Minnesota Now

For many Minnesotans, fall means it's time to get the comforting warm flavors of nutmeg, apple, cardamom and maple to fill the air in the kitchen.

Minnesota-based chef and cookbook author Amy Thielen joined MPR News host Nina Moini to share what recipes she’s thinking about this fall season.

Earlier this month, Minnesota-based Xcel Energy announced it wants to double the amount of lithium battery storage it already planned to install next to its Sherco coal-fired power plant in central Minnesota. The batteries would allow Xcel to store energy produced at its wind, solar, nuclear and natural gas plants across the Upper Midwest.

MPR News reporter Kirsti Marohn has been covering how batteries that store electricity on demand are becoming an increasingly important part of the transition to clean energy. She joined MPR News host Nina Moini to share more about her reporting as part of a weekly check in with MPR News reporters based in greater Minnesota.

On Thursday morning, a judge denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the city of Minneapolis against a landlord who allowed dozens of people to camp on a parking lot he owns.

The city sued Hamoudi Sabri in September to force him to close the encampment. A few days later, the city cleared the encampment after a shooting there killed one person and injured six others.

Sabri’s lawyers argued the city could not move forward with the lawsuit without including the people who had been living in the encampment in the case.

MPR News reporter Cari Spencer was at the courthouse during the hearing and joined MPR News host Nina Moini to explain.

This weekend marks 10 years since the police killing of Jamar Clark. Clark was 24 years old and unarmed when Minneapolis police shot and killed him. The officers said Clark reached for one of their guns during a confrontation outside a party. Some witnesses disputed that Clark reached for the officer’s weapon. No officers were charged with a crime. 

Clark’s death spurred protests and activism that has carried through the police killings of other Black men in Minnesota, Philando Castile in 2016 and George Floyd in 2020.

MPR News host Nina Moini talked to one of Clark’s sisters, Tiffany Burns, to reflect on the 10 years since her brother’s death, which changed Minnesota’s history and her family forever.

The U.S. House of Representatives returns to Washington Wednesday to vote on a bill that would end the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history. We talk to one of Minnesota's representatives, Democrat Betty McCollum, about how she plans to vote.

A new poll led by former Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges shows that female mayors face more harassment. We talk to Mayor Hodges about the results.

Plus, is the Midwest a lost region? A conference is looking to put the study of the Midwest back on the map.

And the northern lights were hard to miss last night! Paul Huttner shares the chances of seeing the aurora glow tonight.

And we go out to lunch with T Williams, who shares his 50 years of activism in Minneapolis.

The Minnesota Music Minute was “2042” by French Brigade and “Hallelujah I Love Her So” by Eddie Corchran was the Song of the Day.

We have all been witnesses to moments in history. But there are people in every community who go a step further by working to shape what happens next. Minnesota Now’s series, Out to Lunch, is a chance to get to know some of those influential neighbors.

MPR News host Nina Moini recently met up with longtime activist T Williams at Soul Bowl, a restaurant inside the V3 Sports health and wellness center in north Minneapolis. He has lived in the neighborhood since moving to Minnesota in 1965.

That year, he became director of the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center. After riots broke out on Plymouth Avenue in 1967, he helped set up the Minneapolis Urban Coalition, a group of corporate leaders, local politicians and community members created to work on poverty and racial inequality in the city.

Now, Williams is sharing a record of his long career advocating for people of color in Minnesota. He wrote a book with co-author David Lawrence Grant. It’s called “Rewind: Lessons from Fifty Years of Activism.”

Minnesotans love talking about Minnesota and don’t miss a chance to put the state and the Midwest as a region on a pedestal. But if you ask people outside the Midwest, they may not even be able to point to Minnesota on a map.

A new conference is dedicated to making sure the Midwest is not forgotten. The goal of the “Lost Region Recovery Project Conference” is to grow the study of the Midwest. The conference will take place Saturday in Sioux Falls, S.D. MPR News host Nina Moini talked with its organizer, Jon Lauck.

A new poll from the national group Mayor's Innovation Project shows that female mayors face higher rates of harassment and violence than their male counterparts.

Former Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges helped to develop and facilitate the survey. She joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about its findings.

Minnesota is abuzz with chatter about the northern lights display Tuesday night. Wednesday could bring another round! MPR chief meteorologist Paul Huttner joins Minnesota Now with details on the aurora and a warmer-than-usual weather forecast.

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives have returned to Washington D.C. to vote on a bill that will end the longest federal government shutdown in history.

Congress has been in stalemate for nearly seven weeks, as neither party could reach an agreement on a spending bill. But in the Senate on Sunday night, seven Democratic and one Independent joined most Republicans to pass the bill.

The House, where Republicans have a majority, will vote on the bill Wednesday night.

U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, a Democrat, is the longest-serving member of Minnesota’s congressional delegation. McCollum said she plans to vote against the bill.

”The more Americans find out what’s in it,” McCollum told MPR News, “it’s not — which Republicans like to call it, a ‘clean CR’ — they’re going to be appalled.”

She joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about the vote. MPR News reached out to Minnesota's Republican representatives in Congress for interviews, but did not receive a response by the time of this conversation.