Minnesota Now

The Minnesota Timberwolves take on the Phoenix Suns Tuesday night in Game 2 of the NBA playoffs. The Wolves won convincingly on Saturday as Alex Rodriguez sat courtside for Game 1 of the best-of-seven series.

Rodriguez, the former baseball star, and his business partner Marc Lore, the former CEO of Walmart, are fighting to gain majority control of the team from Glen Taylor after a deal between the three of them fell through. ESPN reports that a mediation session has been set between for May 1.

Wall Street Journal reporters Robert O’Connell and Sarah Nassauer have been following the negotiations. They joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer on Minnesota Now.

Student protests have erupted at the University of Minnesota over the Israel-Hamas war. MPR News talked to an expert about student free speech.

The multigenerational home is gaining traction. We learned about one Winona facility that has the elderly and students living together.

Saturday is national Independent Bookstore Day. Listen for how you can get involved with a special bookstore passport.

The Timberwolves are finally a winning team. They take on the Suns in the second game of the playoffs Tuesday night. In order to stay winning, they owners will have to pay up. But who owns the team is in question..

This Saturday is National Independent Bookstore Day, and small bookstores in the Twin Cities are celebrating in a special way this week.

Rain Taxi, a local literary magazine, is putting on their annual Independent Bookstore Passport. Starting on Wednesday, you can pick up the passport at one of the 28 participating stores.

Each visit earns a stamp, and there are some pretty neat rewards for book lovers. Black Garnet Books in Saint Paul’s Midway neighborhood is one of the participating bookstores. Owner Dionne Sims joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer ahead of an undoubtedly busy few days.

For more store crawls and events around the state and region — including Moorhead, St. Cloud, Austin, Rochester, Duluth, Grand Rapids and Grand Marais — check out Indie Bound’s list.

The multigenerational home — several generations living together — is increasingly popular. So are residential communities designed to bring multiple generations together.

These intergenerational communities largely exist on the tributaries of the housing market. Yet they are gaining traction.

We’re continuing our conversation on intergenerational living with MPR News’ senior economics contributor Chris Farrell. In his second report, Farrell visited an assisted living center in Winona where younger students not only volunteer there, it’s also where they live.

Students at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus are being urged to walk out of class Tuesday afternoon. An encampment set up was quickly torn down by police on the University mall Tuesday morning. It mirrors encampments at college campuses across the country.

Encampment organizers want the university to sever financial ties with companies that do business with the Israeli military, including Lockheed Martin, Honeywell and General Dynamics.

According to a statement from the university, campus police told those present they were in violation of University policy and state trespassing law, because tents are not allowed on any University property for any purpose without a permit.

Campus police took down the tents and arrested nine students who did not leave. Those students are being held in the Hennepin County Jail.

Students plan to continue protesting the university’s involvement with companies tied to the Israeli military Tuesday afternoon, with a walk-out on campus.

MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke to the University of Minnesota professor Eric Van Wyk. He’s the chair of the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee, and shed some light on student speech and protest at the University of Minnesota.

The owner of a restaurant staple in north Minneapolis died suddenly on Sunday.

Sammy McDowell owned Sammy’s Avenue Eatery, which opened on the north side in 2012. He collapsed during church service as first reported by WCCO and later died at the hospital.

In a social media post, Bishop Richard D. Howell Jr., pastor of Shiloh Temple International Ministries, said McDowell “made his transition yesterday during a moment of high praise and worship.”

Howell added that he was proud to have been McDowell’s pastor for 30 years. And he praised McDowell for hiring Black men who needed “second chances” to work at his restaurant.

In an interview with MPR News, Howell said McDowell was a “treasure of wisdom.”

“He was an effervescent person, he was a person that could light your life,” he said. “He was a community man all the way. And so this is a time we can all come together and really celebrate a champion and gentle giant of this community.”

McDowell was originally from Chicago and moved to south Minneapolis when he was five. After the murder of George Floyd, Sammy’s became a community hub of healing for the Black community.

About 300 people would gather at Sammy’s every evening in the summer of 2020. The building never suffered any damage during the unrest. Leslie Redmond, former branch president of the NAACP Minneapolis organized a watch team to guard the entire block.

Minneapolis Council Member Jeremiah Ellison represents the north side. He met McDowell a decade ago and described the sudden death as a shock for not only himself, but everyone in north Minneapolis.

“You think somebody’s a permanent fixture and it’s a pretty big shock when they’re gone,” Ellison said. “At a time when people were saying north siders weren’t employable, he was proving that all wrong. He was a real example to everyone in the neighborhood about what was possible.”

According to Howell, there was a 2 p.m. gathering at Sammy’s Avenue Eatery to mourn Sammy. Minneapolis Mayer Jacob Frey and Sen. Bobby Champion, (DFL-Minneapolis), were in attendance.

There will be a picnic Tuesday, April 23 at 6 p.m., at Shiloh Temple in Minneapolis to honor McDowell. Howell said a memorial is in the works for early May, with a visitation on May 3 and a celebration of life on May 4. No final times have been announced.

This is a developing news story. Check back for updates.

Students from the largest school district in the state are standing up to their school board. A march and rally are planned ahead of the Anoka-Hennepin school board meeting on Monday night.

This comes after a school board member backed by a conservative parents rights group said he plans to force a budget showdown if the district does not scrap all programs aimed at racial and gender equity.

Education reporter Becky Dernbach has been covering the controversy for Sahan Journal and joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about it.

The Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival is currently underway, and Monday night a documentary called “Sequencing Hope” will premiere.

The film, directed by Lindsey Seavert and Maribeth Romslo, follows an Alabama family who came to Minnesota to get their young daughter life-saving gene therapy for a rare disease called metachromatic leukodystrophy.

Celia Grace Hamlett was 4 years old when she came to M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital in 2021 and became the first person in the U.S. to undergo the experimental gene therapy.

Her family is in town for the film’s premiere. Celia Grace’s dad, Gary spoke with MPR News host Nina Moini along with their doctor, Dr. Paul Orchard.

Discounted tickets are available for the “Sequencing Hope” premiere. The code to get $2 off is MSPIFFPARTNER24.

Saturday was record store day, a day meant to drive people to the independent stores where records are sold and recommended around the country. But this is a story about the places where records are made.

A new vinyl pressing plant is set to open in the Phillips neighborhood of South Minneapolis this year. It’s called Outta Wax. Sara Pette and Alex Stillman are two of its three founders. They joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about the impact of the vinyl boom on independent artists and how they are bringing their connections in the DIY music scene into plastic manufacturing.

Monday is Earth Day, an event created in 1970 to raise awareness about protecting the environment.

Back then, climate change wasn’t a household term. But this past winter was the warmest on record in the U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

The global problem may be more visible in people’s lives than it was a few years ago, but that has not made it clearer how they can help solve it.

University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership Director Heidi Roop published a book called “The Climate Action Handbook” to help people figure out where to jump in.

She joined MPR News host Nina Moini to hear how some Minnesotans are approaching everyday climate action and share advice.