Minnesota Now

Two of the largest school districts in the state, St. Paul and Minneapolis Public Schools, are facing large budget shortfalls.

St. Paul Public Schools Superintendent Joe Gothard joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to explain the district’s financial situation. He is leaving soon for a new position in Madison, Wis.

Parenting isn’t easy, as many parents will tell you, maybe while holding their third cup of coffee with unidentified stains on their shirt. But in the face of climate change, with 60 degree weather in January and frigid winds in March, parenting just got a bit harder.

Many parents with young children are asking themselves what the future looks like for their kids and what they need to do to prepare them. Some prospective parents are wondering if they should even be having kids at all.

Claire Wahmanholm takes on these questions in her fourth book of poetry, “Meltwater,” a collection focused on the climate crisis through the lens of glacial meltwater and parenthood.

MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talked with Wahmanholm about “Meltwater,” which is nominated for a Minnesota Book Award.

Uber and Lyft have threatened to leave the Twin Cities metro after the Minneapolis City Council passed a resolution, raising minimum driver pay. And that’s raised alarms for advocates of people with disabilities who rely on rideshares for transportation.

A group of unsung climate leaders from across Minnesota just returned from an international meeting.

And MPR News talked with two entrepreneurs picking up the baton in Grand Marais.

We also talked about how public messaging in Hmong gets lost in translation.

Ever had a question about why this state is the way it is? You’re curious, Minnesota, and a 5-year-old column by the Star Tribune has answers.

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

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.  

Whether you’re new to Minnesota or are born and raised, we all have questions about our great state.

As journalists, it’s our job to find you answers. And this year, our friends at the Star Tribune are celebrating five years of finding answers to some of those unique questions.

The “Curious Minnesota” column has answered everything from “How did the Mayo Clinic become one of the world’s most famous medical centers?“ to “Why do Minnesotans cut their pizza into squares?”

To celebrate five years, the Star Tribune has launched a database of every “Curious Minnesota” question they’ve answered. Editor of “Curious Minnesota” Eric Roper joined MPR News guest host Emily Bright.

If you’ve ever tried to learn a second or third language, you know translating words from one language to another is not a one-to-one deal. Professional translators need to know the nuances of both languages to communicate meaning.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services translates some of its documents into five languages besides English, according to its website. Those are Hmong, Russian, Somali, Spanish and Vietnamese.

The website says other languages are available based on need. Some of the agency’s Hmong and Somali translations drew criticism recently, as freelance journalist Gustav DeMars reported for Sahan Journal. They reviewed translations in the five other languages. And Somali speakers found one of the sentences was also lost its meaning to a literal translation.

Grand Marais is a small town of some 1,300 on Lake Superior’s North Shore.

If you’ve been there, you may have taken classes at the North House Folk School, waited in line for some of the World’s Best Donuts — yes, that’s the tagline for the family-owned business — or hiked on Pincushion Mountain.

MPR News senior economics contributor Chris Farrell recently spent some time in Grand Marais talking to small business owners. This is his second conversation with Minnesota Now about that trip.

A group of 21 Minnesotans who are working on climate solutions across the state recently got back from Miami Beach, where they were part of the international “Aspen Ideas: Climate” gathering.

The Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership selected the group of diverse people who are making efforts to combat climate change.

Director Heidi Roop joined MPR News guest host Emily Bright to talk about them and their experience.

Governor Tim Walz is asking the Minneapolis City Council to take a step back from their decision to make a minimum-pay requirement for Uber and Lyft drivers in the metro area.

There could, however, be unintended consequences if they leave. Disability advocates are especially concerned about the threat of rideshares pulling out of the metro area. Rideshares like Uber and Lyft are vital to the daily life of many Minnesotans with disabilities.

Jennifer Dunnam with the National Federation of the Blind Minnesota joined MPR News Guest Host Emily Bright to talk about possible impacts of rideshares pulling out on the blind community.

