It was a late night at the Capitol as Minnesota lawmakers worked past midnight to pass bills in the final days of the session. MPR News senior politics reporter Dana Ferguson explains why tensions ran high on the house floor.

The college Class of 2024 has overcome a lot in their four years. We hear reflections from graduates.

A northern Minnesota school district is seeing pushback for banning a Native drum group performance at graduation. We hear from a tribal leader.

Plus, this weekend you can go behind the scenes of some of the most iconic and historic buildings in Minneapolis.

And it’s win or go home for the Timberwolves. We talk about what obstacles the team faces to keep their playoff run alive.

Thursday is a make-or-break day for the Timberwolves. The team needs a win against the Denver Nuggets to stay in the playoffs. If the Wolves lose, Denver gets to keep defending the championship title they won last year. If the Wolves prevail tonight, they get another chance Sunday to win the series against Denver and move on to the Western Conference finals. Tipoff is 7:30 at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis.

And Friday night in the same place the Minnesota Lynx play their home opener against Seattle. Sports contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about this moment in Minnesota basketball and the latest sports news.

Wally is the founder of “Minnesota Score” sports magazine and co-host of the “Ten Thousand Takes” sports talk show. Eric is the other host of that show and sports reporter for WCCO radio and TV.

Have you ever passed an interesting building while driving through town and been curious about what goes on behind its closed doors? An event Saturday and Sunday is made for the curious to take a peek behind closed doors throughout Minneapolis.

The public is free to tour hundreds of private spaces, from historic mansions to factories to performance venues to apartment buildings to places of worship. The event is called “Doors Open Minneapolis.” Kelly Fischer is leading the charge through her organization, Rethos, and she joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer with a preview.

This season of Top Chef is taking place in Wisconsin. Chefs from across the country and even world are competing in different Wisconsin-themed challenges focusing on things like cheese, beer and cherries.

Wednesday night’s episode will be focused on Indigenous cuisine. And a familiar face will be there to judge and help out in the challenge. James Beard winner, and chef-owner of Owamni, Sean Sherman.

Sherman joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer to talk about his experience being part of Top Chef and sharing Indigenous cuisine on a national platform.

School district referendums for building new schools, technology upgrades and more are failing across the state, and by just a few hundred votes. We talked to the Duluth and Fergus falls school districts about impacts on students.

The newest Top Chef episode is on Indigenous cooking. One of the judges is Minnesota’s own Sean Sherman and we talked with him.

May 15 is college decision day, two weeks later than normal due to FAFSA delays. We learned more about the impact on aid packages and enrollment.

The University of Minnesota launched a new climate visualizer this week that you can use to look at what’s happening in your backyard.

And our chief meteorologist shared some good news on spring planting.

The University of Minnesota launches a new online tool this week. It allows people to visualize how a future climate will look and feel in their own backyards.

Users can zoom in on rainfall, temperature and other climate projections down to the size of a neighborhood. The goal is to help engineers, farmers and others better plan for a climate-changed future.

For more on this new tool, University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership director Heidi Roop joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.

Now that the sky is clear of wildfire smoke from earlier this week, much of Minnesota is back to enjoying spring weather and rain is moving in.

The rain we’ve gotten so far this spring have been good news for Minnesota’s lakes, rivers and ponds. MPR Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to explain.

May 15 is decision day for many colleges across Minnesota. It’s two weeks later than the normal May 1 deadline for students to commit to attending the school in the fall.

That’s because of an alarming delay to FAFSA earlier this year, which was plagued with glitches and challenges. Around 225,000 Minnesotans usually fill out the FAFSA form overseen by the U.S. Department of Education that is used to determine which government loans and grants students can receive.

But Minnesota students have submitted the form at unusually low rates this year.

BG Tucker is the senior director of programs at College Possible, an organization that helps low-income families with the college process. She joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer with an update on this important day for many Minnesotans’ higher education.

Voters across Minnesota headed to the polls on Tuesday for a special election. Six schools districts had referendums on the ballots.

The results are mixed. Ellsworth Public Schools, Norman County East and Martin County West got the money for building upgrades that they asked for, although Martin County voters rejected a request for an auxiliary gym. School leaders in Pine City, Fergus Falls and Duluth are regrouping after their referendums failed.

In Duluth, the district was asking to raise $5 million in property taxes each year to fund technology and security upgrades as well as new technical educational programs. It failed by 453 votes, according to preliminary results from the district.

In Fergus Falls, the district asked to raised property taxes to build a new school for grades 3 through 5. It failed by 921 votes.

School board chair for Duluth Public Schools Jill Loflad and Fergus Falls Public Schools Superintendent Jeff Drake joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.

It’s crunch time at the Minnesota State Capitol and lawmakers less than a week to pass a few major bills — including one that would fund building projects around the state. We talked with House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth about Republican priorities during these final days.

A rural hospital plans to close its inpatient psychiatric unit. We found out how this fits into the bigger picture of mental health care shortages around the state.

We got some perspective on political disinformation — from another continent.

Apple lovers, rejoice! There’s a new variety in town and it’s now available to grow at home.

The Westminster Dog Show has been running for nearly 150 years. We met a Minnesotan who is one of this year’s judges.