Only a couple of hundred years ago, 20 to 30 million Bison lived in vast herds across North America. There is an effort by some Native tribes to reestablish bison herds in Minnesota.

The Red Lake Nation in far northern Minnesota started a herd back in 2021 and we thought we’d check in to see how they’re doing.

Cherilyn Spears, the new director of the Red Lake Nation’s Department of Agriculture, spoke with Cathy Wurzer about the herd.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. Read a transcript of their conversation below.

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Since the supreme court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that federally protected the right to have an abortion, decision makers at the state level are busy clarifying abortion access within their boundaries.

Minnesotans who want abortions can still get one, but neighboring states are now battlegrounds over abortion rights. Iowa residents are already seeing changes to access to abortion, and more restrictions may be on the way.

Katie Akin joined Cathy Wurzer to catch us up on abortion in Iowa. She’s a political reporter for The Des Moines Register.

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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. 

Where can you find some of the oldest rocks on earth? Right here in Minnesota. Professor Jim Cotter teaches geology at the University of Minnesota-Morris. His lectures cover history that took place not thousands, but millions and billions of years ago. And he’s got a new platform for his passion for Minnesota geology. He’s featured in a new Great Courses series that you can get at your local library.

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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. 

Thousands of Minnesota nurses have voted in favor of a strike at seven different health systems in the Twin Cities and Duluth. The Minnesota Nurses Association and the hospitals have been in negotiations since last March. MPR’s Tim Nelson has been following the vote.

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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. 

Checkmate, pawn and endgame aren’t words that turn up in everyday conversation. But to people like Alex Betaneli, they represent a way of life. Betaneli is a national chess master and the co-organizer of the first-ever Minnesota International Chess Festival that kicks off Friday Aug. 19 in Bloomington.

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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. 

On Minnesota Now, hear about the national uptick in crime and how political hopefuls this fall say they’ll get ahead of it.

Minnesota’s Sun Country Airlines is on the rebound after a history of flops.

Open storefronts in Duluth partner with BIPOC entrepreneurs to try out a new business model.

Finally we’ll hear some salsa music from the Twin Cities band Salsa del Soul.

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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. 

If you’re a regular Minnesota Now listener, you know that we love music! Cathy Wuzer spoke to Shai Hayo from Salsa del Soul about their music and inspiration.

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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. 

Crime is one of the campaign issues in this fall’s election. It’s likely to increase in attention following a report that came out late Friday, Aug. 12. That’s when the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension released a summary of crime numbers statewide for 2021.

Violent crime is up statewide by 21 percent. That’s not only in the Twin Cities, where violent crime was up by nearly 24 percent. Violent crime, homicide, rape and assault is also up in greater Minnesota by 16 percent.

The report prompted some GOP hopefuls to blame DFL incumbents for their “soft on crime” policies — but that’s not quite accurate. For more insight, Cathy Wurzer was joined by Thomas Abt, senior fellow with the Council on Criminal Justice based in New York. He is the chair of the violent crime working group and the author of the book “Bleeding Out: The Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence and a Bold New Plan for Peace in the Streets.”

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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. 

Every town and city has a downtown that needs some love. For decades, suburban malls have created competition for these more historic central shopping districts. In Duluth, the Greater Downtown Council is supporting a pop-up market featuring nine BIPOC entrepreneurs in storefront spaces in downtown Duluth.

This isn’t the first time they’ve done this. So how successful is this pop-up market idea? Kristi Stokes is president of the Greater Downtown Council in Duluth. She joined Cathy Wurzer to talk about what’s happening.

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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. 

Minnesota’s own Sun Country Airlines hasn’t always had a smooth journey. The airline, which turned 40 this year, barely survived its former owner, Tom Petters’ Ponzi Scheme and a subsequent bankruptcy.

But the airline went public last year and says it is continuing to grow. That’s a pretty remarkable come back story. How did that happen? Kyle Potter joined Cathy Wurzer to answer that question. Potter is the executive editor of travel website Thrifty Traveler, and he recently wrote about Sun Country’s comeback.

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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.