million to descendants of slaves.
We hear from a barber and other small businesses on their recovery from the pandemic.
Parents across the state have lots of thoughts about their kids getting out of school for the summer. A bunch of them share their ups and downs.
And the Current's Diane Miller brings us five new local songs to brighten your day.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We love listening to new music on Minnesota Now — and who better to talk about it than Diane Miller, host of The Local Show on The Current?
Miller joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to share what she’s been listening to lately.
The school year is ending this week—for some districts, it has already—and there are a lot of kids celebrating the start of three months of summer vacation.
That change of schedule can mean a chance to sleep in, do outside activities and summer programs, spend time with family, maybe travel. For working parents, the work-life juggle takes a major shift in the summer.
Producer Emily Bright spoke to a couple of parents from around the state to see what summer looks like for their families.
The economy continues to recover from the Covid pandemic. Minnesota’s unemployment rate is a low 2.8% and, if last week’s revival of St. Paul’s Grand Old Day on Grand Avenue is any indication, people are having a good time.
The glaring exception is downtown office buildings around the country, including St. Paul. Many offices continue to allow their employees to work from home, at least some of the time. Their absence means they’re spending less money at the small businesses that have long catered to the downtown crowd.
Chris Farrell, MPR News senior economics contributor, talked to Bilal Saleem, owner of Mr. B’s Barbershop in the downtown St. Paul skyway to see how business is going.
There’s a long history of religious conversion on Minnesota’s North Shore.
WTIP North Shore Community Radio Producers Leah Lemm and Staci Drouillard looked into the history of Catholic missionaries on either side of the border as part of the award-winning series, “It Happens Here.”
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We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
The Bush Foundation, based in Minnesota, is giving away $50 million to the descendants of slaves living in Minnesota and the Dakotas. The effort is believed to be the first of its kind in the state. A St. Paul group, Nexus Community Partners, is running the program. Recipients could receive up to $50,000.
Grant applications will open June 19th — Juneteenth.
Despite the focus on descendants of slaves, the foundation says the money is not intended to be reparations. MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer talked with Jackie Statum Allen, grantmaking director for the Bush Foundation, about the effort.
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We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
The number of Republicans running for president continues to grow. Former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to announce he’s running Wednesday.
Also Wednesday, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum kicks off his campaign for president during an event in Fargo. Burgum’s campaign released an ad Monday that introduced the billionaire to the public, including the story of how he made his fortune.
Burgum isn’t exactly a household name for the rest of the country. To find out more about Burgum, MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Dave Thompson, news director for Prairie Public Broadcasting based in Fargo.
Across Minnesota and the nation, new and more diverse independent bookstores have been popping up. In fact, for every independent bookstore that has closed since 2020, more than three new ones have opened, according to the American Booksellers Association.
It’s part of a continuing trend jumpstarted by the pandemic, and each of these bookstores has a story of its own.
When Josh Hames saw the storefront up for lease in West St. Paul, he knew it was perfect for a bookstore. It was late at night, and the lights on the side of the building illuminated the old brick building. He could see the tall ceilings through the windows.
“It looked like the cover to ‘Needful Things’ by Stephen King a little bit,” he said.
Hames, 30, opened Other Skies Weird Fiction in 2022, just in time for his favorite holiday: Halloween. The store sells high-quality editions of horror, sci-fi and imaginative fiction. Hames has been collecting these genres since he was 14, but the pandemic shutdown really clarified that passion.
“We all had time to reflect on, what are the things that we really, really like to do when we go out? And for me I found that, even before the pandemic, I would always spend all my time looking for books, at Goodwill, thrift shops, estate sales. I was always out there buying books, and I thought, man, that's really important, I want to be a part of that,” he said.
It turns out, others do, too, and Hames said he’s been blown away by the community of readers who share his interest.
A couple hundred miles to the northwest, in Detroit Lakes, Minn., Amy Erickson was feeling the lack of a bookstore in her town. The closest one was about a half-hour away, ever since the local Book World closed.
“And when they closed, I said, ‘I don’t know that I can live in a town without a bookstore.’ It just felt wrong somehow,” Erickson said.
Erickson was a 49-year-old stay-at-home mother of three. When the pandemic hit and her husband suddenly stopped traveling for work, they had some big family discussions.
“And I said, you know, if I don’t do this by the time I’m 50, I’m probably never going to do it,” she said. “I don’t want to live knowing that I there was something that I wanted to do and I could do and I just didn’t do it.”
In May 2022, she took a leap of faith and launched Bluebird Books. It’s a family affair: Her three teenage kids are now all old enough to work in the store, along with some of their friends.
“I love being surrounded by books all the time,” she said. “My favorite thing in the world is when someone walks back into the bookstore and says, ‘You recommended that book to me, and I absolutely loved it. What else? What other recommendations do you have?’ That makes my heart happy.”
Bluebird Books and Other Skies Weird Fiction are two of the 15 new independent bookstores that have opened in Minnesota since March 2020. That’s a big rise, and it’s in line with a regional and national trend.
Carrie Obry is the executive director of the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association. She credits the rise in part to Bookshop.org, the website that lets people buy books online and shares the profit with indie bookstores. She says having that online platform has democratized the bookselling industry.
“There’s just a whole new influx of wonderful much-needed energy and diversity coming through our ranks of bookstore owners,” Obry said.
There are challenges, of course, for any bookstore: competition for customers’ time and attention, accelerating rent rates in an industry prone to low wages and supply chain issues.
Former educator Mary Taris never expected to open a bookstore. When she got fed up with not seeing enough great children’s books by authors of color, she started Strive Publishing in 2018.
She quickly found the need was far greater than a one-woman publisher could address. After the murder of George Floyd, Taris said Strive publishing was flooded with people wanting to write their own stories.
“The civil unrest was a huge contributing factor in me kind of doubling down on my mission to elevate Black voices,” Taris said.
She looked for partnerships, and she found space in the IDS building in downtown Minneapolis, tucked among other retailers in the Black-woman owned Sistah Co-op. The tiny Strive Bookstore struggled for foot traffic following its opening in the fall of 2021, but still, Taris saw an impact.
“When Black people come in, they’re like, ‘Wow, this is for us,’” she said. “And I even get more people who are inspired to write, you know, when they come into the bookstore, and just, it kind of feels like, the more I can do in the book space, the more our mission can come alive.”
Working with the Minneapolis Downtown Council, she’s about to open a second location in the historic Young Quinlan Building on Nicollet Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. The ribbon-cutting ceremony is Saturday, June 2.
The 4,000-square-foot space has gotten some pre-opening customer praise:
“‘Oh, wow, this is so beautiful!’ That’s what I hear,” she said.
Taris can’t wait to use the space to celebrate authors and cross-cultural communication.
Because whatever the path they take to get there, for booksellers, there’s no better feeling than getting the right book into a reader’s hands.
Leaders in the DFL party have voted to sanction a Minneapolis city council candidate after a tumultuous convention earlier this month. We'll unpack this decision with the party chair.
And Sven Sundgaard will break down a hot and stormy weather forecast for the rest of the week.
Healing from the trauma caused by gun violence is an uphill battle. We'll hear from an organizer that is looking to nature for solutions.
Ever been to a concert at a friend's house? We'll hear about the time blues legend Lead Belly showed up to one in Minneapolis.
Even if you haven't seen a coyote, they may have seen you. We'll talk with a scientist who is learning from their movements through urban - and soon, rural - communities.
We've got a story for you from our history series “Minnesota Now and Then.” This time, we’re going back to November 1948.
Folk and blues singer Huddie Ledbetter, known by his stage name Lead Belly, had just finished a tour of Minnesota college towns, when he turned up at a friend’s Minneapolis home and gave a short concert.
It was a moment that would have been lost to music history, except that somebody decided to record it.
Here are MPR producers Robbie Mitchem and Jamal Allen with a story by Britt Aamodt.
In late spring, coyote pups spend their first few weeks of life hunkered in dens — some of which are tucked in Minnesota’s various urban parks. And the pups are just about to make moves - leaving the den with their parents for a new home base.
A research team based at the University of Minnesota is monitoring some of these animals to learn more about how coyotes, foxes and humans interact in the Twin Cities. Geoff Miller has been working on this project as a Ph.D. candidate since it began about four years ago.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Miller about what he’s learned so far.
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Outdoor activities like hiking, biking and bird watching can soothe the soul.
Our next guest says awareness of the natural environment around us is key to healing from— and preventing— the gun violence that plagues the U.S.
Farji Shaheer is the founder and director of the new nonprofit, Innovative SOULutions. It partners with Three Rivers Park District in the Twin Cities to bring families affected by gun violence into nature as a way to connect and heal.
It's the last day of May, but it sure feels like summer already. It's been warm and humid with some rumblings of overnight thunder in the forecast.
MPR meteorologist Sven Sundgaard joined the show give MPR News host Cathy Wurzer all the details.
It's time for sports! Let's turn to experts Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Wally is the founder of Minnesota Score magazine and the cohost of "10,000 Takes" sports talk show. Eric is the other host of "10,000 Takes" and is also the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio "Eye on Football."
This week, Wally and Eric tackle the World Cup, Vikings and the Wild among other topics.
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Minnesota nurses have voted to strike — again. We'll find out what they want and what happens next.
Speaking of nurses: In hospitals, cases of flu are surging just as cases of RSV seem to finally be declining. We asked a doctor about flu and RSV.
It's been 41 years since the first case of AIDS was reported. On World AIDS Day we talked with an expert about how treatment — and our impressions of the disease — have changed over the years.
And we got the full round up of Minnesota sports news from our friends Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson.
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It seems we may finally be seeing a decline in the number of people sick with RSV, a respiratory illness. Two weeks ago, there were nearly 200 people hospitalized. Last week that dipped to 150 — still high and most patients are babies under one year old. Flu on the other hand — is just ramping up. This week we saw more than a 300% increase in the number of flu cases.
We wanted to know if you had questions about flu and RSV — and you do! So, we’ve lined up a doctor to answer them.
Doctor Sameer Gupta is a pediatric critical care physician at M Health Fairview Masonic Children's Hospital. He's also the president of Medical Affairs at M Health Fairview Masonic Children's Hospital and the University of Minnesota Medical Center.
Today, on this World AIDS Day, there are more than 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States. There are about 9,000 Minnesotans among that number.
When AIDS was first discovered in the 1980s as it ripped through the gay community, it was considered a death sentence. Since that time, medical advancements allow people with AIDS and HIV to live long and healthy lives.
But the picture isn't bright for all. Many struggle to get the care they need. For more about the status of HIV and AIDS today, Host Cathy Wurzer talked with Dylan Boyer. He’s the Director of Development at The Aliveness Project, a community resource center for people living with HIV.
Minnesota nurses have authorized another strike, set to take place on Dec. 11th at 16 hospitals in the Twin Cities and Twin Ports area if a deal can't be reached.
The nurses and hospitals have been in negotiations since March and are currently working without a contract.
Host Cathy Wurzer talks with MPR News reporter Michelle Wiley about what comes next.
Railroad workers are still trying to negotiate a contract but the U.S. house voted to block it. We'll find out why and what’s next. Meteorologist Sven Sundgaard is back with a look at what happened and the forecast. We’ll talk with the people behind a new map restoring Native place names to northern Minnesota being unveiled today. Plus, an interview with author and poet Linda LaGarde Grover about the power of family stories. And I'll talk with a former Lake Wobegon resident you may remember from a Prairie Home Companion about her OWN cabaret show and podcast - The Island of Discarded Women.
Anishinaabe author Linda LaGarde Grover, Bois Forte Band, talks with host Cathy Wurzer about the power of stories to strengthen families and cultural connections. LaGarde is professor emeritus of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth and her latest book is called “Gichigami Hearts.”
Host Cathy Wurzer talks with Louis Johnston, professor in the Economics department at Saint John’s University about a possible strike among railroad workers and the U.S. House of Representatives vote on stopping it.
There were hundreds of crashes across the state in the aftermath of Tuesday’s snowstorm. There were dozens of jackknifed semi trucks, vehicle spin-outs, and at least forty people injured, according to the state patrol. MPR News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard joined host Cathy Wurzer for a look at just how much snow Minnesota got on Tuesday, and what December might look like.
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We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
Tuesday on Minnesota Now, we hear all about the Minnesota archaeologist behind a major scientific excavation in the eighties. And what will school funding could look like this year across the state?
We have a Minnesota Now and Then segment for you. This is when we look at the history of our state and the people who have called it home.
