Small business owners met with state lawmakers, local officials and nonprofit leaders Friday to discuss the economic impacts the Northland wildfires have had on their tourism industry, and some of them already report “six-figure losses.”

The fires have been burning for almost a month, and a huge flare up that rapidly spread the fires on July 13 led the Forest Service to close the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for nearly two weeks during the peak of the relatively short northern Minnesota tourism season.

The roundtable discussion was organized by the Cook County Chamber of Commerce, along with State Sen. Grant Hauschild (DFL-Hermantown) and state Rep. Roger Skraba (R-Ely). It was held in Grand Marais, at Hungry Jack Lodge on the Gunflint Trail.

Cook County Commissioner Ann Sullivan said small businesses in the area are facing pushback from their insurance companies for claiming damages due to business interruption. She said some businesses have experienced losses running in between “40 to 98 percent.”

“At a time when cash flow has been turned off, the spigot is turned off, a lot of [small business owners] have large bills looming for canoe fleets, and also for merchandise and mortgages,” Sullivan said. “We heard from almost everyone that business interruption insurance coverage is either not available to them or is being denied. I have not heard one insurance company claim that they are going to support our businesses.”

Many business owners said that media coverage of the wildfires and the closure of the BWCAW exacerbated the public perception of conditions in the region, leading to a decline in patronage.

David Seaton, co-owner and operator of Hungry Jack Outfitters said he suffered a 98 percent loss in revenue, calling the month of July, “disastrous.”

“Every one of our cabins [was] canceled. Every one of our outfitting groups could not do their trip,” Seaton said. “I took a reserve cancellation yesterday from a very nice man who was not coming because he was uncertain as to whether it would be safe to come back here.”

Seaton said some of the media coverage of the wildfires and fire conditions in northeast Minnesota make it seem as though the situation is more dangerous to visitors than it actually is. He wants “to make sure that people who are making public statements are good at it, and think about how it fits in [the] context of the world in which they're working, and what the effects those words are going to have.”

Gov. Tim Walz declared a peacetime emergency on July 12, which allowed the state to allocate resources to firefighting, clean-up and recovery efforts. State lawmakers would need to meet in a special session to extend the peacetime emergency beyond 30 days.

As of Friday, it’s uncertain if Walz plans to extend the emergency declaration beyond Aug. 11, which is the 30th day of his initial declaration.

In addition to extending the peacetime emergency, the special session could also address the economic impact of the wildfires in and around the BWCAW, and lawmakers have already been discussing what an economic recovery package would look like.

Sen. Hauschild said that northeast Minnesota needs state aid, but also implored visitors to consider rebooking their cancelled trips in September and to help support the tourism economy as it recovers.

“I’m going to be advocating very strongly for a relief package,” Hauschild said. “It needs to be focused on these businesses who have been impacted. I don’t know if a special session will ultimately be needed due to that peacetime emergency, but if it is, we’re going to be ready to go.”

Rep. Skraba agrees that a relief package is needed, but he also reminded the public that it takes a lot of work to get something like that passed.

“It’s difficult. …it doesn’t just happen,” Skraba said. “There’s a lot of work to get what we want to get done, and it works both sides. …if there is a special session, we’re in favor. We will bring a bill to try to get some relief. But just to get one takes a lot. I’m hoping we do.”

This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.

Harvest Public Media | By Macy Byars

Ben and Paula Sue Steffen have been farming their whole lives in the small town of Humboldt in southeastern Nebraska. Over 40 years of marriage, they’ve seen good and bad times in the agriculture industry.

“It's always a balancing act,” Ben Steffen said. “There have been years where you could make money falling off a tree in this business. There have been some of those years — just get up and plant it — and you walk home and make money.”

“It hasn’t been like that the last few years,” Paula Sue Steffen added. “I don’t even remember in recent years when that would have been.”

This year is no exception. High diesel prices have added thousands of dollars to the yearly cost of running farm equipment. The Steffens had to cough up an extra $50,000 for fertilizer to treat their fields of corn, soybeans, wheat and hay.

“This is the most expensive crop we've ever put in the ground,” Ben Steffen said. “It's kind of breathtaking when you do this year after year, and you keep seeing those numbers go up.”

Those extra costs have already put a strain on the farm’s checkbook. But this year, a completely unexpected cost was added to the ledger: health insurance.

This year, the Steffens expect to pay $32,000 for health insurance — more than double the about $13,000 they paid in 2025 after the premium tax credit. Steffen said they could get a different income-based tax credit, but at this point they’re unsure how much of their costs it will offset.

Paula Sue Steffen said they’ll have to make space for the extra cost, especially in a potentially dangerous business like farming.

“We don't care about the fact that we may have to go to the doctor a few times a year or need a checkup,” she said. “We just need to be covered, because if something does happen, the numbers are just crazy. You have to be covered or you're going to be in trouble.”

The Steffens use an Affordable Care Act plan bought from the federally regulated marketplace. They’re part of millions of self-employed Americans and part-time workers who are paying more for the insurance after Congress allowed tax credits that partially covered premiums to expire.

Premiums jumped 58 percent on average for all enrollees this year, according to the health policy organization KFF. However, premiums doubled or tripled for many middle-income Americans who relied on the expired “advanced premium tax credits.”

The ACA plans — often called "Obamacare" — are a common choice for Americans who can't access healthcare through public benefits or employer-sponsored health plans. In 2025, about 22 million people across the U.S. got their coverage from an ACA plan, comparing and buying plans on healthcare.gov or state marketplace websites.

The majority of people who purchase plans through ACA are working, according to Matthew McGough, an ACA policy expert with KFF. He said some may be working for small businesses unable to provide insurance or working fewer hours than needed to qualify to receive health care benefits through an employer.

“It's sort of like the last catch to get people who don't have any other way of receiving health insurance coverage,” McGough said.

A benefit to farmers

Farmers and ranchers are among many workers who’ve relied on ACA plans. The Congressional Research Service estimates there were 1.2 million self-employed agriculture workers in 2022. A KFF survey found that around 27 percent of agriculture workers are on plans — a high share compared to the general population.

Enrollment fell about 13 percent across all users after premiums spiked this year, and they could rise again next year.

Many enrollees downgraded their plan level, opting for a high deductible to get a lower monthly cost. The Steffens moved to one of the cheapest plans. It has a $7,200 deductible.

“It’s not a gold-plated plan where you get everything paid for,” Steffen said. “It’s the kind of thing that’s not sustainable.”

Health insurance wasn’t always such a concern for the Steffens. Over the past few years, they’ve downsized their operation. As the business changed, so did their healthcare costs.

“When we operated our dairy, we began offering healthcare benefits to our employees,” Ben Steffen said. “It was the right thing to do, and we tried to figure out a way to do it, so that we could help them, help our business and sustain them.”

They paid about $12,600 a year on the group plan. In 2022, the Steffens began selling off their milk cows when costs became too high to sustain their dairy operation. Now, stalls that once held hundreds of cattle are full of hay and the milking barn sits empty – and their health premiums have nearly tripled.

While variable costs and tough years are a part of farming, Nick Levendofsky, executive director of the Kansas Farmers Union, said the sudden shift in healthcare cost is something no one could have planned for.

“It's scary because it's cutting into their bottom line,” Levendofsky said. “They didn't necessarily budget for this. They didn't plan for this, and so therefore they've got to make difficult decisions.’

He said he’s heard stories of people dropping their coverage altogether. Levendofsky’s own premiums tripled this year.

“I was paying an amount that was very reasonable for my budget, and it meant that there was more money in my pocket,” he said. “I could buy more groceries. I could do other things with those dollars, and that's just not the case now.”

Picking and choosing

Having health insurance also provides a safety net for farmers, protecting them from farm-sinking medical debt.

Dina van der Zalm runs communications and outreach for the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, a group that advocates for family-owned farms and rural communities. She directed the organization’s health policy efforts in 2007 when it was advocating for the Affordable Care Act.

“We found a bunch of [farmers] were sending at least one person off-farm to get jobs to get health insurance, and then we also had a ton of people just not getting care, delaying access to care, and we were really, really alarmed by that,” van der Zalm said.

This year, she said she’s seeing the same patterns as farmers look to offset ACA costs. She said she’s spoken to many farmers who are behind on bills, paying minimums and setting up payment plans for regular primary care doctor visits. Some farmers are putting off important health issues or only paying for emergency care until they turn 65 and can enroll in Medicare.

“There's so much that is on a razor-thin margin right now that going uninsured is something folks are not doing now as much as they were doing in those 2007, pre-ACA days, but it is a kind of constant juggle,” van der Zalm said.

A 2024 study from the University of Nebraska Medical Center found farming injuries cost about $11,000 on average in medical care and about $5,000 in lost work.

Financial stress can contribute to more health problems, including mental health challenges — especially in an industry like farming, where people are already managing unpredictable variables, like weather or harvest outcomes.

“One of the things that makes working in agriculture so stressful is how many factors are out of the producer's control,” said psychologist Mikela Spooner with Texas A&M University. “That is a chronic worry and concern that any of these things could happen or affect what they're doing at any given time.”

Spooner works for Texas A&M’s FarmHope program, which offers free mental health services. She said money comes up in many of her discussions with farmers.

“It might not always be at the forefront of folks' minds, or it might not be the exact reason that they're coming to see me, but it's always kind of related,” Spooner said.

Spooner said financial stress can be tied to worries about holding onto their farms and maintaining their lifestyle.

“We are a combination of our thoughts, our behaviors, and our emotions,” Spooner said. “When one of those becomes overwhelmed or out of sync to what helps us function at our best, it relates to all the others.”

‘We just keep waiting for something to give’

Affordable health care advocates have called for Congress to bring back the ACA tax credits, expand Medicare or Medicaid to wider populations, or consider system-wide healthcare reforms. Local groups of farmers and ranchers have also tried pooling resources in cooperative health plans, aiming to benefit rural areas.

In the short-term, farmers and ranchers do have some options to access more affordable health care. Some farm bureaus, farm unions and livestock producer associations offer health plans. But they are typically limited, not required to accept all enrollees and only cover dental, vision or minor health costs.

Nick Levendofsky said the Kansas Farmers Union offers some coverage to members, which he uses for dental and vision.

“It's a member benefit that we have, but we're very honest with people that it is not insurance,” he said. “It's just basically a supplemental plan that kind of helps save them some cost.”

Levendofsky said the Kansas Farmers Union supported the ACA from the start, in part because it would give families more flexibility.

“It could allow both spouses the opportunity to stay on the farm, and that's the goal for a lot of farmers,” Levendofsky said. “They can't do it alone, or they don't want to do it alone.”

And for some farmers, sending someone to work off the farm for an employer that offers health insurance is unrealistic.

Becky Potmesil and her family own a ranch in rural northern central Nebraska. Finding a regular 9-to-5 job would mean an hour commute to the nearby town of Alliance.

“We're too far from town for us to do that. It's a long, bumpy drive,” said Potmesil, who’s 60 years old. “We are on the end of a road out here – so it takes us a lot longer to get there – but we have neighbors that are about 10 miles down the road that are a lot closer to the highway.”

Potmesil's husband is on Medicare, so their ACA plan covers her and their son, who is 18. Their premium doubled to $2,050 per month this year. Like the Steffens, the Potmesils are also dealing with high input costs. Drought and wildfires in the area have also compounded their issues.

“Really, our saving grace right now is that the cattle prices are still high,” she said.

Potmesil said managing costs is still complicated, but she hasn’t considered dropping her ACA insurance.

“We haven't gotten there yet, but if it keeps going the way it is — I mean, we just keep waiting for something to give,” Potmesil said.

The Steffens, who are both 64 and healthy, are holding on until they can enroll in Medicare next year.

