Minnesota Now

It’s time for another edition of Out to Lunch. We’re getting out of the studio and meeting different members of our community over a meal, at a restaurant of their choice.

Today we’ll hear a conversation MPR News host Nina Moini had with Lindsay Whalen. She’s a Minnesota basketball legend with a storied playing career with the Gopher’s and Lynx. Now she’s coaching and gearing up for her first season as an assistant coach with the Lynx. Moini and Whalen met up at The Freehouse in the north loop neighborhood of Minneapolis for lunch.

Believe it or not, April is around the corner. This week Minnesota has seen pretty typical spring weather. We are feeling milder temperatures but we are also seeing raindrops and even snowflakes across the state. It looks like we may be in for more spring slop with a storm coming this weekend.

MPR chief meteorologist Paul Huttner joins MPR News host Nina Moini with details on the forecast.

Starting June 1, employees for the state of Minnesota will be required to work in person for at least 50 percent of their scheduled workdays. Gov. Tim Walz announced the change Tuesday.

Remote work spread widely across the workforce when the pandemic began and many state employees have maintained that setup or work in a hybrid format.

Unions representing state workers are criticizing the governor’s decision. For more, MPR News host Nina Moini talks with Megan Dayton, the president of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, or MAPE, and a senior demographer with the state.

The governor’s office said in a statement that the new policy will lead to faster collaboration among state workers and help boost the economy of downtown St. Paul.

A Minneapolis charter school is under new leadership after multiple lawsuits called into question the school’s practices.

According to reporting from Sahan Journal, Harvest Best Academy’s school board fired their CEO and founder Eric Mahmoud after a lawsuit claimed he chose to protect a prominent teacher accused of sexual abuse.

Sahan Journal education reporter Becky Dernbach joins MPR News host Nina Moini with the latest.

St. Paul's mayor is asking state lawmakers for $397 million dollars to renovate the Xcel Energy Center and other major attractions. We talked to the chair of a senate committee that is considering the proposal Tuesday.

Minnesota's largest mental health advocacy group is holding a workshop to help people navigate federal layoffs and funding cuts. We heard from the social worker leading the event.

As state regulators figure out how to enforce Minnesota's new ban on forever chemicals, two reporters put some household products to the test. We found out what they learned.

We met a woman behind an effort to name March Kurdish Heritage month in Moorhead.

Our Minnesota Music Minute was ‘On My Mind’ by Big Salt and our Song of the Day was ‘Somebody Said There'd Be Cookies’ by Pat Egan.

In Moorhead, March is now Kurdish Heritage Month. The city’s mayor issued a proclamation in early March making the city the latest to celebrate its Kurdish population. A community group estimates there are 3,500 Kurds in the city, or eight percent of the population.

Siham Amedy led the effort to submit the proclamation to the city. She’s a member of the city’s human rights commission and a project manager at Creating Community Consulting. She joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about why March is such an important month for Kurdish people.

It’s been nearly three months since Minnesota’s ban on forever chemicals in household products went into effect. The PFAS ban is the widest in the country. Its first stage includes products in 11 categories, from children’s clothes to cookware. On Jan. 2 — day two of the ban — a pair of reporters went shopping for some of those items and then tested them in a lab. A few of the products failed the test.  

The Minnesota Star Tribune environmental reporter Chloe Johnson and business reporter Brooks Johnson joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about their report.

Related reading: Star Tribune tested Minnesota’s new PFAS law. Not everyone passed.

A big ticket request to renovate some of St. Paul's largest attractions will head to the legislature.

On Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Melvin Carter and others asked lawmakers to pay $397 million to update the Xcel Energy Center, Roy Wilkins Auditorium and the RiverCentre. It's about half of the estimated cost of the renovations.

DFL state senator Sandy Pappas is the chair of the Capital Investment Committee that will hear the request. She also represents the downtown St. Paul area. Senator Pappas joined Minnesota Now to talk about the request for the renovations, if a project like this could help attract people to downtown St. Paul and how much of the project would land on taxpayers.

Since coming into office, President Donald Trump has prioritized drastically reducing the size and scope of the federal government. It’s led to mass layoffs that have impacted Minnesotans and also funding cuts that trickle down to local agencies and nonprofits.  

It's creating a lot of uncertainty and confusion amongst employees. To help Minnesotans cope with some of the anxiety from that, The National Alliance on Mental Illness Minnesota chapter, or NAMI Minnesota, is holding a workshop on Wednesday.  

Melissa Conway is a licensed social worker with Minnesota Mental Health Clinics and will be leading the workshop. She joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about the state of federal employee mental health.

More details are coming to light about the arrest of former state Senator Justin Eichorn. We'll get the latest from reporter Mark Zdechlik. Plus, we'll talk to the head of the Minnesota BCA about how sting operations work and how agents are trained.

A lawsuit has been filed against St. Francis Area schools over a policy that requires library books to be filtered through a rating site supported by conservatives. We'll hear from an attorney on the case.

Plus, the head of a national veterans group is in Minnesota to spread awareness about veteran mental health. We'll hear about his efforts to support veterans in the state.

And March Madness is in full swing! We'll get the breakdown from our sports guys Wally and Eric.

Our Minnesota Music Minute was “For Her” by Lighter Co. and our Song of the Day was “A Little Brie, A Little Weed, A Little Wine” by Joe Pie Weed.