Minnesota Now August 31 2022

[THEME MUSIC] (SINGING) 1, 2, 3, 4.

CATHY WURZER: It's Minnesota Now. I'm Cathy Wurzer. Minnesota's senior US 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 the state. Health reporter Michelle Wiley spoke with someone infected with the virus about the experience.

Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev has died. We'll look back at his historic visit to Minnesota 30 years ago. It was a big deal. Members of the American Indian Movement, or AIM, are walking from Minnesota to Washington, DC. We'll hear why. That plus the song of the day and the Minnesota Music Minute. All of that coming up right after the news.

LAKSHMI SINGH: Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. A second day without drinking water is testing the resolve of residents across Jackson, Mississippi. The heavy rainfall and floods caused an already overwhelmed water treatment plant to fail this week. Much of the city of more than 150,000 people has to rely on bottled water to drink. Many businesses are closed. Sarah Friedler, general manager of Brent's Drugs, a diner in Jackson, says, for her, it's anything but business as usual.

SARAH FRIEDLER: We have to boil all of our water. It adds so many more steps. And it's just scary because, day to day, we don't know what will happen.

LAKSHMI SINGH: The Biden administration has pledged federal assistance to Jackson residents. Military tensions between China and Taiwan are the highest they've been in more than 25 years. NPR'S Emily Feng reports, Taiwan says it will fire back in self-defense if Chinese military vessels come within 12 nautical miles of the island.

EMILY FENG: Earlier this week, Taiwan said it shot back at Chinese drones when circling one of its islands, which is also right off the coast of China. Now, Taiwan says it could hit back harder if Chinese vessels come too close to Taiwanese waters. The national army will counterattack with no exception. That's according to Lin Wen-Huang, a Taiwan military official.

China is now regularly flying fighter jets or sailing ships close to Taiwan and the waters that separate it from China's East Coast after a string of US government visits to the island. The concern is such a frequent show of military intimidation could accidentally provoke a response that tips the region into an actual war. Emily Feng, NPR News.

LAKSHMI SINGH: Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have arrived in Southern Ukraine. They'll begin assessing the safety of Europe's largest nuclear power plant. They're expected to start their work tomorrow. NPR's Geoff Brumfiel says the plant's been damaged by shelling, and that's raised concerns about a potential nuclear disaster.

GEOFF BRUMFIEL: There's plenty for nuclear inspectors to investigate at the Zaporizhzhia plant. The sprawling complex is Europe's largest nuclear power station. In recent weeks, it's been battered by shelling, power cuts, and wildfires burning nearby. Inspectors will be looking at the plant's physical security and safety systems. They'll also be talking to Ukrainian staff, who are working under the Russian military. Former IAEA inspector Shirley Johnson says that those interviews are perhaps the most important part of the mission.

SHIRLEY JOHNSON: It kind of depends on whether the Ukrainian operators are going to be able to speak truthfully and openly.

GEOFF BRUMFIEL: Because it's those workers who are keeping the plant safe. Geoff Brumfiel, NPR News, Washington.

LAKSHMI SINGH: This hour, US stocks trading lower. The Dow Jones Industrial average now down 66 points at 31,723. From Washington, this is NPR News.

SUBJECT 1: Support for NPR comes from NPR stations. Other contributors include Angie, formerly Angie's List, dedicated to helping homeowners tackle home projects from everyday repairs to dream remodels. Reviews, pricing, and booking are at Angie.com or on the Angie app.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

CATHY WURZER: Around Minnesota right now, skies are sunny. It's a lovely day. Highs will reach into the 70s in the North to the mid 80s and lower 90s in Southwest Minnesota. At noon in Saint Cloud, it's sunny at 82. 73 in Duluth. And outside the tip-top Dairy Bar in Osakis, it's 77. I'm Cathy Wurzer with Minnesota news headlines.

The Minnesota Board of Animal Health has confirmed a new case of avian flu in Meeker County. Kirsti Marohn has the story.

KIRSTI MAROHN: Health officials say the commercial turkey flock experienced an increase in bird deaths last weekend. Testing confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza, the first Minnesota detection since May. A spring outbreak of the contagious virus caused the deaths of almost 3 million birds in more than two dozen Minnesota counties.

The Meeker County flock was quarantined and destroyed to stop the spread of the disease. State health officials say they have been preparing for a resurgence of avian flu this fall, although the timing of this case is sooner than they anticipated. They urged owners of commercial and backyard poultry flocks to review their biosecurity measures to keep their birds healthy.

Health officials say this strain of avian flu poses a low risk to the public. Poultry and eggs are safe to eat when handled and cooked properly. I'm Kirsti Marohn. Brainerd.

CATHY WURZER: Police in Hastings say they had to kill a dog that attacked and badly mauled its owner. Hastings Police say they got a frantic call from a girl around 5:30 last night saying the family dog had attacked her mom. Officers arrived at the house and found the girl calling to them from a second-floor window. They had to break into the home, where the dog was attacking the woman. They shot and killed the dog. University of Minnesota veterinarians will conduct an autopsy on the animal.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Minnesota's senior US Senator Amy Klobuchar is on her way back home after a quick trip to Ukraine with Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Senator Klobuchar is on the line right now. Good to have you with us.

AMY KLOBUCHAR: Well, thank you, Cathy. It's great to be on. And we couldn't have had a better meeting with President Zelenskyy-- over an hour-- as well as getting moving reports from the Ukrainians on the street. We went to Bucha, where, of course, they had horrendous war crimes committed against everyday citizens, mass graves. We went to many of the sites where the Ukrainians stood their ground against the Russians. And everyone is focused on the danger of Europe's biggest nuclear plant, which is located in Zaporizhzhia, which is in Ukraine.

CATHY WURZER: Right. And inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency are on the ground evidently. How worried should Europeans be about that nuclear power plant?

AMY KLOBUCHAR: Well, the Russians have shelled literally 400 feet away from the reactor. It is being run by a skeleton crew of Ukrainians. We talked at length to our embassy people. We now have Americans staffing the embassy in Kyiv. And their crew has valiantly kept this plant going and was able to connect power lines when the Russians cut them off to the plant.

