Minnesota Now - Sept. 7, 2022

[THEME MUSIC] CATHY WURZER: It's Minnesota Now. I'm Cathy Wurzer. Newly revised COVID booster shots are being sent to states. Should you get one? We'll find out more.

Many students are feeling pretty nervous about heading back to school. We'll talk with a psychologist about how to help calm the jitters and how to know if it's something more serious.

Our hazy, humid, warm weather won't last long. We'll get weather details from meteorologist Sven Sundgaard. And a new documentary film out this weekend tells the story of a hockey rivalry in northern Minnesota, we'll get the details from the Minnesota-born director. Theater fans may already know the Guthrie opens their Fall season this weekend, we'll catch up on all the performances planned and the big anniversary right around the corner. That, and the Minnesota Music Minute, and the song of the day, it's all coming up, right after the news.

AMY HELD: Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Amy Held. A majority of Americans do not want former President Donald Trump to run again in 2024. Those findings from a new NPR-PBS NewsHour Marist Poll, and as NPR's Domenico Montanaro reports, the loss of one key group could prove pivotal to the prospects of another Trump White House.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: 61% of respondents say they don't want Trump to run, that includes, 2/3 of independents. Trump's base remains intact, however, with more than 6 in 10 Republicans saying they want him to run, even if he's charged with a crime. The FBI search of Trump's Florida home has thrust Trump back into the spotlight.

And a plurality of respondents, 44%, say they think he did something illegal. About one in five, say they think he did something unethical but not illegal.

Views of Trump are locked in. The 61% saying they don't want him to run is unchanged from just after the 2020 election. And even if he's charged with a crime, the percentage saying they don't want him to run, only increases marginally.

Domenico Montanaro, NPR News, Washington.

AMY HELD: New York State is charging Steve Bannon with fraud. The former Trump advisor is preparing to turn himself in tomorrow. Bannon is accused of skimming money raised supposedly for a Southern border wall.

More shelling around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine is leading to the potential for a nuclear disaster. To avert that, the UN is calling for a demilitarized zone around the plant, Russian occupied since March. NPR's Frank Langfitt reports Ukraine says Russia must withdraw.

FRANK LANGFITT: Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that if Russia is allowed to continue to occupy the plant, it could set an example for, quote, "others to do the same." The area around the facility has been subject to shelling since early August. However, some people here in Southern Ukraine are so inured to the violence of this war, they see the nuclear meltdown as just another risk. Sergey Daravic works as a barber.

SERGEY DARAVIC: [SPEAKING UKRAINIAN]

INTERPRETER: I don't think the Russians will destroy the plant. In my opinion, they are blackmailing the population. But, if something does happen, it will be too late to do anything about it.

FRANK LANGFITT: The Russians blame the Ukrainians for the shelling and say they've given the United Nations evidence.

Frank langfitt, NPR News, Kryvyi Rih.

AMY HELD: More than 100 countries have reported monkeypox cases since the global outbreak began in the spring, but there are signs of a slowdown, here and abroad. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is the director general of the WHO.

TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS: We are continuing to see a downward trend in Europe. While reported cases from the Americas also declined last week, it's harder to draw firm conclusions about the epidemic in that region.

AMY HELD: He says cases there are likely to be underreported in part due to stigma and discrimination. Vaccines are available in the US and in Europe. Africa, however, where monkeypox has been endemic for years, has had no access to vaccines.

This is NPR News.

SPEAKER: Support for NPR comes from NPR stations. Other contributors include, Fisher Investments. Fisher Investments is a fiduciary, which means they always put clients' interests first. Fisher Investments, clearly different money management. Investing in securities involves the risk of loss.

CATHY WURZER: Around Minnesota right now, there's hazy sunshine. Highs today, upper 70s to the mid 80s. And noon in Duluth, it's sunny and 71, it's 74 in Rochester, and outside the great Hinckley Fire Museum, it's sunny and 77.

I'm Cathy Wurzer with Minnesota News Headlines. A Ramsey County judge has denied a motion to intervene in a high profile abortion case by the Traverse County attorney. Michelle Wiley has the story.

MICHELLE WILEY: Back in July, District Court Judge Thomas Gilligan struck down many of the abortion restrictions being challenged in the case of Doe v. Minnesota for violating the State Constitution. Traverse County Attorney Matthew Franzese filed a motion to intervene after the State Attorney General's Office decided not to appeal the ruling.

Jess Braverman is the Legal Director at Gender Justice, which opposed the County Attorney's move.

JESS BRAVERMAN: There's four problems you have to meet in order to intervene in a lawsuit. And the County Attorney came to court and said, I haven't met any of these, but I want to intervene. And it just doesn't work that way.

MICHELLE WILEY: For one timeliness, the case has been ongoing since 2019. Gilligan said that since Franzese did not explain why he waited so long to intervene, it is too late. Franzese did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

I'm Michelle Wiley.

CATHY WURZER: A search committee looking for the next Minneapolis Police Chief has reportedly narrowed the field to three candidates, all from outside Minnesota. KSTP-TV cites unnamed sources inside the search process, saying that the contenders include, Elvin Barren, a former Detroit cop and Chief of Police in Southfield, Michigan, Charlottesville Virginia Police Chief RaShall Brackney, and Brian O'Hara, a Deputy Mayor in Newark, New Jersey, who oversees police and public safety.

Thinking about getting your reworked COVID booster shot to battle the variants that continue to infect millions of Americans? Appointments to get the booster shots are open at the state-run vaccine site at the Mall of America, the state sites in Duluth, Saint Paul, Midway, Rochester, and Moorhead will start taking appointments, next week.

The White House coronavirus coordinator said yesterday that the new Omicron boosters, which are set to be released this week, might become part of our health care routines along with our yearly flu shot. To tell us more about the science behind the vaccines and how they work is Dr. Abinash Virk, she's an infectious disease specialist at Mayo Clinic. Doctor, welcome to the program.