Today, we’re going back 40 years to Nov. 16, 1982. Reporters are crowded in a room at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. They were briefed about skeletons, but not just any skeletons. These are nearly 2,000 years old, found in a suburb of Naples, Italy. The reporters’ eyes were on Sara Bisel. She was a 50-year-old former housewife from Rochester, Minnesota—but there, at the National Geographic Society, she was the archaeologist called in to preserve the fast-deteriorating bones.
As the reporters took notes, she talked about the skeleton she called the “soldier.” Who was the solider? And how did Bisel, become the go-to expert to care for these remains?
Let’s ask Jane Bisel. She is the daughter of archeologist Sara Bisel.
Minnesota Democratic leaders have a new majority in the House and Senate— and say education is a priority in 2023.
What will that look like in practice when it comes to school funding?
Host Cathy Wurzer talked with Becky Dernbach, an education reporter with the Sahan Journal.
The U.S. soccer team plays Iran Tuesday in the FIFA World Cup. For Iranian Minnesotans, the world cup looks very different this year.
As Iran is on the world’s stage for soccer, the spotlight—and criticism—on their government has grown harsher. It has been 10 weeks since a Kurdish woman died in Iranian police custody after violating religious dress code. Her death sparked intense unrest in the country and protests around the world.
Here in Minnesota, the group called Minnesota Committee in Support of a Democratic Iran have been protesting against the Iranian government. They have been at Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis every Saturday since the beginning of the unrest. Host Cathy Wurzer talks to Hamid Kashani about the weight of the upcoming soccer match.
The Twin Cities, and parts of southern Minnesota and Northwestern Wisconsin are in the midst of a winter storm right now, and that's making for some dicey conditions on the roads and sidewalks.
MPR Meteorologist Sven Sundgaard is here for more details.
The national anthem is one of the first things Wild fans hear at their hockey games. The man belting out that song has a story of his own. John deCausmeaker talks with host Cathy Wurzer about his career and his current gig.
Host Cathy Wurzer talks with Minneapolis-based independent journalist Katie Thornton just came out with a new 5-part series on WNYC’s show "On the Media" about how the the American right came to dominate talk radio, and how one company is launching a conservative media empire on the airwaves.
Stephanie Hansen, from FM 107 and The Jason Show talks with host Cathy Wurzer about her new cookbook “True North Cabin Cookbook” and winter cooking with a summer cabin feel.
Host Cathy Wurzer talks with Rachel Moran about the city of Minneapolis’ plan to replace the city’s long-criticized police civilian review process with a new Community Commission on Police Oversight. Moran is a professor at St Thomas School of Law and expert on police accountability and oversight boards.
The Minneapolis City Council is preparing to vote on a new community oversight process - but the new plan is already receiving pushback. And we'll talk with a famous singer no one really knows. I'll give you a hint - he sings for the Wild! Conservative talk radio has been growing in Minnesota for decades. We'll dig into the story behind that growing network of conservative talk radio stations. Plus, we'll talk cabin recipes with the author of the True North Cabin Cookbook. How can you get that summer cabin taste on your winter table? We'll ask.
There's been a rising number of flu outbreaks just as school lets out for Thanksgiving break. How to protect your family and friends from viral illness this holiday. And speaking of Thanksgiving, that pumpkin pie you’ll eat has Minnesota roots. We’ll explain.
A group of Minnesotans walked to Washington D.C. in a call to free an American Indian Movement leader.
A new documentary on light pollution focuses on the dark skies in Northern Minnesota. We'll hear from one photographer whose work has been prominently featured.
Many Minnesotans are gearing up to hit the road Wednesday or Thursday to visit family for Thanksgiving. MPR Meteorologist Paul Huttner is back to give us a little update on the latest outlook for travelers through the holiday weekend.
Think about this: As long as humans have walked the earth, they’ve stepped out of their shelters at night, looked at the sky and come face to face with the universe. That is until the past hundred years or so.
Now many of us look up and see the glow of electric lights. A new documentary looks at the history and science behind Northern Minnesota’s night skies, as well as indigenous star knowledge and the impact of light pollution. “Northern Nights, Starry Skies” is a production of Hamline University’s Center for Global Environmental Education in partnership with WDSE, the PBS member station in Duluth. Travis Novitsky is a night sky photographer and tribal member of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa whose photographs and stories are included in the documentary.
Back in August, a hearty group of people set out from south Minneapolis to walk to Washington, D.C. They are supporters of the American Indian Movement and their “Walk to Justice” was to honor Leonard Peltier and the concerns of Native people. Rachel Thunder is Plains Cree and she is the lead AIM grand governing council organizer for the “Walk to Justice.”
People all over Minnesota are gearing up to cook a great big feast for their loved ones this week. Gardener Meg Cowden will use everything she’s got from her harvest this fall. Meg is the author of Plant Grow Harvest Repeat. And she is back with tips on Thanksgiving cooking, finding the best produce, and her mindset on gardening during the snowy winter season.
Minnesota isn’t what it used to be. More than 80 million years ago, when dinosaurs walked the earth, a sea covered much of Minnesota. And one of its most successful predators is still with us in today’s oceans. Jim Cotter is professor of Geology at the University of Minnesota – Morris. Every month on Minnesota Now, Professor Cotter tells the story of our state through geology.
In a state renowned for its forests, there is arguably no Minnesota tree more majestic than the white pine. Giant white pines, some 150 feet tall, once covered much of the northern half of Minnesota. Just a tiny fraction of old growth trees remain, but efforts to bring them back are slowly taking root. MPR News reporter Dan Kraker covered the story and joined host Cathy Wurzer to talk about the tree’s past, present, and future.
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We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
Climate change is one of the biggest threats facing our planet. Glaciers are melting. Water levels are rising. Temperatures too. Wildfires are tearing through forests and neighborhoods. Some storms are super charged and do major damage.
What’s at the root of climate change? Carbon dioxide—created by the fossil fuels we burn. Andrew Jones is CEO and co-founder of Carba, a Minnesota-based company that is trying to figure out how to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere—and wants to share that technology.
It's been a little over a month since a University of Minnesota regent ignited a firestorm over the makeup of the university of Minnesota Morris student body. Some regents visited the campus yesterday, and Cathy spoke to the president of the Morris Campus Student Association to learn what happened.
We’ll learn about efforts to bring back a majestic Minnesota tree.
Climate change is threatening the planet, but a Minnesota startup hopes to be the solution by permanently removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Cathy spoke with the co-founder of the startup.
Minnesotans are gearing up for a big Thanksgiving feast this Thursday, and resident gardening expert Meg Cowden has some tips on how to bring your garden to your table this time of year.
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U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar is pushing back on the potential republican house leader's threat to remove her from a key committee job. We'll get the context and what might happen from the move.
The holiday travel season is underway. We'll tell you what to expect.
A new podcast about a St. Paul family explores the lifelong questions that linger when a couple adopts a child from a mother in another country.
An investigation into contract for deed deals shows Somali Muslim families are being targeted and put at risk.
And in our latest installment of "Minnesota Now and Then" we go back to 1977. We will meet Bonnie Wallace. She went to the historic National Women's Conference that year. We'll find out why that was such a big deal.
It was 44 years ago this month when 15,000 people attended the National Women’s Conference in a hotel Houston, Texas. It was the first and only women’s conference approved of and funded by the federal government.
The goal was to create a women’s agenda and a plan of action to be submitted to Congress and the president. Bonnie Wallace was there. She’s a feminist and an enrolled member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
She was part of the American Indian Women’s caucus at the event, and she joined host Cathy Wurzer to look back at that historic event.
Buying a house a part of the American Dream. Some people have a mortgage through a lender, others through a “contract for deed.” But this direct transaction between buyer and seller is risky.
A new investigation from ProPublica and the Sahan Journal has found that local real estate investors are targeting Somali Muslim families to engage in these risky financial deals.
Jessica Lussenhop is one of the reporters behind the investigation, and she joined host Cathy Wurzer to explain the issue.
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If you’ve adopted children or are considering adoption, the new podcast called Defining Diego might get you thinking. Laurie Stern is a reporter living in St Paul.
Back in 2000 she read about a first of its kind report from the United Nations finding the international adoption system was set up to help wealthy white people buy indigenous babies from poor families.
She was appalled.
But the thing is — she read this report when she herself was in Guatemala — adopting her own little boy from a Mayan woman.
She thought, what do I do now?
Now, 22 years later, Laurie and her son Aa Tiko’, also known as Diego Luke, are telling their story about how international adoption has shaped their lives. They both joined host Cathy Wurzer to tell their story.
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The Twin Cities airport is a busy place this week. Thanksgiving holiday travel is expected to equal or surpass that seen in 2021, and officials say pack your patience because more than 32,000 passengers are expected to clear security checkpoints over the next few days. Kyle Potter is the executive editor of travel website Thrifty Traveler and he joined Cathy to talk about travel prep.
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U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar is pushing back on threats to remove her from key committee assignments. Speaking on Fox News on Sunday, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened to make the move over what he called anti-Semitic comments.
Omar said in a statement that McCarthy's comments were an example of "fear, xenophobia, Islamophobia and racism." Omar is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Education and Labor Committee.
It wouldn't be the first time a House member has been removed from their committee assignments over controversial statements. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green was stripped of her assignments in February 2021.
Amy Koch is a political strategist, former Minnesota Senate Republican majority leader and co-host of the podcast Wrong About Everything.
Transgender Day of Remembrance on Nov. 20 honors the memory of those killed in acts of anti-transgender violence worldwide. That violence is an increasing problem in the U.S., where 57 transgender people died by homicide in 2021, a record. Many were women of color.
“This is a hard week for many trans folks because that violence brings an increased visibility. They are often very afraid for young people, and that fear is not unfounded,” Alex Iantaffi, a Minneapolis family therapist who works with transgender people, told MPR News host Cathy Wurzer Thursday.
“It is a tender conversation about holding space and support for people to process the impact of systemic violence, as well as to be reminded that as a community, we also have beauty, resiliency and mutual support.”
Related reporting * Listen Allina Health addresses breast health gap for transgender patients * March On Transgender Day of Visibility, White House announces moves to expand trans rights * 2018 'You cannot erase us out of existence': Transgender Minnesotans rally in Twin Cities
According to the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, the day of remembrance began in 1999 as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in Boston in 1998.
While there are a few local events scheduled in Minnesota, Iantaffi said the day can also be celebrated alone, honoring those lost.
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Several key members of Gov. Tim Walz’s cabinet are stepping aside, including Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm.
Malcolm says she plans to retire after a long career in public service.
She spoke with MPR News reporter Catharine Richert about her tenure and future plans.
Vikings fans can’t wipe the smile off their faces after last Sunday’s win. And how are the Gophers looking ahead of this weekend’s game against Iowa?
Cathy Wurzer talked with our sports guys Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson about all that and more.
Nurses from across Minnesota have just announced a plan to hold another strike vote. We’ll get the details.
The state’s health commissioner Jan Malcolm is retiring. We'll hear from her, too.
A new book of photographs and essays from a world traveler may open your eyes. We'll talk with the Minnesota woman behind that new book.
The legalization of THC and, potentially, recreational marijuana has many concerned about how to keep people safe. We'll hear about efforts to communicate those concerns to lawmakers.
In the lead up to Trans Remembrance Day we hear about efforts to keep trans people safe from targeted attacks.
And all the latest sports news with Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson.
The union that includes 15,000 Minnesota nurses have just announced they will hold a vote on whether to strike — again. They made the announcement at a news conference this morning.
This announcement comes a few months after the nurses had a three-day walkout from hospitals across the state.
Host Cathy Wurzer talked to MPR News health reporter Michele Wiley about the details.
When she was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, Gail Shore didn’t have any particular big dreams about the future. There weren’t a lot of opportunities for women back then.
That all changed after her first trip overseas. Over the past five decades, Shore has traveled to nearly 100 countries - experiencing different cultures and taking pictures.
Her new book, “Opening My Cultural Lens,” shares photographs and memories from her travels over the years. She spoke with host Cathy Wurzer about what she’s learned from 50 years of travel.
Some of Gov. Tim Walz's key cabinet members won't be back with him for a second term. Walz said Wednesday that Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm, Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington and Education Commissioner Heather Mueller have decided to leave their positions. So has Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board Commissioner Mark Phillips. This is a morning update from MPR News, hosted by Cathy Wurzer. Music by Gary Meister.