They're obviously trying to divert the energy from this plant to a location that's held by Russians. And so right now, the concern is that either the skeleton crew, which is being, of course, really guarded and monitored by 500 Russian soldiers-- so they're having to take direction from Russian soldiers while being Ukrainians-- they could make a mistake from exhaustion. There could be shelling that goes awry, even unintentionally.

Anything that puts people at risk in that plant in addition to, obviously, the reactor is a very dangerous situation. And Chernobyl is not that far away. And people are very aware of the risk here. So the hope is that the international group can come in, issue a report, so we at least know, if there's any damage, what the safety level is, and then call for, as the Ukrainians are and we are, for a demilitarized zone around the plant.

CATHY WURZER: You visited Ukraine back in January, I recall, with a bipartisan group of senators. You met with President Zelenskyy at that time. What message did he want you to bring back to the US this time?

AMY KLOBUCHAR: Number 1, how grateful he is and the Ukrainians are for our support, as well as the 42 nations in the coalition. One of the embassy people actually told me the story of how they had ordered takeout food from a restaurant in Ukraine just recently. And it came back to them, where they knew it was going to the embassy, and someone had handwritten from a Ukrainian restaurant, thanks for the HIMARS.

The technology that we've given them that they are running so well, as we learned at the 101st Airborne in Poland, the Ukrainians are a masterclass in how to use some of this technology. And they've learned quickly. They're maintaining it. And that's made a big difference for them.

He also, of course, wants people to know how brave his own people are, how brave his soldiers are, how they put themselves on the line. He is, of course, interested in continuing help not only from us, but countries like the one I was just in, Poland. 5% of their budget's on military now, and they have brought in over a million refugees into Poland alone from Ukraine.

CATHY WURZER: Do Ukrainian forces have the might and the equipment they need to succeed in this current counteroffensive that's going on?

AMY KLOBUCHAR: They're obviously up against a superpower, and I think everyone had counted them out for a few weeks. That was the common wisdom of all the experts when this started. And they have defied every expectation to the point now where the Russians have much higher casualty rates.

They have lost over-- the estimates are 90,000 to 100,000 Russian troops. They are now recruiting in prisons. They are demoralized. There's reports of soldiers journals and other things that back this up.

Ukrainians, on the other hand, are emboldened to protect their country. They have, of course, suffered major, major losses, so that's not to be minimized. But there's a very big difference between how these troops feel about what's happening.

I think we will continue to send them arms and military. The difference from six months ago is we're now matching what they need with the operations they're planning. I think before, of course, everyone was scurrying and trying to figure out what they needed, and now there's much better coordination between all the countries in this alliance.

CATHY WURZER: There's military support. What other kinds of support could the US offer?

AMY KLOBUCHAR: Well, the US is helping with humanitarian aid, millions of people displaced both within country and outside of the country. US is helping, of course, with some of their daily needs, with security at the border and things like this. Kyiv is functioning. The town is functioning.

But when you go further out, just to give you some sense of where Bucha is, it's like the length of time it takes to drive to, say, Edina or Burnsville. I mean, that's how close in some of this major damage was in Irpin, which is where all these 20,000-some apartments were and nearby areas were damaged. So they have suffered major loss. So they're also focused on the long-term economic of what was really and will be, again, an economic powerhouse in Europe, and that's Ukraine.

CATHY WURZER: You were there with, as I mentioned, the intro Republican Senate colleague, Rob Portman of Ohio. Do Democrats and Republicans in Congress agree on what role the US should play in this conflict?

AMY KLOBUCHAR: Overall, yes. There has been some disagreement from more conservative Republicans, many whom just, to me, seems like they do not want to work with President Biden on this. Rob Portman and several others, including Mitch McConnell, have been very supportive, understanding that this is about Ukraine. Yes, it's about a horrendous evil and inhuman barbarism, war crimes, but it's also about democracy in the future.

If we let Vladimir Putin do this, he has already been using food as a weapon. He's been using energy as a weapon and plans to do that in the middle of winter to all of Europe. And he is now using a nuclear power plant as a weapon, having surrounded it with his troops, having shelled nearby. And I think anyone that looks at this and believes in democracy and freedom, you have to stand with Ukraine because if he did this to Ukraine, he will do it to other democracies, and this would only be the beginning.

CATHY WURZER: This invasion is dragging into the seventh month. Is there a path for either Russia or Ukraine to claim victory here, or is there some kind of a-- I don't know-- a long-term stalemate inevitable in this situation?

AMY KLOBUCHAR: We met with members of parliament last night, key leaders in Ukrainian parliament, and I think there's widespread thought that no one felt this was going to be done quickly. No one thought that. And whatever the resolution will be, it's very clear that Ukraine is going to remain one united country.

And right now, they're focused with this counteroffensive that's taking place as we speak in the South. Actually, enabled by many of the weapons that we've sent them and Germany and Sweden and many of the other countries is that they have already defied expectations. As we know, Crimea had been invaded in 2014, but they are continuing to push in the southern front, as well as the Donbas, the East, some of the other areas where Russians have made some-- they have taken over some towns. But, again, everyone predicted even more would have been taken over at this point.

CATHY WURZER: I know you're in an airport. I appreciate your time, Senator. Thank you so much.

AMY KLOBUCHAR: All right. Well, thank you. Yes, I've been three nights. I'm finally going to be able to hopefully sleep at home in my own bed.

CATHY WURZER: Thank you.

AMY KLOBUCHAR: All right. Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: Take care. That's Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar.

[MUSIC - BAIN, "SUMMER"]

This is our Minnesota Music Minute. It's a song called "Summer" by Davis Bain, Eric Anderson, and Jayanthi Kyle. They're the members of the Minnesota-based band Bain. This song also features DJ Rob Swift and Walter Chancellor Jr. It was released in 2018.

(SINGING) Saw a butterfly. I know it's time. Breathe in. Wings of love softly fly, and now it's our season. Now's the time to fly.

CATHY WURZER: 12:16 here on Minnesota Now from MPR News. I'm Cathy Wurzer. Monkeypox cases are still going up in Minnesota with 123 confirmed cases in the state so far. MPR health reporter Michelle Wiley's been reporting on the outbreak, and she joins us right now. Welcome back to the show.

