Minnesota Now

There are many questions from passengers about flight safety after a Delta flight from Minneapolis to Toronto crashed and flipped over while landing. All 80 people on board survived, but 21 passengers were injured and 19 have been released from local hospitals.

Canada's Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into the crash. There’s no word yet on the cause of the crash. The incident is the fourth major aviation accident in the U.S. in the last three weeks.

Andrew Tangel is a Wall Street Journal Reporter covering aviation safety and regulation. He's based in Minneapolis. Tangel joined the show with more context on the crash.

Hosted by Nina Moini, produced by Aleesa Kuznetsov.

U.S. Senator Tina Smith will not be running for reelection in 2026. We hear from her about the choice to step away and we learn about some of the candidates already vying for her seat, like Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan. MPR’s politics editor Brian Bakst will join us with the latest.

The DNR and the Fond du Lac band are working on a plan to reintroduce elk to the reservation. It's one of the first times that a tribe has worked with the DNR on a management plan. We hear from the reservation's elk biologist about the importance of the partnership.

An organization called Route 1 is creating resources for emerging farmers of color in Minnesota and creating more food access. We talk to the organization’s founder.

Our Minnesota Music Minute was ‘This Night is Killing You’ by Kiss the Tiger. Our Song of the Day was ‘Mountain’ by Bad Posture Club.

Despite the freezing temperatures, the farmers at Route 1 Farms are already deep into harvesting lettuce and herbs this winter. They are growing food through a new creative way of indoor farming. The organization specifically focuses on supporting emerging farmers of color in the state.

Route 1 Farm's executive director Marcus Carpenter joined Minnesota Now to talk about the project.

Elk used to roam across the entire state of Minnesota. Today there are just a few hundred, and only in the northwestern part of the state. But that could soon change. 

On Thursday night, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa will have a public meeting to discuss the reintroduction of elk to the Fond du Lac Reservation and surrounding areas in northeastern Minnesota.  

It’s a project that started more than ten years ago, and now is on its way to becoming reality.  Makenzie Henk, the elk biologist with the Fond du Lac band, joined Minnesota Now to talk about the project.

U.S. Senator Tina Smith is not running for reelection in 2026. The Democrat posted a video to social media this morning saying the decision is "not political -- it's entirely personal,” citing a desire to spend more time with her family in Minnesota.

Smith joined the Senate in 2018, when then-governor Mark Dayton appointed her to fill the seat Al Franken left when he resigned.

Just last week on Politics Friday, Smith told MPR's Politics Editor Brian Bakst she was planning to run again. They sat down again Thursday after the announcement.

Candidates are already throwing their hat in the ring. Less than two hours after Smith said she would not seek re-election, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan announced her intention to run for the seat.

An open U.S. Senate seat could draw millions of dollars more into the state, which will mean stepped-up campaign field operations for both parties and an avalanche of ads aimed at voters. MPR’s Politics Editor Brian Bakst joined Minnesota Now to talk about what Smith’s retirement means for Minnesota politics in 2026.

On Minnesota Now, we get to hear from so 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 a new series we are calling Out to Lunch, we sit down for a meal with people from Minnesota news and culture to get to know them better.

Today, we hear a conversation with Geoffrey Lamar Wilson, the singer-songwriter behind the project Laamar.

Laamar burst onto the Twin Cities music scene in 2023 with their EP “Flowers.” Shortly afterward the project was named one of First Avenue’s Best New Bands. Laamar has since opened for Semisonic and will be playing a stage at Minnesota Yacht Club festival in St. Paul this summer.

The first full-length album will be out this year.

Gov. Tim Walz is negotiating with ten of Minnesota’s tribal nations on an agreement allowing them a larger role in the state’s burgeoning cannabis industry. We learn more about how the tribes could lead the rollout of marijuana legalization in Minnesota.

With smartphones taking up more and more of teenagers’ attention, English teachers are rethinking how to teach reading to their students. We meet one teacher who is working with social media to get her kids excited about books.

And in another edition of our series called Out to Lunch, MPR News host Nina Moini sits down for a meal in North Minneapolis with celebrated Minneapolis musician, Geoffrey Lamar Wilson.

Minnesota legislators have been considering a law that would prohibit cell phones in elementary and middle schools and restrict them in high schools. Part of that push comes from educators who are concerned that student attention span is negatively affected by chronic smartphone use.

In many English classrooms across the U.S., assignments to read full-length novels are becoming less common, according to the National Council of Teachers of English. It’s a result of the perception that students have a shorter attention span and less interest in reading the assigned novels.

MPR News host Nina Moini talked with one educator grappling with all this. Mady Vukson teaches English language arts and creative writing at Humboldt High School in St. Paul.

Pending agreements between Gov. Tim Walz and ten of Minnesota’s 11 tribal nations are close to being finalized. They would give a share of the new cannabis industry to tribal nations and businesses they license both on and off reservation land, including in urban areas, according to new reporting from MinnPost.

Minnesota’s 2023 cannabis law authorized Walz to negotiate contracts between the state and tribal nations. Under the agreements, cannabis businesses licensed by tribes would be exempt from rules facing non-tribal businesses that prevent them from having retail, cultivation and manufacturing under one company.

The closed-door negotiations have been ongoing since last spring. MinnPost reporter Peter Callaghan has been watching them closely. He joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about the draft compact language he obtained Tuesday.

A major focus of the Minnesota state legislature is rooting out fraud in government programs. We heard about a new committee in the Republican-led House and talked to a DFL Senator about a bill to create a new agency aimed at finding and stopping fraud.

Before he was former President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan was a star student in Minneapolis. We heard more on his Minnesota roots and where he thinks U.S. foreign policy stands today.

A chef is bringing African American food traditions from his home in the Low Country of the southeastern U.S. to his community in Minnesota. For Black History Month, he’s cooking up a workshop about Gullah Geechee food.

Our Minnesota Music Minute was ‘Cease and Desist’ by the band Crush Scene.