Minnesota Now

There are still many more buyers than sellers, but conditions have improved for those looking for a home.

Bidding wars are rarer than they were a couple of years ago and prices are more stable. Mark Zdechlik has a look.

Last week marked a significant milestone in U.S. political history.

It was 75 years ago on July 14, 1948 that a young Minneapolis mayor, Hubert Humphrey, got up before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia and implored the convention to adopt a civil rights plank to its platform, saying, “The time has arrived in America for the Democratic party to get out of the shadow of states’ rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.”

Humphrey's call to action swayed enough delegates, paving the way for advancements in the fight for equality and justice and helping to launch Humphrey's national political career. Humphrey would go onto to become a Minnesota U.S. senator and Vice President in Lyndon Johnson's administration.

The speech and what led up to it is the focus of a new book: "Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights.”

MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with author Samuel Freedman about the book. Freedman is an award-winning author and journalist, a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, and a professor at Columbia University.

Next month, the Minnesota Department of Human Services will begin deleting emails after a year. Staff will decide which emails contain official records that should be saved, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports.

The DHS says this change will protect privacy, but transparency advocates are concerned that those deleted emails will contain information the public needs to have in order to hold government accountable.

Republican state Representative Jim Nash works in cybersecurity, and he's minority whip of the Minnesota House. He spoke with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.

Local and state law enforcement as well as the FBI are investigating the recent shooting of three police officers in Fargo. Two of the officers were wounded and Jake Wallin was killed.

He was from Saint Michael, Minnesota and had joined the department just three months earlier.

Reporter Dana Ferguson has more about the 23-year-old military veteran.

Another potential health care merger is brewing in the state between Duluth-based St. Luke's and Wisconsin-based Aspirus Health. This comes despite a new Minnesota law banning anti-competitive healthcare mergers. Will it put a wrench in the handful of other proposed deals?

And as Minneapolis grapples with police reform, public safety remains a big issue. We'll hear from a man and young woman who found themselves with a choice: criminal prosecution or something else.

Plus, public assistance is a conversation topic in Bemidji, Minn. after the closure this year of four subsidized housing buildings. It used to look a little different. We'll dive into the history of the “Poor Farm.”

And we’ll catch up with the week’s sports news.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

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It’s been under public scrutiny and discussion for months, and under wraps for far longer: the proposed merger between Sanford Health and Fairview into one mega-hospital system. A law recently signed by Gov. Tim Walz outlines new ways for Minnesota’s attorney general to oversee hospital deals, but how that will work remains to be seen. Bill author and DFL Representative Robert Bierman joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer to talk about that regulation and the evolving future of health care in Minnesota.

MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer dove into some good news on the Minnesota sports scene with our regulars Wally and Eric. Wally Langfellow is the founder of Minnesota Score Sports Magazine and co-hosts 10K Takes sports show with Eric Nelson, the Vikings reporter for CBS sports radio's Eye on the NFL.

When Johnny Palka’s wife, Yvonne, was hit by a car and killed in November 2019, he had a choice: pursue traditional criminal prosecution for the driver, or something else.

The path he chose is commonly known as restorative justice, rooted in practices from Indigenous cultures around the world.

Public Safety is a big concern for many Minnesotans and a recurring issue as Minneapolis grapples with police reform. And restorative justice, while not new, is becoming more well known across Minnesota and beyond. During the 2023 legislative session, state lawmakers passed a bill to create a new office to promote restorative justice for juveniles.

MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Palka, Natasha Lapcinski, founder and director of Dialogue Up, and a young woman we are calling “D,” who was the driver in the crash.

We are not mentioning her name because of fear of being targeted.

This conversation originally aired in October 2022.

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. 

Forty-seven people in Bemidji were still out of their homes Thursday after the city evacuated a subsidized housing facility. Most residents of the Red Pine Estates were older or disabled adults. Public assistance used to look different in Bemidji. In the early 1900s, the Beltrami County Poor Farm gave care and shelter to folks in need. MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer looked back into that time period with historian Cecelia McKeig for the regular segment, Minnesota Now and Then.

Loneliness and isolation are an epidemic, according to the Surgeon General in a widely talked about recent report.

So that leads to the question: How do you expand your social circle? Where on earth do you make new friends? One group that exists for just this purpose is Break the Bubble. For the past 10 years the group has been coordinating meet-ups in public places around the Twin Cities. The goal is purely social--it's not a singles group, it's not a professional networking organization. And attendance at their events has skyrocketed since the pandemic. Jon Slock has been coordinating Break the Bubble for the past five years, and he joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about it.