You may have noticed we are at the start of a January supersized thaw. All that along with a pretty warm winter overall has made some people feel odd.

MPR Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to share more on this unusual weather.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. 

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.   

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

From hometown hero to hall of fame, this summer, Joe Mauer will be enshrined as one of major league baseball’s greats. The career Twins catcher is a first ballot hall of famer. It’s only the third time a catcher has made it in the first ballot. The St. Paul native received 76 percent of the vote from the Baseball Writers Association and will be inducted in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. in July.

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  Cooperstown bound: Joe Mauer headed to baseball Hall of Fame
  
  

KSTP-TV Sports Director Joe Schmit has followed Joe Mauer through his career and also has a new children’s book coming out this week about Joe Mauer. The book is called “The Right Thing to Do: The Joe Mauer Story.” He joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer to talk about it.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. 

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.   

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

Democratic presidential challenger Dean Phillips is continuing his long-shot campaign after he lost New Hampshire’s primary election Tuesday night to President Joe Biden. Biden’s name did not appear on the ballot, but he won nonetheless with write-ins.

Phillips got about twenty percent of the vote in New Hampshire compared to Biden’s nearly fifty-four percent. But he said he isn’t letting that defeat keep him down just yet. He’s moving his campaign down to South Carolina.

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  Related After New Hampshire vote, Dean Phillips says he'll ‘keep this baby going’ in Democratic race
  
  

Dan Hofrenning, a St. Olaf college professor and 16 students are in New Hampshire right now to learn about the primaries and participate in internships for the campaigns of Biden and Phillips, as well as Republican candidates Donald Trump and Nikki Haley.

He joined MPR News Cathy Wurzer to talk about the primary.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. 

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.   

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

Brooklyn Center’s City Council narrowly voted down a proposal to change the way police do traffic stops and searches. Under the policy, officers would not have been allowed to pull over drivers for minor infractions like a broken taillight or objects hanging from a rearview mirror. A committee drafted the reforms after police killings of Daunte Wright in 2021 and Kobe Dimlock-Heiser in 2019. Wright was stopped for expired tabs, another of the minor violations on the list. The changes would have also prevented officers from asking to search a vehicle without probable cause.

The committee behind all this first presented its recommendations to the city council in September 2022. Fast forward to this past October, the council tabled the new rules after police chief Kellace McDaniel said he had reservations. MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talked with committee member John Solomon back then. With the policy defeated in a 3-2 vote, he joined her on Minnesota Now again.

Not much snow will remain after this week’s winter warmup, but the annual Great Northern Festival starts on Thursday to remind us of the ways Minnesotans get creative in our state's deep cold. The festival has a focus on the changing climate- and is perhaps one of the best places to reflect on this year's wonky winter.

The Great Northern festival has a brand new Executive Director, Jovan C. Speller. She joined Minnesota Now along with Chief Programming Officer Kate Nordstrum.

The city council of Brooklyn Center rejected police reform efforts. We talked to a member from the committee who has worked for years to come up with this policy.

We learned about a Minnesota car shop that is making sure those who can't afford repairs aren't left stranded.

We looked at a study that looks at Minneapolis housing and talk to a reporter who looked at how the plan is fracturing environmentalists.

From Cretin Duram Hall, to possibly the Baseball Hall of Fame, it's Joe Mauer's big day. We took a look back at his career.

Organizers from the Great Northern Festival joined us to highlight their lineup that's celebrating winter.

Minneapolis housing policy has drawn national attention, even as it sits in limbo. A recent study by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that zoning changes over the last 15 years helped the city keep up with demand for housing and keep rent down, at least compared to other cities. Those zoning changes include what’s known as the 2040 plan, which made the city the first in the nation to end single family zoning – that is, until a judge put the plan on hold last fall. The next step in the court battle over the 2040 plan will happen February 21. The Minnesota Court of Appeals is hearing oral arguments in a lawsuit filed by a set of environmental groups. Multiple courts have found that the city should have first conducted an environmental study to explore the potential harm of increased density to natural resources and wildlife.

Journalist Jerusalem Demsas writes about this in a recent article in The Atlantic. Alex Horowitz is a project director with Pew’s housing policy initiative who worked on the study on zoning changes. Both joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.

Any car owner knows - cars aren’t cheap to own and run. Besides the cost of buying a car and paying for fuel, there’s insurance, maintenance, and repair bills. Yet across Minnesota, most people need a car for work, grocery shopping, visiting friends, and other activities. While for many people it’s inconvenient when their car breaks down, the experience can be financially disastrous for people living on low and unstable incomes.

Lift Garage in Minneapolis offers low-cost repairs for those living on little. MPR’s senior economics contributor Chris Farrell recently spent some time at Lift, talking to it’s founder and executive director, Cathy Heying.

There’s one more day until the New Hampshire primary and we’re tracking the progress of Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips — we’ll get the latest live from New Hampshire.

The beginning of the election season means that 41 million members of Generation Z are eligible to vote. More on the work to get them to the polls.

The Anoka-Hennepin teacher’s union announced they reached a tentative deal. But many more districts are still without a contract.

Worthington’s school board has voted to take down flags representing LGBTQ+ and Puerto Rican identity. We’ll hear about the controversy.

And theater lovers listen up! The Guthrie is embarking on an ambitious Shakespearian project.

There’s an ambitious project taking shape at the Guthrie. They are staging three Shakespeare plays, all at the same time, with one core cast of actors. It’s called “Rotating Repertory Theater” and the Guthrie hasn’t done it since 1998.

MPR News Arts Reporter Jacob Aloi is following the story on an ongoing basis and spoke with MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.   

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.