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Volleyball and track drove Marisa Hall as a student-athlete at Park High School in Cottage Grove. But then she found rugby — a game that matched her competitive nature and her toughness. She was hooked. Playing matches in the Twin Cities, she caught the attention of Lindenwood University in Missouri, one of the country’s top women’s college rugby programs. Hall played on championship teams at Lindenwood and then Scion Rugby, a Washington, D.C.-based squad. She closed the circle this spring, moving back to Minnesota to play in the inaugural season of the TC Gemini, one of six teams in the new Women’s Elite Rugby league.  Hall’s local roots have made her a fan favorite and advocate for a sport increasingly popular with women, one that’s catching some energy now with the rising interest in women’s sports, especially in Minnesota. Rugby “challenges every part of me — mentally, physically and emotionally,” Hall, 27, told MPR News. “It’s a sport that demands grit, resilience and heart and in return gives you a second family and a strength you never knew you had.” Playing at home is “unreal,” Hall said after a recent game. “I played in high school and we had no crowd. Now to have this big crowd and to see my family come out, it means the world to me.”  ‘OK to exist in a bigger body’Mixing elements of football and soccer, rugby’s a pretty straightforward game. In traditional “15s” play, two teams of 15 players each are split into forwards and backs. A match has two 40-minute halves. The goal: advance the ball past an opponent’s side of the field and touch it to the ground for a score of 5 points. Two-point conversions and 3-point penalties can also be scored.  While American kids typically don’t grow up playing rugby, national stars like Olympian Ilona Maher have helped make it part of the conversation. She uses social media to talk about her life as an athlete and about women’s body-image expectations. In a recent social video, she talked about the pressure she has felt from weight-loss ments online. “And here I am with another gentle but firm reminder that it is OK to exist in a bigger body,” she says. “A lot of us are not meant to be small. I’m not meant to be small. This big old frame — I’m supposed to be 200 pounds, which is what I am now. I think we are getting this messaging and this is what’s right and this is what’s beautiful and it’s just not the case.”  Interest in women’s rugby in the United States jumped after Maher’s team beat Australia for the bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. That’s helped bring enthusiastic crowds this spring in the Women’s Elite Rugby league’s inaugural season. The Twin Cities Gemini professional rugby team plays at TCO Stadium in Eagan on May 9.Sam Stroozas | MPR NewsProviding for the fans and hoping they keep coming back is a major goal for the league, said Kathryn “KJ” Johnson, 33, a TC Gemini player and Hopkins native who played rugby for Team USA in the 2016 Olympics.  After the Olympics, she moved back to Minnesota to focus on a career and reconnect with family. She currently lives in Minneapolis and works as a firefighter.  She said she lost her love of the game after working for years so hard on one goal and had to learn how to regrow her ion. When she heard there was going to be a Minnesota team, she jumped at the chance.  It can be hard to balance play and work, but she said her fellow firefighters help her by trading shifts and showing up to cheer her on when they can.  “It’s really hard and really awesome at the same time,” Johnson said about carrying her identity on the field. “Just being able to battle it in front of the guys I battle on the houses with, it’s just a whole different experience being able to show how I am outside of work. I wouldn’t play for any other state.” ‘Something about women’s sports’ Besides TC Gemini, the Women’s Elite Rugby League includes teams in Denver, Chicago, Boston, New York and northern California. Beyond the Olympics-driven growth, Hall, Johnson and others say what’s happening now in rugby is part of a larger wave of interest in women’s professional sports, especially in the Twin Cities.  Statewide, women’s teams have continued to dominate. The Minnesota Frost last year won the inaugural Professional Women’s Hockey League championship and this week won the league’s second championship. Megan Andre, center, reacts as the Lynx score during the second half of the last game of the WNBA finals on Oct. 20, 2024 during a watch party at A Bar of Their Own in Minneapolis.Nicole Neri for MPR NewsThe Lynx, winners of four WNBA championships, went again to the WNBA finals in 2024. In professional soccer, the Minnesota Aurora have won the division championships the last three years and made it to the finals. At a Bar of Their Own, the women’s sports bar in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis, fans can’t get enough. “There’s something about women’s sports, the fandoms, everything — it just feels more welcoming, it’s more fun. It has a whole different vibe, nothing beats it,” said Jesse Hyman, who said he initially got more interested in women’s sports from watching the Frost play hockey. He said he’d never been a big rugby fan but when he heard Minnesota would have a team he knew he had to show up. “It’s been fun convincing my friends to give sports a try and realizing that women’s sports have just so much to offer on a different level.”  Twin Cities Gemini rugby player Marisa Hall with her family after a game on May 9 at TCO Stadium in Eagan.Sam Stroozas | MPR NewsAbbie McMillan, Hall’s sister, says she’s happy to finally get to see her play at the professional level in person and that the players are role models for generations of women to come. “It’s really beautiful getting to see these women compete at a high level and being able to show that off in front of these next generations of girls and letting them know that they can play sports,” she said. “They can play sports that are rough and tough, they don't have to just do cute things.. “They can go out there and use all that they have to be able to compete.” That includes her daughter, 8-year-old Aasyeya Tubbs, who’s spent her spring cheering on Hall and her TC Gemini team and who will no doubt be at TCO Stadium in Eagan Saturday night to watch the second-to-last home game. Aasyeya wanted people to know two things about her auntie: she makes the best cookies, and she was born to play rugby.  The TC Gemini’s record for the season is 2-5. There are two more home games, May 31 at 7 p.m. and June 13 at 7 p.m. The inaugural Women’s Elite Rugby league championship, the Legacy Cup, will be held at TCO Stadium in Eagan on June 29.

