On the last day of the Minnesota legislature’s 2026 session, lawmakers voted to fund a data collection project to study the spiraling health insurance costs for Minnesota school districts – a first step in reforming the health insurance program for school district employees as a whole.

This spring, more than 40 legislators from both parties co-sponsored a bill to create a single, statewide insurance pool, which would be large enough to more cost-effectively absorb expensive claims and give them more bargaining power against insurance companies.

DFL Rep. Liz Reyer of Eagan, lead author of the bill, told MPR News last month that the plan was to push for the bill to create a health insurance pool during next year’s session, which is a budget year. This year, she said the focus was on passing a companion bill, which would allow legislators to collect data from every school district to assess how much the new plan would cost the state.

“We know that all school districts are offering different benefits, paying different amounts, with different contributions from employees, so the data from this will help us really understand how it's working,” Reyer explained, “and then we'll be able to design a program that holds harmless school districts, so they don't have to pay more themselves.”

Last week, Reyer passed that first threshold. She said she is thrilled.

“It’s a really important step to being able to move forward with launching this new program,” Reyer said. “We needed good data and this is going to give it to us.”

There’s urgency in the education field to reform how school districts access health insurance.

Waseca school counselor Brianna Lawrence, for example, who is expecting a baby, faces an increase in her premium of up to nearly 400 percent after she gives birth to her first child this summer and has to switch to a family plan. She and her husband both work for the district, so now they’re seriously considering having at least one of them leave education and find a different line of work.

“[My husband] is so good at his job as a band director, and I love what I do as a school counselor,” Lawrence told MPR News. “I don't want to change. I don't want to leave this district. They've embraced us. They love us, and we love them. It would be heart wrenching to make that decision to leave, but it no longer is just us wanting to stay that's not enough. We have to see some changes happen for us to be able to stay.”

Insurance costs have long been a problem for smaller, rural districts, because their smaller staff sizes give them less bargaining power in the marketplace. But, in recent years, school districts of all sizes are getting hit by huge health insurance price increases. MPR News reported last year that even Anoka-Hennepin Schools, the largest district in Minnesota, saw premiums go up 22 percent in 2025. Other districts saw even bigger spikes.

There are several reasons for the higher insurance costs, including inflation, an aging population with greater medical needs, and expensive new pharmaceuticals like GLP-1s.The current system, in which school districts individually negotiate plans with health insurers each year, can increase those costs even more.

When the pool of workers is small – like in a 200-person district – just a few serious accidents or illnesses in a year can significantly drive up premiums. The proposed Educator Group Insurance Program, known as the EGIP bill, would create a statewide health coverage plan — one huge health insurance pool for all public school employees, spreading out the insurance risk.

The plan is modeled off SEGIP — the state employee group insurance program that has covered legislators and state government workers for decades. Reyer explained that larger group health insurance plans tend to have significantly lower cost increases over time, because they have more negotiating power on behalf of thousands of employees across the state, and there’s more stability.

“When you have so many smaller to mid size groups, they're much more volatile,” Reyer explained. “Think about it: if you have a group of 20 people, and someone gets really sick or has an accident, that drives [insurance] upgrades for everybody. And it's very unpredictable. [But] when you combine everyone into a group of, say, 150,000 like EGIP would have, then you get stability, because now that just becomes a ripple, rather than something that changes the nature of the group.”

Reyer said data will begin to be collected for the study this summer, and a report should be available at the end of the calendar year, ahead of the next year’s legislative session. That’s when Reyer will push to pass the EGIP bill and make a statewide health insurance pool a reality.

The study will be repeated annually, so that the state has access to up-to-date information as to the costs of the program.

There was little else Eric Samuelson could do but stare at the clouds of dust plowing through his crop farm in Crookston earlier this month.

“Dirt from miles away was up in the air,” Samuelson said. “The visibility was poor; it was just an extreme weather event that really was unsettling.”

Samuelson is no stranger to the windy nature of the Red River Valley. The region, which includes the northwest corner of Minnesota and northeast North Dakota, is mostly flat.

It also doesn’t have many trees, which means there’s not much to slow the high-speed winds sweeping across the valley.

That’s an issue because it’s been a windy Spring, with wind speeds frequently clocking over 40 miles per hour. And on the week of May 11th, those wind gusts reached speeds close to 50 miles per hour on multiple days, according to Crookston weather data.

“When the dirt's blowing to that extreme.. It's just an eerie, sickening feeling in your stomach to watch,” Samuelson said.

Samuelson grows wheat, soybeans, sugar beets and edible beans. He’d recently planted some of those seeds, so seeing the wind blow as hard as it did made him worried some of those seeds had been swept away in the storm.

When the dust settled, he let out a sigh of relief when he saw there wasn’t much damage to his farm.

However, he says neighbors around him have had to replant some of the crop seeds that were gone with the wind.

And still, concerns remain about losing valuable nutrients in the soil that, once gone, are lost for good.

An essential, but fragile part of farming

The uppermost layer of soil, also called topsoil, is often the most productive for plant growth.

There’s a bunch of leftover organic matter, bacteria and other microorganisms from past plants that once grew there, all of which help plants retain water and provide them with vital nutrients for growth.

But it takes centuries for that topsoil to build up, and it’s also very vulnerable to wind.

“It's considered a non-renewable resource, just because it takes so long to build,” University of Minnesota Extension Educator Angie Peltier said. “And unfortunately, as we've seen, it can take next to no time to lose.”

The more topsoil that the land loses, the harder it is for the dirt to retain water for crops to use whenever rainfall is scarce, according to Peltier.

The Red River Valley had recently been quite dry, leaving the earth particularly vulnerable to the high-speed winds that blew through. Peltier said she’d been getting a lot of phone calls about lost soil, and it’ll be difficult to pinpoint how much was lost.

According to Peltier, Minnesota loses about 5.2 tons of topsoil per acre per year. Across the Midwest, topsoil erodes at a rate of about 1.9 millimeters per year.

There are ways, though, for farmers to prevent topsoil loss and protect their ground. Planting cover crops, for example, can serve as a buffer that breaks up the wind before it blows the dirt away. The crops’ roots also stabilize the soil, making it harder for the wind to take it away.

The Red River Valley had once been home to a huge glacier over 10,000 years ago, which then melted, giving way to a tall-grass prairie. Its fertile soil was great for farmers.

But the more wind events like this that occur on the land, Peltier said, the likelier it is for the land to become less productive.

“It was a shock when I first saw the sheer amount of wind erosion in the Red River Valley,” Peltier said. “But [the recent] soil storms were next level.”

The national average for a gallon of gasoline is $4.55, according to AAA; that's a four-year high, unwelcome news for drivers as the U.S. heads into one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

AAA estimates a record 45 million Americans will travel this weekend, despite high prices for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

Gasoline prices have been elevated since the start of the war in Iran, and there's no sign of relief on the horizon. High prices are angering voters and straining household budgets.

In California, which has the highest gasoline prices in the nation, Gov. Gavin Newsom is openly feuding with the oil giant Chevron, discouraging Californians from filling up at its stations.

Chevron and the state have been in a tense relationship for years; Chevron moved its headquarters out of California in 2024 after complaining about state and local regulations, and is currently buying oil shipped through an offshore pipeline that California has attempted to keep shut down. In the latest salvos, Chevron has posted placards at California gas stations blaming state policies for the high prices, while Newsom's office is telling Californians they can get cheaper gas at unbranded stations.

But where does all this leave drivers? Despite high prices, most Americans are unwilling, or unable, to give up on driving. Americans have been logging more miles since the war with Iran started, according to the analytics company Arity, which tracks driving habits.

What can you do to cut costs? We asked the experts for ideas.

Drive smoothly. Pay less

The key to getting the most miles out of each gallon is driving efficiently. That means smooth acceleration, soft braking and slowing down.

Underinflated tires, heavy boxes in the back seat and an unused ski or luggage rack on the top of the vehicle can also make it less fuel efficient.

Some high-performance vehicles require premium gasoline. But if it's only recommended, you can skip it without damaging the car, according to Consumer Reports' deputy auto editor, Jonathan Linkov. "All cars, except the most esoteric supercars or older cars, can run fine on regular," said Linkov.

Are you considering going electric?

Data suggests that higher gasoline prices have many drivers at least thinking about giving up gas-powered cars altogether.

But the data on sales isn't so clear-cut. New-EV sales are still depressed following the abrupt end of a $7,500 federal consumer tax credit last fall. It's also tax refund season, which can push up car sales of all types, compared with the previous month. CarGurus reports that used-EV sales did seem to accelerate in the month of March, and Cox Automotive reports strong prices for used EVs at wholesale auction, noting that rising gas prices "may have positively influenced demand." On the other hand, data from the sites iSeeCars.com showed no appreciable shift in used-EV sales.

It's not surprising to see a rise in shoppers' interest before a rise in actual sales, especially for a purchase as significant as a vehicle. "What consumers are viewing on the site tends to be an earlier indicator than sales," says Kevin Roberts, the director of economic and market intelligence with CarGurus.

But analysts note that high gasoline prices do motivate shoppers to select for more fuel-efficient or entirely electric vehicles — if prices stay elevated for a long time.

