Minnesota Now

Charges will not be filed against Minneapolis Police Officer Mark Hanneman. Hanneman shot and killed Amir Locke Feb. 2 while serving a no-knock warrant.

Cynthia Wilson, president of the Minneapolis NAACP, joined host Cathy Wurzer to share her reaction to the decision.

The St. Cloud Police Department received 82% fewer applications in 2021 compared to a decade prior. St. Cloud Police Chief William Blair Anderson joined Minnesota Now to talk about the applicant shortage.

Retired right-handed pitcher LaTroy Hawkins is serving as special assistant for Baseball Operations with the Twins. But baseball isn't the only gig LaTroy has been managing here locally. He is also selling bikes -- electric ones -- with his business partner Eric Weber. Host Cathy Wurzer talked to the pair.

For many people, listening to music can be a way to relax or unwind after a long day. And practicing mindfulness can also settle the body and center the mind. So what happens when you put the two together? Mariann Johnson is a mindfulness and wellness instructor at the Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota. She also runs a program with the Minnesota Orchestra called Music & Mindfulness. She joined host Cathy Wurzer to talk about her work.

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Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced that they will not file charges against Mark Hanneman, the police officer who shot and killed Amir Locke while serving a no-knock warrant. Locke was not a suspect or named in the warrant. Host Cathy Wurzer talks with MPR reporter Jon Collins about what Ellison and Freeman say about their decision.

On March 31st The Copyright Royalty Board took a first step in changing the rate musicians are paid when their songs stream on services like Spotify, Apple, Pandora and Amazon. Producer Alex Cheng caught up with Minneapolis based music manager Bobby Maher to talk about how this may impact musicians.

There’s a bicameral, bipartisan appetite for billions of dollars in tax cuts in the Minnesota Legislature. Host Cathy Wurzer talks with MPR News reporter Brian Bakst on legislators' tax and spending proposals.

We’ve all heard stories of Prince growing up on Minneapolis’s north side, and his early musical beginnings. But there aren’t many photos and videos of Prince as a child. But a special discovery has lit up the Internet. While digging around in old news film in the basement of the WCCO TV station for footage of the 1970 Minneapolis teachers strike, WCCO production manager Matt Liddy found footage that appears to be Prince at 10 or 11 years old, being interviewed by a reporter, outside his former junior high school. Matt joined Cathy to talk about his find.

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Over the years those in charge of managing nature have done some good things to protect the natural world. But sometimes what seems like a good conservation management idea goes very wrong. A new podcast out of Interlochen Public Radio in Michigan explores how people have fiddled with the natural world in the upper Great Lakes region and what’s come of it. Morgan Springer is a producer on the "Un-Natural Selection" podcast from Interlochen Public Radio. You can find the show at interlochenpublicradio.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

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The pandemic has been challenging for all of us, but especially health care professionals. Many have been working in very stressful environments with limited staff for over two years. The Journal of the American Medical Association published an article about the impact long-term burnout has had on physicians and health care staff on March 30. Dr. Jay-Sheree Allen is a physician at Mayo Clinic and host of the podcast Millennial Health. She joined host Cathy Wurzer to talk about the ongoing struggles medical professionals have faced and what a potential exodus could mean for America’s health care system.

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