Possible layoffs, a return-to-office directive and tense contract negotiations are straining Gov. Tim Walz’s relationship with public sector labor unions that represent thousands of state workers. There has been a notable shift in tone given that Walz has delivered many wins to unions since first being elected governor in 2018. The DFLer signed several worker protection measures into law, like paid sick leave. He signed laws enhancing collective bargaining rights and wage theft protections.  His labor union and own union background — he’s a former school teacher — was a fixture of his unsuccessful bid for vice president last year. “It was you who built the middle class and we know that when unions are strong, America’s strong,” was a Walz refrain during that run. His relationship with public sector unions has fallen on tougher times. Union lashed out at the governor during a virtual town hall this week, with some questioning if they should stand by Walz if he runs for another term in 2026. Walz acknowledged the friction when asked about his standing with public sector unions recently.  “I think management and labor always has a healthy tension,” Walz told Politics Friday on MPR News. “As a longtime labor union member, I hear where they’re coming from. So, I think it’s healthy. I won’t kid you, they’re probably not going to throw a picnic for me.” As governor, Walz is the head of the executive branch of state government. Nearly 90 percent of those employees belong to a public sector union.  The two biggest are the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees and the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 5. Those are the two most vocal unions in voicing frustration with the Walz istration. Labor unions representing public sector workers hold a press conference alongside Minnesota lawmakers. The unions are opposed to DFL Gov. Tim Walz's decision to have public sector workers return to the office 50 percent of their time starting June 1.Clay Masters | MPR NewsBack in March, a handful of mostly DFL lawmakers gathered outside the Capitol with the heads of those unions. They pushed back on the Walz istration's call for state employees to return to the office for at least 50 percent of scheduled workdays starting in June.  “Our labor unions are in a position where they have to fight for something that they’ve already had and just got taken away,” said Rep. Luke Frederick, DFL-Mankato. “They should be working and fighting for better wages, better benefits. But now they’re just trying to hold the ground that they already have.” Union leaders said they were not consulted before the return-to-office announcement. The policy has been slightly amended and more talks have occurred about exceptions and accommodations since the initial plan was rolled out. Remote work became pretty common during the COVID-19 pandemic and some state employees stayed in that format.  In May, unions were back at the Capitol and upset about a Walz deal with legislative leaders that included closure of a prison in Stillwater.  “I find it hard to believe that this chip that was put on the table at the 11th hour wasn't discussed thoroughly before it got put on the table,” said Bart Andersen with AFSCME Council 5. Bart Andersen, executive director of AFSCME Council 5, speaks at a press conference on the steps of the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul, on March 27.Clay Masters | MPR News fileMegan Dayton, president of MAPE, said their relationship with the governor is “not great.” “I think our entire mission as a union, as a union community is to have a seat at the table,” Dayton said. “A call 10 to 15 minutes before a press conference about decisions that are going to impact our lives is not real partnership.” Dayton says she expects better from a major figure in the DFL Party, where the "L" stands for labor. At a lunchtime town hall earlier this week, MAPE vented about difficult contract negotiations on top of it all. They batted around the possibility of job actions —- up to a strike — over changes on the table, including higher employee health care costs. “If he thinks that his Legislature and Minnesota Management and Budget’s mismanagement of our budget is going to be borne on the backs of state workers, I think he should be prepared to lose a few more friends,” said Sean McIntyre when asked by an attendee about the mood toward the governor. Walz responded Thursday to the concern over health care cost shifts, saying nothing is final yet. He said the final contracts will depend in part on how the next budget turns out. “I still continue to value this work force. We continue to, historically, have provided some of the best contracts and the best benefits so that we can maintain that talent,” Walz said. “Those negotiations are separate from this and ongoing. They're tied to it in that operating expenses are part of this budget. So first step here is for us to get this budget done, get it wrapped up.” Minnesota Association of Professional Employees President Megan Dayton talks with of the press at the Minnesota Capitol on May 16.Clay Masters | MPR NewsThings could get even rockier in coming weeks. Layoff notices could go out as soon as this week to prepare for a possible shutdown if the budget isn't finished by the end of June. Walz said that the bulk of those would hit on June 9, although some employees would get them before then. And even with a new budget, some agencies are bracing for layoffs that could stem from tighter finances or federal reductions.

Cows are milked at the Cornell Teaching Dairy Barn at Cornell University on Dec. 11, 2024, in Ithaca, N.Y., shortly after the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a federal order requiring testing of the nation's milk supply amid increasing concerns over avian flu.Michael M. Santiago | Getty ImagesBack in early March, Massachusetts Agriculture Commissioner Ashley Randle sent a letter to the new U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, voicing congratulations — and a number of concerns. Randle, a fifth-generation dairy farmer, shared that USDA's freeze on grants — imposed before Rollins was sworn in — had left Massachusetts farmers in limbo, wondering if they'd ever be reimbursed for investments they'd made based on those grants. She also sounded the alarm on positions that had been cut. "The loss of USDA staff has also left Massachusetts farmers without essential resources that have long been an important part of their success," Randle wrote, pointing to diminished staffing at the local Farm Service Agency office, which helps with loans, insurance and disaster relief. Outside groups sued; a court order later required USDA to reinstate fired employees. But since then, the Trump istration has moved swiftly to "reorient the department to be more effective and efficient at serving the American people," according to a USDA spokesperson. As part of the overhaul, USDA allowed more than 15,000 employees — close to 15% of its workforce — to resign with pay and benefits through September. Those departures have led to new concerns for Randle, including whether the federal government will be able to respond quickly in a crisis. She's been told that many of USDA's Area Veterinarians in Charge, who get the first call whenever a pest or disease is detected on a farm, have resigned, including the one assigned to New England. With avian flu likely to return with the fall bird migration, and other diseases including New World screwworm and African swine fever creeping ever closer to the U.S., Randle knows U.S. farmers and ranchers, along with the U.S. food supply, could be at risk. "Being able to be nimble and respond as quickly as possible in these types of incidents is incredibly important," she told NPR. "It could be challenging." Chickens stand in a henhouse at Sunrise Farms on Feb. 18 in Petaluma, Calif. Egg farmers have invested millions of dollars in biosecurity efforts to keep their flocks safe. Sunrise Farms lost 550,000 chickens to avian flu in December of 2023.Justin Sullivan | Getty ImagesGrowing fears of damage already doneEven as lawsuits challenge President Trump's dismantling of the federal government, there are growing fears among those who work in agriculture that the exodus of thousands of employees from USDA, including more than 1,300 from the agency's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), has left American agriculture vulnerable. "There's no way APHIS can do its job with 1,300 fewer people," says Kevin Shea, a 45-year veteran of USDA who led APHIS for 11 of those years. He retired in January after helping with the presidential transition. Kevin Shea spent 45 years at the USDA, most of that time at APHIS. He retired in January after helping with the presidential transition.Ryan Gary | The SunroomShea notes that over the years, APHIS employees have worked to successfully eradicate or keep at bay pests such as the boll weevil, a beetle that feeds on cotton buds, and New World screwworm, a parasite that burrows into the open wounds of animals. It's recently resurfaced in Mexico. He fears that progress could now be lost, with animal health technicians, epidemiologists, entomologists, wildlife biologists and many who ed them gone. "It'll be very hard to ever rebuild the animal health workforce and the plant health workforce because they've taken away so much of what made government service attractive to those people — stability, security and a sense of public mission," Shea says. He points to disparaging comments made by the Trump istration, including Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, who once said he wanted government bureaucrats to be "traumatically affected," to the point where they wouldn't want to go to work. "When they use rhetoric like that, why would you work for the government if you had another choice?" says Shea. Helping U.S. farms maintain a competitive advantage Given the depletion of key staff at APHIS, Shea presumes there was a lack of understanding among the new political leadership of what the agency does. He also presumes the Trump istration outsourced the reduction of the workforce to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, "who I'm sure have no idea," he says. What he would want them to know is that American agriculture has been relatively free of pests and disease in recent decades thanks in large part to the work of APHIS. And that, in turn, has given the U.S. two important things: a trade advantage in relation to the rest of the world and an abundant, cheap supply of food. It's easy to imagine what it would look like if the U.S. were to lose significant ground on this front. Outbreaks of avian influenza in 2025 alone have resulted in the culling of more than 30 million hens, according to USDA, sending egg prices soaring. Citrus greening disease, caused by a tiny sap-sucking insect from Asia, has already wiped out much of Florida's orange crop. "We're trying to save California," Shea says. "If we don't have a fully functioning APHIS, that's at risk." And now there are concerns that New World screwworm, detected 700 miles away in Mexico, or African swine fever, now endemic in the Dominican Republic, could make their way into the U.S. and cause deadly damage to livestock. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and President Trump attend an event in the East Room of the White House on May 22 in Washington, D.C.Chip Somodevilla | Getty ImagesOn May 11, Rollins suspended imports of live cattle, horses and bison across the southern border to combat the spread of screwworm. Then on Tuesday, she announced a new $21 million investment to fight screwworm in Mexico. "The investment I am announcing today is one of many efforts my team is making around the clock to protect our animals, our farm economy, and the security of our nation's food supply," Rollins said in a statement. Imagining a smaller APHISIn South Dakota, state veterinarian Beth Thompson acknowledges that there are always ways to streamline processes and make things more efficient. Still, she worries about the sheer number of experienced veterinarians, technicians and others who have walked out the door in the span of a few short months. "I'm really hoping that folks have captured what those people with that history and wisdom and knowledge knew," she says. Thompson has heard from her APHIS s that imports and exports and disease response will remain priorities. A USDA spokesperson has said that Rollins will not compromise the department's critical work. But with Trump's determination to shrink the government, Thompson assumes some programs and services will be scaled back. She says APHIS leaders will probably need to assess whether there are diseases they can stop surveilling and devoting resources to, such as scrapie, a fatal, degenerative disease that attacks the central nervous systems of sheep and goats. "We're really, really close to eradicating that disease," says Thompson. "I think that once we get through the next couple of years with that disease, that program can probably step back." At the moment, with employees being shifted around, she says she's still waiting to see what the impact will be. "I don't think we have the final picture in place of how USDA is going to be changed and what that means for the individual farmer or rancher," she says. The USDA spokesperson noted that Rollins had lifted the hiring freeze on more than 50 positions "critical to the safety and security of the American people, our National forests, the inspection and safety of the Nation's agriculture and food supply system." Shea questions why they let so many people go in the first place. "It was just a completely backwards way of doing business," he says. "And now they're trying to backtrack that and try to figure out, gee, these are some things we really should not have done." In Massachusetts, Randle does believe Rollins is listening to concerns she and others have raised. She's hopeful the USDA will take a more surgical approach moving forward, especially given all the other challenges farmers are facing, from climate change to access to labor to trade uncertainties. "To come in and further disrupt the services and resources that farms could access, I think was really unfortunate," says Randle. "I hope it has given some pause to the istration, to be able to look back and ask, how can we best serve our farmers and our food system stakeholders to make sure they are viable going forward?" Copyright 2025, NPR

