Minneapolis based nonprofit Social Venture Partners recently asked youth ages 12-24 for innovations that could help their communities. The organization is celebrating five winners of the YouthSparks Ideas competition on Monday; 15-year-old Jaylen Jones is one of them.

He pitched an idea for a business called “Jones Cleaning and Companionship,” which was inspired by his time helping his grandmother, Shonda James Ofili. Jaylen sees the business as a reciprocal benefit to three generations of people: teenagers who can gain employment and connection, middle-aged adults who need help for their parents and senior citizens who receive help in their homes and friendships.

Minnesota Now Producer Alanna Elder recently talked with them both.

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Early voting is officially underway for the Minnesota primaries. And a new organization wants to make sure young voters are engaged and have a record turnout.

One recent estimate from Tufts University found that 41 million members of Gen Z will be eligible to vote this year. And the organization ‘Believe In What’s Possible’ wants to make sure as many of those Minnesotans as possible are getting to the polls.

Chelsea Sheldon, the programming director for ‘Believe In What’s Possible,’ joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer.

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It’s the final full day of campaigning ahead of the New Hampshire primary. Tuesday night we’ll have results in Republican and Democratic contests.

Minnesota’s Dean Phillips is banking on a strong showing to buttress his case that the Democratic Party needs an alternative to incumbent President Joe Biden.

MPR News Correspondent Mark Zdechlik is tracking Phillips in New Hampshire and spoke to MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer live.

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The Queer Legislators Caucus of the Minnesota Legislature has spoken out against a decision by Worthington’s school board to take down flags representing LGBTQ+ and Puerto Rican identity.

The school board has been debating the issue since the fall after a parent complained to the superintendent over an LGBTQ+ pride flag with the words, “Everyone is Welcome Here.” A science teacher at Worthington High School put up that flag in his classroom along with a Puerto Rican flag.

The teacher has announced plans to leave at the end of the school year. And Worthington isn’t the only district in the state to have entered culture-war debates over LGBTQ+ pride symbols or books. Farmington and St. Louis Park are other recent examples.

Sahan Journal Education Reporter Becky Dernbach has been following this issue, including in Worthington, where the controversy was first reported by the Worthington Globe. Dernbach joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer.

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  From Sahan Journal Worthington school board votes to remove LGBTQ+, Puerto Rican flags from majority Latino school
  
  

Leaders at The Worthington Globe believe a vandalism incident was connected to the reporting on the issue. They sent MPR News this statement:

“Sometime during the evening of Nov. 28 or overnight, someone vandalized a vehicle belonging to a Globe employee. The vandalism included homophobic messages spray painted on the driver’s side doors, hood, trunk and windows. The driver’s side mirror was also kicked in and left dangling by wires. Among the messages were ‘Go Home!.’

The Globe and its parent company, Forum Communications Co., believe the vandalism was directly related to reporting done by The Globe on an issue within Independent School District 518. The issue, which arose in October, involved district administration requesting the removal of an ‘Everyone is welcome here’ banner displayed in a high school science teacher’s classroom, as well as the Puerto Rican flag. The Globe reported on the district’s actions and interviewed the impacted teacher, as well as the president of the local teacher’s union and a student who was among a group who protested the removal of the items.

That and subsequent stories on the issue led the district to host a public listening session on the Monday of Thanksgiving week, and follow-up public comment at its Tuesday meeting that week. Those stories appeared in the Nov. 25 e-edition of The Globe.

Three days later, someone vandalised one of our staff member’s vehicles. We believe the staff person was followed home after either the listening session or the board meeting, and returned when the vehicle was parked in the driveway, rather than the garage, overnight.

The act of vandalism has shaken up our entire team at The Globe. We are tasked, as journalists, with reporting the news in our community. Initially we felt threatened, vulnerable and afraid of what might happen next. We were — and still are — angry, angry because we were doing our job, angry that someone would choose vandalism to send us a message and angry that there are people in our community who think they can threaten the news media in this way.”

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The union representing teachers in the state’s largest school district, Anoka-Hennepin, was planning a rally for Monday evening but they canceled it after reaching a tentative contract deal.

While that’s good news for the Anoka-Hennepin school, many other districts, including St. Paul and Minneapolis, are still in mediation. That’s a step unions need to take before calling a strike.

The Star Tribune reported last week that 57 districts have requested a mediator from the Minnesota Board of Mediation Services. Commissioner Johnny Villareal was on this show last month, he said the board typically gets about 50 mediation requests in a bargaining cycle.

Joining MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer to talk about the state of negotiations around the state is Education Minnesota President Denise Specht.

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A Minnesota company violated a woman’s civil rights when it fired her after learning she was pregnant. We’ll get all the details on that from an expert on pregnancy discrimination.

And the Science Museum of Minnesota is getting ready to expand. We’ll get a first peek at their plans.

A report stretching over 30 years covers the health of the Mississippi River, we’ll get the good news and the bad.

In a new episode of Thank You, Stranger, we’ll hear how a small act of kindness got a woman through her father’s illness.

And Thursday means sports! Will the Timberwolves continue their winning streak? We’ll get Wally and Eric’s hot takes.

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A pet store in Blaine will have to pay $22,000 to a woman it hired and fired an hour after she told a manager she was pregnant.

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights found Pet Ranch violated Hannah Grell’s rights under state law. The department announced Wednesday that along with the settlement, it will monitor the company for three years.

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  Related Minnesota company illegally fired woman because she was pregnant
  
  

Pregnancy discrimination is more common than you might think. A woman in Coon Rapids recently won a settlement from a dental office in a similar case. And last week the state fined Menards for docking a worker’s pay when she took breaks to pump.

At the national level, one in five mothers say they’ve experienced pregnancy discrimination at work, according to a survey by the Bipartisan Policy Center. And one in four have considered leaving their jobs out of fear of discrimination or a lack of accommodation.

Jerri Adams Belcher is an attorney at Wanta Thome Minneapolis who works on pregnancy discrimination and other employment cases. She joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer to help break all this down.

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The Minnesota Timberwolves will take on the Memphis Grizzlies Thursday evening. Will the Timberwolves continue their three-game win streak?

Our sports guys Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson talk with MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer about the Vikings’ prospects in 2024, the continued success of Minnesota’s new women’s hockey team and other sports news.

Wally is the founder of Minnesota Score Sports Magazine and co-host of the sports talk show Ten Thousand Takes. Eric is the other host of that show and Vikings reporter for CBS Sports radio's Eye on the NFL.

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It’s time for another episode of Thank You, Stranger, our series about strangers helping us out or even changing our lives forever.

A woman remembers the kindness of another while she was struggling with her dad’s illness. MPR News Producer Ellen Finn talked to her about how even the smallest gestures made all the difference.

If you have a story of your own about the kindness of a stranger, we want to hear it!

Call us at ‪612-361-1252‬ or shoot us an email at [email protected]

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If you happen to talk to someone who saw the Mississippi River in the Twin Cities 100 years ago, it would have been a pretty gross centerpiece. It won’t surprise you that since we stopped dumping raw sewage, sawdust, and industrial chemicals into the river, its health has improved dramatically.

A recent report from the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association looks at how water quality in the river changed over 30 years — from 1989 through 2018. There’s some good news and some bad news.

Glenn Skuta is the watershed division director at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. He’s also a member of the association’s Water Quality Executive Committee. He joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer to explain the details of the report.

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