ABINASH VIRK: Thank you. Glad to be here.

CATHY WURZER: Could you explain how these vaccines work?

ABINASH VIRK: So these are very similar to the prior boosters, except that these are called the bivalent boosters. That means that they have very similar mRNA to the initial vaccines, but also have the mRNA spike protein for the BA.4 and BA.5, which are the more common variants that we are seeing in the US now. So these are different from the boosters that were recently given earlier this year.

CATHY WURZER: And these vaccines have stirred discussion of durable immunity. Can you talk about that concept, what does it mean exactly?

ABINASH VIRK: It means how long will the immunity actually last. So what we saw with the primary series and also with the boosters, the previous boosters, and the emergence of new variants, particularly, the BA.4/BA.5 was that the immune responses and the protection against infection did go down, and the protection against severe disease also went down to some extent.

And so the question is, will these bivalent new boosters provide a good immunity and how long will this be good for. This is something, obviously, we will have to see as we go into the future.

Based on what we know from previous boosters and vaccination, we should at least have good six months or more of protection from these bivalent boosters.

CATHY WURZER: So that should get us into well into the fall and through the winter, perhaps?

ABINASH VIRK: Through the winter, yes.

CATHY WURZER: So then should folks wait till later in the fall to get this new shot, alongside their flu shot? Should they try to get one as soon as possible?

ABINASH VIRK: So, I think, timing is a difficult thing, right? We know from previous two years that the cases started going up in November and peaked in early January. And that, I think, it would be helpful for people to make sure that they have their boosters before November. But you really can't be too perfect, because you could be imperfect, and it could be that we have a wave earlier than that, and you may miss that.

So in general, we're kind of recommending that people should just go ahead and get them, because we potentially may have another wave of a different variant or even continuing BA.4/BA.5, that is good for people to just go ahead and get the vaccine, whenever they get it available to them.

CATHY WURZER: As you know, booster recommendations were based on the number of vaccines received. For example, adults 50+ were supposed to have two vaccines and two boosters, and for some people that was getting kind of confusing. Does this booster help clarify what's meant by being up to date in COVID vaccines?

ABINASH VIRK: Yes. So, being up to date with COVID vaccines was a moving target, because we had the primary series, then we had the boosters. But going forward, we will hopefully only have one booster a year, sort of, similar to influenza, based on what's the prevailing variant that's globally present and present in the US. And that hopefully, we won't have to have multiple and different types of boosters, as we go forward.

So it is a change from where we were and hopefully, the future will be just cleaner in terms of what kind of boosters we get.

CATHY WURZER: And I wonder how might that description, that message resonate with those who might have been hesitant to get the shot to begin with.

ABINASH VIRK: I think, what we can at least reassure people is that we have seen through the primary series as well as the boosters, and now with the bivalent new booster, that we have been able to decrease hospitalizations, deaths, severe disease. And people should continue to get these boosters, if they've had their primary series, definitely, go ahead and get this new bivalent booster. If they haven't had any vaccination at all, we still urge people to go ahead and get started with your primary series, and then get these bivalent boosters two months after they finish the primary series. There's lots of data to show that these vaccines have been very effective in decreasing the burden of disease in the United States and globally.

CATHY WURZER: Is there any evidence to show that these-- of course, you don't know about the boosters at this point, as you say-- but, what about long COVID? Does it lessen the potentiality of developing long COVID?

ABINASH VIRK: What we have seen so far is that people who've had vaccination are slightly less likely to have long COVID. And so, again, that's another reason to recommend vaccination for people who have never had it.

CATHY WURZER: As you know, uptake has not been great in this country, and I wonder if this booster doesn't increase uptake and offer broader protection, does that allow the virus to keep mutating?

ABINASH VIRK: It does, because there'll be more infections. And as we have more infections, there's more likelihood of mutations. And, again, every mutation may present itself, may present the virus to be different. It could be more infectious, it could be more lethal. And, so, that's the other reason why we need to continue to prevent these infections and decrease the burden of disease by getting vaccinations.

CATHY WURZER: That is important. I wonder about still mask wearing in some instances, especially in areas that have a high infection rate.

ABINASH VIRK: So, mostly people are not masking anymore, as we see day-to-day life. I think, in general, we are still recommending people who are at increased risk of severe disease to be masked, particularly, when they are in crowded locations or indoor locations. Especially, as we are going into the fall and winter.

People who are elderly, particularly, who have multiple comorbidities like, diabetes or other additional diseases, or people who are immune suppressed, we know that they don't mount as good as an immune response as people who are immune competent. And so you do need to layer your protection with masking and hand hygiene and some degree of social distancing, if you can.

CATHY WURZER: And as a physician, as a person who has studied this, what are you going to be watching for here in the next few weeks?

ABINASH VIRK: We will be watching, for hopefully, increased uptake of the vaccine, of the bivalent booster. We are also continuing to monitor the levels of infections as well as hospitalizations in the country to get a sense of how is this winter going to evolve. We are obviously, also the state is monitoring the wastewater viral presence as well, to know where is a higher prevalence of infection.

CATHY WURZER: And before you go, there's so much happening in your field of study, not only do you have COVID, but we're talking about monkeypox, and there's been some polio outbreaks. What is this time like, from where you sit, as an infectious disease specialist?

ABINASH VIRK: It's completely unprecedented. I've been doing this for 28 years, and I feel that we are definitely in an era of change. And if you really think back from 2009 onwards, there have been quite a number of outbreaks, and the number of outbreaks seem to be increasing.

What is this related to? Is this related to global travel, is this related to other economic and climate change issues? There's just a lot of change happening. And, of course, in parallel there are a lot of additional human factors that are contributing to these increases in these outbreaks in namely things like, vaccine hesitancy and distrust in medical information and also misinformation.

