Episodes
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Minnesota has the highest concentration of Korean adoptees of any state in the U.S.
A new investigation by the Associated Press revealed widespread corruption in the Korean adoption system that has many adoptees questioning what they’ve been told about their past.
The report found South Korea’s government, Western countries and adoption agencies worked in tandem to supply some 200,000 Korean children to parents overseas, despite years of evidence they were being procured through questionable means.
Sara Docan-Morgan is a professor of Communication Studies at University of Wisconsin - La Crosse and she thinks a lot about the complications that come with being adopted from Korea by an American family.
This year she published a book called In Reunion: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Communication of Family. She spoke with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about it.
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A meal at the dinner table with friends and family is one of the ways we can connect with people in a meaningful way. When someone dies, it’s common to bring food to provide care and comfort and love. A new cookbook is helping cherish the memories of loved ones we have lost.
“Good Grief! What’s for Dinner?” is a collection of more than 200 recipes curated by the Grief Club of Minnesota.
Annie Sperling helped put together the cookbook with her widow group at the Grief Club. She talked with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about it.
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The southeastern U.S. is preparing for the potentially deadly Hurricane Helene, which is set to hit Florida’s coast this evening. One Minnesotan who now lives in Florida has been through several severe storms and talks about bracing for this one.
Plus, the author of a brand-new cookbook about grief, and how food brings us together.
Minnesota has the highest concentration of Korean adoptees in the nation. We hear from one adoptee whose life work focuses on navigating that identity.
We hear from one woman who is building the ultimate Minnesota bucket list.
And we look back on a pioneering rural ambulance service.
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Taking an ambulance to a hospital looked a lot different 70 or 80 years ago. Its job was to get you to the hospital quickly, not as much about medical treatment along the way.
A pioneering ambulance service in Southern Minnesota helped improve survival rates and professionalize the job to what it is today: a hospital on wheels.
A new exhibit at the History Center of Olmsted County puts the spotlight on Gold Cross Ambulance and its advances, and a panel discussion Thursday night aims to find solutions for the challenges that remain in rural emergency medical services.
Wayne Gannaway is the history center's executive director. He spoke with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about the exhibit.
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Our “Thank You, Stranger” series is about the people who come into our lives and lend a little support, maybe make our days a little brighter.
This one focuses on a woman who started building a bucket list after finding out she was sick — and leaned on hundreds of strangers for their help.
Marcia Spring from Bloomington spoke with MPR News producer Ellen Finn.
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The state of Florida, along with the entire southeastern U.S, is bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Helene.
By the time it makes landfall, the National Hurricane Center is predicting it will be a major storm with winds above 100 miles per hour. Forecasters are also predicting a deadly storm surge along Florida’s Big Bend, where water levels could be as high as 20 feet, because of that, here could be dangerous flooding all along Florida’s west coast, where my next guest lives.
Since moving to Florida from Minnesota in the late 1980s, Cheryl Magnuson has been through several big storms. She talked with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about preparing for this one.
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Rebecca Nagle is an award-winning journalist and podcaster. Season 2 of her podcast “This Land,” from Crooked Media which delved into the 40 year-long fight over the Indian Child Welfare Act was nominated for a Peabody Award.
Her new book “By the Fire We Carry: The Generations Long Fight for Justice on Native Land” deeply reports the history behind the landmark McGirt v. Oklahoma decision, which resulted in the largest transfer of Native land in recent history. The book weaves together personal history, memoir, legal history and Native history to tell the story.
APM Reports’ Allison Herrera interviewed Rebecca Nagle, who is speaking at Birchbark Bizhiw in Minneapolis Wednesday night. Birchbark is owned by Ojibwe author Louise Erdrich.
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A second ballot error has been found in Minnesota, this time in Wabasha County. Secretary of State Steve Simon explains how these errors happen and their impact on voter trust.
A researcher is calling into question the validity of Blue Zones, areas where people live longer.
Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner has details on where you can see the leaves turning and how long this beautiful weather will last.