Even with the heavy healthcare costs, they still wouldn’t trade their lifelong profession and family business for an employer-sponsored plan.

“The freedom to be self-employed is undervalued and underappreciated,” Ben Steffen said. “To walk out in the morning and sit here and look at a crop that's growing, there isn’t a better time of the year. Our corn’s growing three or four inches every day, and you can just see the landscape changing. It's a hopeful season. It's a hopeful business, really.”

This story is part of "Tough Times," a Harvest Public Media series looking at the economic stress that many American farmers are facing in 2026.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Friday responded sharply to unfounded allegations from President Donald Trump that Minnesota was behind recent cyberattacks on municipal water systems.

Hackers disrupted control systems at water plants in more than 30 Minnesota communities earlier this week, but officials say the attack did not affect water quality.

"You know who's behind it? Minnesota, because they're grossly incompetent,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question about whether Iran could be ruled out as a source of the attack. “I think the governor's behind it. I don't think there was an Iranian cyberattack."

Trump offered no evidence to back his claim.

On social media, Governor Walz responded that "Trump knows exactly who is responsible for this attack, and knows that other states were hit too."

The DFLer added that Trump has “no plan to win a war with Iran” and said that through DOGE, the Trump Administration "took an axe to CISA," the federal cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency.

State and federal officials told media outlets including the New York Times that Iran is likely behind the cyberattacks, but cautioned that investigators have not found conclusive proof of a link to the Islamic Republic.

MPR News reached out to all 10 members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation for a response to Trump’s comments.

In a statement, DFL Rep. Angie Craig called the allegations “baseless” and “nothing but attempts at political retribution.”

“Minnesotans are already reeling from the President’s war in Iran and now we have evidence to believe that the impacts of this conflict have hit even closer to home. It’s time to end the war, stop the political games and put Americans out of harm’s way,” Craig added.

Rep. Betty McCollum, also a DFLer, called Trump’s comments “foolish and cruel.”

“It’s outrageous that he blames American cities and the State of Minnesota for attacks from foreign entities that he provoked,” she said.

DFL U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar did not address the president’s comments but said in a statement that she spoke Friday with U.S. National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross, who confirmed that the attacks have not disrupted water service.

DFL U.S. Sen. Tina Smith called Trump’s response “unserious” and “beneath the dignity of the office he holds.”

“Iran’s purported cyberattack on Minnesota’s water infrastructure must be taken as a serious threat to our national security,” Smith said. “The entire situation serves as a stark reminder of the danger this war puts us in the longer it drags on.”

Two Ojibwe nations in Minnesota asked federal regulators to drop a proposed rule they say would bring online sports betting to reservation land without tribal permission.

The Leech Lake and Mille Lacs bands of Ojibwe filed letters last week with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission against a rule defining the word "gaming" as any activity that people do for fun that turns on chance, skill or athletic ability.

The rule also lays out how the commission decides which prediction markets can operate and requires it to take an additional step to determine if a contract harms the public. The commission decided most sports contracts do not threaten public interest.

In their letters to the commission, both tribes said the proposed rule would hand a single federal agency control over sports betting nationwide, pushing tribal and state regulators aside. A 1988 federal law gives tribes authority over gaming on their own land, with casino-style gaming governed by compact agreements between tribes and states.

Prediction markets are apps and websites where people can gamble on whether something will happen. The companies running the markets say what they offer is a financial trade — similar to a stock future — not a bet.

That difference decides who oversees prediction markets. Financial trading falls to the federal futures trading commission.

The new rule would have the practical effect of allowing sports betting on a phone anywhere in the country, including reservation lands. Benjamin Swankier, general counsel for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, said the tribe is opposed to that.

"This is an ongoing debate that must take place at the local level," Swankier wrote.

Swankier said the band is concerned tribal youth may be harmed by the availability of prediction market apps that mirror sports betting apps.

Leech Lake runs three casinos and has regulated gaming on its reservation in northern Minnesota for three decades. The Mille Lacs band oversees its gaming operations at Grand Casino Mille Lacs and Grand Casino Hinckley.

Mille Lacs Band chief executive Virgil Wind said in the band’s letter prediction markets amounted to gaming. The tribe relies on gaming revenue to fund social services, in lieu of a tax base, he said.

Both letters pointed to federal policy requiring agencies to consult with tribes on rules that would affect tribal gaming operations, which they said the commission did not do. Both asked the commission to meet before going further.

The tribes' comments were among more than 1,400 submitted to the agency. A 45-day comment period on the proposed rule closed Monday.

The agency can finalize the rule, rewrite it, or withdraw it. A final rule would take effect 60 days after publication.

In a separate case, a federal judge on Monday paused a new Minnesota law banning prediction markets while a lawsuit brought by the federal government proceeds. The state law would make it a felony to host or advertise a prediction market.

A federal judge in St. Paul on Friday denied an emergency request to block a Minnesota law banning artificial intelligence technology that can depict a person naked without their permission.

Judge Donovan Frank rejected X.AI’s call to halt the law before it could take effect on Saturday. The company’s court challenge can continue, and Frank scheduled a hearing for next month.

X.AI sued the state over the law earlier this week, alleging it would infringe on the company’s First Amendment Rights, as well as those of its users in Minnesota. It said without the immediate injunction blocking the law, it would have to turn off certain features on its AI model, Grok.

Attorney General Keith Ellison in a memo of opposition Friday said the law wasn’t aimed at restricting free speech, but rather placing guardrails on a tool that can cause harm to Minnesotans. He also argued the request for emergency action coming days before the law was set to take effect “manufacturing an unnecessary emergency” for the court to address.

Ellison also took issue with the company’s argument that it could face penalties for up to $500,000 each time a violation of the law occurred. People portrayed in the deepfake images could also sue AI companies for damages.

“Each day Minnesota’s nudification ban is stayed, more nudified images will proliferate and be used to demean, objectify, and harass women and children,” Ellison wrote. “X.AI’s monetary interests should not outweigh the privacy interests of the people of the State of Minnesota.”

The state also said there would be exceptions to the law for artistic expressions and satirical images or videos. That was a point of contention for X.AI in bringing the challenge.

The ban is the first of its kind in the country. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL- Apple Valley, said it’s an extension of an existing ban on deepfakes generated by AI. It’s meant to prevent the creation of the images and videos before they can be disseminated.

“This technology will be illegal in Minnesota, and the big tech corporations that profit off of image-based sexual abuse will be held accountable,” she said earlier this week.

Maye Quade said some AI companies worked with the lawmakers when they drafted the bill.

The court will hold a hearing in the case on August 19.

Russia launched an intense barrage of ballistic missiles and drones overnight into Saturday, killing at least nine people and wounding 30 civilians in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, authorities said.

The strikes follow a major Russian attack two days earlier that killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 50 others across Ukraine, as Moscow apparently looks to exploit Kyiv’s critical shortage of Western-supplied anti-ballistic missile defenses. The relentless cycle of attacks dims the potential of reaching a diplomatic end to Russia’s more than 4-year-old invasion of its neighbor.

Deaths and damage across Kyiv

A five-story residential building in the city's Solomianskyi District was damaged by falling debris and a fire broke out. Rescue workers evacuated 35 people from the upper floors of the building and two people died, with eight reported injured, including two children, according to Ukraine’s state emergency service.

In the Darnytskyi District of Kyiv, seven people were killed and another 14 injured after the attack caused fires and damage to houses, vehicles, an administrative and non-residential building, the emergency services said.

Elsewhere, emergency workers extinguished a fire in a non-residential building in the capital’s Shevchenkivskyi district. There was no additional information about earlier reports by the district mayor that people were trapped in another residential building.

Damage to commercial and residential buildings was reported in two other city districts.

Lithuania’s foreign minister said the country’s embassy in Kyiv was damaged when missiles struck nearby overnight.

Russia’s defense ministry said Saturday it had launched a “massive strike” against “Ukrainian military-industrial complex facilities and logistics centers in Kyiv.”

Zelenskyy presses for more air defense

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pressed the United States and other Western partners over Ukraine’s need for more Patriot anti-ballistic missile defense systems to counter missile attacks from Russia.

“Every package of ballistic missile interceptors saves the lives of our people. And every night without them results in more casualties,” he wrote on X following the latest attacks.

The Ukrainian leader late Friday said he spoke to U.S. Vice President JD Vance and discussed a meeting with President Donald Trump earlier this week in Washington, which Zelenskyy described as “positive and productive.”

“The Russian air strikes on our country continue and air defense, specifically interceptors for Patriot systems against ballistic missiles, remains a top priority,” Zelenskyy said Friday in a post on Telegram.

At a NATO summit in Ankara in July, Trump said the U.S. would give Ukraine a license to make Patriot systems, but he appeared to move away from that commitment on Friday during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland, saying he had not yet made a final decision on the matter.

Resident describes more frequent attacks

From a basement shelter where she was taking cover as a second air alarm sounded for another wave, Liudmyla Nakonechna, 64, described how she was woken by loud explosions at 1:30 a.m.

“I ran into the corridor and was standing there when the bathroom door was blown off its hinges and struck me in the leg,” said Nakonechna, whose health is poor after undergoing cancer treatment. “I heard the sound of shattering glass. My balcony was covered in glass and it was completely blown apart, while the windows in my bedroom were also blown out.”

Nakonechna had not taken cover in a shelter since Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, but the stress became too much, she said.

“It’s getting worse by the day,” Nakonechna said. “Whereas before there was an attack once every two weeks, or maybe once a week, now it happens practically every day. It is incredibly hard to bear this psychologically.”

In other developments

— In Russian-occupied Crimea, the Moscow-appointed head of the city of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said Saturday that a 60-year-old woman was killed and two other people wounded in a drone attack on the city.

— The Russian online news outlet Astra reported Saturday that a Ukrainian drone set an oil refinery in Ufa ablaze. Local officials said debris from a downed drone caused “smoke” at an unnamed “industrial zone.”

Ukraine’s almost daily long-range drone and missile strikes using domestically developed weapons have battered Russian oil facilities for months. The operation has brought a fuel crisis that is embarrassing the Kremlin more than four years after Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor.

It emerged Friday that federal prosecutors have offered plea agreements to many of the 38 people charged in connection to an anti-ICE protest at a church earlier this year.

It doesn’t appear that any of the 29 defendants offered plea agreements have accepted them. If accepted, defendants’ conspiracy charges would be reduced from felonies to misdemeanors.

The defendants could still face punishments including community service, fines and restitution to the church for security costs under the agreement, according to an agreement examined by MPR News. The government would agree not to charge defendants again for the same incident.

These conspiracy charges are tied to a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul after activists learned that a pastor at the church named David Easterwood was also leading ICE efforts in the Twin Cities. The protest occurred during the height of the ICE surge into the state and elicited strong statements from officials including President Donald Trump, who described protesters as "agitators and insurrectionists.”

The conspiracy charges are based on the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which bans restricting people’s ability to worship or access health clinics. All defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Some of the defendants are journalists that covered the protest, including former CNN anchor Don Lemon and Minnesota independent journalist Georgia Fort.

A spokesperson for the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office did not respond to requests for comment or questions about why the plea offer wasn’t made to all defendants.

The realization that plea deals were offered to defendants comes at a time when the federal government has been struggling with its prosecution of activists for anti-ICE protests.

As of last week federal prosecutors have dismissed charges against 21 of the 36 people they charged with assaulting or impeding federal agents in Minnesota during the surge. In those cases, the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office initially charged all the 36 people with felonies, but later reduced the charges to misdemeanors for all but two defendants.

This church protest case has been plagued by quite a few missteps from prosecutors. Last week, the judge overseeing the case ordered the government to turn over some grand jury transcripts to him to examine.