Opening statements got underway Thursday in Minneapolis in the trial of a man accused of killing five young women in a high-speed crash on Lake Street in 2023. Derrick Thompson, 29, is charged with 15 counts, including third-degree murder and vehicular homicide. Investigators say that on June 16, 2023, Thompson rented a Cadillac Escalade at MSP airport. Around 10 p.m., he was allegedly speeding at more than 100 mph northbound on Interstate 35-W. A state trooper on routine patrol began following Thompson, but the trooper did not activate his squad car’s sirens or lights. Prosecutors contend that Thompson — the son of former DFL State Representative John Thompson — exited the freeway at Lake Street, ran a red light, and crashed the 6,000 pound vehicle into a Honda Civic. Sabiriin Ali, Siham Odhowa, Sagal Hersi, Salma Abdikadir, and Sahra Gesaade, all between the ages of 17 and 20, were killed instantly. The five victims were out getting henna tattoos and buying clothes in preparation for a friend’s wedding. Activists rally to demand an end of high-speed pursuits at the State Capitol in St. Paul, days after Derrick John Thompson, 27, sped through a red light and crashed into a vehicle.Tim Evans for MPR News | 2023In his opening statement, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Joe Paquette said that when Thompson T-boned the Civic, both vehicles flipped end over end. “What resulted isn’t sufficiently described as a crash or a collision. It was an explosion. The Honda Civic was damaged beyond all recognition,” Paquette said. “No one from that vehicle could have survived and no one did.” Paquette played a video of the crash, recorded by a security camera on a building near the intersection. And he said Thompson ran from the scene. Defense attorney Tyler Bliss countered that the state doesn’t have the evidence to prove that Thompson was driving the SUV. In his opening statement, Bliss said video shows multiple doors of the vehicle opening after the crash. He added that the DNA of several people was found inside the Cadillac. “Understand that there are two fundamental questions here: Who is driving the vehicle, and what is his state of mind? Keep your eye on that throughout this trial,” said Bliss. “My client sits here presumed innocent.” Thousands of mourners congregated at Garden of Eden Islamic Cemetery to bury Sabiriin Ali, Sahra Gesaade, Salma Abdikadir, Sagal Hersi and Siham Odhowa.Aaron Nesheim | Sahan Journal 2023Thompson rejected a plea deal that would have resulted in a sentence of 32 to 39 years in prison. In a related case, a federal jury in October convicted Thompson of firearms and drug charges for the cocaine, 2,000 fentanyl pills and gun that police found in the SUV. Sentencing in that case has been delayed pending Thompson’s state trial. Thompson served about half of an eight-year sentence in California after pleading guilty to severely injuring a pedestrian in Montecito in late 2018. The victim in that incident required six surgeries and had to be put into an induced coma. Investigators similarly found large quantities of drugs in Thompson’s crashed vehicle.

Nestled amongst the trees and rolling fields in rural Winnebago is a newly constructed house that is the only one of its kind in the country. Bravo Zulu House is the first sober living environment in the U.S. exclusively for military veterans in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, who also suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. And soon, 12 male veterans will call this place home as they continue their recovery from substance use disorders, while also healing from PTSD. About 300 people gathered outside the home Wednesday for the grand opening, including military veterans and their families, local government officials, mental health and substance use treatment providers, sponsors, donors and others. The goal of Bravo Zulu House is offer more that just a safe harbor, but a tranquil rural sanctuary for veterans striving to overcome addiction and vitally, treat their PTSD. A survey of military veterans by the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs found that veterans diagnosed with both mental health disorders such as PTSD, and substance use disorders had higher rates of suicidal ideation. Mike Feia, U.S. Navy veteran and house manager for Bravo Zulu House says he personally struggled with alcohol substance abuse and depression. What he needed most was brotherhood.Hannah Yang | MPR NewsMike Feia, a U.S. Navy veteran who will be the live-in house manager for Bravo Zulu House, says he understands intimately the challenges of alcoholism and depression. He’s battled both himself. And too often, he says, veterans struggle with these issues alone. But Feia says Bravo Zulu House can be a lifeline for veterans as a place where they can each other in recovery. “My experience with this is that veterans talking to veterans are the only ones that really, truly understand what it’s like to be in those situations, especially a combat situation, only another combat vet will know and understand what that’s like,” Feia said after the ribbon cutting ceremony. Tim Murray, executive director of the sober house, says Bravo Zulu means “job well done” in the military. He says it’s important to now serve veterans who have served their country and suffered because of it, and provide them with a place where they can rebuild their lives. He hopes those who come to live at Bravo Zulu House will eventually leave with the skills and tools to live sober, manage their PTSD, and succeed in both work and family life. In addition to traditional therapies and counseling, residents of Bravo Zulu House will be provided therapy dogs. Each veteran resident and their dog partner will go through “a program tailored and customized to each veteran’s unique situation.” Tim Murray (left), servant leader of Bravo Zulu House, embraces U.S. Army veteran Jack Zimmerman of Mankato, during the grand opening of the first all-veterans sober house dedicated to treating post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse.Hannah Yang | MPR NewsMurray also plans to take careful note of how well this treatment works in hopes of offering and expanding similar services and treatment programs all around the country.  “We really want to serve these first 12 men, do a world class job on that, and then have data that shows that this is an effective alternative or a different way to spend health care dollars, and maybe those who have the money to invest would look at that,” he said. Murray says the mission of Bravo Zulu House is to declare war on PTSD, and he and others involved in its development hope it will become a critical resource in the effort to stem the tide of veteran suicide. The $2.25 million facility is funded mostly by private donations, including some from corporate and institutional sponsors. Therapy and other services are provided in collaboration with Mayo Clinic Health System. Bravo Zulu House is also planning to open a sober house for women in Mankato in late 2026. 

President Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 2 in Washington, D.C.Mark Schiefelbein | APA federal court on Wednesday struck down many of the tariffs President Trump imposed this term, including sweeping worldwide tariffs that unsettled consumers and sent stock markets plummeting. The judgment from the Court of International Trade rules the tariffs Trump imposed on April 2 on most countries are illegal. Trump already moved to temporarily scale those tariffs back to 10 percent. The ruling also strikes down separate tariffs Trump imposed on China, Canada and Mexico, which the istration justified as a reaction to fentanyl trafficking. In their ruling, the court's three-judge wrote that Trump's worldwide tariffs had exceeded his power under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, or IEEPA, which the Trump istration cited in imposing those tariffs. "Because of the Constitution's express allocation of the tariff power to Congress … we do not read IEEPA to delegate an unbounded tariff authority to the President," the court wrote. The White House responded by rejecting the court's authority. "It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency," White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement. "President Trump pledged to put America First, and the istration is committed to using every lever of executive power to address this crisis and restore American Greatness." He did not answer directly when asked if the istration planned to appeal the ruling. IEEPA, the law at the heart of the case, had never been used to impose tariffs until President Trump did so. As the name suggests, the law gives a president broad economic powers during a national emergency. The judgment came in a case brought against the istration by 12 states and five businesses. While the court found Trump had exceeded his authority by imposing broad worldwide tariffs, the three-judge made a different argument in ruling against the fentanyl tariffs. In that case, the court found that the president's argument — that the tariffs will create leverage to get other countries to crack down on drug trade — invalidates the tariffs. Under IEEPA, the judges wrote, a tariff must directly "deal with" the emergency a president cites when imposing the tariff. The fentanyl tariffs do not directly address the drug trade, the judges wrote, but instead merely attempt to create economic pressure within other countries. The three judges were appointed by three separate presidents: Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan and Trump himself. In a statement, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield — one of the state attorneys general who brought the case — celebrated the ruling. "The court's ruling is a victory not just for Oregon, but for working families, small businesses, and everyday Americans," he said. "President Trump's sweeping tariffs were unlawful, reckless, and economically devastating." Copyright 2025, NPR

The H5N1 bird flu virus has been raising fears across the country and has spread into dairy cattle.thianchai sitthikongsak | Moment RF | Getty ImagesThe federal government announced Wednesday that it is canceling a contract to develop a vaccine to protect people against flu viruses that could cause pandemics, including the bird flu virus that's been spreading among dairy cows in the U.S., citing concerns about the safety of the mRNA technology being used. The Department of Health and Human Services said it is terminating a $766 million contract with the vaccine company Moderna to develop an mRNA vaccine to protect people against flu strains with pandemic potential, including the H5N1 bird flu virus that's been raising fears. "After a rigorous review, we concluded that continued investment in Moderna's H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable," HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon said in a statement. "This is not simply about efficacy — it's about safety, integrity, and trust. The reality is that mRNA technology remains under-tested, and we are not going to spend taxpayer dollars repeating the mistakes of the last istration, which concealed legitimate safety concerns from the public," Nixon said. He added that "the move signals a shift in federal vaccine funding priorities toward platforms with better-established safety profiles and transparent data practices. HHS remains committed to advancing pandemic preparedness through technologies that are evidence-based, ethically grounded, and publicly able." The official did not provide any additional details. Jennifer Nuzzo, the director of Brown University's Pandemic Center, said the decision was "disappointing, but unsurprising given the politically-motivated, evidence-free rhetoric that tries to paint mRNA vaccines as being dangerous." "While there are other means of making flu vaccines in a pandemic, they are slower and some rely on eggs, which may be in short supply," Nuzzo added in an email. "What we learned clearly during the last influenza pandemic is there are only a few companies in the world that make flu vaccines, which means in a pandemic there won't be enough to go around. If the U.S. wants to make sure it can get enough vaccines for every American who wants them during a pandemic, it should invest in multiple types of vaccines instead of putting all of our eggs in one basket." The cancellation comes even though Moderna says a study involving 300 healthy adults had produced "positive interim" results and the company "had previously expected to advance the program to late-stage development." "While the termination of funding from HHS adds uncertainty, we are pleased by the robust immune response and safety profile observed in this interim analysis of the Phase 1/2 study of our H5 avian flu vaccine and we will explore alternative paths forward for the program," Stéphane Bancel, Moderna's chief executive officer, said in a statement. "These clinical data in pandemic influenza underscore the critical role mRNA technology has played as a countermeasure to emerging health threats." The istration's move drew sharp criticism from outside experts. "This decision puts the lives and health of the American people at risk," said Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown School of Public Health, who served as President Biden's COVID-19 response coordinator. "Bird Flu is a well known threat and the virus has continued to evolve. If the virus develops the ability to spread from person to person, we could see a large number of people get sick and die from this infection," Jha said. "The program to develop the next generation of vaccines was essential to protecting Americans. The attack by the istration on the mRNA vaccine platform is absurd." Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, agreed. "This decision will make our country far less prepared to respond to the next influenza pandemic," he said in an email. "This is a dangerous course to follow." According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the H5N1 flu virus has spread to 41 dairy herds and 24 poultry farms and culling operations, and caused 70 human cases. While the virus has had a high mortality rate in other countries, so far H5N1 has only caused one death in the U.S. and has not shown any signs of spreading easily from one person to another. But infectious disease experts are concerned that the more the virus spreads, the greater the chance it could mutate into a form that would spread from person to person, which would increase the risk of a pandemic. Copyright 2025, NPR

