Minnesota Now November 28 2022

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CATHY WURZER: It's Minnesota Now. I'm Cathy Wurzer. The Minneapolis City Council is preparing to vote on a new community oversight process, but the new plan is already receiving push back. Will it have any teeth? We'll find out. And we'll talk to a famous singer no one really knows. I'll give you a hint. He sings for The Wild.

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Conservative talk radio has been growing in Minnesota and across the country for decades. It had a big influence on the 2022 election here in Minnesota, and across the country. We'll dig into the story behind that growing network of conservative talk radio stations. Plus, we'll talk cabin recipes with a author of the True North Cabin Cookbook. How can you get that summer cabin taste on your winter table? We're going to ask that. Plus, all the news and the song of the day coming up right here.

Jurors hearing a case against the founder of the far right Oath Keepers group are asking about the central charge in the trial. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports the jury is mulling the issue of seditious conspiracy.

CARRIE JOHNSON: Prosecutors say Stewart Rhodes and four others conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election by using force. Rhodes didn't enter the Capitol building on January 6, but three other defendants did. Defense lawyers have asked the jury to look past what they call bombastic political rhetoric and to focus on the lack of a written plan to storm the US Capitol.

The Justice Department says all that tough talk is evidence of a conspiracy. Jurors are sifting through testimony from 50 witnesses. Over more than seven weeks of evidence in the case. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

CATHY WURZER: Days after six people were killed by a mass shooter at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia residents are preparing to mourn the victims in a vigil hosted by the city tonight. As NPR's Sarah McCammon reports, all of the victims and the shooter were Walmart employees.

SARAH MCCAMMON: The Walmart supercenter in coastal Virginia was still open late last Tuesday with about 50 people inside when a 31-year-old team lead shot and killed six co-workers before turning the gun on himself. Over the weekend, city officials announced the FBI and Chesapeake police had completed their crime scene investigation and turned the store back over to Walmart.

In a statement, Walmart said it would continue to focus on offering support to employees and, quote, rely on their input to determine the best time to reopen the store. A vigil is scheduled for this evening at Chesapeake city Park. Sarah McCammon, NPR News, Norfolk.

CATHY WURZER: After days of rare protests in China over lockdown COVID restrictions, authorities are now easing some of the anti-virus rules. But Beijing is still committed to the zero-COVID strategy. It's not clear what will ease. NPR'S Emily Feng reports cases are still rising in the country.

EMILY FENG: There's the question of zero-COVID policy, which is how these protests started in the beginning. Cases are still going up in China. And if the state wants to claw those numbers back down to zero they have to impose a total lockdown now. But we have these protests which show people are sick and tired of these lock downs, and they're probably not going to obey them anymore. So whether China can ever get back to zero COVID is now up in the air.

CATHY WURZER: NPR's Emily Feng. Demonstrations have taken place around the country four days after 10 people died in an apartment fire last week that protesters blame on the lock downs. It's Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day in the US, and analysts are expecting it to be a good one for retailers. Adobe Analytics, which tracks online retail sales, is predicting consumers will spend a record $11.2 billion this year. If so, that would be up 8.5% from last year. Wall Street is trading lower at this hour. This is NPR.

CREW: Support for NPR comes from Subaru, whose share the love events runs through January 3. By year's end, Subaru and their retailers will have donated over $250 million to charity. Learn more at subaru.com/share.

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CATHY WURZER: Around Minnesota right now, skies are partly to mostly cloudy. There's a chance of snow late this morning and in the afternoon across northern Minnesota. Highs, lower 30s in the North, mid-forties and the South. At noon in Worthington, it's sunny and 36. It's 34 in the Twin Cities. And outside WineDown in Baxter Minnesota, it's snowing and 31.

I'm Cathy Wurzer with Minnesota news headlines. Significant snow is heading for the region tomorrow stretching from Nebraska, to Minnesota, to Michigan's UP. NPR meteorologist Sven Sundgaard says today will be relatively quiet with some light snow along the Canadian border. But then he says, a more substantial swath of snow will move in tomorrow from southwestern Minnesota through Mankato and the Twin Cities, mostly South of Saint Cloud and North of Rochester.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: I would plan on Tuesday not being a fun driving day. That snow will start probably just a couple of hours before the morning commute. Really get going. Some of the heaviest of it will be during the middle of the day Tuesday. So those roads will be messy for Tuesday evening too.

CATHY WURZER: Sven says the storm could drop as much as six inches of snow in parts of Minnesota, and even more in northern Wisconsin. It should taper off by tomorrow night, but colder temperatures and high winds will follow the snow Wednesday.

A Democratic National Committee panel is meeting later this week to weigh bids to shift the early presidential nomination focus away from Iowa. And Minnesota's contending for a first in the nation spot. Tim Nelson has more.

TIM NELSON: The party has been considering a change in how it selects delegates to its National Convention, a key step in presidential nominations. For 50 years the Iowa caucuses have launched that process, but party leaders have been weighing whether another more diverse state should take the lead.

Minnesota DFL leaders in June offered their bid to move earlier in the. Process Minnesota revived its March presidential primary in 2020, hoping to play a larger role in nominations. A further change could be initially approved by National Democrats this week with a final decision early next year.

But Minnesota law currently requires both parties to agree on a presidential primary date. State Republican leaders have been noncommittal about a possible change. And the National GOP chair says her party's calendar is set. I'm Tim Nelson.

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CATHY WURZER: The Minneapolis City Council is preparing to vote next week on a plan to replace Minneapolis's long criticized police civilian review process with a new Community Commission on Police Oversight. The proposed Community Commission on Police Oversight would be responsible for the civilian roles in reviewing misconduct investigations.

