Minnesota Now

The federal government is withholding a quarter billion dollars in Medicaid funding to Minnesota — and said the state has 60 days to address fraud before that money returns. One mental health leader shared what the pause will mean for his work.

There is a push for Governor Tim Walz to enact an eviction moratorium before March rent is due to ease the impacts from the ICE surge. We looked at what would be required for the governor to make that decision.

Plus, some people are getting released from ICE custody without crucial documents. We heard one man's story.

Plus, writers gathered to reflect and celebrate Ramadan at an event organized by Mizna, a group that promotes the work of Arab and Southwest Asian and North African artists.

And a doctor who trained in Minnesota skied in the Olympics for Mexico. She shared more about her journey.

Olympians from all over the world are heading home and adjusting to life after competing in Italy.

For one new Olympian, regular life includes treating patients as an emergency room doctor in Miami. At this year’s games, Regina Martinez Lorenzo became the first woman to compete for Mexico in Olympic cross-country skiing. She raced in the 10k freestyle event.

She got her start with the sport here in Minnesota while she was going to medical school. Regina Martinez Lorenzo joined Minnesota Now to talk more about her journey from Minnesota to the Olympics.

On Thursday, a community of writers came together to break the Ramadan fast, also known as Iftar, and held a public reading at Baba’s Hummus House in Minneapolis. The event was organized by Mizna, which promotes the work of Arab and Southwest Asian and North African artists.

Two artists shared more about the gathering on Minnesota Now — Nikki Luna, a Lebanese-American genderqueer poet and organizer of the event, and Nader Helmy, a Cairo-born, Minnesota-raised writer.

Advocates are scrambling to raise money for rent for the month of March that's due in just a few days. It's for the families that are still in hiding and are losing income from the Minnesota ICE surge. A coalition of unions in Minnesota is calling for a rent strike in solidarity with those families starting March 1, and many others are asking Governor Tim Walz to enact an eviction moratorium and rent relief payments for people unable to work during the surge of federal agents in the state. Advocates said they have crowdsourced hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the people in hiding, but that it is not sustainable for the long term.

Governor Walz said that he can't enact a statewide eviction moratorium without declaring a peacetime emergency. And so far, he has been unwilling to make that move. Professor Larry Jacobs, the founder and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, joined MPR News host Nina Moini for a conversation about what’s at play in the governor’s decision making.

State leaders are responding to a move by the federal government to withhold about a quarter billion dollars in Medicaid funding.

The Trump administration says the state has 60 days to share a plan to address fraud or the freeze could be extended.

But Governor Tim Walz and members of his administration say they’ve been taking such steps. State Medicaid Director John Connolly said the state will have to pay the federal government a quarter billion dollars for services already provided, which is a hit to the state budget. Connolly says the Trump Administration has threatened to withhold more money.

The funding pause affects 14 categories of services funded through Medicaid. Late in 2025, the state began reviewing providers of those services. It has suspended or delayed some payments.

The programs include, in part, treatments for substance use disorder and mental health conditions. Marcus Schmit, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, spoke with host Nina Moini about what the funding threat could mean for mental health care in the state.

At President Donald Trump's State of the Union address, his focus on Minnesota was not about immigration, but rather fraud. We fact check his claims. Plus, Representative Ilhan Omar disrupted the speech. We hear what she said and why she did that.

Mutual aid, organizing and other forms of protest have not ended since some ICE agents have left the state. We talk about the next phase of organizing.

Plus, we hear from disability rights lawyers on how funding pauses over fraud are impacting access to service.

We get an update on the forecast from Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner.

And we talk to the curator of a University of Minnesota archive of African American literature that spans 250 years.

The Minnesota Music Minute was “My Heart Your Heart” by Bad Bad Hats.

A University of Minnesota literature collection is celebrating more than 40 years of preserving African American heritage and culture. The Givens Collection contains more than 8,000 books, manuscripts, photos and personal papers. It recently wrapped up an exhibit to commemorate its beginnings.

Curator Davu Underwood Seru joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about the collection.

Several parts of the state government are working to root out fraud from state programs. State lawmakers are considering legislation. And the Department of Human Services is reviewing payments to 14 Medicaid programs for possible fraud. It has delayed or suspended payments to some providers.

Advocates for disability rights say people who rely on these programs are caught in the middle.

At a senate human services committee meeting this week, several presenters described cases where people never received services that were paid for or abruptly lost services after payments were suspended.

A group of legal experts will gather to talk about this issue Wednesday in a panel discussion at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. The event, titled “Disability Rights on Hold: How the fraud allegations and funding freezes are affecting the disability community,” is the opening to an exhibit about disability rights in Minnesota that will travel to three law schools this year.

MPR News host Nina Moini talked with two of the panelists, disability lawyer Shamus O’Meara and University of St. Thomas law professor Elizabeth Schiltz, who is also one of the organizers of the panel and the traveling exhibit.

A new filing from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security lays out a plan for the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents left in Minnesota to drop to about 400 after Wednesday. The numbers come after border czar Tom Homan’s announcement of a drawdown earlier this month.

Thousands of Minnesotans have taken part in demonstrations, mutual aid efforts and rapid response networks to support neighbors and fellow Minnesotans during the surge of federal agents.

A broad coalition of groups across the Twin Cities looks to continue building on that momentum even in light of the drawdown announcement. Unidos MN organizer José Alvillar Hinojosa joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about a week of action the groups began Wednesday titled “Bring the Heat, Melt the ICE.”

Minnesota was a target in President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech Tuesday night. But he did not talk about the surge in federal immigration agents to the state. Instead, he focused on fraud. Trump said corruption is a problem in the U.S. and specifically called out Minnesota.

MPR News reporter Matt Sepic joined Minnesota Now to break down what the President said.