Minnesota Now

We’ve had some nice cool fall temperatures. Some of you may have even woken up to frost again Wednesday morning. And we could be adding rain to the mix later in the week.

MPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner MPR News host Cathy Wurzer with his 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.

Most people who work at a nonprofit will tell you they’re there because they support the mission, that there’s a purpose to what they do that makes some kind of tangible change in the world.

But just as the pandemic and social justice uprising three years ago shook up the private sector, causing a so-called “great resignation” and pushing workers to unionize, there’s been a sea change within the nonprofit sphere too.

In the Twin Cities, a growing number of nonprofits have recently organized unions, including MN350, The Minnesota Historical Society, Planned Parenthood and Jewish Community Action, just to name a few. We should mention workers at Minnesota Public Radio News unionized back in 2016.

The reasons are complex. Workers have clashed with leadership over working conditions and culture issues.

Nonoko Sato is the executive director of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, the largest state association for nonprofits in the country. 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.

Wednesday morning, Governor Tim Walz ordered flags to fly at half-staff through Saturday in honor of victims of Hamas’ attacks on Israel.

Israel’s army Wednesday bombed neighborhoods across Gaza, where the borders are closed. And Hamas is still holding hostages who were abducted over the weekend.

The death toll among Israelis and Palestinians continues to climb as civilians bear the brunt of what has become — over just a few days — a devastating war.

Minnesotans with loved ones on either side of the conflict are scrambling for information.

Our next guest is following what’s happening in Gaza, where he has family. Taher Herzallah is a graduate student at the University of Minnesota and director of grassroots organizing for American Muslims for Palestine. He joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.

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  The latest Israel strikes neighborhoods across Gaza as the war with Hamas intensifies
  
  


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  Read more 'People do not want bombings': Minnesota Jewish community gathers after attack on Israel
  
  

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.

President Joe Biden confirmed Americans were taken hostage and promised support for Israel Tuesday after speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone. Ahead of Biden’s speech at the White House, we hear from another Minnesotan with connections to the war.

Minneapolis teenager Eleanor Fink witnessed some of the recent attacks by Hamas on Israel firsthand. Eleanor graduated from Southwest High School in June and is on a gap year program in Tel Aviv.

She and the program’s other participants were on a road trip when they heard rocket fire. MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talked with Eleanor’s father, Howard Fink, who is following the situation closely from Minnesota.

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.

Israel and Gaza plunged into war over the weekend — hundreds of people have died and many more have been injured or displaced. We talk with members of the Israeli and Palestinian communities in Minnesota about how the violence is impacting their loved ones.

Today is Indigenous Peoples Day. We find out how people are celebrating across Minnesota. And we'll talk with the two journalists behind MPR's new Native News unit about their goals for coverage of Indigenous communities in the state.

Then, Native News senior editor Leah Lemm takes us to the home of Annie Humphrey on the Leech Lake reservation. The artist and songwriter is out with a new album, called "The Light in My Bones."

Annie Humphrey is an award-winning musician who comes from the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. Humphrey has just released her seventh album, The Light in My Bones. She worked with producer Jeremy Ylvisaker on the project, and she says it's like nothing she's ever released before.

Humphrey talked with MPR News’ senior editor of Native News, Leah Lemm.

It is Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the state of Minnesota. For the first time, it’s being marked as a state holiday. It’s a celebration of the vibrant and diverse cultures of the people native to the United States.

Minnesota is on Anishinaabe and Dakota land, and today there are 11 tribal nations in Minnesota.

MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talked with our new Native News team about the holiday and their new initiative.

MPR News is launching a Native News Journalism Initiative with senior editor Leah Lemm (Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe) and reporter Melissa Olson (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) to strengthen Native coverage across our region.

MPR’s mission is “Creating the future of public media by amplifying voices to inform, include, and inspire.” We believe Minnesota thrives when all voices are heard, including Native voices.

The Native News Journalism Initiative will report on Native topics, utilizing web, radio, video, and social media. The Native News team will consult with tribal communities, elders, story-sharers, culture bearers, and media experts to strengthen Native coverage across our region. 

Additionally, the team will collaborate with newsroom colleagues to reduce barriers for all MPR News coverage of Native communities and people.

The Native News Journalism Initiative aims to fulfill MPR’s mission by ensuring the inclusion of Native voices and, beyond that, by making Native voices a vibrant and crucial part of MPR’s coverage.

An all-out war is raging in Israel and Gaza after Hamas launched a large-scale surprise attack over the weekend. The death toll has passed 1,100 on both sides. That also includes nine U.S. citizens. There may be more.

Palestinian militants claim they are holding more than 100 Israelis in Gaza.

Minnesota is home to communities on both sides of the conflict, Israelis and Palestinians. And we wanted to talk to both, about their personal experience watching this all unfold from thousands of miles away.

A teenage girl is dead and two are recovering after a shooting last night in St. Paul. A new report out today finds firearm deaths among children have skyrocketed in the last ten years. We talk to a pediatric emergency physician about the trend.

And almost everyone will lose a family member or friend at some point in their career, but there are no national bereavement laws guaranteeing time off. A Minnesota health care executive gives her take.

Plus, do you believe in bigfoot? Hundreds of Minnesotans are gathering for the annual bigfoot conference this weekend. We talk with an organizer.

We are also talking baseball this hour, including the Twins' history-making postseason sweep. And we bring you the story of a legendary pitcher from the White Earth Nation.

Are you a baseball fan? For this next story in our history series Minnesota Now and Then, we meet a pitcher from the White Earth Reservation. His name was Charles Albert Bender and he is often credited as the inventor of the slider. But he was on the downward slope of his career in 1915, when he got the opportunity to participate in a trapshooting tour with one of his biggest rivals from the pitcher’s mound. MPR News contributors Robbie Mitchem and Jamal Allen tell this story with help from writer Britt Aamodt.