Minnesota Frost fans gathered in St. Paul Wednesday to celebrate the Professional Women’s Hockey League team’s second championship win in two years. The Frost is the only team to win the Walter Cup in the young league’s first two years. They defeated the Ottawa Charge Monday night, winning Game 4 in St. Paul in the best-of-five PWHL Finals. Last year, Minnesota won on the road against Boston, so this year’s win at home was even sweeter for the players and fans. Fullscreen SlideshowPrevious Slide7 of 7Minnesota Frost players watch season highlights as they celebrate winning the Walter Cup Championship at the Xcel Energy Center.Tim Evans for MPR News1 of 7Minnesota Frost forward Kelly Pannek hoists the Walter Cup alongside her teammates outside the RiverCentre.Tim Evans for MPR News2 of 7Minnesota Frost forward Kendall Coyne Schofield speaks on stage during a celebration honoring the team’s second consecutive PWHL title.Tim Evans for MPR NewsNext Slide“It’s just so fun having your friends and family on the ice and celebrate with you. I mean, that's kind of the team behind the team, right? So we don't get here without the people that are behind us, that are on the ice with us, celebrating now,” Frost forward Kelly Pannek said Monday. “So it just makes it really special. And I always think it’s fun being able to be on the road too, and it’s just your team. So now that we’ve had both experiences, it’s pretty nice,” she said. Cyrus Carlson, 17, was at the event. He and his dad came to St. Paul from Lindstrom to celebrate the Frost. “They don’t let me down,” Carlson said. “They’re just an amazing team.” The win is bittersweet though, as the team prepares to lose players in the expansion draft. Each of the six inaugural PWHL teams will relinquish four players from their roster, according to the league’s recently announced expansion draft rules. The changes to the team’s roster didn’t stop players and fans from celebrating the win on Wednesday, with a parade, speeches, music, games, photo opportunities and more. Fullscreen SlideshowPrevious Slide6 of 6Minnesota Frost head coach Ken Klee speaks on stage as the team celebrates winning the Walter Cup Championship.Tim Evans for MPR News1 of 6Minnesota Frost fans Cyrus and Jerry Carlson pose for a portrait at the Xcel Energy Center.Tim Evans for MPR News2 of 6Minnesota Frost fan Anna Franco, 14, poses for a portrait.Tim Evans for MPR NewsNext Slide

Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan Tate talk to the media outside their residence on March 23, in Bucharest, Romania.Andrei Pungovschi | Getty ImagesBritish prosecutors have confirmed that Andrew and Tristan Tate face 21 criminal charges in total, that include rape, assault and human trafficking. It's the first time that Britain's Crown Prosecution has revealed the detailed charges, that it first authorized last year after a police service in Bedfordshire — north of London — provided it with a file of allegations dating back to a period between 2012 and 2015. The two British American brothers will face the charges once they are extradited back to the U.K. from Romania, where they currently live. But their extradition is still pending because they are still involved in separate criminal proceedings in Romania. They involve allegations of having formed a criminal gang to exploit women. Andrew Tate, 38, a former kickboxing champion turned self-styled misogynist influencer, is accused of 10 offenses tied to 3 alleged victims. The charges include rape, human trafficking, a form of assault known under British law as "actual bodily harm," and a type of prostitution for financial gain. His younger brother Tristan, 36, has been charged with 11 offenses, including rape and trafficking, that are tied to a single alleged victim. A European arrest warrant has already been issued and approved by the courts in Romania, but a travel ban on the Tates was lifted recently, allowing them to fly to Florida via private jet in February, before returning to the Romanian capital of Bucharest in March. The brothers, known for their extravagant lifestyle and controversial online personas, both deny all charges. Andrew Tate boasts a following of 10 million s on the X social media platform and has earned a reputation for posting about masculinity, self-discipline and his amassing of wealth. Many of his followers are schoolboys — something that has sparked concern among educators worldwide. Authorities in Romania first arrested the Tates in December 2022 during investigations into an alleged sex trafficking operation. The pair spent months under house arrest before fresh accusations were introduced in 2024 of sex with a minor and trafficking underage persons. They have repeatedly denied all allegations. The Tates have promised to fight the charges in Britain and Romania, publicly declaring their intent to prove their innocence in both jurisdictions. In the meantime, four other women in the U.K. have continued with a separate lawsuit against Andrew Tate, accusing him in a civil proceeding of having raped and physically abused them, and insisting police and prosecutors had failed them by declining to pursue criminal charges several years ago. The British prosecutors have been at pains to remind the public that the brothers remain innocent until proven guilty. "Criminal proceedings are active, and the defendants have the right to a fair trial," said a spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service. Copyright 2025, NPR

Move over, Lucky Charms — new “healthier” cereals are seeing sales surge while big-name cereals from companies like General Mills are seeing profit margins shrink as consumers move away from sugary, highly-processed foods. Brooks Johnson reported on the trends for the Minnesota Star Tribune. He shared more about them on this week’s Appetites. To hear the conversation, use the audio player above.

From MPR News, Art Hounds are of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the original submission. A path to healingRuth Sloven is a St. Paul-based artist. She recommends the group exhibition “WITNESS עֵד,” a group art show by Jewish artists for Palestinian liberation, at Modus Locus in Minneapolis. Ruth says: This exhibit includes ceramics, sculpture, community, quilting, painting and video. Many of the works are traditional Jewish subjects, which have been repurposed in non-traditional ways. What I’m excited about is that it’s a doorway into experiencing and expressing the grief about the destructive war in Israel and Gaza, and hopefully can be part of a path to healing. — Ruth Sloven Stop, collaborate and listenJoseph “JoJo” Howsley is a music enthusiast based in Fargo. He recommends a showcase by Human Artistic Collaborations on Saturday, May 31, starting at 6 p.m. at Brühaven in Minneapolis. Joseph says: I met Kyle Crouse last weekend. He is the head of Human Artistic Collaborations, whose aim is primarily to champion human-led art in a space that's constantly being inundated by artificial intelligence. They’re doing an event with one of my favorite producers in the scene. His name is Deerskin, and they have over, I believe he said, 12 artists who will be showcasing and selling their art. — JoJo Joseph Housley Vinora Epp (left) and Steven Epp in "ORLANDO: A Rhapsody."Courtesy of Arin Sang-UraiEpp squaredKari Olk is a Brooklyn-based teaching artist who grew up in Minneapolis. She recommends “Orlando: A Rhapsody,” playing at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis through June 8. Carrie says: “ORLANDO: A Rhapsody” by Vinora Epp and Steven Epp is a thoughtful reflection about art, gender, storytelling. It’s both based on Virginia Woolf — a few of her writings: “The Waves,” “A Room of One's Own” and, of course, “Orlando” — and it’s also combined with writing from Vinora and Steve. To see them working together is really special. And so it’s really exciting to see her directorial debut, and it’s really exciting that she’s doing this work with her dad, Steve. The story of “Orlando” is a story about a person who, over 300 years, goes back and forth between being a young woman and a young man, and they both perform as Orlando, and they both perform as versions of themselves. — Carrie Olk

