Have you thought about what will happen to your home, your savings or your treasured family keepsakes after you die?

If you’re leaving it to your loved ones to just figure out, you might be leaving them costly and stressful problems.

Coming up at 9 a.m. on Thursday, MPR News host Angela Davis talks about why estate planning isn’t just for the wealthy, and what simple steps you can take now to reduce expenses and family conflict when you’re gone.

And, we want to hear from you too.

Do you have experience inheriting money, a home or keepsakes? What advice do you have? What questions do you have about how to pass on your assets when you die?

Call us during the 9 a.m. hour at 651-227-6000 or 800-242-2828.

Guests:

• Anisha Murphy is an attorney and founder of Just Law LLC, a general practice firm in Minneapolis that includes a focus on estate, life and legacy planning. She is also an adjunct faculty member at Mitchell Hamline School of Law and the University of Minnesota Law School.

• Nneka Constantino is vice president and senior financial advisor at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management with more than 20 years experience. She also created and hosts a weekly personal finance show on 89.9 FM KMOJ radio.

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

As medical behemoth Mayo Clinic continues to lead the way in incorporating artificial intelligence into clinical settings, a new lawsuit alleges that staff at the world-renowned hospital system had been skirting AI compliance rules and masking concerning error rates.

The civil action comes from former Mayo Clinic research director and AI compliance lead Traci Tamiko Eto, who sued her employer this week in federal court, saying she was retaliated against and fired after she blew the whistle on how the hospital’s rush to incorporate AI into their operations put patient care and privacy at risk.

Artur Davis, Eto’s attorney and a partner with the national law firm HKM Employment Attorneys LLC, told MPR News that this is a significant case, especially since it concerns the intimate and confidential patient data hospitals like Mayo Clinic have in their possession.

“If [people] care about the notion that AI has to be handled in a responsible manner, with integrity, and there have to be rules and guidelines, this is a case that should matter to you,” Davis said.

Davis said Mayo Clinic has 21 days to respond to the legal filing.

Mayo Clinic told MPR News Wednesday it is committed to the responsible development and deployment of AI and that privacy, security, transparency and compliance are embedded in its processes.

“Our research and clinical innovation are conducted in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and we remain steadfast in upholding the trust patients place in us and respecting their privacy,” said Andrea Kalmanovitz, Mayo’s communications director. “Mayo Clinic does not comment on pending or active litigation.”

Incorporating AI into patient care has been one of Mayo Clinic’s top priorities in recent years. The renowned medical provider has been developing and using AI to reach more patients and find new ways to better diagnose, treat, predict and prevent disease. In 2019, the health care system launched Mayo Clinic Platform, an initiative to drive health care innovation through the use of AI and other digital products, and just last month Mayo Clinic announced it is partnering with Microsoft to develop an advanced AI model dedicated to health care.

But the lawsuit claims Eto "uncover[ed] a disturbing set of flaws in Mayo’s AI compass" that prioritized speed over accuracy and put patient care and privacy at risk while manipulating data critical in the institution’s medical research.

What does the lawsuit allege?

According to the lawsuit, Eto joined Mayo Clinic in 2023 as Director of Research Operations — entrusted by the company to quarterback its AI compliance efforts and ensure the technology is being used in an ethical way that’s respectful of patient privacy and safety.

Eto first raised issues to her supervisors about the Mayo Clinic Platform in early 2024, concerned that certain de-identification processes of patient data had not been properly reviewed by Mayo’s internal review process.

Eto alleged in the lawsuit her supervisor did not challenge the substance of her concerns but “insisted that having the de-identification process revisited by [the review board] would jeopardize the pace on ongoing research projects, which in turn would compromise Mayo’s competitive advantage.”

Over the course of the next year, Eto flagged multiple instances in which her supervisors would bypass review processes, including those outlined by federal regulatory standards. For example, in July 2024, Eto alleges that her colleague authorized approval of a high-risk investigational medical device to perform cardiac surgery, even though the procedure had not undergone review by the Institutional Review Board.

A few months later, Eto voiced concerns about MAYA, Mayo’s digital assistant tool. The lawsuit alleges that the MAYA team mischaracterized its outcomes, deleted unfavorable results and used an “unsanctioned” software device that compromised both data security. Ten separate whistleblower reports raised similar concerns, including allegations that study investigators were trying to disguise a 67 percent error rate.

“There's a process, there's a set of rules, there is a set of guidelines, and there are a recognized set of exceptions,” Eto’s attorney Davis said. “What she saw was a willingness to use exceptions that didn't apply, a willingness to cut corners and a willingness to not follow the rules out of a desire to get ahead competitively.”

According to the lawsuit, Eto began to be excluded from executive level meetings in early 2025 after she filed a report outlining alleged violations with Mayo’s legal department. Eto claims an AI engineering director warned her that her supervisor had issued “marching orders … to get rid of [her] ASAP.”

Eto said she was told in March 2025 she was a “poor cultural fit” and could either resign as research director with her supervisor’s “blessing” or face the prospect of consequences in her personnel file “that would render her unemployable at Mayo and would impede her career outside the institution.”

Eto stayed on at Mayo anyway, and, according to the lawsuit, she was put on a formal performance plan with Mayo HR department. She claims she was demoted and told she could no longer manage her team of employees. She also said she was kicked off of some of the AI projects she’d been working on. Eto claims in the lawsuit she then experienced a serious depressive episode and applied for medical leave.

Roughly halfway through her leave, in September 2024, Eto was notified that her position had been eliminated.

Eto has asked for the case to be brought to trial and is requesting back pay, front pay, lost benefits, coverage of litigation fees and other forms of compensation.

“When an individual decides that they are willing to file a lawsuit against a public goliath on matters that are hot button issues in our country, she is literally risking her career,” Davis said. “She is risking being attacked professionally. She is risking her reputation, and for her to do that tells you something about her level of confidence that she's right.”

The value of commercial spaces, like office buildings, are shrinking in the Twin Cities. That became apparent last week, when the city of Richfield shared that Best Buy’s headquarters building dropped nearly 50 percent in value in its most recent assessment.

But how was that office building’s value decided? And how does it affect your tax bill?

Josh Hoogland, assessor for Hennepin County, and Laura Russ, executive director for the Shenehon Center for Real Estate at the University of St. Thomas, joined MPR News guest host Catharine Richert to talk about commercial spaces and the impact their value has on cities.

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.

Sign up for the Planet Money newsletter. The world is confusing. Economics can help.

The freedom to choose your work hours has been a game changer for many white-collar workers. Now, it has quietly become an option for some blue-collar workers as well.

With U.S. manufacturers struggling to staff up, a handful are opening the doors to people who may not be seeking a traditional career in the industry or even a 40-hour workweek.

It's a change that manufacturers including Stanley Black & Decker and Georgia-Pacific are embracing. And it has also taken hold in rural northwest Georgia.

Ruth Ransom calls it the best thing she has ever heard.

"I wasn't interested in working full time," says the 68-year-old grandmother, who considered herself retired when she learned of the opportunity to pick up shifts at the Roper Corp., a kitchen appliance plant owned by GE Appliances. "I was just wanting to work part time, maybe two days a week somewhere. You know, just to get out of the house."

Today, Ransom is part of a pool of more than 900 workers who sign up for shifts via an app. Not only do workers make their own schedules, deciding how many four-hour shifts to pick up each week, but they also choose what kind of work they want to do. Assembly line jobs are fast-paced and physically demanding, so Ransom often opts for quality control, which she finds less taxing.

"It's your choice," she says. "I love it."

A COVID-era struggle leads to a "crazy" idea

GE Appliances first embraced flexible work out of necessity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company found itself inundated with orders and severely short on workers.

"People were buying appliances in record numbers, because they were staying at home and they were cooking," says Tony Gabbert, the plant's director of manufacturing operations. "It was a great time, great problem to have when you're just selling product so fast that you can't hardly make them quick enough."

The not-great problem was that workers were staying home, even quitting, because of COVID-19. On some days, the plant was hundreds of workers short. Salaried employees, including Gabbert, had to step in to keep the highest-priority lines moving.

Amid the crunch, Gabbert learned of a staffing firm called MyWorkChoice. Its pitch was intriguing. The firm would recruit and vet a pool of workers who could be trained to do different jobs, building ovens and ranges across the plant. The workers, who would remain employees of MyWorkChoice, would use an app to sign up for open shifts, covering for absences and helping out with increased demand.

Gabbert presented the idea to his boss, Bill Good, GE Appliances' vice president of manufacturing. Today, the two of them chuckle, recalling his response.

"I did say this is crazy," says Good, who has worked in manufacturing for almost four decades.

