In one month, the Olympic torch will be lit in Milano-Cortina, Italy for the 2026 Winter Games. Minnesotans always have a strong showing at the Winter Olympics, and another athlete has just been added to the roster.

Margie Freed is an Apple Valley native. She's making her Olympic debut in biathlon.

Freed spoke to Minnesota Now host Nina Moini about getting ready for her first Olympic games.

As the cannabis industry grows in Minnesota, there is a need for more skilled workers.

Two Minnesota colleges are expanding their programs to help teach people the ropes of the cannabis industry. Starting next week, St. Cloud State University will have their first cohort of students enrolled in a new cannabis certificate program.

Minnesota State Community and Technical College — or M State, which has schools across northwest Minnesota — will expand their offerings. M State was the first two-year college in greater Minnesota to offer cannabis education. Both schools are partnering with the company Green Flower to offer the courses.

Max Simon the CEO of Green Flower, and Sean Collins, director of workforce development solutions at M State, joined Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to talk about the programs and the budding industry.

Reports of financial exploitation of vulnerable adults in Minnesota has steadily risen since 2021. According to data from the Minnesota Department of Human Services via the Vulnerable Adult Maltreatment Dashboard, reports of abuse or exploitation have gone up from 55,000 to over 66,000.

Vulnerable adult is a legal category for adults who have difficulty caring for themselves without help. It includes people with disabilities as well as older people in assisted living or nursing homes.

A new state law allows a court to more quickly step in if an older adult is being scammed or stolen from — a judge can even freeze assets under the law, which took effect Jan. 1.

Amanda Vickstrom is the executive director of the nonprofit Minnesota Elder Justice Center and joined Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to talk more about the data.

The federal Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that Secretary Kristi Noem was in the Twin Cities, as a federal immigration crackdown continues.

The agency posted a video to social media on Tuesday morning, showing Noem accompanying federal agents as they detained a man.

The agency and Noem, in separate social media posts, labeled the video as being taken in Minneapolis — but it appeared to show the operation taking place at a building on Payne Avenue in St. Paul.

DHS said the man is from Ecuador and is in the U.S. illegally, and that he’s wanted for murder and sexual assault. Noem said that warrant is from Ecuador, and said he was also convicted of robbery and extortion. DHS and Noem did not provide further details on those cases.

It was not immediately clear how long Noem would be in the Twin Cities.

It’s now been more than a month since federal officials announced an immigration operation targeting the Twin Cities. The agency has previously said that it’s made hundreds of arrests.

Gov. Tim Walz, who ended his bid for a third term Monday, sharply criticized the federal enforcement effort, raising concerns about both the scale of the operation and the lack of coordination with state officials. 

“We have a ridiculous surge of apparently 2,000 people not coordinating with us that are for a show of the cameras,” Walz said. “Why 2,000 folks? What are they coming to do? Do they want to coordinate with us?”

MPR News contacted both ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to confirm the number of agents being deployed to Minnesota. DHS responded with a statement from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, saying, “While for the safety of our officers we do not get into law enforcement footprint, DHS has surged law enforcement and has already made more than 1,000 arrests of murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and gang members.”

Walz said the increased ICE presence is creating fear among immigrant communities, particularly communities of color. 

“What he's [Trump] doing to the Somali community is absolutely unconscionable,” Walz said, adding, "If you want us to fix fraud, come and help us do that. They're not interested in that.” 

Walz said he views the federal action as part of a broader political attack on Minnesota. 

Minneapolis City Council Member Jason Chavez said he has not received confirmation from the federal government about the reported deployment of 2,000 agents but said the impact of increased enforcement is already being felt across the city.

“There hasn't been information shared with me at the city level,” Chavez said. “But what we are witnessing on the ground, is that we have already seen an escalation of ICE agents across our city and across the state.”

Chavez said community members in South Minneapolis are reporting agents stopping and detaining people early in the morning as they head to work. 

