Minnesota Now

A Minnesota-based organization is leading its fifth-annual run on Sept. 30 to recognize National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. The day was created to honor Indigenous children who died at residential schools as well as survivors of the institutions, where they suffered abuse and forced separation from their families and cultures. Similar boarding schools existed in the United States....

Artificial intelligence is everywhere in the headlines: from debates over data centers to concerns about the power of AI, elected officials and everyday people are figuring out the role of this technology in our lives. In greater Minnesota, two professors have recently pushed to add new master's degree programs on AI at their universities. They say it's needed to meet the challenges and opportunit...

The Detroit Lakes School Board has been trying to remove rainbow stickers from school grounds for months. It met again Monday night to debate a new policy. MPR News reporter Harshawn Ratanpal was at the meeting and joined MPR News host Nina Moini with the latest in Detroit Lakes.

Voters this November will decide on a constitutional amendment that could change how much money public and charter schools get from a state trust. A breakdown of the Permanent School Fund and what's on the ballot. St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her is facing sexual harassment allegations from the police chief. We'll hear from one city council member on why she's calling for the release of the full report f...

St. Paul City Council members Molly Coleman and Saura Jost are calling on the city to release the full report from the outside investigation into Mayor Kaohly Her. The city's HR department released a summary of the investigation earlier this month. It found that the mayor had behaved inappropriately with city employees but that her behavior did not constitute sexual harassment. The council members...

Knock on wood, because the Minnesota Vikings are undefeated for the start of the season, after their 23-16 win Sunday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. On Monday, the team announced a trade with back up quarterback J.J. McCarthy. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Lynx are off to a rough start in their playoff run. They lost 91-75 to the New York Liberty. Tuesday’s game is a must-win for the Lynx to s...

PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” were once thought of as impossible to remove from the environment. They’re still seen as difficult and expensive to remove from wastewater, a common place for the PFAS to be found. A pilot project in St. Cloud tested a technology to do just that, and researchers found that the process they used destroyed more than 99 percent of the PFAS they tested. Luke La...

On your ballot in November, you will be asked to vote on a constitutional amendment, which would make changes to what's called the Permanent School Fund. This fund is a trust, that supports every single public and charter school student in the state. Lawmakers are now asking taxpayers to vote to change the calculation of how much money is distributed to schools. This would allow schools to get acc...

St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry is suing Mayor Kaohly Her for sexual harassment and retaliation. We got more on the allegations in the lawsuit and next steps from MPR News reporter Matt Sepic. We also spoke to a midwife who helped support pregnant women whose families went into hiding during Operation Metro Surge earlier this year — and how her work has continued six months later. And the Minneso...

If you’re looking for a new place to catch everything from local indie films to the old classics, a brand new 36-seat micro-cinema theater opened Thursday on the East Side of St. Paul. The theater comes out of TriLingua Cinema, which has been running pop-up screenings for the last six years. It’s located in the same building as the East Side Freedom Library. TriLingua Cinema executive director Sid...

Nearly 70 miles along the Minnesota River, from Bloomington to Henderson, sits more than 15,000 acres of preserved water and land. It’s known as the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. This weekend, it’s celebrating 50 years of habitat conservation and restoration. The manager of the refuge, Sonja Jahrsdoerfer, spoke more about the refuge on Minnesota Now.

During the height of the federal immigration enforcement operation this winter, life for many immigrants went underground. Volunteers delivered groceries. Kids stopped going to school. And some immigrants were skipping doctor's visits. Some of the immigrants in most need of care, were those who were pregnant. That's where Fernanda Honebrink stepped in. She's a midwife and founded Conexión during t...

Minnesota's two candidates for governor, Lisa Demuth and Amy Klobuchar, are not aligned on politics. But they do share a common experience: they are both breast cancer survivors. How that diagnosis plays a role in how they shape policy. On Capitol Hill, Renee Good's mother and a witness to Alex Pretti's killing testified in hopes of accountability. Plus, a new report looks into how private equity...

