Minnesota Now

George Latimer served as mayor of St. Paul from 1976 until 1990, the longest run of anyone in the city’s history. He oversaw St. Paul’s downtown boom, a growth in development amid a changing city. Latimer died on Sunday at age 89 at his residence in St. Paul. 

Former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer and reflected on George Latimer's legacy.

There are new Medicare price cuts for ten popular drugs. We heard how that could affect thousands of Minnesotans.

This week is the 90th anniversary of the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, the longest running Black-owned news outlet in the state. We looked back on their work.

Educators are getting ready for the impending first day of school. Part of that work is fighting rampant absenteeism that resulted from the pandemic. We heard how they’re looking at that serious problem.

Who’s running the state as Gov. Tim Walz jets around the country campaigning? We found out.

And Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy is injured just as the preseason begins. We heard about the fallout from that and other sports news.

The Minnesota Music Minute was “On Your Time” by Neapolitan, and our Song of the Day was “Roll and Go” by The Ravensfire Band.

The Vikings preseason has barely begun, and they’ve already had some tough breaks. First, new quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who tore his meniscus and had knee surgery, is out for the season. The Vikings also announced yesterday receiver Jordan Addison hurt his ankle and was taken off the field on a cart.

Wally Langfellow is the founder of Minnesota Score Sports Magazine and co-host of the sports talk show 10,000 Takes. Eric Nelson is the other host of that show and Minnesota Vikings NFL reporter for CBS’ Eye on Football and Sirius XM.

They joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to say what all this portends for the Vikings season.

This week marks the 90th anniversary of the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, the longest running Black-owned and family-owned news outlet in the state.

It’s a historic newspaper that’s still going strong, covering Black news at the local and national level. And as you may know, it used to be two newspapers — the Minneapolis Spokesman and the St. Paul Recorder — but they merged about 25 years ago.

Charles Hallman is a legendary figure in Minnesota journalism who’s been with the Spokesman-Recorder since 1990. He joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to look back on his 30+ years with the paper.

It’s hard to believe, but students will be heading back to school in less than three weeks! The 2024 school year will mark the start of a new state pilot program to tackle absenteeism. Twelve school districts were given funding by the legislature to create new strategies to combat a big problem in the state.

Absenteeism is defined as missing more than 10 percent of the school year. And in Minnesota in 2023, the Department of Education found there were more than 300,000 students statewide, or about 30 percent who are considered chronically absent from school.

Those numbers are even higher in Minneapolis Public Schools where more than half of students were frequently absent in 2023.

To learn more about this problem and the solutions districts are implementing, MPR News host Cathy Wurzer was joined by a retired researcher and former head of the Hennepin County “Be At School” program Tim Zuel and Colleen Kaibel, the director of student retention and recovery at Minneapolis Public Schools.

On Thursday morning, we learned that a set of popular and expensive prescription drugs will soon cost less under Medicare. The Biden Administration announced that Medicare had walked away from its first negotiations with drug companies with discounts between 38 and 79 percent.

The state of Minnesota also has a new board created to bring down the cost of some drugs. Jessica Intermill is one of the patient representatives on the board’s advisory council. And she’s testified before the state legislature about the impacts of expensive treatments for rheumatoid arthritis on her own life.

She joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to share the impacts of the lower drug costs for people like her.

This fall, some west metro voters will decide which party controls the state senate. Former DFL state senator Ann Johnson Stewart won Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Senate District 45, which encompasses many cities around Lake Minnetonka. That means she will face Republican Kathleen Fowke in a special election caused by a game of political musical chairs.

Fowke has said there needs to be more balance in state government and Johnson Stewart told MPR News Wednesday morning that she agrees. The race, with its implications for the legislature as a whole, is expected to draw significant spending.

MPR News politics reporter Dana Ferguson joined host Cathy Wurzer and politics editor Brian Bakst to break down this race and the standout races for the state house.

The Democratic National Convention begins Monday in Chicago. Since last week’s addition of Governor Tim Walz to the Democratic ticket, there are many more eyes on the convention here in our state. MPR News politics reporters Mark Zdechlik and Clay Masters are gearing up to head to the convention and they joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer and politics editor Brian Bakst with a preview.

In the state House of Representatives there were 22 races in Tuesday's primary. Of the six GOP incumbents and one DFL incumbent who had challengers, just one Republican, Representative Brian Johnson of Cambridge, lost his bid for a seventh term. Isanti Mayor James Gordon notched a convincing victory there.

Now that the field is set for November, the DFL will work to maintain its state Capitol majorities amid a hard push from the GOP to break that one-party control. DFL House Majority Leader Jamie Long represents a portion of south Minneapolis and Republican House Deputy Minority Leader Paul Torkelson represents a rural district in southern Minnesota. They joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer and politics editor Brian Bakst to lay out their parties’ priorities now through November.

We break down the primary results and what they mean for November. Three U.S. House races were closely watched.

We hear from Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Michelle Fischbach who both fended off primary challenges.

The match up is set in Minnesota’s most competitive U.S. House district. We talk to Republican Joe Teirab who will be facing Democratic Congresswoman Angie Craig.

Plus, we hear from party leaders at the state capitol about their priorities and break down one key race in the state senate that could decide party control.

The politics don’t stop with primary night. In fact, the Democratic National Convention is in just a few days. We share a preview of what to expect from Gov. Tim Walz.