Minnesota Now

For the first time in 24 years, voters in Hennepin County are voting for a new county attorney. Here, Ryan Winkler speaks with Cathy Wurzer. He is currently the house majority leader and lives in Golden Valley.

Candidates for Hennepin County Attorney make their case, Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner has a detailed forecast and the Mall of America turns 30 this year! We'll take a look back.

Unionized nurses at seven Minnesota hospitals are issuing votes of no confidence in their hospital leadership.

No confidence votes were taken at several heath care providers including Fairview Health Services, Children’s Minnesota, North Memorial Health and St. Luke’s Duluth.

Negotiators for the Minnesota Nurses Association are in contract talks, which are moving slowly. Cathy Wurzer talks with Mary Turner, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association.

The Hennepin County Attorney oversees criminal prosecutions, including those involving police, and has a hand in protecting elders and child protection cases. Mike Freeman has been in the job for 24 years. He is not seeking re-election. There are a record 7 candidates running for office and Cathy Wurzer is talking to each one. Here, she speaks with Saraswati Singh. She is a prosecutor in the Ramsey County Attorney’s office.

The Hennepin County Attorney oversees criminal prosecutions, including those involving police, and has a hand in protecting elders and child protection cases. Mike Freeman has been in the job for 24 years. He is not seeking re-election. There are a record 7 candidates running for office and Cathy Wurzer is talking to each one. Here, she speaks with Jarvis Jones. He is a lawyer who has mostly practiced business law. He lives in suburban Edina, Minnesota.

If you’re under a certain age, you may not remember a Minnesota without the Mall of America. But before it opened in 1992, the mall was a long time coming, and its success was far from certain.

530 retail stores, 40 restaurants, an 18-hole mini golf course, an amusement park — some thought it would turn into a giant, empty eyesore.

Host Cathy Wurzer talks with Maureen Bausch, who was the Mall of America’s public relations manager for 25 years.

For the first time in 24 years, voters in Hennepin County are voting for a new county attorney.

The Hennepin County Attorney is the final word on who is charged with a crime, what crime, and what sentence is recommended. They also have a hand in protecting elders from fraud and cases that involve child protection.

This year there are a record seven candidates running for office and Minnesota Now host Cathy Wurzer is talking to every single one of them. In this installment we hear from Mary Moriarty. She was a public defender for Hennepin County for 31 years and chief public defender for six years.

Early voting in this race is happening now and lasts until Aug. 8. Hennepin County residents can find more information on how to register and polling locations on the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website.

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

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We make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

Monkeypox infections are continuing to climb in the United States. Illinois and California declared states of emergency Monday, and the World Health Organization says the outbreak is a global health emergency.

What does the disease look like here in Minnesota — and who is at risk? Dr. Beth Thielen, an assistant professor in the department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota who studies infectious diseases, spoke with Cathy Wurzer.

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Click the audio player above to listen to their conversation.

Monkeypox is a viral infection, historically, meaning for over the last few decades we've known about this virus that is circulated primarily in Africa. Although we've seen cases that have resulted from export of animals or travel in parts of the world that don't typically have monkeypox.

I think what's really unique about this current outbreak is that we're seeing many cases in parts of the world that don't traditionally have monkeypox, all occurring simultaneously. And so I think right now we're at over 21,000 cases, globally, and nearly 6,000 cases in the United States. So this is larger than any outbreak we've seen previously.

Correct. So it's really close physical contact that spreads it and I think many people will know that it's hard to have sexual contact without a component of close physical contact. So it certainly can spread through sexual activity.

But, the message we want to get out to people is that it doesn't necessarily have to be sexual activity. It can be just other forms of close contact or even contact with bedding or other cloth fabric like that.

Certainly. That’s the concern based on experiences that we've had with other other outbreaks. And I think there's certain risks that do seem to be more common among men who have sex with men, that is primarily the population where we've seen this infection thus far. And certainly we want to get the word out to those communities so that they can take appropriate precautions.