More than 40 million Americans have left religion behind in the past 25 years. However, that hemorrhage isn’t spread evenly across all religions.

The most recent data from the Pew Research Center show the number of Muslims in this country are growing. Turns out, the number of converts to Islam is roughly equal to the number of people leaving the religion.

Some Muslim leaders here in Minnesota have noted they’ve seen a spike in interest in Islam in recent years and have worked with a higher number of people converting to Islam.

Tamara Gray is founder of the nonprofit Rabata, where she teaches women about Islam in Arden Hills. Imam Makram El-amin is based at Masjid An-Nur, a mosque in north Minneapolis. They joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer on the show.

In a secret ceremony in February, FBI agents returned a pair of ruby slippers stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids in 2005 to the Los Angeles collector who owns them.

This latest twist in the tale of the sparkly shoes came to light after a federal grand jury indicted a second person in connection with the theft.

Jerry Hal Saliterman of Crystal made his court appearance Friday in St. Paul on charges of theft of a major artwork and witness tampering. 

The indictment, which was unsealed Sunday, does not include much detail about Saliterman’s alleged role in the theft, only that he “received, concealed and disposed of an object of cultural heritage.” Prosecutors also allege that Saliterman threatened to “distribute sex tapes” of a woman in an effort to prevent her “from communicating information to the FBI relating to the theft.”

After the hearing, defense attorney John Brink said his client “hasn’t done anything wrong,” and plans to enter a not guilty plea.

The indictment does not detail how Saliterman may have been associated with Terry Jon Martin, 77, who pleaded guilty in 2023 to stealing the shoes. In January a judge sentenced Martin, who’s receiving hospice care for a terminal illness, to time served.

Authorities said that Martin’s extensive criminal history and the fact that he lived just outside Grand Rapids, Garland’s hometown, led the FBI to Martin.

In a phone interview with MPR News on Monday morning, Judy Garland Museum founding director and curator John Kelsch said the FBI returned the slippers to their owner, Michael Shaw, in a ceremony at the museum on Feb. 1.

Kelsch said that the FBI had planned to go public with the news of the shoes’ return but then backtracked and told museum staff and others involved to keep quiet.

“It was going to be released that week or around that time,” Kelsch said. “And then the FBI put an embargo on the news release and informed us not to say a word. Which we did not do. We didn’t tell anybody. They are even today telling us that it is still a very active case.”

In a news release Monday, the FBI’s Minneapolis field office acknowledged that agents returned the shoes to Shaw in “a restoration of justice, healing the wounds inflicted on both Shaw and the museum itself.”

Kelsch noted that the Judy Garland Museum never owned the slippers. Shaw lent them to the museum four separate times starting in 1989 for the 50th anniversary of “The Wizard of Oz.” It was during this final loan in 2005 that Martin broke in, smashed the display case with a sledgehammer, and took the shoes. He left only a single red sequin behind.

Shaw filed an insurance claim and was eventually reimbursed for his loss. Kelsch said that Shaw bought the shoes back from the insurance company last month for an undisclosed amount and placed them in the care of Heritage Auctions. Shaw could not be reached for comment.

The Dallas-based auction house said in its own news release Monday that it plans to take the shoes on an “international tour,” with stops in Los Angeles, New York, London and Tokyo before putting them up for bid in December.

Kelsch said he’s interested in putting the slippers on display in Grand Rapids permanently, but under much tighter security.

A bill introduced in the Minnesota Senate last year would set aside an unspecified amount of money from the Legacy Amendment for the state to purchase the shoes. Federal prosecutors have estimated the slippers’ market value to be about $3.5 million.

The proposal would require that they be displayed publicly. That bill is scheduled to be heard Tuesday in a state Senate committee.

Kelsch says bringing the slippers to Minnesota would be “rocket fuel” for the state’s tourism marketing campaign.

“The most asked question at the desk is: Tell us about what happened.”

Kelsch said he expects that the museum will have a ruby slipper crime exhibit in the future.