Minnesota Now

In this edition of “Vital Signs,” MPR News host Cathy Wurzer and Dr. Jon Hallberg talk election stress, and health care on the ballot.

Hallberg is a family medicine physician at Mill City Clinic and a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School. This will be his last segment with us.

MPR News correspondent Mark Zdechlik checks in from the campaign trail in LaCrosse, Wis., where JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are making their final cases to voters.

And MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talks with MPR News politics editor Brian Bakst for his reflection as both campaigns wrap up.

It’s shaping up to be a snowy Halloween for parts of the state. We’ll have more on what’s to come during trick or treating and how to stay safe on those slushy roads.

And after thirty years of serving children affected by HIV, Camp Heartland is closing. We’ll look back on the memories — and medical breakthroughs — over the years.

The St. Peter Claver Catholic school in St. Paul’s Rondo Neighborhood 75 years old. We’ll learn how it made an impact on generations of students.

No matter what age you are, science has found that a sense of play is good for your health. More on how to do that.

And Dia de Los Muertos is Friday. A Mexican-Minnesotan poet is here to talk about how humor fits in to honoring the dead.

Our Song of the Day was “Tokyo Neon” by American Families.

Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is celebrated the day after Halloween. Some of the key ingredients of this celebration are made of sugar and clay. They are decorative skulls known as calaveras. But calavera is also a term for a poem written for the Day of the Dead.

Joining MPR News host Cathy Wurzer with more on this tradition is Teresa Ortiz. She is a poet and a member of the spoken word collective Palabristas.

We all need a little help to get through life sometimes. From everyday questions to more complex problems, we’re asking the experts to lend us a hand.

Throughout the series Professional Help, we’ll hear some direct advice, for us not-so-direct Minnesotans.

There’s evidence that grown-ups are happier, healthier and more creative when we make time for play. But with responsibilities and expectations and worries, it’s hard to do so.

Our ask: Help me find a sense of play at any age

Our professional: Sofia Padilla, co-assistant director of Puppet Lab at Open Eye theater and co-founder of Paradox Teatro

For our Minnesota Now and Then series, we turn to a pillar of the Rondo neighborhood which is celebrating 75 years, St. Peter Claver Catholic School. The school is a vital part of the fabric of the Twin Cities African American community. 98 percent of it’s population is students of color.

And even as the historically Black neighborhood was torn apart by the construction of interstate 94 in the ‘50s and ‘60s, St. Peter Claver has remained. This weekend the school is celebrating with an all-school reunion.

Joining Minnesota Now to talk about the school’s legacy is principal Terese Shimshock and Lynn Wright, a St. Peter alumna and now staff member.

After thirty summers of gathering and celebrating children with an HIV positive status, Camp Heartland in Willow River, Minnesota is up for sale. Childhood HIV in the U.S. is almost non-existent, leading the camp to have less and less families to serve.

The camp’s founder, Neil Willenson, joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to share why he put together the organization and how far it’s come.

It is the first weather event of the season so lots of us are out of practice driving in heavy snow and rain. For a closer look at road conditions across the state, Anne Meyer from the Minnesota Department of Transportation joined Minnesota Now.

It’s shaping up to be a frightful forecast for Halloween across much of Minnesota as rain changes over to snow — and that snow could be heavy at times.

As of early Thursday afternoon, snow was falling across most of the Twin Cities metro area and in the St. Cloud area. The transition occurred earlier in the day to the south and west.

It reminds us of the infamous Halloween blizzard of 1991. A record setting 36.9 inches in Duluth, 28.4 inches in the Twin Cities.

For more on what to expect with Thursday’s storm is MPR meteorologist Mandy Thalhuber.

Duluth renters Wednesday officially launched what they are calling the Duluth Tenant’s Union. It’s a new strategy to address a growing issue of affordability, livability and availability in Duluth housing.

The union hopes to keep the city’s larger property management companies in check when it comes to making repairs in a timely manner and legally raising rent. DyAnna Grondahl is a senior organizer at Take Action Minnesota who has been working on this effort for more than year. She joins MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about it.