Minnesota Now

Two Minnesota Lynx players celebrated the 2025 All-Star Weekend by livestreaming basically the entire thing on the platform Twitch. Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman took viewers inside practices and parties, picking up 500,000 views and reaching 70,000 followers to their account, StudBudz. Sports Illustrated called it a "generation-defining piece of WNBA content."

During warm ups, the players wore shirts that said “Pay Us What You Owe Us.”

Meantime during the game Napheesa Collier broke an all-star game scoring record. Joining Minnesota Now to talk about the game, plus the Twins and other Minnesota sports news, are our sports contributors, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson.

In recent years, the cost of having a pet has risen even faster than inflation in general. Average prices for pet-related goods and services went up 28 percent between June 2020 and June 2025. The cost of veterinary care went up 42 percent. Those numbers come from government data that tracks the prices of consumer goods and services.

Rescues in Minnesota have reported a surge in people giving up their pets for financial reasons.

The North Minneapolis Pet Resource Center is working to help people hold onto their animals by providing food and other supplies at no cost — and pointing them toward pet-friendly housing.

Shannon Glenn is the executive director of My Pit Bull is Family, the organization that runs the resource center. She spoke to Minnesota Now host Nina Moini about how her organization is helping pets stay with their families.

A new report that looks at the impact of climate change on the Great Lakes region finds that it’s getting warmer, faster. And that could have serious consequences. The report by the Environmental Law and Policy Center included work from more than a dozen leading scientists and experts from the Midwest and Canada. It was an update to a 2019 assessment.

Joining Minnesota Now host Nina Moini is the lead author of the report Don Wuebbles, who is also a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The Minneapolis DFL endorsed its first mayoral candidate in 16 years over the weekend. After a full day of haggling at the Target Center on Saturday, more than 60 percent of voters at the convention gave a thumbs up to Democratic Socialist and current state Sen. Omar Fateh. He is one of several candidates planning to run against incumbent Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey in the fall. Frey has served two terms as mayor since 2018.

Journalist Kyle Stokes reported on the convention for Axios Twin Cities and he joined Minnesota Now with the details.

Control of the Minnesota Legislature is on the line again after state Sen. Nicole Mitchell announced Monday that she is resigning her seat. Mitchell was convicted on felony charges related to a 2024 burglary arrest. Her resignation pushes the state Senate into a temporary tie. MPR News politics reporter Dana Ferguson joined Minnesota Now to explain.

The Senate has approved $1.1 billion in cuts to public media stations. It could impact rural and tribal radio stations disproportionately. We hear from U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar about the funding cuts.

Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, took to the witness stand in her burglary trial. We hear some of her testimony.

New regulations are on the way for feedlots, where animals are kept for agriculture. We hear more about the changes that aim to reduce water pollution.

Plus, the historic Rondo neighborhood is celebrating their community with the annual Rondo Days. We learn about the festival's decades-long legacy.

And we talk to an athlete who will be competing in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games taking place this weekend in Minneapolis.

Today’s Minnesota Music Minute was “Freedom Fighter” by Lewiee Blaze. The Song of the Day was “Devil’s Kettle” with Trapper Shoepp.

The National Veterans Wheelchair Games is taking over Minneapolis this weekend. It's the largest annual wheelchair sporting event for veterans in the world. The games bring together hundreds of veterans from across the country for a week of athletic competition and community building.

Dave Tostenrude, the director of the program for the Department of Veteran Affairs, and Mark Schultz, a Marine Corps veteran, Vietnam War combat vet, and a multi-sport athlete from Victoria, Minn., competing this weekend, joined Minnesota Now to talk about the event.

On Saturday, thousands will gather for Rondo Days, a celebration of the historic Rondo neighborhood in St. Paul.

Rondo Days was started in 1983 after the vibrant, predominantly Black neighborhood was ripped apart by the construction of I-94 in the 1960s. Despite the destruction, the community has been coming together for decades now for Rondo Days. This year it’s taking place at the Martin Luther King Center in St. Paul.

Gayle Smaller, the board chair with Rondo Avenue Inc., and Merina Neal, a Rondo Days board member, joined Minnesota Now to share more about the event.

The state of Minnesota is asking for input as it looks to change its rules for feedlots for the first time in 25 years.

Feedlots are buildings or confined areas where animals are kept for agriculture. There are about 18,000 in the state, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

These areas allow livestock producers to raise more animals on less land. They also produce a lot of manure, which can pollute drinking water. Since the state made its last major changes to feedlot regulations in the year 2000, these operations have grown and consolidated.

Lisa Scheirer, the MPCA’s feedlot section manager, joined Minnesota Now to talk about potential regulation changes for feedlots.

The U.S. Senate approved a rescissions package that cuts $1.1 billion from public media over the next two years. That includes funding from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting that goes to 16 media organizations in Minnesota.

Some of those organizations are MPR News and our sister music stations, as well as regional PBS stations and small radio stations. At those smaller stations, federal dollars cover up to half the budget.   

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar has commented that the cuts could shutter tribal and rural radio stations. She joined MPR News host Nina Moini on Minnesota Now to talk about it.

Disclosure: While MPR receives money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, when reporting on the business of MPR and public media, we do so independently from news executives and do not let them review material before it runs.