Host Cathy Wurzer talks with Ellen Stanley, musician and host of KFAI’s show "Womenfolk” about music, her 20 year run on the radio and the event celebrating it all happening on November 20th at the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis.
Mother Nature is always full of surprises here in Minnesota. We’ve gone from above average temps to below average temps with lots and lots and lots of snow! What's in store next? Cathy Wurzer ask MPR Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner.
Cathy Wurzer talks with filmmaker Leah Hale about her award winning documentary film “Bring her Home” about the work to highlight the need to address missing and murdered Indigenous women. It's being re-released on Twin Cities PBS later this month.
Sanford Health, based in Sioux Falls and Fairview Health Systems in Minneapolis want to join forces. Cathy Wurzer gets reactions from Cara Hetland, the Director of Radio and Journalism Content for South Dakota Public Broadcasting, and Laurie Swanson, former Minnesota Attorney General who dealt with a similar merger plan in 2013.
The Sanford and Fairview health systems are planning to merge. We talk about why that plan didn't pan out the first time it was proposed and what it could mean for patient care this time around. The film maker behind a new documentary tells the story of three indigenous women working to honor their missing and murdered relatives. Paul Huttner is back to give us a look at our extended forecast. Ellen Stanley has featured local folk, bluegrass and roots artists for 20 years on K-F-A-I and she's celebrating the past two decades of music with an event this weekend.
Thirty years after the murder of Minneapolis police officer Jerry Haaf, one of people convicted in his death could be released. We're looking back at the murder and what the potential parole could mean.
And for the first time, meteorologists — two of them! — have been elected to the state legislature. We’ll hear from them.
Speaking of weather... some dicey conditions Monday morning made for hundreds of crashes. A longtime driver's ed instructor shares how he teaches new drivers to stay safe on the road.
And a Minneapolis reporter has a new nickname for Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We'll hear all about the "City of Hustle."
Sioux Falls is South Dakota’s largest city. It's also known as the Queen City. But a new anthology, exploring the history of Sioux Falls, offers another nickname.
Patrick Hicks is co-editor of City of Hustle: A Sioux Falls Anthology. And Christopher Vondracek is one of the contributing writers. The two spoke with host Cathy Wurzer.
Minnesota's is a citizen legislature with each member bringing a vast array of backgrounds and experiences to the job. This coming session, in the senate chamber will be not one but two meteorologists.
Brian Bakst on Twitter: "Combined with the election of @NicoleM_MN , the #mnleg Senate now has a "weather" caucus. The most Minnesota thing ever."
Nicole Mitchell is now state Senator Mitchell. She is a former TV meteorologist for KSTP-TV, and represents District 47 which is Woodbury and Oakdale. Rob Kupec is a former TV meteorologist for KVRR in the Red River Valley. He will represent District 4, the Moorhead-Detroit Lakes area.
We have reason to believe they are the very first meteorologists who will be Minnesota senators. The two talked with host Cathy Wurzer.
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The Twins limp into the end of the season while the pucks are about to drop in the NHL plus the Minnesota Loons wrap up their play. All the sports news you need to know for Thursday, October, 6, 2022. Wally Langfellow and Eric nelson of 10,000 Takes Sports Talk Program dish it with Cathy Wurzer.
After the Marijuana party candidate in the second district congressional race died Wednesday — what happens to her votes? We'll get the details.
And we’ll look at the long buried story of a college football player who died shortly after playing against the UMN.
Recent numbers show a mental health crisis in rural Minnesota. We'll talk with a woman on the ground about what politicians and policy makers can do to help.
We'll hear about a new effort to return Native artifacts to tribal communities.
And we'll get all the sports news — good and bad — with our sports pros Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson.
Monica Kramer McConkey grew up on a farm and is one of two mental health professionals hired through the state to provide free mental health support for farmers. Monica owns Eyes on the Horizon, an agriculture mental health consulting business and she talks with host Cathy Wurzer about the work.
On Oct. 5, 1923, the Iowa State Cyclones football team was in the Twin Cities to play the Minnesota Gophers. It was the first collegiate game for a young Iowa player, Jack Trice. He was the only Black player on the Cyclones.
Because of segregation, Trice had to spend the night before the game alone because he wasn’t allowed in the hotel where his white teammates stayed. And there, in his hotel room he wrote this in a letter: “My thoughts just before the first real college game of my life. The honor of my race, family, and self are at stake. Everyone is expecting me to do big things. I will!”
But three days later, Trice died. What happened?
Jonathan Gelber is an orthopedist at Olmsted Medical Center in Rochester and the author of the new book The Idealist: Jack Trice and the Fight for a Forgotten College Football Legacy. He joined host Cathy Wurzer to talk about what happened.
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What happens now that a candidate for U.S. Congress in Minnesota’s second district has died, less than a month from the election? Paula Overby, the Legal Marijuana Now candidate for Congress in Minnesota’s 2nd District, died on Wednesday. She was competing in one of the tightest House races in the country between incumbent DFLer Angie Craig and Republican Tyler Kistner. To talk more about what Overby’s death may mean for that second district congressional race and what the ballot will look like now, Secretary of State Steve Simon joined host Cathy Wurzer.
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Wednesday on Minnesota Now, Cathy Wurzer talks to former Minneapolis TV anchor Pat Miles about her new book on living and dying well. And Paul Huttner is back with our early fall forecast.
Joe Biden declared the pandemic ‘over’ on the television show "60 Minutes" in September. But if COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s that more twists may be in store.
To answer our questions about what this fall might look like, Michael Osterholm is on the line. He is an epidemiologist and the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
We like to talk with creatives around the state from time to time to get insight into their art and their lives.
Today, Cathy Wurzer talks to Duluth multidisciplinary artist Jonathan Thunder - a citizen of the Red Lake Nation who was recently honored with the Jim Denomie memorial scholarship.
His work is currently on exhibit at the Watermark Art Center in Bemidji.
There are fewer than 200 confirmed meteorite crash sites in the world. And just in the past week, the University of Minnesota has found one in Dakota County.
Cathy Wurzer talks to Jim Cotter, a professor of Geology at the University of Minnesota – Morris. Every month on Minnesota Now, Professor Cotter tells the story of our state through geology.
The biggest weather news continues to be the devastation in the southeast United States and Puerto Rico.
In Minnesota, the skies have been calm and the temperatures warm. But that's about to change.
MPR Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner shares a detailed forecast — and more.
For more than 25 years, Pat Miles came into your homes to deliver the news for WCCO and KSTP.
From her anchor desk, she told stories that mattered to people. Now she’s telling her own story.
In 2018, Pat and her husband were aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean when events began to unfold that would compel her to write the book she never wanted to: Before All Is Said and Done: Practical Advice on Living and Dying Well.
She spoke with Cathy Wurzer about it.
The head of the new Minneapolis Public Safety department talks about his work and the city’s potential new police chief. We talk with a psychologist about how digital media can be particularly harmful to Black young people. We get a look at political forecasts and fundraising in the midterm elections. One woman shares what she’s doing because she says military vets are being under-estimated and underemployed. And a first-of-its-kind concert by the Minnesota Orchestra this weekend explores the work of Black composers who have historically been overlooked.
Louise Toppin, performer, scholar and professor, speaks with host Cathy Wurzer about the rarely-heard Black composers being highlighted in a new performance by the Minnesota Orchestra happening Friday, October seventh.
Minnesota is facing an extremely tight workforce and businesses are looking towards a number of creative solutions to find and hire more employees. Amy Johnson, military spouse and the founder and president of a workforce solutions business for greater Minnesota, speaks with host Cathy Wurzer about her work training employers how to effectively manage military vets who are looking for civilian work.
Dr. Brendesha Tynes is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Southern California who studies the toll digital media takes on young people of color, in particular. She speaks with MPR Reporter Cat Richert about the online lives of Black adolescents and the less-talked about ways it relates to mental health.
Dr. Cedric Alexander became the first Community Safety Commissioner for Minneapolis just three months ago. He speaks with host Cathy Wurzer about how he is steering the new Minneapolis public safety department and the new nominee for police chief fits into that vision.
Archery is an ideal sport for beginners of all ages—you don’t have to be particularly strong, athletic, or fast to hit a target. It just takes a lot of focus.
At least, that’s what Dana Keller teaches her students at A1 Archery in Hudson Wisconsin. Keller is a Level 3 USA archery coach and bow hunter. And she’s been instrumental in training a growing number of women archers and hunters how to work a bow.
As Minnesota’s deer archery hunting season continues, Keller joined Minnesota Now to share tips for new archers.
On the heels of their joint Swedish tour in the summer of 2021, Olivia Diercks and Karla Colahan of The OK Factor will kick of a Midwest tour with Swedish folk quintet JAERV.
Producer Ellen Finn spoke with Colahan and Diercks about their music, upcoming 10th anniversary album, and other musicians that inspire them. You can find their tour dates along with music from their album here.
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The debate over gubernatorial debates continues in Minnesota just as early voting is underway in the state. Governor Tim Walz has agreed to two debates this month with his Republican challenger Scott Jensen. One of them will be on MPR News.
But for the first time in 40 years, Twin Cities television viewers won’t see a debate between the gubernatorial candidates. The Walz campaign has turned down debate offers from Twin Cities PBS, KSTP, and KARE 11 TV. There will be a debate on several smaller greater Minnesota T.V. stations. Walz has argued that the total of three debates the candidates will participate in before November 8 is perfectly normal although three debates are far fewer than in years past.
It also seems refraining from debating is gaining popularity with candidates in other states either doing just one debate or skipping debates altogether. What gives? To help contextualize this political strategy, Brian McClung joined Cathy. Brian served as Press Secretary, Director of Communications, and Deputy Chief of Staff for former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. He’s now with Park Street Public, a lobbying and political strategy group.
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Early voting is underway and the haggling over gubernatorial debates continues with far fewer debates this year than in years past. Only three between Governor Walz and his challenger. Why? A former Minnesota governor's press secretary shares his take.
Nonprofit hospitals are required to provide discounted care, but some hospitals are giving far less than others. We look into the Mayo Clinic's record of charity care.
It's archery season for deer hunting. We'll hear from a coach who's been instrumental in getting more women archers and hunters in the sport.
Finally, we'll talk to classical folk duo The OK Factor ahead of their Midwest tour.
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The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that right now, four in ten adults in the U.S. have some form of health care debt. Did you know that nonprofit hospitals are required to provide discounted care to patients who need it?
But an investigation from the Rochester Post Bulletin found that Rochester’s Mayo Clinic provides significantly less charity care than other top hospitals across the U.S. That means Mayo patients who are eligible for financial assistance may not know it — and are instead going into debt.
Molly Castle Work is one of the authors behind that investigation — she’s an investigative reporter for the Post Bulletin. She joined host Cathy Wurzer to talk about what she found.
Host Mike Mulcahy talks with Mayor Jacob Frey about Frey’s choice for the next Minneapolis police chief.
Then, a conversation with State Rep. Jen Schultz, DFL-Duluth. She’s an economics professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth and she’s challenging U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., for the 8th District seat in Congress and not running for reelection to the Minnesota House. (We have invited Rep. Stauber on the program, but he has not yet agreed to an interview.)
Finally, Mike rounds up this week’s political news stories with MPR News’s Dana Ferguson and Brian Bakst and Minnpost’s Peter Callaghan.
St. Paul voters passed historic rent control, and now the city council has pared that back with changes to an initial rent stabilization ordinance. We'll dig into what happened.
Also, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey just nominated the city's new police chief and it could be a major turning point for the force. We'll talk with MPR News reporter Matt Sepic about the selection.
September is sickle cell disease awareness month. We'll talk to some Minnesotans about efforts to help the people that suffer from the disorder.
And we'll also talk a little football . The Gophers and Vikings are looking pretty good for now according to our sports commentators Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson.
We are happily moving on from baseball season — the Twins are closing out their once hopeful season with a sorry end. Now, onto football! Eric and Wally are back to give you the all the details you need to know.
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Comics are big business these days – Marvel and DC Comics rake in billions at the box office. Guest host Tim Nelson talked about a different type of comic today though that also made it to the screen, the Peanuts!
On Oct. 2, the comic featuring Charlie Brown, his dog Snoopy and the crew turns 72 years old. The strip was the creation of St. Paul cartoonist Charles Schulz. Benjamin Clark, the curator of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, California, joined us.
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Did you know that September is Sickle Cell Awareness Month? Sickle cell is a genetic trait affecting red blood cells — and it causes intense pain and anemia. Sickle cell disease occurs among one out of every 365 African American births. But some health care providers miss sickle cell symptoms or don’t take seriously people who have the condition.