An industry that runs on consistency

The mantra in manufacturing, Good says, is that you need consistency to build a quality product. It's why, for generations, the proposition to workers was simple.

"We would say: Hey, we have a 40-hour job. We will pay you this amount. This is your benefits. You show up every day, and that is a nonnegotiable," says Good.

What was initially proposed felt like the antithesis of that: adding workers who could sign up for as little as two hours of work at a time.

"The two-hour increments scared the heck out of me, because I was envisioning people coming and going at a rate that we could not control," says Good.

So they settled on four-hour shifts. They started out small, in just a couple of areas of the plant, and expanded over time. Today, in any given week, about 450 flexible workers — roughly half the pool — pick up shifts at the plant, with workers putting in an average of 24 hours a week.

Their contributions have been key to GE Appliances' $180 million expansion of the Georgia plant, completed last year, which added 600 new jobs.

Prizing flexibility over money and benefits

Good's hope is that some of the workers who make their way to manufacturing through MyWorkChoice will discover that they want a career in the industry after all.

But many may not.

"I think with the current workforce, the way that it has changed, it's not the way that it was 20 years ago, where you come, you stay at a job and you work those hours," says Darcy Duvall, the plant's director of human resources operations.

She has found that people are comfortable with app-based work. Workers get rated on their reliability. Those with the highest ratings get the first pick of shifts.

"This is like the Uber of manufacturing," Duvall says.

She has also come to see that many workers prize flexibility despite the significant trade-offs — like lower pay and almost no benefits. MyWorkChoice employees can opt into their own group healthcare plan, but few do.

Kwame Crockett is among a sizable share of flexible workers who are putting in full-time hours at the plant. When he first started with MyWorkChoice, he saw it as a way to supplement his other job, managing and remodeling properties in a mobile home park. He'd sign up for shifts at the plant a few days a week.

"At the time, it worked out perfectly," he says.

More recently, he has been working five days a week. Under the agreement between GE Appliances and MyWorkChoice, Crockett could become a full-time employee of the plant and gain access to GE Appliances' full benefits package, which includes paid time off, paid holidays, on-site healthcare and even a 401(k) match.

But Crockett isn't interested — for now, anyway.

"I've thought about it," he says. "But I never know when my other remodeling or anything might kick up. So I might need a vacation or a little time off, you know?"

Keeping experienced workers on the job

The flexible work option has also helped GE Appliances keep longtime employees with decades of experience on the job.

Doris Hamby worked at the plant full time for 35 years. After her husband died, she might have retired. Instead, she went part time. These days, at 62, she works three to four days a week.

"That way I can spend time with the grandkids, and my momma's real sick so I'm having to take care of her too," she says.

After her move to part time, her boss got her back on the same line, so she's doing the same work, although for a couple of dollars less per hour. Being free to set her own schedule makes it worth it, she says.

"I got people asking me, 'When you going to retire? When you going to quit?'" Hamby says.

Last year, she told her co-workers maybe by the end of the year. Now, she's saying maybe by the end of this year.

"I'll probably be here a while," she says.

Copyright 2026, NPR

The Elk River City Council voted Monday night to reject changes to a city ordinance that would have allowed a new data center.

Elk River Capital and Swervo Development Corp. are proposing to convert an existing 60,000-square-foot industrial building to a data center.

The project would be smaller than hyperscale data centers proposed in other Minnesota communities and promises benefits including jobs and property tax revenue. But many Elk River residents have expressed strong opposition.

Elk River has two existing data centers that don't conform to the city's current zoning rules, which don’t allow data centers in any zoning district.

The City Council considered changing its ordinance to allow data centers in industrial zones, with restrictions. Those included limits on size and energy use, and a requirement to use a closed-loop cooling system to reduce water use.

But the council voted against the change after hearing from numerous residents. They voiced concerns about noise, energy use, pollution from backup diesel generators and health effects on neighboring homes and schools.

"This is not an anti-technology conversation. What this is is, ‘We don't know what we don't know,’” said resident David McClellan. “There are other communities that are investigating this for us. There's a lot to learn, but there's no reason for us to rush into this."

The council still needs to vote on whether to approve a conditional-use permit for the data center. Without the ordinance amendment, the project isn’t allowed. The council is expected to deny the permit at its Aug. 3 meeting.

Some council members said they’re not against all data centers but want to look at each proposal on a case-by-case basis. Some said Elk River Capital’s location near housing and schools doesn’t fit with the city’s future plans.

"Good community planning sometimes means saying yes,” council member Jennifer Wagner said. “It also means sometimes saying no, or not yet, or we just don't have it right yet."

Instead, the council asked city staff to draft a one-year moratorium on new data centers for consideration at an upcoming meeting.

Several other Minnesota cities have already adopted temporary bans on data center construction, including Minneapolis, Rosemount, Inver Grove Heights and Carver.

A data center developer is suing the city of Eagan after leaders adopted a one-year moratorium on new or expanded data centers in February.

Dozens of hospice nurses at Allina Health are on strike Monday, as they push for a contract and pay raises.

The group of 65 hospice nurses work in homes and nursing facilities around the Twin Cities metro area. They unionized in the spring of 2025 with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, and have been negotiating toward their first contract for nearly a year.

Nurses say it’s taking too long to reach a contract agreement. They’re also asking Allina to grant them pay raises during the bargaining process.

Susie Smerz — a hospice nurse and a member of the union’s bargaining team — helped lead a picket line outside the Abbott Northwestern Hospital in south Minneapolis. She says she loves her job, but the working conditions are stressful.

“We're not interested in working for free, we're not interested in being exhausted, we're not interested in being the sacrifice,” Smerz said. “It requires us to give so much of ourselves. We deserve to have management value us and try to work with us.”

Unlike nurses who work in Allina’s hospital, she said, hospice nurses don’t get overtime or holiday pay. Smerz says hospice nurses sometimes have to work 18-hour days, with assignments sending them all over the metro area to see patients. For those long days they receive the same salary they would get for working lighter hours.

“I want to do hospice until I need hospice,” Smerz said. “We're just having a harder and harder time being able to do that because we have a work environment that's not conducive to that.”

Smerz said those problems have led to turnover. She’s seen nurses leave Allina’s hospice program for other agencies.

A spokesperson for Allina Health says they're disappointed that the union chose to strike.

“We know the bargaining table is the best place to reach an agreement,” the organization said in a statement.

The spokesperson also said Allina has plans to continue patients’ care Monday during the strike.

Nurses plan to go back to work Tuesday after the one-day strike.

How can we spend less without giving up the stuff we need?

Maybe you're furnishing your first apartment, replacing a broken toaster, looking for clothes for a growing child or trying to put together a professional wardrobe for a new job.

MPR News host Angela Davis wraps up her “Cheap Week” series with ideas for saving money on the clothes we wear and the things that fill our homes.

She and her guests talk about how to stretch your dollar by shopping secondhand at thrift stores, consignment shops and online resale sites, and how to get and give away things for free through neighborhood “Buy Nothing” groups.

Guests:

• Roxanne Sanchez is co-owner of Nine Lives thrift store in St. Paul, which opened in 2024. She’s also an administrator of her neighborhood “Buy Nothing” Facebook group and had a previous career as a costumer for television and movies.

• Anna Thompson is a Minneapolis mom and digital marketing strategist who loves to shop at thrift stores and online resale sites. She runs the sustainable fashion Instagram account @annazzon and previously worked as a personal stylist for Arc’s Value Village thrift stores.

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.    

When the war with Iran started, one of the top economic concerns globally was the slowdown of oil shipments. But there was another critical export that got stuck in the region when hostilities began: fertilizer.

Before the war, around one-third of the world's fertilizer transported by sea passed through the Strait of Hormuz, according to UN Trade and Development. The waterway has become a shipping chokepoint in recent months.

With the strait closed, fertilizer shipments from the Persian Gulf slumped and prices rose, affecting countries all around the world that import fertilizer. The war also created a global shortage of natural gas, a key component in nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing.

It caused a massive headache for U.S. farmers who were hit with higher fertilizer prices and limited availability just as they were deciding what to plant for the upcoming growing season.

But the costs borne by farmers don't necessarily get passed on to consumers, and food system experts say they're unlikely to have a major impact on the retail prices of fruit and vegetables.

“Consumers are going to see higher food prices come September to January, once harvests start coming in, and the few months thereafter,” said Chris Barrett, a professor of agricultural economics at Cornell University. “Very little of that is going to be directly attributable to fertilizer.”

That's because food inflation is generally driven by larger factors affecting multiple parts of the food supply chain, such as fewer workers and high fuel costs.

U.S. farmers are rethinking their plans

About one-third of the fertilizer used by U.S. farmers is imported, according to The Fertilizer Institute, an industry trade group. TFI Vice President of Public Affairs Christopher Glen said little of that comes through the Strait of Hormuz.