Defendants want to see if federal prosecutors essentially committed misconduct, which has happened in places like Illinois and led to charges being dropped in a conspiracy case there.

One of the defendants’ attorneys said in a hearing last week that prosecutors have routinely failed to follow the law and published inaccurate information about defendants. A prosecutor responded that they weren’t what he called “material falsehoods” but honest mistakes.

The Minnesota Twins acquired right-hander Dean Kremer from the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night in exchange for minor league outfielder Jhomnardo Reyes.

Kremer, 30, is 1-4 with a 6.50 ERA in seven starts this season. The seventh-year pitcher is 42-44 with a 4.37 ERA in 133 career games, all with the Orioles.

Kremer opened the 2026 season in the minors, one year after he led the Orioles in wins, innings and strikeouts. Kremer went 11-10 with a 4.19 ERA while striking out 142 batters over 171 2/3 innings last season. He also dealt with a quadriceps injury that sidelined him from mid-April until July.

After the Twins beat the Seattle Mariners 5-3 on Friday night, manager Derek Shelton said he expects Kremer will enter Minnesota's starting rotation.

“He’s a guy that over the last couple of years has done a really good job," Shelton said. “I know he had the quad strain early in the year. He’s had a couple tough outings. But, I think as we’ve talked about, we like the stuff. I think we think there’s some ways forward.”

To clear room for Kremer on the 40-man roster, the Twins transferred right-handed pitcher Mike Paredes to the 60-day injured list. A corresponding 26-man roster move will be announced at a later date.

Reyes, 18, is hitting .275 with seven home runs, 46 RBIs and 17 stolen bases in 216 plate appearances between the Twins’ rookie league affiliate and Class A Fort Myers. The Dominican Republic native spent the entire 2025 season in the Dominican Summer League, and was originally signed by the Twins in January 2025.

Republican candidate for governor Mike Lindell has a lot of pitches for the people of Minnesota:

• He wants to right-size the state budget, in part by implementing an office of government efficiency modeled after the DOGE effort President Donald Trump tasked tech mogul Elon Musk to carry out.

• He’s got suggestions for Trump about amnesty for people entering the country without proper authorization if they’ve not committed crimes here.

• He’s proposed eliminating the state sales tax, lowering property taxes and shrinking corporate tax rates.

On the surface, the proposals might sound enticing to GOP voters in the Aug. 11 primary. His campaign has driven hundreds out to town hall events around the state to learn more about Lindell and how he’d make it all happen.

But more often than not, those who show up walk away without a concrete plan. A Lindell-organized forum last week in Sauk Centre is a case in point. He was asked about issues of housing affordability for people in mobile homes, services for people with disabilities and what can be done to strengthen the economy. Lindell told attendees he’d follow up with them.

“We’ll do our due diligence,” he and his running mate Phillip Parrish said repeatedly. Or “We’ll do our best.”

That’s been the case, too, as Lindell touts a budget vision that he said could shrink state spending while fighting fraud and keeping programs intact. For weeks, he’s vowed to release the proposal ahead of the primary election also featuring Republican Party endorsed candidate Kendall Qualls and House Speaker Lisa Demuth.

“I'm going to have my budget done, hopefully in about two weeks. I want to get it done before August 11th to show people what we can do and what I am going to do,” Lindell said last week. “I hate when politicians make promises just to get votes. I'm not like that.”

Deferred plan

Lindell, a businessman who has never held elected office, initially laid out a two-week goal on July 6 when speaking to an MPR News reporter for a story on the way GOP candidates are approaching fiscal issues. It has been three and a half weeks.

Minnesota’s constitution requires a balanced budget, so tax collections and spending need to level out in the end. Sizable tax cuts could depend on sizable program cuts.

While Lindell’s campaign website offers a broad framework of how he’d come down on issues ranging from agriculture to economic development to election security to health care, there are few specifics.

The MyPillow CEO, who has been endorsed by Trump, has frequently floated ideas in public events or media interviews that he later walks back or revises on the fly.

Lindell faced blowback from the Republican base after describing an amnesty plan for people in the country without proper authorization. He has since reframed his ideas in media interviews and public events.

The result has made it difficult for voters and other political observers to pin down exactly what Lindell stands for and what he’d do if he lands the job.

“I think to some extent, Mike Lindell doesn't really know what he would do as governor,” said GOP operative Preya Samsundar. “I think that this was a longshot bid to begin with that has somehow materialized into a campaign that has legs to now be the campaign that we all have to coalesce around for November should he win in August.”

Samsundar said she expects to see much of Lindell’s messaging match Trump’s.

Some of Lindell’s proposals for boosting the local economy or managing immigration include trying to get into Trump’s ear about changes at the federal level that could spill down to Minnesota.

Level of detail differs

With the primary approaching, some polls have put Lindell in the lead. He trails Demuth in overall fundraising although both were significantly outraised by likely DFL nominee Amy Klobuchar.

Klobuchar has rolled out detailed policy proposals to deal with fraud, health care, housing and workforce development. To some degree, Demuth and Qualls have outlined where they stand on fraud and state budgeting, but they haven’t broken out as many specific issue briefs as Klobuchar.

Samsundar said that heading into a potential matchup with Klobuchar, currently a U.S. senator, Republicans need to bring a detailed rundown of how they’d govern.

“They need to come up with real plans, real solutions, and substantive issues that they can point to on the Democrat side that need to be fixed, things in the state that need to be dealt with in order to make the lives of Minnesotans better,” she said.

So far, Samsundar said, Lindell hasn’t done that.

“To assume that he has the ability to turn that around in the matter of two months, three months before Election Day,” she said. “I think that's setting the expectations a little too high.”

In the hunt for the party’s nomination, both Lindell and Qualls have sought to position themselves as the “outsider” candidate. But that means less is known about what they’d support if legislation reaches their desk.

Demuth said she has a more-transparent record for voters. They can see where she’s stood on various issues in the Minnesota House, for better or worse.

“I've got a proven track record with my time in the Legislature of what I've stood for, how I have worked, and so I am a proven leader,” Demuth said. “As opposed to another candidate that is unproven, and people are only hearing what they would maybe do as opposed to what I've actually done.”

Despite that, Lindell said he’s confident he can pull off an upset.

“I'm going around the state, and I have been doing rallies, just like Donald Trump,” Lindell told MPR News. “I want to have the highest money ever raised because I'm going to put it to the best use in history. I'm not taking the primary for granted. I'm just saying if it gets to the point with Klobuchar, we're ready now.”

Two St. Paul city council members said they’re concerned about sexual harassment allegations against Mayor Kaohly Her.

Council members Molly Coleman and Saura Jost said in separate social media posts on Thursday they’re awaiting the results of an ongoing investigation into Her.

“Every city employee deserves respect and a safe, welcoming, inclusive workplace; especially from leaders to whom we have entrusted the most power,” Jost said in the Facebook post. “Sexual harassment has no place in any workplace. It has no place in city government.”

According to Coleman, council members were not informed of the allegations or the investigation before media reports this week.

“The lack of transparency related to this matter to date is unacceptable,” Coleman said in the statement posted on Facebook. “Our partners in the mayor’s administration should have informed the Council of this matter as soon as it was apparent that there were serious allegations against the mayor, and before an external law firm was retained. Transparency moving forward is non-negotiable if we are going to restore trust and faith in city hall.”

Both Jost and Coleman said they don’t want the situation to distract from other work in St. Paul, including an upcoming encampment closure and a $26 million budget gap.

They are the first council members to comment since news broke of the allegations that Her made suggestive comments to multiple city employees.

More allegations surfaced Thursday, including news that a former high-ranking police official told investigators Her made comments about her breasts and engaged in other behavior the former official found inappropriate.

Her said she respects the investigative process and it’s important it reaches its conclusion.

“I remain confident that the full facts will come to light, and I will continue to focus on serving the people of St. Paul with integrity and dedication,” Her said in the statement sent to MPR News on Wednesday.

The U.S. Forest Service reported Friday that the wildfires have scorched nearly 73,000 acres in the U.S. and Canada.

The agency said more than 1,000 personnel are working on battling the fires, which are about 60 percent contained.

Watching for lightning

Storms that rolled through the area overnight brought lightning and pockets of heavy rain (up to 0.79 inches) to the western and northern parts of the fire, according to the Forest Service.

A cold front following the storms will bring in drier and cooler weather for the next few days, which authorities said should result in subdued fire activity.

Andy Pascarella with the U.S. Forest Service said in an update Friday morning that crews will be ready for initial attack on any new lightning strike fires that may have started near the Chub Fire, which is burning southwest of Crane Lake.

“[There was] some rain across the area over the last 24 hours, but a lot of lightning,” he said. “That rain was a little bit sparse in areas and heavier in other areas, so they'll be out there in case one of those fires gets going.”

Pascarella said crews are also standing by watching for any fires that may have started from lightning strikes in the vicinity of the Camp Fire, which is burning northeast of Ely. That fire is now 69 percent contained.

Status of fire containment efforts

U.S. Forest Service officials said Friday that the largest fire, the Bear Trap fire, is now 38 percent contained. It’s located south of Lac La Croix, about 20 miles north of Ely, and has burned nearly 38,000 acres in the U.S. and Canada.

Firefighters are working to build containment lines near Gull Lake, along the western edge of an outgrowth from the main fire.

The Little Knife Fire, which has burned nearly 5,000 acres in an area near the end of the Gunflint Trail, is now 70 percent contained, according to the Forest Service.

Firefighters are patrolling on the southwest portion of the fire, “using drones to find pockets of heat, and mopping up to secure the fire line,” while “crews on the northeast side of the fire are using natural features, such as lakes and streams, and improving portage trails for indirect containment lines.”

The improvements in fire suppression and containment efforts have allowed the Forest Service to open up more areas of the BWCAW to paddlers and to overnight camping.

As of Friday, several popular lakes near the end of the Gunflint trail opened up for day trips into the wilderness area, which is welcome news to the outfitters, resorts and other businesses that have been hurting since the fires closed the BWCA.

Economic impacts

Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, Rep. Roger Skraba, R-Ely, the Cook County Chamber of Commerce and others partners are gathering Friday to discuss the economic impact of wildfires on tourism and other industries on the Gunflint Trail in Grand Marais

Meanwhile, the advocacy group Friends of the Boundary Waters has announced its holding a bike ride Aug. 22 to support communities affected by wildfires burning in northeastern Minnesota. The route goes from Ely to Soudan and back, with long and short course options available.

The group said proceeds from the event will go to Ely-area nonprofits and the Mesabi Trail Association.

Air quality

The wildfires burning in northeastern Minnesota made the air smoky in recent weeks, but not Friday.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency forecasts moderate to good air quality across the state Friday.

But wildfire smoke from much farther away will make an impact in the state. The agency said smoke from fires across the Pacific Northwest will continue to affect southern and central Minnesota, where it expects air quality conditions will be "moderate."

The MPCA forecasts air quality in northern Minnesota, north of the low and trailing cold front, in the "green" or "good" zone Friday.

The agency said air quality in most of the state will be good over the weekend.

An Illinois man who made violent threats against Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan has been sentenced to two years of probation.

Caden Sluder, 23, was sentenced during a hearing Friday in Ramsey County District Court held over Zoom.

Sluder pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor count of threats of violence. He’d originally been charged with a felony level count.

In court, Sluder admitted he posted several threats to Flanagan on the social media platform X. The criminal complaint says the threats came in response to Flanagan posts sending condolences to the victims of the August 2025 Annunciation Catholic Church and School shooting and thanking first responders who rushed to the scene.

Sluder said “yes,” after every one of the threats was read aloud in court and he was asked if he’d written them.

