Minnesota Now

Voting is underway across Minnesota in various local races for mayor, city council, school board and other positions. Off-year, local elections tend to see much lower turnout than presidential and statewide races. But their results still have a big impact on Minnesotan’s lives. Polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday night and MPR News will have coverage of the results of a few key races. In the meantime, reporter Kyra Miles was at the polls in Ward 12 in Minneapolis and joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer over the phone to talk about what’s happening.

Tuesday marks one month since Hamas crossed into southern Israel killing more than 1,400 people and triggering a war. Hamas has also taken 240 hostages. Today Israelis observed a moment of silence. The 30th day is a milestone in Jewish mourning and memorial events are planned in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The Palestinian death toll has surpassed 10,300. According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza strip, two-thirds of the dead are women and children. Another 2,300 are missing and believed to buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

To bring context for this war, professor Eric Schwartz joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer. Schwartz is the chair of the University of Minnesota Humphrey School's global policy area and formerly worked with the state department.

It's election day in Minnesota. Our reporters are out at the polls all across the state talking to voters. We had a live report from a Minneapolis polling place.

Tuesday marks one month of a gruesome war between Israel and Hamas. We'll talk to a local expert about a path towards peace.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara joined the show as he marks one year on the job.

We got a behind the scenes look at the importance of the restoration of a mural at the Minneapolis American Indian Center.

A local all women's curling league is celebrating 50 years- we heard from a founding member.

A group of women in St. Paul are celebrating a big anniversary Tuesday. It’s the 50th anniversary of the Cairn Lassies, a curling club that started in 1973. Judy Jytyla is a founding member who still plays on the team 50 years later. She joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to share the legacy and impact the curling club has had over the last 50 years.

One year ago, Brian O’Hara became the new chief of the Minneapolis Police Department. The outsider from New Jersey was sworn in at a tumultuous time, bringing with him a promise of change.

In his first year in office, the new chief reorganized the department as the city contended with the ongoing aftermath of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police.

“Minneapolis was ground zero for a global reckoning on policing practices and racial justice,” O’Hara said in August as he announced the appointment of two new assistant chief positions.

“It’s clear to me that Minneapolis can be the model, in fact, Minneapolis must be the model for how we move forward through healing of shared trauma, coming up with innovative solutions hand-in-hand with our residents and police officers and, above all, keeping people safe.” 

In his first year on the job, he’s faced a federal consent decree, recruitment woes and a protracted conflict about the site of the 3rd Precinct.

That precinct issue was resolved last week when the Minneapolis City Council voted 8-5 to approve a new site. The new 3rd Precinct building will be located at 2633 Minnehaha Ave., just a few blocks from the old precinct, and will include a community safety center.

O’Hara joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer Tuesday on Minnesota Now to reflect on his first year as chief and talk about the 3rd Precinct, staffing challenges, the new commissioner of public safety, year-over-year crime rates and more.

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.  

Starting at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, polls will open across Minnesota for Election Day. This is an off year election with the focus on local races on most ballots including contests for mayor, school board, and school bond referenda. In both Minneapolis and St. Paul every single city council seat is up for grabs. Newly elected officials in both cities will have a lot of big issues on their plates, from public safety to affordable housing. Pioneer Press reporter Fredrick Melo joined the show to discuss St. Paul and MPR’s Jon Collins joined to discuss Minneapolis races.

Tuesday is Election Day. It may be an off year, but voters in Minneapolis and St. Paul are choosing city council members. We'll talk with reporters covering both cities about what the more competitive races could mean for top issues like public safety.

As the hockey community continues to mourn the death of former UMD player Adam Johnson with the high school hockey season is getting started. We'll talk with a doctor about safety in the sport.

We'll talk with two chaplains about what recent layoffs from M Health Fairview could mean for patients and staff.

Songwriter Paul Spring lives in New York now but his latest album is all about home. He's from Minnesota and shares the inspiration behind his new music.

By day, Paul Spring is a campaign manager for New York City Council Member Chi Osse. By night, he’s a session guitarist and singer-songwriter in New York City who has been sampled by Kenny Beats and Thundercat.

But Paul is a Minnesotan. He grew up in Winona and St. Cloud and spent time living in Minneapolis. His new album, “Always Almost Home,” is out Friday, Nov. 10. He talked with our producer Gretchen Brown about growing up in St. Cloud, finding a sense of home as an adult and working with Post Malone.

On Thursday, Fairview Health Services announced it eliminated 250 positions. Chaplains with the health system said that includes 13 chaplains and two spiritual care support staff positions, mostly at University of Minnesota Medical Center, and that the layoffs include the UMMC's only two Muslim chaplains in a region with a growing Muslim population.

Two M Health Fairview chaplains joined Minnesota Now to talk about the effect of the layoffs among the spiritual care staff. Bill Dexheimer-Pharris is a Lutheran Pastor and chaplain at University of Minnesota Medical Center. Imam Tamer Abdelaziz was the lead Muslim chaplain for M Health Fairview until his position was among those eliminated on Thursday.

