Minnesota Now

Representatives from the state and Minneapolis and St. Paul city councils sent a letter to the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) Tuesday morning asking it to incorporate recommendations to deconstruct a part of I-94.

The request was led by OurStreets, an alternative transportation advocacy group. They put out a report last month detailing a proposal to make a seven-and-a-half mile portion of I-94 between Minneapolis and St. Paul a thoroughfare boulevard with more room for parks, houses and businesses.

Alex Burns is leading the charge with OurStreets. He joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to explain the proposal.

A change to Minnesota’s constitution is heading for a House floor vote. It’s the Equal Rights Amendment and it would include some of the most expansive protections of abortion and LGBTQ+ rights in the nation. We get the details on the proposal.

We’re checking in with a roundtable of Gen Z voters about this year’s presidential election — how college protests and top issues like abortion are influencing their votes.

And shopping malls have a significant footprint around the state, but many are emptying out of visitors and stores. Another model could fill up these spaces again. We learn about the growing role of cultural malls in Minnesota.

Over the past couple weeks, protests at universities here in Minnesota and around the country have dominated headlines. Students who are involved want their institutions to cut financial ties to Israel or meet other demands related to bringing an end to the Israel-Hamas war and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Both candidates for President have spoken out about the protests. President Joe Biden said in remarks that he values free speech but said "dissent must never lead to disorder." Former President Donald Trump praised the police response in New York.

For more on the political importance of the protests and other top issues, MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer turned to two young voters who follow politics closely. Maddie Christensen is a former leader of the College Democrats chapter at Hamline University in St. Paul. And Ruth Hailey is president of the College Republicans at St. Olaf in Northfield.

As you probably know, Minnesota was home to the first indoor shopping mall and is now a retail hub in the United States. But as shopping malls and big box stores shutter, Minnesota is now paving the way for a new type of mall, cultural malls.

Last week the developer of Asia Mall in Eden Prairie announced plans for Asia Village in Northtown Mall in Blaine. The Sears in St. Paul has plans to be an Asian community hub, there will soon be an Asian-themed food hall in Burnsville Center, and a strip mall in Brooklyn Center will become a space for African immigrant entrepreneurs.

Michael Bui is a developer of Asia Mall and Asia Village. Bruce Nustad is the president of the Minnesota Retailers Association. Both joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer to explain this new trend of cultural malls.

Minneapolis band Red Thread joined the Minnesota Now arts takeover to celebrate their recent album release. The album is called Immigrantke, which means “female immigrant” in Yiddish.

The songs are a mix of originals and traditional, sung in English, Serbian and Yiddish. MPR News arts editor Max Sparber reviewed the band’s album and invited them into the studio to perform songs live for the show.

Red Thread is made up of Sarah Larsson on banjo and lead vocals, Erika Lantz providing harmony vocals, Pat O’Keefe on clarinet and Dex Wolfe on guitar.

Red Thread will perform Saturday, May 4 at the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis as part of a celebration of a Serbian sculptor. The event begins at 7 p.m.

It’s a special episode of Minnesota Now — the MPR News Arts team is taking over with a full hour of arts coverage.

They took a look at the story of a set of theater seats the arts team purchased at the beginning of the year, and the rabbit hole it sent them down to track the seats’ decades-long journey.

Senior arts reporter and critic Alex V. Cipolle took a trip down to Winona with her latest installment of Art Friend, as she examined old landscape paintings in a new way.

Minnesota band Red Thread stopped by with some insights into what inspires their performance of folk music and original songs. The band also performed a few of their latest songs.

Celebrity Chef Katie Chin, daughter of restaurateur Leeann Chin joined the show to talk about growing up in Minnesota and the play she wrote about her mom.

In this “What’s for Lunch?” segment, MPR News guest host Jacob Aloi talked to celebrity chef and food writer Katie Chin. Her mother is the founder of a favorite Midwest Chinese chain Leeann Chin.

Katie Chin wrote and is performing a one-woman play about the restauranteur Leeann Chin’s life.

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.

The proposal seeks to create an elected Civilian Police Accountability Commission that could hire and fire officers, including the police chief. The commission would also investigate complaints against officers and publicly release the findings. 

Here in Minnesota, we love our local music scene. With the release of Popsikal, we get 11 great local artists in one album: 26 Bats, Ariesfirebomb, Chad Atkin, d.notiv, Jane October, KKthainfamous, Maddie Lives, NatanYael, Scraps, shadingthesun and SYM1.

SYM1 is featured on the album, but she’s also the president of producing label Freeze Pop Records. Popsikal will be its first album when it’s released on May 31. SYM1 joined MPR News guest host Nina Moini to preview the new album that has local music fanatics on the edge of their seats.

Minnesota is home to the largest Karen community in the country. Many are refugees from Burma, now called Myanmar, and cultural differences and language barriers make it exceptionally difficult to navigate the American health care system — which is complicated enough on its own.

To bridge the gap for Karen immigrants and other groups, health care organizations hire professionals who come from the same communities they are helping to find health care and other services. M Health Fairview in the Twin Cities has six of these cultural brokers who represent the Hmong, Karen, African American, Native American and Latine communities.

Lah Tha Pwee recently joined them as an additional cultural broker working with the Karen community. She is an immigrant from Thailand and joined MPR News guest host Nina Moini to talk about her role.