The CDC team responsible for aggregating and disseminating best practices around contraception has been cut.Liudmila Chernetska/iStockphoto/Getty ImagesTo most people, the eight-person team was indistinguishable from the hundreds of other scientists and researchers cut in April during the mass firings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But for many clinicians who specialize in women's health, losing the team responsible for the CDC's contraception guidelines was a devastating blow to women's health. " I just feeling like — of all the things — I think contraception shouldn't be controversial," says Dr. Angeline Ti, a family physician in the Atlanta, Georgia area who specializes in reproductive healthcare. The team was responsible for aggregating and disseminating best practices around contraception in a set of guidelines called U.S. Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use. "I knew that things were gonna happen at CDC, but I thought that these guidelines were so important," says Ti. She says she uses the guidelines "pretty much every time" she sees a patient for contraceptive care. Other doctors describe feeling equally shocked. "I mean, there is no other resource that is doing this," says Dr. Andrea Braden, an obstetrician in Atlanta, Georgia. "All the OB-GYN's use it." Representatives from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Trump istration did not explain why the CDC team was cut. It was eliminated in April as part of the reduction of the Women's Health and Fertility Branch of the Division of Reproductive Health. NPR reached out to HHS for comment on this story, but did not receive a response.  An indispensable appBusy doctors who are seeing many patients, says Braden, simply do not have time to comb through all the latest medical research. So, the CDC team made recommendations available in an app that doctors could and easily reference with questions about contraception, including how to navigate the topic for patients with specific conditions and diseases. It was ed 440,000 times, according to the CDC. "The app was just a game changer for us," says Braden. "That was very clearly organized, really easy to digest, and it was such a nice quick reference for us. It was a resource that we all trusted intuitively." The current guidelines are still accessible, while the team charged with updating them no longer exists. Doctors caution that even though the recommendations were issued relatively recently, without careful monitoring they will soon be out of date. " Medicine is not static," says Dr. Deva Sharma, a hematologist who said the guidelines are a critical part of her medical practice. "It's constantly evolving and improving." The team issued guidelines most recently in 2024. One example of a change that Braden says had a significant impact on her conversations with her patients is around recommendations for breastfeeding mothers using birth control. The new guidelines for the first time acknowledged that some contraception can jeopardize milk supply in nursing mothers. This update, she says, represented a sea change in a way of thinking about the importance of empowering patients to make their own decisions about breastfeeding. " That was such an important aspect of the update," says Braden. "It helped us guide our practice, rather than tell people what they need after they have a baby. It really put the patient at the center of the conversation." For some patients and doctors dealing with specific conditions, conversations about contraception can be matters of life or death. Sharma specializes in treating women with Sickle Cell disease — an inherited red blood cell disorder — which puts patients at a much greater risk of life threatening complications in pregnancy than people without the disease. Sharma calls the termination of the CDC team "detrimental to women's health," and also recalls vividly the moment she found out when a colleague sent her a message. "I just feeling overwhelmed and devastated," says Sharma. In the recent guidelines, the CDC team changed recommendations for women with Sickle Cell Disease, which already puts patients at increased risk for blood clots. Doctors who treat this disease say they now rarely prescribe certain forms of contraception to their patients due to new evidence suggesting these kinds of treatments can create an even greater risk. Braden says she is still feeling confused as to why such a valuable resource was eliminated. " I don't understand," she says "Why them? Why this sector of medicine? This is a waste." She warns that doctors will not be able to compensate for the medical updates that this guide provides. " Medicine changes so quickly and it is very difficult to keep up with all of it," she warns. "New data comes out — new research comes out — and we find out that there's a better way to do things. Contraceptive medicine is no different from that." Missing treatment options are hard to measure Many patients will not necessarily know about medical updates they do not benefit from, but Teonna Woolford is one patient who does understand the utility of the CDC's guidelines around contraception. Born with Sickle Cell Disease, Woolford started a nonprofit, Sickle Cell Reproductive Education Directive, that advocates for patients like herself. Woolford says the disease is often characterized by uncertainty and difficulty in making hard decisions around treatment. "Having the guidelines was really like a proactive approach to addressing contraception," says Woolford. "There are a lot of knowledge and research gaps on this subject." Sickle Cell Disease disproportionately affects people of color, a group that Woolford notes has not historically enjoyed parity in reproductive justice. "The removal of the CDC team to me just reminds me of darker times in our history when people of color were oppressed," she says. Black women in the United States have disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality. Dr. Braden sees the team's elimination as a setback to women everywhere. "It really hurts those of us in women's health — to target something like contraceptives." says Braden. "This is basic healthcare for OBGYNs and it was really defeating. I would say I felt angry and sad and confused." She and other doctors point out that many people in the U.S. can no longer legally terminate pregnancy. They say that makes it especially important for them to be able to make an informed choice about the best ways to prevent becoming pregnant in the first place. " Bodily autonomy has been taken away from women in various states," says Dr. Sharma, who practices in Tennessee — a state with strict abortion laws. "We've slashed people's rights to make decisions," she says. "Now we're taking away evidence-based recommendations." Copyright 2025, NPR

More than three years after a family of four from India froze to death while trying to enter the U.S. along a remote stretch of the Canadian border in a blizzard, two men convicted in an international human smuggling plot were given prison sentences in Minnesota on Wednesday. Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel was sentenced to 10 years in prison and Steve Anthony Shand, the driver who was supposed to transport the family to Chicago, got 6 1/2 years. “The crime in many respects is extraordinary because it did result in the unimaginable death of four individuals, including two children,” U.S. District Judge John Tunheim said. “These were deaths that were clearly avoidable.” Defense attorney Thomas Leinenweber told the court before sentencing that Patel maintains his innocence and argued he was no more than a “low man on the totem pole.” He asked for time served, 18 months. But acting U.S. Attorney Lisa Kirkpatrick said Patel exploited the migrants’ hopes for a better life in America, out of his own greed. “We should make no mistake, it was the defendant’s greed that set in motion the facts that bring us here today,” she said. Patel, in an orange uniform and handcuffed, declined to address the court. He is likely to be deported to his native India after completing his sentence. He cooperated as marshals handcuffed him and led him from the courtroom. The judge handed down the sentence at the federal courthouse in the northwestern Minnesota city of Fergus Falls, where the two men were tried and convicted on four counts apiece last November. Tunheim declined last month to set aside the guilty verdicts, writing, “This was not a close case.” Sentences fall short of prosecutors’ recommendationsThe sentences fell short of the nearly 20-year prison term federal prosecutors had recommended for Patel and nearly 11 years recommended for Shand.  “It certainly would seem that the defense got a result closer to what they wanted than the prosecution did,” said Mark Osler, a former federal and state prosecutor who now teaches law at the University of St. Thomas. “In a case like this, where you’ve got death involved, you’re very often going to have prosecutors pushing upward based on the facts at hand.” Osler was not surprised, however, by the smaller-than-recommended gap between the two mens’ sentences. “It’s a lot easier to cast Patel as a ringleader than Mr. Shand, who had a specific role, being the driver,” he said. “But they’re both important roles in a case like this.” Osler noted there were other smugglers involved who weren’t charged and remain at large.  “This is something that is the nature of this kind of crime is that there’s cooperation by people literally around the globe that work in cooperation,” he said. The smuggling operationProsecutors said during the trial that Patel, an Indian national who they say went by the alias “Dirty Harry,” and Shand, a U.S. citizen from Florida, were part of a sophisticated illegal operation that brought dozens of people from India to Canada on student visas and then smuggled them across the U.S. border. They said the victims, Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son, Dharmik, froze to death. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police found their bodies just north of the border between Manitoba and Minnesota on Jan. 19, 2022. The family was from Dingucha, a village in the western Indian state of Gujarat, as was Harshkumar Patel. Patel is a common Indian surname, and the victims were not related to the defendant. The couple were schoolteachers, local news reports said. So many villagers have gone overseas in hopes of better lives — legally and otherwise — that many homes there stand vacant. Harsh blizzard conditionsThe father died while trying to shield Dharmik's face from a “blistering wind” with a frozen glove, prosecutor Michael McBride wrote. Vihangi was wearing “ill-fitting boots and gloves.” Their mother “died slumped against a chain-link fence she must have thought salvation lay behind,” McBride wrote. A nearby weather station recorded the wind chill that morning at -36 Fahrenheit (-38 Celsius). Seven other of their group survived the foot crossing, but only two made it to Shand's van, which was stuck in the snow on the Minnesota side. One woman who survived had to be flown to a hospital with severe frostbite and hypothermia. Another survivor testified he had never seen snow before arriving in Canada. What prosecutors say“Mr. Patel has never shown an ounce of remorse. Even today, he continues to deny he is the ‘Dirty Harry’ that worked with Mr. Shand on this smuggling venture — despite substantial evidence to the contrary and counsel for his co-defendant identifying him as such at trial,” McBride wrote. The smugglers put money before the lost migrants' safety, McBride argued. “Even as this family wandered through the blizzard at 1:00 AM, searching for Mr. Shand’s van, Mr. Shand was focused on one thing, which he texted Mr. Patel: ‘we not losing any money,’” McBride wrote. “Worse, when Customs and Border Patrol arrested Mr. Shand sitting in a mostly unoccupied 15-enger van, he denied others were out in the snow — leaving them to freeze without aid.” What defense attorneys sayPatel’s attorneys did request a government-paid attorney for his planned appeal. Patel has been jailed since his arrest at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago in February 2024 and claimed in a filing to have no income and no assets. “He is in a country where he is not a citizen, and he still will be afforded all the rights of an American citizen to appeal this,” said lawyer Tom Leinenweber. Shand's attorney, federal defender Aaron Morrison, acknowledged that Shand has “a level of culpability” but argued that his role was limited — that he was just a taxi driver who needed money to his wife and six children. “Mr. Shand was on the outside of the conspiracy, he did not plan the smuggling operation, he did not have decision making authority, and he did not reap the huge financial benefits as the real conspirators did,” Morrison wrote.