Flanagan spoke during the hearing.

“I need Mr. Sluder to know that these posts left my family completely unsure of what was going to happen next,” she said. “I would never ask you, Mr. Sluder, to agree with me politically, but I hope that the therapy, the anger management, the community service will help you understand that there are real people on the other side of the keyboard.”

Sluder was arrested by the Minnesota State Patrol shortly after he made the posts. The criminal complaint says he told an investigator it was a joke and that he was not planning to act on the threats. The then 22-year-old also told the investigator that he was very frustrated. He defended his freedom of speech and apologized multiple times.

After his arrest, he enrolled and completed 26 weeks of anger management courses, started going to therapy and did 50 hours of community service.

“I appreciate the work that Mr. Sluder has done so far, and I choose today to believe that he has learned from this experience,” Flanagan said. “Ultimately, I do hope good things for Mr. Sluder. I do not want this incident to ruin his whole young life.”

But Flanagan added that she wanted him to know the harm and fear the posts caused both her and her family.

She talked about how the threats came just hours after the Annunciation shooting, and just two and a half months after the fatal shooting of her friends former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. Flanagan said she was on the list of political targets that the gunman was carrying.

“I hope that this incident has taught you that words have power,” Flanagan told Sluder. “My hope for you is that this is also an opportunity for a new start to live your life in a good way and to show kindness and grace to others, even and especially when you disagree with them.”

Sluder apologized for his actions and said his arrest was a “massive wake-up call.”

“I offer no excuse for my behavior. Looking back, I am ashamed of my choices that I made that day,” he said. “I understand that my actions brought emotional stress to the victim and my own family. I am sincerely sorry for the pain, disruption and harm my choices have caused to them.”

District Court Judge Joy Bartscher said the case shows how online conversations can strip away humanity. She bemoaned the fact that the hearing was held over Zoom, saying that having everyone in person would have helped to help Sluder understand that in a face-to-face setting.

“You did a lot of hard work, and I think that has been recognized by the deal that you have made and I hope that you've learned from it,” Bartscher said.

She sentenced Sluder to one year in jail, which will be stayed if he abides by his probation guidelines.

In a separate case, a Hugo woman is expected to be sentenced on Sept. 10 for making violent threats against House Speaker Lisa Demuth. Rachel Welsch, 43, pleaded guilty to threats of violence in Washington County District Court in June. She left a series of voicemails threatening violence against Demuth.

Michigan on Saturday joined Minnesota in reporting cyberattacks on nine of the state's water systems but an official said all systems were operating “safely.”

Earlier this week, authorities said cyberattacks targeted over 30 water systems in Minnesota. The source of the attacks is being investigated, but they came amid warnings that Iranian hackers have been focused on such systems.

The reports in Michigan surfaced after the state received a federal cyber alert Tuesday about attempts to tamper with operational technology at water systems.

Soon after, the state received “a small number of reports from Michigan communities indicating activity consistent with what federal agencies described,” said Dale George, the director of communications at the state's Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. He later said nine systems were impacted.

“All systems continued to operate safely, issues were addressed by local operators, and there are no known impacts that posed a public health concern,” George said in an statement.

The FBI, which is investigating, has not publicly identified a culprit and a spokesperson declined to say Thursday who the bureau thought might be responsible. The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other agencies warned in an advisory last week that Iranian hackers have been targeting water and wastewater systems and the operational controls of other critical infrastructure sectors.

“The FBI is aware of recent public reporting around Water and Wastewater (WWS) sectors," the agency said in a statement Saturday. "The FBI and our interagency partners are fully engaged to protect critical infrastructure and we remain well-equipped to protect against cyber threats of all varieties.”

Digital warfare has become ingrained in military conflict, and local water plants or healthcare facilities often lack the funds and know-how to install the latest software patches or take other security steps. That has made them a favorite target, both because of the relative ease of penetrating them and because of the panic such disruptions can cause.

Iran’s interest in the operations of water systems inside the U.S. dates back years. In 2016, the Justice Department charged a group of Iranian hackers in connection with a cyberattack targeting a small dam near New York City.

Minnesota IT Services said that as of Thursday, there were no active requests from Minnesota communities for residents to modify usage of their drinking water. The state agency said most of the confirmed attacks involved technology that water systems use to remotely monitor and control equipment. It said that being impacted meant investigators confirmed there was malicious activity involving the system’s technology and didn’t mean every impacted community had their water service disrupted.

For a few hours on Monday, the city of Braham asked residents to minimize water use as they tried to determine why the water plant was offline. The city of about 1,700 people, located about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Minneapolis, said in a news release that the water plant outage was due to a cyberattack, but it didn’t cause any issue with water quality.

The city said the attackers shut down the operating controls that shut down the well and water treatment plant. That left the city for a time only able to provide residents with the water held in the water tower.

In Plymouth, a city of about 80,000 located outside of Minneapolis, officials said on social media that their water infrastructure communications had been restored by Tuesday afternoon following a cyberattack.

During a Cabinet meeting on Friday at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, President Donald Trump claimed without evidence that recent cyberattacks in Minnesota were the fault of the state, including Democratic Gov. Tim Walz.

Waltz responded on social media, saying Trump "knows exactly who is responsible for this attack, and knows that other states were hit too."

A St. Paul iron foundry is shutting down, after years of legal battles over its emissions.

The foundry announced the closure Thursday, just over a week after appearing in court over a challenge to its permit. Regulators with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency were trying to revoke it, and said the foundry has a track record of noncompliance with the state’s air pollution laws.

In its closure announcement, Northern Iron said the facility is operating legally but decided to close down because of the uncertainty amid that court case and other legal challenges. In a statement, the foundry’s chief administrative officer Tierney Grutza said.

"We are deeply disappointed that, despite years of investment, collaboration and good-faith efforts to address environmental and permitting concerns, we were unable to reach a path forward that would allow Northern Iron to continue operating," Grutza said.

Northern Iron has long faced criticism from both regulators and local residents in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood. In 2023, state regulators fined the foundry, after an inspection found that operators had removed some of its pollution control equipment, in violation of its permit.

Regulators then required the foundry to apply for a new permit. They said those permit applications all came back incomplete.

Foundry leaders denied regulators’ claims that the facility is emitting too much pollution. The MPCA based that claim on modeling from the foundry’s reports, which they said indicated that the foundry was emitting higher-than-allowed levels of particulate matter and lead. But the foundry said air monitors nearby haven’t found evidence of excess pollution. Foundry leaders have accused the MPCA of overreaching in its attempt to revoke the permit.

A spokesperson with the MPCA said the litigation and the agency’s attempt to revoke the permit were consequences of Northern Iron’s incomplete permits — not the fault of regulators.

“The MPCA gave Northern Iron multiple opportunities to submit required information for its permit, and we exercised every authority we had to compel the company to submit necessary information,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Local residents have advocated for the foundry to close. One neighbor, Brittney Bruce, filed a class action lawsuit against the facility last year. She said she frequently finds dust from the foundry inside her house across the street from the foundry. She bought air purifiers for her home and said a tenant in her duplex moved out over concerns about air pollution.

In a statement, Bruce and several other organizers said they welcomed the news of the closure.

“I’m shaking with joy,” Bruce said. “No one deserves to be polluted in this way.”

Mel Lorentz is a local resident and environmental lawyer who has worked with neighbors to advocate for a shutdown. She said she’s grateful that the MPCA took legal action.

“It's hard to overstate the relief that comes with knowing that the largest stationary source of lead and particulate matter in the county is not going to be operating right next to houses anymore,” Lorentz said. “Companies should not be allowed to do whatever they want.”

The class action lawsuit remains open. The plaintiffs are asking for monetary damages from Northern Iron. Lorentz said the closure of the facility doesn’t mean that lawsuit will end.

The MPCA spokesperson said the agency does not yet know what the next steps are in its ongoing court cases with Northern Iron.

Northern Iron leaders said they plan to completely close down the facility by the end of the year. They anticipate laying off 86 workers in the process.

Kody Clemens hit a game-ending grand slam with two outs in the ninth inning as the Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals 4-3 on Thursday after being no-hit by Noah Cameron until the seventh.

After Cameron threw eight shutout innings in his career-long start, Royals closer Lucas Erceg retired the first two batters, then hit Ryan Jeffers with a 2-0 pitch.

Royce Lewis singled, Josh Bell walked to load the bases and Matt Strahm (3-4) relieved Erceg before Clemens smacked his 0-2 slider into the flower box above right-center field for his second career slam and the sixth walk-off grand slam in Twins history. Brian Dozier had the last one in 2018.

Cameron threw 97 pitches, allowing just one hit and two walks while striking out seven batters and stretching his individual streak to 16 consecutive scoreless innings. Jeffers hit a clean single to right-center field to start the seventh and end the bid for Kansas City's first no-hitter since Bret Saberhagen in 1991.

Jac Caglianone hit a two-run home run off Twins starter Bailey Ober in the third inning, and the Royals added an unearned run in the fifth. Ober went six innings with four hits and two walks allowed.

Twins closer Yoendrys Gómez pitched a scoreless ninth for the victory. Minnesota (55-55) improved to 10-2-1 in 13 series since June 12.

Last-place Kansas City (46-64) had won eight of 13 games coming out of the All-Star break.

Kansas City begins a three-game series at Colorado on Friday. RHP Michael Wacha (5-7, 3.60 ERA) pitches for the Royals. RHP Tomoyuki Sugano (10-4, 4.69) takes the mound for the Rockies.

Minnesota starts a nine-game road trip in Seattle on Friday. RHP Zebby Matthews (4-8, 5.21) pitches for the Twins. RHP Bryce Miller (4-5, 2.75) takes the mound for the Mariners.

Napheesa Collier, Olivia Miles and Courtney Williams each scored 16 points and the Minnesota Lynx beat the Toronto Tempo 104-72 on Thursday night for their ninth straight victory.

Kayla McBride added 13 points, Dorka Juhasz had 12 and Natasha Howard finished with nine points eight rebounds, three steals and two blocks for the WNBA-leading Lynx (24-6).

Laura Juskaite led the expansion Tempo (10-18) with 19 points. Marina Mabrey added 16, and Nyara Sabally had 10.

Toronto has lost five straight, which includes a 100-93 loss at Minnesota in Collier’s season debut Tuesday night, and nine of 10.

Minnesota had a season-high 14 steals and scored 31 points off the Tempo's season-worst 24 turnovers.

Collier scored seven points in a 20-6 second-quarter run that gave the Lynx a 14-point lead with 2:31 left and it was 50-41 at halftime.

Miles, the No. 2 pick in the 2026 draft, did not have an assist for the first time in her WNBA career.

Brittney Sykes (foot) and Isabelle Harrison (knee) did not play for Toronto.

Lynx: Host Indiana on Sunday.

Tempo: At Golden State on Sunday.

The long legal battle to erase the debts of nearly half a million federal student loan borrowers who say they were defrauded by their colleges is finally coming to an end, after a recent court ruling in a lawsuit that has spanned three presidential administrations.

The class-action suit, originally filed against the first Trump administration seven years ago, centered on a federal rule known as borrower defense. The rule is supposed to allow borrowers to petition the U.S. Education Department to erase their debts if a school has lied to them — about things like their job prospects, their credits' transferability or their likely salary after graduation.

During Trump's first term, thousands of borrowers who claimed they had been ripped off by predatory schools waited years to have their borrower defense claims reviewed. Finally, advocates sued, arguing that, under then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the department had deliberately and illegally stopped processing claims and wrongfully denied others without considering the merits of their cases.

The suit has endured long enough to bear the names of three different education secretaries: from Sweet v. DeVos in 2019 to Sweet v. Cardona during the Biden administration, and now Sweet v. McMahon for Trump's second term.