And, so, I think, there's a lot of factors that are going into the presence and evolution of these new outbreaks, infectious disease outbreaks that we're seeing.

CATHY WURZER: Interesting times. Dr. Virk, thank you for the conversation.

ABINASH VIRK: Absolutely, thank you, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: We've been talking to Dr. Abinash Virk, she's an infectious disease specialist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

[MUSIC - COLE PREMO, "SCREENS & NEWS"]

(SINGING) So uncontrollable, my mind flies to rocks in the blue. My eyes so damn digital, oh, these thoughts come in--

This is the Minnesota Music Minute, and it's Twin Cities-based musician Cole Premo with the song, "Screens & News." It's off of his digital album, called Universe/Love, released in 2013. Cole's a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and plays around the Twin Cities. You can find more of his music on Bandcamp, search Cole Premo, P-R-E-M-O.

(SINGING) --news day. The ever-changing dialogue, so confusing, as it shuffles the wrong. Wrap it all up and recreate a world hush just inside [INAUDIBLE].

A world so full of life could just disappear. Just to sacrifice a ball of flame and on, and on, and on, just another slow news day.

Glad you're with us here on Minnesota Now. From MPR News, I'm Cathy Wurzer.

As kids and young adults head back to school, they may be feeling a little nervous. For caregivers, it can be tricky knowing when it's just routine jitters or a more serious case of anxiety. You may have heard the number of children struggling with depression and anxiety doubled during the pandemic.

Dr. Sara Gonzalez is a psychologist at Children's Minnesota . She's with us right now to help us walk through how to tell if your child is moving through something just fine or if you need a little more help to get through it. Dr. Gonzalez, welcome to the program.

SARA GONZALEZ: Thank you for having me.

CATHY WURZER: Big feelings are normal, this time of the year, right? And going back to school, given all the disruptions of the past few years, feels big. So what do you expect to see from a child who might be a little nervous about going back to school?

SARA GONZALEZ: Absolutely, I think, it's fantastic for parents to recognize that. There has been a lot of disruption, both direct and indirectly, with the COVID-19 pandemic and different social factors that have been impacting our community.

So, I think, it's normal for kids to feel nervous going into this school year for parents to normalize that. And what we want to do is be proactive about recognizing when it steps away from just traditional school jitters, and then it starts becoming something, maybe a little bit more problematic, leading into maybe some mental health concerns. And, I think, that's where parents can really step in to try to tease those things apart.

CATHY WURZER: I'm curious, what are the signs that a child might be a little anxious about going back to school?

SARA GONZALEZ: Some of the telltale signs is when we see disruptions in routine or start seeing difference in patterns of functioning. So parents really, parents are the experts on their child. They know their child's best. So if they're talking with their child or really noticing changes in eating patterns, sleeping patterns, different behaviors, not wanting to go to school, or connect with friends, all those things are things to be kind of keying into and looking out for, so that we can make sure to get children the support that they need.

CATHY WURZER: So you can watch for the signs. Are there questions parents can ask to suss out some emotions?

SARA GONZALEZ: Absolutely. Yeah, so, I think, open communication is the name of the game. But also for parents to recognize, that if they're talking to their child or their adolescents, particularly, adolescents here, also thinking about those conversations enders. Parent asks the question, and the kid's like, yeah, yeah, I need to do this now.

It's important to look at those behaviors too. We're expecting for a child to come to us, the adult, in the situation, and say, I'm so stressed or this is really bothering me. We might miss on a whole bunch of information.

So what we really want to be doing is cuing into those manifestations of stress, physical ones like, talking about having stomach aches or headaches and just different aches and pains, or changes in sleep or eating behaviors, like, withdrawing, not really wanting to engage in things that they really used to like. Saying, I am really zoning out or having trouble focusing or paying attention. And then emotionally, which is the one that we most often looked for, which are those more unhappy feelings or feeling overwhelmed or angry.

All those things are things that we want to be looking out for.

CATHY WURZER: What's the line then when it really starts to tip over into serious anxiety, depression, mental illness?

SARA GONZALEZ: When it impacts functioning is when we start talking about it really teetering that line where we really want parents to be seeking out that support. If it's changing sleep patterns, your child's not sleeping or sleeping too much, not wanting to eat or eating too much, and withdrawing, anything that deviates from the norm of what your child typically does or in the way that your child typically behaves are signs that we would want parents to be proactive about connecting with school personnel, school psychologists, counselors, social workers, connecting with your pediatricians, and linking in.

So we have these concerns as parents, this is not normal. How can we find support for my child.

CATHY WURZER: When in your opinion is it time to consider medication, perhaps?

SARA GONZALEZ: That's a great question. I think, it needs to happen in discussion with a pediatrician. What research demonstrates is that, oftentimes, the combination of medication and therapeutic support leads to best outcomes. Families talking to the pediatrician, leaning into trying to figure out what's going to be best for their child, maybe trying to get some social support, or some kind of therapeutic intervention going, see if that can help improve support that school-- and if not, kind of carrying on to have that discussion about medication with their pediatrician.

CATHY WURZER: So we're talking about signs between, kind of I would say, garden variety nervousness and something a little more serious. We've talked a lot on the air about this global mental health crisis that was clearly made worse by the pandemic, right? But, children's anxiety and depression rates and other rates of mental illness have been going up for quite some time. Why is this happening? You know what's going on in our world that it's affecting the kids?

SARA GONZALEZ: Absolutely. That's such a large question.

CATHY WURZER: I know.

SARA GONZALEZ: Right. But during the pandemic, we saw that 7 in 10 adolescents were reporting that they've been experiencing mental health difficulties. And we've continued to see this number escalate. I think, there's a lot to say about what's happening socially and now to the broader ability that we have to link into what's happening in other places of the world that can make us question our safety or anything that can really have parents start thinking about their children in different ways.

