Minnesota Now

This week, the Jewish community is celebrating Hanukkah. During the holiday season, people often turn to music to get into the holiday spirit. But there is not nearly as much festive Hanukkah music as there is Christmas music. A local musician is trying to change that.

Adam Bohanan is putting on a show called “A Very Funky Hanukkah Show,” Thursday night at The Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis where he will share some new original Hanukkah tunes. He joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about it.

Working in the back-of-house at many restaurants in Minnesota, you’ll find a Hispanic or Latino employee. Government labor data shows that the most common occupations for Hispanic or Latino Minnesotans are chefs and cooks. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement have detained hundreds of people in the Twin Cities this month, including many from Latin American countries. ICE agents are now in their third week of an operation in the metro area and their increased activity has put the restaurant industry on edge.

For perspective, MPR News host Nina Moini talked with Gustavo Romero, co-owner and chef of the restaurant Oro by Nixta in Minneapolis.

Gov. Tim Walz signed two executive orders to address gun violence across the state Tuesday. We heard reaction from the state lawmaker who represents the area of south Minneapolis where the Annunciation school shooting took place.

The governor's executive orders come days after a shooting at a high school in southern Minnesota last Friday left one student dead and the Stewartville community reeling.

It's been a turbulent year for farmers. We heard from one of the state's three agricultural mental health specialists on the challenges they're facing.

A Minnesota nonprofit is among a list of organizations that has won grant money from the foundation arm of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.

Songs recorded decades ago by Minnesota folklorist Ellen Stekert are being released for the first time — with the restoration help of artificial intelligence.

Our Minnesota Music Minute was "Streetlights" by Minnesota artist Crescent Moon + Big Trouble. Our Song of the Day was “Gold Tide” by middleson.

Minnesota folklorist and musician Ellen Stekert has released a new album for the first time in decades. But the songs on “Go Ahead Around Songs, Vol. 1” are not new recordings.

They were cut years ago in the 1950s and 1960s and were never formally released. With the help of artificial intelligence, those archival recordings have now been restored and assembled into a collection.

In addition to her music, Stekert is a pioneering scholar in folklore studies. She taught for many years at the University of Minnesota and became Minnesota’s first state folklorist in 1976. Stekert joined MPR News host Nina Moini along with Ross Wylde, who helped produce the album.

This year has been turbulent for farmers: They've faced the ups and downs of trade wars, inflation and the persistent threat of climate change. And it shows.

Calls to mental health hotlines for agricultural workers like the Iowa Concern hotline ticked up this fall compared to numbers from last fall. And a representative from the national Farm Aid hotline reported that more than 50 percent of their callers said they were “financially stressed.”

Tracie Rutherford Self is one of three agricultural mental health specialists working for the state of Minnesota. She spoke to MPR News host Nina Moini about what that increased need looks like for farmers, and how she helps.

The creator of ChatGPT has promised to donate more than $40 million to nonprofits across the country. It is the first round of philanthropy from the rebranded nonprofit arm of OpenAI.

A portion of the new funding is coming to Minnesota. Two Twin Cities-focused organizations, COPAL and Merrick Community Services, are among more than 200 recipients nationwide.

Kate Kelly is the development director of Merrick Community Services, which provides social services in St. Paul’s East Side neighborhood. She joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about what the organization will do with the money, including their exploration of AI as a tool for their work.

Governor Tim Walz signed two executive orders Tuesday aimed at gun violence prevention.

The first expands outreach and education on extreme risk protection orders, which is a law that allows for guns to be taken away from people deemed to be a risk to themselves or others. It also will promote safe firearm storage. And lastly will look to require insurance companies to provide data on the cost of gun violence. The second executive order establishes a statewide safety council.

Rep. Emma Greenman, DFL-Minneapolis, who represents the area of south Minneapolis where Annunciation is located, joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about it.

Jewish Minnesotans are condemning a mass shooting in Australia marking the first day of Hanukkah that left 15 people dead. It follows another shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island on Saturday where two students were killed. We'll hear from one local rabbi affected by both tragedies.

An MPR News investigation shows Planned Parenthood in Minnesota is facing strife amid staff complaints and financial pressures. We'll hear more about the situation.

Plus, we'll meet a Duluth foster parent who's just won an award for her work building connections between foster and birth families.

And a food shelf operator talks about how he's responding to an ongoing uptick in demand.

Our Minnesota Music Minute was “Happy Hollow” by Pert Near Sandstone and our Song of the Day was “8 Days (of Hanukkah)” by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings.

The Minnesota Wild had a big weekend. It started with a major trade. A star player for Vancouver came to St. Paul. And three former Wild players are now Canuck. The move seems to be paying off so far.

Joining Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to talk about this and what was overall a pretty good weekend for Minnesota sports are sports contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson.

The weekend brought news of multiple horrifying shootings. On Friday, a shooting in the parking lot of Stewartville High School in southern Minnesota left a student hospitalized in critical condition and the gunman dead. Then, Saturday afternoon a gunman targeted students at Brown University, which killed two people and injured 9 more. And Sunday, here in the U.S. we woke up to news of another mass shooting, this time in Australia. Officials are calling it a terrorist attack. Two gunmen targeted and killed 15 people and injured dozens more at a Hannakuh celebration.

Rabbi Adam Stock Spilker is the senior Rabbi at Mount Zion Temple in St. Paul. His son Eiden is a recent Brown University graduate who now works there. He was in the building where the shooting happened over the weekend.

Less than 12 hours after the shooting at Brown, the shooting in Australia unfolded. Rabbi Spilker said the shooting half-a-world away still hit home in Minnesota, especially for the Jewish community.