MICHELLE WILEY: Thanks for having me.

CATHY WURZER: All right. First COVID, now monkeypox-- what a strange set of viral events. What are the experts saying about the coverage of what is a growing public health issue?

MICHELLE WILEY: Yeah. You know, I think it's a challenge because, from the state's perspective, you want to have an appropriate response, right? So making sure people have the information they need. They can get the care that they need without also causing worry or unnecessary panic.

But from the perspective of people who are hardest hit, particularly men who identify as gay or bisexual, I think there's a feeling that state and federal government should be doing more to protect people. At the same time, there's been a lot of reporting highlighting how the US could have done more when we saw cases of the virus increasing.

There were calls months ago to provide more testing, more vaccines, to do more, and that just didn't happen, which I think feels pretty frustrating after years of COVID, with this feeling the government should have a better grasp at addressing issues like this, especially in this case because monkeypox is a known virus. It's not like COVID. We weren't coming at it from trying to develop a vaccine. It was already something people knew about.

CATHY WURZER: Mm-hmm. You had a really good story, and we're going to hear this in a minute. And you talked to a man named Kyle Olson. Tell us about him.

MICHELLE WILEY: Yeah, so Kyle lives in Minneapolis. He started feeling really sick towards the end of July. He thought it was the flu or maybe even COVID. And then he started getting these lesions. And he describes them as the most painful thing he's experienced in his life, like a stabbing pain.

Eventually, he got diagnosed with monkeypox and entered a quarantine period. He's healthy now. He's out of that quarantine. But it sounds like the virus lasted for a few weeks.

CATHY WURZER: How did you find him?

MICHELLE WILEY: I got connected with him through Dylan Boyer at The Aliveness Project. He knew Kyle and that he'd been diagnosed and that he'd been really open about his experience online.

CATHY WURZER: OK, so there's been a lot of stigma around monkeypox. Did you have difficulty connecting with someone who wanted to talk with you?

MICHELLE WILEY: You know, I actually think it was because of that stigma that he did want to talk to me. And that's something we've actually seen across the country. People are connecting through social media and being pretty out and open about it because they know this stigma is out there, and they don't want to be ruled by it.

CATHY WURZER: Your story focuses in on that kind of stigma toward those suffering with monkeypox and how it's affecting its spread. Let's play your story right now. Let's listen.

MICHELLE WILEY: When Kyle Olson first started feeling sick, he thought it was the flu or COVID-19.

KYLE OLSON: I just slept for like three days nonstop because I couldn't do anything. I was so sick.

MICHELLE WILEY: Then painful lesions started appearing on his body. Olson was diagnosed with monkeypox and started quarantining in his Minneapolis apartment. It was early August. And even though he'd been through years of COVID-related lockdowns, this was different. He didn't know how he got monkeypox or anyone else who had it.

KYLE OLSON: I think people are ashamed of it.

MICHELLE WILEY: Monkeypox is a virus in the same family of viruses as smallpox but is generally less fatal. It's been present in parts of Africa for years and has recently swept across the world. While anyone can get the virus, it's most commonly spread through close, prolonged skin-to-skin contact. Most cases in the US and Minnesota have been among men who identify as gay or bisexual or other men who have sex with men.

Since cases began appearing in the country, there's been an ongoing national conversation about how to address those most vulnerable to the disease without perpetuating bias. That's a challenge that public health officials in Minnesota have been navigating too. Jose Ramirez is an HIV testing program supervisor at the Minnesota Department of Health.

JOSE RAMIREZ: We had a little pushback from community about some of our earlier messaging being stigmatizing or talking too much about gay, bisexual men.

MICHELLE WILEY: So they broadened their outreach, emphasizing that anyone can get monkeypox while working to provide targeted information to those hardest hit by the virus. But despite those efforts, health officials say this stigma is still affecting how Minnesotans tackle monkeypox.

MATTIE LAIDLAW: It's really getting in the way of people getting tested.

MICHELLE WILEY: Mattie Laidlaw is the community engagement systems planner in MDH's Center for Health Equity.

MATTIE LAIDLAW: Particularly if you look at communities in greater Minnesota, for instance, we've heard stories that people are not wanting to go in and get tested because they don't want to get invasive questioning about their sexual behaviors, which aren't really necessary for the provider who's doing the testing to know.

MICHELLE WILEY: Part of the challenge is that even though monkeypox can be transmitted through sexual contact, it's not considered a Sexually-Transmitted Infection or STI. While there have been some calls to start treating monkeypox like an STI, health officials are steering away from that, for one, because sex isn't the only way you can contract the virus. Dr. Michael Ross is a professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota.

MICHAEL ROSS: It's sexually transmissible, but it's not sexually transmitted in the sense that it's only transmitted by sex. And so that's a distinction that many people just don't quite understand, but it's a very important one.

MICHELLE WILEY: And for another, because labeling monkeypox as an STI could lead to people shaming those who get it. After Kyle Olsen got his diagnosis, he decided he was going to be open about it.

KYLE OLSON: I kind of try to make it my mission to talk about it because I know a lot of people are probably secretly dealing with it.

MICHELLE WILEY: He posted about it on Facebook and started answering people's questions.

KYLE OLSON: I think it connected people, but it also put me on the spotlight of negativity with the gay community.

MICHELLE WILEY: Dylan Boyer, director of development at The Aliveness Project, says shaming people doesn't help, something he's seen firsthand combating HIV.

DYLAN BOYER: We could not shame people into wearing condoms. We could not shame people into not having sex anymore.

MICHELLE WILEY: Instead, he says, it's more helpful to use a harm reduction approach.

DYLAN BOYER: Give people accurate and accessible information along with access to care. Let them make their own dignified choices in what's good for them and their health.

MICHELLE WILEY: For Olson, who finished quarantine just before his birthday, he says he wished people were more open about the virus.

KYLE OLSON: I just hope that people are more open about it or don't put people down because of it.

MICHELLE WILEY: Olson says it's a very painful experience to go through, and people should be more empathetic. Michelle Wiley, MPR News.

CATHY WURZER: By the way, what's treatment like? I'm curious.