So social unrest, social struggles, like a medical crisis, like a pandemic, all of that put together really led to disruptions into the consistency of children's routines. And it was all over the news, all over social media, it was all that we were talking about, how could we have escaped that. And so, I think, it's fair to say that it's been harder right to digest everything that's going on and stay focused on well-being.

CATHY WURZER: And as a parent, many of us have experienced the exact same things. So how does a parent help the child navigate these waters that are still pretty rough?

SARA GONZALEZ: Great question. I think, it's important for parents to validate their own stressors and struggles. Nothing is more important than children having an appropriate display of emotional health and well-being. And so, a lot of times, there's this misconception that if we don't talk about it or don't point it out, it will pass.

With mental health and emotional health, we don't see that. We want for kids to have appropriate models of, hey, I am struggling, right now. Acknowledging your own difficulties within the circumstances that you're in, as a family, as a parent, will have that child question less of what they're trying to read into the situation, read into the family dynamics, and give them perhaps a voice to also say, hey, this is some way that I can help with the stress that is impacting you too.

CATHY WURZER: See, before you go, I'm curious. I know you've been so busy over the past few years in what you're doing. How are you doing?

SARA GONZALEZ: Thank you for asking. I think we have established, at least at Children's Minnesota, I can speak for the institution that I'm in, there's been a good support system of us all checking in together to make sure that that burnout, which is very real, remains being talked about. And that we're finding healthy strategies to work through that.

But with that said, I'll link it back to the community, because parents are also feeling that. And I want to acknowledge that it's really hard to even be able to-- if you see that your child is struggling, find the appropriate supports for your child. So I would say, start with the schools to kind of alleviate-- you're not operating alone as parents and caregivers, use the school community as part of your village.

And then a little bit of more information or tools that we can offer at Children's Minnesota. Parents on an online browser, go to Children's Minnesota, Behavior Checker, they put that in. That's a tool that can get parents the support that they need, simple solutions and encouragement to over 150 common behavior or mental health problems that they might be noticing in their child.

So link it back to them, because I think, we're all in this state of operating with little resources. And the more that we can get those out there for the community, I think, the better that we'll all be together.

CATHY WURZER: All right. Dr. Gonzalez, I appreciate the conversation. Thank you so much.

SARA GONZALEZ: Absolutely. Thanks for your time.

CATHY WURZER: Dr. Sara Gonzalez is a psychologist at Children's Minnesota. She says, if you are worried that your child's nervousness is tipping into a more serious anxiety or depression, you should connect with your school psychologist or your pediatrician.

SPEAKER: Programming is supported by the Original Mattress Factory. Offering factory direct, locally made mattresses and box springs. Hand building mattresses and box springs in Maplewood and selling them directly to their neighbors, since 1994. More at originalmattress.com.

DIANNE HAULCY: I'm Dianne Halucy, host of Early Risers, a podcast from Little Moments Count and MPR. It's for anyone who wants to have better conversations with children about race and cultural differences. Listen to Early Risers, wherever you get your podcasts.

CATHY WURZER: That's a terrific podcast. And by the way, if you are a listener to Minnesota Now, just a gentle reminder that we have our own podcast. You might not know that. But it is true, growing numbers on that thing by the way. I want you to check it out when you have an opportunity. In case you missed a specific interview, you want to hear more about it, you can always go to Minnesota Now, wherever you get your podcasts. And we appreciate you listening, no matter where you are, we have covered, on air, online, podcasts, we're everywhere.

Speaking of everywhere, John Wanamaker is everywhere. He's with us, right now, to look at the news. Hey, John.

JOHN WANAMAKER: Hey, Cathy. A new report says that the names of hundreds of US law enforcement officers, elected officials, and military members, appear on the leaked membership rolls of a far right group accused of playing a key role in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol. The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism looked through more than 38,000 names on leaked Oath Keepers' membership lists to find more than 370 people it believes are currently working in law enforcement agencies. Several people told the Associated Press, they were briefly members years ago and are no longer affiliated with the group.

Shelling has resumed in the area of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Russian and Ukrainian officials blamed each other. The attack comes a day after the UN atomic watchdog agency pressed for the warring sides to carve out a safe zone to protect against a possible nuclear catastrophe, of course, that region still remembers the Chernobyl disaster.

President Biden will highlight his plans for drastically reducing cancer deaths and boosting treatments for the disease in what he calls this generation's Moonshot. Biden's speech at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston on Monday, will come on the 60th anniversary of his predecessor's speech outlining his vision for putting the first man on the moon. The White House said, Wednesday, that Biden will outline what his administration is doing to, quote, "end cancer as we know it." Biden's son Beau died in 2015 of brain cancer.

A skeleton from 31,000 years ago may be the first evidence found of an amputation surgery in humans. According to a study published today in Nature, the remains show a child from Indonesia, who had part of their left leg cut off on purpose. The prehistoric patient recovered from the surgery and lived for at least six more years. The study may show that early hunter-gatherers paid more attention to health care than previously thought.

On Wall Street the stocks are backing off a little bit off of earlier highs. The Dow up 8/10 of 1%, the S&P up just over 1%, the NASDAQ up about 1 and 1/4.

This is MPR News.

CATHY WURZER: Thank you very much, Mr. Wanamaker.

12:30 For those of us who like summer, today is a lovely day. Tomorrow will be kind of nice too, just because of the heat and humidity. It's going to go away, though, it won't last much longer. Here with the weather details for the region and beyond, NPR meteorologist Sven Sundgaard. Hey, welcome back.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Hey, thanks for having me. Yeah, it's one of those days where you always wonder how many more we got, and then another one comes, and you think, well, this is the last one.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah. But looking at the forecast, at least today and tomorrow for sure, we know that, right? So--

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Definitely.