Fairview Health Services has not confirmed the number of chaplains who were laid off, but said in an email to MPR news that M Health Fairview “still has dozens of chaplains working throughout the system, including at UMMC, and of Muslim faith.” A spokesperson sent this statement on the Spiritual Health Services layoffs:

We’ve made the difficult decision to scale back our onsite chaplain services through Fairview’s Spiritual Health Services team. This decision was made in part due to the changing ways in which our patients, their families and our staff seek spiritual support. Every day, our care teams help patients and families arrange for visits and support by trusted spiritual leaders, based on their personal religious preference and unique cultural needs and we will continue to do so in partnership with our communities. Spiritual support remains an important part of our patients’ and employees’ well-being. We will continue partnering with our region’s diverse community of faith leaders to support those in need now and in the future. Additionally, our Employee Assistance Program will remain a resource for helping employees connect with the support they may need, including for their spiritual well-being.

These programs have served countless patients, families and staff over many years. We are grateful for our staff members who have offered this valuable support, and look forward to deepening our engagement with our communities' diverse faith leaders to support our patients together.

The following is a statement issued by Fairview Health Services regarding the layoffs across the system:

Last week, we made the difficult decision to eliminate approximately 250 positions across our organization. These changes were done thoughtfully and in a focused way and in select positions throughout the system. The number of eliminated positions represents less than 1 percent of our overall workforce and is a combination of layoffs and attrition. Most of the impacted roles are not full-time positions. Timing for departures is on a case-by-case basis, however generally before the end of the year. Impacted employees will receive various types of support, including retraining, job search assistance, resume and interview training, and priority hiring opportunities for one of the 1,600 available positions in our system.

Fairview continues to take thoughtful, deliberate steps to strengthen our organization and ensure that we can operate sustainably in a health care environment that is facing tremendous pressures. An important and necessary part of this work is aligning our workforce to evolving strategic priorities, all while addressing the demands of inflation, including increasing labor costs, and payer reimbursements that don’t keep pace with inflation. As we evaluate operations, prioritize our patients and support the team members who care for them, we must evolve as a team. Last week’s announcement of changes across our organization is a difficult but necessary step in building a strong and sustainable future for Fairview.

M Health Fairview, which is run by Fairview and the University of Minnesota, is an underwriter of MPR News.

Conservators and artists have worked this past year to restore a work of art created by artist George Morrison half a century ago. Morrison’s vision is felt by the people who helped to restore his work, and by those redesigning the building where the mural lives.

The late artist George Morrison was from a small town near the Grand Portage reservation in northern Minnesota. He attended art school in Minneapolis and New York City and was part of a leading generation of American artists working as abstract expressionists. 

Known for his intricate wood sculpture and collage, George Morrison was commissioned to create the mural for the Minneapolis American Indian Center in 1974.

Morrison once told a biographer the design was inspired by feathers. Its chevron V-shapes work in unison to create an optical illusion.  

Although never formally named, Morrison suggested the work might be called — “Turning the Feather Around: A Mural for the Indian.”  

Sam Olbekson is an architect and the chair of the Minneapolis American Indian Center’s board of directors. He is a part of a team working on the center’s renovation.

“That pattern and the way it's constructed allowed us to take it apart piece by piece, and one of the main goals of this entire project is to preserve this piece art,” says Olbekson.

In 2022, the Midwest Arts Conservation Center, or MACC, answered the center’s call to restore the mural.

Chief conservator Megan Emery served as the manager of the project. MACC called on another team of conservators from Montana with expertise in rigging and reinstalling complicated works of art.

“We decided we were going to have to start the project by doing full documentation with photographs of the mural to basically map out exactly out how it looked and how everything was laid out,” says Emery.

“When it was time to start to start the project, we physically removed every single board, and that’s when we need a team of people.” 

Josie Hoffman is an Anishinaabe multi-media artist whose family is from the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Hoffman was tasked by MACC to work on the restoration.

“There wasn’t a ton of problems. And actually, when we were taking it down it came down really easily. It was also the documentation of [the mural],” says Hoffman. “It’s about over 700 cedar boards, so it's about documenting and making sure we have all these pieces in the right place.”

Once the pieces were carefully removed, they were packed into crates and shipped to specialists at the firm Wolf Magritte in Missoula, Mont. The firm cleaned the mural again and worked to design a series of interlocking panels on which to mount jigsaw-like pieces for reinstallation.

When the full sun hits the mural at its new home on the east side of the building, the contrast of the light and dark surfaces of the cedar planks is striking — adding a sense of movement. 

Olbekson says the restoration of the mural is a part of the long-term vision for community development along Franklin Avenue. 

“Where it was on the building ... [George Morrison] was so intent on it being open to the public. So that art was accessible to the community. He wanted it to be large scale, in your face, out, and unapologetically Indigenous on Franklin Avenue,” says Olbekson. 

Olbekson points out the mural’s new location on the east side of the center will mean that it has a different experience with environmental elements and weather. 

“We tried to preserve the aging, the integrity of it,” says Olbekson. “It was about making sure the original artist’s intention was conveyed in the new building, to do it in a way that will make it last there in another fifty years.”

The restoration of the mural is part of the Minneapolis American Indian Center’s first major renovation since opening in 1975.