The long-running band the Mubbla Buggs will join a host of other Minneapolis favorites Friday to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the iconic Cedar Cultural Center. Since it opened in the city’s Cedar Riverside neighborhood in 1989, the Cedar has hosted musicians from hundreds of countries.

Eric Hohn has been a sound tech at the Cedar for the past 27 years and he is a founding member of the Mubbla Buggs, who are headlining the anniversary show. He joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to tell some stories of the band and the venue.

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

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St. Paul is celebrating its first ever all-women city council meeting this afternoon. The newly elected council president is here to talk about it.

Multiple salmonella outbreaks have made Minnesotans sick. Experts say foodborne illness has increased over the past few years. We get more on why.

It’s finally starting to feel like January. We take a look at the upcoming weather report.

We hear from an entrepreneur who has some good ideas about coffee and camping.

Plus, an international music venue celebrates 35 years.

The federal government is looking into three salmonella outbreaks that have made several Minnesotans and many other people across the country sick. Three people in the state died and more than 20 became ill after eating tainted cantaloupe late last year.

Just last week a brand of charcuterie meats was recalled after two dozen people got sick, including in Minnesota. And back in November there was an outbreak in dog food, affecting pet owners who touched the food or their dog’s saliva.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that cases of foodborne illness declined during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. But by 2022, the latest year for which data is available, they had increased to levels seen before the pandemic.

Lisa Robinson, Vice President of Global Food Safety and Public Health at Minnesota-based EcoLab, is well-versed in health and safety issues in the complicated system that churns out much of our food. She joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to explain.

A two-year motorcycle trip from St. Paul to Argentina. Taking youngsters and adults on camping trips. Experiments run out of a college dorm. A Kickstarter campaign. Intrigued?

Those are some of the key elements behind the creation of the JoGo straw. Think French press in a straw. MPR’s senior economics contributor Chris Farrell recently sat down with entrepreneur Joey Jones, chief executive officer and co-founder of JoGo. He joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about what he learned.

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There’s no denying it now: winter has arrived. First we got the snow and now the real cold is not far behind. MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talked with chief meteorologist Paul Huttner for the latest details on snowfall and the first wave of subzero temperatures.

It is 2024, which means we are heading into Summer Olympic season. The 2024 games in Paris don’t start until July, but Olympic trials have begun. Many Minnesotans are vying for a spot. One of the first trials underway is for U.S. sailing.

Right now, Shoreview native Lara Dallman-Weiss is in Miami, competing for a spot. MPR News’ Todd Melby spoke to Dallman-Weiss ahead of the trials about the sport and her hopes for the summer games.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Dallman-Weiss: There are 10 different types of sailboats in the Olympics. I race one called The Mixed Dinghy, so it’s mixed gender, one male, one female. And this is actually the first time my type of boat has been mixed-gender. I’m racing with a teammate who has sailed in for the Olympics before, but it’s our first time sailing together. [It’s a] two-person boat. It has three sails, my teammate sits on the side of the boat and I’m on a trapeze. So I hang off the side of the boat.

It is so fun. It’s extremely physical and you’re working to your highest heart rate most of the 45-minute race and you’re also reading the wind making decisions based on the weather, and you’re competent. So you’re pretty much doing math problems while at your highest target for 45 minutes, twice a day.

I have this harness that I wear and it has a hook around my pelvis section. And something on the side of the boat I grab and I hook on to that, so my feet are actually on the side of the boat and there’s a wire or a rope — you can use either — that goes up to the side of the mast.

It’s worth a Google search. It’s harder than I imagined to describe.

I think each sailor and each team has different styles, different body shapes, different techniques.

So I’m more eager to show the sport and get that out there than I am worried about people seeing what equipment we use. I just really want to show everyone what the sport is like.

I think it’s so amazing, from so many different levels. There’s disabled sailing, which is amazing. There are a lot of veterans that come back and get into the sport of sailing; they have blind sailing racing. You can take it in so many different avenues.

There are boat deliveries around the world and everyone that I’ve shown sailing for the first time and been with them for their first sail, they’re just like: “This sport is something else.” And that really gets me excited.

I am rich in experiences. I am certainly privileged in that I was able to grow up sailing, but by no means do my parents pay for my sailing or my Olympic sailing. I very much had to fundraise and work side jobs and do anything I could to make this work.