The Minnesota Wild open their season next week and this year, there’s a new person on the team who could have an unusual job on game night. Peter Thome is the Wild’s new EBUG, or emergency backup goaltender. For years, EBUGs have typically been local hockey players or fans who volunteer to suit up in the extremely unlikely event that a team loses both of its regular goaltenders. But the NHL is cha...

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport may be the go-to for many Minnesotans and a hub for Delta Air Lines. But decades ago, the St. Paul Downtown Airport was the epicenter of aviation for Minnesota. It was there that the first private airmail route for the Midwest originated and where Northwest Airlines built up its operations before eventually merging with Delta. Bruce Kitt, archive manager...

Thursday will be a year since the first charges were filed in an investigation into fraud in autism therapy in Minnesota. It added fuel to calls for more oversight and accountability in state government. A new report finds a different phenomenon in autism therapy nationwide: a treatment dominating the industry, driven partly by private equity. The education news site The 74 found that between 2019...

The murder trial of Lindsay Clancy in Massachusetts set off calls for more support for parents who are struggling with mental health after childbirth. For more on postpartum mental illness, MPR News host Nina Moini talked with Dr. Helen Kim, a psychiatrist and co-founder of the Hennepin Healthcare Mother-Baby Program and Redleaf Center for Family Healing in Minneapolis. Then, she spoke with Naomi...

The city of New Richland is cleaning up after heavy rain damaged an estimated three-quarters of homes in the small southern Minnesota town. We'll talk to the city administrator about how they're responding and preparing for future floods. The Lindsay Clancy trial in Massachusetts set off a nationwide conversation about postpartum mental illness. A doctor will join the program to talk about signs a...

This weekend actors in St. Cloud will take the stage to sing out scenes from a fascinating life. Eliza Lynch was an Irish woman who moved to Paris in the 1850s. There, she met Francisco Solano Lopez, the future authoritarian president of Paraguay. They returned to the South American country together. While they never married, Lynch was by Lopez's side as he led Paraguay into a catastrophic moment:...

Flood waters are starting to recede in the southern Minnesota city of New Richland, where more than half a foot of rain devastated the community over the weekend. The city is now starting to turn to recovery efforts and looking at how to prevent future flooding. New Richland city administrator Tyler Lendt joined Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to talk about flooding recovery.

Minnesota truckers are feeling the pinch of soaring diesel prices. The current average statewide is still above $6. We heard from truck drivers on how they're making do and what it could mean for the industry long-term. Dozens of people looking into the impacts of this winter's immigration surge will gather Tuesday to share their findings. Plus, Mark Dayton is adding another title to his resume: a...

On a soggy Sunday in Chicago, the Minnesota Vikings beat the Bears 9-3 in the rain. Meanwhile, Lynx guard Olivia Miles rained down more baskets, breaking Caitlin Clark's record to become the WNBA's highest-scoring rookie. Sports contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson joined MPR News host Nina Moini for their weekly round-up of Minnesota sports.

A new set of changes to federal food assistance will take effect next week. County staff have implemented the work requirements and eligibility changes to SNAP that Congress passed in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” last year. On October 1st, they’ll also take on more of the administrative costs of food aid. The federal government will provide a quarter of that funding, instead of half, a change...

This winter’s surge of federal agents left its mark on many Minnesotans. The full scope of the impact is still being pieced together. On Tuesday, dozens of researchers, journalists and community leaders will convene at the University of Minnesota to share findings on how the events of this winter continue to affect people across the state. The gathering is called “Documenting the Impact of U.S. DH...

The ICE agent who allegedly shot and wounded a man in Minneapolis in January was booked in jail in Minnesota after a legal fight to get him in custody. He made his first appearance in state court Thursday. We got all the latest details on that case. Ahead of November’s midterm elections, leaders that supported Minnesotans during the surge this winter say they’re now building on their goal of prote...