Morning Edition

Political candidates and operations spend months accumulating campaign cash. Now they’re putting it to use in the leadup to Election Day.

Manuela Barreto is a professor of social and organizational psychology at the University of Exeter in the U.K. and will present her research on loneliness at the conference. MPR News host Tom Crann talked with her ahead of her lecture to learn more.

Hoping to make things a little lighter for everyone, MPR News associate producer and working comedian Aron Woldeslassie has been serving up his observations on life during these unusual times.

A Minnesota program that pays homeowners to plant pollinator friendly habitat is very popular. Thousands of people apply for grants. But many people don’t follow through on their plans.

The story of Ray Ruschel, a 49-year-old college football player from North Dakota, has garnered national attention in recent weeks. For a bit of perspective, Ruschel is only four years older than Tom Brady.  

Palabristas emerged in 2002 as a national poetry reading event came to town. The group’s co-founder says Latino voices were missing from it.

The deadly avian influenza virus is once again showing up on Minnesota poultry farms. There's concern the fall waterfowl migration might bring a resurgence of the virus that killed millions of turkeys and chickens in the spring. There's a nationwide effort to monitor the virus in wild waterfowl, including here in Minnesota.

Eight in 10 Minnesota voters say recent inflation has caused financial stress, but the bulk say it’s caused “minor” burdens on their households. One third in the MPR News/Star Tribune/KARE 11 poll describe inflation as causing “major stress.”

The Twin Cities Puerto Rican community is working to help the island recover from Hurricane Fiona. They gathered Tuesday to mark the fifth anniversary of another major storm, Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico.

Fifty-four percent of those asked in the latest MPR News/Star Tribune/KARE 11 poll said crime is on the rise, but an overwhelming 83 percent do not fear being attacked or threatened in their own neighborhood.