An average driver can save $1,800 a year

The more you drive, the more you stand to save from switching to a battery-powered car, says Janelle London, the co-executive director of a nonprofit called Coltura, which advocates against gasoline. "Across the entire U.S., an average driver doing, say, 15,000 miles a year already is going to save $1,800 a year by switching to an electric car," London says. "But if you're talking about a big driver, somebody who does maybe 25,000 miles a year, they're going to be saving on average $3,000 a year by making the switch."

And as the cost of gas keeps rising, she says, "we're seeing the savings just skyrocket up."

Coltura has an online tool that car shoppers can use to estimate potential savings from going electric.

Those savings vary based not just on how much you drive but also on where you live, thanks to differences in the local prices of gasoline and electricity. Yale Climate Connections recently published a map comparing the price of charging with the price of gasoline, by looking at the cost of enough electricity to take you as far as 1 gallon goes in a similar gas car: In North Dakota, driving an EV is like paying less than a dollar a gallon, but in California it's more like $2.70 a gallon.

Or you can crunch your personal numbers more precisely by comparing the cost per mile using your own electricity rates, local gasoline prices and the efficiency of the gas and electric vehicles you're comparing. (The extremely lazy route? Multiply your home's cost per kilowatt-hour for electricity by 10. That's very roughly comparable to how many dollars per gallon you'd pay to fuel your car. The national average cost for home electricity is $0.17 right now, so, ballpark, that's like paying $1.70 for gasoline.)

Consider factors beyond gasoline

If you're thinking of switching to an EV to save money, there are other factors to weigh as well. Maintenance savings can also be substantial — electric vehicles need new tires and not much else. On the other hand, insurance can be pricey. You might also weigh nonfinancial factors, like how much you value the environmental benefits of an EV or the merits of a quiet ride.

Charging is also crucial. Can you charge at home, which is far more convenient and affordable than charging at stations? If so, will you need to install a dedicated, higher-speed charger, which comes with an installation cost, or can you get by with a standard outlet?

The more you drive and the larger your vehicle is, the more likely it is you'll need to add a charger. The Environmental Protection Agency has a calculator that can help with that decision.

Could you get by without driving at all?

Another option, of course, is to pursue alternatives to driving.

But data compiled by the app Transit shows that ridership was steady for most of March and actually dropped slightly in the week ending April 4.

That's no surprise, says Stephen Miller, the policy lead at Transit; the Easter holiday may have pulled ridership down, and gas prices have been elevated only for a few weeks. "Historically, people only make larger changes that show up as a significant shift from driving to public transit if the price of gas goes up — and stays up," he says. Year over year, transit ridership continues to increase overall, although it has yet to fully recover from the collapse in public transit use at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jerick White, who lives in Houston, bought his first e-bike in March. There were several reasons explaining why he switched from a car to two wheels, but saving on gasoline was one of them. Between the cost of the car, maintenance and gas, he says, "it just became too unbearable, unmanageable and expensive."

He hasn't calculated exactly how much money he's saving, but, he says, it's "a lot of money for sure." One important factor in his decision: White works from home now and lives close to a grocery store and other places where he needs to run errands. Biking around "is very, very reliable if you stay in a neighborhood and you work close by," he says.

If getting an EV makes the most sense for people with the longest commutes, trading out of a car entirely is for the other end of the spectrum: people who don't drive much or take a lot of short trips. Veo, the bike and scooter app, reports that its average trip length is 1.9 miles.

If it works for your lifestyle, White says, biking has benefits in addition to savings on gas. "I feel like a kid again when I'm riding it," he says. "It's very enjoyable." And: "Oh, my goodness, I can avoid the traffic."

Spend more on fuel by cutting more elsewhere

Finally, some folks are willing to spend more at the pump — but cut back elsewhere. High fuel prices were not enough to stop Julie and Vince Rossi from taking their first cross-country road trip in their new recreational vehicle. They sold their house to live in a 22,000-pound RV full time and went on their longest road trip yet, driving from Arizona to Virginia.

Diesel costs even more than gasoline — and its price has gone up faster since the war started — so to afford their now-doubled fuel budget, they're skipping the museums and amusement parks for free attractions. "If we want to continue on this lifestyle, we either look for the lowest prices or we need to cut spending somewhere else," Julie Rossi says.

A previous version of this story ran on April 7, 2026.

Copyright 2026, NPR

Minnesota gained 15,900 non-farm jobs between March and April on a seasonally adjusted basis. That marks the state’s largest over-the-month increase since March of 2024.

The 0.5 percent seasonally adjusted job growth between March and April outpaced the national growth rate of 0.1 percent.

The state's unemployment rate held even at 4.5 percent, while the national rate held at 4.3 percent.

Officials at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) said that growth would usually be cause for celebration. However, they instead believe it's an “initial bounce back” from the economic impacts of federal immigration enforcement actions at the start of the year.

“So we are not popping champagne over what would normally be a pretty remarkable monthly jobs number,” said DEED Commissioner Matt Varilek.

The sector called Trade, transportation and utilities was among the top gainers. Leisure and hospitality also posted big gains. Both sectors had seen three consecutive months of declines at the start of the year and were particularly affected by federal immigration enforcement actions, according to DEED officials.

Information, education and health service super sectors, though, had small declines.

Labor force participation in the state also fell slightly to 67.4 percent over the month. That marks the fourth month in a row that the state labor force participation rate has dropped. The metric is important because it can be a signal of economic vitality.

Minnesota’s labor force participation rate remains higher than the national participation rate, which dropped by 0.1 percentage point to 61.8 percent last month.

It’ll take time to understand why the labor force is still declining despite recent job growth, DEED officials said. But they suggested it may reflect national trends of an aging workforce and declining immigration.

Varilek noted that the declining effects of immigration might be especially pronounced in Minnesota, given that immigration enforcement agencies have targeted the state.

“One would also expect that there probably are again some Metro Surge impacts if folks may have even left the state or remain just out of the labor market within the state,” Varilek said.

Whether you’re renting, trying to buy your first home, or making a move — many people are finding that affordable housing feels out of reach.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari recently pointed to four major factors pushing up housing prices: High interest rates, rising construction costs, regulations and zoning rules, and a shortage of housing overall.

MPR News guest host Catharine Richert talks about what more expensive housing means for renters and buyers across Minnesota — and what policymakers, builders and communities can do to make housing more affordable.

Guest:

• Alene Tchourumoff is the senior vice president of Community Development and Engagement for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Her team studies housing affordability and economic trends affecting low and moderate-income households across Minnesota.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Puberty is something everyone goes through in life. But it is an uncomfortable topic to talk about for many. A new podcast is putting puberty front and center of the conversation. Presented by Brains On Universe, the podcast is simply titled “Puberty (The Podcast).” It’s designed for kids ages 7-12 and is also a resource for parents helping their kids navigate their changing bodies and brains.

The show’s host and executive producer, Molly Bloom, joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about it.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

Target reported the largest jump in comparable sales in four years Wednesday, but a cautious outlook overshadowed convincing evidence that changes under the company's new CEO are resonating with customers.

Customers spent money across all of Target’s main merchandising categories and helped deliver better-than-expected sales. Comparable sales — those coming from stores and digital channels operating for at least 12 months, rose 5.6 percent in the three-month period ended May 2. It was the biggest gain since early 2022, and the first positive read after three consecutive quarters of negative comparable sales.

Target raised its annual revenue outlook, saying it expected momentum to continue the rest of the year. Yet the upgraded sales expectations were still below the pace of the first quarter and investors reacted negatively.

Shares fell 5 percent Wednesday.

CEO Michael Fiddelke, a 20-year company veteran who took over in February, said he remained guardedly optimistic given where the company is in its operational overhaul.

“We’re encouraged to see a strong guest response so far,” Fiddelke said, adding: “We’re maintaining a cautious outlook given the work we know we have in front of us and ongoing uncertainty in the macroeconomic environment.”

In March, Fiddelke unveiled a $6 billion plan to reverse three straight years of sales declines. Target said it would remodel stores as part of an attempt to reclaim its reputation for stylish clothing on a budget, while it improved staffing and worker training.

New collaborations with labels like Roller Rabbit, an apparel and home goods brand known for its whimsical, block-print designs, resonated with shoppers, according to Target.

Target is one of the first big retailers to report financial results and industry analysts are watching closely to determine whether surging gasoline prices due to the Iran war have altered consumer behavior.

The chain was struggling long before the U.S. and Iran attacked Iran in February, however. Customers complained of disheveled stores that lacked the fashionable yet affordable niche that had earned Target the nickname “Tarzhay.”

Fiddelke reshuffled the leadership team at Target and on Tuesday, Target named a former Walmart executive as its new head of supply chain, another problematic area.

Some of Target's problems were self-inflicted. Its decision to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives led to protests and boycotts. And this winter, Target stores became another flashpoint with a federal immigration crackdown in its own hometown of Minneapolis.

Fiddelke acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press in early March that boycotts had taken a toll, but said this week that increased store traffic in the first quarter was broad-based. He noted that more shoppers are picking Target more often, and “that’s a positive sign.”

Analysts, however, say Target's first-quarter performance offers a positive sign for the company.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, wrote that the results “represent an early win for Michael Fiddelke and his team.”

Saunders believes Target's lackluster sales had more to do with failing on execution than being caught up in cultural crosshairs like DEI.

“As important as that matter is, and as much as it does have some impact, it has never been the main issue,” Saunders wrote.