“But we get impacted in a big way because the fertilizer market is global,” Glen said over email. “Even if those tons from the Mideast aren't coming to the US, they are still tons that have been removed from the market and need to be made up elsewhere. That's where the pressure comes from.”

An American Farm Bureau Federation survey released in April reported that 70 percent of respondents said they couldn't afford all the fertilizer they needed this season.

Some farmers are more vulnerable to price swings than others. Producers of corn and wheat, which rely heavily on fertilizer, can spend around a third of their operating costs on fertilizer alone. Half of the farmers who responded to a survey released by the National Corn Growers Association in early April said they wouldn't apply the full amount of fertilizer to their corn crop this year, due largely to higher costs and limited availability.

Because farmers often secure their fertilizer stores well before a growing season begins, some weren't seriously affected by the price swings created by the war in Iran. (Iran said it closed the Strait of Hormuz shortly after it was attacked by the U.S. and Israel at the end of February. U.S. corn growing season typically begins in April.) But they are worried about the future: corn growers who responded to the survey were twice as concerned about the 2027 corn crop as they were about this year's.

This season, some farmers may opt to plant crops that require less nitrogen fertilizer than corn, such as soy beans, in response to rising costs.

According to USDA data, farmers are expected to plant 95.3 million acres of corn this year, down from 98.8 million acres last year. But the total acreage of soybeans is predicted to rise to 85.4 million acres this year from 81.2 million acres last year.

U.S. grocery prices probably won't take a huge hit

If higher fertilizer costs lead to smaller harvests, that could contribute to modest retail price hikes. A TD Economics analysis estimated that a 2-5 percent production shortfall in North America could grow food inflation by around 0.1-0.5 percentage points in 2027.

But experts say the costs of the fertilizer shortage will be largely shouldered by farmers.

The amount a farmer spends on fertilizer is a small fraction of the total cost to grow food and get it to grocery store shelves. Just 12 cents of every dollar U.S. consumers spend on food goes to farms, while the rest is received by transportation companies, processors, wholesalers and grocery stores, according to the USDA. And the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service reported that U.S. farms spent around 7 percent of their budgets on fertilizer, lime and soil conditioners in 2024 (though farmers growing crops more reliant on fertilizer such as corn would spend more).

Additionally, farmers don't have much bargaining power to negotiate with wholesalers for higher crop prices when their operating costs rise, according to Rob Vos, a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. “Those buyers will go to other farmers to try and get it cheaper,” he said.

But there are factors other than the fertilizer crunch that are more likely to cause food prices to jump. Barrett said the global food industry is facing a “really unpleasant layer cake” of pressures, from tariffs and extreme weather to higher prices on labor, fuel and fertilizer.

“No one of those by itself is especially painful,” he said. “But when you add them all up, they become quite painful together.”

In parts of Africa and Asia, the effects of the fertilizer shortage could be far worse. Jorge Moreira da Silva, Executive Director of the UN Office for Project Services, said in April that the reduction of shipments through the Strait of Hormuz may prove “very significant and severe” for poorer countries. Less-developed countries that rely heavily on fertilizer from the Persian Gulf include Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Somalia.

The fertilizer industry is recovering — and may adapt in the process

Some fertilizer prices have begun to fall again in recent weeks, after the U.S. and Iran reached a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz last month.

The Trump administration has also taken steps to lower fertilizer costs for American farmers. This week, Trump temporarily suspended “countervailing duties” on certain phosphate imports, which are added to some imported goods to cancel out subsidies provided by foreign governments.

Still, it will be a while before the fertilizer sector returns to normal. Vos estimated that it could take weeks or months for fertilizer manufacturing plants to come back online and return to previous production levels. If high prices stick around, that could snarl the plans of U.S. farmers preparing to plant cool-season crops this autumn, he added.

Barrett said the trouble with the fertilizer industry has also gotten farmers thinking about how they can protect themselves from these kinds of supply-chain disruptions in the future and looking for other ways to replenish their soil, such as manure, compost and cover crops.

“Just like we're seeing more people interested in electric vehicles because the price of gasoline and diesel has gone up, you see more farmers interested in other ways of replenishing soil nutrients as the price of fertilizer has gone up,” he said.

Copyright 2026, NPR

It can be prohibitively expensive for new farmers to get their start in agriculture. According to the 2022 National Young Farmer Survey, access to land is the biggest barrier young farmers face.

To help, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture launched the Down Payment Assistance Grant in 2023. Starting Monday, July 6, first-time farm buyers will be able to apply for up to $20,000 to go toward the purchase of a new farm.

Minnesota Department of Agriculture Program Manager Jenny Heck said that money can account for about 5 percent of a farm’s purchase price.

“Folks say that it allowed them some breathing room; right after they buy [a farm], they didn't use up all their savings just to make the down payment,” said Heck. “They were able to move forward with other projects to get their farm up and running successfully.”

The grants are awarded through a lottery system, which has enabled farmers across the state to access the funds. Heck said the program has helped 130 farmers make purchases since it began.

Not only can farmers get their start through the program, but once they make their purchases, Heck said many choose to invest in conservation practices they couldn’t use when they rented their land.

“Now that they own property, they're willing to plant perennial crops or invest in soil health, and these things that are so important to farming sustainably and for future generations,” said Heck.

Minnesota farmers are eligible if they or their spouse haven’t bought or owned farmland before. Their past farm sales must be under $250,000 per year, and they must demonstrate knowledge of the type of farming they intend to practice, among other requirements.

Farmers will be prioritized if they earn less than $100,000 annually in gross agricultural sales or produce industrial hemp, cannabis and/or specialty crops recognized by the USDA. Applications close on Aug. 31.

This marks the fifth round of grants awarded by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture through the program. Heck, who checks in with farmers annually for five years after they’ve been awarded a grant, said she hopes the program continues to help more farmers as it grows.

“You often hear that the number of farmers is declining or the average age of the farmer is going up,” said Heck. “But we know that there are people out there who want to get their foot in the door. It's just that they need a little support to make that happen.”

The agricultural economy isn’t the only thing causing headaches for regional farmers.

Grand Farm, a Fargo-based ag nonprofit focused on research and technology, released a report identifying five pain points impacting farmers in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota.

Grand Farm Executive Director William Aderholdt said his team reached out to commodity councils and associations to understand the problems ailing their members. But the report’s goal isn’t just to compile issues troubling farm country.

“With the pain point report, it is more about how do we take a pain point, expose it to the rest of the world, and then help attract companies to come here to help be a part of that solution?” Aderholdt said.

Trouble on the field

The most prevalent problem Grand Farm found was that weeds have become increasingly resistant to herbicides.

“When herbicide formulations came out, they were a great way to tackle a large number of weeds in the field,” said Aderholdt. “Over time, there would be survivors, and those survivors became herbicide-resistant.”

To manage these weeds, farmers have to rely on ever more complex herbicide programs, according to Aderholdt. Those programs are more costly, and it can be tough to keep up with those expenses amid a tough ag economy.

The weather has also restricted herbicide application windows for farmers, as high winds can limit spraying and drought can prevent the herbicide from reaching the plant’s roots.

Variable weather has also led to increased rainfall in some parts of the region, which can lead to flooding. Waterlogged soils can mean farmers have fewer workable field days. It also disrupts soil conditions and nutrient efficiency, which is a problem in and of itself.

The region's landscape is varied. It’s got hills, depressions and uneven terrain overall. These differences can make it difficult to apply fertilizer, as a blanket application could lead to oversupply in some areas and undersupply in others.

“There are ways to continue to improve each year, and that's through a lot of the solutions we're seeing in precision agriculture, remote sensing, using drones and satellites to see what's happening in the field,” said Aderholdt

However, a lot of the technology surrounding these solutions can be complicated and requires skilled labor to operate. That skilled labor tends to be younger, and younger adults may not be too keen to move to rural areas.

“My assumption is that there is the perception that services or amenities aren't as prevalent in these communities,” said Aderholdt. “So there's this feeling of isolation from what you might have become accustomed to or want out of the community you live in.”

Emerging technologies and training can help address some of these issues, such as pest detection, which often relies on manual scouting. Some imaging technologies show research promise for crop disease identification, but high equipment costs are among the obstacles to their adoption.

Aderholdt said it's important that Grand Farm connects with companies that have solutions to the problems highlighted in the report, as it has research fields for testing.

“We have testing environments that match the real-world conditions, so that these companies can try something else out at a low cost and see if it works for our farmers,” said Aderholdt. “You also might not have enough product to apply on a farm because you're a really early-stage startup, and so we work a lot with really small test plots to make sure we can get these things moving.”