"At the end of the day, this settlement has impacted over 450,000 people, and it's improved their personal balance sheets by over $23 billion," said Eileen Connor, executive director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending (PPSL), the advocacy group that filed the suit against the department in 2019.

Once all of the required loan discharges and refunds are completed, Connor says the Sweet settlement will be the largest ever against the U.S. government.

Why it has taken so long

In 2022, the Biden administration agreed to a landmark settlement in the class-action suit, pledging that borrowers who had attended a predetermined list of more than 150 mostly for-profit colleges would receive full and automatic relief from their loans.

Not only that, but the settlement also allowed more than 250,000 additional borrowers to apply for relief during a brief, post-settlement period in 2022. It required the department to review those new claims within a set period of time or the loans in question would have to be discharged.

The second Trump administration revealed in court documents that it had processed only 60,000 of those post-class applications by the court-appointed deadline.

The current Education Department has argued in court that it needs more time — 18 months — to properly review so many applications, "ensuring that taxpayer funds are only disbursed to those borrowers who are entitled to relief on the merits."

But, in a July 17 ruling that likely means the end of this legal fight, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit told the department that the obligations of the settlement were clear early on — and yet the department waited three years to raise an objection.

Ellen Keast, an Education Department spokesperson, told NPR in a statement that the Sweet settlement "imposed an unrealistic deadline."

She said, "The Department has complied in good faith with court orders, and we believe the court erred in not granting our reasonable request."

‘I’m really angry about all the years that my family suffered under these loans’

Jessica Feindt is one of the post-class borrowers who's been waiting years for relief. She lives near Flint, Mich., and was one of the first in her family to go to college. She enrolled at University of Phoenix, hoping to earn an undergraduate degree in psychology.

"They really marketed heavily in the area. It was on every radio station, every newspaper. It was everywhere," Feindt says.

Feindt did earn her degree — and in less than four years. But she took out a lot of debt to do so. "I paid a lot out of pocket. I paid through student loans. I had all federal loans because poor people cannot get [private] loans."

But, she says, she realized later that the school's recruitment counselor had repeatedly misled her, including telling her that her degree would be accepted by the Michigan graduate programs she was interested in applying to next. It wasn't. In 2022, she filed a borrower defense claim, joining that post-settlement group.

In court documents filed in April as part of its appeal, the Education Department revealed that, after the Sweet settlement of 2022, it had provided some $12 billion in loan discharges and/or refunds to nearly 300,000 federal student loan borrowers who claimed to have been defrauded. After the July ruling, that dollar amount will continue to grow considerably.

Connor likens this case, about schools defrauding borrowers, to the historic settlement against Big Tobacco. Like cigarettes, she says, these student loans to predatory schools are "toxic products."

Less than a week ago, Feindt logged in to her federal student loan account, and her college debts were gone — erased soon after the latest developments in the Sweet case.

"I feel like I should be happy," Feindt says, "but I'm really angry about all the years that my family suffered under these loans."

Edited by: Nicole Cohen
Research by: Will Chase

Copyright 2026, NPR

By the time summer rolls around, Minnesotans are eager to dive into their beloved lakes and ride bikes on trails. However, extreme heat, wildfire smoke and an army of mosquitoes and ticks can make summer less appealing.

This year, there is another curveball: a microscopic party crasher known as the cyclospora parasite, which is suspected of making over 18,000 people in the United States sick.

Cyclospora is typically found in contaminated produce or water and can lead to symptoms such as watery, frequent and explosive diarrhea.

While cases of gastrointestinal distress and diarrhea rise every summer in Minnesota, the likelihood that these incidents are due to the cyclospora parasite remains relatively low.

Has the national cyclospora outbreak reached Minnesota?

Minnesotans can be reassured that the large multistate outbreak of cyclosporiasis infections, a gastrointestinal illness caused by cyclospora, has not yet reached the state.

The Minnesota Department of Health has identified 98 cases of cyclosporiasis since May1, marking the beginning of what the CDC considers cyclospora season in the U.S.

“We see cyclospora every single summer in Minnesota, and what we are seeing is right on par with what we would expect to see,” said Trisha Robinson, supervisor of the waterborne diseases unit at the Minnesota Department of Health.

Robinson mentioned that cases of cyclosporiasis are expected to increase for the remainder of the summer.

The health department has not identified any cases in Minnesota linked to the outbreak and is not observing any concerning trends. Currently, there is no evidence to suggest that the contaminated food items were distributed in Minnesota.

Why is it so hard to trace the source of an outbreak?

The CDC and U.S. Food and Drug Administration have linked a subcluster of the current cyclosporiasis outbreak to iceberg lettuce. Taylor Farms, the supplier, has recalled all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico that is available in the U.S. market.

A separate investigation is ongoing to identify other cyclosporiasis clusters across the country, but no specific product has yet been pinpointed as the source.

Tracking the source of a cyclosporiasis outbreak can be more challenging than other foodborne illnesses due to its long incubation period and the difficulty in obtaining samples.

Robinson emphasized that there is typically about a one-week period between when a person is exposed to when they start showing symptoms, although it can sometimes take up to a couple of weeks.

Parasites have a much longer incubation period, requiring time outside the human host to become infectious. According to Robinson, this can result in a significant delay in symptoms, making it different from viruses like the common cold or influenza.

This delay in becoming infectious can lead to contamination events occurring long before the subsequent illnesses are recognized as part of an outbreak. This situation, Robinson said, is a key reason why identifying the exact source of an outbreak can take time.

How do people get infected with cyclospora?

Unlike other foodborne pathogens, such as salmonella and E. coli, cyclospora is primarily transmitted through food or water that has come into contact with human feces. This can occur when produce is irrigated or washed with contaminated water during agricultural production.

Robinson said cyclospora is most commonly associated with environmental contamination. If the irrigation water supply on a farm comes into contact with wastewater and is not adequately filtered, it can contaminate crops intended for human consumption, and people become ill after eating food, usually fresh produce that is contaminated with the parasite.

There is no evidence that cyclospora spreads from person to person. "This is a human-only pathogen," Robinson said.

What can Minnesotans do to stay healthy?

Cyclospora can remain on certain types of produce that are hard to wash thoroughly, such as leafy greens, cilantro, and berries. Robinson mentioned that cooking fresh produce at high temperatures effectively eliminates this parasite.

The health department advises following safe food-handling practices, which include washing hands and fresh produce, to minimize the risk of illness.

If diarrhea persists for an extended period, Robinson said it's important to contact a healthcare provider for appropriate treatment.

“Even though cyclospora seems to be the hot topic of the summer, there are lots of other pathogens that are causing diarrhea that also are important,” she said. “We want to make sure that they're not being overlooked.”

Healthcare providers can test for cyclospora. Robinson noted that they previously had to order a specific test for cyclospora. However, advances in testing methods have led to an increase in the number of identified cases over the past decade. Under Minnesota’s reportable disease regulations, all laboratory-confirmed cases must be reported to the Minnesota Department of Health.

Cyclosporiasis can be treated with a seven- to ten-day course of antibiotics, and most individuals start to feel better within a few days. Additionally, public health officials recommend replenishing lost fluids by drinking water or electrolyte solutions as an essential part of successful treatment and recovery.

The longtime St. Paul factory behind Pearson’s Salted Nut Roll is set to close.

Pearson’s Candy Company told Minnesota officials it will permanently shut down the West Seventh Street plant and lay off about 80 employees at the end of September.

The company said the facility is no longer financially sustainable.

Alex Allen, who served as Pearson’s vice president of operations for four years, said candy makers are facing rising production costs and higher prices for ingredients such as chocolate.

“Inevitable is a little bit too hard of a word, but it a little bit feels that way, and even the big multinationals are also feeling a lot of pressure in this space,” Allen said.

Former Pearson’s maintenance director Scott Kieland said successive private equity owners failed to make the investments the aging factory needed.

“It really needed a turnaround. I mean, they needed to invest some money,” Kieland said. “At that point, the ownership team wasn’t really interested in investing. In fact, they wanted to divest.”

Pearson’s parent company, Promise Confections, said in a statement the brand’s iconic treats may live on.

“At this time, we’re looking to move certain key brands of Pearson's to a strategic partner and we’ll continue to explore all options to make these legacy products,” the company said in its statement. “This decision was made after careful consideration and reflects the current business and economic environment.”

For former employees, the closure also carries a personal weight. Dave Lutz, who worked for Pearson’s nearly 30 years ago, said the Salted Nut Roll has remained his favorite candy.

“It’ll be very disappointing to not see the candy logo, and a company and a place that I spent four years of my life with, to be gone,” Lutz said.

Lili Euzet contributed reporting to this story.

Several new Minnesota laws about domestic violence take effect on Aug. 1.

They’re a result of bipartisan cooperation during the most recent legislative session and make changes to warrantless arrest windows, add safeguards to firearm surrender and plug funding shortfalls for victim services.

“Domestic violence is not a red issue or a blue issue, it’s a public safety issue,” said Rep. Kelly Moller, DFL-Shoreview, co-chair of the Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee.

Ensuring offenders don’t keep their guns

One of the laws aims to make sure that firearms are actually surrendered when offenders are supposed to. Firearms are the most commonly-used weapon in intimate partner homicides, according to reports from Violence Free Minnesota, a statewide coalition of groups working to end relationship abuse.

If a court rules someone has to surrender their firearms because of a protection order, that person has to give up their guns and file proof that they did.

But not enough people are doing that, said Rep. Marion Rarick, R-Maple Lake; in 2016, an affidavit was only filed 4 percent of the time in domestic abuse Order for Protection cases. And data from 2023-2025 puts that at 55 percent for domestic-assault cases with firearm orders.

The new law taking effect Saturday will generally require a follow-up court hearing to ensure compliance.

“You literally have victim survivors saying ‘Nobody's paying attention, nobody's even looking,’ and so now [offenders] have to have a court hearing to prove that they actually have the affidavit,” Rarick said.

The law helps clarify the process for how to surrender a firearm and the roles of the police and courts, said Jess Palyan, policy manager at Violence Free Minnesota.

“Getting firearms out of the hands of abusers is one of the top public safety recommendations we could make,” Palyan said.

Extending warrantless arrests

Once officers have probable cause to arrest someone for misdemeanor domestic assault, they have a three-day window to arrest them before they need a warrant. A new law extends that to two weeks.

“When officers have probable cause to arrest, but they can't locate a suspect right away, they should not lose the opportunity to act within a reasonable amount of time,” said Sen. Bonnie Westlin, DFL-Plymouth.

The law also encourages officers to seek an arrest warrant “without undue delay.”

Rep. Paul Novotny, R-Elk River, is a former law enforcement officer and said suspects would often hide until the time limit was up so they wouldn’t be taken into custody.

“If they get away with it once, they try to get away with it again,” he said. “So it's important that we get that intervention.”

Filling funding shortfalls

The legislature also passed $12 million in one-time funding for crime victim services such as domestic violence shelters and advocacy services.

It helps cover for a decline in federal money.

“This is a field that has been facing federal funding cuts for a long time, since about 2017 across administrations, and we do not believe that it's going to get much better here federally,” Palyan said. “So we're happy that it is getting better on a state level.”

Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten, DFL-St. Paul, said without that money, shelters would close and funding would be lost for victim advocates; Greater Minnesota would be hit especially hard.

“We're still facing this crisis of ongoing funding,” she said. “It's something that we're going to have to come back to next session. I certainly plan on bringing forward legislation to find a solution and find an ongoing funding source for these essential services.”