CATHY WURZER: I'm looking here out my window in downtown Saint Paul, and the skies are still kind of milky, I wouldn't exactly call them bright blue. So, I'm going to assume this is still a wildfire smoke?

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Definitely. We got a lot of that across Minnesota, again, today. And these are coming from fires in Idaho and Montana, which is experiencing an above normal fire season, and that's forecast really for the month. So, unfortunately, I've got to tell folks, probably, get used to this for the next several weeks. Anytime our air is flowing from the west, which of course, happens quite frequently, we're probably going to have some smoke in one form or another.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah. Air quality, by the way, what does it look like for some of us?

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah. Now that's the change today. Yesterday, we were just seeing it more aloft, now it's starting to make its way into the lower atmosphere, and part of that is the warmer air moving in. You get these inversions, where it gets warmer as you go up, and that kind of traps some of that particulate matter in the lower atmosphere. So the way we measure these particles, we have a number, and you want it to be under 50, and it was yesterday, but now we're starting to see it creep up we're up to 51 in the Twin Cities, St. Cloud 53, Fargo-Moorhead up to 76, it was up to 100 at one point in the Red River Valley, which is getting into that really poor air quality range.

So most of us are going to be fine, but if you do have asthma or are particularly sensitive, you want to take special care and really pay attention to those air quality alerts here, over the next several days or weeks, as the skies get hazy.

CATHY WURZER: Oh my gosh, it must be just horrible being out west, where the fires are. And it's also so incredibly hot.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah, absolutely. And today, they're looking at particularly hazardous fire weather for fighting those fires too. They're talking about dry lightning, so they get thunderstorms to form, but it's too dry for the rain to reach the ground, so it doesn't do any good. But the lightning, of course, can start more fires, so that's something that firefighters are going to be battling today with in western Montana and Idaho, the source of those fires. So, fingers crossed, they can get some kind of control here over the next several days.

CATHY WURZER: I know you have friends in California, so do I, but boy, they just cannot believe some of those temperatures around San Francisco. Yikes.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah, 97 on Labor Day in San Francisco. And, if, anybody's familiar with that climate, that's really hot for them. 97 is one thing for us, but for them, that's particularly hot. The water temperatures off the coast, I just checked yesterday, 53 degrees. So that's like when Duluth hits 97. It's a particular feat, and of course, you get anywhere inland at all, and it's been triple digits.

Death Valley got within one degree of their hottest all time September record of 125. It was 124 for two days in a row, last week, Thursday, Friday. Fresno, today, is looking at Day 10 consecutive of triple digits, and the normal high is 96, but to get this is really quite remarkable. Much of California in the southwest, seeing temperatures 13 degrees above average so far for the last 7 to 10 days, which is a huge anomaly.

CATHY WURZER: And welcome to climate change.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah, absolutely. So, it's hard to pinpoint fires specifically, but we know that the fire season, those conditions to make fire seasons worse, definitely tied to climate change. We're getting more of these hotter, drier days, up to six weeks more of hotter, windy weather compared to historically for parts of the West and Southwest.

CATHY WURZER: So, that's on the West Coast, the East Coast is being inundated with rain.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah. They had 4 to 10 inches of rain in the Boston-Rhode Island areas, yesterday. And, of course, this isn't the first extreme rainfall event. Since late July, when it started really in Saint Louis and then Kentucky, Illinois, Texas, Mississippi, and now the Northeast, have had these just deluges of rainfall, and that too we can really tie to climate change. A warmer atmosphere just holds a lot more water content.

CATHY WURZER: Let's talk a little bit about our September and fall forecast, shall we?

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah, no shock, it's going to be warmer than normal. Probably, not a surprise to most people. Yeah, we're running these first seven days now of September, I can't believe that we're already a full weekend, 4 degrees above normal already, which is a huge amount. And basically every model we look at forecast a warmer than normal September and autumn. And this has been a climate trend.

Our summers are starting earlier, it's getting hotter quicker, so June is really warming, July and August is really kind of flat, when you look at it compared to historically, but then September also getting much warmer faster, so basically our summers are getting longer. Earlier start and a later end to them, you know what I fear, something like a moose, that's really stressful for you. So some of our species in northeastern Minnesota are really struggling and stressed out in this warming world.

CATHY WURZER: Well, our friend, Mark Seeley, says, of course, Minnesota is one of the fastest warming places in autumn.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Absolutely, yeah. Winter and fall were really a standout-- the upper Midwest, parts of the Northeast, and then also the Southwest. So, yeah. It's a real fast warming season, whereas as I mentioned, July and August, really very subtle.

CATHY WURZER: We have about a minute left, a minute and a half. So I'm kind of curious here, when do you think we're going to drop below 50 degrees in the Twin Cities?

SVEN SUNDGAARD: In the Twin Cities, yeah. A lot of folks did this over the last weekend. But here-- and of course, we're dealing with a little bit of the urban heat island-- but historically, that first night below 50 used to happen at the end of August. Now it's more like mid-September.

And then when you look at the tail end of it, it used to be mid-June was the last night in the 40s or colder, and now it's late May. So we've added 30 to 40 days of warm nights to the season, which you might not be complaining about. But that has an impact on ecosystems.

And you can basically extrapolate that across the state. Of course it's cooler as you get outside of the Twin Cities, but everybody seeing warmer nights. And of course, that's a big climate trend, too.

CATHY WURZER: All right. And before you go, the weather forecast.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah, mid-eighties today, pretty warm. It is humid out there, dew point's 68 right now. Tomorrow is going to be hot and humid. Maybe not quite 90, but close enough for September. It's going to feel like it. And then the heat breaks Friday.