The question of whether two locks and dams on the Mississippi River in the heart of the Twin Cities should be removed is getting new attention.

Several groups are exploring the pros and cons of removing the structures and returning the river to a more natural state. Those groups are also studying how it would change everything from safety to recreation.

Centuries ago, the stretch of Mississippi River between Minneapolis and St. Paul was a lot more wild and free-flowing before it became an important navigation route for barge traffic.

But the Upper St. Anthony Falls lock was closed in 2015 to prevent the spread of invasive carp, ending commercial barge traffic in Minneapolis, though it continues downstream at St. Paul.

Two downstream lock and dam structures – at Lower St. Anthony Falls and the Ford Dam, known as Lock and Dam No. 1 – are still operational, but not as vital as they once were.

The stretch of the Mississippi through the Twin Cities is unique, part of the only gorge on the entire river.

Some environmental groups think the locks and dams should be removed to allow the river to flow more freely again. They say it would help restore the ecological health of the river and create new recreational opportunities.

But there are a lot of questions that need to be answered first, according to Colleen O’Connor Toberman, land use and planning director at the nonprofit Friends of the Mississippi River.

"Changing the river in the middle of a major urban area is something that needs careful study and a lot of information before we know what the right decision is,” she said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers owns and maintains Lock and Dam No. 1, built in 1917, and the St. Anthony Falls locks and dams, which were finished in 1963. They were designed to make the river more passable for steamships and barges.

Dams hold back water to create deep navigation pools, while locks act as “water elevators” that raise or lower boats so they can travel between the different water levels.

In 2022, the Army Corps of Engineers launched a study to determine the future of the structures at Lower St. Anthony Falls and the Ford dam.

The so-called disposition study considers whether there is federal interest in continuing to own and operate the locks and dams. Other options could include transferring them to a new owner or removing them altogether.

But Toberman said the Army Corps of Engineer's study is fairly limited. So Friends of the Mississippi River is conducting its own study of the costs and benefits of removing the dams.

“What would a restored river look like?” Toberman asked. “What kind of ecological benefits would we see? What species would benefit? What would it mean for people who come to the river to fish or to paddle or to stand on its shores?”

This year, the Legislature awarded the nonprofit $923,000 for the study from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, which receives a portion of state lottery proceeds.

Potential benefits

Scientists say removing dams and returning rivers to a more natural state with pools, rapids and islands can provide ecological benefits, such as improving water quality and restoring fish habitat.

Shallower, faster-moving water also can create new opportunities for people to access and enjoy the river, such as whitewater kayaking, tubing or wade-in fishing.

The nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association recently released a report examining how restoring portions of the Mississippi by removing the two locks and dams could expand recreation, strengthen community connections and generate economic benefits.

The report highlights other U.S. communities that removed dams and restored a riverfront. They saw increased tourism, local tax revenue and support for local businesses, according to Christine Goepfert, NPCA’s Midwest policy director.

"What those communities showed is that strategic investment in river restoration yields substantial local returns,” Goepfert said.

For example, two dams on the Chattahoochee River in downtown Columbus, Ga. were removed over a decade ago. A whitewater park for thrill-seeking rafters and kayakers now attracts roughly 50,000 visitors a year.

The report says removing the locks and dams could reshape how people experience the Mississippi in the Twin Cities, with places to explore, hike, fish and bird watch. It also could offer an opportunity to reconnect with sacred Dakota places along the river.

Federal land around the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam is being restored by a Dakota-led nonprofit, Owámniyomni Okhódayapi. The organization plans to turn the site into a place of healing, restoration and connection.

Down river, the Wakaŋ Tipi Center, a 27-acre Native-led cultural and environmental interpretive center, recently opened on the Mississippi River in St. Paul.

The two projects are “book-ending” the Mississippi River gorge, Toberman said.

“Deciding what we do to the locks and dams in the middle is a really exciting next piece of that story,” she said.

Weighing the costs

But there are potential downsides. Some recreational activities depend on calmer, deeper waters.

For instance, the University of Minnesota rowing team and several clubs use the stretch for practice. That would no longer be possible if the Twin Cities dams are removed.

Friends of the Mississippi's study will look at how a changed river might affect bridges and other infrastructure, Toberman said. It also will examine what would happen to all the sediment that's built up behind the dams.

"Is that sediment contaminated?” she asked. “What would happen to it if we removed a dam? Would it move downstream? Would we use it to build new shorelines and islands? Is it a concern?"

In a separate study, the University of Minnesota’s St. Anthony Falls Laboratory is building a physical model of Lock and Dam No. 1 to study how removing the structure could change the river.

Toberman said the Friends of the Mississippi River study should be completed by mid 2028. The Army Corps of Engineers is expected to release its draft report for public comment in the spring of 2027.

A final decision on whether to remove the locks and dams is up to Congress.. And Toberman says removing the dams could take 10-20 years.

“It's OK that a decision this big is going to take a while to make together as a community,” she said.

Universities, hospitals, larger nonprofits and religious establishments in St. Paul are tax-exempt but they should still kick in money to “pay their fair share” as the city struggles with a looming $26 million budget gap, City Council President Rebecca Noecker told MPR News.

A “payment in lieu of taxes program” is “something we've talked about for a long time,” she told Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer. “I think this year we need to look at it with particular urgency.”

Noecker said the city is taking concerns about affordability seriously and she’s in line with the Mayor Kaohly Her’s directive to focus on the basics.

“We need to take care of the things that no one else can do first, so that's public safety, that's street maintenance, that's filling those potholes, that's trimming our trees, that's our parks and libraries,” Noecker said.

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

A large resort along the North Shore of Lake Superior previously owned by Bryce Campbell, the Lutsen Resort owner charged with arson in the blaze that destroyed the historic lodge two years ago, has been sold to a group of Minnesota investors.

Landmarq Capital, an investment and asset management firm specializing in destination resorts, announced its acquisition of Superior Shores Resort, located just north of Two Harbors, on Tuesday.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. When Campbell’s North Shore Resort Company purchased the resort in 2020, it sold for nearly $15 million.

The resort will be operated by Leisure Hotels and Resorts, based in the Brainerd Lakes area.

The firm manages hotels and resorts in eight states, including Cragun’s Resort on Gull Lake in Brainerd, which was sold last year by its longtime family owners.

Leisure also runs several other properties in Minnesota, including Pier B Resort Hotel in Duluth, and Cove Point Resort on Lake Superior in Beaver Bay on the North Shore. Superior Shores “is literally halfway between the two of them,” said Jamie Tatge, president and chief executive officer of Leisure Hotels and Resorts. Tatge is also part of the investment group that purchased the resort.

Built in the 1980s, Superior Shores is one of the larger resorts along the North Shore. It includes 106 hotel rooms in the lodge, a restaurant overlooking the lake, a recently remodeled meeting and events center, lake homes and condominiums in an area of the resort known as Burlington Bay.

"Superior Shores is an iconic North Shore property with an exceptional location and significant long-term potential," Tatge said. He believes the property can benefit from an infusion of capital. “Some of these resorts that maybe have gotten a little bit tired, maybe need a little extra love,” those are the properties his company seeks out to reposition for the next several decades, he said.

Landmarq Capital purchased the resort from Blue Waters Development, owned by Joe Re. Re sold the resort to Bryce Campbell in 2020 after owning it for decades. But Campell lost control of the resort in 2024 — about six months after the Lutsen Resort was destroyed — after failing to make $13 million in payments required under a contract for deed.

A judge returned the resort to Blue Waters and placed it under the management of Iowa-based Kinseth Hospitality Group as a “temporary limited receiver.”

But Blue Waters didn't want it back, Tatge said, “and we acquired it from Blue Waters Development.”

Campbell has since been charged with three counts of arson and one count of insurance fraud for his alleged role in the Lutsen Resort Lodge fire. Campbell has asked a judge to dismiss the case, arguing prosecutors don’t have sufficient evidence to support the charges.

“Bryce [Campbell] had nothing to do with our acquisitions. It wasn't a reason to buy or not to buy the asset. We like the area, it became available… and we put the project together.”

Does it feel like every trip to the grocery store costs more than it used to? You're not alone. With food prices still high, many households are looking for ways to stretch their grocery budgets.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with two experts about smart shopping, cutting food waste and preparing healthy, affordable meals.

Guests:

• Mary Schroeder is a health and nutrition educator with the University of Minnesota Extension and a registered dietitian nutritionist. She specializes in helping individuals and families make healthy, affordable food choices through meal planning, food budgeting and food waste reduction. She is based in Willmar, Minnesota.

• Jenny Breen is a chef, public health nutritionist and author of “Cooking Up the Good Life.” She teaches culinary nutrition courses through the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing at the University of Minnesota.

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.    

Officials in Richfield expect a drop in the city's tax base — and potential property tax hikes — after the Best Buy corporate campus property value was cut in half.

The city said in an announcement the value of the company’s Penn Avenue headquarters will drop from $63 million this year to about $32 million in 2027. According to the announcement, Best Buy requested the cut, and the Hennepin County Assessor granted it.

Officials said that will lead to a 5 percent drop in the city’s commercial tax base. That could mean increased taxes for other property owners in the city.

“While this is disappointing news, we know that the commercial real estate market has been struggling,” City Manager Katie Rodriguez said in the announcement. “Recovery since COVID has been slow and large employers across the country have been working to adapt. We also know markets are cyclical and that it will evolve over time.”

Commercial and office property values in the area have been declining for several years. Hennepin County reported a 1.8 percent decrease from 2025 in its 2026 assessment report.

The county determines properties’ values based on comparisons to similar properties and the estimated value of the land and buildings.

Richfield’s city council is scheduled to set a preliminary budget and tax levy in September, with final approval in December.

Whether you're planning a weekend road trip or hoping to book a flight, travel costs can add up quickly. But there are ways to spend less without giving up the experiences that make a trip memorable.

MPR News host Angela Davis and her guests talk about searching for airfare deals, ideas for destinations closer to home and finding more value when you travel.

Guests:

• Kyle Potter is the editor of the travel website Thrifty Traveler.

• Sara Joy Berhow is the public relations supervisor for the Parks and Trails Division of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

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.    

American officials have decided not to renew a key trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, which expired on July 1. Farmers have been bracing for possible changes.

“It's so much out of my control,” said Craig LaPlante, a farmer from Fisher in Northwest Minnesota. “I'm a bystander to what the politicians decide to do. That's the hard part of it.”

The agreement, known as USMCA, allows for tariff-free trade among the three nations on qualifying goods that meet its rules of origin. However, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer recently announced that the U.S. did not agree to renew the pact.

“The United States will continue to engage with Mexico and Canada to address the Agreement’s shortcomings and our trade deficits with these countries,” Greer said in a statement.

The three nations will conduct annual reviews of the agreement to determine what to change and whether to renew it. If the three nations don't reach an understanding over the next ten years, the agreement will expire in 2036.

The developments have added more uncertainty for farmers already contending with a tough ag economy.

LaPlante, who grows a variety of crops, such as soybeans, wheat and winter camelina, said he’s diversified his revenue streams and implemented conservation practices, in part, to cut costs. But that can only go so far given the low prices his crops fetch on the global market.

“We know that everything's going to be a down year,” said LaPlante. “But hopefully we can contain those costs as best as we can.”

Now, with the future of the major trade agreement up in the air, farmers such as LaPlante wonder what could happen to their markets.

An uncertain future

Minnesota has built sturdy relationships with Canada and Mexico over the years. The two nations are among Minnesota’s largest trading partners. The state’s Department of Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen said the trade deal between them helps strengthen those relationships.

“I would argue that it's worked well,” said Petersen. “If the United States backs away, that puts a strain on the relationship. That is not helpful. When you don't have a relationship, maybe with the country, then it's every state for itself.”

Close to 160 agricultural and food organizations from the U.S., Canada and Mexico have called for a renewal of the trade agreement.

Petersen said he’s concerned about potential tariffs that could be imposed should the U.S. back out of the agreement. That could raise operating costs for farmers as some necessities are imported from abroad. Potash, for example, is a vital fertilizer for soybeans, which the U.S. mainly sources from Canada.

On top of that, tariffs could also limit farmers’ markets. John Anderson, a pork producer who operates near Belgrade in central Minnesota, said the agreement has helped him sell some of his gilts to neighboring countries. He also says it’s boosted pork exports to those nations statewide. Minnesota is the second-largest pork-producing state in the nation.

And he said that having free trade with Canada and Mexico has meant he’s never had to worry about his product being subject to tariffs with those countries.

“I personally have never lost any sleep over tariffs,” Anderson said. “I lose sleep on a lot of things, but that's not one of them.”

Leaving the trade agreement could also raise food costs for the average consumer, according to University of Minnesota Grain Market Economist Edward Usset. He said that’s partly because some goods are more cost-efficient to get from other countries, such as tomatoes from Mexico.

To make the point, Usset offered an analogy.

“I could cut my own hair, but it's going to look bad,” said Usset. “I'm better off going to someone who knows how to cut my hair and spend my time doing productive things on my end, and trading for that. Trade is a good thing.”

A Purdue-led study funded by the Corn Refiners Association found that tariff reductions under the current trade agreement and its predecessor, the North American Free Trade Agreement, have reduced consumer costs.

The question of whether the trade agreement will be extended is the latest source of trade uncertainty farmers have had to contend with.

It’s one reason LaPlante is glad he’s been phasing his farm out of mass markets and into niche ones.

LaPlante’s farm, which is home to turkeys and geese, will soon include sheep, goats, and cows. He’s also growing apples to sell locally.

He hopes eventually he won’t have to worry about global markets at all.

“If I'm raising grass-fed beef, I'm taking it to a local butcher facility, and that's being sold from farm to the table, and that way I'm protecting myself,” said LaPlante. “[I’m] trying to establish local businesses, local economies to feed local people.”

Nestled among the pine trees along a stretch of Big Lake Road sits a tiny blue building. If the signs are out on the roadside, the coffee kiosk is open for business.

Jackson Ripley and his family opened the shop MiigWitches Brew in 2024, fulfilling a dream that began years earlier when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full effect. His spouse, Lyz Jaakola, found the kiosk for sale online in 2020, fully equipped as a coffee shop.

“ We had been doing nothing but drinking coffee, being at home, and I'd slowly start getting into more, different variations of coffee with using a mocha pot, thinking about espresso,” Ripley said. “And so I said, ‘Yeah, let's try it.’”

Ripley, 55, wanted to bring quality coffee to his community on the Fond du Lac Reservation in northeastern Minnesota. He and his family’s business have found success while prioritizing community over profits.

“That was kind of like our business mindset is that we would just serve the community and hopefully we’d make a little bit of money.”

‘Close to family, to friends, to culture’

As vehicles make their way down the drive, Ripley often recognizes the car or work truck and is already making the drink by the time the customer pulls up to the window.

Before the kiosk opened, customers living and working in the reservation community would need to press on a few more miles to the neighboring city of Cloquet.

The flagship coffee shop sits on Ripley’s family property on the reservation, about a mile from the tribal community center. His spouse is a tribal citizen of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Ripley is from the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in North Dakota.

They’ve raised their family at Fond du Lac. Ripley’s in-laws, who are elders, live with them. His kids work with him at the shop and he can pop out from time to time to address his in-laws' needs.

“I feel like it's important for Native people to give back, or to be there for their families,” he said.

Proximity to family was a motivator in choosing a location for the business. And that’s not rare.

In a survey of 400 Native entrepreneurs, respondents said some of the perceived advantages to opening on tribal lands were financial benefits, familiarity with the location and being “close to family, to friends, to culture,” said Casey Lozar, director of the Center for Indian Country Development at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

‘The heart is always in it’

Miigwech means “thank you” in the Ojibwe language. Ripley credits Jaakola, 57, with the shop's clever name. Combining coffee, language and magic, the name became MiigWitches Brew. The logo is a cauldron with Ojibwe florals.

MiigWitches Brew is expanding. A year and a half after opening the kiosk, the family added another location 10 miles away at the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College.

Jezlyn Abramowski expertly chats with customers while crafting coffee orders in a space that once served concessions during sporting events.

Abramowski, a Fond du Lac Band member, works as a barista while taking a leave of absence from her university studies. She said she needed time to address her mental health and that MiigWitches Brew is the right place for that.

“I feel like the heart is always in it, and you’re always serving your community, your people,” Abramowski said. “Especially up here on the rez, I feel like it's become a really essential part of our community to have MiigWitches Brew.”

Abramowski finds comfort in working at a business that supports her values and makes space for cultural ceremonies and events.

“Working for an Ojibwe business has been extremely healing for me as an Anishinaabekwe living in the world that we're living in right now.”

Perks that matter

The circle of support also extends to other local small businesses. Ripley sources his coffee beans from a roaster on the North Shore, and he gets his treat supply from a nearby Indigenous baker. For MiigWitches Brew’s signature drink, the maple latte, he gets maple syrup from a local Native farm.

“What we see from our Native entrepreneurs is, really, we prioritize supporting each other over making an outrageous profit,” said Andrea Reese, CEO of the Mni Sota Fund. The Mni Sota Fund is a Native community development financial institution that supports entrepreneurs through business loans and workshops.

“We’re just really rooted in values and culture, so that support of and for our community is really prioritized over anything else.”