Plus, we hear a conversation with Indigenous author Rebecca Nagle about her new book chronicling the fight for tribal land.
And we meet the National Rural Teacher of the Year, a special education teacher in Cook County Schools.
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Many of us are trying to figure out the secret to a long life: why some people live longer and with less disease than the rest of us to 100 years old and beyond.
But new research out of the U.K. appears to debunk most instances of super centenarians, or extra-long lives, as fraud and bad record-keeping.
Saul Newman is behind this research. He is a senior research fellow at the University College London Centre for Longitudinal Studies. MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talked with him about his work, which recently won him an Ig Nobel Award from M.I.T. The award honors scientific achievements that “first make people laugh, then make people think.”
MPR News also reached out to the Blue Zones organization, which formed around the concept of areas of the world where people live significantly longer than elsewhere.
“The claims made by Newman are based on his highly questionable unpublished pre-print,” a Blue Zones spokesperson wrote in a statement. “Blue Zones and Mr. Buettner have debunked Mr. Newman’s hypotheses, which continue to fail to pass any scientific peer review.” The organization also published a blog post refuting the research.
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Some voters in Zumbro Falls, a town of 155 people in southeastern Minnesota, received the wrong ballots in the mail ahead of the November election.
The error comes just days after the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office announced a ballot misprint in Faribault County that incorrectly identified the parties of candidates for State House District 23A.
For more on the ballot misprints, MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talks with Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon.
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There has been nothing to complain about with this week’s weather, which has been sunny, seasonable and cool. But how long will it last? MPR Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner joins MPR News host Cathy Wurzer with a look at the forecast.
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The National Rural Education Association named a Minnesotan the 2024 National Rural Teacher of the Year.
Melissa Oberg teaches special education at Cook County Schools in Grand Marais. She is the first special education teacher to receive the honor and the second from Minnesota in a row.
Oberg joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about her approach to the classroom and how she plans to use her platform.
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By Alfonzo Galvan | Sahan Journal
On a sunny weekend in August, Brittany Rosas homed in her food options near Minnehaha Falls.
Several vendors were offering fruit slices with chamoy and tajin, fruit-flavored water and fried wheat pinwheels also known as chicharrones.
As Rosas purchased a cup of lemonade for her two kids and a bag of chicharrones, another customer bought a cup of watermelon for $5 from a nearby vendor.
The unlicensed vendors were clustered in the high-traffic area near Sea Salt Eatery — and they kept a wary eye out for park police. None wanted to speak on the record.
The vendors began appearing at busy parks and highway medians more than a year ago. Efforts by park police and city officials to issue citations only led them to temporarily retreat. Many are asylum-seekers from Ecuador who don’t yet have a permit to work legally in the U.S.
The city first attempted to address the issue in 2023, according to Minneapolis Health Department spokesperson Scott Wasserman who said they worked with St. Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church holding educational classes on how to become a licensed food vendor.
But a year later the problem persists.
Now two Minneapolis officials are trying another approach.
Council Members Jason Chavez and Aurin Chowdhury are developing an ordinance with city staff that would create a license or permit for food vendors to continue selling while being in compliance with city code.
“The reality is that right now, folks are not allowed to do it, and they’re getting letters saying to stop doing what they’re doing,” Chavez said. “And they’re being given routes to get permitted, but the permits that exist wouldn’t allow them to do what they’re doing.”
Chavez said unlicensed food vendors can create health risks if fruit and other food isn’t properly prepared. He said he is also concerned about the potential of labor abuses or trafficking.
“I think a permit can help prevent that, or at least be a part of preventing them from happening,” he said.
Several city departments are currently weighing in. Chavez and Chowdhury met with city staff on Friday to determine the proposed ordinance’s next steps.
After the meeting Chowdhury said an added goal is to create a support system so vendors can access supplies — including carts that store food at the proper temperature — so they can become eligible for a license.
In drafting their proposal, the duo said they have to adhere to state laws on food storage and refrigeration.
“The hope is next spring, people have a place where they’re able to sell and vend freely. They feel supported by our communities, by local government, and we’re bringing more people into compliance,” Chowdhury said.