Target posted first-quarter earnings of $781 million, or $1.71 per share, for the three-month period ended May 2. That easily topped the $1.47 per share that analysts had expected, according to FactSet, but it was down from $1.04 billion during the same time last year.

Net sales rose 6.7 percent to $25.44 billion, also topping expectations.

For the full year, Target said it expected earnings per share near the high end of $7.50 to $8.50, the guidance it offered in March. Analysts are expecting $8.12 per share for the year, according to FactSet.

Target said it now expects net sales growth to be up 4 percent for the year, up from the previous forecast of 2 percent. That would bring sales to $108.97 billion.

Last month, Minnesota cattle producers were asked to vote on a proposed refundable increase to the state beef checkoff.

On Tuesday, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture announced that the statewide referendum failed, falling three votes short of passage.

Since 1986, cattle producers in the state have been paying a $1 beef checkoff fee for each head of cattle sold. A proposed fee increase would've raised that amount to $1.50, with the option to request a $0.50 refund per head.

According to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, a total of 3,477 ballots were mailed to producers. Out of eligible ballots submitted, 380 ballots were submitted in opposition and 377 votes were in favor.

Currently, half of every dollar generated through the checkoff goes to the Minnesota Beef Council. The other half goes to the national Cattlemen’s Beef Board, the organization that oversees the collection of the National Beef Checkoff.

Both nonprofits use the revenue to help fund advertising, marketing, public relations, education, research and product development aimed at increasing beef consumption at the state and national levels.

The National Beef Council reported that for every dollar collected through the national checkoff, about $13 is returned to producers in higher beef prices due to increased demand.

A spokesperson for the Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Association previously said the increase was intended to keep up with rising operating costs.

A previous $1 checkoff raise was also rejected by producers over 10 years ago, with 63 percent of voters opposed.

In a studio workshop inside the Northrup King Building in Minneapolis, Maria Bartholdi adjusts microphones and cameras while her cohost Meghan Wolff climbs up on the bright colored table to adjust the lighting. Wolff uses a tried-and-true method: duct tape and cardboard.

When you’re running a podcast and YouTube channel, you use what you have to make it work.

While their guests for the night chat about the latest cards and games they plan to play, Bartholdi and Wolff bounce between lights, cameras and the set to prep for their game night, which will eventually be shown to thousands of fans.

The pair are the cohosts for a show called “Good Luck High Five,” a podcast focused on the popular and complicated card game: Magic: The Gathering.

The podcast — where the hosts talk about the various facets and news of the game — has over 13,000 listens per month. And their new “Commander Arcade” YouTube show — where the two invite guests to play a game with them — averages nearly 32,000 views a month on YouTube.

Through their work on the podcast, the two have also become a large influence in expanding the hobby’s reach beyond the white-male demographic that the game is known for, encouraging women and femme-presenting players to shuffle their best decks for complex strategy competitions at the national level.

Friendship, laughs and a love of a game

The friendship preceded the podcast, when Wolff and Bartholdi met at a comedy improv show audition.

“I was like ‘I’m going to make this person my friend,’” Wolff said. The two even set up a shared Google document they used to secretly chat while at work.

They also shared a love of games, and a mutual friend at a board game night showed Wolff and Bartholdi “the best game.”

“He did phrase it like that,” Wolff said.

“It turned out it was Magic: The Gathering. And sure enough, we became immediately addicted to it,” Bartholdi said. “We played on the floor of various parties, ignoring everybody else in the room, just playing Magic. The bug had bit us hard.”

The game has several different formats that can be played by two or four players, but they tend to use 60- or 100-card decks with cards featuring creatures, sorceries and enchantments. Players take turns trying to whittle down their opponent’s health points to zero and be the last player standing.

Each card can have different effects, and players build their cards to craft different strategies. Bartholdi also said the five colors that are a pinnacle of the game design —– white, blue, black, red and green —– have various themes underlining their cards, allowing players to express their identity.

“Like black is all about ambition and control, and blue is about using your intellect to outsmart your opponents, and green is about smashing face with big monsters,” Bartholdi said. “So you can kind of craft a deck that feels in line with your personal identity, which is also something I don't think you can get in any other game that exists.”

The two launched the podcast soon after, first under a different name — Magic the Amateuring — before rebranding as Good Luck High Five. Bartholdi had a background in media production, so they set up microphones on a kitchen table.

While there were other podcasts focused on the game, Wolff and Batholdi saw an opening with a show focused on new players hosted by women and trained with a comedy background.

“Aside from being an all-female podcast, and my memory is not perfect here, but maybe the first all-female Magic podcast, they brought a level of professionalism to the craft that really leveled up everyone around them,” Blake Rasmussen, the director of communications for Magic: The Gathering, said.

“The thing I always appreciate about them is they are very focused on newer players. That's not to say they don't do content for experienced players, but they always do content with the newer player in mind. And I don't think that's as common in the community as it maybe should be.”

Thirteen years and nearing 700 episodes, plus nearly 50 YouTube videos of their new show “Commander Arcade,” the two have created a media company based on the 32-year-old trading card game. They also added a third host on the team, Tyler Mills.

And there are few other shows that can claim the same staying power.

“Many Magic podcasts have come and gone over the years. I feel like there's only one which has been consistently running longer than we have,” Bartholdi said.

The ‘sigh’ that opened doors

Ten years ago, Wolff wrote an article about the challenges of being accepted into the hobby’s community, based on both her and Bartholdi’s observations.

“I wrote an article for a Magic website that was like ‘hey, there’s not a lot of women playing Magic. And here are some experiences that we’re having. It boils down to, people don’t treat you well. So hey, consider treating women better when they’re playing Magic: The Gathering in these spaces,’” Wolff said. “It… didn’t go over great.”

“This article lit a match, and then we threw gasoline on that match by recording a podcast episode about it as well,” Bartholdi said, “which became our most listened to episode of all time.”

It also caused Wizards of the Coast, the company that owns Magic, to pay attention. The company reached out to the pair, asking for advice.

“We had a meeting with them, and we said, ‘Well, you can hire women to be in your Magic event coverage.’ And they're like, who?”

They offered a few names to Wizards, women who made content or had played competitively. At first, they didn’t offer their own names.

“There's no reason why we didn't put our own names on it, except that sometimes, when you're socialized as a woman, you don't put yourself out there like that,” Wolff said.

Fortunately, they reached out and said “actually, us too.”

And Wizards went with them, along with a few other content creators.

Now, both Wolff and Bartholdi are involved in professional event hosting with pro tournaments, travelling around the globe.

“Anytime you tune into a Pro Tour, you’re very likely to see Maria on the broadcast,” said Rasmussen. “She brings that high-level professionalism to the broadcast. And Meghan, who you don’t see on camera, is often working on a lot of our social and web content to bring that to life. Both have been part of the Pro Tour ecosystem for quite some time.”

Since they released the episode about the barriers for women to play in tournaments, Wolff and Bartholdi have seen changes in the hobby, with organizations promoting inclusion, tournaments for players who are marginalized, and people who show up at events to provide safe spaces.

Wolff recently went to a tournament event in Baltimore and was struck by how much the scene has changed.

“It would literally be you'd walk into this room of 1,000 players, and it would be like, I can count the number of like, femme-presenting people here on one hand.” Wolff said. “And I walked into [this event] in Baltimore, and I’m walking around the tables. I had a real moment about it, because the landscape looked so different. There’s so many femme-presenting people playing at this event.”

“Just the change in overall attitude is night and day between 10 years ago and now, not to say there's not more work to be done,” Bartholdi said “Because, of course there is. But it's truly incredible, in that short amount of time, how much headway that we've collectively made.”

Content creation career for a niche hobby

As the podcast grew and the work continued for tournament coverage, Wolff was laid off from a job in 2016. She realized that the work she was doing on the podcast was the same workload as a full-time job.

For Bartholdi, there were tournaments to cover, episodes to record and edit, flights around the world, then rolling into her job right after a flight, sometimes with a suitcase in tow.

“It was exhausting.” Bartholdi said. “So we had to make a decision.”

The two decided on becoming freelancers, with the GLHF podcast and Magic being the main focus.

But that still means playing the cards the economy deals you. Changes in health care policy, being reliant on a product from a completely independent company and being in tune with an audience that donates funds to support their content.

“Ever since we've been freelancing, I have been more in tune with what is happening in the American economy than I ever have in my life,” Wolff said.

“When people think about Magic: The Gathering, if they're not familiar, a lot of them will think of the ‘90s, but the truth is that Magic: The Gathering is bigger now than it has ever been,” Bartholdi said.

According to reports, Wizards of the Coast generated $547 million in operating profits in 2021, and its parent company Hasbro reported that Magic: The Gathering became the company’s first billion-dollar brand in 2022.

That’s even before a huge year in 2025, when sets of cards featuring new characters and art from the long-running Final Fantasy video game series , brought new players to the table. That release generated $200 million in revenue in a single day. The company has also branched out into cards made with intellectual properties with cross-promotional appeal, like Lord of the Rings, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Marvel Comics.

“In 2026 [there] is going to be the most Magic sets released of all time,” Bartholdi said, “Which is good for us as content creators, because there’s a lot of material to work with.”

Wolff said the internet also demands authenticity, so they have to walk a fine line between being excited and being honest about the cards that come out.

