Suicide is a leading cause of death among construction workers. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that more workers in construction died by suicide than in any industry except mining and oil extraction. In response, some Minnesota unions are trying to treat mental health like other workplace safety issues. Back in January, the Star Tribune and Minnesota Reformer reported that two labor unions based in Little Canada began offering no-cost counseling and training to members.

This month the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters is trying to connect workers with the help available to them. MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer talked with that union’s Government Affairs Director, Adam Duininck, and Jennifer Stanek, Medical Director of TEAM Wellness at Work, which provides counseling to all these groups.

If you or a loved one is experiencing a crisis, call or text 988, Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or text MN to 741741.

The Minneapolis City Council is meeting Tuesday to decide where to house the police department’s 3rd precinct and what to do with its former site after it burned down in the 2020 uprising. So far, it's been quite a process, with tension between the mayor and city council.

The State of Minnesota has lost a hockey legend. We’re remembering Henry Boucha, and reflecting on his legacy.

Plus, our state’s construction workers face unique mental health challenges. Suicide is a leading cause of death in that industry. We'll meet two Minnesotans working to reverse the trend and get folks the help they need.

And we’re continuing our series looking at how small businesses thrive in Minnesota. This time, we’re visiting an independent bookstore.

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The Minneapolis City Council is scheduled Tuesday afternoon to discuss where to house the police department’s third precinct and what to do with its former site. That building burned in unrest after an officer from the precinct murdered George Floyd three years ago. The council meeting comes after members approved a plan earlier this month and, in a sudden twist, hit pause. On Monday, Mayor Jacob Frey wrote a letter to the council asking them to make a decision or let him do it. MPR News reporter Jon Collins joined MPR News Cathy Wurzer to explain.

The first amendment has been around for 232 years. But it seems now, more than ever, first amendment freedoms are under attack. And indeed experts say attacks on free speech are rising across the U.S. Bans on books and drag performances are growing increasingly common nationwide.

Spotify faced growing controversy over episodes of Joe Rogan's podcast containing racial slurs and COVID-19 misinformation.

A fierce free speech debate last year gained national attention at Hamline University when a professor's contract was not renewed after she showed artwork of the prophet Muhammad in her World Art class, in spite of issuing trigger warnings.

Today the first of four regional symposiums kicks off in St. Paul, with some of the proceedings at Hamline University, to try and better understand Free Speech and First Amendment issues.

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  Related Hamline student, former instructor at center of debate over religion, academic freedom speak out
  
  

“Free Speech at the Crossroads: A Minnesota Dialogue” is put on by the Free Speech Project at Georgetown University, in collaboration with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The director of the Free Speech Project and former co-host of “All Things Considered” on NPR, Sandy Ungar, and Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the Hubbard School of Journalism at the University of Minnesota and panelist at the conference 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.

The City of Minneapolis and union representing Minneapolis police officers are negotiating a new contract and there are more eyes on the process than ever before. More on those contract negotiations and what one member of the community commission on police oversight hopes will come of them.

A fierce free speech debate gained national attention last year at Hamline University. Today, a regional symposium in St. Paul aims to better understand free speech issues.

And historic Fort Snelling is the intersection of painful stories in Minnesota history. More on a new exhibit capturing all of it.

Plus, a Minnesotan is first pick in the first-ever women's hockey league draft. We have the latest.

And as winter moves in, birds are on the move, too. We talk bird migration with the University of Minnesota's raptor center.

A Minnesotan has been selected as the first pick in the first-ever Professional Women's Hockey League draft.

Taylor Heise is from Lake City, Minnesota and skated for the Gophers in college. She will play for Minnesota in the new pro women's hockey league.

This news isn't a complete surprise. Last week, the Hockey News and the Athletic predicted that Heise would be selected first.

She talked with our Todd Melby ahead of this afternoon's draft.

Historic Fort Snelling is an old military site perched between the intersections of two highways and two rivers, the Minnesota and the Mississippi. There’s a lot of history that converges there too. That river confluence and the surrounding area is sacred to Dakota people and a reminder of a painful time period, as the site of a concentration camp where more than 1,600 Dakota people were held and hundreds died in the winter of 1862. The fort was part of the backdrop of Dred Scott v. Sandford and the site of a Japanese language school during World War II.

For years, the Minnesota Historical Society has been working to revamp its museum at the Fort to better represent all of these stories. MNHS Director of Native American Initiatives joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer to talk about the culmination of that effort, a new exhibit that opened Saturday.

It’s that time of year when people gather on a hill in Duluth to count every hawk, owl, eagle, and vulture that soars over the bluffs near Lake Superior. From mid-August to December, raptors fly through Minnesota on journeys that begin as far north as the Arctic. The researchers and volunteers of Hawk Ridge in Duluth count an average of 60 thousand birds per year. From Duluth, the raptors follow the Mississippi River, sometimes flying all the way to Central and South America.

MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer talked with Lori Arent, Assistant Director of the University of Minnesota Raptor Center, to get to know two birds on the move in Minnesota this month.

The City of Minneapolis and the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis are negotiating a new contract for 2023 through 2025.

There are perhaps more eyes on the process than ever. A lawsuit settled last year requires the city to publish the time and place of negotiations, marking for the first time in Minneapolis history, that police contract negotiations are open to the public.

Monday afternoon, the group behind that lawsuit is presenting recommendations to a city council Committee. Stacey Gurian-Sherman is a lawyer on the steering committee of that group, Minneapolis for a Better Police Contract. She 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.

Thursday evening in Philadelphia the Vikings are scheduled to play their second game of the season after losing last weekend to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. For all you need to know about Minnesota sports teams heading into the weekend, MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer talked with resident sports guys Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson.