The Minnesota Vikings are preparing for a border battle as they come off a big win. And the Gophers are basking in the glow of a win against Iowa.

Plus, the Timberwolves tip off their season and the Wild begin a 3-game road trip. Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer with all the highlight.

Wally is the founder of Minnesota Score Sports Magazine and co-host of the sports talk show ten thousand takes. Eric is the other host of that show and Vikings reporter for CBS Sports radio’s Eye on the NFL.

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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. 

Henry Boucha was a Minnesota hockey legend. When he died this September, he was remembered as a hometown hockey star from Warroad, an Olympic silver medalist, and a player with the NHL’s Minnesota North Stars and Detroit Red Wings. But just as often, he was remembered for the “eye incident”— an act of on-ice violence that essentially ended his career in 1975.

MPR News contributors Robbie Mitchem and Jamal Allen and producer Britt Aamodt are taking a look back at the hockey great and the event that changed the trajectory of his life in our history series Minnesota Now and Then.

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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. 

Here’s something you probably don’t know. According to the Rochester Post Bulletin Newspaper, students in Rochester Minnesota Public Schools speak nearly 100 different languages.

The district teaches just four languages — Spanish, German, French and Latin — and it’s seeing dropping enrollment in some of those courses. So, leaders are working to change their world language courses to match students’ interests, without spending more money.

Natalia Benjamin, 2021 Minnesota Teacher of the Year and Rochester Public Schools Director of Multilingual Learning joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer.

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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. 

Minnesota is home to a robust prison writing community. The Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop teaches creative writing at all of the state’s prisons and its members have published novels, poetry and non-fiction.

But for the first time, a group of incarcerated writers with the program are the editors of a new anthology. It’s called ‘American Precariat’ and it comes out on Nov. 14. Zeke Caliguiri, Fong Lee, and Ronald Greer are among the editors of the new book. They joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer for a conversation about the book.

The Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop is hosting its annual student reading this Saturday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m. It’ll be at Hamline University and streaming online.

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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. 

Brooklyn Center’s City Council has tabled a resolution that would have made changes to police stops and searches. The city formed the committee that drafted the policy in response to the police killing of Daunte Wright, which began with a traffic stop in 2021 for an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror and an expired registration tab.

Under the resolution, police would not pull over drivers for these or other minor infractions. And they would not be able to ask drivers to consent to a search. But committee members were surprised when Police Chief Kellace McDaniel voiced concerns over the changes, “I will go on with this presentation, but I will honestly feel, I do not feel comfortable implementing or saying these to my officers,” he said.

Hearing this, some of the council members wanted to delay a vote until police were on board. “I want the community as well as the city council and the police department to all be in agreement. And to be able to get the buy in from the officers that are going to do this work,” said Councilmember Kris Lawrence-Anderson.

After discussion, the council voted unanimously to table the policy. John Solomon has been working on the recommendations as a member of the committee's policy working group. He joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer.

The Brooklyn Center Police Chief was not available for an interview. The department sent MPR News a statement saying: “The City of Brooklyn City Council deliberated on traffic stops and consent search policies at their Oct. 23 City Council meeting. The City Council requested further dialogue with all parties who helped to craft the policy recommendations to help inform their decision-making on these items. This meeting will be scheduled in the near future, with the items coming back to the City Council for a vote shortly after.”

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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. 

Britney Spears is an iconic pop star and one of the most famous women in the world today. She released her highly anticipated memoir this week — it’s called “The Woman in Me.” And our next guest will be talking all about it Thursday night at Subtext books in St. Paul.

Chris Stedman is an author, activist and professor who teaches in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Augsburg University. He is also writer and host of the Britney-themed podcast Unread. He joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.

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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 U.S. House has a new leader. Tuesday morning, it looked as if Minnesota Congressman Emmer had the job. By evening, Emmer had pulled himself from the running. We’ll look at how much power Emmer has in the aftermath.

Our late October weather is giving us a little of everything. We’ll look ahead to the weekend forecast which may include, dare I say, snow.

And we’ll hear about a new groundbreaking Mia exhibit by Native people, for Native people.

Plus, for Disability Employment Awareness month. We’ll talk with one woman who is playing a big role to highlight the contributions of our state workers with disabilities.

We’re talking Britney Spears with a local Britney fan who has been with her through all the ups and downs.

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This year marks the 56th anniversary of the Minnesota Human Rights Act, the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Minnesota Council of Disability and 50 years of the National Rehabilitation Act.

It was the first federal law aimed at providing equal access for people with disabilities. That included removing employment barriers. While things have certainly improved in the last 50 years there are still major inequities. In Minnesota the unemployment rate is 9.8 percent for people with one or more disabilities and 3.7 percent for those without.

October is Disability Employment Awareness month. And one woman is playing a big role in trying to highlight the contributions of our states workers with disabilities.

Sheletta Brundidge is hosting a job fair tomorrow in St. Paul for adults on the autism spectrum. She is the founder and CEO of the podcasting platform and production company Sheletta Makes Me Laugh and joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.

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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. 

Correction (Oct. 26, 2023): This segment has been updated to reflect the correct anniversary of the Minnesota Human Rights Act.

We’re getting a bit of everything this week weather wise: Severe weather Tuesday and by the end of the week parts of our state could see snow. Plus, you may need to grab a coat to zip up over your Halloween costume.

MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer with the latest on the forecast.

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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. 

Minnesota 6th District Congressman Tom Emmer held the nomination for about four hours Tuesday before he withdrew his name. He learned that it would not be possible to win over far-right Republicans, especially after former President Donald Trump blasted him on social media.

The Minnesota Representative has kept his own public comments to social media — he has not spoken about the defeat, but posted in support of Johnson Wednesday morning. After all this, Emmer remains in a leadership position, he's the House Majority Whip.

But how much power does he have now? Kathryn Pearson, an associate professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota and an expert on congressional politics joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to explain the situation.

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

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