“It's a delicate dance,” Wolff said. “We're talking about Magic because we love the game, and we always, at the end of the day, want to be producing a show that is about the joy of the game. We have to balance that with the fact that we also are going to be honest with people. If Wizards makes a bad product that people don't like, we're not going to go out and pretend to like it, because that would be disingenuous.”

But Bartholdi adds that growth in the interest of the game doesn’t mean their shows are secure. She worries that listeners can feel burned out on their hobby — or economic pressures cause hobbyists to pull back on spending.

Even with the success of the podcast, the YouTube channel, and being a tournament announcer, Bartholdi worries about how long it will last.

“Being a woman in an esports space, or even a sports space, who's over 40 is kind of a terrifying prospect, because once again, you have to see it to be it, and you don't see a lot of it,” she said.

She’s also acutely aware that the same standard is never applied to her male counterparts.

“So I’m like, what does that mean for the future? Can you be a woman on the internet past 40? I don't know, but I'm going to try.”

Wolff, with a chuckle, pipes in to reassure her co-host.

“I'm gonna beat the snot out of anyone who tries to tell you otherwise,” she says, laughing with her co-host.

The podcast releases new episodes every Thursday, with new “‘Commander Arcade”’ videos twice a month.

One of professional sports’ biggest spectacles is heading to Minnesota in two years.

The National Football League announced Tuesday that the 2028 NFL Draft will be held at U.S. Bank Stadium, with associated fan events taking place over several days around the Twin Cities and beyond.

“For three days, Minnesota will become the center of the football world,” Mark Wilf, owner and president of the Minnesota Vikings, said in a news release. “The 2028 NFL Draft will give us an opportunity to showcase not just U.S. Bank Stadium, but the energy, hospitality and pride that define Minneapolis-St. Paul and the entire state and region. We have no doubt the community will deliver a world-class event that is unique to Minnesota.”

The Vikings will host the draft in partnership with the NFL and Minnesota Sports and Events.

The draft used to be held in New York each year — but since 2015, it has rotated to different host cities, and the event has grown. This year’s draft, held in Pittsburgh in April, drew more than 800,000 fans.

At Tuesday’s announcement at the NFL Spring League Meeting in Orlando, Fla., Wendy Williams Blackshaw — the president and CEO of Minnesota Sports and Events — was asked whether the Twin Cities can match that.

“Around the stadium, there is room, depending on the stage layout, for somewhere in the 100,000 (range) — and then again, layer on top of that the watch parties, all of the other things that are happening in the community, and we feel really confident that we will have a huge crowd,” she said. “We’re competitive.”

The 2028 NFL Draft will take place a decade after Minneapolis hosted the Super Bowl. Exact dates are yet to be announced.

The 2027 draft will be held in Washington, D.C.

NPR is restructuring its newsroom, including cutting some reporting and editing jobs, as it attempts to keep pace with changing audience habits while adjusting to an era without federal subsidies.

NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher says the network has to fill a gap of $8 million in its $300-million annual budget because of the elimination of federal subsidies for its member stations, which pay NPR to air programs such as Morning Edition and All Things Considered. In a memo to staff, she said the network expects to earn $15 million less in station fees this year and is anticipating a drop in corporate sponsorship revenue.

The network is offering buyouts to approximately 300 employees, mostly within newsgathering desks in the newsroom. Staff of NPR's news programs, including hosts, are not eligible.

The actual number of departing journalists will be far smaller, NPR officials say. They say they will accept up to 30 buyouts but more targeted layoffs would ensue if an insufficient number of employees take voluntary buyouts by next Tuesday, May 26.

Paradoxically, just prior to the announcement of these cost-cutting measures, NPR received a pair of private gifts totaling $113 million — representing the network's second- and third-largest in its 56-year history. Most of that money, however, is dedicated to technological innovation.

Maher also acknowledges a mighty wave of individual contributions following Congress' vote last summer to take back all $1.1 billion it already had committed to public media. Those donations have helped sustain the network and the member stations, though many have announced their own layoffs over the past year.

"The extraordinary generosity of donors across the nation has really mitigated some of the hardest impacts of the loss of federal funding," Maher says. "I am relieved that that is the case. And now it is our responsibility to ensure that we take that gift that they have given us and use this time to get to a place where we are sustainable for the future."

A changing media environment

The network plans to overhaul its app and reshape its user experience across platforms to enrich the experience for listeners, readers and even viewers of its digital and streamlining products. And NPR's senior corporate leaders — some of whom have deep roots in the world of tech — are pivoting from the mantra of "reaching people wherever they are" to encouraging people to use NPR on its own platforms.

"We have to change this organization. We have to think about this audience. We have to think about how they are consuming us. We have to think about the member stations," says NPR Editor-in-Chief Thomas Evans. "We have to keep what I consider to be the last truly independent newsroom in the country healthy and alive and vibrant."

The way major tech companies, especially Google, have integrated AI into search engines and apps means people are presented with AI-synthesized information before individual search results. This has led to a sharp drop in referrals to NPR's website; in some cases they have all but vanished. Some are calling this "Google Zero" or the "Dead Web." Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch recently said on the TBPN podcast that he told colleagues to plan as if Google searches yield no referrals at all to the company's publications, which include The New Yorker.

Currently, NPR has 425 newsroom employees, Evans says. Seven vacancies will be kept open.

Pat O'Donnell, executive director of SAG-AFTRA's Washington-Mid Atlantic Local, which represents hundreds of NPR journalists, commends the network's approach to making job cuts.

"It's not that many," she says. "The fact they were willing to [agree to] more buyouts, and will make fewer cuts for each buyout, means they needed to cut the budget, but were doing it fairly."

Such job reductions represent a familiar tactic for media outlets in financially challenging times. Earlier this year, for example, the Washington Post laid off hundreds of journalists. CBS shed more than 60 newsroom staffers. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution eliminated the jobs of 15 percent of its staff. The Associated Press recently laid off or bought out roughly 60 journalists.

Other changes are in motion. NPR now has one of the more lenient remote-work policies among national newsrooms. The company is negotiating with SAG-AFTRA in an effort to require journalists to work in the office at least three times a week starting in the fall — a requirement that could encourage some to take the buyout. The union is seeking to ease the sting and breadth of those requirements, O'Donnell says.

Leadership shuffles and news desks merge

Evans, a CNN veteran who was named editor in chief last September, says the job cuts are deeper than he, personally, would favor.

Even so, Evans says, the restructuring is warranted.

"My hope and my drive for this is that the journalists in the newsroom at the end of this will be able to still cover the stories that make us uniquely NPR," Evans says. "More quality over quantity. Less content for the sake of content. I want to focus our newsroom on 'capital-J journalism'. That's the foundation of NPR."

He says NPR's National and General Assignments desks next month will merge with a focus on deep dives, natural disasters, and news deserts. NPR's regional bureau chiefs will become part of a new desk that works closely with member station journalists.

Beyond that, Evans says he is merging NPR's desks covering culture, education, religion, addiction and sports to make a society-and-culture desk. He is unifying science and climate coverage in a single desk. And he plans to fold the global health team into the International desk.

"It's just breaking down silos," Evans says.

NPR's Washington desk will expand to include the states team and NPR reporters who focus on power and money. The new desk on power and policy would take in developments on the local, state, regional and national level.

"I think it's a healthier way for all news organizations to look at this country and the state we're in," Evans says, alluding to the political climate.

He also said NPR's Business desk could add positions, as the network wants to create a new daily business podcast to complement Planet Money and The Indicator.

Evans says he has pitched NPR's corporate leadership on reinvesting some money back into the newsroom. Maher says she is hopeful NPR can afford to do so after improvements to the network's digital infrastructure.

They also announced shifts in the news leadership team. Prominent among them: Executive Editor Eva Rodriguez is shifting to become a consultant to the newsroom. She will be replaced by Chief Washington Editor Krishnadev Calamur. His deputy, Dana Farrington, will lead the new politics and policy desk.

Eric Marrapodi, who now oversees news programming, temporarily will move to lead the growth of NPR's video capabilities. Sami Yenigun, now the executive producer of All Things Considered, will oversee broadcast shows and NPR's newscast.

NPR is in the process of hiring a chief content officer to oversee both the newsroom and programming divisions.

Second round of layoffs in recent years

In early 2023, Maher's predecessor, the late John Lansing, ordered a 10 percent cut in staff. NPR was looking at a deficit of about $32 million as corporate underwriters peeled away in anticipation of a recession that never really played out.

Maher argues that Lansing largely shielded the newsroom from the brunt of the cuts, though several podcasts were scrapped and some correspondents took buyouts. (SAG-AFTRA's O'Donnell says she shares that assessment.) As a result, many other functions, such as legal services, were cut back sharply, she says.

"That was the right set of decisions" for that moment," Maher says.

Now, she says, budget realities require her to reduce spending in the core mission of newsgathering as well.

"We have made every effort to preserve the core capacity and strengths of what makes NPR different and distinct," Maher says. "This is never an easy choice to make, to have to cut anywhere near the newsroom."

Before Congress' vote last summer, NPR got roughly 1 percent of its funds directly from the U.S. government. But the network depends greatly on the programming fees that more than 240 member stations pay.

Maher says NPR initially estimated it would come up $30-45 million short – or about 10-15 percent of the annual budget – as a result of the federal clawback. Executives drew up projections for what that would mean. It seemed a brutal task. In comparison, the $8 million cut intended with these buyouts, while a bitter blow, is an absorbable one, she says.