To learn more about why, guest host Tim Nelson spoke with Rae Blaylark and Dr. Stephen Nelson. Rae Blaylark is the President and CEO of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Minnesota. Dr. Stephen Nelson is a pediatric hematologist oncologist and Chief Medical Officer at the foundation.
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St. Paul’s city council has voted 5-2 to roll back parts of its rent control policy that was put in place less than five months ago. The details of the rent control policy made it one of the most stringent of its kind in the country.
The new amendments to the policy, which were passed last week, mean that now, low income housing and newly constructed buildings are exempt from the three percent cap on annual rent increase. Max Nesterak has been following this story closely. He’s deputy editor of the Minnesota Reformer.
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Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he will “proudly support” legislation to overhaul rules for certifying presidential elections, bolstering a bipartisan effort to revise a 19th century law and avoid another Jan. 6 insurrection.
The legislation would clarify and expand parts of the 1887 Electoral Count Act, which, along with the Constitution, governs how states and Congress certify electors and declare presidential winners. The changes in the certification process are in response to unsuccessful efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to exploit loopholes in the law to overturn his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden, and the violent attack on the Capitol by his supporters as Congress counted the votes.
“Congress’ process for counting the presidential electors’ votes was written 135 years ago,” McConnell said. “The chaos that came to a head on Jan. 6 of last year certainly underscored the need for an update.”
McConnell made the remarks just before the Senate Rules Committee voted 14-1 to approve the bill and send it to the Senate floor, where a vote is expected after the November election. The only senator to vote against the legislation was Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, one of two senators to stand and object to Biden’s certification last year.
The GOP leader’s endorsement gave the legislation a major boost as the bipartisan group pushes to pass the bill before the end of the year and ahead of the next election cycle. Trump is still pushing false claims of election fraud and saying he won the election as he considers another run in 2024. McConnell’s support for the law could put him even more at odds with Trump, who frequently berates the GOP leader and has encouraged Republicans to vote against it.
The House has already passed a more expansive bill overhauling the electoral rules, but it has far less Republican support. While the House bill received a handful of GOP votes, the Senate version already has the backing of at least 12 Republicans — more than enough to break a filibuster and pass the legislation in the 50-50 Senate.
As he announced his support, McConnell noted that Democrats also objected to legitimate election results the last three times that Republicans won the presidency. “The situation obviously called for careful, methodical and bipartisan work,” he said, noting that the bipartisan group that negotiated the bill worked on the language for months.
McConnell called the House bill a “non-starter” in the Senate because of the bipartisan compromise on the Senate language. “We have one shot to get this right,” he said.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Democratic chairwoman of the Senate Rules panel, expressed a similar sentiment. The Senate legislation is the bill that “will achieve a strong bipartisan consensus,” she said.
Cruz, who stood with Trump as he made false claims of fraud in 2020, called the legislation a “bad bill” and said it would make it harder for Congress to challenge fraudulent elections. He questioned why any Republican would support it.
The bill is all about “Democratic rage” at Trump, Cruz said.
Still, Cruz was the only dissenter. Among the Republicans on the Rules panel who voted for the bill shortly after McConnell’s statement were Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, one of only eight senators to vote against Biden’s certification, and Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty, a strong Trump ally.
Senators made minor tweaks to the legislation at Tuesday’s meeting but kept the bill largely intact. The bill, written by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, would make clear that the vice president only has a ceremonial role in the certification process, tighten the rules around states sending their votes to Congress and make it harder for lawmakers to object.
The changes are a direct response to Trump, who publicly pressured several states, members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence to aid him as he tried to undo Biden’s win. Even though Trump’s effort failed, lawmakers in both parties said his attacks on the election showed the need for stronger safeguards in the law.
If it becomes law, the bill would be Congress’ strongest legislative response yet to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, in which hundreds of Trump’s supporters beat police officers, broke into the Capitol and interrupted the joint session as lawmakers were counting the votes. Once the rioters were cleared, the House and Senate rejected GOP objections to the vote in two states. But more than 140 Republicans voted to sustain them.
Differences between the House and Senate bills will have to be resolved before final passage, including language around congressional objections.
While the Senate bill would require a fifth of both chambers to agree on an electoral objection to trigger a vote, the House bill would require agreement from at least a third of House members and a third of the Senate. Currently, only one member of each chamber is required for the House and Senate to vote on whether to reject a state’s electors.
The House bill also lays out new grounds for objections, while the Senate does not.
A Minnesota Appeals Court ruled against a group of Twin Cities parents in a school segregation case. What does that mean for Minnesota families? It is high turtle crossing season and we’ll find out why the Minneapolis parks board so interested. Paul Huttner is back with special guest Craig Edwards in Florida as we follow the path of Hurricane Ian. Thousands of runners are gearing up for the big Twin Cities marathon this Sunday. And Vikings wide receiver Blake Proehl talks about moonlighting on Tik Tok.
MPR Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner talks with former MPR meteorologist Craig Edwards who is now living in Fort Myers, as Hurricane Ian barrels inland there. Huttner also gives a weather update closer to home.
It’s a good time to be a ball fan in Minnesota. The Twins are on a winning streak and the Loons are hot! Host Cathy Wurzer gets the details from our sports pros - Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson.
Wally Langfellow is the founder of Minnesota Score magazine and the cohost of “Ten-thousand Takes” sports talk show. Eric Nelson is the other host of “Ten-thousand Takes” and the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio “Eye on Football.”
Michael Osterholm on the new vaccine for the most contagious Covid strains circulating among us; the story on all the FFA high schoolers who are showing off at the state fair for the 75th year; an insightful conversation about barriers for BIPOC folks to going out into the great outdoors; a group of ninth graders share their hopes, dreams and jitters for their freshman year and we'll catch up with our sports experts Wally and Eric with the latest need-to-know sports news.
Nearly 1,000 high school students have moved into the barracks at the State Fairgrounds for the big weekend of FFA competitions. This is the 75th year the Future Farmers of America are at the fair.
Cathy Wurzer talked with T.J. Brown, FFA Superintendent and Agribusiness instructor at South Central College in North Mankato about the changing FFA and what all those young people are up to this last weekend of the fair.
Upgraded COVID-19 vaccines are on the way. On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration approved new, reformulated versions of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
Courtesy of the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota infectious disease specialist Michael Osterholm
Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and director of Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, joins MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to share what that means for our immunity against new and future strains of the virus.
The following is a transcript of the conversation edited for clarity. Listen to the full conversation using the audio player above.
How do these reformulated vaccines work? Well, they actually work the same way as the vaccines that were used up until now, except for the fact that they include specific changes to the spike protein — that material that we try to develop the antibodies against, which will then prevent that virus from actually entering our cells. And now it is reformulated to include the mutations that we have seen with this virus’ ba.4, ba.5 mutation. So it's exactly the same vaccine, with the exception of accounting for that.
These vaccines have been tested in mice. And as you know, the director of the CDC says waiting for more human trial data could lead to an outdated vaccine at a time when we're at risk of a fall surge. Some in the medical community of question that approach suggests that folks wait for more data. Where are you on this? Well, let me cut through the fog of vaccines right now. Because I think this has really been an unfortunate situation where the public is being whipsawed back and forth.
The most important message that anyone can take away from this interview is just the need to get vaccinated, regardless of which vaccine you get. The data are clear and compelling now that if you are vaccinated, and with at least two boosters, meaning four doses in total, you have a significantly lower risk of serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths. And so that's the most important thing.
I think the prediction that we're going to have a surge potentially this fall is not based on any meaningful data. As you know, I've been talking about all along the inability for us to actually predict what's going to happen with this virus. So I would be worried about this moment, and that something this fall. And we're still seeing in this country, 500 deaths a day due to COVID. It makes it the number four cause of death overall. And so the most important messages stay current.
The second thing is this vaccine is coming out is safe. It's no different than the other vaccines that we've had to use to date. The challenge is, is it going to work better? Is it going to really stop the infections more effectively than the previous vaccines? And I think that is open to question.
So to me, it's if I have a choice right now, I'll take either vaccine as long as I get a vaccine to keep myself currently vaccinated.
Another challenge to the resources for a vaccine rollout this fall are not what they were even last year? We have a perfect storm in the world of vaccines that I've not seen in my almost 48 years in the business. First of all, we've surely got the situation now we have two different vaccines for the purposes of COVID. And by two I don't mean to Pfizer and Moderna. I mean, you have the previous U.S. vaccine, which is the one you have to use if you're starting somebody for the first time in being vaccinated — because they're a higher dosage vaccine than the boosters we have now. So we've got to keep both those vaccines separate.
And you're right about rolling out a campaign. We're in the middle of trying to vaccinate for monkeypox with this intradermal method. That type of administration is much more complicated.
We've got polio challenges right now in this country, where we have many pockets of under-vaccinated people. We're now concerned polio virus is spreading right here in the state of Minnesota, only 23 percent of young Somali children are vaccinated against polio.
Then on top of it rolling out a vaccine for the flu season. You know, if we if the Southern Hemisphere was any indication of what might happen here during their winter through March, April in May in Australia, they had one of their worst flu seasons they've had in many years. This is also something we're trying to do right now here in Minnesota draw a flu vaccine.
All of these vaccines are challenging us tremendously, trying to get them all done and there are no resources, the feds have not provided additional new resources. So health care providers in the state and local health departments are trying to get the vaccinations done with no new support whatsoever.
What do you suggest folks do? Contact their doctor? Just try to get vaccine as quickly as possible, especially when this COVID booster is out? What's the timing of that for most folks? You will be able to get the new vaccine dose as early as next week. If you want to get it you should get it just like you’ve gotten your previous vaccines. At clinics and contacting local and state public health agencies for what they're doing to provide vaccines. The most important message — again — is get it. If it's been at least four months since you've been vaccinated before, you need it right now. With the new vaccine, you can get it as early as two months after the last dose, I think waiting a little bit longer is better.
We have a significant amount of activity right now in Minnesota right here. I know of more friends, colleagues and acquaintances that are infected with this virus now than at any time I've known since the pandemic began. So now is the time to get it. Don't wait. Again, this could be what can keep you out of the hospital can keep you from becoming seriously ill and keep you from dying.
When we were talking back in July, you told me that COVID is one of these situations where the public is done with it, but the virus is not done with us. I know you've said that a number of different times. I'm wondering, has the public's lax behavior around the virus heighten the need for better vaccines in this particular case? We clearly need better vaccines, however, I guess the real question is, “what does better mean?” I think the vaccine that we have coming may have a slight advantage over the one we had previously. But we really need are completely different vaccines that ultimately will stop you from getting infected. That means you don't transmit the virus and surely then keeps you from becoming seriously ill.
Right now we don't have those. These vaccines are powerful tools and keeping people from getting seriously ill or dying. But we clearly need new and better vaccines. Our group happens to be leading an international effort to come up with a roadmap for these new, better vaccines. But they're not forthcoming now. They're there, they're at least several years off at the earliest. So in the meantime, we're gonna have to learn how to live with this virus in this kind of boosting situations. But as I've also said to you, we cannot boost our way out of this pandemic.
Only 26 percent of Americans 65 years of age and older have had all their boosters to booster doses. Why? Why can't we get the remainder vaccinated? Because that's one of the most important reasons why we continue to see these 500 deaths a day are people who are just not vaccinated.
Are you still wearing a mask? A well-fitted mask? I absolutely do. I'd say actually not just well fitted, I wear an N95 respirator. I'm fully vaccinated. And when I'm in public settings, I do that. When in private settings, when we entertain a few people for dinner, we test for several days a day, before they come no one who has symptoms, including even sniffles can come. And so far we're managing the pandemic to that regard it can be done. But it surely means that you can't just ignore the virus. It's here, and it is taking a toll.
Before you go, by the way, you mentioned that you're not sure about a fall surge? Yeah, anybody that predicts what's happening with COVID, more than three to five weeks out, probably also has a bridge to sell, so be careful. And I keep hearing my colleagues say this, but as you know, you've been following us over the months that we've been involved with this pandemic. How many times have people made predictions for which it didn't come true?
A famous one that was made … this past spring that we're going to see another major summer hit in the southern sunbelt states, and everyone get ready. Never happened. As near as you may recall, I suggested we don't know that would happen and it didn't. So I think we have to be very careful with this virus. We just don't know what the next shoe to drop is.
Listen to the full conversation using the audio player above.