Other changes include:

• Requiring jail officials to consider a person’s history of domestic violence before releasing them from detention

• Requiring judges to ask in court if victims were notified about the hearing, if they are in court and whether they would like to provide an impact statement

• Establishing a domestic violence task force to examine domestic violence response and policy reform

Small businesses impacted by the recent wildfires in and around Ely and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area may be eligible for some financial assistance that is being provided by the United Way of Northeastern Minnesota.

The Ely Wildfire Recovery Fund was set up to allow donors to designate their gifts to small businesses that have lost revenue due to the BWCAW’s closure and fire related evacuations.

Small business owners can begin applying for the aid Friday, July 31, and all local organizations actively responding to the wildfires are eligible to request funding, too.

“Small businesses and individuals are being affected by the economic impacts of closures and diminished foot traffic in the area, so we are springing to action with support from all over the state,” said Katy Lofquist, communications director for UWNEM. “This is an area that is near and dear [to] so many hearts, and it really is an honor to work here, live here, [and] work for an area that means so much to so many people.”

UWNEMN was asked by a number of community members and local organizations to establish the fund. Burntside Lake Association President Martie Sparks said in a news release that he hopes others will consider donating.

“Our businesses are the heart of this community,” Sparks said, “and their recovery is essential to the future of Ely.”

Donors who want to support the fund can also designate their gift to the “Area(s) of Greatest Need.” These donations may be allocated to small businesses, fire departments, nonprofits, clean-up efforts, and for other community purposes in the Ely area. The fund could also be used to assist individual local residents should their homes be affected by the fires.

To kickstart fundraising and maximize the amount of money available for local small businesses, some anonymous donors have committed a “1 for 2” match for the Ely Wildfire Recovery Fund. They’ll kick in one additional dollar for every $2 donated, up to a total of $35,000.

“We’re in this together,” Lofquist said. “People are feeling the support from across the state. …Ely is open. Northeastern Minnesota is open. You can come, check out the galleries, go to the restaurants, shop in the great local stores. The region is still open. Come stay, come visit.”

Support and help continue

Other communities that UWNEMN serves are also being affected or are at-risk because of the wildfires. The nonprofit is still fundraising through its Crisis Disaster Recovery fund. Nearly $50,000 has been raised for the fund already, with individual donations ranging from one dollar to $5,000. Boston Scientific, NewRange Copper Nickel, Sota Clothing, and Twin Metals Minnesota, are among the bigger corporations that have donated to the fund.

Some of the money has been used to buy air purifiers for seniors living in the Ely area.

If you want to help:

To support either of the recovery funds through the United Way of Northeast Minnesota. Donations can be mailed directly to 608 East Drive, Chisholm, MN 55719. Checks can also be written to “United Way of NE MN,” and the requested purpose for the money must be included in writing.

A film by Jonathan Thunder screens at Duluth Art Institute, music and comedy at The Terminal Bar, an exhibition by spouses at the Plains Art Museum and more in this week’s MN Shortlist.

‘A Musical Journey to Korea’ by the Oratorio Society of Minnesota at the Ordway Theater in St. Paul — July 31

The Oratorio Society of Minnesota is presenting a ‘Musical Journey to Korea’ at the Ordway Center for Performing Arts in St. Paul, Friday at 7:30 p.m. The oratorio is an auditioned choral ensemble, and this performance by its summer chorus features works by Korean composers. The text is in Korean, and two of the songs will feature Korean instruments: the janggu, which is an hourglass-shaped drum; and the buk, a drum traditionally used for court and folk music, played by a drummer from the Korean Performing Arts in Chicago.

Jennifer Brodeen, chair of the Korean Cultural Association in Minnesota, also sings with the choir.

"One thing that's really unique to Minnesota is we have the largest Korean adoptee population in the United States, and so we have some members of the choir that are singing that identify as Korean adoptees,” said Brodeen. “We have some that are culturally Korean as well. For us to have this really unique opportunity to be singing both with non-native Korean speakers is really special."

Following the concert, the choir will travel to Seoul, South Korea, where they will perform concerts with the Seoul Choral Society and the Paejae Chorale. (Emily Bright)

‘In the Heights’ at Artistry Theater and Visual Arts in Bloomington —Through Aug. 23

Long before Lin-Manuel Miranda became a household name with a little musical called “Hamilton,” the composer-rapper-impresario was perhaps best known as the creator and star of “In the Heights.” The musical was adapted for the screen in 2021, and its plot revolves around a bodega owner in a predominantly Latino neighborhood in New York City, and the challenges both he and his customers face. It was once described as “West Side Story meets The Electric Company” by culture journalist Michael Musto.

This production at Artistry is directed by Maija Garcia, a brilliant director and choreographer, known for work that fused dance styles from around the world. Garcia has had a massive run recently — she was named CEO of the Capri Theater in North Minneapolis in 2025, and debuted a piece called “Jazz Island” with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, in addition to choreographing “Somewhere” at the Guthrie Theater. (Jacob Aloi)

‘Folklore and Fairy Tales’ exhibition at Warroad RiverPlace — Through Aug. 29

In 2024, Warroad, a small town about 10 miles from the Canadian border, opened the $20 million, 20,000-square-foot Warroad RiverPlace. Minneapolis firm HGA Architects designed the arts and cultural center with a 300-seat performance hall, an art studio and a gallery. That gallery is currently hosting an exhibition of delightful, fantastical paintings, illustrations and felted creatures by Warroad artist Holly Marie, including unicorns, dragons, the green man and a forest royalty.

One oil painting on view, “Forest’s Queen,” won first place out of 70 artworks at the Northwest Minnesota Arts Council exhibition this spring. It incorporates leaves, feathers, flowers and pinecones. In her artist statement, Holly Marie says she’s inspired by history, fairy tales and the “inherent magic of nature.”

On Aug. 13, Marie will read from her illustrated children’s book “Little Troll Girl” and lead a blueberry hand pie baking session for kids. There will be an artist reception for “Folklore and Fairy Tales” on Aug. 14. (Alex V. Cipolle)

‘Clear as Mud’ exhibition at Plains Art Museum in Fargo — Aug. 1-Nov. 29

The Fargo museum opens an exhibition featuring two artists — spouses Annie Lee-Zimerle and Brian Zimerle. Annie specializes in printmaking, book arts and painting while Brian works in ceramics and sculpture. Through these mediums, the exhibition explores “memory, materiality and the quiet complexities of everyday life to reconsider the promises and contradictions of the American Dream.” (Alex V. Cipolle)

‘Ish Meets a Mermaid’ at the Duluth Art Institute — Aug. 3-Oct. 2

What does it take to bring an Indigenous fantasy film to life? “Ish Meets a Mermaid” pulls back the curtain on the creative process behind the short film by director Jonathan Thunder, producer Vera Bianchini and co-writer Tashia Hart. The exhibition at the Duluth Art Institute traces the project from concept to screen with original props, costumes, storyboards and behind-the-scenes stories before culminating in a gallery screening of the final product. An artist talk and reception is set for Aug. 27.

Also opening the same day at the DAI is “Send Flowers,” an interactive postcard exhibit by Duluth design lab Graphic Science. (Annie Russell)

‘ANYTHING’ by DJs Jam E.Z. and St. Xose at The Terminal Bar in Minneapolis — Aug. 4

For a night of music and comedy, check out ‘ANYTHING’ at The Terminal Bar in Minneapolis on Tues., Aug. 4 starting at 7 p.m. The evening will feature sets by DJs Jam E.Z. and St. Xose, spinning house, dance, disco, funk, along with standup comedy from the local comic known as “Dominican Gay Cousin.” DJ Jam E.Z., who is also known as Jamez Smith, will show visual art, too.

The event is the brainchild of Smith, who runs the radio show “Groovement Nights” on Sundays at KRSM. He and St. Xose, aka José Mejia, bonded over their taste in music and vinyl collections. While this is the first event, Mejia said their hope is to turn ‘ANYTHING’ events into "a space centered around DJs, live performances, and the arts. While music is at its core, ‘ANYTHING’ is intentionally open to a wide range of creative expression, welcoming live bands, comedians, visual artists, performers and anyone contributing to the local arts community. The goal is simple: Create a platform where creativity comes first and anything can happen.” (Emily Bright)

Last winter, the sounds of whistles echoed through the streets of Willmar, as neighbors alerted one another to the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Christina Vander Pol, a mother of two adopted Haitian teens, was in her car in downtown Willmar with one of her daughters when she started hearing a commotion. Vander Pol told her daughter to stay inside as she stepped out to see agents pulling a young woman out of her car.

“She was yelling and crying. It was a very cold day, and she had sandals on, and she was being pulled out of her car with her sandals falling off in the street,” said Vander Pol.

She recorded the event. It was one of many that frightened immigrants in Willmar, regardless of their legal status. Many shut themselves in their homes and stopped going to work or the grocery store.

Shortly thereafter, Vander Pol started joining volunteer groups to help deliver groceries to those too afraid to leave their homes. She also asked her two daughters to carry a copy of their passports with them at all times.

“Having to hand my children cards to express their basic rights as a person in the United States, and for them to carry their passports, was a painful thing,” she said.

Months later, she says life has become more peaceful, but it’s not like things were before. She says it’s a new normal.

“It's a bit like a grief that sits somewhere in your gut, in your chest, and you build around that,” said Vander Pol. “It’s not gone. It’s a new part of who we are.”

Now, on the same street where Vander Pol witnessed an ICE detainment, Willmar community members recently gathered for the unveiling of an artwork commemorating what they went through.

It’s a tree-shaped mosaic with stones people painted to represent their experiences earlier this year. There, people shared what life has been like since.

Lingering anxiety, prevailing hopes

John Salgado Maldonado, a legal U.S. resident from Chile, was one of the Willmar residents who feared for his safety and avoided leaving his home when ICE came to town.

Now, a nonprofit he’s a part of opened a community space in downtown Willmar where the mosaic is on display. The space is for artists and the general public to use for sound baths, making art, or just to hang out. The space is called Kankunapa. It’s an indigenous Quechua word from South America that means “for everyone.”

Salgado Maldonado says that lately, he’s been feeling more comfortable coming out into the city streets. That’s because of the support he felt from other Willmar residents when ICE was around.

“Even if something happened to me, I know that we still have community for other people,” said Salgado Maldonado.

He said he no longer feels unsafe.

Luul Gaal, a Somali-American who came to Kankunapa to see the unveiling of the mosaic, said it was her sense that the community’s anxiety was wearing off.

“I think that we kind of proved that the people, your neighbors, are going to stand beside you,” Gaal said. “If somebody sees anything happening, they're going to tell somebody.”

Gaal’s parents own a clothing and dry goods business in downtown Willmar. She said it lost a lot of customers at the start of the year when ICE was present, but many have since returned.

“I think just the way the community is and how we came together kind of proved that we don't have to be afraid anymore,” Gaal said.

Jenny Groen is a program manager for Arrive Ministries Willmar, a refugee resettlement agency.

She also attests to the community spirit that buoyed people during the ICE surge. She said people formed bonds with the volunteers that helped them during the height of ICE activities by bringing food and other resources. As a result, she’s seen more people volunteering and attending community events as well as church than they had before.

“Since [volunteers] brought groceries for so many weeks, they got to know [families], and now they're sticking around, and they're friends, and they're doing things together beyond what we do, and so that is huge,” said Groen.

She does see some lasting effects of people staying home from work to avoid encounters with ICE agents, but they’re not severe.

“We do have every now and then someone is still having a hard time making ends meet,” said Groen. “So people still are feeling the financial strain, but we get a lot less requests, and that is a good thing because then we know people are more on their feet.”

There have been reports recently of ICE activity in Willmar and surrounding areas, which has brought back some anxiety for community members like Christina Vander Pol.

She said she doesn’t want to let those fears control her.