The network has already reworked how it charges member stations for programming in light of the loss of Congressionally appropriated funds for public media, which had provided, on average, about 10 percent of public radio stations' revenue.

Disclosure: This story was written and reported by NPR Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by NPR Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Vickie Walton-James. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

Copyright 2026, NPR

President Donald Trump is moving to dismiss a $10 billion lawsuit he filed against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns, according to a court filing.

Hours after the announcement, the Department of Justice announced an "anti-weaponization fund" as part of the settlement with Trump. In a statement, the department said the $1.776 billion find will allow the DOJ to settle and pay cases.

Ethics watchdogs and Democrats in Congress are trying to intervene.

Trump and the Trump Organization sued the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department in January demanding $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns years ago.

Legal experts described the case as weak, since the leak has been attributed to a federal contractor, not a full-time employee of the U.S. government. That man is currently serving prison time. They also questioned whether the statute of limitations might have expired; the leaks of tax information happened between 2018 and 2020.

But the Justice Department recently told a judge it had entered negotiations to resolve the dispute. That could mean the government Trump leads would be in line to pay him personally.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams of Miami is presiding over the case. The judge recently raised her own doubts, citing Trump's own rhetoric that in some ways, he was negotiating with himself as both plaintiff and president.

 "Although President Trump avers that he is bringing this lawsuit in his personal capacity, he is the sitting president and his named adversaries are entities whose decisions are subject to his direction," Judge Williams wrote last month. "Indeed, President Trump's own remarks about this matter acknowledge the unique dynamic of this litigation. Accordingly, it is unclear to this Court whether the Parties are sufficiently adverse to each other so as to satisfy Article III's case or controversy requirement."

There's a process in place at the Justice Department for people who say they've been harmed by the federal government.

In the normal course of business, those claims get evaluated by career lawyers. They rarely involve high-profile criminal investigations like Trump's.

"Some of them are run-of-the-mill, right?" said Rupa Bhattacharyya, a former Justice Department lawyer who evaluated these kinds of allegations. "Postal vehicles get into traffic accidents, Veterans Affairs doctors have malpractice claims brought against them, people slip and fall in federal buildings."

Even in the most serious cases, like ones that involved injuries to people cleaning up after the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001, Bhattacharyya said the payouts almost never amounted to more than $10 million.

Edward Whelan, a prominent conservative lawyer, told NPR it would make sense to pause the litigation until Trump leaves the White House.

"There is a glaring conflict of interest with Trump being on both sides of the claim," said Whelan, a former lawyer at the Justice Department who once clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia. "It is outrageous that he and those answering to him would be deciding how the government responds to these extravagant claims."

Copyright 2026, NPR

For months now, Minnesota soybean farmers have been caught in the middle of an international trade war that's led to a back and forth on whether their product will be sold to one of the world's largest buyers: China.

In November, the country agreed to buy 12 million metric tons of U.S. Soybeans, but it was still historically far below previous counts.

On Friday, during his visit to China, President Donald Trump said he struck a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the foreign country to buy billions of dollars of American soybeans, and that farmers are “going to be very happy.”

Joe Smentek, executive director of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association, said it still remains to be seen if the deal will be penned in ink.

“I remain really optimistically — I hope that they are going to be very happy,” he said. “Hearing it from one side is one thing, but not hearing it from the other coming out of Beijing is, you know, kind of leaving us hoping.”

Smentek added that some farms have already lost too much money waiting for buyers, and if Trump’s soybean deal with China happens, it may already be too late for them. “I don't think it's too late yet for everyone. Hopefully, we can correct some things to get back on track,” he said.

Listen to the full conversation by clicking the player above.

A holiday weekend is on the horizon for many Minnesotans, meaning a trip to the lake or cabin for some, or a trip farther away for others.

But high fuel prices amid the war in Iran may curb the appeal of a road trip or a last-minute flight.

Kyle Potter with Thrifty Traveler joined Morning Edition to talk about travel during a tumultuous few months for the airline industry.

“Things have gotten ugly, no question,” Potter said. “The average price of a gallon of jet fuel has hovered around $4 to $4.20 a gallon, so it feels similar” to gasoline. “But that said, the amount of money that airlines spend on jet fuel is absolutely enormous. So, it is hitting airlines incredibly hard, and I think everyday travelers are feeling that too, in the form of higher fares.”

Jet fuel supply, however, hasn’t been an issue in the U.S., despite some shortages in Europe and Asia.

As far as the shuttering of Spirit Airlines and Allegiant Air’s acquisition of Minnesota-based Sun Country Airlines, what it means for consumers remains an open question, Potter said, because it will take a long time for the two air carriers to integrate.

“Will Allegiant, as it swallows Sun Country, still offer the same cheap fares to as many destinations as Sun Country serves from Minneapolis today? That's a big question,” he said. “In the short term, no question, there aren't going to be any significant changes. But longer term, that's where I start to have some questions and concerns.”

Most people who are traveling by air over Memorial Day weekend bought their tickets weeks or months ago, and so there’s not been a major decline in broad, nationwide travel numbers, Potter said.

“I think we're in a weird intermediary period with travel, where it's hard to tell exactly where things are going to go, and, of course, it all hinges on what the prices of jet fuel and, therefore, tickets are in the weeks and months to come,” Potter said.

Listen to the full conversation by clicking the player button above.

High rents. Student loans. A shifting job market. For a growing number of young adults, moving back home isn't a setback — it's a smart financial strategy.

But multigenerational living comes with real financial and emotional complexity.

MPR News host Angela Davis and her guests talk about what's driving the trend and how to make it work financially for everyone under the roof.

Guests:

• Michelle Singletary is a personal finance columnist for the Washington Post.

• Jamia Erickson is a financial consultant with Thrivent, a Twin Cities based financial services organization.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Neel Kashkari, said if Minnesotans want housing to be more affordable, we need more homes on the market.

“There's no question that the single most important driver is going to be supply,” he said.

At a recent St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce event, he said four main factors are constraining supply.

1) Inflation

The cost of construction materials is going up, Kashkari said, making it more expensive to build housing.

“It’s our job to get inflation back down,” he said.

Prices in the building materials and supplies industry are at historical highs, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. And overall, annual inflation has consistently been above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2 percent since March 2021.

“What’s been challenging the past five years is — economists call these shocks — different things keep hitting the economy,” he said. “COVID, the supply chains coming out of COVID, Russia invading Ukraine, (and) now, the war in Iran. These things are all inflationary: one after the other after the other.”

That’s part of the reason that Kashkari, who is serving a rotating term on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, dissented from that committee’s recent policy statement that signaled future rate cuts.

While rate cuts could stimulate the economy, Kashkari is concerned they’d also aggravate inflation.

2) Interest rates

Interest rates are another important piece of housing affordability. Lower interest rates would make it cheaper to borrow money to build and buy houses.

While the federal funds rate set by the Federal Reserve influences mortgage rates, Kashkari said broader swings in the economy are pushing up interest rates, too.

For example, the ongoing data center boom has increased demand for investment capital and may be pulling capital away from projects like apartment buildings.

“Hundreds of billions of dollars a year of new investment demand, all else equal, is going to push up interest rates,” he said.

3) Immigration and labor

Kashkari also cited labor availability as a constraint on construction.

“Obviously, if there are fewer immigrant workers to build homes, on the margin that’s going to make labor somewhat less available, potentially causing some inflationary pressure there,” he said.

The second Trump administration’s surge of immigration enforcement has likely hit the construction sector particularly hard because a relatively large percentage of undocumented workers were employed by that industry, according to a recent working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

According to the paper, that hasn’t translated to higher wages for other workers, but employers are instead “reducing labor demand overall, including for jobs more often taken by U.S.-born workers.”

4) Zoning

Kashkari said local zoning regulations are a major hurdle to building more housing. Homeowners have an incentive to advocate for policies that keep prices high in their neighborhoods so their assets keep growing in value.

“When we all do that, you can’t build anywhere,” he added. “Then all of a sudden the home prices skyrocket because we just limit new supply from coming online.”

Kashkari said of the four constraints on construction, policymakers can most directly control zoning regulations if they want to keep prices down.

“You look around the country, there are some regions where it's a lot easier to build,” he said.

He noted that those areas still had to reckon with inflation, labor availability and challenging interest rates.

“But the zoning piece,” he said, “actually can make a big difference on how much new supply you can bring online.”

After more than a decade in northeast Minneapolis, Bauhaus Brew Labs says it’ll close at the end of June.

The operators of the craft brewery and event space posted Thursday on social media that “despite pulling every lever available to us, the financial headwinds have proven to be insurmountable, and we have made the very difficult and heartbreaking decision to close our doors.”

Among the factors Bauhaus cited were increased supply chain costs, shifting consumer preferences and lingering effects of the pandemic. They also pointed to the effects of the recent federal immigration enforcement surge on the Twin Cities’ hospitality industry.

Bauhaus said diversifying into new kinds of products — including hard seltzers, non-alcoholic beer and THC beverages — as well as adding more programming and events, was not enough to overcome those challenges.

Bauhaus Brew Labs opened in the summer of 2014. Its annual Liquid Zoo event is still happening during Art-A-Whirl this weekend, and the brewery said it’s planning a 12-year anniversary and going-away party for the last weekend of June.