But multiple parties, including local activists and past leaders of the Civilian Review Process, say the proposal falls short. This afternoon, the group, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Ja'Marr, will protest the proposal, claiming it would remove power the proposed board would have to enact any police discipline or policy changes. To get to the bottom of what this proposal is all about we're joined by Rachel Moran. She's a professor at St. Thomas School of Law and an expert on police accountability and oversight boards. Professor, welcome back.

Let's begin with a little history. I think that's probably appropriate. Civilian Oversight of Police has had what? I don't know. A 30 year history in Minneapolis with varying degrees of success and in different iterations. Tell me more about what the current oversight process looks like.

RACHEL MORAN: Well, it's messy. Currently, you've got three kind of separate agencies that are involved in some ways in civilian oversight. The most important one is the Civil Rights Office of Police Conduct Review, which is a lengthy name in itself. But what they do is partner with the Minneapolis Police Internal Affairs to investigate allegations of police misconduct.

And then we also have a group called the Police Conduct Review Panel that is a mix of civilians and sworn police officers who review claims about completed investigations of police misconduct.

CATHY WURZER: This process has been long criticized. In fact, the State Department of Human rights issued the report last spring saying that the city's police officers were not held accountable because of-- I think the quote was ineffective accountability and oversight systems. Why has the civilian review boards, commissions, agencies had such a fraught history in Minneapolis? Any theories?

RACHEL MORAN: There's really very little that is independent of the police department. And that's what the Department of Human Rights was criticizing as well. They are saying, yes, we have a couple agencies that get civilians involved in the review process, but at every step of the way there are police officers. And the final decision about any discipline is always up to the police chief. And so civilians have a kind of a tangential role, but they have no independent authority at all.

CATHY WURZER: Now, this new board would be different in what way?

RACHEL MORAN: Well, I think that's one of the questions is, how different would it really be? I'll give you two examples of ways it would be different. One is it consolidates three separate agencies into one. So it takes away the Police Review Panel. It takes away what was called The Police Conduct oversight Commission. And it takes a little bit of the power out of the Civil Rights group. And it instead creates one community commission on police oversight.

Now, would their actions really be very different? Not necessarily. But it does consolidate. The other thing that I think is important is it does give the city council members a little bit more involvement in the police oversight process. And that's because one distinctively different aspect of this proposal is that it would allow 13 civilian members to be appointed by the city council.

CATHY WURZER: OK. So they'll be appointed rather than elected, right? Which would remove the opportunity for the community to have a choice though in who represents their interests on the Commission. Is that right? Am I reading that right?

RACHEL MORAN: Well, you're definitely right that it's appointed rather than elected. You're definitely right that that's a complaint we're already hearing. Now, I can't say how city council would go about appointing these people. My hope would be that they would get more involved in soliciting input and relying on input from community members. But some members may some-- I do think that's a fair criticism.

CATHY WURZER: So from what-- as you read this now, which, by the way, came out I believe-- what? Early in November-- mid-November or so, the parameters for this new Commission. Do you think looking at it, it has more teeth than past iterations?

RACHEL MORAN: I do not think it has much teeth. But I do want to be really clear on one issue that a lot of people are complaining about, that the new Community Commission would still have no ultimate authority to impose discipline or even to make findings about whether officers have committed misconduct. That's what renders it somewhat toothless. But that is actually not a choice of anyone in Minneapolis. That's because state law specifically prevents any civilian bodies from having that kind of authority in Minnesota.

So I just want to be clear about that because there's a lot of criticism aimed at the city for proposing this. Some of that's very fair criticism. But one thing the city can't do, its hands are tied because of state law, is have a civilian oversight commission that actually has authority to impose discipline. State law doesn't let them do that.

CATHY WURZER: As a matter of fact, thanks for reminding us. I believe that occurred during the Dayton administration. That particular law was passed during the Dayton administration. Well, based on what you know about the Minneapolis City Council, do you think this proposal will pass?

RACHEL MORAN: I think there's a decent likelihood it will. There are city council who don't necessarily have a lot of interest in creating change. And for them, this proposal, it's not that different. And so there's probably some appeal there.

But even for the members of the city council that have been a lot more outspoken about wanting to create changes, what could be appealing to them about this proposal is it does give them authority to appoint commissioners at least, which previously they weren't really involved in that process. And so it gives the council a little bit more power. Or at least, even if you don't want to call it power, at least more involvement in selecting people who will be involved in the police oversight process.

CATHY WURZER: All right. Interesting. I appreciate your time. Thank you, Professor.

RACHEL MORAN: Sure.

CATHY WURZER: That's Rachel Moran. She's a professor at St. Thomas School of Law. She's an expert on police accountability and oversight boards. By the way, Minneapolis residents are invited to join city of Minneapolis staff and officials during three public forums to hear about proposed changes to this community role in the city's police oversight structure. That's this coming Wednesday.

The City Council's Public Health and Safety Committee is scheduled to hold a public forum on the proposed changes virtually today at 6:00 PM. You can find connections and information for that forum at MinneapolisMN.gov.

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This is the song "Pink House" by Minneapolis jazz quartet Mancrush And it's today's Minnesota Music Minute. The group is led by drummer Lars Eric Larson. And this song comes from the album "Authentic Midwestern". It melds the influences of folk and rock music with 21st century jazz improvisations. Take a listen.

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It's 12:16 here on Minnesota Now from NPR News. I'm Cathy Wurzer. Thanks for being with us. If you're one of those lucky Minnesotans who has a cabin somewhere on a lake in the woods, you know THE Joy of getting away.