Amid the sounds of steaming milk, vehicles pulling up to the kiosk window, and laughter with customers, Ripley has found a rhythm. There are hints that there may be even more opportunities to enjoy MiigWitches Brew in the near future via a mobile coffee shop.

He says he may not be the main breadwinner in his family, but he gets to bring good coffee to his community and he’s present for their kids. And for Ripley, those are the perks that matter.

This story comes from the Upper Midwest Newsroom, a public media collaboration between Wisconsin Public Radio, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Prairie Public in North Dakota, and Minnesota Public Radio News made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Inflation has been too high for too long.

That was the central message of Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari’s statements at a Friday panel discussion at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Joined on stage by two CEOs and an economics professor, Kashkari fielded a wide-ranging set of questions about affordability and confidence in the economy.

Here are three main takeaways.

1) Kashkari expects a rate hike this year

Kashkari is currently serving a term on the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets the Fed’s benchmark interest rate.

In its most recent decision, it voted 12-0 to keep the rate steady. At the same time, it released a “dot plot” where Fed officials anonymously signal where they think the interest rate should head in the future.

Kashkari revealed Friday that he expects a hike before the end of the year, changing his mind from March’s dot plot, where he penciled in a rate cut. He said he’s informed by high inflation and uncertainty about the Iran War.

“I don't trust Iran to honor whatever agreement has been made,” he said. “There's some evidence overnight that they're already reneging on it, so I certainly am not seeing ‘all-clear’ coming out of the Middle East, and that makes me cautious about feeling too good that the worst is behind.”

Inflation has been above the Fed’s target rate of 2 percent for more than five years. The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure rose to 4.1 percent in May, the highest it’s been in three years.

2) Data center and AI investments are fueling inflation, interest rates

The expansion of data centers is also causing upward pressure on prices and interest rates, Kashkari said.

“If we as a country are going to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in this new sector called data centers and AI, that capital comes from somewhere,” he said.

Kashkari echoed a statement he made at a St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce event last month. The ongoing data center boom, which has been financed by companies borrowing heavily, raises the demand for capital. That raises interest rates and pulls capital away from less profitable projects, like, for instance, building housing.

That’s why, Kashkari said, bringing down mortgage rates isn’t as simple as the Fed cutting its benchmark interest rate. There are other factors at play, such as data centers.

“There's a higher return for the economy for that capital to build data centers than to build an apartment building,” he said. “So data centers (are) a big deal. It's having a near-term inflationary impact. It's probably pushing up interest rates across the economy now and for the next several years”

Kashkari said overall, he’s excited about artificial intelligence and that he’s not as worried about its impact on jobs as others are.

“I'm confident that there's going to be important roles for labor going forward, even in the AI dream world that allegedly we're all going to go towards, but that dream world is going to take a lot longer to get there than the forecasters are telling us,” he said.

3) Wages aren’t keeping up

Wages have not been keeping up with inflation recently. Kashkari described the labor market as “treading water.”

“It definitely is not a hot labor market like it was a few years ago, where businesses are desperate to keep the workers that they have, let alone to hire more workers,” he said. “It has definitely cooled off.”

But that might not be the case for long, he said.

“Workers ultimately are going to demand that they be able to make their basic ends meet, that their needs be met, and so one of the challenges is even if these supply dynamics fade, I would expect wages to continue then climbing to enable workers to slowly catch up,” he said.

That increase in wages, in turn, might cause inflation to fall less quickly than it otherwise would, he said.

“A very complicated set of dynamics (is) going on right now,” he said.

Each year, students with MPR News Radio Camp in partnership with ThreeSixty Journalism at the University of St. Thomas travel to an organization to interview experts and produce a radio story with their reporting. This year, the Special Olympics USA Games happened to be in the Twin Cities on the same week as Radio Camp.

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Radio Camp worked with the Special Olympics to give the students an opportunity to conduct one-on-one interviews and ask questions during a press conference. They met with athletes, Special Olympics leaders and fans to create audio stories from their reporting.

Here are the 2026 Radio Campers and their stories. Click on the audio links to listen.

Maryama Ahmed goes to Columbia Heights High School. She interviewed Cindy Mori, the vice president of events for 2026 Special Olympics USA Games.

Yunus Ahmed goes to Rosemount High School. He interviewed Amy Murray, the senior vice president of special events for the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games.

Kendra Andrews graduated this year. She interviewed Matt Allen, more famously known as the hip-hop artist Nur-D, who performed at the Special Olympics USA games.

Lundy’n Jasper goes to Minnehaha Academy. She interviewed Greg Epperson, the regional president and managing director for Special Olympics.

Naomi Miller graduated from Richfield Senior High School. She interviewed country artist Madden Metcalf, who performed at the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games.

Naimo Mohamed goes to Ubah Academy. She interviewed Vikings offensive tackle Walter Rouse, who volunteered with the Special Olympics USA Games.

Olaoluwaotan Olaiya graduated from RiseUp Community High School. She interviewed Olympic athlete Carrie Tollefson, who volunteered with the Special Olympics USA Games.

Vivian Ogunro goes to Breck School. She interviewed Jon Berry, the in-arena host for the Special Olympics USA Games.

TaNiah Queen goes to Burnsville High School. She interviewed musician Paul Peterson, who performed at the Special Olympics USA Games.

Lola Rohl graduated from Minnetonka High School. She interviewed Danny Striggow, a Minnesotan who now plays for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He volunteered with the Special Olympics USA Games.

by Viktorie Spurná , Sahan Journal

During the peak of last year’s immigration crackdown, Colonial Market owner Daniel Hernandez was a fixture: appearing beside the mayor after a high-profile federal sting on Lake Street; batting down ICE rumors on social media; and delivering free meals when customers were afraid to leave their homes.

But Hernandez couldn’t outlast the sharp drop in business that came with Operation Metro Surge. Earlier this month he closed his market at the Hi-Lake Shopping Center in south Minneapolis, two years after it opened.

The market at 2100 E. Lake St., closed its doors on June 14. Its restaurant shut down in March. The store was unable to recover from the loss of business after this winter’s immigration crackdown, said Hernandez, the CEO and founder of the Colonial Market chain.

Rent was due on the Lake Street location and the chain was almost a half-million dollars in debt, forcing a decision, Hernandez said. Colonial Market’s other two locations, in Bloomington and north Minneapolis, remain open.

The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown this past winter has had a lasting impact, he notes.

“In my south location, the one that closed, immigration was taking people literally out of my parking lot. They have probably taken over 20 people,” Hernandez said. “That’s why people are so scared to come to the south Minneapolis location. It may sound crazy, but [it is] because of trauma. They think that if they go to south Minneapolis, the immigration is going to be there.”

He opened the Lake Street location in November 2024 with high hopes. The store featured a variety of Latin American foods and other staples and the restaurant drew customers for its fresh tamales and salsas.

Helping hand during the Surge

The Lake Street store’s primary customer base was the thriving Latino community in south Minneapolis. As thousands of federal agents flooded the community, fewer and fewer of his customers felt comfortable leaving their homes — even to buy groceries, Hernandez said.

In early December, Colonial Market was one of the first local stores to begin offering free food deliveries to vulnerable families.

The impact of Metro Surge on his workers was also severe. Hernandez was forced to let go half of his employees at Colonial’s Lake Street location as business dried up. Workers who did show up faced potential arrest by ICE agents.

“Many of my employees offered to work for free, but I said no, because at the end of the day, I could get in trouble,” Hernandez said. “It’s so touching to see the employees. They’ve been with me for so long.”

He was able to transfer two of his 23 Lake Street employees to his other locations.

A community’s impact

Operation Metro Surge cost Minneapolis workers $152 million in wages, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has said.

Labor economist Aaron Sojourner, who collaborates with Minnesota’s North Star Policy Action institute, said 2 to3% of all small businesses in the Twin Cities metro area closed at least temporarily during the immigration crackdown.

The crackdown cost the 1,000 businesses located along the Lake Street corridor a cumulative $46 million in December and January, said ZoeAna Martinez, senior community engagement manager for the Lake Street Council.

However, she also noted that the majority of these immigrant-owned businesses were able to reopen once ICE agents began leaving Minneapolis in late February.

The Lake Street Council has been providing grants, offering legal assistance, helping fund repairs and hosting cash mobs to boost sales along the corridor. Thanks to these efforts, fewer than five of their businesses have permanently closed, including the Colonial Market and Restaurant.

“We’re hopeful,” Martinez said. “But it really depends on all of us putting our dollars into these small family-owned immigrant businesses to see them into the future.”