“Keeping a brewery alive for 12 years in this city, in this industry, in these times: that is something. We are proud of it, and we are proud to have shared it with you,” the brewery’s statement said.

As gas prices have spiked again this week, some rideshare drivers in Minnesota say they’re struggling to make ends meet.

Uber and Lyft drivers pay for their own gas. With gas in the state now averaging more than $4.35 a gallon, those costs are up — and driver pay rates have stayed flat.

Said Mohamed drives for both rideshare companies. He typically works during the day, with breaks to stop at home and regular days off. But high gas prices have forced him to change that schedule.

“I’m driving more,” Mohamed said. “From 7 a.m. when I leave my house ‘til I go back home about 7 p.m. tonight, I have to stay.”

Mohamed said he’s spending close to $30 a day on gas. That’s for his hybrid car; he said friends and fellow rideshare drivers with fully gas-powered cars are spending up to $45 or $50 a day.

Uber and Lyft both offer discounts and cash-back deals on gas, which they have increased since gas prices began climbing amid the war in the Middle East.

But Mohamed said the benefits are too small to make a difference. Some of them only apply at specific gas stations. Others require drivers to set up accounts on company-issued debit cards. Mohamed said many drivers don’t want to go through the process to do that, or don’t want to keep their income on a company card.

Mohamed said he’s also been avoiding long rides that take him out of the Twin Cities, because he doesn’t get paid for the drive back without a passenger. But when a driver declines too many trips, the rideshare apps’ algorithms send them fewer options — and often lower-paying ones.

Mohamed is part of a group of drivers organizing with the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, to advocate for a rideshare drivers’ union. It would require legal action at the state level; drivers are currently unable to unionize because they are classified as independent contractors, not employees. A bill to allow drivers to unionize did not pass at the state legislature last year.

Mohamed said he wants the chance to negotiate directly with the companies — especially when challenges like high gas prices come up.

“The biggest thing that needs to be changed is, the drivers need to be listened to, and drivers need the same protections as everyone that is working,” Mohamed said.

Organizers are looking ahead to this year’s midterm elections in hopes that changes in the legislature — and possibly in party control — could give the group another chance to push for the law.

Gas prices jumped sharply at many Minnesota stations this week.

The website GasBuddy reports the average price in the state as of Thursday was $4.44 a gallon, up about 22 cents compared to last week.

Twin Cities gas prices are generally more volatile, according to GasBuddy analyst Patrick DeHaan. DeHaan said the state engages in what he calls "price cycling," where gas stations will undercut prices.

"They'll lower prices, even if the corresponding cost does not go down, they will lower prices to have a lower price than their competition. Once stations no longer have room to continue that behavior — that is, once they've lowered prices so far that they might be close to their cost is when prices make that infamous jump that we saw yesterday,” he said on Thursday.

DeHaan said the longer the Strait of Hormuz is closed, the more Minnesota drivers could progressively see prices rising in the weeks ahead.

But DeHaan said the price spike also reflects issues at refineries in the Great Lakes region. A power outage at a BP refinery in Whiting, Ind., caused it to evacuate, and there have been other disruptions, like maintenance that caused some drivers in Ohio to find empty pumps at several stations, according to WKRC.

"Those problems are so significant that they're also having a leeching impact into areas like Minnesota and Iowa as well,” said DeHaan. “We did start to see gas stations in Minneapolis going up to $4.59 a gallon. Part of that is a small impact of the refining issues in your neighboring region,” he said on Thursday.

Many Minnesota counties are seeing prices higher than the state average, including Martin County in southern Minnesota, which is seeing gas at $4.59 a gallon, according to GasBuddy.

SX Decoys sells lifelike replicas of waterfowl that help hunters attract animals like ducks and geese. Scott Butz owns the Fargo-based company and said in the past few years, his business has navigated a lot of challenges.

The COVID-19 pandemic strangled supply chains, raising shipping costs. Recently, spikes in oil prices from the Iran War have done the same. And all the while, he’s been dealing with tariffs, or taxes on imports.

“We did have to do a little (price) increase, but the customers accepted it,” he said.

Butz is sympathetic to President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy, which aimed to incentivize domestic production, raise revenue and reduce the country’s trade deficit.

“We're going to get our money back,” he said.

In February, the Supreme Court struck down some of the Trump Administration's tariffs, ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, does not give the president the authority to impose tariffs.

Shortly afterward, companies that imported goods from overseas and paid those fees began filing for refunds.

But importers are not alone in bearing the costs of tariffs. It’s also the businesses and consumers downstream of them.

“The importer passes along the increase in price to, say, the wholesaler, who then passes it along to the retailer, who then passes it along to the consumer,” said Louis Johnston, an economics professor at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University.

Johnston said the same kind of dynamic applies in business to business transactions.

But those downstream entities are not getting a refund check.

Shared refunds are ‘hard to imagine’

Allstar Construction replaces roofs and gutters throughout Minnesota and North Dakota.

The company uses imported materials like steel and aluminum, but they’re not the ones actually importing those materials from overseas because they buy from other U.S. businesses.

Allstar’s president, Adam Olson, said it has taken a while for tariff costs to trickle down to him.

His suppliers were working through older inventory of their materials that had not been subject to tariffs, he said, but prices have recently been spiking.

But even though some of the costs of tariffs are being passed down to him, Olson won’t be getting a refund.

“We're not the importer of record, so we're not the ones that are going to be able to apply,” he said. “The refunds are going to start upstream and then hopefully work its way down to the end user.”

But Johnston, the economics professor, is doubtful.

“We don't know for sure, but it's hard to imagine that companies are going to turn around and offer discounts to their customers just because they've now gotten a refund from the government,” he said. “It's possible, it's possible — but I just don't see it as very likely.”

Consumers at the end of the supply chain might also be stuck with some of these costs.

The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank, estimates that last year, tariffs amounted to a $1,000 tax increase per household.

“I don't really think that consumers should expect to see a lot of movements in the prices this year, in terms of the price actually going down,” said Alex Durante, a senior economist at the think tank.

Durante said most businesses will probably hold onto that money as they wait and see which tariffs stick around and what new ones pop up.

That may make Scott Butz at SX Decoys an outlier, since he’s planning to share the refund with his customers.

“I'm actually going to reward our customers with a big sale this summer,” he said.

But tariff uncertainty continues. Shortly after the Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA tariffs, Trump announced a temporary 10 percent global tariff. A U.S. trade court ruled against those tariffs last week, but that order was temporarily paused while the administration appeals.

So, Butz and other importers are not out of the woods just yet.

Allegiant Air said Wednesday it has completed its purchase of Sun Country Airlines, finalizing a deal that combines two low-cost carriers at a turbulent time for the budget airline industry following the recent shutdown of rival Spirit Airlines.

Las Vegas-based Allegiant said the transaction closed after receiving required regulatory and shareholder approvals. When the deal was first announced in January, Allegiant said it was valued at about $1.5 billion, including debt.

“Today marks a defining moment in Allegiant’s history as we officially join forces with Sun Country,” Allegiant CEO Gregory Anderson said in a statement, adding that the new combined airline is positioned to offer broader access to affordable travel.

The deal comes as both airlines and travelers are grappling with a sharp run-up in jet fuel costs driven by the war in the Middle East, a jump that is already showing up in higher fares and fees across the industry. That increase is hitting low-cost airlines especially hard, since they have less room to absorb rising costs.

The pressure was especially acute for Spirit Airlines. The ultra low-cost carrier shut down after 34 years May 2, its collapse accelerated by the sharp rise in fuel costs following years of financial strain, including heavy debt, repeated restructuring efforts and ongoing cash-flow problems.

Against that backdrop, Allegiant and Sun Country say their tie-up gives them more ways to generate revenue. Along with passenger flights, Sun Country brings into the fold cargo flying for Amazon, as well as charter trips for sports teams, casinos and the U.S. Department of Defense,.

Allegiant says the expanded network is also expected to give travelers more options, especially in smaller and mid-sized markets, with about 195 aircraft serving nearly 175 cities and more than 650 routes.

For now, travelers shouldn’t expect any changes. Both airlines will continue to operate separately, and customers can keep booking, checking in and managing trips just as they do today.

Allegiant said it will take time to bring the two airlines together. Over the long term, the combined company is expected to operate under the Allegiant name and remain headquartered in Las Vegas, while adding new options and connections across its broader network.

Minneapolis–St. Paul, where Sun Country is based, will remain an important hub for the airline.

Rising numbers of Minnesota childcare providers say they are not confident their businesses are sustainable, a concerning new survey shows.

Economic conditions are so difficult that one-third of those responding to the survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and the nonprofit group First Children’s Finance said they’ve had to stop paying themselves in order to pay the rising costs of food and insurance.

“That's always really alarming to me,” Suzanne Pearl, Minnesota director of First Children’s Finance, told reporters Wednesday as the survey results were released.

“I know that happens with a lot of small businesses,” she added. “Your small business is kind of entwined with your life, but I don't know that that's a sustainable way to do business, especially for a sector that's as critical to the rest of the economy as childcare is.”

The latest survey stands in contrast to 2024, when many providers said they were optimistic about rising enrollment and more confident about sustaining their businesses coming off the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2025, though, Minnesota childcare providers saw decreases in enrollment that were exacerbated in 2026 by the surge of federal immigration agents in Minnesota and the new paid family leave program in early January.