School starts next week for many young Minnesotans, and with it, a new class of ninth graders will enter high school.
MPR News spoke with five members of the class of 2026 — from five different metro-area high schools — about their hopes, fears and dreams for the future as the semester begins.
Nikki Krsna, Wayzata High School
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
Nikki Krsna is an incoming ninth-grader at Wayzata High School.
“I’m excited,” Nikki Krsna said. “I get to meet a lot of new people.”
During the beginning of the pandemic, Nikki stayed connected with her friends through virtual study groups. She likes to have a broad social network, she said — with folks from all different backgrounds.
Some of those friends she’s met through clubs and activities, like volleyball and Indian classical dance. Gleaming trophies from over the years are on display in her family’s living room.
“My dance friends, they've been the same for eight years. So we're all very close with each other.”
Wayzata High School is the largest high school in Minnesota, by enrollment. So Nikki is a little nervous about navigating the halls.
She thinks she has a difficult year ahead of her— with a math class first up in the morning. But she feels ready.
“It’s not going to be like the movies … because it’s very dramatized.”
Evan Bierscheid, Roseville Area High School
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
Evan Bierscheid is an incoming ninth-grader at Roseville Area High School on Aug 25, in Roseville, Minn.
When Evan Bierscheid graduates high school, he wants music to be part of his life — whether that’s as a musical artist, or a producer, studio musician or sound engineer. He’s taking a music production class this year, in addition to playing percussion in band, and hopes to take more music classes as they’re offered.
“I'm not necessarily excited to go back to school, but I've had a long enough time, where I'm like … I'm not dreading it or anything,” he said.
The new environment is a bit nerve-wracking. His mom worked at his middle school — in high school, he’ll be more on his own. Luckily, many of his friends from middle school will be with him at Roseville Area High School.
“I haven't had that same age difference between me and the seniors since I was in third grade,” he said. “So it's gonna be a little weird being like, I guess kind of like the younger kid again. Like, wow, some of you are literal adults. And I'm like, 14.”
Anna Penz, Cretin Derham-Hall High School
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
Anna Penz is a ninth-grader at Cretin-Derham Hall High School.
Lucy Bradford, Highland Park Senior High
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
Lucy Bradford is an incoming ninth-grader at Highland Park High School.
Lucy Bradford and Anna Penz have known each other their entire lives. They’ve been neighbors since they were three years old.
But they’ll be heading to different high schools this year — even though they’d hoped they’d both be attending Highland Park. But they don’t think it will impact their friendship.
“It's nice to have a reason to see each other … especially at the start of the summer,” Anna said. “Like there's always like a recap that happens.”
They have the first-day jitters — their middle school teachers told them high school would be challenging, but they’re not sure what to expect.
“I know going from elementary school to middle school, all the teachers are like, ‘You guys are going to middle school, this is a big deal.’ And then you go to middle school, and it's like the exact same almost,” Lucy said. “So I think it'd be pretty similar.”
“I'm gonna try to focus on my academics this year, because I know freshman year can be a really big part,” Anna said. “And if you don't do well freshman year, it's really hard to get back from that.”
Nayeli Vicente, Washburn High School
Gretchen Brown | MPR News
Nayeli Vicente is an incoming ninth-grader at Washburn High School in Minneapolis.
Nayeli Vicente remembers what it’s like to feel out of place. Back in elementary school, she was placed in classes with people who only spoke English. They looked different than she did, spoke differently.
Nayeli, who grew up speaking Spanish at home, didn’t feel like her English was good enough.
This time around, she knows support is available, though she’s still nervous to be in a new environment. Her cousins attend Washburn High School. They can help her out if she gets lost.
“I try to be nice to people, like nicer than usual,” she said. “And I know I can still relate to other people who aren't exactly like me.”
Nayeli is excited to learn her fourth language this year, American Sign Language (she learned Arabic in middle school). And she’s hoping to do well in all her classes so she can earn a scholarship in the future — that seems like the dream.
“I'm going to get a career in the future that has to do with science and mathematics. Because I think those are my strong points in comparison to things like literature,” she said.
“I'm excited about what this is going to bring for me. I'm very nervous about how I'm going to be able to achieve certain things.”
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The Minnesota State Fair is underway. And fair officials are honoring 78 century farms — those places where one family has fared the same land for 100 years or more.
That got Cathy thinking about the history of homesteading and the future of family farms as agriculture changes in the region. Jill Nathe is deputy general manager of the agriculture and competitions department at the Minnesota State Fair, where this year, 78 Minnesota Century Farms are being honored.
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Rachel Thunder speaks with Cathy Wurzer about the American Indian Movement’s (AIM) two and a half month walk called “Walk to Justice”. Thunder, who is Plains Cree, serves as the lead organizer for the AIM walk from Minneapolis to Washington D.C.
Thursday, September first is the first day of meteorological fall. Paul Huttner talks with Cathy Wurzer about what to expect in the coming few weeks.
Minnesota's senior U.S. Senator is returning from a trip to Ukraine for a meeting with the Ukrainian president. She'll tell us what she heard and saw while she was there.
Monkeypox cases are still climbing in Minnesota. Health reporter Michelle Wiley spoke with someone infected with the virus about their experience.
Former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev has died. We'll look back at his historic visit to Minnesota 30 years ago. It was a big deal!
And members of the American Indian Movement or AIM are walking from Minnesota to Washington D.C. We’ll hear why.
Monkeypox cases are still climbing in Minnesota, with 123 confirmed cases in the state so far. MPR health reporter Michelle Wiley talks with Cathy Wurzer about her conversations with those who have had Monkeypox and the healthcare professionals working focused on the virus.
Minnesota’s Senior U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar speaks with Cathy Wurzer about her trip to Ukraine with Ohio’s Republican Senator Rob Portman to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Did you take art in school? If you were lucky enough to have a teacher who unearthed the creativity that’s inside all of us, it may have given you a boost of self esteem. Perhaps it even helped you to foster a lifelong love of art. Debbie Aune understands how to tap into creativity. She’s a K-12 art teacher at the Greenbush Middle River School District in Northwestern Minnesota. She’s also a watercolor painter.
Workers picket at the U while students move in, how to handle all the stimulation at the Minnesota State Fair if you are a person who is neurodivergent, plus the photo finish of the fair’s Supreme Baker competition and a look ahead to Bouchercon - the world mystery convention happening in the Twin Cities the weekend of September 8th.
Minnesota based mystery writer Jess Lourey talks with Cathy Wurzer about Bouchercon - the mystery novel’s version of Comicon where fans and writers mingle and talk all things mystery. It’s happening September 8 - 11 in the Twin Cities.
Jillian Nelson, Community Resource and Policy Advocate with the Autism Society of Minnesota, talks with Cathy Wurzer about strategies to find places of calm at the Fair particularly for those who are neurodivergent.
The best bakers of Minnesota submitted their breads, cakes, cookies and pies and this year there was a tie for Supreme Baker -- or so they thought. Chad O'Leary and Kimberly Maize both were named the Supreme Bakers for this year. But then in a sad twist, competition organizers realized they made a mistake. Cathy Wurzer talks with finalist Chad O’Leary.
Today is move-in day for thousands of freshman at the University of Minnesota. As new students move in this afternoon on the Minneapolis campus, about fifteen hundred University of Minnesota custodians, dining workers, mechanics, research attendants, gardeners and other service workers will picket and rally. Cathy Wurzer talks with one worker about why.
Last week, a Bismarck judge temporarily blocked an abortion ban from taking effect in the state, but a “trigger” law passed by lawmakers in 2007 dictates that the procedure should become illegal with the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this summer to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Next door in Wisconsin, the Roe decision made abortions illegal. We’re continuing our series looking at abortion in neighboring states. Devi Shastri is a health and medical science reporter with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and she joined Cathy to give us the latest from Wisconsin.
More than 7,000 Minnesota youth are with their animals at the State Fair this year. They come with their families, their 4H clubs or FFA chapters. It takes a lot of time and some money to get yourself and your animal to the fair and be part of a competition and hopefully win that blue ribbon.
A little extra financial help goes a long way. So the Minnesota State Fair foundation has a grant program for first time fair goers to bring their animals to show at the fair. They are called BELLE grants, which stands for Beginning Exhibitor Livestock Learning Experience. The $250 to $500 grants defray the cost of travel, feed and animal show supplies.
This year Denica Sleiter of Morris, Minn. is one of those lucky grant winners. On Friday, Cathy talked to Denica and her mentor, Kianna Dolezal. Kianna is an experiences hand at showing all kinds of livestock. Both young women showed rabbits at the fair this weekend.
Tell me about your rabbits. Denica: I have a Flemish giant here at the State Fair. It's light gray and it weighs 10 pounds.
I'm kind of curious, as the mentor in this team, how do you help Danica? Kianna: So I went to her house and I helped her with some showmanship tips. So in showmanship, you present yourself to show your animal off the best. And so there are a lot of tips and little tricks to like do that really well.
Showmanship is not easy. I think people think that it's all the animal you know, you're obviously the animals being judged. Right? The showmanship is a big, big deal. Kianna: Yes. I've shown every animals showmanship. And rabbit is the hardest, like, in my opinion, my personal experience, rabbit is the hardest because there's a book that they can ask you anything in that book about any of the breeds, and they can know the right answer. And so it's it's quite a challenging thing. But it's also a lot of fun when you do well.
Was it what was the biggest surprise to you? Denica: I learned that when you're bringing your rabbit up to the table for it to get judged. I thought the people that standing there with their rabbit in their arms were just like, didn't know what was happening. But I learned now that people know what they are doing.
So you're allowed to hold the rabbits? Kianna: So when you get to the table generally you won't set the animal down until the judge invites you because it shows you're a bit more professional and you're waiting for the judges. Because maybe the table the previous rabbit peed on it so they want to clean that off first. Maybe they're switching tables or something, so if you stand there and wait until you're invited then the judge is ready to judge and do stuff.
It must be really hard Kianna: It can be yes because you don't know what questions you're gonna be asked, you don't know who's in the ring with you,
Danica, what has been the hardest question so far? Danica: They've all been pretty hard especially when you're under pressure. You completely forget everything you know.
Has your mentorship been done before? Kianna: I think it's been done previously one year before in the BELLE Grant program and I think they’re trying to keep it going because it's really good to get somebody who’s been to the State Fair and can tell you a little bit more.
When you get in the ring what are you judged on? What is the rabbit judged on? Kianna: So when it's not showmanship the rabbit can be judged on what the standard says the perfect breed is for that rabbit. So I have satins and so when I go into the ring, the judge is looking to make sure my satins have their guard hairs and their hairs is shiny, which happens because of a mutation, it's what they're known for. And that the body type that their back arches the correct way.
So as your as you said previously, any questions fair game that the judge might ask you? Kianna: Only in showmanship in the normal classes you put your rabbit on the table immediately. You immediately pose them, it's to get them to show off the best thing. And then the judge will come in, they'll feel the rabbit and they'll pose them their way.
What would you tell kids nowadays about being afraid of entering? Danica: Well, first, that's really fun. And you learn a lot of different skills with different kinds of animals. It's fun, really enjoyable,
What would you say to a young person who might be thinking about 4-H? Kianna: It lets you get out there, meet people and try new things. Get out of your comfort zone in a good way. That's fun. And if you decide to do livestock or horses, anything like that, you can just try things.
School started today in some Minnesota districts. 371 of those public schools will receive extra support to help students boost achievement. We'll find out what help is being offered.
And access to abortion is changing in the states surrounding Minnesota since the Supreme Court overturned the Roe decision. We'll hear what's changing in Wisconsin.
More than seven thousand young people are at the State Fair to show off their animals in competition! We'll talk with a first time fair-goer and the mentor that's helping her navigate the great Minnesota get-together.
Speaking of the fair — the amazing Twin Cities based musician Annie Mack is playing Aug. 29 and Aug. 30. We’ll talk with her about her latest work and her musical inspirations.
Minnesota singer-songwriter Annie Mack’s EP, “Testify,” mixes blues, country, rock and soul. It’s a beautiful combination.
Host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Mack ahead of her two shows at the Minnesota State Fair, Monday, Aug. 29 and Tuesday, Aug. 30.
The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Click the audio player above to listen to their conversation.
