You probably don’t associate dressing up as Taylor Swift or Barbie with getting the vital health care treatment you need. But Minneapolis resident Jen Onsum has taken it upon herself to stand out from the crowd with fun clothes and funny posts on social media to attract a personal care attendant, or PCA, to work for her.

She is one of hundreds of Minnesotans with a physical disability affected by a national shortage of home health care workers — the most recent data shows that there are more than 7,000 vacancies in Minnesota’s personal care industry.

Minnesota leaders say the state is in a home health care crisis. State lawmakers passed an increase in money for people with disabilities to use for hiring PCAs. Those wages will jump from $15.25 an hour to $19 an hour starting on Jan. 1.

Onsum is hoping that higher wages in 2024 will help her attract more help. She talked with 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 barrage of bullets in south Minneapolis sent eight people to the hospital last night. Minneapolis police say five of the victims are boys under 18. Another was an 18-year-old. Along with a man and woman in their forties.

The shooting happened in front of a grocery store near East Franklin and Chicago Avenues.

No arrests have been made. It's the second mass shooting in Minneapolis in 10 days — a total of 14 people who were shot or grazed, and one person who died.

And when those victims go to the hospital, there is now a network of support helping them get back on their feet, making sure they don't end up shot and in the hospital again.

It's called "Next Step" and is a partnership between the city of Minneapolis and Hennepin Healthcare, North Memorial and Abbott Northwestern.

MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talked with Kentral Galloway, the director for Next Step.

The Lower Sioux Indian Community in southwestern Minnesota is quite literally growing houses. They are the first in the state to build what is being called a Hemp House. It’s an environmentally-friendly home, built using the material “hempcrete.”

The alternative is just beginning to blossom, with potential to provide affordable and quality homes for the Lower Sioux community.

MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer talked with Lower Sioux Indian Community Council Vice President Earl Pendleton and Hemp Construction Project Manager Danny Dejarlais about the effort.

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.

As a parent advocate and trainer for the non-profit PACER Center, Robbi Weil works to demystify the process around Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs.

Council members voted 7-5 Thursday morning to send an ordinance to Mayor Jacob Frey that would raise wages and add other protections for rideshare drivers.

Bodycam footage released Thursday details the moments before and after the killing of Fargo police officer Jake Wallin last month.

Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson, co-hosts of the 10,000 Takes sports talk show, joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer to talk about all things professional sports.

Would you celebrate losing your job? Getting hit by a car? Breaking your ankle? For some Minnesotans, making note of life's morbid anniversaries has helped them make sense of their past.

Our producer Gretchen Brown talked to a few of them.

The summer of smoke is not quite over... effective Thursday, an air quality alert hangs over most of the state.

Minneapolis singer-songwriter Mayyadda released “Try&Remember: The Acoustic Album” last month.