The city of Minneapolis “has an ongoing obligation to these business owners, this corridor, and small businesses still impacted,” said Council Member Jason Chavez, who represents the ward where Colonial Market was located. He said he has championed efforts to support small businesses impacted by Metro Surge, including a small business recovery package.

A path forward

Hernandez is now focused on keeping his other locations — 3120 N. Penn Ave., in Minneapolis and 8100 31st Ave. S. in Bloomington — open.

He remains hopeful, although none of his economic problems have gone away. Hernandez started a GoFundMe to raise money for his business.

“I have two options: either to cry about it or to do something, so I choose to do something,” Hernandez said. “I don’t think it’s been working like I wish, but we’re growing little by little.”

To support other Latinos whose businesses went under due to Metro Surge in the area, Hernandez started a free flea market at his Colonial Market in north Minneapolis. Vendors bring food and products and sell them to Colonial Market’s visitors without having to give any of their profit over to Hernandez for using his space.

“This flea market we’re doing … it’s for the community, by the community,” Hernandez said. “So we can lift ourselves up. Together.”

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents is meeting Friday to vote on a budget that contains a 3.8 percent hike in undergraduate tuition for the 2026-27 school year.

The university’s proposed budget also calls for about $44 million in cuts to programs. The proposal estimates that reduction will cut at least 165 academic jobs, and another 64 positions in support areas, like research development, outreach programs and library support services.

The proposed tuition increase is similar to the inflation rate and is less than last year’s hike of 6.5 percent. Still, the proposal got backlash at a public hearing before the Board of Regents earlier this month.

At that June 12 hearing, former student Sasmit Rahman said the proposal is frustrating.

“Tuition keeps rising, but I’m not understanding what students are actually paying for,” Rahman said. “Classes and support services continue to be cut.”

Student fees and room and board costs would also go up, with rates varying by campus. According to the proposed budget, the cost of attendance for a student at the Twin Cities campus — including tuition and other fees — would go up 4.7 percent.

In its announcement of the budget proposal, the university pointed to limited state funding and rising inflation.

“We are taking disciplined, responsible steps to address today’s financial challenges while strengthening our long-term foundation,” University of Minnesota executive vice president for finance and operations Gregg Goldman said.

Speakers at the Board of Regents’ public hearing on June 12 said those cuts are worrying, too.

Eric Daigre teaches in the university’s English department. He said some departments have already had to cut valuable classes and programs due to low funds, particularly in the College of Liberal Arts.

“There’s more than one way to balance a budget,” Daigre said. “Both last year and this year, my concern is that we're balancing the budget by defunding the actual educational mission of the university: education and research.”

Lavender Magazine printed their final issue on Wednesday. The publication focused on telling stories of the LGBTQ+ community in the Twin Cities, was founded in 1995 by George Holdgrafer and Stephen Rocheford.

Barry Leavitt, former vice president of sales and marketing confirmed to MPR News that employees were informed Wednesday that the publication was closing.

“As the longest tenured employee, I’ve enjoyed the relationships I’ve built with clients and within the LGBTQ+ community,” Leavitt said. “I hope in a small way that I’ve helped make life better for our community.”

The closure comes just before Pride celebrations kick off in Loring Park in Minneapolis this weekend.

This is a developing story.

There is new, temporary leadership at a prominent Minnesota business advocacy group after the sudden departure of the prior top executive.

The Minnesota Business Partnership named Erika Nelson and Abby Loesch as interim co-CEOs after the resignation of Kurt Zellers.

Zellers had run the organization since September 2023. He has a background in Republican politics, having served a stint as Minnesota House speaker and an unsuccessful run for governor in 2014.

The group didn't provide a reason for his departure, saying only that he “is no longer with the organization.” He didn’t return a message about his status.

“Our focus remains on advancing our mission and ensuring continuity for our partners, stakeholders and the communities we serve,” said Sarah Barten, the partnership’s communications director.

The partnership represents senior executives at Minnesota's largest companies. It has a team of lobbyists at the Capitol. They have traditionally advocated for lower taxes, less regulation and improvements to state education policy, among other topics.

A search process has begun to find a new chief executive.

The job is a prime spot often occupied by ex-lawmakers or those with government experience. The organization holds annual dinners that attract Capitol movers and shakers.

Nelson has been chief of staff at the partnership and is a former top staff member to U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democratic candidate for governor. Loesch was in charge of the group’s education and workforce policy efforts and has deep experience in Republican politics.

It’s just one of the big shifts ahead for the Minnesota business community.

Doug Loon announced in May he would retire as president and CEO of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce at the end of this year. He had led the 6,300-member group since 2015. No successor has been named and a search process is in progress.

Meanwhile, the Minneapolis and St. Paul chambers of commerce have been exploring a possible merger since 2025.

Hundreds of people crammed into an open house hosted by Google Wednesday night in Hermantown, where the tech giant attempted to assuage community concerns and answer questions about the proposed large-scale data center it’s seeking to build just outside Duluth.

People lined up to ask questions of representatives of Google and others involved in the project, including the construction firm Mortenson and Minnesota Power. They milled about at stations that displayed information on a host of issues, ranging from energy and water use, to noise and light pollution to the project’s economic impacts.

There wasn’t a formal presentation by Google, or an opportunity for members of the public to comment. Rather Google billed the event as an informal chance for people to speak directly with and ask questions of project leaders and other experts.

“We're at a phase in the project where we have enough answers to many of the questions that the community is asking,” said Tyler Huebner, Google’s manager of energy market development for the central U.S.

“We certainly understand the concerns about transparency, and this open house hopefully is a start at rebuilding that trust in the community.”

The proposed data center in Hermantown has generated intense public scrutiny and pushback since details began to emerge late last year. For months, rumors had swirled about a massive development proposal in a rural corner of the city. But the project was shrouded in secrecy.

Emails and other internal documents revealed that city officials had been engaged in discussions for over a year with project developers about the proposal, dubbed “Project Loon,” before the city and Google released details to the public. Several Hermantown and St. Louis County officials signed non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, which prohibited them from discussing details with area residents.

The open house was held after residents came out in droves last month to oppose the massive proposed data center at a recent Hermantown city council meeting, where members voted to delay a decision on providing substantial tax breaks for the project.

Resentment over what many view as a lack of transparency still lingered among several attendees of the open house.

“The information was helpful, and I appreciate the efforts that Google is making to try to address the concerns,” said Hermantown resident Bret Reuter as he was leaving the event. “But I don't know that I'm walking out of here feeling reassured.”

Reuter is especially worried about the immense amount of electricity that data centers require, and that the Hermantown project could cause electric rates to rise down the road. He believes Google should pledge to pay for any increase in rates.

“I think that there's probably some creative things that big companies like Google can do to gain the trust of people that are concerned,” Reuter added.

Google is trying to make the case that it does data centers differently than the handful of other huge tech companies scrambling to build hyperscale data centers around the country to provide the computer muscle needed to power the growth of artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

Huebner says the Hermantown facility is needed to serve Google’s growth, as more and more people use Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube, and other apps and services, including rapidly developing AI platforms.

For the Hermantown facility, Google has reached an agreement with Duluth-based utility Minnesota Power to build 700 megawatts of new clean energy sources to provide electricity for the massive development, including 300 megawatts of wind energy and 400 megawatts of battery storage capability.

The company has said Minnesota’s law requiring utilities to produce 100 percent of their electricity from carbon-free sources by 2040 played a role in its decision to build data centers in Hermantown and Pine Island, Minn., near Rochester.

Google also says it leads the industry in conserving water at its data centers. The company is looking at two options to cool the Hermantown facility– air cooling and a closed-loop design that recirculates water– both of which require minimal amounts of water. The trade off, however, is that these cooling methods require more electricity.

“We're a very strong corporate actor,” said Google’s Huebner. “We want to build this in a responsible way and operate it in a responsible way that we think can provide a lot of benefits to Hermantown and northern Minnesota for years and decades to come.”

Google has pledged to spend about $130 million to extend utilities and infrastructure to the proposed site. In exchange, Hermantown has reached a tentative agreement to offer Google a property tax break of up to $80 million, pending city council approval.

The company has also agreed to pay the city and school district about $45 million over the next few decades, in addition to tens of millions more in tax revenue the project would generate over its lifetime.

“I think there's a lot of opportunity here from an economic impact perspective,” said Brad Orn, a Duluth resident and Hermantown business owner who attended the open house.

“There's a whole area of Hermantown that could get developed because of this that wouldn't normally otherwise get developed. So I think that needs to be looked at.”

Orn, who’s a board member for the Hermantown Chamber of Commerce, acknowledged the issue is touchy. He said everyone in the community is on edge about it. He believes there’s a “silent majority” that supports the proposed data center.

But for many in Hermantown, there’s not much Google can say that would change their minds about the project.