“I found in my lifetime that hope has been kind of like a golden thread,” said Vander Pol. “There have been truly difficult things that I have lived and experienced, and yet somehow there is hope that runs through all of that. So I don't want traumatic things to taint my vision of the world so that I can no longer see hope.”

Vander Pol painted a stone for the community mosaic that was recently unveiled. She said her stone resembles a burst of light on a black background, a symbol of hope amidst darkness.

“I am sort of fiercely determined to hold on to that [hope],” said Vander Pol. “And to provide hope for my neighbors also.”

A play by two Minnesota writers about women’s health will make its debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August.

“Endometriosis: The Musical” is about Jane, a woman who is trying to find the answer to why she’s in chronic pain.

Turns out her ailment is in the title of the play. The musical illustrates the same challenge that many face trying to find the answer to that same question.

Maria Bartholdi and Kristin Stowell worked together to bring the play to life for the 2022 Minnesota Fringe Festival. Then in 2025, they premiered the full show at Theater in the Round in Minneapolis.

Stowell said the play comes from personal experience, even if both writers didn’t know it at the time.

“So it’s like my goal to let women see themselves in this who are dealing with this and have a question they can bring back to their doctor. Like, could it be endometriosis?” Stowell said.

For Bartholdi, she didn’t realize she may have the same disease until after they premiered the play.

“This show helped diagnose me, which I think is just one of the miraculous things that we hope this the show does for other people as well,” Bartholdi said.

Dr. Wendy VanBuren, a radiologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, said she’s a fan of the musical and how it spreads awareness for this common but underdiagnosed disease.

“Cells that are similar to but not identical to the cells that comprise the lining of the uterus, the inside of the uterus, are located outside the uterus,” said VanBuren. “When they’re outside the uterus, there isn’t the right environment to deal with that. So basically, what you get is bleeding, and then you get inflammation.”

Roughly one in seven people who are assigned female at birth live with the disease, and it can take nearly a decade to get a diagnosis.

Now, Bartholdi and Stowell's musical will have its international debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland.

“We're excited to bring it to a broader community and share it and help women with that feeling of 'it feels terrible to go to the doctor.'”

The show debuts at the festival on Aug. 5 and runs until Aug. 31.

Minnesota’s primary election is less than two weeks away and MPR News is here to answer any voting questions you may have.

Primary election day is on Tuesday, Aug. 11, while early voting in person and by mail is happening now.

Learn more about when and where to vote, how to register, what will be on your ballot, how to vote early or by absentee ballot and more.

Where can I find a list of candidates and the issues on the ballot for my area?

MPR News’ Voter Guide will show you which races, candidates and ballot questions are on your ballot. Enter your voter registration address at Build Your Ballot.

When do I vote?

Early voting by mail or in person is open until Aug. 10 for the primary election. Primary Election Day is on Aug. 11.

Early voting for the General Election opens Sept. 18. That can be done by mail or in person at certain locations by Nov. 2.

Register in advance by Oct. 13 to save time on election day. The General Election is on Nov. 3.

For in-person voting, polling places are usually open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Some polling places in towns with fewer than 500 residents will not open until 10 a.m. because they are not required to open until then.

As long as you're in line by 8 p.m., you can vote.

What is early voting? How do I do it?

Early voting allows you to cast your ballot directly into a ballot counter before Election Day. Ballots become available 46 days before an election.

If you’re interested in voting early and in person, you can find an early voting site through the Secretary of State’s list of locations.

Primary Election early voting timeline

• The last day to vote early in person is Monday, Aug. 10.

• Ballots must be received by Tuesday, Aug. 11, whether they are brought in person or mailed.

General Election early voting timeline

• Ballots for in-person and mail voting become available on Friday, Sept 18.

• Early voting becomes available on Friday, Oct. 16.

• The last day to vote early in person is Monday, Nov. 2, and ballots must be received by Tuesday, Nov. 3, which is Election Day.

Can I go to the early voting site and fill out a ballot there or do I have to request a ballot first?

You do not need to request beforehand or bring a ballot to vote at an in-person early voting location. Election officials will provide you with a ballot to complete that day.

If you are not already registered to vote, you can do so at the polling location if you show proof of residence.

Where do I vote?

You can find your polling place at the Secretary of State’s website. You can find both Election Day polling places and locations for early, in-person voting.

How do I register to vote? How do you register as a first-time voter?

You should register to vote with your home address. If you will be away from your registered address on Election Day, you can request an absentee ballot be sent to your current address.

More information about registering to vote without a permanent address can be found on the Secretary of State’s website.

In Minnesota, voters can register anytime through Election Day:

• The deadline to register online has passed

• The deadline to register on paper has passed (by 5 p.m. 21 days before Election Day)

• Within 20 days before the election, you can submit a registration form, but it will not be processed until Election Day

• Register when you vote, either at a polling place or when voting absentee

If you are registering to vote at a polling place on Election Day, you will need to provide proof of residence. Some examples of proof of residence include the following:

• A valid Minnesota driver’s license, permit or ID with your current address

• Tribal ID

• Approved photo ID (can be expired) along with an approved document, such as a utility or rent bill, that confirms your home address

• Bringing along a registered voter from your precinct to sign an oath and vouch for you

• Photo ID with a student housing list

• Valid registration in the same precinct

To check your voter registration status, visit the Secretary of State’s website.

I moved, and I haven’t had a chance to update my license. Which address do I use to register to vote?

It depends on the circumstances of your move, according to the Secretary of State’s website.

• If you moved to Minnesota more than 21 days before the election, you can register to vote using your new address. If you moved less than 20 days before the election, you will not be able to vote in Minnesota during this election.

• If you are moving within Minnesota before an election, you should register and vote at the address you will be living at on Election Day.

• If you're moving from Minnesota, you will need to consult the voting laws of the state you are moving to.

How and where do I find out if I'm still registered to vote?

You can check your voter registration status by filling out the secretary of state’s voter registration form.

What is an absentee ballot?

Absentee ballots are sent to a voter’s residence after they request it through their registration. An absentee ballot will come with instructions.

You will need a witness when you complete your absentee ballot. The witness can be either a registered Minnesota voter or a notary. For your ballot to be accepted, the witness portion must be completed.

Return the absentee ballot and forms right away. Your vote will not count if it is received after Election Day.

When will I receive my absentee voting paperwork?

Once you apply, your application must be processed by your local election office.

You can check your application and ballot’s status here.

If you are interested in applying for an absentee ballot, you can do that here. If you would prefer to fill out this information on paper, you can do so by printing this PDF and submitting it to your local elections office.

Note: As we get closer to Nov. 5, remember that absentee ballots and forms must be received by Election Day.

Who can be a witness for my absentee ballot?

The witness can be either:

• A registered Minnesota voter

• A notary

Your witness must sign and write their address on the signature envelope. Notaries write their name and title, sign the signature envelope, and mark their notary stamp.

How can I track my absentee ballot?

Visit the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Minnesota Ballot Tracker. You'll need to provide:

• Your first and last name

• Date of birth (MM/DD/YYYY format)

• ID number (Minnesota driver's license/state ID, last 4 digits of SSN or U.S. passport for military/overseas voters)

The site notes that it “updates nightly, and your ballot may take several days to appear after processing.”

Have another question? Ask us here

The end of Temporary Protected Status, known as TPS, protections for Haiti this week is creating uncertainty for hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the United States.

While Minnesota has a relatively small Haitian population, immigration attorneys and business leaders say the decision is being closely watched here because of what it could signal for TPS holders from other countries and for employers that rely on immigrant workers.

There are an estimated 4,000 Haitians who live in Minnesota. However, it's unclear how many are covered by TPS.

TPS allows people from countries experiencing war, natural disasters or other extraordinary conditions to temporarily live and work legally in the United States. It does not provide a pathway to permanent residency or citizenship, although some recipients may qualify for other forms of immigration relief.

The Trump administration has moved to end TPS protections for several countries, including Syria. Supporters say the administration is restoring the temporary nature of the program, while critics argue conditions remain unsafe in countries like Haiti and warn the changes could disrupt families and local economies.

‘The clock is ticking’

For people from Haiti who have relied on TPS, Minnesota immigration attorney David Wilson said the end of the designation means they should immediately explore whether they qualify for another immigration benefit.

“The clock is ticking. TPS is never meant to be a solution. It's meant to be a stopgap to help people who can't go back,” Wilson said.

He said TPS was always intended to be temporary, but he argues Haiti remains unsafe.

“The administration is correct that this was never meant to be permanent. The problem is in Haiti in particular, there's no way anyone would ever say that that place is safe to go to right now.”

Wilson said some Haitians may be eligible for asylum or other forms of immigration relief, while others could become more vulnerable to immigration enforcement if they lose work authorization.

“I've seen inquiries,” Wilson said. “We get calls regarding Haitians.”

Still, he emphasized that longtime TPS holders have legal rights and, in many cases, additional legal options because of how long they have lived in the United States.

“They do have rights. Because they've been here for so much time, it's not like they can just be picked up. They do get to see a judge, and they do get to try to avail themselves of the defenses that exist.”

His advice to clients, he said, is simple:

“Start planning.”

Why the decision matters in Minnesota

Although the immediate change affects Haitians and Syrians, Wilson said many Minnesotans with TPS from other countries are now paying close attention to what happens next.

“Minnesota does have a sizable TPS population. If it's not Syria and Haiti, there's a lot of Ukrainians who are very anxious about what's going to happen. There are a lot of Somali nationals who are on TPS, Ethiopian nationals ... and I think that's where we'll really start seeing some impact in Minnesota if the administration is pushing ahead with this pattern of ‘we're eliminating it all.’”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is leading a coalition of states challenging the administration's effort to end TPS protections for Somalia.

In an April court filing, the coalition argued ending those protections would harm Minnesota's economy and workforce. According to the Attorney General's Office, Somali immigrants contribute an estimated $228 million annually in state and local taxes, and more than 15 percent of Somali immigrants in Minnesota work in home health care.

Wilson said one industry he is watching closely is long-term care.

“We're very dependent upon nursing and nursing assistants and medical techs, all that we've trained and all that the United States has invested in, and they work very hard,” he said. “So you take away all that labor, you're going to see some serious distress in that industry.”

Employers say uncertainty affects planning

Business leaders say the impact extends beyond any one industry.

Luis Zaldivar, business engagement director for the American Business Immigration Coalition, said employers have long struggled to fill open positions and view immigration policy as a workforce issue.

“The first thing that comes to mind with this ruling is that businesses are going to scale down, and prices are going to go up.”

While he noted Minnesota has relatively few Haitian TPS holders, Zaldivar said employers are paying attention because of broader workforce challenges, including an aging population and persistent labor shortages.

He said uncertainty surrounding work authorization can affect employers' long-term plans to expand.

“If they wanted to, for instance, open two more senior communities, or to open a new hospital, or to open a new clinic, or to open a new restaurant... now they're going to be confronted by the fact that they live in a place where the population is getting older, where there is not enough workers.”

Zaldivar said employers in his coalition most frequently raise staffing concerns in long-term care, construction and restaurants.

He also said many TPS holders have lived in the United States for decades and now hold supervisory or management positions.

“By now, they have managerial positions, supervisory roles, and they are much, much harder to replace than let's say a dishwasher.”

Uncertain future

Wilson said no one can predict how future TPS decisions will unfold, but he expects many immigrants and employers will continue watching the administration's next moves.

“Nothing is predictable in the realm of immigration at this time,” he said.

For now, the ruling leaves many TPS holders and employers waiting to see what comes next. It's also not yet clear how the government will implement the end of TPS protections, though immigration attorneys say people could receive notices requiring them to appear in immigration court before any enforcement action.