MICHELLE WILEY: Yeah. I think it depends on your situation. If I remember correctly, Kyle was able to get TPOXX, which is one of the sort of few treatments that exist. But it's not something that's necessarily equally spread, so I think it really depends on your situation.

CATHY WURZER: Mm-hmm. Stringing it back to the conversation at the very end there about being empathetic, it sounds like much of the stigma around monkeypox is related to people's judgment of men having sex with men.

MICHELLE WILEY: Yeah, I think that's accurate. Public health officials are clear that that stigma is misplaced. Sex among queer men is not the only way to transmit monkeypox. But moreover, sex isn't the only way it can spread. Mattie Laidlaw, who you heard in that piece, the community engagement systems planner at MDH's Center for Health Equity, had something to say about that.

MATTIE LAIDLAW: This is not the first outbreak of monkeypox and that previous outbreaks were not impacting this community and not impacting people through that mode of transmission that is largely what people are associating with the outbreak this time around.

CATHY WURZER: OK. So just to remind us here, how is this virus spread?

MICHELLE WILEY: So health officials say it typically spreads through close skin-to-skin contact or prolonged, direct, close face-to-face contact. Officials have said a majority of cases in Minnesota were transmitted through sexual contact, but the virus can spread if a person uses the same bed sheets as an infected person, through close contact in a household, so it's not just sex that can transmit the virus.

CATHY WURZER: And what can someone do if they don't feel safe going to their local clinic or a family doctor?

MICHELLE WILEY: Yeah. I think in that case, it's best to reach out to the providers that you do trust. That could be folks like The Aliveness Project, Red Door Clinic in Minneapolis, could be a Planned Parenthood. But it's definitely a challenge, especially if you live in a more rural area, where there aren't as many providers. So I don't know that there's necessarily an easy answer.

CATHY WURZER: All right. Michelle, thank you so much. Good report.

MICHELLE WILEY: Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: Michelle Wiley is our health reporter.

SUBJECT 2: Support comes from Little Moments Count. The Early Risers podcast is dedicated to helping families talk about race, even with young children. You can find Early Risers wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more at LittleMomentsCount.org.

CATHY WURZER: Say, if you're at the fair, hello.

[LAUGHS]

If you're listening in at the fair, good to have you with us. You're probably busy doing fair-type things. Today at 2 o'clock at the MPR booth, we're going to have some live music from Siama's Congo Roots. Our colleagues at The Current filmed Siama and his wife, Dallas Johnson, performing on the fair Skyride in 2018. It's pretty cool. You can find that video on YouTube.

And they are back this year for a performance at our booth, 2:00 PM. And, of course, the booth is at the corner of Judson and Nelson. Where's that, you ask? It's pretty much kind of kitty corner from the dairy building. So go get your ice cream, come on over, sit, and listen to some great music at 2 o'clock this afternoon. Current time is 12:26. Todd Melby is standing by with a look at the news. Todd?

TODD MELBY: Hey, thanks, Cathy. The Justice Department says classified documents were, quote, "likely concealed and removed from former President Donald Trump's Florida estate as part of an effort to obstruct the federal investigation into the discovery of the government records." A new court filing shows the FBI also seized 33 boxes containing more than 100 classified records during its August 8 search of Mar-a-Lago and found classified documents stashed in Trump's office.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, has died. He was 91. Gorbachev is for many the man who restored democracy to many European countries under communist rule. He's being saluted as a rare leader who changed the world and, for a time, brought hope for peace among the superpowers.

United Nations inspectors are making their way toward a key nuclear power plant in Ukraine, hoping to help secure the Russian-held facility in the middle of a war zone and avoid catastrophe. Underscoring the danger, Kyiv and Moscow again accused each other today of attacking the area around Europe's biggest nuclear power plant. Minnesota-based Polaris says it wants customers to stop riding nearly a quarter-million of its snowmobiles until a potential fire hazard can be fixed.

The company announced today that a number of snowmobiles made between 2013 and 2022 may pose a risk of fire due to electrostatic discharge inside the fuel tanks. The company said that vapors inside the fuel tank can ignite under some conditions, including degraded fuel and extended storage. Polaris said the issue involved 230,000 snowmobiles sold around the world, and it knows of about 30 fuel tank ruptures, 16 fires, and one injury linked to the fuel tank issue. This is MPR News.

CATHY WURZER: This is Minnesota Now on MPR News. I'm Cathy Wurzer. The state fair is underway. And even though officials have made changes for the times, there's still a distinct and, for many of us, delightful emphasis on rural Minnesota-- the farm animals, the all-you-can-drink milk booth sponsored by Minnesota dairy farmers, the 4-H building buzzing with activity from kids across the state.

This year, fair officials are honoring 78 Minnesota farms that have been owned by the same family for 100 years or more. Jill Nathe is deputy general manager of the Agriculture and Competitions Department at the Minnesota State Fair. She knows all about the 78 Minnesota century farms that are being honored. Hey, Jill. How are you?

JILL NATHE: I'm good, Cathy. Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: Good. I'm glad you're here. So I know a little bit about the program. It's been in effect since, what, 1976? It's a state fair and Minnesota Farm Bureau program. What qualifies a farm to be a century farm?

JILL NATHE: So a farm to be a century farm through the program has to have continuous family ownership for those 100 years. And family can be defined as parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, first cousins. Even direct in-laws can inherit a farm. It needs to be 50 or more acres in Minnesota and currently involved in agriculture production when that 100-year-mark hits.

CATHY WURZER: I know you have a connection with a century farm in Minnesota.

JILL NATHE: I do. I do. I am blessed to have married into a century farm. So my husband's family has a dairy farm up in Stearns County. They have actually now hit the 150-year-mark. But back in '82, they applied and got their century farm.

CATHY WURZER: Your parents grew up on Iowa farms. Is that right?

JILL NATHE: They did. I don't know if we're supposed to talk about Iowa at the Minnesota State Fair.

CATHY WURZER: [LAUGHS]

Good point. Good point.

JILL NATHE: But, yes, I am only one generation removed. Exactly. Yeah, one generation off the farm for me and then blessedly, yeah, connected by my husband. And then my sister actually married into farming and has a small farm out in South Dakota.