For now, an option presented to some vendors in Minneapolis has been to register for the state cottage food producer permit, based on a 2015 state law that allows people to “make and sell certain non-potentially hazardous food and canned goods in Minnesota without a license.”
But Chavez said that’s a step in the wrong direction.
“That isn’t going to address the issue. And people might apply, but it isn’t actually going to address the root issue that people are struggling with,” Chavez said.
A cottage food producer permit could allow vendors to sell homemade baked goods and pickled fruits and vegetables, but it still wouldn’t allow them to operate on city sidewalks or in traffic.
The issue is one of “equity” according to Chowdhury, who said some vendors don’t have the available knowledge or resources because they’re still new to the country.
Things like licensing or permit fees become barriers for new vendors trying to become compliant.
“When it comes to folks that are immigrants, new to our community, that’s an incredible barrier. So if we’re going to do economic empowerment, that’s the barrier that we want to help resolve and so I’m 100% supportive of waiving these fees,” she said.
Claudia Lainez, the workers’ center director at COPAL, said the nonprofit organization has been monitoring the growth of street vendors across the metro specifically because many of them are undocumented.
She said the majority of vendors tend to be women because men, even undocumented, tend to struggle less to find employment. The women have the obstacle of finding child care and that’s why street vending is appealing to them.
She said access to information in Spanish is a key barrier for those who might want to comply with local rules.
“We have had many cases where people ask ‘What can I do?’ But no, this information is not accessible in Spanish,” Lainez said.
Since the ordinance proposal is still in the early stages, Chavez said there are still many questions.
One is whether to establish fixed locations for vendors. Another is how to limit the number of vendors in a given spot.
Chavez said some licensed vendors have told his staff that they’re losing business due to increased competition.
And a major question the council members have addressed is accessibility to information since the vendors are mostly Spanish-speaking.
They’ve said it’s important to make the process simple and easy for future vendors, regardless of legal status.
Even without documents like Social Security numbers, Chavez said there would be ways for vendors to apply, such as by using an ITIN, or individual taxpayer identification number, which undocumented individuals can use for tax purposes.
The IRS website says even undocumented residents are required to file income taxes every year.
Chavez said it’s crucial to find a solution that protects public health but also acknowledges the pressures that are pushing recent immigrants to sell food in public spaces.
“I’ll just center the humanity aspect that these people are just trying to make a living,” he said. Many of the vendors are “literally just trying to pay their rent and pay for their life.”
Pushback from licensed vendorsThe presence of the vendors has sparked concern and complaints, especially from licensed vendors.
At a Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board meeting in early August, Michael Auciello, owner of Brooklyn Mike’s Italian Ice cart, said he was tired of “illegal vendors” coming and opening fruit stands and cutting into his revenue.
Auciello said he’s seen about a 50 percent drop in revenue this year as unlicensed vendors pushed into city parks.
“A lot of the food trucks out there and vendors have given up. They’re selling their trucks. They don’t want nothing to do with this baloney no more,” Auciello said.
According to him, vendors have to buy a daily permit to operate at city parks, and some parks only allow up to two permits. The daily permits are $35 on weekdays and $100 on the weekends.
But some days this summer the parks he’s worked at have had up to five different vendors, even though the cap was two.
He’s complained to the Minneapolis Park Police and the Park Board with limited success.
Chavez said Minneapolis police officers are no longer giving citations to unlicensed vendors.
“They give them a paper with resources, because a lot of them also need more support beyond just being able to sell some food on the streets,” he said.
Park Police spokeswoman Robin Smothers said they also haven’t given out any citations to any unlicensed vendor but clarified that spotted vendors are not allowed to operate uninterrupted.
Auciello said he’s seen Park Police confront unlicensed vendors but not escort them away.
“Dear God, I wish,” Auciello said. “I think it’s not fair to the licensed vendors.”
An ordinance passed by the city wouldn’t automatically affect how parks operate, according to Chavez.