We've got rain moving in and temperatures are going to drop, only 60s and low 70s Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Should see sunshine again early next week. And probably back in the 80s by the middle of next week. So we're talking about summer may not be done yet. There could be more.

CATHY WURZER: All right. Sven, thank you. We'll talk to you again tomorrow morning.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Absolutely. Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: That's our meteorologist, Sven Sungaard.

SPEAKER: Support comes from RBA Consulting, a provider of digital and IT services and the new home of Saturn Systems. Aligned to the needs of their clients, RBA is designed to deliver-- rbaconsulting.com.

CATHY WURZER: 12:40 here on Minnesota Now. You know that Minnesota is certainly the state of hockey. Where else can you find a high school hockey tournament considered one of the state's premier sporting events? Well, this weekend a new documentary film opens in theaters that celebrates the love many Minnesotans have for high school hockey.

Hockeyland focuses on two high school boys' hockey teams in Northeastern Minnesota, Eveleth Gilbert and Hermantown, which is near Duluth.

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Actually, I was kind of hoping to hear a little bit of the movie Hockeyland, but we'll move on. How does that sound? The documentary opens in theaters this Friday. And the Minnesota-born director, Tommy Haines, is on the line with us right now. Tommy, are you with us?

TOMMY HAINES: Yeah. Hey, how are you doing?

CATHY WURZER: Hey, I'm fine. Thank you so very much for being here. You are, I understand, Minnesota born. That's what I introduced you as. Where are you from?

TOMMY HAINES: Yeah, I grew up in a little town called Mountain Iron on the Iron Range back in the '80s.

CATHY WURZER: And so you played hockey, I'm assuming?

TOMMY HAINES: Oh, yeah. I played outdoor hockey growing up there, a little rink called South Grove's Outdoor Rink, same rink that Matt Niskanen grew up playing on. So yeah, I think every little town in Minnesota has a famous hockey player that's come from that area. And so Mountain Iron's claim to fame is Matt Niskanen. But yeah, grew up playing there starting at 5 and played until in my teenage years.

CATHY WURZER: So it makes sense to me then that you chose to follow Eveleth Gilbert, which has since merged with Virginia, forming this big consolidated district, and Hermantown. Now, you could have gone with another storied rivalry, Warroad, Roseau or Blake versus Breck. Why did you choose the Golden Bears and the Hawks?

TOMMY HAINES: Yeah, that was a tricky one. And we've been looking at this story for almost 10 years now. And so, yeah, Warroad, Roseau, Hill-Murray and White Bear Lake, Edina and Minnetonka-- there are so many great rivalries in the state.

But this is an area that, like I said, I was from. I knew the Iron Range well, and I kind of liked not just the grittiness up there, but also the beauty of the land. And so that was a big part of making this film. But we also heard that Eveleth was going to be merging with their rival school next door, Virginia.

And this is a very storied program in Minnesota, dating back to John Mariucci and John Mayasich. And so we knew this was kind of the last chance to actually film this Golden Bears team. So that's really what got this whole thing started.

CATHY WURZER: Your film reminds me of a couple of other high school sports films, Hoop Dreams and Hoosiers, really, to be honest, only it's about hockey. Why do you think Minnesota loves high school hockey so much?

TOMMY HAINES: Well, obviously the climate, right? You were just talking about the climate and how things are getting a little warmer. But hopefully it stays cold for a little while longer. But I think that's a big part of it, the 10,000 lakes that turn into rinks in the wintertime. I think that all feeds into that natural excitement for hockey.

But then we have so many great Olympians that come out of this state, so many great NHL players. So that all kind of feeds into this then cycular thing that becomes high school hockey. And it's a pretty amazing culture. Obviously, you talked about the state high school hockey tournament too, and it happens at the Xcel. It's just an amazing experience seeing like 17, 18,000 people packed in there watching high school hockey.

CATHY WURZER: You know, and I tell my friends that who live in other parts of the country. And they just can't get their heads wrapped around that at all. How would you describe hockey culture to someone who doesn't understand, has no concept?

TOMMY HAINES: Yeah. Well, especially in northern Minnesota, there's a little bit more grit. And these towns are small towns, especially in the Iron Range. These are mining towns that used to be very populated. And the mining jobs have become fewer and fewer, just because the technology has gotten so much better. And so these towns are shrinking.

But there's still such a strong passion for the game up there. And everyone comes out to the games. The parents and locals volunteer at the rinks and concession stands. And it's an amazing thing to walk into the Hippodrome in Eveleth and just see it packed on a Thursday, Friday night, and everyone from the towns coming to support their local teenage kids.

CATHY WURZER: You did a nice job focusing on several kids in this movie. And when you bring cameras into someone's life, you have to have a strong level of trust with them. You know that. How did you build that trust to show the good and the not so good?

TOMMY HAINES: Right. Well, that's the number one thing. We make observational documentaries, so we like to build that trust over normally the course of two to three years. And this happened to be-- we had to do this in a matter of weeks. And not only that, but it was teenage boys we were dealing with.

So we had to meet with the parents, have dinners with them and talk to them about what our intentions were-- that we weren't coming there to exploit these kids and try to catch them out partying and doing things that often 16, 17-year-old boys will do. But we also didn't want to make these kids into gladiators and superheroes.

We wanted a real life experience of what do they go through-- the pains and the successes and all that's in between that. And so we just talked to the parents about that. And they were amazing, both Hermantown and Eveleth Gilbert parents are so supportive of the film from pretty early on. But that trust was, like you said, that was key.

CATHY WURZER: It's really not all about the game. Yes, obviously, it's about hockey. But there were some really lovely, poignant moments. One of the players' mother's had cancer, is that right?