CATHY WURZER: OK. So obviously, this is something you know a lot about. For folks who don't know much about farming or even having a farm in the family, which is many of us, obviously, how great a feat is it to have a farm to last 100 years or better?

JILL NATHE: I think we can all say it's an amazing feat. It's kind of heroic to think what generation upon generation has worked through to stay on that family farm, whether it be economics or weather or for every generation to find someone who wants to continue, and then to be successful as they make all those decisions. Farmers are small business owners, mechanics, weathermen, and technology keeps changing. So to keep up and be successful over 100 years, multiple generations, that's a real feat.

CATHY WURZER: Well, I mean, think of the stories, right, on each farm.

JILL NATHE: Oh, right. That's, I think, the beauty of it. We can talk about numbers-- 78 farms in 2022. They're from all over the state. I think 49 of the 87 counties are represented in this year's group. But it's really the people behind the stories, right? It's the men and women, the families that made this happen over the course of 100 years.

CATHY WURZER: And all the history too. My gosh.

JILL NATHE: Right. It's a history of Minnesota. The Historical Society actually archives all these applications because there's so much richness there.

CATHY WURZER: Now, what are some of the stories you've heard about the Minnesota century farms?

JILL NATHE: Well, I like to sometimes take a peek at the applications because people will include some great stuff, right? There was one that was a favorite a few years back. And the story comes from, I think, the grandchild, but there's a 36-year-old Norwegian immigrant, loses her husband in the flu epidemic of 1918.

She's in North Dakota at the time. She has five kids already and is pregnant with another, moves back to Minnesota, near Gonvick, where she had family. Her brother was there. Buys a farm. It's not clear how she afforded it, but she managed to buy a farm. This is 1919 now.

CATHY WURZER: Wow.

JILL NATHE: Hires the Norwegian bachelor farmer from across the street to help. A few years later, marries him, has two more kids, and lives on the farm another 50 years.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, my goodness. I wonder how she did that.

JILL NATHE: I know. I know. You think, oh, my gosh, that's amazing, right? The fortitude and the wherewithal to just pluck up and move back to Minnesota and buy a farm and figure out how to do that as an immigrant from Norway, first generation?

CATHY WURZER: And we have to also say, when you look at the history of the state of Minnesota with homesteading and relations with Native tribes, are there ways that you're seeing folks honor the Native heritage of some of these lands?

JILL NATHE: You know, Cathy, I don't have that maybe in any of the most recent applications. I think that's definitely something that could probably be addressed.

CATHY WURZER: Do we know how many century farms there have been since 1976? There obviously must be, oh, my gosh, hundreds, or you'd think.

JILL NATHE: Oh, yeah. No, we're at over 11,000 recognized since 1976.

CATHY WURZER: I wonder how many other farms are out there.

JILL NATHE: Oh, I think there's always more because even someone that was recognized years ago may have sold, and now a new family starts that passing along, right? So I think farms are going to transfer ownership in every decade, right? And you're going to have maybe a new family taking over that's going to be there for that next 100.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah. What a great program. So what are you going to do to honor the century farms this year at the fair?

JILL NATHE: Yeah. So what we typically do at the fair, we don't have a ceremony here. Many county fairs will have a ceremony for the folks from their counties that were honored that year. But if you head over to the Minnesota Farm Bureau booth, they do have the information there. And anyone who's received their century farm this year can get a ribbon while they're there and talk to folks at Farm Bureau.

Individually, we do mail out certificates. Those are signed by the governor of Minnesota, the president of Farm Bureau, and our fair board president, as well as sort of a permanent metal sign that farms can have and hang and put up somewhere to show that they are a century farm through the program.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah, exactly. I have some friends that are owners of century farms, and they're very proud of that fact. I wish you well. Thanks for explaining the program.

JILL NATHE: Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for your interest in it. I think it's great to let people know it exists. Even in this year's applications, there's a few that just hit the 100 mark, but I saw some that it was 131, 132 years. So anything we can do to get the word out that this is here-- and people should take pride in it, like you said. And it's an amazing feat. So anything we can do to honor them and share that with the world, I think, is a good thing.

CATHY WURZER: I agree. Thank you so much. Happy fair. Hope you have a good time--

JILL NATHE: Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: --at the fair this year. I mean, you're going to be pretty busy, aren't you?

JILL NATHE: Oh, we will.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, my gosh.

JILL NATHE: I will--

CATHY WURZER: Oh, I can't even imagine.

JILL NATHE: It'll be busy, but that's what we live for. This is our Christmas.

CATHY WURZER: [LAUGHS]

And you're also with the Competitions Department too. I mean, that's a lot of work. That's a lot of work.

JILL NATHE: Yes. Yep. We got lots of great entries from everything from fine arts to creative activities to, like we said, the agriculture, the sheep, and the cows. And just excited to show off Minnesota's best.

CATHY WURZER: All right. Have a good time at the fair. Thank you so much, Jill.

JILL NATHE: OK. Take care, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: Jill Nathe is deputy general manager of the Agriculture and Competitions Department at the state fair.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

If you're still enjoying the summer flowers and maybe your little veggie garden, well, good for you. But, friends, tomorrow is the first day of meteorological fall. I know. I don't know how that happened either. Here to tell us more about what to expect in the coming few weeks is MPR's chief meteorologist Paul Huttner. I feel sad today. I'm just going to say that out loud.

PAUL HUTTNER: You know, and I hear ya. I'm savoring this last day of meteorological summer. It's gorgeous out there. It's 84 degrees. The dew point's 56, so it's comfortable. It's a beautiful day, and let's just hang on to that for a few more hours, huh?

CATHY WURZER: OK, I will do that with you. We will toast summer as it leaves. By the way, why do meteorolo-- I can't even get that word out of my mouth. Why do weather people use meteorological seasons instead of astronomical seasons?

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, that's a great question. And we use the months of September, October, and November as meteorological fall. Meteorological seasons, they're cleaner for record keeping. They better match the seasonal weather and climate.

Also, the dates, Cathy, of the astronomical seasons, as you know, change a little bit slightly from year to year. The solstice and the equinox don't always fall on the same day of the month, so that messes things up. So it's a much better reflection of the actual seasonal weather to use these meteorological seasons.