We want to be aware that this actually isn't spread just through sexual contact, and that we want to be looking and getting protective messages out to other communities as well. So I think vigilance, not panic, is kind of what we're what we're aiming for.

We did see infections among children and some have severe infections. So I don't want to downplay that risk. But at the same time, we've really not seen a large number of cases in the general population and it's really relatively rare cases amongst children.

Certainly, there are other infections of children, things like hand foot and mouth disease that are more common. I think the chances that it is monkeypox at this point is less likely than it is one of the more common childhood infectious illnesses.

The new data that was announced [Tuesday] morning by the Minnesota State Health Department said we have 38 confirmed cases here in Minnesota. It was maybe around 33 or so late last week. And it's really been over the last few weeks that we've had cases coming up.

So adding a few new cases a day, but we haven't really taken off to the same extent where we've seen, you know, 800 or so cases in New York and over 500 cases in Illinois. We're not kind of on the same scale as some of the states with larger outbreaks. But we do have steadily accumulating cases here in Minnesota.

Yes and no. So really, the key feature that people are having is the rash. And it sort of changes over time over the course of the illness. So it may start as little spots on the skin and then progress to more blister like spots or spots filled with pus.

The issue is some of these rash illnesses can be fairly limited to small areas of the body. So particularly early in infection, or if there's a very limited spread of the infection on the body, it may be possible that people may miss those signs of rash.

So I think really, rash illness is something for people to check in with their health care provider about and particularly if they've had known exposures to someone with the disease or have engaged in types of activities that are known to be risk factors.

So fever and fatigue were historically thought to precede the rash. I think what we're learning with this current outbreak is that they may come later. I think the rash is probably the most important, that unique feature that people can kind of focus in on.

I think being aware of where the disease is circulating and sort of taking precautions that are proportionate to the level of risk. So I think right now, we do know that this is spreading through sexual activity, and particularly sexual activity with multiple partners and partners met through some apps and websites and things like that. And so I think mitigating those risks at this point as much as possible while this is circulating.

We do have a vaccine available, and that vaccine has been fairly limited in its supply. So I think for people who are identifying as high risk, some of the typical locations where people seek sexual health care are really good places to to check in with about vaccines and talk to the health care providers.

I think this situation is evolving so quickly, that many community practitioners may feel a bit lost and sort of have a hard time keeping up. And that's really why infectious disease doctors, like myself, exist. So many of the health systems will have an infectious disease specialist. And I think we're paying particularly close attention to how this is evolving and making sure that we're getting accurate, timely information out to folks.

I will say that testing is really important. I think we've really scaled up our testing capacity. And so if people have rash or lesions, even if they don't have traditional risk factors, it is very important to test for monkeypox so we really get a handle on how many cases are out there and how this disease circulation is changing over time and we can give people the most accurate up to date information about this outbreak.

We have a treatment that's available but it hasn't been widely used because this is such a new outbreak. We don't have a lot of data about how this works, but certainly it's something that's available for people with severe disease. And that could be just skin rashes that are limiting the ability of people to function.

So particularly, we're seeing this in the mouth and genital area — and that can be quite painful. People can get that treatment in consultation with their doctors who contract with public health authorities.

I think the most important thing is to seek medical attention if people are concerned, not all people with monkeypox will require treatment, but certainly it's available if people need it.

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We make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

No it's not another COVID-19 pandemic, but monkeypox is a concern. We've got the news you need to know about the virus.

August is here and we'll find out what’s blooming and bustling in the woods and on the prairies this month.

Seven candidates are vying for the job of Hennepin County Attorney. How will they handle police, public safety and child protection? We're talking to each one of them this week.

And a boy scout from Olivia, Minn., made national headlines by honoring veterans. We'll hear about his enormous achievement.

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

We make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

How’s this for an uplifting story? A 17-year-old boy scout in Olivia, Minn. raised more than $77,000 to build a veteran’s memorial in his community. His project has since gone viral in a big way. Dominique Claseman joined Cathy to tell his story.