Now, late November is not exactly prime camping season. We know that. But Stephanie Hansen has some recipes that'll make your taste nostalgic for lakeside lunches and get togethers under the stars.

Twin Cities radio listeners know Stephanie is the co-host of The Weekly Dish on fm100. She also makes weekly appearances on Fox 9's national program The Jason show. She's a food writer with a new book, The True North Cabin cookbook. I am so excited that you're with me, Stephanie. How are you?

STEPHANIE HANSEN: I'm good. And I'm so excited to be with you too. Jason said to say hi, by the way. We just did a segment this morning.

CATHY WURZER: Thank you. Right back at him. Say, let's talk a little bit about this book, obviously. But I want to know, do you actually have a cabin up North? I'm assuming you do.

STEPHANIE HANSEN: I do. I have a cabin up North in Ely, Minnesota on Burnside Lake, which is right outside of the Boundary Waters. And it's on an island. So it's kind of a unique setup because we're the only people on the island. And I would get questions from people all the time about what that feels like, or how do you get there.

And so during the pandemic I was there a lot with my 91-year-old mother-in-law. We started talking about family recipes and things that we wanted to document about our experience there, and cooking it and writing it down.

CATHY WURZER: I love that. It's always great to get those stories and recipes from your elders. I bet you learned a lot.

STEPHANIE HANSEN: I did. And my mom died when I was 42. Pretty young. She was in her early 60s. So we didn't have any of her recipes written down. Turns out a lot of them came from Betty Crocker cookbooks, which was fine. I figured that out later.

But my great grandma has a bunch of recipes, my grandma, and my mother-in-law. So we wanted to capture all those things that we cooked at the cabin year after year, Janice's potato salad, Kurt's ribs. And we did that. We captured it all and put it in this book.

CATHY WURZER: Now, is this your first cookbook? I think it is, isn't it?

STEPHANIE HANSEN: It is. It's my first cookbook. And 170 recipes in. I actually started with like 190, and we cut it down to 170.

I just-- I really was like, oh, I don't know if I can write a cookbook. But I did. It took me a year. I wrote it. I shot all the pictures for it. I wrote the stories for it. Because I wanted each recipe to have a little bit of a place and a story so people understood why I put it in the book. But it was a fun process, but it was hard.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah. Writing a book is very hard. I love the fact that the cookbook kind of follows the cabin season, May through September. So what recipe kicks off cabin season for you in May?

STEPHANIE HANSEN: Well, of course, up in Ely, it's cold still. So the ice will go out usually about May 18. And we're literally still wearing winter coats going over to the island, and getting it open, and getting our food stores all situated for the summer season. So we eat a lot of soup when we're up there in the early months.

We also do roasts, some things in the oven to kind of keep the cabin warm. The May through September seasons of the book, May and September up there are cold. So I kind of felt like it was cooking for winter even though it's still summer cabin season.

CATHY WURZER: I see you have your beef bourguignon recipe.

STEPHANIE HANSEN: Yes.

CATHY WURZER: Was that one--

STEPHANIE HANSEN: That was--

CATHY WURZER: I cannot do that. That is so hard.

STEPHANIE HANSEN: It is not hard. You just need to take your time. You brown the meat, and the flour, and some seasoning. And then you add a little bit of stock to it. And then when you're all done and you've got kind of this rich gravy and the meat has been cooking in the oven for a couple of hours, you add some mushrooms, some carrots, some onions. That was one of the first fancy recipes I ever made.

CATHY WURZER: Wow. You're more-- you're more and more brave than I would ever be. I'm glad, by the way-- seriously. I'm glad you had a fish spread. Because I'm from the North Shore, or at least I have family ties in the North Shore, and there is a place that makes a fantastic salmon spread. You have a smoked whitefish spread that looks fantastic.

CATHY WURZER: I do. My daughter-- or not my daughter. My niece, Sadie, went to college at UMD. And before she went to college she wasn't a very adventurous eater. And I vividly remember having her at the cabin, and I was making this smoked trout dip.

And she said, oh, what are you making? And I said, oh, you won't like it. It's got smoked fish. And she said, well, no, now I like smoked fish. She said, I went to the Pickwick in Duluth and they had this great dip. And so we kind of laughed and bonded over the fact that her horizons of eating got a little more adventurous after being up at UMD.

I think smoked fish is just so Northern Minnesota. I don't know how you could get away with not eating smoked fish in Minnesota.

CATHY WURZER: Exactly. What's one of the most memorable meals you've ever eaten?

STEPHANIE HANSEN: Oh, I can tell you the most memorable meal I've actually ever eaten was with Chef José Anders at the Cayman Island cookout with Anthony Bourdain. And the chef made paella on the beach.

I happened to be at this exclusive resort. It was a media opportunity. And it was before these cookouts became really popular. So there was like 200 people there. And Chef had the big paella pan right on the beach, and Anthony Bourdain was smoking a cigar and sharing stories. It was a pretty incredible experience.

CATHY WURZER: But nothing like having your potato dumplings, I bet. And I say that, again, going back to the cookbook with the family recipes and the stories that go with them. There's got to be a story behind those potato dumplings.

STEPHANIE HANSEN: Yes, actually, there is. My grandma made these plum dumplings. It was my husband's mother's mother made plum dumplings. And you only make them in August because the Italian plums are in season then.

And I always thought I would learn how to make them, but they're really hard. You have to roll them in sugar, and make the special dough, and then you boil them. And that was too much for me.

So my mother-in-law said, well, just make potato dumplings. You just have leftover mashed potatoes, and you make that into a dough. And you just roll it into a rope and rusticly cut them into little chunks. So you can do that and put them in the pot roast with the pork roast and some broth. And then the actual potato dumplings cook in the broth.