The paid family leave program is delaying when families might send their infants to childcare. Infants are the largest revenue source for centers.

“This is another potential change to the childcare market, and we'll be watching over the next few years to learn how the paid leave program impacts the demand for childcare, and how that might, in turn, impact the childcare business model overall,” Pearl said.

Programs saw the largest enrollment decrease for preschool-age children. Pearl said this may indicate a shifting customer base in childcare due to the availability of free or low-cost options for preschoolers.

While food costs have been on a steady incline, insurance was the largest cost increase reported in the new survey.

“We've been hearing for a few years from childcare businesses about the rising cost or even inability to secure business liability insurance,” Pearl said. “In recent months, we've learned of some centers whose insurance carriers have pulled their policies altogether and they had to shut down.”

The ability of families to afford childcare remains a constant worry among the more than 750 providers who provided survey responses from April 8-24.

The vast majority of childcare providers surveyed are part of the Minnesota Great Start Compensation Support Payment Program, a state effort to subsidize pay and benefits of childcare workers. Yet the new results found businesses less confident about the state investment in childcare.

A new, state-facilitated program called Secure Choice is beginning to automatically enroll small business employees, aimed at giving about 300,000 Minnesotans unprecedented access to retirement benefits.

Secure Choice Executive Director Chad Roberts told Morning Edition that the state’s responsibility to help people save — in addition to social security — for life after their careers eases the burden for the rest of the public.

“That social safety net does not have to reach as far, because everybody has their own safety net with retirement,” he said.

More than a dozen states are participating in the program. In Minnesota, the Legislature approved it in 2023, and a staggered rollout began in January and runs through June 2028 based on the number of employees at a business. The default savings rate is 5 percent.

Roberts said the feedback from businesses and employees has been largely positive.

“Employees can opt out, but right now, we're only seeing 16 percent of enrolled employees drop out of the program, and so to us, that's clear evidence that 80-85 percent of Minnesota workers without retirement want this opportunity to save for their own retirement,” he explained.

While money is tight for many right now, “how hard is it going to be at the end of your working career, when you can't generate more income and you don't have anything to buy gas with, to buy groceries with, to pay rent or mortgage with,” he argued. “And money today invested in retirement is worth much more at the time you retire, and so saving a little now gets you a lot later.”

Gas prices are continuing to climb. On Wednesday, according to AAA, the average price in Minnesota was $4.15. It’s averaging even higher in the seven-county metro at $4.24. You may have looked at the price at the pump recently and wished you had an electric car.

But data shows the number of Minnesotans buying electric dropped by 50 percent in the last few months of 2025. From January through October of 2025, EVs made up 8.4 percent of vehicle registrations in the state. In November and December, that dropped to 3.9 percent, according to the Minnesota Automobile Dealers Association.

Association President Scott Lambert said high gas prices are unlikely to reverse the trend. He joined MPR News host Nina Moini to share his perspective on the EV industry.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect that this interview was from a single perspective. Minnesota Now will continue to cover the EV industry from a wide variety of perspectives.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

Prominent U.S. executives from Big Tech and Wall Street to agriculture and aerospace are joining President Donald Trump on his trip to China this week, according to a White House official.

That includes Brian Sikes, chairman and CEO of Minnesota-based food and agricultural giant Cargill.

Trump is expected to arrive in Beijing Wednesday to meet with President Xi Jinping. Aside from discussions about Iran, the two leaders are expected to discuss trade and artificial intelligence.

Sikes has served as CEO of Cargill since 2023 and was elected as board chairman in 2024. He’s been with the company for 35 years. Cargill has more than 155,000 employees in 70 countries, including more than 5,000 employees in China.

Cargill has operated in China for decades, with the company listing business interests in agriculture, food products, energy, metals, transportation and other sectors.

Here’s a look at some of the other executives, according to the White House official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Elon Musk

Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, led Trump's Department of Government Efficiency until leaving in the spring of 2025 before the controversial pop-up agency was shuttered in November. The billionaire, who also owns the social media platform X, feuded with Trump last summer in a war of words that included Musk claiming without evidence that the government was concealing information about the president’s association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Musk eventually said that he regretted some of his posts on X about Trump.

Since then, Musk has refocused his energy on Tesla and his other companies. Tesla has operations in China and Musk has visited there. He’s also been dealing with French prosecutors seeking charges against him and X for child sexual abuse images on the platform, deepfakes, disinformation and complicity in denying crimes against humanity by the platform’s artificial intelligence system, Grok. There’s also a trial pitting Musk against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Tim Cook

Cook remains busy as his tenure at Apple winds down. The CEO announced last month that his 15-year reign as the head of the technology company will come to an end on Sept. 1, when he turns the CEO duties over to Apple’s head of hardware engineering, John Ternus. During Cook’s years as the top executive, Apple saw the its market value soar by more than $3.6 trillion during an iPhone-fueled era of prosperity. Cook will remain with the company as executive chairman.

Apple’s reliance on overseas manufacturing required Cook to master the art of political diplomacy, particularly while Trump waged trade wars with China during both his terms in the White House. After persuading Trump to exempt the iPhone and other products from Trump’s first-term tariffs, he faced a more daunting challenge during the current administration.

While insisting that Apple shift its iPhone manufacturing from China to the U.S., Trump imposed some tariffs on the device this time around. But Cook still managed to minimize the fees by shifting the production of iPhones destined for the U.S. market to India and also winning some exemptions after promising Apple would invest $600 billion in the U.S. during Trump’s second administration.

Jensen Huang

Nvidia CEO Huang heads to Beijing just months after the company received approval to sell one of its powerful AI chips to China, with conditions.

In January the Trump administration placed new security requirements on Nvidia’s semiconductor sales to China, but essentially greenlit the export of its H200 artificial intelligence chips.

Nvidia must ensure that there is an adequate supply in the U.S., and the H200 chips must undergo a third-party review before being exported to China, according to new rules set by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security. But the new rules lower the bar for exports.

China won’t be allowed to use the chips for military purposes and is not allowed to import more than 50 percent of the chips sold to U.S. customers.

The H200 is not Nvidia’s most advanced product. Those chips, called Blackwell and the upcoming Rubin, were not part of the approved chips for export.

Kelly Ortberg

Robert “Kelly” Ortberg, a former CEO at aerospace manufacturer Rockwell Collins, became CEO of Boeing in 2024. He’s spent time focusing on Boeing’s recovery, as the aerospace company was dealing with legal, regulatory and production problems and mounting financial repercussions when he took over.

A year ago Ortberg said that he didn’t expect the U.S. trade war with China to forestall Boeing’s financial recovery, nor prevent it from reaching aircraft delivery targets with Chinese airlines that were refusing to accept its planes. Beijing increased its import tax on American goods to 125 percent in April 2025 in retaliation for Trump raising the tariff on products made in China to 145 percent. China’s tariff would more than double the cost of passenger jets that Boeing, the largest exporter in the U.S., sells for tens of millions of dollars. But Beijing is less of a threat to Boeing now that it used to be, as it has started to send fewer of its finished planes there over time.

Boeing has been in ongoing talks with China over a possible large aircraft sale.

Who else is going

• Blackrock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink

• Blackstone Chairman, CEO and co-founder Stephen Schwarzman

• Citi Chairman and CEO Jane Fraser

• Coherent CEO Jim Anderson

• GE Aerospace Chairman and CEO H. Lawrence Culp

• Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO David Solomon

• Illumina CEO Jacob Thaysen

• Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach

• Meta President and Vice Chairman Dina Powell McCormick

• Micron Chairman, President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra

• Qualcomm President and CEO Cristiano Amon

• Visa CEO Ryan McInerney

The Minnesota Orchestra welcomed 2026 with its annual “Nordic Soundscapes Festival” in January. With music by Jean Sibelius and Hans Abrahamsen, the festival was a bright spot of warmth during winter.

Lurking in the shadows, however, was the news that the Minnesota Orchestra was in a $4.2 million deficit from its previous fiscal year.

“We have very high fixed costs because we have a full-time orchestra,” said Isaac Thompson, who took over as the orchestra’s CEO and president in October 2025.

In fiscal year 2025, the orchestra had a higher audience attendance than previous seasons, returning to numbers similar to those pre-pandemic. They also saw a bump in revenue and a slight reduction in expenses. Still, the scales didn’t balance for the second year in a row.

“There is a structural kind of disconnect between those; the revenue piece, and the expense piece,” Thompson explained.

A look at new revenue streams

In an effort to close that structural gap, Thompson is exploring other revenue options for the orchestra. He’s been looking at models from other major orchestras, such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

“The Los Angeles Philharmonic has the Hollywood Bowl, which is a huge cash cow for them,” Thompson said.

The Hollywood Bowl is a major amphitheater in California that offers a variety of programs. The Minnesota Orchestra has invested in its own outdoor venue, the Community Performing Arts Center amphitheater in north Minneapolis.

“We’ve invested in that venue, and there will be a revenue piece of that, that comes back to the orchestra,” Thompson said.

The venue is part of the large Upper Harbor redevelopment project and will be operated jointly by the orchestra and music venue First Avenue.

“But also even beyond that, it helps kind of broaden the orchestra's brand into the community,” Thomson said. “We're also looking at opportunities like, what is our role within downtown Minneapolis? How can we activate the areas around Orchestra Hall?”