Tell me a little bit about Walking Around, the song. I wanted to write a love song that was for myself and to encourage other women to think about ourselves in a loving way. I think on the radio and just kind of what we're accustomed to, we hear a lot of love songs about somebody else. How cool would it be to write about myself with my head in the clouds, it'd be kind of mushy. I'm not the most mushy person, but I took a stab at being kind of whimsical and loving and romantic just with myself — what would it feel like to just have these really great things to say and just to take some ownership of my own path and journey and to be grateful for that.
What does that feel like? It feels really good. I was thinking about the words of what I wanted to say to myself and then also make it accessible to others. Like, for instance, there's a line that says “I'm not giving my energy no more to what no longer serves me.” I'm choosing to let things go, just really speaking edification to my spirit and honoring my journey. And that it’s not perfect, and it's mine. I get to claim it.
You started production on this EP in February of 2020 but you went back into the studio to finish it after George Floyd was murdered. What was that like? It was powerful, humbling, beautiful, intense — it was really important to me to create something that was beautiful and Black from Minnesota. And it was really important to me to honor my contribution to liberation, my contribution to encouragement and my contribution to my own way of saying, you know, as a Black woman, I am here and I won't be silenced by violence and murder. And so it was my own declaration, my own militancy if you will.
You grew up in Minneapolis. Now you're based in Rochester. So that was a fairly big move, right? I went to school at the Minnesota Bible College. At that time, I was going to school to study Christianity and spirituality, and I thought I was going to be a missionary worker and all these things. And I ended up staying, it was a very big change of scenery. I think it was important for me to kind of get out of my environment.
Has the move been positive for you? It was a really hard adjustment. At first, there weren't a lot of people of color or a lot of Black people. It was not the established city that it is now, it's come a long ways. As a matter of fact, I don't even think the buses ran after 6 p.m. and this is a place that has the Mayo Clinic and IBM and it was not accessible to me.
Can I ask you about your musical influences? I love truth tellers. I love people that push the envelope in their innovation and creativity. So I'm a big fan of Taj Mahal and Etta James and Ray Charles. Individuals that can kind of do everything. And then you know, I love Valerie June and Ruthie Foster. You know, these are some of my favorite artists that just kind of pay attention to,
The Star Tribune, as you know, called you, Minnesota's heir to the Mavis Staples throne, which I thought was actually a very apt description of you, but what do you think of it? I have a good sized ego on me, but I'm not foolish. I struggle with that tremendously, especially if I'm on the same lineup, which did happen when I was down in Florida. But you know, I'm honored. I walk in those realms of a truth teller but I have my own distinctive voice and delivery. But you know, I am so inspired by her, but I made sure to do my own thing.
I was also really pleased to see that you were on the Star Tribune list this past February of 10, current black Minnesota musicians you need to know. I am so grateful. I'm grateful that I need to show up and that's good enough. It’s just really beautiful, it speaks to my spirit. And just to continue, you know, showing up. I tried to play the game, whatever that is, for a while and it didn't feel right. It wasn't authentic. I love all kinds of music. I love pushing myself as an artist, I'm inspired by these local peers, whom I've come to respect and just really admire. And so it's always an honor and privilege to be here to share space with creatives.
Now, I mentioned to folks that you have got to State Fair shows this week. So what should people expect? It's gonna be hot, sweaty, soulful, loud — we are here to take care of business, we are here to handle it. We do not phone it in. We really try every show, maybe the first song or two I'm going to ease into it but then after that, I'm the hot sweaty mess. And I love that, I love that we have a reputation for being live performers and that really means a lot to me.
And there's an art to that. There's an art to live performance. I mean to engage and to tell stories and to know what to do with your energy and your stamina that comes with time. I work with amazing musicians and it feels good to get hired to do my thing. Eighty percent of songs we do are all originals. And I'm so incredibly grateful for that. In the covers we do our own obscure things to pay respect. When people hire me or they want to work with me, they know exactly where they're getting.
Do you have anything you’re looking forward to? Yes, I am excited about live music I do have some really cool opportunities. We're just going to continue to have a good time and show up and work on an album in the fall and winter.
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For 75 years, one of the most popular spots at the Minnesota State Fair has been the Agriculture Horticulture building – the home of seed art, and displays of corn, apples and honey among other crops.
Digital producer Sam Stroozas has been covering the fair and the Ag building’s anniversary – she joined host Cathy Wurzer to talk about it.
School started today for some Minnesota students. As kids go back to class, their standardized test scores from last year are coming in — and the news isn’t good.
The state education department says most Minnesota students are not proficient in math, and just over half are proficient in reading. It’s yet another sign of the pandemic’s lasting impacts on education.
The state department of education has identified 371 schools, including 15 entire school districts, for training and support over the next three years based on their results from standardized tests, graduation rates and attendance.
St. Paul Public Schools have about two dozen schools on the list of those needing support, and that’s an improvement from last year. Host Cathy Wurzer talked with Stacey Gray Akyea, chief of equity, strategy & innovation for St. Paul Public Schools.
It’s time once again to test how much you know about Minnesota weather and climate.
Cathy Wurzer and Mark Seeley presented the annual Minnesota State Fair Weather Quiz Event live at the fair and on air Thursday. Listen to the recording above and play along or test your knowledge in our digital version below!
Click to play https://www.tryinteract.com/share/quiz/5e3316b3c40d4b0014decd78
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer previewed the weather forecast ahead of the Minnesota State Fair with chief meteorologist Paul Huttner.
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Today on Minnesota Now, Minneapolis Public Schools are heading into the school year facing some legal trouble, an update on the fallout from for-profit colleges, how Minnesota companies are following through on their promises following the murder of George Floyd and we met the team behind Bad Posture Club.
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MPR News host Cathy Wurzer was joined by Bad Posture Club, a Twin Cities based duo of Maren Day and Morgan Kavanagh — two artists who met through music in high school and use their friendship to launch their latest project.
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Earlier Wednesday, President Biden announced details for student loan forgiveness for eligible borrowers — a part of their plan to address growing concerns over student loan debt across the country.
This long awaited announcement came shortly after the U.S. Department of Education announced that is forgiving $3.9 billion in student loan debt for students who attended ITT Technical Institute between January 1, 2005 and September 2016.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Ashley Sibri who graduated from the for-profit college in Eden Prairie about what the forgiveness means for her.
I understand you attended ITT for two years when you graduated. How much student loan debt did you owe? So at the end of my two years at ITT Tech, I had a little over $65,000 in federal loans and about $12,000 in what they call their peaks, private loans.
You graduated from high school in Little Falls and moved to Bloomington. Is that right? Yes, that's correct.
OK, what kind of work were you doing back then? Well, I started out and right after I graduated high school, I went to Central Lakes College up in northern Minnesota. I got a My CNA and I was working towards my LPN. Living up there, I was working in health care because that's where I felt that I made the most impact. But once I was able to move to the Twin Cities area, then I could broaden my horizon and kind of went toward my career path of being in IT.
So you landed at ITT? Yes, it was one of those situations — I come from lower income housing and a lower income family. I didn't have as many opportunities to go to some of the bigger name colleges. ITT Tech was out there advertising big time, this was probably about 2007, 2008. And I did a tour of their school and basically the same day they were like you can get in here.
For someone like me who didn't think I may even have an opportunity to go to college again, because my previous college was all grants and I was not eligible for grants anymore, it was super appealing to me. I was ready to go to school, I wanted to further my education and get a better career.
And they had the kind of degree you were looking for? Yeah, I mean, I was looking to be a programmer at the time. So I was looking into software programming and their degree that they had was software applications, and programming is perfect.
So this was a pretty good deal. How was your schooling at ITT? I will say, overall, I did get a good education there. The teachers were great. The hours were wonderful, you know, it was geared toward someone like me who was working two jobs at the time. So I could be able to take evening classes and be able to still get a two-year degree within two years.
Now, some folks may remember the story. In your situation, you are in the second year of your two year schooling to get the degree. And so you're pretty close to finishing. And then the school's finance office called you because they said you'd run out of funding, right? Yes. So I was probably around 6-10ish credits away from graduation. I was in the middle of a class and they called me to the administrative office and told me that I had ran out of federal loans and that I had to get them the money basically that day, or I would be asked to leave school and I would not be able to finish my degree.
Courtesy of Ashley Sibri
Ashley Sibri poses for a selfie.
Oh, my goodness, you must have had a heart attack. I was devastated. I remember being in tears thinking, I've come this far. And I've put so much time effort and then federal loan money into this — that it was all for nothing. And then that's when they slid an envelope over to me basically saying, “Well, we have an option for you. We have this thing called peaks private loans. You can apply sit down with me at the computer we’ll fill it out right now. You'll be approved you can go back to class.”
I was young. I didn't know much. I didn't know any better. I barely knew how to manage my own finances at the time. I was 20. And I did it. I didn't know what else to do. In that moment. I felt very pressured and scared I guess to lose this opportunity.
But the interest rates must have been astronomical. Yeah. I don't have the paperwork in front of me, but I know it was in the upper teens percent wise, at least around a 15 to 17 percent interest, if not more.
And did you happen to hear about other ITT students in the same boat? Absolutely. As soon as I started talking about it to people, I started hearing people saying, “Oh, my goodness, this happened to me too. They did the same thing to me too.” And I don't know how many other people that didn't speak up actually happened to. But I felt like I wasn't alone when I was telling the story. I was embarrassed by it, obviously, and still am today. But to know that I wasn't the only one that was fooled into this.
And you got a call I understand just last week? Yes. So if I take you back to about 2017. That's when I started hearing all these things about ITT Tech. And this time I had about a 2-year-old boy, I had already had a kid I was working my career and I started hearing things about ITT Tech and about fraudulent lending and all and at the time, I was in over my head. I wasn't making enough yet to really pay for everything on top of my student loans that were being paid off.
So I reached out to the Attorney General's office and I said I've heard some things about ITT Tech, I sent them a bunch of documentation and they started a file for me, basically to go against this borrower's defense application.
It just sat there for years. I mean, obviously, until last week, when I got a phone call saying from the Attorney General's office saying guess what, the President has finally made movements on this and these applications for anybody else that has the loans from ITT Tech will be forgiven.
I can't imagine what you said. I was just in shock. I was in disbelief, to be honest. I didn't, it felt like it was never going to actually happen. It was like one of the little things they're just dangling there but you're never actually going to see it happen. Yeah, I was in shock, speechless.
And then it hit and when after I got off the phone with the Attorney General's office, it just hit me and I was in disbelief I cried. I couldn't believe that it finally came to this that after all of this work, because on top of the borrower's defense, some people may or may not know there was also something going on with some Harvard students who had started a class action lawsuit also against ITT Tech.
So I had also been in contact with them and sending them my story and my information and participating in that. So this has been on my mind for multiple years. And to see that end is just it's pretty amazing.
And ITT Tech went out of business. Yes, for fraudulent lending. And on top of that they have false promises of transferable credits, which also affected me to further my education.
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Emmy award-winning radio and podcast personality Sheletta Brundidge is using her influence to amplify diverse voices and celebrate Black culture in the Twin Cities.
Earlier this year, she called out a handful of major corporations in Minnesota for not supporting Black owned media. Brundidge says many Minnesota companies have failed to deliver on promises tied to equity following the murder of George Floyd.
Brundidge joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about some of the results she’s seen.
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Minneapolis Public Schools are being sued over a provision in their new contract with teachers that is designed to retain teachers of color. The provision upends long-standing last-in, first-out hiring practices for teachers.
The conservative group Judicial Watch contends the so-called “racial and ethnic preference” provision, along with the use of taxpayer dollars to implement them, are illegal.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Beth Hawkins, a Twin Cities-based education journalist who writes for the education news site The 74.
The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Click the audio player above to listen to their conversation.
What's the language of the contract that some folks are taking issue with? The specific language says that if a teacher is excessed or laid off and they are a member of a population underrepresented among licensed teachers at that site, or in the district, the district shall excess or lay off the next least-senior teacher who is not a member of an underrepresented population. And it specifically points out that the reason for this is to address past discrimination and further advance diversifying the district's workforce.
Was this an issue for teachers during the strike? It's been an issue going back several years. The district and the union had gone round and round over various years about what language would be fair to the largest number of teachers and yet would meet the district's goal of having a teacher core and principal core that more closely reflects the population of students in the district.
This year, there were a number of proposals traded back and forth, some of them had to do with the population of neighborhoods around an individual school site. Some of them had to do with teachers from historically Black colleges and universities or tribal colleges. There were a number of attempts to craft language that would stand judicial challenge.