It's kind of how all of our grandmas used to do dumplings. So that's my cheater way of getting by not having to do the Italian plum dumplings. Because they were too hard.

CATHY WURZER: Love that. OK. Now, you have an event tomorrow for folks at the Lex, the Lexington, the famed St. Paul bar and restaurant. What are you going to be doing there?

STEPHANIE HANSEN: They're so great. I've been doing these Makers in Minnesota dinners with them where we feature makers. And the chef said to me, hey, how about we feature your cookbook and I'll cook recipes from the book?

So we met and picked out recipes that he wanted to give the Lexington experience to. He'll make them a little chefier. I know he told me that he's going to do the split pea soup in a shooter as an appetizer, which is fun. He's going to make the pork roast with the potato dumplings we talked about.

And then I have a sage gimlet that's a little bit different because it's made with aquavit. And there's a local maker, Gamle Ode, that is made by Parallel 45th that's actually in Wisconsin, and they have a dill aquavit that is infused with sage and then lemon juice and simple syrup. And it just makes a heavenly cocktail. So they'll have that at the Lex too.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, my gosh. You're full service, the food and the drink. I love that.

STEPHANIE HANSEN: Oh, yes.

CATHY WURZER: I love that.

STEPHANIE HANSEN: There are drink recipes in the book. I'm crazy about rhubarb. So every season I make a rhubarb shrub and a rhubarb syrup. And then all season long when people come and visit I make little special holiday signature drinks with that for Memorial Day, and around July 4 I'll make something.

CATHY WURZER: Well, I'm a huge fan of rhubarb. So I'll be over at your place. We'll be drinking together. That'll be fun.

STEPHANIE HANSEN: Cathy, the rhubarb skillet cake in the book is real easy. And it's just a rhubarb cake that you make in a cast Iron skillet.

CATHY WURZER: Well, the fact that I cannot cook would make a show on its own. Just because it's just for the entertainment value. I'm telling you. So this has been fun talking to you.

STEPHANIE HANSEN: Appreciate good cooking, yeah.

CATHY WURZER: Yes. I appreciate those who can cook well, and you're among them. So thank you so much. And best of luck tomorrow.

STEPHANIE HANSEN: Thanks, Cathy. I appreciate it.

CATHY WURZER: Absolutely. Stephanie Hansen, co-host the Twin Cities radio program, Weekly Dish, on FM 107 hosts the podcast Makers of Minnesota. She's the author of the True North Cabin Cookbook. You can find out more about Stephanie's cookbook and tomorrow's event at the Lexington on her website, stephaniesdish.com.

CREW: Support comes from MNsure. You can shop and compare health insurance plans to find the right plan for you. In person assistance is available, and most people qualify for financial help. MNsure.org, or call 1-855-3-MNsure.

CATHY WURZER: Temperatures generally in the 30s at this hour. One of the warmer spots appears to be Appleton, where it's 39 degrees. It's 40 in Worthington. Highs around the region today, lower 30s in the North, mid-forties in the South ahead of this winter storm that we'll hear more about, of course. John Wanamaker is with us right now at 12:25 with a look at the news. John.

JOHN WANAMAKER: Cathy, Russian strikes in Ukraine have cut off power to many hospitals. Scheduled operations are being postponed. Patient records are unavailable because of internet outages. And paramedics have had to use flashlights to examine patients.

The World Health Organization said last week that Ukraine's health system is facing, quote, its darkest days in the war so far. That's amid the growing energy crisis and the onset of cold winter weather.

The White gunman who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket has pleaded guilty to murder and hate motivated terrorism charges. Payton Gendron's plea means he'll spend his life in prison without parole. The 19-year-old modified a legally purchased semiautomatic rifle into an assault weapon before targeting the Tops Friendly Market in May. Gendron previously pleaded not guilty to separate federal hate crime charges that could carry the death penalty.

And barely a month after granting himself a third five year term as China's leader, Xi Jinping is facing a wave of public anger over his zero-COVID policy. Demonstrators poured into the streets over the weekend in cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, in protest unprecedented since the 1989 student led pro-democracy movement centered on Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Most protesters focus their anger on restrictions that confined families to their homes for months and have been criticized as neither scientific or effective. But some also shouted for XI and the Communist Party that has ruled China for 73 years to give up power.

For the first time in nearly four decades, Hawaii's Mauna Loa has started to erupt, prompting volcanic ash and debris to fall nearby. The US Geological Survey says the world's largest active volcano began erupting late Sunday night on the big island. Earlier today, it said lava flows were contained within the summit area and were not threatening nearby communities. However, nearby residents should review their eruption preparation. That according to officials. Scientists have been on alert because of a recent spike in earthquakes at the summit of the volcano, which erupted last in 1984.

On Wall Street, all major indexes down around 1% this is NPR News.

CATHY WURZER: Thank you, John. More than half of all Americans found an election denier on their ballot during the primary election. The influence of politicians who believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump is not going away. At least 170 of those candidates were elected this month. And many of them gained popularity on ultra conservative talk radio.

Minneapolis based independent journalist Katie Thornton just came out with a new five part series on WNYC's show, On The Media, about how the American right came to dominate talk radio and how one company is launching a conservative media empire on the airwaves. And Katie is on the line right now to talk about it. Welcome back to the program.

KATIE THORNTON: Thanks so much, Cathy. Nice to be here.

CATHY WURZER: I started working in talk radio at about the time it started to take a turn to the right with Rush Limbaugh. Was Rush the kingpin? Or were there others who lit the fuse?