I grew up sailing on White Bear Lake, sailing in the summers. And then lakes would freeze and I would play basketball and I was in track, cross-country and dance line. Sailing was just such a fun thing for me to do in the summers with my friends and learn how to race.

Then I went off to college in Florida and that’s when I really took it to the next level, started sailing on professional programs where you get paid to race and then got into the Olympics scene.

In The Mixed Dinghy that I sail, there are nine teams and one team goes. So it’s winner-takes-all.

I’m not, no. We have had so much preparation and we’ve done everything we can in our control. So now it’s enjoy and just take it one day at a time, one race at a time. And that’s kind of my motto that always gets me through.

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Police say they do no know the motive behind Monday night’s fatal shooting at a motel in Cloquet.

And ambulance services in Minnesota are facing challenges. Minnesota Now talks about what state leaders can do to make sure people can get emergency care.

A north Minneapolis charter school is closing suddenly at the end of the week because of a funding crisis. We talk about what happened — and what it means for parents and staff.

Last year, state lawmakers passed several bills to lower greenhouse gas emissions. We talk about what’s on the climate agenda for this year’s session, which begins next month.

And we hear from a Minnesotan competing for a spot on the U.S. Olympic sailing team.

Parents and students of a charter school in north Minneapolis have less than a week to find a new place to learn. JJ Legacy School is closing this Friday. Its board held an emergency meeting late last week that revealed the school's troubled financial situation.

The Minnesota Department of Education overpaid the school after the number of students was overreported. According to reporting from the Sahan Journal, that meant that by the end of last month, the school had received — and spent — more than its budget for the whole school year. The school is not only out of money, it’s 700,000 dollars in debt. Sahan Journal Education Reporter Becky Dernbach has been following all of this and she joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer.

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

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A new state legislative task force is meeting Tuesday to address a crisis facing emergency medical response in rural Minnesota. Ambulance services in Minnesota respond to nearly 715,000 calls for service each year, and that’s rising. Since COVID-19, demand for emergency medical workers is way up, when a workforce shortage is becoming dire.

The State Legislature is intervening, with the Minnesota Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Task Force established late last year. The legislature wants to hear from both the EMS and the public, holding hearings across the state, including one today in Elbow Lake. That’s where Dylan Ferguson, the Executive Director of Minnesota Emergency Medical Services Regulatory Board joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer.

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

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

Cloquet police on Tuesday morning said they still do not know a motive in the Monday evening shooting at a Super 8 motel that left three dead including the suspected shooter.

The shooting on the city’s south side prompted a shelter-in-place warning of an “active shooter” for a couple of hours, a warning that Cloquet Police Chief Derek Randall was unprecedented for the small community in his 20 years with the force there.

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  Previously Cloquet police suspected gunman, 2 others dead after 'active shooter' report
  
  

A 911 call around 6:30 p.m. from a hotel employee said they'd found a coworker, a 22-year-old woman, had been attacked. She was found near the front desk with a gunshot wound.

Police also found a 35-year-old Deer River man dead in the parking lot in his truck with multiple gunshot wounds.

Randall said their biggest concern at first was finding the suspect, and video surveillance “was crucial.”

"They were able to access the video surveillance and recall that information to see what what was on there, which led to a phone call to me saying that they were confident that this surveillance footage showed the shooter died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound," he said.

Police found a 32-year-old man from Ramsey dead nearby with a handgun next to him. He’s believed to be the shooter as police said video from the motel’s surveillance cameras showed him killing the other two. The entire shooting lasted about 10 minutes, Randall said.

Randall said they did not yet know if there was any connection between the shooter and the victims, but he did say both men were guests at the motel.

He did not reveal the identities of the shooter or victims, but said he would within the next 24 hours after notifying their families.

Police on Monday night said there is no ongoing threat to the public. The Super 8 motel is located just uphill from Highway 33, a busy road and the city’s main commercial strip. It’s adjacent to an AmericInn motel, an Aldi grocery store and a Perkins restaurant, as well as residential neighborhoods on two sides.

At a news conference Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz praised the Cloquet Police Department’s effective response to the shooting and cited a need for reducing gun violence.

“We cannot live in a world where we just accept that this is a normal occurrence. It is not,” Walz said. “If there’s anything we can do or learn from this, we will.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.