Minnesota Now

Florida is facing yet another hurricane after getting slammed by Hurricane Helene last week.

Just before noon Monday afternoon, the National Weather Service announced Hurricane Milton had quickly grown into a Category 5 storm — which means catastrophic damage will occur once the storm makes landfall.

Since moving to Dunedin, Fla., from Minneapolis eight years ago, Heather Forness has experienced a handful of big storms.

She spoke with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about her experience.

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.

Our ask: Help me find fall colors in Minnesota

Our professional: Sara Berhow, integrated public relations supervisor at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Fall drought is deepening across much of the state. We hear what it means.

And polls suggest that almost one in five Americans don't know which presidential candidate they'll vote for next month. A Duluth professor takes us inside the psychology of those undecided voters.

A new chain of Mexican grocery stores is opening in the Twin Cities. We hear from the entrepreneur who hopes to fight food deserts.

And we continue our coverage of shifting cell phone policies in schools. We hear from students who started going completely phoneless this week.

We also hear from an author who is connecting cultural identity with gardening.

Our Minnesota Music Minute was “PLT” by Cassieopia.

Our Song of the Day was “Dunes” by Foxby.

Those of us who love to garden know it can be a meditative space. A new book, “Perennial Ceremony” by Teresa Peterson, finds the Southwestern Minnesota-based author reconciling her spirituality through her relationship with her garden.

Peterson is a citizen of the Upper Sioux Community and writes about the intersections of cultural identity, food place and belonging.

She spoke with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about the book.

Last month, MPR News spoke with the superintendent of United South Central Schools in Wells, Minn. Their district had decided this year to spend thousands of dollars on phone pouches that lock students phones all day — no access.

The pouches were put into place on Tuesday. Minnesota Now senior producer Aleesa Kuznetsov spoke to two students at the school on the first day of the pouches to get their perspectives on the new policy.

With just one month to election day, recent polls suggest about 18 percent of voters are still undecided.

To learn what’s going on inside the minds of those people, MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with John Blanchar, director of the Social and Political Psychology Lab at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Drought is getting worse across Minnesota. About 40 percent of the state is now in moderate drought, with the rest considered “abnormally dry.”

The main areas of the state affected: Northeastern and Southwestern Minnesota, where farmers have already been dealing with a smorgasbord of odd weather this growing season.

For more, MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Liz Stahl, crops extension educator with the University of Minnesota Extension.

Wednesday marks the start of the holiest time of the year for Jewish people. It’s Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Families in Minnesota will head to synagogue and eat apples and honey among other traditions.

A Minnesota-based company, Kar-Ben Publishing, has been helping teach these traditions for 50 years. Kar-Ben is the largest publisher of Jewish culture children’s books in the world.

Publisher Fran Greenman-Schmitz joins MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about it.

It appears that most snap polls taken after Tuesday night’s Vice Presidential debate have voters thinking each candidate did okay. Polls taken for Politico and CBS News show voters evenly split on whether Gov. Tim Walz or Sen. JD Vance won the face-off.

While the event is not expected to push many voters to one side or another, it offered a closer look at the men who could be second in command. For the latest in our series, State of Democra-Z, MPR News host Cathy Wurzer checks in with two Gen-Z voters to find out what stood out to them.

From Gov. Tim Walz’s best moments, to his blunders, we break down the performances of Walz and JD Vance in the only Vice Presidential debate.

And in the series State of Democra-Z, we hear from our Gen-Z voter panel for their thoughts on the debate.

MPR chief meteorologist Paul Huttner joins us with a fall weather forecast.

Plus, did you know Minnesota is home to the largest publisher in the world of Jewish children's books? We talk to the publisher ahead of the high holidays.

And a group of runners is not letting chronic illness stop them from running the Twin Cities Marathon this weekend.