Hermantown resident John Nordin lives just across the road from the proposed data center, where six generations of his family have lived. Google plans to build four enormous buildings in stages on the 280-acre site to house the computer equipment, each about the size of five football fields and up to 50 feet high. The first phase would cost about $650 million to build, with the total investment nearing $2 billion.

His son Mike Nordin grew up on the property hunting and fishing and now lives in Duluth. He said he received only “boilerplate” answers to his questions at the open house that glossed over legitimate community concerns.

“We asked a guy if he'd live across from something like this, and he hesitated. People don't want to live across from something like this, nor should it be forced upon people,” Mike Nordin said.

“The reality is it's damaging and it's hurtful to a rural area,” he added. “Not everything can be developed in this world, and that is an area that shouldn't be developed.”

The Hermantown city council approved a zoning change last October to allow the data center to be built at its proposed location next to a Minnesota Power electric substation.

But it tabled a vote last month on the proposed tax abatement package. The council is expected to take up a revised environmental study of the proposal sometime after Labor day, before it reconsiders the tax package.

Meanwhile, a citizen group that formed last year to fight the proposed data center has filed two lawsuits to try to block it, including one that argues the environmental review of the proposal has been insufficient.

“I wish we could have more information out to the public on the specifics of the project,” said Hermantown Mayor Wayne Boucher, who attended the open house but stressed that the city didn’t play a role in organizing it.

“This is all their deal. We're glad that they're doing it. I wish it could have been done a little sooner,” he said.

Boucher said many of his constituents still have unanswered questions about the project, himself included. But he declined to detail them, saying only they are concerns he has learned from listening to people.

“I don't know where it goes from here, but I think it's a good start,” Boucher added. “I hope we can just keep doing this as civilly as possible. Sometimes there's been a tendency for people to lose control a little bit.”

Health insurance companies are proposing double-digit rate hikes for 2027 Minnesota individual plans ranging from 10 to 13 percent for individuals and as high as 21 percent for small groups, according to the state Department of Commerce.

Providers asking insurers for higher prices, medical inflation and more patients utilizing care are driving the rate increases, policy analyst Matt McGough with KFF Health News told MPR News’ Morning Edition show Wednesday.

The expiration of enhanced premium tax credits last year is also still affecting rates for 2027, he added.

Some insurers “are expecting that the price increases this past year will drive some relatively younger and healthier individuals out of the marketplace, which leaves a relatively sicker pool of people that insurers have to cover, which drives premium increases higher than they otherwise would,” he explained.

Rates will officially be set Oct. 1.

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

Craig Leipold may be one of downtown St. Paul’s biggest boosters.

He’s the owner of the Minnesota Wild, and his company manages the venues that bring two million people downtown every year for games, concerts and other events: the Grand Casino Arena, the Saint Paul RiverCentre and Roy Wilkins Auditorium.

This year, he expanded his sports franchises to include a new women’s volleyball team that he hopes will attract even more fans to downtown. And he just became majority owner of the historic St. Paul Hotel, the century-old hotel overlooking Rice Park where he stays on the top floor when he isn’t home in Racine, Wis.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Leipold about his career, the business of sports, being a dad of five sons and what’s ahead for downtown St. Paul.

Guest:

• Craig Leipold is an entrepreneur and sports business owner. He is majority owner of Minnesota Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Minnesota Wild hockey team and manages the Grand Casino Arena and RiverCentre event center in downtown St. Paul. He is also the owner of a new Minnesota professional women’s volleyball team and minority owner of the Minnesota Twins baseball team. This spring, he also became majority owner of the St. Paul Hotel. He previously owned the Nashville Predators professional hockey team based in Nashville, Tenn.

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

The Minnesota Star Tribune announced layoffs and buyouts for 24 union employees on Monday as part of a broader effort to reduce its workforce.

The company announced aims to cut about 15 percent of its employees company-wide earlier this month.

Most roles impacted this week were in the newsroom, reflecting a reduction in news staff of about 11 percent, according to Star Tribune spokesperson Chris Iles.

Iles said no news-gathering roles — like reporters or photographers — were eliminated. Around 175 people remain in the newsroom, he said.

“That still makes us, by a pretty large margin, the largest newsroom in the Midwest,” Iles said.

Iles could not immediately identify the exact total number of Star Tribune employees terminated this June.

Among those terminated Monday were copy editors, news assistants, print designers and team leaders — who oversee reporters, steer coverage, provide the first round of edits and are experts in their fields, according to Jeff Day, a Star Tribune reporter and co-chair of the Star Tribune Guild.

Day said the reductions eliminated the Star Tribune’s entire department of news assistants, workers whose responsibilities encompassed reporting, putting together box scores, administrative work, serving as reference librarians and helping with public data requests.

Union members are fundraising online to support affected journalists.

“The staff members targeted for these layoffs are part of the heart and soul of this newsroom. They are the definition of newsgatherers. They keep the newsroom functioning in ways large and small,” reads a statement from the Star Tribune Guild shared on the fundraiser.

A day after the newsroom reduction, the Star Tribune retracted an article on a boating incident “that did not meet Star Tribune standards for accuracy, verification and editorial rigor.” The article reportedly incorrectly attributed a quote and inaccurately paraphrased a statement from a source.

“A preliminary review indicates these errors resulted from breakdowns in the reporting and editing process,” according to the staff statement.

Iles could not speak to the situation.

He said the Star Tribune does not see the reductions as a newsroom “retracting” but rather positioning for long-term sustainability.

“We've transitioned from basically a legacy print institution to a digital media company at this point, with more than half of our revenues coming from digital sources and a significantly higher portion of our subscribers being digital versus print,” Iles said. “So this move is really about right-sizing the organization as a digital media company.”

An Inver Grove Heights City Council meeting ended with shouting and boos Monday night after council members delayed a move to pause construction of new data centers.

The city council was scheduled to have a final reading of a one-year moratorium on data center construction to allow time to study their impacts.

But council members decided to recess the meeting until 8 a.m. Friday to consider new information, which they said they’d just received.

As Mayor Brenda Dietrich recessed the meeting, residents loudly voiced their displeasure at the delay.

The council previously voted 3-2 to pass the moratorium. But city ordinance requires three readings of the moratorium before it can take effect.

Data centers are warehouses filled with computer servers that power cloud computing and artificial intelligence. More than a dozen large data centers have been proposed across Minnesota.

A Florida-based developer, QLevr, is proposing to build a 54,000-square-foot data center on Carmen Avenue East in Inver Grove Heights. It’s considerably smaller than hyperscale data centers proposed around the state.

The facility would use a maximum of five megawatts of electricity and a closed-loop water cooling system.

QLevr's attorneys warned city officials in a letter of possible legal action if its decision isn't based on objective zoning laws.

Inver Grove Heights would join several other Minnesota cities that have passed a moratorium on data centers, including Minneapolis, Rosemount, Eagan and Carver.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency won't require an environmental impact statement for a proposed dairy expansion in Morris.

The company Riverview has proposed expanding its dairy facility in Morris from about 8,000 to nearly 19,000 cows. If completed, it would be the state's largest dairy operation.

Some local residents, as well as sustainability groups, had called for an environmental impact statement, a report outlining the project's potential impacts on the surrounding environment, including land, air and water.

Sean Carroll, the policy director for the Land Stewardship Project, a sustainable agriculture group, said he's disappointed that the pollution control agency won't proceed with an environmental impact statement.

“Right now, community members want to understand how this proposal would impact water usage, water pollution, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and what it would mean for the future of rural communities,” said Carroll.

The MPCA said the statement wouldn’t be necessary after reviewing public comments and the project’s environmental assessment worksheet. The worksheet is a short document that lays out a project’s basic facts and assesses its potential for significant environmental effects.

The MPCA determined that concerns, which include water usage and pollution, will be mitigated by existing permit requirements that Riverview must comply with.

Regardless, some residents, including Sandra Fernow, who has lived in Morris for a decade, said that having an impact statement would've helped ease her concerns about water usage and pollution.

“I feel like I would have been comforted with more data on the longstanding impacts of the environment and the socioeconomic impacts of everything surrounding this project,” said Fernow.

Critics fear further dairy industry consolidation could hurt local farmers.

Brady Janzen, a partner at Riverview, said the proposed expansion represents a long-term investment in Morris.

“It's going to support local jobs and local businesses and Minnesota's ag economy overall,” said Janzen. “We really appreciate everyone who took time to learn about the project, attend meetings, ask questions and be involved in that review process.”

Janzen added that Riverview will continue working with state agencies and will comply with permit requirements to ensure conservation measures are followed.

Riverview is set to receive its feedlot permit on June 23. It is still working to get a water appropriations permit, as well as local zoning permits.