And it's interesting to note-- you talk about fall-- in Minnesota, Climate Central has run the numbers. Fall is the second fastest warming season in Minnesota. Winter's number 1. But falls in Minnesota, since 1970, on average, have warmed 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit across the state. Winters warmed about 5 degrees on average. So we've trended toward some milder falls in the last few decades.

CATHY WURZER: I noted on Twitter that our friends from the National Weather Service office in the Twin Cities were trolling people with pictures of the office bathed in snow. So let's talk about the winter outlook. What do we think? Is it too early to see anything trending for the winter season in Minnesota?

PAUL HUTTNER: Oh, there are some signals. This La Nina that we've been in for two years is entering a third year. That's pretty rare. But NOAA forecasting a La Nina event. Well, what does that mean for Minnesota? Generally, it means with that cold water in the Pacific, it affects jet stream patterns. We call those teleconnections in the atmosphere. And that can favor a northwest flow for Minnesota in winter, which tends to skew colder, potentially snowier, about 70% to 80% of winter statistically.

But here's the interesting part of this winter. Forecast is for those ocean temperatures to warm up next spring, maybe an El Nino next year. That might mean that we have a little milder transition out of winter and into spring next year. We just got clobbered this last year in March and April with cold weather and snow. So maybe we'll have an easier end to winter for a change and an earlier spring, which would certainly be nice.

CATHY WURZER: It would be nice. So as we say goodbye to summer here, what does the Labor Day holiday weekend forecast look like?

PAUL HUTTNER: A good-looking forecast if you like sunshine and very pleasant temperatures. Now, we'll get close to 90 tomorrow again. I think we'll hit 90 in places like Appleton, Madison, Western Minnesota. 89 in the Twin Cities. Maybe 90 in some of the Western suburbs. Friday, a cool front, still on the warm side of it, about 88, isolated thunderstorm. And then a little cooler and pleasant into the weekend.

Should be great weather out at the fair, mid to upper 70s for highs. 60s in Northern Minnesota. We're back in the 80s by Labor Day and near 90 again next week potentially, Cathy. NOAA's outlook's calling for warmer-than-average temperatures maybe right into mid-September this year, so meteorological fall could get off to a warm start.

CATHY WURZER: Say, before you go, I noted that you were at the state fair EV Garage this week. Is that for The Climate Cast?

PAUL HUTTNER: It is. We had a great visit yesterday with Stephen Mikkelson from the MPCA and talked about electric vehicles there. They have some really cool vehicles. I saw and got to get into the new Ford Lightning 150 truck. They had a really cool Mustang Mach-E. So we talked to Stephen and some EV owners and some of the folks visiting the fair about what they're thinking about EVs here as the adoption rate goes higher as we go forward.

CATHY WURZER: And you can get The Climate Cast wherever you get your podcasts.

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah. And it'll be on live ATC tomorrow between 3 and 6 o'clock.

CATHY WURZER: Perfect. Paul Huttner, thank you.

PAUL HUTTNER: Thanks, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: Paul's our chief meteorologist.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I think it's time for a music break, don't you? Today's song comes from our friend, Isaac Yanta, who is at 101.1 FM, The River, in Winona. Isaac, what do you have for us today?

ISAAC YANTA: Hey, Cathy. Greetings from Winona. I want to show you another Minneapolis artist. This is Mae Simpson with a song that almost brings me to tears every time I listen to it. It's called "Monsters."

[MUSIC - MAE SIMPSON, "MONSTERS"]

(SINGING) When I was younger, it was--

Right then, I knew.

ISAAC YANTA: That's "Monsters" from Minneapolis artist Mae Simpson. Mae Simpson's actually going to be joining us down in Winona at the Karate Camp 2 Music Festival. It's the second year that they're doing it, and the lineup is awesome. So if you're interested in that, go on over to KarateChopSilence.com and get some tickets. I'm really looking forward to that. And I hope you have a great rest of your day, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: Thank you much, Isaac. We appreciate that song and you. That's Isaac Yanta, DJ at 101.1 FM, The River, in Winona.

SUBJECT 3: Staying informed and connected across Minnesota is more important than ever. That's why we make sure we are available wherever you are. Download the MPR News app and take us on walks outside or just from room to room in your house. It's free.

CATHY WURZER: I'm glad you're here on Minnesota Now from MPR News. It's 12:44. I'm Cathy Wurzer. For the next two and a half months, a group of walkers will make their way from Minneapolis across the Midwest to Washington, DC. The walk is organized by the American Indian Movement and involves Natives from across Turtle Island or North America. Here to tell us more is Rachel Thunder. She's a Plains Cree. She serves as the lead AIM grand governing council organizer for the Walk to Justice. Welcome, Rachel.

RACHEL THUNDER: Mm-hmm.

[PLAINS CREE]

Rachel Thunder. I just greeted you in my traditional Plains Cree Nihiyaw, Nehiyawok language. My name is Rachel Thunder. And like you said, I'm one of the lead organizers for the Walk to Justice that's starting tomorrow here in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

CATHY WURZER: Thank you, Rachel, for introducing yourself. How did you come to be involved in AIM? I'm curious.

RACHEL THUNDER: Oh. Well, I'm what some would call an AIM baby. So my dad taught at Heart of the Earth Survival School, which was the AIM school here in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the time. And he taught in that school in the early '90s. And so I've grown up AIM. I've always been AIM. It's just my involvement has always been and always will be.

CATHY WURZER: I understand this is called a spiritual walk. Tell us about it.

RACHEL THUNDER: So this walk, we didn't just decide one day to walk as the American Indian Movement. About two years ago, there were those of us who were having dreams about Elder Leonard Peltier. And Leonard Peltier is the longest-serving Indigenous political prisoner. He's been held by the United States government for the past 46 years and from an unjust trial.

So about two years ago, there were those of us who were having dreams about him. And I can't speak for those dreams of others, but the dreams that I was having were-- I would be in his prison cell with him, and he would be sitting on his bed with his face in his hands. And I would just tell him, your people are coming to get you. Don't worry. Your people are coming to get you. AIM is coming to get you.