So this language basically upends the last-in, first-out hiring practices that we've seen for decades. It does. There are a couple of things that are important to note about that. One is that last-in, first-out still exists for the vast majority of teachers and that this contract provision would go away if the teacher core came to resemble the population of the district as a whole. It's also language that's very close to language that some other Twin Cities area school districts have used.
Robbinsdale, for instance, has had a provision like this for several years. Osseo has a slightly different mechanism. They grant some seniority to brand new teachers so that they are less at risk of being probationary at layoff time.
And then the other thing that's really important to note is that if you take the idea of demographic representation out of the mix, Minneapolis has long had some what they call memoranda of agreements to the contract that preserve particular types of teachers.
For instance, for Montessori teachers, it's a very specific kind of teacher training that someone goes through to get that license. And in the service of the fact that teachers are not widgets — and you can't take a person without the training and put them into an open position in a Montessori school — there are some long-standing agreements about teachers who will not be laid off in last-in, first-out order.
Why is the outrage bubbling up now? It was actually agreed to at the end of March, and there was some there were some new stories at that point about whether it would survive a legal challenge, but no legal challenge emerged. Last week a local right-wing news site called Alpha News published a story about it that didn't actually quote or identify anybody complaining about it.
The story sort of appeared organically that Minneapolis had done this thing and quoted a lawyer from a law firm regarding large freedom of information requests lodged against districts throughout Minnesota.
The suit that was filed yesterday doesn't have as its plaintiff a teacher. One argument is that no one has been harmed by this policy or by this contract provision, yet instead, it was filed by Deborah Jane Clapp, who identifies as a Minneapolis resident since 2017. Under a common law provision, her complaint gives her standing to sue because of the unlawful expenditure of public money or illegal action on the part of public officials. It's a discrimination claim without a victim.
Say more about Judicial Watch, the group that filed the suit. Judicial Watch is based elsewhere and has pursued legal action, for instance, in pursuit of the idea that climate science is what they call fraud science. They've been involved in any number of legal actions involving Hillary Clinton. Just a long, long, long list of things that have been raging controversies in the news.
In terms of the legalities, you mentioned that this contract was crafted to withstand legal challenges. What else is Judicial Watch saying about why this is illegal? There's not much documentation. What it asserts is that because Ms. Clapp is a taxpayer in Minneapolis in Hennepin County and that her property taxes go to Minneapolis Public Schools — which is of course true — and that as such, she loses when layoffs occur. And what she's asserted is that this layoff process is discriminatory.
I'm not a lawyer, and or much less a judge. But I think that's a pretty steep hill to climb. If you were to look at the district's payroll, I think that if we're talking about protecting teachers who are less senior from layoffs, it's going to be pretty hard to argue that any Minneapolis resident is losing money under this contract.
What is the district saying about the lawsuit? What the district has said about the lawsuit is that they can't comment on pending legal actions. What they said during the teacher strike negotiations — and even going back as far as 2017 and 2018 — is that they need various mechanisms to make their Teacher Corps look more like the student population.
There's just an avalanche, a mountain of evidence that shows that this is something that children of color desperately need to be successful academically and behaviorally in their schools. And that without the ability to protect teachers who are newly hired from the constant churn, it would take decades to have a Teacher Corps that reflects the student population.
If you really want to go into the Wayback Machine, the courts ordered Minneapolis Public Schools to desegregate in 1972. And in 1978, the district went to the court and said, “We can't achieve this in terms of the segregation of our Teacher Corps if we can't make a side agreement protecting some teachers of color.”
How far off is the district from achieving its goal? In Minnesota, 5 percent of teachers — it's a number that goes up and down by one percent yearly and has for a long time — are non-white, and the rest are white. In Minneapolis it's 18 percent. Minneapolis has gone out and intentionally recruited and hired and attempted to improve working conditions for staff of color. However, the percentage of those teachers who are probationary is much higher than white teachers in 2020.
For example, 23 percent of the district's white Teacher Corps was probationary, and 37 percent of its teachers of color were probationary. And those teachers of course have no protection against excessing and layoffs at all. This last spring, before a second round of budget cuts were announced, 50 BIPOC teachers were excessed in Minneapolis Public Schools. So the protections won't kick in until the spring of 2023. It's dozens of teachers a year.
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MPR News host Cathy Wurzer explored the biggest science headlines with Jill Jensen, the president of the Minnesota Science Teachers Association. Jensen is also a seventh grade life science teacher at Scott Highlands Middle School in Apple Valley.
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MPR News host Cathy Wurzer explored business headlines across the state with Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal reporter Kelly Busch.
One of the biggest stories Kelly is following? The opening of a Black-led credit union in north Minneapolis aimed at addressing systemic financial issues.
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Today on Minnesota Now, the Minneapolis Police Department says it's ready to deploy drones to combat crime, an update on life in South Dakota following the reversal of Roe v. Wade, a new Black-led credit union is opening in north Minneapolis and “Ask a Science Teacher” with Jill Jensen of Scott Highlands Middle School in Apple Valley.
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Minnesotans who want an abortion can still get one.
But the Supreme Court’s ruling in June, overturning Roe v. Wade, made abortions illegal in neighboring South Dakota. We’re continuing our series looking at abortion rights in neighboring states.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer was joined by Lee Strubinger, a reporter with South Dakota Public Broadcasting based in Rapid City.
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The Minneapolis Police Department is preparing to present its proposed policy on the use of deploying drones in an effort to combat crime, respond to emergencies and deescalate dangerous situations.
But drone regulation in law enforcement has been a contentious issue. Some lawmakers and activists are concerned about questionable surveillance tactics.
John Lesch worked on legislation to regulate drone use for Minnesota’s law enforcement agencies when he was a state representative in 2020. He’s now a criminal defense attorney in St. Paul. He joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to share his expertise on the matter.
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Today on Minnesota Now, we look at what happens when children view gun violence, a growing work force shortage for a rising industry across the state, a look at the biggest headlines in our Regional Reporter Roundtable and a local family’s connection to The Beatles and their 1965 visit to Minnesota.
It’s been more than 58 years since the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and Beatlemania hit American shores. At the time, critics believed the Lads from Liverpool — John, Paul, George and Ringo — would be a flash in the pan. But we’re still talking about them and their music.
Here’s a curious fact: The Beatles toured the United States from 1964 to 1966 but only appeared once in Minnesota — Aug. 21, 1965 — and their management swore they’d never come back.
Lori Lundstrom’s father David Lundstrom owned a Minneapolis ambulance company and provided limos to the Beatles during their stay. Lundstrom joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about her father’s connection to the legendary performers.
The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Click the audio player above to listen to their conversation.
I absolutely am dying to find out more here. How did your dad get connected to The Beatles? Since he had the limousine service, he knew Omri Cole Hann, who went by the name Big Reggie and ran the Excelsior amusement park and had Danceland. I think he may have owned it also. But back in those days, you didn't have Jam Productions, s you had to go with local promoters. And he knew my dad and called him up and said, “Do you want to take this contract?”
Yeah, but your dad had an ambulance company. Yeah, so it was actually when he acquired James Ambulance, he was very young. He was just out of college. And as part of James Ambulance, he also had a “livery” they called it livery, which was actually a limousine and hearse. So it's all kind of a massive enterprise.
Did he talk about his interactions with driving them around? There was a lot of last minute change ups with The Beatles. So as far as I know, my father only drove them from the airport or from the hotel back to the airport, the day that they left. When they arrived here there were four limousines waiting and at the last minute, they decided to not put each individual in the limousines and just put them into a Cadillac because there was just so much pandemonium at the airport.
And then when the concert was over with, they actually snuck them out in a laundry vehicle. So there was a lot of last minute changes. As far as I know, my father only drove them when they left town the next day.
Did your dad point out any of the lovely landmarks that we have here? He did. My father loved telling stories about the Foshay Tower and I'm sure he was looking to regale them with all these stories. And I think they were just really tired at that point, it was pretty crazy. So he didn't really get much conversation out of them. He pointed out the tower and he said that they just had this British cockney laugh.
I think they were supposed to be taken from the airport to the Lemington and chill out. But there was so much pandemonium, they were taken directly to Metropolitan Stadium and just hung out in the locker room. And then they didn't go into the hotel until the concert was over with and when they got down there, they did ask my father to help them with crowd control because it was so crazy.
I think they put them on the fifth floor because that was where the freight elevator went up to and they decided that they can't have them using the regular elevators. So obviously there's other people staying in the hotel, they had their entourage with them and they had to control these crowds.
So my father said they had sawed off broom handles, they would use it to push the crowds back trying to get up the regular elevators and they push them back into the hallways.
My father swears that at the end of the concert they turned the lights on really bright at the just to kind of blind everybody so they could have an opportunity to whisk them out.
Beatles management said they were never coming back to the city. What happened? I think they were angry at the police chief at the time. He was just talking about them being a traveling three ring circus and it was his obligation to protect the the underage girls of Minneapolis and accused Paul of having a girl in his room and turns out she wasn't a local girl. She was 21 when they finally got her out. So they weren't, you know, whisking underage girls in the room like they were being accused of.
Oh my gosh. And then of course, that whole hotel experience was obviously out of control. Right. So the aftermath of it was was pretty crazy. My father had to actually have one of his limos repainted. They had scrawled with a knife their initials or “I love Paul.” And the Beatles, as you know, they smoked quite a bit. So in the limousine the ashtrays were overflowing and my father had to vacuum them out. And these girls would show up the next day saying, “Oh, can we buy the cigarette butts?” And my dad said, “No, I've already vacuumed those up, get out of here, they're not for sale.”
How did you find this out? Did your dad talk a lot about this? Well, my father talked a lot about the ambulance business, but he had never actually brought up The Beatles as I recalled. And when I was about 12, I was babysitting and there were two couples that lived near us and both of them were kind of like 60s people. I think the husbands in both families had substantial Beatles collections. So between the two of them, I think they had every Beatles collection.
So when I would put the kids to bed at night, I listened to the Beatles and really became a huge fan. And back in those days, KQRS and KDWB were playing them all the time as well. And I went and I sat at the dinner table and started telling my dad about how much I love The Beatles. And he said, “Well, did you know I drove them?” I was actually kind of shocked.
By the way, did you have a favorite Beatle? I did. It was George. I love his guitar style. And I think when they all put out solo albums, that was my favorite.
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At Minnesota Now, we want to know what’s going on in your part of state. One way we do that is to check in with journalists around Minnesota to find out what their communities are talking about.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer was joined by Jim Boyle, Jeff Kiger and Brian Larsen for a look at the latest headlines running in the communities they cover.
Boyle is an editor with the Star News that serves the communities of Elk River, Otsego and Rogers, Kiger is a columnist and business reporter at the Post Bulletin in Rochester and Larsen is the editor of the Cook County News Herald in Grand Marais.
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Minnesota is facing a labor shortage — and there are few places where that’s more apparent than the home health care industry.
It’s actually one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But it can’t keep up with demand, forcing folks who need home care to make tough decisions.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Dr. Joseph Gaugler, a professor and the Robert L. Kane Endowed Chair in long-term care and aging at the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.
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St. Paul and its Hmong community are still reeling from the brutal murder-suicide that left five children orphans last week. Those children were in the home when their parents died, and the eldest — a 9-year-old child — reported the deaths to 911.
The tragedy has sparked a number of conversations about mental health taboos in the Hmong community and that includes discussing domestic violence. It also got us thinking about the rising number of children who witness gun violence and what that can do to their development.
Dr. Sherry Hamby is a clinical psychologist and Research Professor of Psychology at Sewanee University of the South. She has studied the deep and lasting trauma children experience when they see a parent attacked and also specializes in violence and resilience in youth.
The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Click the audio player above to listen to their conversation.
How common is it for kids to witness gun violence? It's actually an extremely common phenomenon. And unfortunately, our surveillance of homicides does not do a good job of assessing how often it happens. But our research suggests that it's much more widespread than it has been previously known.
I'm wondering how would you characterize this type of trauma from a psychological perspective? Well, I think the important thing to understand about trauma is that it has a massive impact over all of the systems of our body. And so in the moment of threat and in the moment of danger, or even in a moment of just, you know, hearing about some kind of gun violence we'll responds with the big physiological responses, adrenaline and cortisol and other hormones.
That over time really takes a toll on many of the systems of our body, not just our psychological well being but also our immune systems, there are problems with chronic inflammation and things like that. And that's where a lot of the long term impacts of trauma are derived from.