Crystal Johnson teaches regularly in her social studies classes about George Floyd’s murder and the protests that followed. She includes Floyd in her lessons on the Civil Rights movement. Her students want to talk about it. Some in her class at Park Center High School in Brooklyn Park were in middle school when Minneapolis police killed Floyd while arresting and subduing him on a street corner in May 2020. They ed protests. Some had ties to Floyd’s family. “It is a recent event that’s happened here in our proximity,” said Johnson. “So it is important for our students to learn about it and to learn about larger movements and how this is one piece of a larger puzzle that is ongoing here in our country.” Johnson, though, remains an outlier when it comes to bringing Floyd’s killing into Minnesota classrooms. While Minneapolis stood at the epicenter of American history after Floyd’s killing, it’s rare to find it taught in the state’s schools.  Many of Johnson’s peers around the state won’t touch the subject. Some educators and s say it’s too politically charged to tackle, and they fear a public backlash. “Everybody is scared, and I don’t care if they have been teaching for 30 years or if they’ve been teaching for three weeks, no one is sure what they can say,” said Walter Greason, a history professor at Macalester College who serves on the Minnesota Council for the Social Studies, develops curriculum resources and trains teachers.  Greason believes the Trump istration’s executive orders to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs from school and its attempts to defund federal library and museum funding amount to an “assault to discourage people from having free expression and open inquiry.”  “Folks are right to kind of be cautious and to find ways that they (can) talk to their principals and their superintendents and their school boards about what the best guidance is, what the best steps forward are,” he added.  of Students Organized for Anti-Racism (SOAR) take part in a George Floyd anniversary event in at St. Louis Park High School. The event, led by students, allowed youth discuss how George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent racial justice protests have impacted their lives.Tim Evans for MPR News | 2023Several educators MPR News spoke to in recent weeks said they were continuing to teach about systemic racism and George Floyd’s murder and to apply diversity, equity and inclusion work in their schools — but they didn’t want their names used, saying they were afraid of the scrutiny or of losing their jobs in the current political climate. Johnson’s district, the Osseo Area Schools, took a bold step two months after Floyd’s killing when its board approved a resolution on Floyd, affirming the need to “teach the experiences, honor the history and highlight the contributions of Black people.”  The district, though, recently turned down a request by MPR News to sit in on one of Johnson’s lessons on Floyd, saying “this topic isn't currently a district or state curriculum requirement.” ‘A shift in the pressure’Political polarization is partly to blame for the hesitancy and fear teachers might be feeling now around the teaching of what happened to George Floyd, said Michael Lansing, a historian at Augsburg University who’s written extensively on the history of the Minneapolis Police Department and its treatment of people of color.  Despite extensive video evidence and a criminal trial that ended with Chauvin convicted of murder, there are narratives that doubt what happened to Floyd, making it even more difficult for social studies teachers to bring the topic into classrooms, he said. “We now have competing stories around what happened in 2020,” Lansing said. “If we’re having debates about what happened in May and June of 2020, let alone the innumerable instances of, say, police brutality that happened in the many decades before that in Minneapolis and elsewhere — if we are telling different kinds of stories about the movement making that has been working for decades to resist police brutality or transform policing to create a broader and actual public safety … that also intensifies the stakes” for social studies teachers. People listen in the audience as students Grace Kanyinku, Amal Abdi, Ezra Hudson and Evan Nelson lead a conversation about race and processing the last year at St. Louis Park High School on the one-year anniversary of George Floyd's murder.Nicole Neri for MPR News | 2021Observers say tensions have been converging in recent months — attacks on school diversity initiatives along with calls for Trump to pardon Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis officer convicted of murdering Floyd, and the Trump istration’s decision to dismiss its Floyd-driven case against Minneapolis that would have ordered changes in policing. “There is not a shift in what we believe in or what we are working on. There is a shift in the pressure that comes from various directions around that work,” said LeeAnn Kampfe, a principal on special assignment in the St. Louis Park schools who’s worked for years on student equity issues students.  Kampfe said St. Louis Park school leaders in recent months have received an uptick in requests to remove things like “signage in buildings that’s representative of the rights of different groups.” The school leaders she’s in with have listened carefully to those requests, but declined to remove the signs.   She said she wants school leaders to listen to concerns but that the district won’t retreat on subjects connected to people’s civil rights.  “We already acknowledged years ago that that was not OK,” Kampfe said. “If you think that things aren't going the way that they should, by all means, speak up, but, please, come with a solution that does not involve us returning to what we know was wrong.” ‘Always a political job’Floyd’s killing is not part of Minnesota’s recently revised social studies standards, so the state does not require it to be taught, leaving it to teachers and school district leaders to make the call. The Minnesota Historical Society often works with state teachers to develop curriculum around the state’s history, but its education and curriculum development team hasn’t received specific requests for topics related to George Floyd’s murder, and it is not an area they are currently focused on, said MNHS spokesperson Nick Jungheim. Some students who were active in police protests following Floyd’s killing have taken a different view on teaching about Floyd. 2021Thousands of Minnesota students walk out of school to protest racial injustice 2023Floyd’s death shaped how these students look at their lives 2023Prior Lake High students find voice, power in wake of Twin Cities racial turmoil As a St. Paul student, Jerome Richardson helped organize walkouts against racism, police brutality and gun violence involving thousands of middle and high school students across Minnesota. He’s now an undergraduate at Temple University in Philadelphia. He also offers consulting work to nonprofits and trains current high school students who want to organize their own protests. In talking to those students, he hears some of the energy behind student protests following Floyd’s murder has faded. “I’ve literally had conversations with young people recently,” Richardson said. “They’re like, ‘Yeah, we tried to do a walkout recently, but it just didn’t work. Like people wasn’t getting on board, people were scared, people, people didn’t know what time we were going to do it at,’” And so I’m like, ‘Oh Lord, it looks like y’all need another training,’”    Former Minnesota Teen Activists director Jerome Richardson pauses between speeches during a press conference in Minneapolis.Ben Hovland | MPR News 2023Johnson, the Park Center High School teacher, also serves on the Minnesota Council for the Social Studies and often speaks with other social studies teachers across the state. She said many districts simply don’t bring up George Floyd’s murder in the classroom.  “Now is one of those times just with some of the anti-DEI rhetoric reinforced by the government,” she said. “You don’t feel as safe talking about topics of, you know, systemic racism.” She said she believes there’s room to approach the topic of Floyd’s killing in a way that inspires good-faith discussions. “In some communities where there’s perhaps discussion of, you know, Blue Lives Matter versus Black Lives Matter, these community case-by-case basis becomes a little bit more uncomfortable. How do we have those conversations?” she said.  “I do think having some more widespread materials and more widespread training and guidance for teachers might make them a little bit more comfortable to have these conversations.” Johnson said she feels confident her district s her approach to teaching social studies in the classroom, including her lessons on George Floyd, but knows not every teacher in Minnesota feels the same way.  “Being a social studies teacher,” she said, “It always is a political job, because we teach about government, we teach about current events, we teach about history. And it doesn’t always feel like a safe place to do so when so much of what we do comes under scrutiny.”

