Minnesota Now

Parents and students of a charter school in north Minneapolis have less than a week to find a new place to learn. JJ Legacy School is closing this Friday. Its board held an emergency meeting late last week that revealed the school's troubled financial situation.

The Minnesota Department of Education overpaid the school after the number of students was overreported. According to reporting from the Sahan Journal, that meant that by the end of last month, the school had received — and spent — more than its budget for the whole school year. The school is not only out of money, it’s 700,000 dollars in debt. Sahan Journal Education Reporter Becky Dernbach has been following all of this and she joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer.

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.

A new state legislative task force is meeting Tuesday to address a crisis facing emergency medical response in rural Minnesota. Ambulance services in Minnesota respond to nearly 715,000 calls for service each year, and that’s rising. Since COVID-19, demand for emergency medical workers is way up, when a workforce shortage is becoming dire.

The State Legislature is intervening, with the Minnesota Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Task Force established late last year. The legislature wants to hear from both the EMS and the public, holding hearings across the state, including one today in Elbow Lake. That’s where Dylan Ferguson, the Executive Director of Minnesota Emergency Medical Services Regulatory Board joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer.

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.   

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

Cloquet police on Tuesday morning said they still do not know a motive in the Monday evening shooting at a Super 8 motel that left three dead including the suspected shooter.

The shooting on the city’s south side prompted a shelter-in-place warning of an “active shooter” for a couple of hours, a warning that Cloquet Police Chief Derek Randall was unprecedented for the small community in his 20 years with the force there.

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  Previously Cloquet police suspected gunman, 2 others dead after 'active shooter' report
  
  

A 911 call around 6:30 p.m. from a hotel employee said they'd found a coworker, a 22-year-old woman, had been attacked. She was found near the front desk with a gunshot wound.

Police also found a 35-year-old Deer River man dead in the parking lot in his truck with multiple gunshot wounds.

Randall said their biggest concern at first was finding the suspect, and video surveillance “was crucial.”

"They were able to access the video surveillance and recall that information to see what what was on there, which led to a phone call to me saying that they were confident that this surveillance footage showed the shooter died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound," he said.

Police found a 32-year-old man from Ramsey dead nearby with a handgun next to him. He’s believed to be the shooter as police said video from the motel’s surveillance cameras showed him killing the other two. The entire shooting lasted about 10 minutes, Randall said.

Randall said they did not yet know if there was any connection between the shooter and the victims, but he did say both men were guests at the motel.

He did not reveal the identities of the shooter or victims, but said he would within the next 24 hours after notifying their families.

Police on Monday night said there is no ongoing threat to the public. The Super 8 motel is located just uphill from Highway 33, a busy road and the city’s main commercial strip. It’s adjacent to an AmericInn motel, an Aldi grocery store and a Perkins restaurant, as well as residential neighborhoods on two sides.

At a news conference Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz praised the Cloquet Police Department’s effective response to the shooting and cited a need for reducing gun violence.

“We cannot live in a world where we just accept that this is a normal occurrence. It is not,” Walz said. “If there’s anything we can do or learn from this, we will.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

In the Minneapolis City Council’s first meeting of the new year, the council appointed Elliott Payne as its new president. And within moment of taking offices, Payne found himself pounding the gavel to restore order in a room packed with supporters of a resolution on the Israel-Hamas War.

Payne spoke with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about his plans.

It’s been three years since Waseca police officer and father of two Arik Matson was shot while on duty. He survived, but sustained severe injuries to his brain. A new documentary follows Arik and his wife Megan Matson through the process of healing. It shows how the physical therapy was exhausting and frustrating at times, but Arik had an extra motivator. Hometown Hero Outdoors, a non-profit based in Stillwater, had promised to take him to the Bering Sea in Alaska.  

Arik and Megan Matson joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about the film and their family’s journey.

More than 100,000 people around the country are part of a study that aims to look at child health from pregnancy through adolescence. The program looks at how environmental factors like chemicals, pollution, and stress affects children’s minds and bodies. About 800 pregnant Asian Americans in the Twin Cities now have the opportunity to join the study. A recent story by Sahan Journal looks at efforts by a University of Minnesota research team to make sure Asian Americans are well represented in this research. They just won a $13.6 million grant to recruit participants. Ruby Nguyen leads the project. She’s a professor of public health at the U. She joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about it.

Early Monday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced one of the largest wage theft lawsuits in Minnesota history against a large dairy producer with Facilities in Stearns and Redwood counties. Ellison alleges that Evergreen Acres Dairy failed to pay an estimated three million dollars in wages to its workers, most of who are immigrants from Mexico.

The Attorney General also alleged that the company-provided substandard housing for the workers. The lawsuit comes after Ellison created a new wage theft unit in 2019 to protect Minnesota worker's pay. He joined the show to talk about the lawsuit.

After a sluggish start to winter, the new year is bringing a wallop of what we haven’t seen in a while: snow. Especially for parts of Southwest Minnesota and around Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where travel is not advised. That part of the region could see nearly a foot of snow by Tuesday morning, and there are winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories posted. Some school districts in places like Canby, Luverne and Worthington have moved to online classes, and other districts even cancelled school in places like Lake Benton and Pipestone.

Nobles County Sheriff Ryan Kruger joined the show from snowy Worthington with a firsthand experience of the conditions.

Winter weather has finally arrived in Minnesota. The southwestern portion of the state is getting the brunt of a storm. We checked in with a sheriff.

Attorney General Keith Ellison joined the show with news of a major wage theft lawsuit against a central Minnesota dairy farm.

Dozens of court interpreters statewide walked off the job in a rare coordinated labor protest. We laid out their demands.

A local professor is making sure Asian Americans won't be left out of health studies.

We checked in with former Waseca police officer Arik Matson four years after he was shot in the line of duty and his story is going to the big screen.

The city of Minneapolis is clearing a controversial encampment of over 100 unhoused people. We’ll get the latest from a reporter at the scene.

Plus, police departments in Hennepin County will now have to disclose more information about when officers have mishandled evidence, lied, or acted out of bias. Hear what that means for defendants on trial.

There aren’t many lakes with safe ice yet. Why the Beltrami County Sheriff’s office has had to make more lake rescues than normal, and how they're keeping people safe.

A scary Minnesota-made podcast is out now. If you love horror, you’re in for a treat.

Also, we have the story of a big family coincidence in the latest of our series, Thank You, Stranger.

And of course, Thursday means sports! We’ll get the latest roundup from across the state.