I'm wondering, is the trauma different? If it was a murder-suicide? I mean, both caretakers are gone. Yes, absolutely. I think that is a particularly overwhelming traumatic experience to lose a parent, one or both parents, certainly, because those are the people who most kids associate with keeping them safe in the world. In our research, surprisingly, we have found that kids often have much stronger responses in terms of fear or PTSD symptoms or things like that to attacks on their parents, whether they're fatal or non-fatal attacks, and even on some attacks to themselves directly.
I think it's because if something bad happens to you as a child, your initial response is to run to your parents and have your parents fix things. But if something happens to your parents, that often leaves them with this sense that there's nobody to intervene against these bad things that are happening
I can't imagine these poor kids would ever feel safe again, anywhere. Is that a common thread? Well, I think that it is a devastating experience for any child. The long term outcome data on kids who've had these kinds of experiences certainly suggests that they're at heightened risk of depression and post traumatic stress disorder and behavioral problems and a number of other challenges.
But I also do research on resilience and I also think it is important to realize that even for people who've experienced really overwhelming traumas, that it is possible to build up a portfolio of strength, not just their own strength, but support from their extended families, from their schools, from their communities and that it is still possible to overcome even horrific experiences of trauma.
Do these kids get the help they need? Generally speaking. Unfortunately, no, that is probably one of the biggest gaps in our social welfare safety net, is that most of the criminal justice focuses on the perpetrators. And then something like this, a murder-suicide, from the law enforcement perspective and this might just seem like case closed and that there's nothing more that needs to be done about that.
We don't even do a very good job of keeping track of how many collateral victims you might say there are from orphan children to other witnesses who might have been at the scene to other family members who are going to be impacted by this is well.
So unfortunately, in most places, there's not any kind of systematic attempt to track these kids to make sure that they're getting their needs assessed and to make sure that they are getting everything that is important for them to help them cope with these events.
These families are going to need funds, and they've lost the income of the parents as well and there's just not good systems in place to help restore these kids after an event like that.
So there isn't something in our system that helps these kids or these families who usually step forward? Well a lot of times it's done on a very ad-hoc basis. I mean, in some cities, there are good programs that are run by nonprofits, or perhaps sometimes even state or local organizations that might help provide services to these kids. But it's very piecemeal. And it's also something that depends a lot on the wealth of the community.
So for example, I live in a very rural area where there's just not access to that kind of help at all, really, whereas in a big city, there might be more but a lot of times it's also a problem of trying to figure out where you can go and who has the ability to help you. Because there's not some kind of systematic response, it's built into the initial criminal justice response to the incident.
I'm curious, what do you personally hear that gives you hope when doing this kind of work? Well, I've been doing this kind of work for 30 years. And as I've said, I have seen just as much as you can see of the traumatic impacts of these horrible kinds of events. I have just also been impressed every time by the resilience of children and families. Some of them go on to become providers themselves, or activists.
And so I'm always inspired by everything that people do to help them overcome these kinds of traumatic experiences. And I certainly wish that family and the children and their whole extended family the best and trying to put together the resources that they're going to need after this tragic incident.
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It’s been a sad week for Lynx fans, but perhaps the Twins will lift your spirits if they’re successful this weekend.
Our sports guys Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson cover the Vikings training camp, the Twins, and the Lynx from the TCO Performance Center.
Langfellow is the founder of Minnesota Score magazine and the co-host of “Ten Thousand Takes” sports talk show. Eric Nelson is the other co-host of “Ten Thousand Takes” and the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio “Eye on Football.” They join us every week with the sports news we need to know.
Today on Minnesota Now, we give a COVID update and talk about solo hiking the Superior Hiking Trail, a look back on Iron Range labor activism and this week’s sports coverage.
The COVID-19 pandemic is still here. On Wednesday, the Biden administration said a reworked COVID vaccine that’s designed for the BA.4 and 5 subvariants should be available next month.
Also on Wednesday, the director of the Center for Disease Control publicly denounced the way the center handled the COVID pandemic overall. She said that it failed to respond quickly enough and called the public guidance “confusing and overwhelming.” That’s after the CDC recently dropped most of its recommendations for staying safe.
Quarantine requirements are gone. And distancing and masking guidance is a distant memory for many. It’s now up to individuals to assess their risk and try to avoid COVID if they can. With school starting in three weeks, we want to know how to do that. Greg Poland, the director of Mayo Clinic’s vaccine research group, joined Cathy to tell her how.
The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Click the audio player above to listen to their conversation.
The relaxed guidance from the CDC reflects the public mood that COVID is over for many people, they don't care. What does that mean for the trajectory of the pandemic? The public mood is that it's over and the most alarming thing is that it certainly is not over. Now, good news is that hospitalizations and ICU admissions have fallen, but deaths now are increasing and increased about three to five percent over the last week or two.
And so we were in this bizarre situation where you're trying to give public health and individual clinical recommendations to people, to the population, and they're often ignored. There are some people who will follow very strictly recommendations, and others who are completely unaware of it.
As you're saying Cathy, it amazes me, people will stop me on the street, ask me questions and they'll often start off with saying, “Well, you know that the pandemic is over, don't you?” And I say, it’s far from over.
Among those who are vaccinated and have a healthy immune system, the likelihood of being hospitalized or of dying is dramatically lower than before vaccines were available. Instead, in those vaccinated people what it has shifted to is asymptomatic, mild, or in some cases, moderate infection.
So the risk is not dying, or hospitalization. The risk is disruption of your social, work or school life by having COVID and the considerable risks of so-called long COVID or complications of COVID. And that is what is being underestimated by individuals who have just thrown caution to the wind. Even among the vaccinated,
There doesn't seem to be another powerful variant, at least at this point. What does it mean for the development of this virus going forward? Does it simply become endemic? Well, the virus will and is continuing to mutate. We have a BA.4 subvariant, there's a BA.2 subvariant that's caused an outbreak in Illinois, those will likely continue to expand what this virus has demonstrated very clearly to us, is that in the face of immunity, it will try to find ways around that. So what the virus wants us to do is not get boosted, not get vaccinated and don't wear masks. Because the more times that it can infect people, whether they have symptoms or not, the more opportunity for that virus to mutate and find a way around our immunity.
We all know that we can still get infected even if you’re vaccinated, but I'm wondering with the Biden administration expecting to roll out these retooled vaccines in September, how might those be helpful? Those will help by boosting immunity and in particular, boosting immunity against the subvariant category and even variants then that develop off of that. We likely want to stress because it hasn't happened yet, we will likely have higher levels of immunity. So the problem was that we all got vaccinated against the original Wuhan strain.
And we had alpha beta, delta gamma, and out of the blue delta omicron strains developed, and that the distance between the original Wuhan strain and omicron was large enough that it substantially diminished our immunity, our protection against omicron subvariant viruses. So the idea is by giving an omicron subvariant booster, in this case, we will increase protection and boost our protection against other omicron subvariants.
Do you suggest that folks then wait until this omicron specific booster becomes available and get the shot before the weather turns cold? Yeah, this is a common question that I get. And I would have to somewhat individualize it by somebody's medical history. But if they're elderly, if they've got a lot of medical conditions that place them at risk for severe COVID, I would get boosted.
Now, if that's not the case, I would hope that somebody's gotten two primary doses of vaccine and they've gotten one booster and now they're questioning do I get that second booster? If they're otherwise healthy, I would say I think you can wait on that because of the rapidity with which the new booster is likely to come.
Somewhere in the next three to five, maybe six weeks, we'll have that booster now. In the meantime, wear a proper mask properly when you're indoors around people who are not your immediate family. And that's the piece people are forgetting.
So you are still recommending that people still wear well fitting quality masks? Absolutely. That is the safest way to protect yourself against infection and the possibility of complications from that infection.
What do you do in the case of say the state fair? You know, there's gonna be a ton of people out there. Do people feel comfortable going about the fairgrounds without a mask? Would you still wear a mask? Even when you're outside if you're in very crowded venues, it's clear that you can still transmit and get infected with with virus. We're talking probabilities here, that probability is lower outside than inside. But even within the domain we call outside, there are very crowded environments. For example, I'm comfortable eating outdoors at a restaurant but I am not comfortable eating indoors at a restaurant.
U of M research released a study and found that metformin, the diabetes drug, shows some promise against COVID. So if a person is already taking metformin, does that offer some protection against serious illness? I would call those results early. They form a hypothesis that would need further testing, so I would not depend on that. And if there is some benefit, you know, great. By itself, it would not be taken as a preventative drug or as an antiviral, though.
So what are you telling patients who are medically compromised or who are living with someone who is or who are anxious or reluctant to put themselves out there? What's your advice? I mean, I would even broaden what you're asking Cathy to anybody who wants to substantially decrease their risk of infection or complications from that infection like brain fog or fatigue and other things, and that is to be fully vaccinated. Get at least one booster knowing the second booster is coming and to wear a proper mask properly when indoors around people who are not your immediate family.
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Minnesota has some pretty incredible places enjoy the outdoors. They may even tempt those of us who don’t consider ourselves very “outdoors-y.” Leah Lemm is a citizen of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and spent most of her life in cities — first the Twin Cities suburbs and then college in Boston. But recently she’s been venturing outside more. And this summer she headed out on a two week hike along the North Shore — all alone. Why? Cathy Wurzer asked her.
Photos from Leah Lemm's adventures * Courtesy of Leah Lemm
Leah Lemm kicks her feet up at her campfire while camping on the North Shore. * Courtesy of Leah Lemm
A marker for the Superior Hiking Trail in Minnesota. * Courtesy of Leah Lemm
Leah Lemm took a photo of her bruised knee. * Courtesy of Leah Lemm
Leah Lemm spotted tracks in the mud. * Courtesy of Leah Lemm
Leah Lemm is a citizen of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and spent most of her life in cities. But recently she’s been venturing outside more.
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Schools are trying to fill staff shortages; a new interactive theatre performance explores the kind of losses we don't often acknowledge; Paul Huttner has weather news; plans are - again - shaping up for an historic golf course important to many in the Twin Cities Black community; and John O'Sullivan talks about his quick video tours of Twin Cities hot spots on Tik Tok. Maybe he'll show you something new!
John O’Sullivan leads one minute video tours on Tik Tok to a growing number of followers. He talks with Cathy Wurzer about his “bite sized” daily video tours of Minnesota and the Midwest. You can learn more at depotadventures.com or follow him on Tik Tok at “oneminutetours”.
MPR’s Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner speaks with Cathy Wurzer about the extended forecast, plus drought in the south, flooding in the north, crop conditions, a new, rare geomagnetic storm hitting the state and the 30th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew.
The school year is just around the corner, but school districts across the state are still trying to fill open jobs. John Magas, superintendent of Duluth Public Schools, talks with Cathy Wurzer about how they are working to staff up the district’s schools.
On Friday, August 19th Wonderlust Productions opens their latest interactive performance called “Lost and Found” to engage people in creating rituals to acknowledge the losses we have all suffered but could not grieve. Wonderlust Co-Artistic Director, Leah Cooper, speaks with Cathy Wurzer about the idea behind the “performance called ”Lost and Found” and what those involved can expect.
Thousands of nurses in Minnesota have voted to strike.
Minnesota’s first National Chess Festival comes to Bloomington. And we’ll take a look at the future of Iowa abortion laws, a new herd of bison in northern Minnesota, and a new way to learn about our state’s geology.
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Only a couple of hundred years ago, 20 to 30 million Bison lived in vast herds across North America. There is an effort by some Native tribes to reestablish bison herds in Minnesota.
Courtesy of Cherilyn Spears
Cherilyn Spears.
The Red Lake Nation in far northern Minnesota started a herd back in 2021 and we thought we’d check in to see how they’re doing.
Cherilyn Spears, the new director of the Red Lake Nation’s Department of Agriculture, spoke with Cathy Wurzer about the herd.
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Since the supreme court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that federally protected the right to have an abortion, decision makers at the state level are busy clarifying abortion access within their boundaries.
Minnesotans who want abortions can still get one, but neighboring states are now battlegrounds over abortion rights. Iowa residents are already seeing changes to access to abortion, and more restrictions may be on the way.
Katie Akin joined Cathy Wurzer to catch us up on abortion in Iowa. She’s a political reporter for The Des Moines Register.
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Where can you find some of the oldest rocks on earth? Right here in Minnesota. Professor Jim Cotter teaches geology at the University of Minnesota-Morris. His lectures cover history that took place not thousands, but millions and billions of years ago. And he’s got a new platform for his passion for Minnesota geology. He’s featured in a new Great Courses series that you can get at your local library.
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