Minnesota Now

Starting Thursday, two iconic Indigenous artists will make a three-day tour of northern Minnesota.

Keith Secola is a renowned Anishinaabe songwriter and a member of the Native Music Hall of Fame. Gary Farmer is a Cayuga actor known for roles including Nobody in the 1995 movie “Dead Man” and Uncle Brownie in the hit TV show “Reservation Dogs.” He also has a band, Gary and the Troublemakers.

Together, the artists are bringing contemporary Native blues rock and traditional sounds to Virginia, Bemidji and Grand Rapids, Minn., starting Thursday, and they’ll meet up with some other local acts along the way. The Ancestral Fires Music Tour will finish Sunday with a stop in south Minneapolis.

Farmer and Secola chatted with MPR News host Nina Moini about their upcoming tour.

A group of Minnesotans are back after a trip to Selma, Alabama over the weekend to commemorate 61 years since a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights movement.

On March 7, 1965, state troopers attacked marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. The day what would become known as Bloody Sunday and helped spur the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

A contingent of Minnesotans from various civil rights and immigration rights groups were among the thousands who gathered at the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the weekend. They participated as a part of a trip organized by the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, an organization founded by Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.

Christina Ojo is with the group Ayada Leads and Rico Durán is with COPAL MN. They joined MPR News host Nina Moini for a conversation about their time in Selma.

It’s been more than 40 years since cleanup began on a hazardous waste site in Northern Minnesota. From the 1950s until the 1980s, the St. Regis Paper Company treated wood with toxic chemicals near downtown Cass Lake on the Leech Lake Reservation. Those chemicals spread into the soil and groundwater. Today, the pollution continues to limit wild rice harvesting and fishing in the area. And tribal environmental staff say the cleanup is failing.

Reporter Gabrielle Nelson is an environmental reporter and Report for America Corps Member for the Indigenous news outlet Buffalo’s Fire, based in North Dakota. She recently dug into this story and talked with MPR News host Nina Moini about her reporting.

The war in the Middle East is driving up fertilizer prices, as the spring planting season approaches. The war has closed the Strait of Hormuz, which is a critical shipping route for fertilizer.

Dan Glessing is the president of the Minnesota Farm Bureau and a farmer in Waverly, Minnesota, about an hour west of the Twin Cities. He joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about the impact to Minnesota farmers.

Gas prices have been on a rollercoaster, and the war in the Middle East is raising concern that the cost of fertilizer will shoot up. An important shipping route is blocked. We heard from a Minnesota farm group about the potential impact on farmers here.

One of the jurors from the first Feeding Our Future trial talked with MPR News about his experience in the courtroom.

We learned how a polluted site is impacting life on the Leech Lake Reservation, more than 40 years after cleanup began.

Two Minnesotans shared their experience in Selma, Ala. They took a recent trip honoring a critical moment of the civil rights movement.

Two iconic Indigenous artists are traveling the state on the Ancestral Fire Music Tour.

Our Minnesota Music Minute was “Fifth Element” by Let Joy.

A juror from the first Feeding Our Future fraud trial recounts deliberations, the shocking bribery attempt and the challenge of weighing the evidence to MPR News reporter Matt Sepic.

Gas prices are spiking across the state and country amid escalating tensions in the Middle East following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. We'll get a closer look at what that will mean for Minnesotans at the pump.

A package of bills regulating the use of artificial intelligence across various industries is getting a hearing at the state capitol. We'll hear from the state Senator behind those bills.

State lawmakers are also considering legislation that would prohibit schools from denying students an education based on immigration status. We'll hear more about what's in the bill and the Constitutional right to public education.

Plus, we’ll recap the big wins from the state boy’s hockey tournament and the Vikings are looking to add to their roster in free agency.

Our Minnesota Music Minute was “Hey, Bluebird” by Ber and our Song of the Day was “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” by Roma di Luna.

The Minnesota Vikings are looking to beef up their roster this week with free agency. NFL teams can begin negotiating Monday. Signing players begins Wednesday.

Minnesota Now sports contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson shared who the Vikings might have their eye on for quarterback; and how the Minnesota Gopher’s men’s and women’s basketball teams are shaping up ahead of March Madness.

The Minnesota Legislature is grappling with how fast-growing artificial intelligence should be regulated by the state.

On Monday, the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee is hearing a package of bills from State Sen. Erin Maye Quade (DFL-Apple Valley) that would put regulations on how AI can be used in everything from health insurance decisions to chatbots used by children to dynamic pricing in the marketplace.

Sen. Maye Quade joined Minnesota Now to talk about it.

State lawmakers are considering a bill that would enshrine the right to a public education to all students regardless of immigration status. That means schools and districts cannot deny undocumented students from enrolling. The bill would also require schools and districts to establish policies around interactions with the Department of Homeland Security.

A coalition of some 20 different organizations are behind the legislation, which got a hearing in both the state House and the Senate last month.

Alex Vitrella is a program director with the nonprofit Education Evolving and David Aron is general counsel with Education Minnesota. Both joined Minnesota Now guest host Chris Farrell to talk about the bill.