Minnesota Now

“Project Runway” season 21 will premiere on Freeform Thursday night. The reality competition features 12 contestants who compete through a series of fashion design challenges. And this season, you’ll see a Minnesotan on your screen.

Ethan Mundt is from a small town outside Rochester and studied theatre production and art at Hamline University. He is no stranger to the TV screen. He competed on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” as Utica Queen. Mundt spoke with Minnesota Now senior producer Aleesa Kuznetsov to talk about his experience on the show.

Friday marks two years since Minnesota legalized recreational marijuana. A business owner says he is less than a week away from opening the first adult-use, nontribal recreational cannabis shop in the state. That business owner is Josh Wilken-Simon, who owns Legacy Cannabis in Duluth. He joined Minnesota Now to talk about the winding road to opening a recreational marijuana business in the state.

The entire landscape of student loans is undergoing a lot of change. Starting Friday, thousands of Minnesotans who are on the student loan SAVE plan will see their balances grow, with interest now being re-applied. Though SAVE borrower’s payments are still on pause. It’s one of many changes that are taking place over the next several years.

The state of Minnesota has one person dedicated to helping borrowers navigate their repayments.

Jabra Kawas is the state’s first and only Student Loan Advocate under the Minnesota Department of Commerce. Kawas says last year he worked with 230 people. This year he already has 250 cases. He joined Minnesota Now to talk about the upcoming changes to student loans.

Passengers on a Delta flight from Utah to Amsterdam found themselves diverted to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Wednesday night after severe turbulence prompted an emergency landing.

Their plane took off from Salt Lake City Wednesday afternoon. About an hour into the flight, they ran into turbulence that caused the plane’s altitude to drop about 1,000 feet within a minute – according to the flight-tracking website, FlightAware.

Delta said 25 people on board were injured. They were taken to hospitals after landing.

We wanted to know more about what causes severe turbulence. Kwasi Adjekum is professor of aviation and aerospace sciences at the University of North Dakota. He spoke to Minnesota Now guest host Chris Farrell.

On Minnesota Now, we hear from many different people in Minnesota over the phone and in the studio. But we don’t often meet them in the community, where news and life happens. In our Out to Lunch series, MPR News host Nina Moini sits down for a meal with people from Minnesota news and culture.

Real estate CEO Kris Lindahl is best known for his billboard advertisements, where he's pictured with a cheeky smile and his arms spread out wide. His numerous billboards across Minnesota have generated countless memes and online conversation, some good and some bad. 

But even if you've seen his face, there's probably a lot you don't know about Lindahl. In his new memoir “Arms Out,” Lindahl shares about growing up in poverty and not always stable housing, his father's struggles with addiction and navigating high school after his father was murdered.   

The National Guard and the FBI are supporting the city of St. Paul in responding to a cyberattack. We talk to a cybersecurity expert about the information that could be at risk and the work being done to secure city systems.

The White House is criticizing Minnesota Star Tribune immigration coverage and dedicated a press release to call out their stories. We talk about what this signals for press freedom.

Earthquakes, tsunamis and wildfire smoke: we talk about it all with Paul Huttner.

Plus, you have likely seen his face on hundreds of billboards across the state. We go beyond the billboard with real estate CEO Kris Lindahl in our latest Out to Lunch series.

You are likely seeing or smelling wildfire smoke on Wednesday. The entire state is under an extended air quality alert that will last through Saturday. At the same time, we are beginning to see pleasant temperatures across the state. MPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner joins Minnesota Now with details.

St. Paul has declared a state of emergency over what appears to be a massive cyberattack. The city is working with the Minnesota National Guard, the FBI and two private cybersecurity firms to respond to the cyberattack, which is disrupting city services including payment systems, libraries, recreation centers and city hall.

For more on how cyberattacks like this one occur and the issues they can cause, Minnesota Now guest host Chris Farrell talks with Faisel Kaleem, director of cybersecurity and cyber operations programs at Metro State University.

In a 12-part series for our sister station Marketplace called “Buy Now, Pay Later,” we look at the trend of people entering retirement with a lot of debt. On Minnesota Now for the next two weeks, we’ll be sharing some stories from this series.

This time, we take a look at the high cost of easy credit.

This series was produced in partnership with Next Avenue, a non-profit news platform for older adults with Twin Cities PBS.

The Trump administration has singled out Minnesota’s largest newspaper for its coverage of immigration enforcement. A press release Tuesday accused the Minnesota Star Tribune of covering for people the White House called “criminal illegal immigrants.” The statement linked to social media posts from federal agencies that criticized Star Tribune immigration stories as well as an opinion column.

For its part, the newspaper told MPR News, “we stand by our reporting and don’t have any additional comment.”

Jane Kirtley, director of the Silha Center for Media Ethics and Law and the University of Minnesota, joins Minnesota Now guest host Chris Farrell to talk about the White House statement and its press freedom implications.