And these dreams kept coming. And others were having dreams. And so we took these dreams into our traditional ceremonies. And through prayer and ceremony, it came in that we needed to walk, that we needed to walk from the heart of the American Indian Movement here in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and carry that prayer for Elder Peltier's Justice to Washington, DC, to those people who are in those positions of influence to see his release.

CATHY WURZER: Say, Rachel-- and for people who don't know, Leonard Peltier is serving a life sentence for a shootout that killed two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation back in '75. And notable individuals like Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama have asked for clemency for Peltier, but that has not happened. Does Leonard Peltier know about the walk? What has he said about it?

RACHEL THUNDER: So Leonard does know about the walk. Leonard is in maximum security, Coleman USP 1, just outside of Coleman, Florida. And a lot of times at these maximum securities, they go on lockdown quite frequently. And that's just to kind of give the guards a break because they don't want to hire more guards for people to go on vacation, so they just put everybody on lockdown.

And so during those times, nobody can call out or anything. But we do know that Leonard knows about this walk. He's very supportive of this walk and all efforts to see his release. And it gives him a good feeling knowing that the American Indian Movement, that his brothers and sisters in AIM are doing this prayer for him.

CATHY WURZER: Rachel Thunder, I wish I had more time with you. We wish you well on the walk. We hope to actually talk with you when you get to Washington, if that's OK?

RACHEL THUNDER: Yeah, that would be great. And I also welcome everybody to come down to Cedar Field Park just off of Franklin Avenue today. We're having an opening rally at 5:00, where we'll have prayer, speakers, and a musical performance.

CATHY WURZER: Great.

RACHEL THUNDER: So that starts at 5:00 tonight. We're actually down here setting up right now.

CATHY WURZER: OK. Thank you, Rachel Thunder.

RACHEL THUNDER: Mm-hmm. Thank you. Blessings for your day.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

CATHY WURZER: With the news that former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has died at the age of 91, Minnesotans of a certain age remember the fascinating and strange visit Gorbachev made to Minnesota in 1990. Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, were invited to the state by then-Governor Rudy Perpich. Much to almost everyone's surprise, Gorbachev accepted. He and his entourage arrived on Sunday, June 3, 1990, on a cold, blustery day.

INTERVIEWER: And in front of us is the Soviet Seal.

MIKE MULCAHY: There's Mr. and Mrs. Gorbachev off the plane at the top of the stairway.

BOB POTTER: There they are.

MIKE MULCAHY: Some applause here. Senator Boschwitz is behind them. He's waving. Mr. Gorbachev is in a dark suit. Mrs. Gorbachev is wearing kind of a purple outfit.

BOB POTTER: Are they dressed for the weather?

MIKE MULCAHY: Doesn't look like it. Gorbachev just adjusted his lapels a little bit. Now, they're moving the red carpet down, and the dignitaries have approached. The band is playing.

CATHY WURZER: That, of course, Mike Mulcahy and former host Bob Potter. It was a seven-hour visit that saw the Soviet leader meeting with top business leaders and working in large crowds like an American politician. His wife, Raisa, and First Lady Lola Perpich stopped at a Mexican restaurant in South Minneapolis, as well as a Snyder's drugstore, before having afternoon tea with a family in Minneapolis.

Now, this visit made Minnesota and world history because it marked the first time a Soviet leader had visited the Midwest during the Cold War. Nikita Khrushchev visited Iowa in 1959. It was a memorable day of wall-to-wall media coverage. Bob Potter admitted that seven-hour coverage of the Gorbachev visit might have been a little much.

BOB POTTER: Now, it could occur to a healthy skeptic, I suppose, that this whole trip is much ado about not a whole lot. It can be argued, and has been by some of the newspaper columnists, that Minnesota has been overcome by Gorbymania. They say we're making fools of ourselves to some extent with the T-shirts, the road signs, the hassle over the vodka billboards, not to mention the hours of broadcasting and reams of newsprint that are being devoted to this visit at which, one might point out, no major speech by the guest of honor is scheduled.

True as all that may be, there's also some history happening today. The Gorbachev tour of Minnesota is unique and particularly intriguing at this time, when America's relationship with the old adversary is turning around. Today's visit may be mostly pageantry, ceremony, and pleasantries, but some real substance is not too terribly far beneath the surface, it seems to us. And we're going to try to focus on that during our broadcast today as well.

CATHY WURZER: The legendary Bob Potter, who anchored our coverage the day Mikhail Gorbachev came to Minnesota.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Say, I have a question for ya. Did you take art in school? If you were lucky to have had a teacher who unearthed the creativity we all have, even those little projects that involve glue, markers, paints, or clay, maybe it gave you a little boost of self-esteem. Perhaps the class fostered a lifelong love of art.

Debbie Aune understands how to tap into creativity. She's a K-12 art teacher in the Greenbush Middle River School District in Northwestern Minnesota. She's also an artist who transforms photos and her passion for nature, cityscapes, and rural life into watercolors. And she is on the line. Debbie, welcome to Minnesota Now.

DEBBIE AUNE: Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: I understand nature and the rural life play a pretty large role in your art. Where did you grow up?

DEBBIE AUNE: I grew up right here. I grew up 7 miles down the road. My address has been Gatzke my whole life.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, for goodness sakes. Now, for folks who don't know Gatzke, that is a pretty small place.

DEBBIE AUNE: Oh, yeah. It's between Thief River Falls and Roseau.

CATHY WURZER: Did you grow up on a farm?

DEBBIE AUNE: Yes, I did.

CATHY WURZER: Are you still on a farm?

DEBBIE AUNE: We're still on a farm. We rent it out, but it was a working farm. And I still live here. And I just travel to school every day.

CATHY WURZER: I want to go back a little bit to the earlier part of your experiences with art. I was on your website. Your grandma had those-- and I loved them; I just thought they were so much fun-- the paint-by-numbers.

DEBBIE AUNE: Yes. Isn't that cool?

CATHY WURZER: I know.

DEBBIE AUNE: Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: So much fun.

DEBBIE AUNE: Yeah. That's the type of painting she did. And then I got her leftover oil paints. And who knew what a canvas was back then? I just painted on the cardboard, what the box, what the thing came in.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah, yeah.