“The Park Board has to make their own decisions on if they’re going to allow people at their parks but at city streets we can make a program to allow some of these individuals to be able to sell fruit or whatever we decide with these permits,” Chavez said.
The Minneapolis Park Board still has final say on who can sell on their property.
Currently, only a mobile food vendor licensed with the City of Minneapolis can apply for a daily permit to operate at the parks.
On Friday, Chowdhury said there’s been ongoing talks with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.
“Our biggest goal right now with MPRB is to be proactive and build a really strong partnership and relationship, because at the end of the day, we want the same things. We want people in compliance and able to be entrepreneurs in our city,” she said.
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A former supervisor at a Minneapolis autism therapy provider told the Minnesota Reformer she attempted to report negligence and fraud to state officials, and no one responded.
It’s one piece of the puzzle in a bigger investigation of autism centers across the state. Deena Winter, formerly of Minnesota Reformer reported about it in their most recent story and Minnesota Reformer editor in chief Patrick Coolican joined MPR News guest host Emily Bright to talk about it.
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A Minnesota food delivery company that has been operating for 7 decades will soon close down. We’ll talk about the impact in Marshall — where Yelloh, formerly Schwan’s, is headquartered.
A former autism center employee tried to report suspected fraud to the state — and got no response. We’ll have more on that story and a larger FBI investigation into autism treatment in Minnesota. We’ll learn about a proposal to set up new permits for immigrant food vendors in parks.
Local TV reporter Courtney Godfrey has an impressive side gig — we’ll talk to her about joining Team USA for para-snowboarding. And a new exhibit dives into the history of girlhood — including girl’s basketball.
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How many times have you heard, perhaps especially when you were younger, the old rhyme that says “sugar and spice and everything nice, that’s what little girls are made of?”
History shows that young women are made of stronger stuff. That’s the focus of a new exhibit at the Minnesota Historical Society that opened in September. The exhibit is called “Girlhood (It’s complicated)” and it focuses on the history of how the concept of girlhood has changed throughout history.
One curator of the exhibit, Kate Roberts, joined Minnesota Now to talk about what went into covering the complicated topic of girlhood.
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For 72 years, the iconic yellow truck delivered food to families across the country. Formerly known as Schwan’s Home Delivery until 2022, the Minnesota-based company Yelloh will end operations on Nov. 8.
The company sold a major chunk of its business and rebranded due to economic and market forces. But they still faced challenges. In the fall they closed 90 delivery centers and laid off 750 employees.
Yelloh is based in Marshall in southwestern Minnesota. Professor Gerry Toland, chair of the Agriculture, Culinology and Hospitality Management Department at Southwest Minnesota State University, joined the show to talk about the big change.
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A familiar face on your TV screen is chasing her dreams. Fox 9 reporter Courtney Godfrey has been named to the Team USA para-snowboard team.
It’s an amazing accomplishment that she has been working towards for years after losing the bottom half of her leg in a boating accident seven years ago and has meant taking breaks from reporting to pursue.
Godfrey joined Minnesota Now to talk about her snowboarding success
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A new poll shows a close race for president in Minnesota — Vice President Kamala Harris has a tight lead. We’ll break down the results and how important they might be as election day draws nearer, we’re just over a month away.
The pentagon is sending U.S. troops to the Middle East following deadly attacks in Lebanon. Lebanese Minnesotans have been watching the chaos from afar. We’ll hear from one of them who helped evacuate her father from the country.
And we’ll hear from a new political action committee hoping to draw in Latino voters.
Plus the Lynx are in the playoffs, and the Vikings won on Sunday. We’re breaking down the latest sports news with our sports contributors Wally and Eric.
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As early voting kicks off in Minnesota for the upcoming general election on Nov. 5, many voters may feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of races and candidates on their ballot, particularly for local offices. To help Minnesotans make informed decisions, MPR News has launched an in-depth voter guide with information on thousands of candidates statewide.
Michael Olson, MPR News’ deputy managing editor for digital, explains how MPR News’ Voter Guide serves as a comprehensive resource for voters navigating their ballots this fall.
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