KATIE THORNTON: Yeah. Such a great question. So often the story that we hear told is that Rush Limbaugh was sort of the catalyst for a lot of the talk radio that we hear today. And there's definitely an ounce of truth to that. But what we found out in this series is that the history runs much, much deeper. It starts far earlier than Rush Limbaugh.

And a lot of folks said that when Rush Limbaugh passed away that his listeners would perhaps go to different podcasts or different websites, find their-- that type of brash very conservative leaning content elsewhere on different media platforms. But a lot of that content is still circulating on the public airwaves.

CATHY WURZER: And who's behind it now? Rush had his own empire, but there are other companies that are also involved.

KATIE THORNTON: Yeah, absolutely. So it's a far reaching and multifaceted industry. In the series in particular, we end up looking at one company called Salem Media Group, in particular. We call them, perhaps the most influential media company you've never heard of.

They are a multimedia company, but their bread and butter is really the sort of AM and FM radio stations. They have four stations in Minneapolis. I can pick up four Salem stations from my home in Minneapolis. There are cities in the US that have five Salem stations. A lot of cities have two Salem stations.

They're just one company, but they are highly influential. A lot of their program hosts are very far right, often pushing right wing conspiracy theories on the airwaves. And not only do they own over 100 stations across the country, they also syndicate their programs to over 3,000 stations across the country. So whether you're in a large major city or you're in a small town, you can likely hear a Salem host on the airwaves.

CATHY WURZER: And you mentioned that Salem has a lot of AM radio stations. Can you-- for listeners who don't understand our business, a lot of this started on AM radio stations as those stations became-- they were bought up by a lot of these companies. Can you talk about the role of AM radio station specifically in this mix?

KATIE THORNTON: Yeah. Sure. In the series we do a couple of episodes that take a deep dive into the history of the talk radio industry, which it's really just endlessly fascinating and sets us up to understand the present in a much more robust way. But one of the things that happened in the 1970s was that the FM band opened up. The FM band is, compared to AM, crystal clear sonically. And so a lot of the music stations went over to the AM band.

And that sort of had left the-- went over to the FM band, I'm sorry. And that sort of left the AM band struggling to find what set them apart. And in the 1970s and into the 1980s they really landed on talk radio. In the 1980s was sort of the era of the shock jock, and it became popular pretty quickly for talk radio host to bring some of the brash shock jock energy to political talk shows.

And that was really when you saw the surge in highly politicized, somewhat abrasive talk radio. Really took off in the 1980s. Some of the things we detail in the series are these deregulatory measures that happened over the course of the 1980s, and especially into the 1990s, that deregulated the industry both economically and in terms of content, which led to a lot of consolidation, which ended up having a-- pushing the radio dial very far toward the right.

CATHY WURZER: Good history lesson there, by the way. So we are now in this situation where we have had January 6. And there are, as you say, still very strong, ultra conservative talk shows out there. I'm curious, how do these stations maybe affect January 6 and fueled so-called election deniers?

KATIE THORNTON: Absolutely. One of the things I think we really need to understand is that talk radio and radio in general still has an incredibly large influence in the country. I think rumors of radio's death have been very overblown for many, many, many years. And talk radio still has a-- or, I'm sorry, radio still has a higher reach than television. Radio is nearly neck and neck with social media for how Americans choose to get their news.

And talk radio, and especially some of these Salem stations that host who we look into, were really among the loudest voices who were pushing the ideas of the stolen election after 2020. Even before the 2020 election they were sort of parroting the idea that Donald Trump was saying, that if the election wasn't won by him, it would have-- had to have been stolen.

And in the immediate aftermath of the election, talk radio was a place where lies about the stolen election really, really took hold. A lot of the talk radio shows that you listen to, if you can find them in the archives or if you record them, in the interim period between the election and January 6 we're promoting a lot of the same sort of falsehoods about how Trump could secure a second term that a lot of people were then calling for on the steps of the Capitol on January 6.

CATHY WURZER: So you did, obviously, a lot of research for this series. And it's terrific. What surprised you the most during your reporting?

KATIE THORNTON: Yeah, it's such a good question because I am a huge fan of radio. I started doing this project because I love the medium. And I wanted to have a greater understanding of how it came to be that one side of the political spectrum came to have such a grasp on talk radio.

I've worked on and off in radio since I was quite young, since I was a teenager, working behind the scenes, doing reporting as well. And even I was still surprised at just how much influence radio still has in the American public and on American politics.

The reach is just extraordinary. A lot of people still rely on it. And I would also add that the other thing that surprised me is just how sort of organized, and strategic, and frankly, well connected some of these radio companies, including Salem, are to leaders in the Right Wing movements and also in the Republican Party. And also that their reach is not just limited to radio. Although radio is very, very influential, the company Salem is a multimedia company, they own some of the largest conservative news sites, like Hot Air, and Red State, and Town Hall.

They also have an influencer network. They have a production house and a streaming service. They have daily podcasts. They have a sermon-- they have a service that sells sermons to pastors. So they really are far reaching.

And somebody may be listening to a Salem radio station, and then getting their online news from a Salem website, perhaps hearing a sermon shared by a pastor that was sold through a Salem service, and never know that these are all coming from the same company.

CATHY WURZER: Do you have advice for listeners to be a smart consumer of this information? What would you recommend for them?

KATIE THORNTON: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think building on the last point, it's not always clear just how consolidated the media industry is. So I think it's possible to have what one may perceive as a somewhat balanced media diet without it being glaringly obvious that a lot of that material might be coming from the same company or the same very small group of people. So ensuring that you have a diversity of perspectives within the media that you're consuming.

Radio is the most trusted medium. It very frequently ranks as the most trusted medium among Americans. And I think that there is a lot of potential to that because radio also has a lot of incredible content too.