Putting the art front and center

The organization is also looking at cutting costs by changing hiring practices for personnel brought in for special programs. During certain times in a season, the orchestra has to hire extra musicians to meet the needs of a particular performance.

“When you do a massive Mahler symphony, it requires a different kind of set of forces than when you do, you know, a Haydn symphony,” Thompson said. For example, some of Joseph Haydn’s symphonies can be performed by a couple dozen performers, while Gustav Mahler’s 8th symphony requires over 100 musicians, a choir and several vocal soloists.

Thompson said these decisions will not affect programming, but that the change in process will save the orchestra an estimated $2 million over the next two years.

“There's going to be more due diligence in terms of making sure that we're certainly hiring for each of those pieces, but we're not necessarily going beyond that,” Thompson said.

That decision was part of the recent bargaining agreement that the orchestra and its unionized musicians came to in April.

“The organization is in a financial situation that we all understand, and need to help out as much as we can,” said R. Douglas Wright, the orchestra’s principal trombone and a member of the negotiating committee.

“I think that we've come to an agreement that really threads that needle between the financial issues, but at the same time protecting and growing the art form.”

That sentiment is something that both the musicians and Thompson seem to have in mind.

“[Thompson] has let it be known since he got here that the art is going to be front and center,” said Timothy Zavadil, a clarinetist/bass clarinetist who’s been with the orchestra since 2007.

“He is obviously much more well versed on the financial side of things than we are. We feel like we have a partner in understanding the artistic needs for the organization too.”

How the orchestra’s past affects its future

The new union contract also increases musicians' pay 2.5 percent annually for the next two years.

The agreement is a far cry from the infamous lockout in the early 2010s, triggered by a $6 million deficit at the orchestra. In an effort to shore up the deficit, the orchestra proposed massive pay cuts for its unionized musicians.

When the players rejected that plan, the organization locked them out for 15 months — leading to a whole season of canceled performances. MPR News reported at the time it was the nation’s longest running labor dispute at a concert orchestra.

“I think what came out of the lockout is a strengthening of the partnership between the orchestra and the community,” said Zavadil, who also serves on the union’s negotiating committee.

“I think what we learned after the lockout is that this entire organization — and I am including musicians, staff, board and just as important is our audience — we have all come together and taken ownership of this organization to create something that is bigger than ourselves,” he said.

The U.S. war with Iran has pushed inflation to its highest level in almost three years.

Consumer prices in April were up 3.8 percent from a year ago, according to a report Tuesday from the Labor Department. That was the biggest annual increase since May 2023.

Prices rose 0.6 percent between March and April.

From gas prices to housing, here are three things to know about the rising cost of living.

Gas prices are a big driver

Gasoline prices have jumped sharply since the war began, snarling tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for energy shipments. The average price of regular gas is $2.50 a gallon, according to AAA. That's up 38 cents from a month ago. The jump in energy prices accounted for 40 percent of the monthly increase in the consumer price index in April.

Rising fuel costs are affecting other prices as well

When energy costs jump sharply, it can have spillover effects. Air fares, for example, jumped 2.8 percent last month and are more than 20 percent higher than they were a year ago, as airlines struggle with a spike in jet fuel prices. The cost of diesel fuel has risen by $1.88 a gallon since the war began. If that lasts, it could put upward pressure on the price of everything that's delivered by truck or train.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, "core" inflation was 2.8 percent in April.

Housing prices also contributed to higher inflation in April

Housing costs were also a driver of inflation, jumping 0.6 percent between March and April, but some of that is a statistical fluke resulting from the six-week government shutdown last fall. Government number crunchers were temporarily idled in October, so were unable to collect housing prices that month. That's had the effect of artificially lowering the measure of housing inflation. Tuesday's report provides a kind of catch-up.

Copyright 2026, NPR

President Donald Trump says he wants the gas tax to be temporarily suspended as the war in Iran extends into its 11th week and keeps oil prices elevated.

He told CBS News on Monday morning he wants the tax suspended "for a period of time" and would want it reintroduced "when gas goes down."

Asked by reporters in the Oval Office later in the day how long the gas tax would be suspended, the president responded, "Till it's appropriate."

Suspending the gas tax would require an act of Congress. Currently, the tax is 18.4 cents per gallon of gas and 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel.

Regular gasoline cost just under $3 per gallon on average before the U.S. bombed Iran. Now, the average cost per gallon has soared by more than 50 percent to $4.52, according to AAA.

A cost reduction of 18.4 cents would lower that average gasoline cost by around 4 percent. It would bring the cost of a 12-gallon fill-up down by $2.21.

Blockades imposed during the Iran war have stalled the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, causing gas prices to spike. Around one-fifth of the world's crude oil usually travels through that strait.

The potential suspension of the gas tax is a tacit acknowledgment from the White House of the toll that high gas prices have taken on American consumers. Eight in 10 Americans say gas prices are straining their budgets, including overwhelming majorities of Democrats, independents and Republicans alike, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.

In addition, 63 percent of Americans say they blame Trump “a great deal” or “a good amount” for those higher gas prices. That includes more than 6 in 10 independents and nearly one-third of Republicans.

Copyright 2026, NPR

A longtime restaurant near Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul is closing its doors for good next Sunday.

The Downtowner Woodfire Grill on West Seventh Street made that announcement on Monday — saying the closure on May 17 is due to the retirement of owner Moe Sharif after 38 years.

“For nearly four decades, he has proudly served the St. Paul community with dedication and heart,” the Sharif family posted on social media. “Moe would like to extend his deepest gratitude to the city of St. Paul, our amazing staff, and our loyal customers for making this journey so special. The Downtowner has been a true icon in this city — a one-of-a-kind gem that will be deeply missed.”

Sharif operated it as a diner before renovating the space into its current iteration following the arena opening in 2000.

The family said Moe Sharif will continue helping out his son across the street at Burger Moe’s — which is not closing. He’s also planning to spend more time with family and friends, and more time traveling.

Meanwhile, they’re looking for new operators to take over the Downtowner Woodfire Grill space.

“We hope the next torchbearer will continue a meaningful legacy in this space,” the family wrote.

It was a busy Saturday for the staff in the workshop at Perennial Cycle Shop in Minneapolis. Mechanics swapped in new tires, checked brake lines and lubricated bike chains.

Luke Breen has owned Perennial on Hennepin Avenue for 37 years, and while spring brings its fair share of tune-ups, he’s noticed a difference this year.

“We’re seeing a lot of repair bikes coming in. People are pulling their bikes out of their garages. Many people come in to get air in their tires and lube on their chains because they are seeing the gas prices going up.”

While gas prices are causing more customers to consider new ways to get around town, Breen hasn’t seen an increase in new bike purchases — at least not yet.

“At what point does the gas price actually push people to buying bikes? I don't know. I can guess, and it's around five bucks a gallon.” Breen said. “We're not there yet. We're at the point where people are just trying. They're worried that it might happen, and they like to prepare themselves by just getting their bike ready to go.”

AAA listed the average price per gallon of regular gasoline in Minnesota on Monday at $4.17, more than a dollar more than the same time last year.

It all comes down to tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

Tankers moved about 20 million barrels of oil daily through the strait in 2025, according to estimates from the Energy Information Administration, a federal research agency.

Even with a tenuous cease fire between the U.S. and Iran, ships carrying 20 percent of the global supply have stopped moving through the strait.

Paul Sankey is the lead analyst for Sankey Research, an independent energy research firm. He says the U.S. has avoided the worst of it by tapping emergency reserves.

“Our view is that it gets worse before it gets better — a lot worse — because of the emergency inventory running down. But so far, they've centered the situation well,” he said.

Sankey says there aren’t viable alternatives to shipping through the strait. Much of the infrastructure for exporting oil was built to travel through ports to arrive at refineries around the world.

President Donald Trump has said he foresaw the spike, and that it is a sacrifice for toppling the Iranian regime.

But even if everything went back to the way they were before the U.S. strikes on Iran, Sankey says a change in prices won't happen overnight.

“It's all a question of physics. You can't conjure a tanker into a different place. These things move at 15 miles an hour,” Sankey said. “So once they decide to go somewhere else. It takes, you know, a lot of time to get them back to where they should be.”

Metro Transit sees bump in riders

The war more than 6,000 miles from the Twin Cities has commuters searching for alternatives to avoid paying at the pump.

For example, Metro Transit General Manager Lesley Kandaras says April saw 4.5 million rides, a 3 percent bump compared to 2025.

"A lot of factors can be at play. Certainly, we know gas prices are higher this year than that time last year, so that could be a factor."

Kandaras says improved security and expanded services could be increasing ridership.

“We also know transit is a really affordable way to get around our region,” she said. “So it would not be surprising if people are turning to transit as one way to save money — not just on gas — but parking, wear and tear on your vehicle and so forth.”

Breen thinks alternative travel options will become more attractive.

“I think people definitely want to use any type of alternative transportation,” Breen said. “But sometimes, everybody needs a little bit of a push, and so when gas prices go up, that is the kind of little push that that will get them over the edge.”

Breen and Kandaras both say commuters should prepare if they plan to switch up. Knowing the bus lines will help if you’re dealing with bad weather on a bike, and a good bike lock is a solid investment.

And anyone wanting to save that extra bit of money may want to consider it, because, as Sankey said, “The situation looks like it’s going to continue for a while.”