TOMMY HAINES: Yeah. Yeah. And that, for me as a filmmaker, is so hard to film. Because you actually just become good friends with these people. And to watch Indio Dowd, whose mom is sick, and then he also has some chronic back issues, just deal with the struggles that they're dealing with up there.

But then yet still remaining positive, and she still was working three jobs while supporting her family to play hockey. Like, it's pretty incredible. And so that's something we want to highlight, just this the amazing families that are part of this Minnesota hockey culture that we have. It's amazing.

CATHY WURZER: You did a nice job. There are going to be people who listen to this and say, well, wait a minute now, Tommy. You can't really talk about Hockeyland without including girls high school hockey. I mean, some of the best female hockey players in the country come from Minnesota. The Hermantown girls team made it to the State Championship, for goodness sakes. But they're kind of left out.

TOMMY HAINES: Yeah, I know. And maybe that's a sequel, maybe making a girls high school hockey one is a sequel. I mean, I happen to be a man. So it's a little trickier for me, logistically-wise to film girls hockey. But yeah, it's an up-and-coming sport and I think there's so much excitement surrounding it. But it's something that I would love to help make.

But this is more of a nostalgic thing for me. This is something that I grew up with. I knew boys hockey growing up and I really wanted to revisit that and see the changes that had happened over 30 years and some of the things that stayed the same. So that was kind of the intention for me.

CATHY WURZER: What specifically has changed dramatically over these years?

TOMMY HAINES: Well, I think the culture is still very, very similar. But you do see things, like technology-- cell phones and iPads and things like that have eked into the hockey culture. And just teenage minds in general, so we did see some of that. Also there's just a little bit more analytics and training that goes on more so than back in the '80s.

And there's junior programs, and kids often just play year round. And so that that's changed. Back in the '80s, it really was you play three or four sports a year. And when the seasons changed, you just changed sports. And so all that's changed. But I still think the passion and the care for these boys and the community's care for these boys, that's that still remains the same. And it's an amazing thing to see when you're out there witnessing it.

CATHY WURZER: And the dream is still to get to college and then to the NHL, right?

TOMMY HAINES: I think the dream still is that. And it's amazing in Minnesota, because most sports-- I grew up playing tennis in Rosemount-- so that wasn't the dream for tennis players or soccer players maybe in the state. But in hockey, that dream is-- it's not an easy one, but it's at least somewhat of a realistic one for some of the top players.

So yeah, it's a serious thing. And a lot of kids may don't even dream about playing in the NHL, but do dream about playing in the high school hockey tournaments. And some of the kids are lucky enough to reach that. It's amazing because you see the cyclical nature of it, too, like beyond the influencing the younger generations of players coming up through Hermantown.

And the same things happen in Eveleth and cities all over the state. Then these kids want to be those high school players once they get to high school. I was lucky to be able to get a quick glimpse into these locker rooms for a year. And again, can't be thankful enough for these teams' families and parents to let us into their lives.

CATHY WURZER: Great to see it in theaters, too. Congratulations on that.

TOMMY HAINES: Yeah! Well, this is our biggest release to date. We're in 63 theaters in Minnesota this Friday and then 135 and growing nationally. So I think the bigger we have for people coming out in Minnesota, the bigger this thing is going to reach out across the country. So really hoping that Minnesotans come out and support the film.

And we'll be hopping across from Edina, Rosemount, Hermantown, back up to the Iron Range and other places around the state. Ourselves, the cast, and filmmakers will be just popping into theaters and saying hi to audiences. So it should be a lot of fun.

CATHY WURZER: Great. Well, best of luck to you. Good job. Thanks so much for joining us.

TOMMY HAINES: Yeah. Hey, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

CATHY WURZER: Absolutely. Tommy Haines is the director of Hockeyland. This is a new documentary film that opens in theaters, as he mentioned, this Friday. It'll also be streaming on Amazon and Apple TV in October.

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Well, now. May 7th, 1963. Date sound familiar? The curtain rose on a new artistic venture in the Twin Cities-- the Guthrie Theater. The first production, Shakespeare's Hamlet, directed by the theater's first artistic director and founder, Tyrone Guthrie.

This season, the Guthrie Theater will celebrate its 60th anniversary. How has the theater and its performances changed with the times? Well, to talk about that is Joseph Haj, the artistic director at the Guthrie Theater. Well, it's always a pleasure. Welcome back.

JOSEPH HAJ: Thank you. It's so good to be with you, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: Well, the 2022-23 season is launching this weekend. I can't believe that. Tell me about the production.

JOSEPH HAJ: Well, we just closed our last season with Emma and Sweat closing us out. And in rehearsal, we have Vietgone, which is in tech. And as you say, we'll begin performances next weekend. And we also are beginning the second week of rehearsals for world premiere by Suzan-Lori Parks, a new play called Sally & Tom.

So it's a really, really exciting start for the season. You know, Suzan-Lori is the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with her play, Topdog/Underdog. So having a world premiere of her play in rehearsals, which is in association with the Public Theater in New York City, which birthed Hamilton-- we're really excited about that.

So it's just so fun to have these two really great plays in rehearsals right now. And Vietgone, I watched the designer run, Cathy, just a few days ago in the room. And it's just a blast. It's so smart. It's so fun. The music in it is brilliant. I think we're going to open with two shows that I think are going to thrill our audiences in the coming weeks.

CATHY WURZER: Is Vietgone-- is that the one by Qui Nguyen?

JOSEPH HAJ: Yes, by Qui Nguyen, exactly right.

CATHY WURZER: And tell me a little bit about it for folks who've not seen it or heard about it.

JOSEPH HAJ: So it's about two refugees from the Vietnam War who end up in a refugee camp in Arkansas, which sounds-- well, it is what it is. But as Qui points out, it's not a story about war. It's a story about falling in love. And there's this brilliant American adventure that these two refugees go on in order to find themselves across the play.