This takes a deep dive into the Right Wing conspiracy radio networks and far right radio networks, but there's a lot of potential to reach people where they're at and to get a variety of voices on the air using radio too.

CATHY WURZER: And that's why I love radio. Thank you so much, Katie Thornton. I appreciate it. Good work, by the way.

KATIE THORNTON: Thank you very much. It's great to talk with you.

CATHY WURZER: Likewise. Katie Thornton is a Minneapolis based independent journalist and a historian.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

It is time for some music. Time for our song of the day, expertly picked by Minnesota based DJs. Today we're going to get our song from Pat Brickson in Thief River Falls. Now, every week he hosts a show called Mixtape on KSRQ, that's a radio station based at Northland Community and Technical College. Pat chooses a theme, he compiles the songs, and makes some music magic.

PAT BRICKSON: Thank you, Cathy. Marking the arrival of winter temps in Minnesota, today's song is from the Great Ella Fitzgerald, with "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm".

[MUSIC - ELLA FITZGERALD - "I'VE GOT MY LOVE TO KEEP ME WARM"]

CATHY WURZER: Pat Prickson, very nice selection. Pat is the host of Mixtape on KSRQ radio and Thief River Falls.

CREW: Programming is supported by Bremer bank, with bankers who know that in business relationships matter more than ever and understanding is everything. More at Bremer.com

CATHY WURZER: Many people know the University of Minnesota's Bell Museum for its dioramas and the big woolly mammoth in its main exhibition hall, but it's also home to a giant herbarium, a collection of nearly a million plant specimens from all over the world. Canadian researchers are taking a fresh look at hundreds of those specimens collected by a peripatetic, boot clomping, chain smoking librarian who grew up near Duluth and blazed a trail across the Arctic starting before World War II. Tim Nelson has this remembrance.

TIM NELSON: Margaret Oldenburg was a child of privilege. Born in 1892, she was the daughter of Henry Oldenburg, a lawyer for the Weyerhaeuser lumber empire. She grew up in a sprawling yellow brick mansion on the outskirts of Carlton, Minnesota.

Her backyard was Jay Cook State Park, which her dad helped create. The park's Oldenburg Point, of the most stunning vistas in Minnesota, was named in his honor in 1930. But Margaret has earned a legacy of her own.

TIM WHITFIELD: Margaret Oldenburg, who was an early pioneer in a way, she was one of the first collectors who focused her attention on the Arctic flora of Canada.

TIM NELSON: That's Tim Whitfield, collections manager for the Bell Museum Herbarium, just part of the museum's vast collection, dating as far back as the 1830s. Oldenburg wasn't formally a researcher at the U. She worked, apparently, as an unpaid volunteer for the U's Botany Department.

TIM WHITFIELD: She was a librarian. So maybe in her nature she was a cataloguer and collector of things. And she was an enthusiastic amateur botanist as well, self-taught.

TIM NELSON: Oldenburg didn't start that way. After graduating from Carlton high school, Oldenburg got her first bachelor's degree from Vassar College in German and physics in 1915. She got a teaching degree from the University of Minnesota in 1921. And taught science in Coleraine, Jordan, Northfield, Hibbing, and Chisholm.

Her papers included snapshots from canoe trips with her father in the Boundary Waters, as well as journeys around the world. In 1929, she got her third bachelor's degree, again, from the U. And went to work for the next 10 years at Walter Library on the Minneapolis campus as a cataloguer. Then things got interesting.

In 1939, Oldenburg read Vagabond Voyaging, a book about travel by freighter. Weeks later she quit her job at the U, squeezed onto the Hudson Bay Company icebreaker Nascopie, got off the boat in Churchill, Manitoba, and embarked on more than a decade of tundra exploration. She roamed along the Mackenzie River, across the Northwest Territories, and North of the Arctic Circle by ship, dog sled, canoe, fishing boat, and eventually by float plane, crammed amid boxes of puppies, sacks of coal, and bales of fur.

At every stop, the same mission, pick up plants and soil samples, recording the exact location of every specimen. As she described it in her written memoirs--

MARGARET OLDENBURG: All of my trips ashore followed the same pattern, a frantic scurrying about to try to find every kind of flower, grass, and moss, and lichen, picking up stones as I went.

TIM NELSON: Oldenburg collected thousands of samples. She pressed them in boxes and brought them back to Minnesota packed next to ship boilers to dry them on the way. Back home, she would glue them to archive paper with business card sized maps and notes pinpointing their original location.

Oldenburg also sent boxes of specimens to the Canadian Museum of Nature, like Canada's Smithsonian. Paul Sokolov is a botanist there.

PAUL SOKOLOV: We have the National Herbarium of Canada, which like, the Bell Museum Herbarium, is a collection of pressed and dried plants, and algae, lichens, mosses, et cetera. And in that, we have a backlog of specimens. Now, every herbarium has this. It's specimens that we haven't been able to process. And in going through that, we found 5,000 specimens collected in the Canadian Arctic by Margaret Oldenburg.

TIM NELSON: And that discovery recently brought Sokolov to the Bell Museum to document her trove in Minnesota and see what else she collected.

PAUL SOKOLOV: At our museum, we have the best collection of Canadian Arctic plants anywhere. And that's what we research. So in going through those specimens, we were able to tell a lot about the biodiversity of the most rapidly changing ecosystem on the planet.

TIM NELSON: And Oldenburg's years of dog sledding, lake hopping, and meticulous documentation helped mark that change. Sokolov says she left a snapshot of Arctic Canada's plant life, now nearly a century old.

