Minnesota Now

As Minnesota loses daylight and inches closer to winter, there’s a chance the week could end in snow. MPR Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner joined Minnesota Now with the forecast and some weather history. Fifty years ago next week, a storm on Lake Superior sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Voters in Duluth overwhelmingly passed a ballot initiative last night dubbed “Right to Repair.” It’s a first-of-its-kind law in Minnesota that allows tenants to make simple repairs to their rental units and then deduct the cost of those repairs from their rent payment.

The initiative was extremely popular. It won with 69 percent of the votes. MPR News host Nina Moini talked with Chloe Holloway, one of the leaders of the campaign with the organizing group Duluth Tenants.

New preliminary data out from the state shows that the number of fatal drug overdoses in Minnesota decreased by a quarter from 2023 to 2024. It's the second year in a row that overdose deaths dropped in the state, after a nearly 20-year uptick in Minnesota and nationwide.

The rise of sports betting has made it easier to gamble using the phone in your pocket. That’s true even in states like Minnesota, where sports betting is illegal. The situation has some researchers and advocates concerned that more young adults could fall into gambling addiction or debt.  

Those concerns are the topic of a conference in the Twin Cities this Friday, hosted by the Minnesota Alliance on Problem Gambling. Susan Sheridan Tucker is the group’s executive director and Michelle Malkin is an assistant professor from East Carolina University who created tools to help students and counselors recognize when gambling becomes too risky. They joined MPR News host Nina Moini to share more about the impact of sports betting in Minnesota.   

On Friday, the state of Minnesota ended its housing stabilization services program, which was intended to help people with disabilities find and maintain housing using federal Medicaid dollars.  

In August, the Minnesota Department of Human Services announced the state would be ending the housing stabilization program after finding credible allegations of fraud.  Then in September, the Department of Justice charged eight people for their roles in what prosecutors describe as a “massive fraud scheme” tied to the program.  

Now the program is entirely shut down. In Sherburne County, in central Minnesota, that means nearly 200 residents who were receiving services through the housing stabilization services program no longer have access to those resources. What happens to those residents now? Tony Masters, Sherburne County’s Adult and Disability Services manager, joined MPR News host Nina Moini to share how residents have been impacted by the end of the program.

Tuesday is Election Day and polls are open until 8 p.m. across the state. On the ballot, there are a number of municipal races and referendums. Voters in a pair of Minnesota Senate districts have the potential to change party control of a closely divided chamber. 

Perhaps the most closely watched races are for mayor in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Incumbent mayors Jacob Frey of Minneapolis and Melvin Carter of St. Paul are both seeking a third term in office. MPR News reporters Regina Medina and Sarah Thamer were at the polls Tuesday morning and joined MPR News host Nina Moini to share what they were hearing from voters.

Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth has entered the Minnesota governor's race to take on DFL Governor Tim Walz, who is seeking a third-term. We'll hear how her entry changes the race with our politics correspondent Dana Ferguson.

Counties and tribes have mobile crisis response teams, but how many Minnesotans know they exist? We'll learn more about these teams with the new executive director of the mental health organization NAMI Minnesota.

Plus, the number of guns brought onto school grounds has skyrocketed since the pandemic. We'll break that down with two Minnesota Star Tribune reporters who uncovered this data.

Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy returns! We'll learn what's next for the Vikings with sports contributors Wally and Eric.

Our Minnesota Music Minute was “Ocean Swallows Me Whole” by Lutalo and our Song of the Day was “Lakehouse” by Keep for Cheap.

Minnesota United could advance in the playoffs Monday night if they beat the Seattle Sounders. But it will be a difficult away match for the Loons, with Seattle often dominating on home turf.

And the Vikings season took a positive turn, they beat the Detroit Lions 27 to 24 on Sunday.

It was quarterback J.J. McCarthy’s first game back on the field in a while. He sat out the previous five games with an ankle injury. Head coach Kevin O’Connell praised him for how he showed up, especially for an away game.

Minnesota Now sports contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson joined host Nina Moini to talk about those headlines and other Minnesota sports news.

Data from the Minnesota Department of Education shows that the number of guns brought onto school grounds has skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic. That's what Minnesota Star Tribune reporters Mara Klecker and Jeff Hargarten found after looking at the numbers going back a quarter century. The data showed that of all the reports of guns in schools over the last 25 years, 30 percent have happened since 2020.

Klecker and Hargarten joined Minnesota Now to talk about their reporting and how schools are responding to the uptick.

A mental health advocacy group wants you to add a new contact to your phone: your county or tribal mobile crisis response team. These are mental health professionals who go to homes and other places in communities to help people in crisis. They also respond to some calls to 911 and 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

But Minnesota’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, says few people know these teams exist.

Marcus Schmit is the new executive director of NAMI Minnesota. He’s a week into the role. Minnesota Now host Nina Moini spoke to Schmit about the resource of mobile response teams.

If you or a loved one is experiencing a crisis, you can call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also find the number for your local crisis team here.