DEBBIE AUNE: And I think I still have that very first painting. It's dull and dark and muddy, but it's fun to look back at.

CATHY WURZER: I did the same thing, and all my paint-by-numbers were all about horses, every single one of them.

DEBBIE AUNE: You too?

CATHY WURZER: Oh, yes.

DEBBIE AUNE: Yes.

CATHY WURZER: Of course.

DEBBIE AUNE: Yes, yes, yes. Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: Gosh, I had a friend in fourth grade who would-- it was in the back of comic books, ads for the art instruction schools in Minneapolis. Remember those?

DEBBIE AUNE: Yes. I got to enroll in it. I was 17, and it was expensive. And that was a big deal. I don't remember what it cost, but it was a correspondence through the mail. And I did it for two years. And I still have all my lessons. It was so funny.

I'm not sure if I took it as serious as I should have because I got some pretty poor grades, but the school really emphasized drawing from the either drawing or photo that they sent you. And you had to copy it exactly the way that they did it. And I would kind of mess around with it and thought I was funny, I suppose. And they didn't think it was so funny.

But you get kind of bored by copying things, so I think that's why I went to VCU. That's why I went to college when I was 17 because I kind of enjoyed the drawing, and I always had been doing some drawing, but it was fun to get some instruction from somebody else and some feedback.

CATHY WURZER: So you graduated from Bemidji with a degree in art education.

DEBBIE AUNE: Yes.

CATHY WURZER: How did you land on watercolors as your medium? I've only done watercolors a few times. Can't stand it. It's just the control freak in me just cannot stand putting a little bit of color on a piece of paper and having it run all over the heck.

DEBBIE AUNE: I always liked what it did though. Watercolor does its own thing on paper. But I like the surprises that it gives me, the different kind of paper I have, the different kind of tilt I have to the board. And the paints just do a lot of work on their own. And I love, love, love that part, just the spontaneous-- to see what happens.

You'll get gifts once in a while, and you'll have explosions once in a while, but it's fun. I like that fact that you come back the next day, and the painting does look different because it's dried, and it's bloomed and did its thing. But I think watercolor just is so friendly in school. For teaching, it's my favorite thing to teach.

CATHY WURZER: Well, you're very well known in Northwestern Minnesota, especially for your imagery of farm life and machinery and small towns. Why does all that fascinate you visually?

DEBBIE AUNE: I'm amongst it. I'm with it. I live it. I guess there's stories with all of it. Every painting I believe I've ever done that I've liked, there's a story that goes with it. And if your brain is anything like mine, it's always chattering around, and it's talking all the time. And there's a story with the paintings, with the elevator paintings, with traveling in the green truck to town with my dad and combining.

I'd combined in high school. I combined in college. I combined when we got married. So it's fun to paint machinery and equipment. And right now, the blueberry series I just had in Thief River Falls included people in most of them, and that's been my latest challenge to myself, to include people, which I find difficult.

CATHY WURZER: Now, we should say you've had a show at Northland Community and Technical College in Thief River Falls, something called Nature's Offerings. Did you feel any pressure to put on that show?

DEBBIE AUNE: Not from anyone else. I just kind of put myself in-- give myself challenges. I work better under pressure. That's kind of a common trait, I think. So I set a date. I made a commitment. I gave myself a year. And then I painted and painted and painted. It was the framing that was the most challenging.

CATHY WURZER: In the introduction, of course, I mentioned that you're an art teacher. And I think especially kids, and certainly adults, say, I'm not creative. I can't draw a straight line. I can't, I can't, I won't, wah. What do you find might be a good technique to get an adult out of their head and onto the canvas or paper, what have you?

DEBBIE AUNE: They're the tough ones, for sure, because I hear that line, I can't draw a stick man-- oh, my gosh. I could teach anybody to paint. I know I could because I have this really simple seven-step approach to doing a watercolor painting outside. And I use it on my kids at school. And they eat it up. I could teach them to paint. I know I could. They just have to pretend that they're 10 again, I guess, and just let themself have a little bit of fun.

CATHY WURZER: You got me intrigued now, seven steps. I'm not going to ask you to do all seven steps, but give me the first two at least.

DEBBIE AUNE: Establish your horizon line. Number 2, to kill your paper. And all that means is you know that white paper is so white and bare and scary? So we splash some paint on there. If it's a warm day, we splash an ocher on there. If it's a cool day, we splash some gray on there.

CATHY WURZER: OK.

DEBBIE AUNE: The third step, I'll throw that at you just so you go home and try it. It's just make some shapes. If there's a house out there, it's probably a triangle and a square. And if there's a tree out there, well, that'll be an organic shape. But just get some shapes in, and know that you can do it. It can be done.

CATHY WURZER: I believe you. I believe you. You're a teacher. I get it.

DEBBIE AUNE: Yeah, yeah.

CATHY WURZER: We wanted to check in with you because we've heard a lot about you in Northwestern Minnesota, so I'm really appreciative of your time.

DEBBIE AUNE: Thank you. This was fun.

CATHY WURZER: Debbie Aune is a water colorist and art teacher from Gatzke, Minnesota. That's in the northwestern corner of the state. And this is a new segment where we'll check in with Minnesota artists from time to time to ask about their background in art, their process, and what they're working on. So if you've got suggestions, send them our way, Minnesota Now at npr.org. And thank you for listening to the program. I hope you have a good rest of the day.

This is MPR News, 91.1 KNOW, Minneapolis, Saint Paul. Support for Minnesota Now comes from TruStone Financial Credit Union, dedicated to giving back to the community since 1939. Full service banking is available at 23 locations and online at TruStone.org. TruStone is an equal housing opportunity lender insured by NCUA.

Just got a little peek there. I'm looking at a live stream at the state fair. It looks fantastic. Sunny skies, 82 degrees at the fair. It's going to be, well, pretty much where we are right now for a high, about 85 maybe for a high today. West wind, not much of it, out of about 5 miles an hour or so.

Overnight low, 62 degrees. And then it gets a little sticky and close tomorrow, humid, highs in the upper 80s, maybe close to 90. Friday, ditto. And there's a chance of thunderstorms Friday afternoon. Not as hot on Saturday with a high of 75.