PAUL SOKOLOV: We can actually go back in time essentially and see, well, where have plants been and are their distributions and ranges changing now.

TIM NELSON: All told, Oldenburg made 11 trips to Northern Canada through 1952. She occasionally stayed into winter, at least once skipping the Christmas plane headed home. She helped publish a newspaper, served as a village nurse during a flu epidemic in 1943, and collected and self-published a widely circulated collection of Inuit recipes.

Oldenburg had a fraught relationship with Canadian First Nations. She was described as the first white woman to travel widely through Canada, North of the Arctic Circle. Indigenous Canadians helped her collect plants and guided her across thousands of miles of tundra. And she expressed repeated admiration for their hospitality and resourcefulness. But she wrote as well of a common habit of visiting villages and throwing handfuls of candy on the ground to watch the residents, young and old, scramble to pick it up.

Oldenburg was an unfaltering devotee of the Arctic itself, boasting she lived with a single parka, lumberjack shirt, wolf fur mittens, and a pair of ski pants, and liked it that way. Even back home in Minnesota, she used a Native sealskin bag for her luggage. There is something about the Arctic, she told the Minneapolis Tribune about her travels in 1951, it's so absorbing, and I do love flat country.

She also said she preferred to travel alone. And was once even listed as lost in the Duluth newspaper, reporting an Arctic aircraft mishap which she survived. Her real end was more bittersweet.

By the mid 1950s, she was struggling to hear and stopped traveling North. Oldenburg eventually moved back to Minneapolis and worked on her collections at the U. Her correspondence with friends seems to have trailed off to occasional Christmas cards.

She never married, never had children, never made any reference to a partner or close relationship in the letters she left behind other than Ernie Boffa, a Canadian pilot friend and his wife. Oldenburg passed away in 1972, found dead and alone in her room in a $15 a week flophouse hotel just outside downtown Minneapolis.

Mimeograph copies of her tales of adventure with random notes, snapshots, and keepsakes fill a single cardboard box in the University archives. A newspaper clipping framed in tribute hangs in what used to be her bedroom in her childhood home in Carlton.

Emily Swanson runs the bed and breakfast at what is now called the Oldenburg house. Swanson's husband, Glenn's family, bought the place after Oldenburg's mother died and Margaret sold off the family home. The Swanson's have a collection of Margaret's letters. And Emily says a childhood friend stopped by years ago to share memories of Margaret.

MARGARET'S FRIEND: She loved the symphony, ballet, art museums, to travel, very well educated and curious. And I think she was here as a young woman. I know she had a place in Grand Marais. Had a light footprint after she grew up and went away to school.

TIM NELSON: Oldenburg is buried next to her parents and a brother who died at age eight. Her resting place is on top of the slope at Hillside cemetery in her hometown. A life of adventure come full circle back to this corner of Northern Minnesota. And a legacy that lives on in research about the changing world today. Tim Nelson, NPR News, Carlton.

CREW: Support comes from SFM, workers' comp programs helping employers maximize productivity, manage risk, and control business costs. To learn more, ask your independent insurance agent or visit SFMworkerscomp.com. SFM, the work Comp experts.

JOHN DECAUSEMAKER: (SINGING) Oh, say, can you see by the dawn's early light? What so proudly we held at the twilight's last gleaming. Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous--

CATHY WURZER: The National anthem will be one of the first things Wild fans will hear later this week when the hockey team hosts Edmonton at the X. This is John deCausemaker, the person who's the official "National Anthem" anthem singer for the Wild. He gets fans to their feet even before the team hits the ice. And he's on the line right now. Hey, John. Welcome to the program.

JOHN DECAUSEMAKER: Hi, Cathy. How are you?

CATHY WURZER: I'm great. Thanks for joining us. Say, I'm curious. How did the gig with the Wild come about?

JOHN DECAUSEMAKER: Yeah. Well, it's not that interesting. But I've got a long version and a short version. The short version is I just applied. Between the-- go ahead.

CATHY WURZER: Well, OK, you just applied, but did you always want to do something like this?

JOHN DECAUSEMAKER: Yes. Yes. Yes. So the longer version is that I've been singing the anthems for sporting events for a while, namely the Twins since I moved to the Cities back in '07-'08 time frame. Sang for the Twins the last year at the Metrodome. So what was that? 2008, I think. And occasionally for them, once a year, twice a year all those years.

And then when the Wild gig opened up-- I didn't know this at the time, but a lot of the folks that work for the Twins also work for the Wild. So they work year round that way. And when I applied, they'd already seen me sing in stadiums all those years. And when I applied, just got a call and said, hey, can you handle this? And do you know "Oh, Canada"? And I said yes to both those questions. And next thing you know, I'm the official "National Anthem" singer for the Minnesota Wild.

CATHY WURZER: And you're in. And you're in. What are the acoustics like at the X?

JOHN DECAUSEMAKER: Amazing. Amazing. Compared to other stadiums, TCF is almost impossible when I sing for the Vikings pre-season games there when they were at TCF. And you required in-ear monitors there. The Twins offer them, but I never take them. It is kind of strange to sing them in. But at the X I don't need them at all. It's like singing in the shower for me.

CATHY WURZER: Obviously, what you're sing, "The Star-Spangled Banner" is notoriously hard to sing for your average, non-vocalist. Right? What makes it so difficult.

JOHN DECAUSEMAKER: The range, for sure. It's an octave and a half. If you start on the wrong note, boy, you can get in some trouble. Either at the very beginning by bottoming out, too low, or picking a note that's too high and then you find you can't hit the high notes at the end. But, yeah, a full octave and a half for "The Star-Spangled Banner". So it is kind of a tough thing. "Oh, Canada", by contrast, is only one octave. A little easier, I think, for most folks to handle.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah. And everybody has a take on the anthem. I would think about Whitney Houston at Super Bowl 25, Lady Gaga, Jimmy Hendrix on guitar, of course. Do you have a take? How do you present "The Star-Spangled Banner" to hockey fans.