“We have already seen it starting really early in the morning as people were heading to work, getting stopped and being kidnapped by ICE,” he said.

He described seeing agents in tactical gear and an increase in unmarked vehicles.

“We're seeing the tactical gear all over Lake Street and across South Minneapolis,” Chavez said. “We're seeing a ton of unmarked vehicles and we have witnessed folks already being detained.”

Chavez said he is particularly concerned about racial profiling and due process. 

Meanwhile, the Immigrant Defense Network — a statewide coalition of more than 100 organizations — is launching constitutional observer trainings across the state to help community members document and respond to federal enforcement activity.

Gov. Tim Walz has ended his bid for a third term, saying he wanted to spend his final year in office focused on fighting fraud in state programs instead of campaigning. It comes after mounting criticism and a viral video that brought the ire of the federal government.

We’ll talk to a Democrat and Republican analyst about what this means for the election.

Plus, we’ll hear from the chair of the Minnesota GOP, Alex Pleshach about how his party is now approaching the race.

MPR News reporter Matt Sepic will break down how fraud played a role in the end of the governor’s campaign.

And a professor joins to talk about the impact Nick Shirley’s viral video had on this moment.

The Trump administration is halting money for child care in Minnesota. It's a response to a YouTube video that accused daycare centers of fraud. State officials say they're investigating but so far haven't substantiated the allegations. We'll talk with a childcare provider about the impact.

It's the last day of 2025, a year that brought swift and constant changes to immigration policy. immigration reporter Sarah Thamer joined the program to explain.

And to wrap up the year, we're sharing some of our favorite conversations. 50 years since the first Hmong refugees arrived in Minnesota, we'll talk about Hmong representation and culture.

We'll revisit interviews with Minnesota basketball stars' childhood coaches.

And we go back out to lunch with Anton Treuer.

Our Minnesota Music Minute was “Auld Lang Syne” by Coyote.

On the last day of 2025, the Minnesota Now team looked back on some of our favorite conversations of the year. We heard from Hmong Minnesotans commemorating 50 years of Hmong immigration to the state. We talked to the childhood coaches of Minnesota-raised basketball stars Paige Bueckers and Chet Holmgren. And we sat down with Ojibwe language and culture professor Anton Treuer over a meal in our “Out to Lunch” series.

Child care centers in Minnesota are in limbo, after President Donald Trump’s administration announced it is freezing federal child care funds to the state. The decision stems from a YouTube creator, Nick Shirley, who visited daycares run by Somali Minnesotans, alleging that they are acting fraudulently. State officials say they are looking into the allegations but so far haven’t substantiated the fraud claims. And Governor Tim Walz, pushed back on the move saying that Trump is “politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans.”

Maria Snider is the director of Rainbow Child Development Center in St. Paul and also the vice president of the Minnesota Childcare Association. She joined Minnesota Now to share how the federal reimbursement process works and the impact of the freeze.

The Trump Administration set out to implement its immigration agenda on day one and made major changes to the U.S. immigration system. That included halting the resettlement of refugees, ending temporary protections for certain groups, and initiating a widespread deportation effort. In just this last month, at least 670 people in Minnesota have been arrested by ICE.

These actions have left many immigrants across the state feeling fearful and uncertain about their futures. MPR News immigration reporter Sarah Thamer sat down with Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to look back on the year and what unfolded.

As 2025 comes to a close, we are reflecting on the stories that impacted Minnesotans most this year.

The Annunciation Church and School community is working towards healing following a mass shooting. MPR News host Nina Moini talked with two Annunciation parents who are helping lead the community forward.

2025 was also a difficult year for state lawmakers following the killings of House leader Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. MPR News politics reporter Dana Ferguson explained how the tragedy is still impacting the legislature.

And Minnesota saw an explosion of data center proposals this year. MPR News reporter Kirsti Marohn broke down where things stand.

Plus, Minneapolis was the center of reality TV this year. We’re talking about Love is Blind! We heard from the only married couple from the show, Daniel and Taylor.