The main entrance of Como Park Zoo & Conservatory in St. Paul is busy with strollers and chatty kids on a hot weekday afternoon. Below all that, in a tiny basement room marked “biosecure,” zookeeper Allison Pizel tends to one family in particular.

“This is Meatball,” she said, holding a brown blob of a toad in a gloved hand. Meatball is a survivor, as the only member of Pizel’s breeding program to make it from egg to tadpole to toad in 2025. Meatball also belongs to one of the most endangered amphibian species in North America: the Wyoming toad.

Como is one of seven zoos, plus two other breeding sites, that are working with wildlife professionals to pull the toad from the edge of extinction, by building up its population and reintroducing it to its home range.

The species is native to a single mountain valley in the state of Wyoming, called the Laramie Basin. Meatball has never been there; she grew up in the room full of tanks, where she and other toads spend their days eating crickets and mealworms.

Each year, Pizel puts some toads in what she describes as a fancy refrigerator for a short hibernation. Then, she pulls them out to breed. She gives them hormones and sets up “an ancient CD player” with their croaks.

This year was much more successful than last. Pizel recently FedExed about 3,000 tadpoles to Wyoming to be reintroduced. She blames last year’s poor numbers a couple factors. Some toads died in hibernation. And she bred one-year-old males, who are often too young to successfully fertilize eggs.

Pizel also keeps some tadpoles to let them morph into toads in captivity. Some will breed future generations and others will go to Wyoming as adults, with microchips to help track their survival.

She does much of this work alone, and avoids contact with other amphibians, to protect the toads from a deadly skin disease called chytrid fungus. It affects many amphibians, including 20 species in Minnesota, she said, but the Wyoming toad is particularly vulnerable.

The species has suffered not only from disease, but also pesticides and habitat loss. By the mid-1980s, people thought they were gone for good, according to Wendy Estes-Zumpf, herpetological coordinator for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

“They were accidentally rediscovered at a private fishing pond out in the Laramie Basin, and that populations seemed to be doing really well,” she said. “But it started crashing in 1989.”

Biologists tried to rescue the species by bringing those toads into captivity and the breeding program was born. Estes-Zumpf says all the Wyoming toads alive today are descended from about ten individuals, a puddle of a gene pool.

“Genetic diversity is what helps species adapt to new threats, diseases,” Estes-Zumpf said. “That's sort of the biggest issue in trying to help them battle chytrid fungus.”

That’s where Derek Benson comes in. He leads amphibian conservation at the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha, Neb. He is also in charge of what’s called the studbook for Wyoming toad recovery. Benson tracks births, deaths and breeding pairs across all the sites to try to squeeze as much diversity out of the gene pool as possible. Today, there are about 650 individual toads in captivity, he said.

“Over the last ten years or so, we have increased that genetic diversity,” Benson said. And each of those years, he said, toads have bred in the wild, another sign of progress.

Despite some wins, the population still can’t sustain itself. It faces major obstacles, including climate conditions. Some of the toads’ habitat in Wyoming is running dry, Wendy Estes-Zumpf said, and they need water to live and reproduce.

“We had a drought last year, and a lot of our sites didn't have sufficient water for tadpoles to metamorphose. This year it's even worse,” she said. “We're in an epic drought, and we're really limited in where we can release tadpoles and toads right now.”

The lives of these toads have always been sort of unlikely, she said, which is part of what she loves about them.

“They’re not agile jumpers like frogs. They just sort of crawl around,” she said. “Somehow these awkward little creatures with grumpy faces; they've persisted for this long.”

When glaciers pulled back from what is now the Laramie valley roughly 10,000 years ago, they left behind a different species, the Canadian toad. It evolved into a new, local variety.

Estes-Zumpf says the toad is a special part of Laramie’s natural history. “It is Wyoming's toad, and we can't just sit back and let it wink out. What’s so encouraging is that so many people around the country are helping us to make sure that this doesn’t happen.”

Pizel and other zookeepers will travel to Wyoming in early August to meet with partners there and look for toads in the wild. In the longer term, she is looking forward to potentially moving her breeding program to a larger room in Como Zoo’s aquatics building.

There, zoo visitors could also get to know the Wyoming toad, through a window.

NewRange Copper Nickel, the company behind a controversial plan to dig an open pit mine for copper, nickel and other metals in northeast Minnesota that was first proposed more than 20 years ago, is back with a redesigned proposal it hopes will pass regulatory and legal muster.

NewRange, formerly known as PolyMet Mining, has submitted the changes to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to kick off a new round of environmental reviews, and the company filed a new application for a wetlands permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“This is not just paperwork,” said Colin Marsh, Director of External Affairs for NewRange, which is owned by a joint venture of the Swiss conglomerate Glencore and the giant Canadian mining firm Teck, which also controls another copper-nickel deposit nearby. “It represents meaningful updates at the NorthMet project.”

The project is located about six miles north of Hoyt Lakes, on the far eastern edge of the Iron Range at the site of an old taconite mine. NewRange seeks to dig copper, nickel and precious metals from the Duluth Complex, considered the largest untapped source of such metals in North America. It’s about 20 miles southwest of the Twin Metals project outside Ely.

Eight years ago, the proposal seemed poised to be Minnesota’s first ever copper-nickel mine, when state and federal agencies approved the key permits that the company needed to move forward. But since then, one of those permits was revoked, and two others are now in limbo, after environmental groups and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa filed lawsuits in an attempt to stop the mining project.

Boosters of copper-nickel mining believe it could provide a huge jolt to the economy of northeast Minnesota, creating hundreds of high-paying jobs and injecting billions of dollars of investment into a region where iron ore mining has supported the economy for over a century.

But it has yet to be proven that the kind of mining NewRange would do to extract the copper and nickel can be done safely in the state. The metals are found in ore that contains sulfide, which when exposed to air and water can lead to acid mine drainage and run off that can create serious water pollution in groundwater and nearby lakes and streams.

The changes NewRange unveiled this week address some of the aspects of the proposed mining plan that have gotten the most scrutiny, including how the company plans to store the massive amount of waste tailings the mine would generate.

The previous plan called for stacking those tailings on top of four square miles of old waste piles left behind from the former iron ore mine, and storing the tailings behind a giant earthen dam.

Now, NewRange is proposing to instead deposit its tailings in the old, abandoned iron ore mining pits that the company has acquired adjacent to its current site.

The new design also includes what NewRange calls a “closed-loop water management approach,” which the company said would reduce water discharge by 75 percent.

The company is also proposing to replace a 7-mile long rail line with a conveyor system to transport ore from the mine to the processing facility.

With those changes in place, NewRange said it would increase the amount of ore it processes every day, from 32,000 tons to 40,000 tons. That would in turn shorten the expected lifespan of the mine from 20 to 16 years.

“This takes a project, a good project, and updates it, enhances it, and makes it better,” said Marsh. “It’s a historic step in this project.”

But environmental groups that have fought the proposed mine for more than a decade dismissed the changes, which are outlined in a two-page document and press release.

“The risks of this proposal have not changed,” said Joy Anderson, Legal Director for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.

Anderson said the mining project would still result in the destruction of about 1,000 acres of wetlands. And she said it would still result in long-term water pollution that would require water treatment at the site for hundreds of years after the mine closed.

Anderson is pleased NewRange ditched its original plan for storing waste tailings. But she said the company didn’t change course “out of the goodness of their hearts. But because groups like ours and others sued and said this does not comply with Minnesota law.”

Environmental groups believe NewRange should start from the beginning with its plan, and redo the entire environmental review process with state regulators. Instead, the company is proposing a shorter, “supplemental” environmental review.

“This is not the time for shortcuts,” said Paula Maccabee, Executive Director of Water Legacy. “This is time for a clean slate, a new process. These are all new owners. This is an all new proposal. Let's require NewRange to do it right, and see what happens in the regulatory process.”

Minnesota DNR officials say they will take 30 days to decide what level of environmental review the project changes require, adding that they will conduct their own analysis of the proposal, rather than a joint state-federal review.

DNR Assistant Commissioner Jess Richards acknowledged that NewRange is proposing significant changes to its project. But he said it doesn’t mean everything about the project has changed.

“What we need to do is make sure that we are thoroughly looking at the potential impacts of the changes and then how they might affect any other previous analysis that we did,” said Richards.

“It's not to imply at all that even if we order a supplemental environmental impact statement rather than say, as folks would argue, ‘starting at square one,’ it doesn't mean that the outcome of any review wouldn't be completely updated and thorough in its analysis.”

That environmental review would then inform subsequent decisions whether or not to issue permits to NewRange. Richards said the project would likely require new or amended permits. But he said the company has not yet submitted any new permit applications.

The federal government estimates about a year and a half long timeline to issue a decision on the wetlands permit. NewRange’s Marsh hopes for a state process that “doesn’t go too much past that.”

In 2023, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revoked the wetlands permit after the Environmental Protection Agency advised that the permit could not guarantee that the mine could meet the water quality standards of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, whose reservation lies downstream of the proposed mine on the St. Louis River.

Marsh said he’s optimistic that the project’s proposed changes will alleviate the concerns of the EPA and environmental critics.

Julie Lucas, Executive Director of the industry group Mining Minnesota, said the changes illustrate how the state’s mine approval process is supposed to work – “allowing science, engineering, and public input to refine a project as new information emerges.”

The Minneapolis City Council approved Reginald Freeman to serve as the chief of the city’s fire department — but many said they voted in spite of reservations.

Mayor Jacob Frey nominated Freeman to the position earlier this year. He’s previously served as the chief in Hartford, Connecticut and Oakland, California. Currently, he holds a job as director of fire in Saudi Arabia.

Frey said Freeman’s experience is impressive.

“Dr. Freeman has demonstrated an ability to lead organizations and leave them better than when he started,” Frey told the council Thursday.

He pointed to more than 20 letters of support for Freeman from firefighters, elected officials and fire chiefs. The Minneapolis firefighters union also supported the pick.

Ten council members voted to confirm him, citing that support, his experience and his commitment to supporting women and LGBTQ+ firefighters.

But several raised concerns. Council members have questioned Freeman about a lawsuit brought against the Hartford fire department alleging gender discrimination during his time there. At a public hearing last week, Freeman noted that he was not named in the lawsuit nor deposed, and said he was committed to rooting out discrimination.

Several council members also said they initially preferred to hire someone who already works at the Minneapolis Fire Department. Council member Michael Rainville said it took conversations with Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette and firefighters to change his mind and vote to confirm Freeman.

“I just hope that the new chief understands and values the bravery of the Minneapolis Fire Department, how smart and wise you are,” Rainville said.

Several council members also questioned why Freeman was not present for the confirmation vote.

“It's really weird that he's not here,” Council Member Soren Stevenson said. “I've never applied for a job that I didn't want to sit in the discussions about whether I got it or not. I came in here knowing I was going to vote yes, and now him not being here is something that's really disturbing to me.”

Stevenson ultimately voted to confirm Freeman, citing his support for the firefighter’s union and for past work on mental health response projects.

Council Members Aisha Chughtai and Jason Chavez voted against the nomination.

Chughtai noted his current work as a fire director for projects in Saudi Arabia. She said she asked Freeman about human rights concerns related to his projects there.

“I felt as though I felt as though the nominee dismissed the legitimate concerns that I brought up about some pretty severe human rights abuses that happened in the organization he was a leader in,” Chughtai said.

In a statement, Freeman said he’s looking forward to moving to Minneapolis and starting the job.

“I do not take this responsibility lightly,” said Freeman. “We will lead by example, support our community, and I will ensure that each of our firehouses plays an active role in the fabric of the neighborhoods they serve.”

Freeman will replace Bryan Tyner, who retired as chief last year. Melanie Rucker currently serves as the interim chief.