JOHN DECAUSEMAKER: It's a very traditional-- they appreciate tradition. Let's just say that. I think hockey was the first sport to actually employee "The National Anthem", if I'm not mistaken, when I did my little bit of research about where all this started in the first place. and it's-- they start-- I don't know if you've ever seen it presented in Chicago with Jim Cornelison, but the fans there don't stand and quietly take it in, they're screaming the entire time. And I think that comes from back when it first started, they were honoring troops coming back home from the war, and they were cheering for the troops the whole time, even though the anthem was playing.

So it's a very different presentation there. At the X, It's a little-- it's the more traditional solemn presentation. I'm always right next to what they call the Guardian of the Game, who's a veteran or active-- something of that nature, a retired veteran or something like that. And it's always great the way we honor them. And I do stick to-- it's not a voice audition or "American Idol" audition.

I stick to the notes that are on the page. And folks seem to like it that way. I'm technically leading the crowd in singing the song. So if I go too far off the rails with my own version or rendition people can't follow along.

CATHY WURZER: Right. Do you remember the first time you sang at a Wild game?

JOHN DECAUSEMAKER: Yeah. October 14, 2017, that was my first home game.

CATHY WURZER: And how did it go?

JOHN DECAUSEMAKER: Opening day of 2017. It wasn't-- when I first got out there, started singing and the microphone wasn't on. So the first few lines-- the first few words, I should say, of the first line didn't really go through the system. So I just kept going because I was like, I don't know what to do. I'm just going to keep singing. And it's never happened ever since. I know the guy felt really bad for that. But I remember getting some feedback on Twitter.

CATHY WURZER: Of course.

JOHN DECAUSEMAKER: You missed the first few notes, but otherwise, pretty good. Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: Typical hockey fans. Pretty good.

JOHN DECAUSEMAKER: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: By the way, how do you get ready for-- do you get ready for a game much like players do? I mean, do you do voice warm-ups? A lot of my friends who are professional singers do that.

JOHN DECAUSEMAKER: Oh, yeah. For sure. Yeah there's a big concourse out there on ice level. And I just kind of go and find a corner and make my funny noises. And make sure I'm ready to go with the high notes. As a singer, when your body's your instrument, you're going to kind of feel different day to day.

But in this-- for example, just this most recent case, I didn't feel so great because I was screaming at my own son's Hopkins hockey tournament over the weekend. All the hockey over the weekend, lots of screaming for parents in the stands. And it has an effect on your voice. I notice it. Hopefully, the crowd doesn't notice it.

CATHY WURZER: You sound great. You sound great. And I have to say, I do not believe in my long career I've ever talked to someone whose job it is to sing "The National Anthem". So this is a first for me. So I appreciate it.

JOHN DECAUSEMAKER: It's my pleasure.

CATHY WURZER: I'm glad you took the time. Thank you, John. We'll be listening to you, I think, Thursday against Edmonton. Right?

JOHN DECAUSEMAKER: That's correct. Yep. There's two more games in this seven game home stand.

CATHY WURZER: All right.

JOHN DECAUSEMAKER: Very busy time.

CATHY WURZER: We'll be there listening to you. Thank you, John.

JOHN DECAUSEMAKER: Awesome. Thank you, Cathy. You have a great day.

CATHY WURZER: You too. John deCausemaker is the official "National Anthem Singer" for the Minnesota Wild, which will be hosting its Wild About Kids event tomorrow at the X. Now, that's the premiere fundraising event for the Minnesota Wild Foundation. You can find out more about this and other things Minnesota Wild at nhl.com/wild.

Yeah. By the way, the Wild, as I mentioned, will host Edmonton on Thursday, Thursday night. They had a pretty decent game against the Arizona Coyotes yesterday afternoon, four to three. They've won the three of the last four games. So yeah. Edmonton on Thursday. That's for sure.

Well, let me tell you a little bit about this forecast. Oh, my goodness. If you like the warm weather, today's your last day to get out enjoy it with temperatures in the 40s in Southern Minnesota. And then we have this system come through.

A little bit of snow possible today along the Canadian border. Tomorrow, snow for almost everybody. Some fairly significant snow for the Twin Cities. Some point South, Wisconsin, three to five inches plus. So both rush hours are going to be a bit of a mess tomorrow. Just be aware of that.

And then behind the system, much colder air. You're looking for details on this, you can always check out the updraft blog at nprnewsandviews.org. And thank you so much for listening to Minnesota Now here on NPR News.

Support for Minnesota Now comes from True Stone Financial, a full service credit union working to improve the financial well-being of its neighbors since 1939, serving individuals and businesses at 23 locations and online at truestone.org, equal housing opportunity insured by NCUA.

Right now in the Twin Cities out of the airport, skies are still cloudy. A little sunshine here in downtown Saint Paul. 37 degrees is our current temperature. 37, on our way to a high today of about 43 with windy conditions, South winds gusting to around 30 miles an hour.

Then the snow moves in late tonight after midnight. Pretty good chance of snow. Snow tomorrow, as I mentioned. They're still talking about three to five inches. So keep an eye to that. Could be a little more. Could be a little less. We'll see.

Tomorrow's high, 32. Wednesday, partly sunny. The temperature will hold steady at around 20. 30 on Thursday of this week. And then Friday, partly sunny skies and a high of 40. It's 1:00.