There isn’t a more perfect place to share a meal than at the Minnesota State Fair. And there may be no more prominent figure at the state fair than Princess Kay of the Milky Way.

Minnesota Now host Nina Moini went Out to Lunch with this year’s winner, Malorie Thorson. The two shared fair favorites at the MPR Stage and had a conversation about Thorson’s passion for the dairy industry.

Minnesotans are reeling after an 8-year-old and 10-year-old celebrating the start of school were killed and 18 people were injured at Annunciation Church and School in south Minneapolis.

We take you to a vigil where thousands gathered to grieve and we also get a better picture of how emergency responders approached the harrowing morning.

Plus we talk to a member of the Catholic community about reckoning with the profound trauma their church has faced.

We learn more about the 23-year-old suspected shooter.

And a mental health professional will share about how to talk to children about this scary moment as Minnesota students are returning to school next week.

The Minnesota Music Minute was "The Road Home" by Stephen Paulus.

We’re learning more information about the shooter who killed two children and wounded 18 others during the mass shooting in southwest Minneapolis yesterday [Wed]. Videos have emerged where 23-year-old Robin Westman espoused hatred for numerous groups of people, but didn’t appear to have a coherent ideology or motivation for the violence.

MPR News Senior reporter Jon Collins and Correspondent Kate Martin from APM Reports have been looking into Westman’s background. Jon joins me to talk about what he found.

Beyond the two children who were killed during the attack at Annunciation Catholic Church Wednesday, 18 people were wounded. Fifteen were children as young as six and three parishioners in their 80s were shot. First responders took the injured to HCMC and Children’s Minnesota for treatment.

Dr. Tom Wyatt is the chair of emergency medicine at HCMC. He joins MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about what he and his colleagues have been dealing with at the hospital.

The grieving process is just beginning for families, friends and community members of Annunciation Catholic Church and School. Even for people who aren’t close to the victims, hearing of a tragedy this close to home can be difficult to process. Cara Mearns-Thompson, clinical director and co-founder of The Grief Club of Minnesota joins MPR News host Nina Moini with guidance and resources for healing.

After Wednesday’s mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis, parents are now grappling with how to talk to their children about grief.

MPR News health reporter Erica Zurek spoke with a psychologist at Children’s Minnesota just a few hours after the mass shooting. Erica joined Minnesota Now to share more about their conversation.

On Thursday, Gov. Tim Walz authorized the deployment of state patrol and Department of Natural Resources enforcement officers to monitor schools and places of worship across Minneapolis, at the request of city officials.

Officials at Hennepin County Medical Center gave an update this morning on their patients who were injured in the shooting yesterday. Estelle Timar-Wilcox was there and joined Minnesota Now to talk about what she heard from officials.

A shooter opened fire on a Wednesday morning mass at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in south Minneapolis. Minneapolis police say two children were killed and 17 other people were injured. Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara told reporters the shooter died by suicide.

MPR News host Nina Moini talks with reporters on the scene and several others, including:

• U.S. Sen. Tina Smith
• State Rep. Emma Greenman (DFL)
• State Sen. Zaynab Mohamed (DFL)
• Stacy Remke, licensed clinical social worker
• Bradley Schmeling, senior pastor at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
• Vincent Francoual, parent of Annunciation student

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

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

Critics of Minneapolis policies around encampments for unhoused people spoke out Tuesday morning. A property owner said allowing people to stay in tents on his private land in south Minneapolis should be allowed.

On Wednesday, Mayor Jacob Frey is expected to brief the city council on possible legal action against the encampment and property owner. MPR News reporter Cari Spencer was at a press conference with the property owner and joined Minnesota Now host Nina Moini from Minneapolis.

On the south end of Como Lake in St. Paul, there’s a street called Nagasaki Road. And in Nagasaki, Japan, there’s a street named after St. Paul. They are sister cities, an official relationship that began in December 1955. That was only 10 years after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, 80 years ago this month.

Nagasaki’s current mayor, Shiro Suzuki, recently visited Minnesota for the first time. His grandfather was mayor of Nagasaki when the sister-city relationship was formed. MPR News host Nina Moini talked to Mayor Suzuki at the Minnesota History Center about his visit.