Social Issues

Members of Faith Lutheran Church are embarking on an unusual project to address homelessness. They've decided to build tiny homes, about a dozen of them, on church property. They're calling the project "sacred settlement."
Life expectancy rose slightly in 2018, as drug overdose deaths fell
The turnaround is welcome news after rising drug overdose and suicide rates had pushed life expectancy down since 2014. Could America be turning the tide on opioid addiction?
'American Dirt' publisher cancels author tour after threats
Flatiron Books, publisher of the controversial new novel, has canceled the remainder of author Jeanine Cummins' book tour after what it called "specific threats" to both the author and booksellers.
Minneapolis activists call on Klobuchar to drop presidential bid
Citing new questions about the conviction of a then-teenager in a 2003 murder case, members of civil rights and social justice groups called on Sen. Amy Klobuchar to end her presidential campaign.
Polk County removed a Somali mother’s kids. Somalis are asking why.
Somalis in Minnesota and the world are watching the case of an East Grand Forks mother whose children were removed by child protective services. Somali community members believe she’s being treated unfairly, but the facts are not black and white.
Judge: Archdiocese has met obligations to protect children from abuse
Twin Cities Archbishop Bernard Hebda vowed that the church would continue to work with abuse survivors, lay people and the county attorney’s office to make the church safer for young people.
Supreme Court allows enforcement of new green card rule
A divided Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to put in place new rules that could jeopardize permanent resident status for immigrants who use food stamps, Medicaid and housing vouchers.
Minnesota protesters slam India’s new citizenship law as biased against Muslims
Some 400 people filled the Minnesota Capitol rotunda Sunday, calling on India’s government to end policies they say will take away the citizenship of many Muslims in India, and calling for Congress to apply pressure.
Auschwitz survivors share their stories on 75th anniversary of camp liberation
More than a million people died in the Nazi death camp, most of them Jews. After the war, some survivors settled in Minnesota. Two women, now in their 90s, recently shared their Holocaust stories with MPR News.
'Franchise' tracks the rise and role of fast food in Black America
History professor Marcia Chatelain's new book tracks what she calls the hidden history of the relationships between the struggle for civil rights and the expansion of the fast food industry.