And there's multiple other characters, actors playing multiple roles, who are all the folks who intersect with our lead couple's lives through the play. And it's just so fun, so smart. And in the end, and finally just so moving, it's really beautiful. I'm just tremendously excited to share this with our community.

CATHY WURZER: Can you give us a peek behind the curtain, if you would, and give me an idea how you choose plays, how you choose productions for a season? You've already said the word "smart" has come up and "delightful." And I mean, what's the alchemy here?

JOSEPH HAJ: It's a great question. And the Guthrie, in a typical year-- these being still atypical times-- we sell almost 400,000 tickets annually. And there isn't a single community that wants to see a single play. It's made up of multiple communities.

So a good season at the Guthrie, in my view, is one that feels determinedly eclectic, where everybody can see something for themselves. If you want a comedy, it's there. If you want a murder mystery, that's there. If you want a musical, that's there. If you want a Shakespeare play, that's there. If you want a world premiere, there's two of them. If you want A Christmas Carol, come on by.

And so a very good season for me is one where various parts of our community can see themselves directly in, and also have areas where people go, well I'm interested in that, or I want to see that. Maybe that's a little bit outside my wheelhouse, but this could be great.

And so I would say especially for our season subscribers, when people are coming multiple times across the season, ensuring that there's variety in that journey is really important to us. So in any given season, there will be a mix of classical plays and contemporary plays; in most seasons, a musical; in many seasons, a Shakespeare play. So we really try to cast a very wide net.

CATHY WURZER: And I know you want to break new ground, but you need to keep the lights on, right? So you've got these contradictory goals in a sense, the creative and the commercial. And they play out when you select the productions you're going to be featuring.

JOSEPH HAJ: This is true. But I must tell you, we don't have conversations that's about, this play is to keep the lights on, and this play because it's--

CATHY WURZER: I know, it's a bit crass on my part. Sorry about that.

JOSEPH HAJ: No, no. No, not in the least. Really, no. Not in the least. I think of it this way. I think there are two very good uses of the theater. One is a theater that implores us to see, to look at some of the hard things that we might be facing as individuals, as a family, as a community, as a society. And that and that it encourages us to look at and square to some of those themes.

Another very good use of the theater is allowing people a couple of hours of something that frees them from the troubled times that we live in and is entertaining in the extreme, and isn't necessarily provocative or challenging in particular ways.

And again, for me, a good season is one-- if it was only entertainment, this would feel like a season of confection, and that wouldn't feel good to me. If it's all bone-hard material, that also wouldn't feel good to me. So we were, again, working hard to find that balance-- some things that satisfy in an uncomplicated way and some things that are asking a bit more from audiences in ways that we know that our audiences also enjoy.

CATHY WURZER: I see that you have Hamlet. I'm glad to see that. The first ever play staged at the Guthrie, as I mentioned in the intro, in '63 was Hamlet. So I'm going to assume this was intentional, to include Hamlet in this season.

JOSEPH HAJ: Yes. Well, it's not only in our 60th anniversary season. It will be playing on the date of our 60th anniversary in May. And I'll be directing that production. I directed it once before in Washington, DC some years ago. It's one of those plays. It contains such multitudes that one can return to it again and again and seek new insights into it.

And I couldn't be-- I couldn't be more thrilled. And I think of the Guthrie's eight artistic directors over the course of 60 years, more than half of us have directed a Hamlet. I think it's an artistic director's rite of passage at the Guthrie to make a Hamlet, so I'm actually really excited for it.

CATHY WURZER: And what else are you going to be doing to celebrate 60 years?

JOSEPH HAJ: So I think what the central focus was-- the season we just finished, which we were enormously proud of, was a much-reduced season, in that it was kind of paving us back to full strength. And so the Guthrie staff, the board, we felt we have got-- for our 60th year, we can't be doing tiny little plays in a smaller season. We have to come back and look like ourselves.

And so the robustness of the season-- it's a big season, with 10 amazing plays, all of them at scale. I think it's a big, ambitious, energetic season which allows us to reflect on a 60 year legacy and, as importantly, chart the path forward. So we're just excited by the ambition that's in that season.

We have the world premiere of Sally & Tom, as I mentioned. We have a world premiere by Karen Zacarías, a co-commissioned co-production with Cincinnati Playhouse of the Western novel, Shane, where she's exploding some of the Western myths even while honoring the shape and architecture of that story, which we're really excited about.

Bringing Sarna Lapine in to direct Into The Woods-- with Stephen Sondheim's passing last year, we just felt to do one of his major, major works seemed important to us. So just a big, ambitious ride, yeah.

CATHY WURZER: I'm so happy to hear that. And always great talking to you, Joseph Haj. Thank you.

JOSEPH HAJ: Thank you, friend. It's great to talk to you.

CATHY WURZER: Likewise. Joseph Haj is Artistic Director of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. For more, go to guthrietheater.org and check out the great productions. Thank you, by the way, for listening to Minnesota Now, here on NPR news. It is 82 degrees, sunny skies here at NPR News, 91.1 KNOW, Minneapolis-Saint Paul.

By the way, support for Minnesota Now comes from True Stone Financial Credit Union, dedicated to giving back to the community since 1939. Full service banking is available at 23 locations and online at truestone.org. True Stone is an equal housing opportunity lender, insured by NCUA.

Yeah, I know. It's a little bit sticky out there. It's going to be close today. We may tack on a few more degrees here, top out in the mid-sixties-- mid 80s, for goodness sakes-- 85, 86 degrees. Partly cloudy skies overnight, a low of 68. Hotter tomorrow, 88.

Some of us could see 90 degrees and humid tomorrow. At least there will be a breeze tomorrow. And then the front pushes through, storms pop up after midnight. Friday it'll be cooler with showers likely. It's 1:00.