After 39 years of gracing Minnesota Public Radio’s airwaves, Perry Finelli will present his last newscast Wednesday evening. The veteran broadcaster is retiring after five decades in the business. Finelli ed Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer for an exit interview. Listen to their conversation spanning Finelli’s start in radio during high school, intense days like the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and what motivated him to stay in news despite its challenges. The following has been lightly edited for clarity and length. 39 years at MPR, but 50 in the business. How did you get started? I grew up in Princeton, Minn. A little town north of here. My father was a teacher, but he was the sports director for the local radio station. And I had an in, and he got me a job as a part-time disc jockey, news guy — and I did all that back when I was still in high school until I went off to college. And it was a great way to start because it felt like when I got to St. Cloud State University I was ahead of the game, because I had actually done real-life reporting, and newscasting and disc jockeying. You learn a lot of theory in college, but I felt like I already knew most of it. So I thought, hey, this is great. It’s been just about 50 years of doing this and it’s been wonderful. Small-town radio stations were the backbone of a community It was. You did everything, you really did. You changed the tape in the old Associated Press wire services. And I feel like it’s kind of real radio, grassroots radio. These days it’s harder to find but it’s a great way to start. However, you started in TV, not radio out of college. What made you switch? It was a great experience. Wanted to do something different and was looking to get back to Minnesota. And there was a little ad in the St. Cloud Times advertising for an MPR reporter, and I gave them a call, checked it out. 39 years later, here I am. In this newspaper clipping from 1985, Perry Finelli and KIMT News celebrate their new TV set.Photo courtesy of Newspapers.comWould you say your heart is in radio?Yes. I mean, it was tough. I enjoy them both. They’re different. With TV, you work with a lot of other people to put on a show, whereas in radio a lot of the time you’re individual. But they’re very similar. Broadcasting is broadcasting. Writing is writing. The talent it takes to do that is pretty much the same. I don’t think there was one I preferred over the other. They both just fit. There’ve been huge technological changes in broadcasting. I think we both know that it’s easier today because of the technology. That splicing you had to do. You took old carts and had to record the AP cuts. It was a lot more labor-intensive. But broadcasting at its core is still the same. It’s about the writing, it’s about the delivering, it’s about the connection. Tell me about filling in on Morning Edition on Sept. 11, 2001.I just , at first, everybody else had the TVs and you saw that there was something happening. I think at first we thought there was a fire in a restaurant or something. We had no idea of the magnitude of that day. You didn’t know what was happening. You had to go from scratch. We had a colleague here whose daughter was working in New York, and he said, “Well I can get a hold of her.” And we talked to her and got this eyewitness of the very, very early stages. But it was chaotic. You just kind of go with what you know. It was a day, like for so many people, that you never forget. Meet the MPR News newscasters Meet the MPR News newscasters How affected are you by bad news? People ask me that a lot. I think I’m fortunate that it doesn’t really bother me. You have to plow forward. The audience expects you to be on top of the story. They want the information and they’re going to process it in their own way. So I don’t think you really have time to process it yourself. Sure, I think about things in my downtime, but I never felt like it really bothered me too much. It’s part of your job. It’s not all doom and gloom. What was the most fun part of the job for you? I did some reporting early on, and of course it was fun to get out and meet people and do the fun stories, do the hard news. I’ve always been most comfortable in the studio being the person that collates all the news. I like to take kind of a big picture on what’s happening. I’m a news junkie, so I like to know a little bit of things about a lot. Fast-breaking news, thinking on your feet, I think people who are working hard news, fast news, it’s part of the game. The job gives you a front-row seat to life. It’s been very rewarding. It’s hard to think about not doing it. I’ll always be a news junkie. There’s no doubt about that. Following the news has just been something I’ve always done, always wanted to do. A lot of my downtime is just spent on scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, seeing what’s going on around there. I don’t know if you really ever stop doing it. Perry Finelli Perry Finelli in his 20sMPR News

This year marks 50 years of Hmong refugee resettlement and immigration to Minnesota. MPR News will feature Hmong Minnesotans in a variety of careers through the month of May as part of our “ChangeMakers” series. This series highlights Minnesotans from diverse and often underrepresented backgrounds who are making an impact.  Painter and politician Cy Thao was born in Laos in 1972. After the United States military left Vietnam, his family lived in a Thai refugee camp for five years, then immigrated to Minnesota in 1980. He was among the first generation of Hmong people to grow up in the state. Thao is a painter best known for his project called the Hmong Migration, a collection of 50 paintings documenting 5,000 years of Hmong history, from life in southern China, to alignment with the U.S. during the Vietnam War, to resettlement in the U.S. His goal was to educate younger generations of Hmong Americans about where they came from and help others understand the story of the Hmong people. The collection was featured in the Minneapolis Institute of Art. 2004 interview with MPR NewsArtist chronicles the Hmong migration For eight years, Thao also served St. Paul as a lawmaker in the Minnesota House of Representatives. His election in 2002 made him the second Hmong American lawmaker to serve in a state legislature anywhere in the country. Another Minnesota lawmaker, Sen. Mee Moua, DFL-St. Paul, was the first. She was elected to the Minnesota Senate during a special election earlier in 2002. Minnesota Now producer Ellie Roth spoke to Thao about the path he helped carve for Hmong politicians in Minnesota and the pressure that comes with being a “first.” You were elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2002 and served until 2011. What type of responsibility did you feel to the Hmong community here in Minnesota, as one of the first Hmong lawmakers in the country?If you understand our community, we’ve been oppressed almost everywhere, every country we’ve been to. This was the first time in the history of our people where we’re given the full opportunity to run for office openly. A lot of people were really, really excited that America had kind of accepted us, allowing us to be part of the institution and to be lawmakers. It boosts our self-esteem and allows us to say, “Yeah, we’re American just as much as anybody.” I mean, you don’t get more American than being part of an American institution like the Legislature. Painting by Cy ThaoCourtesy Cy ThaoThere are currently more than a half dozen Hmong American lawmakers serving in the Legislature. Do you ever reflect on the path that you carved for the Hmong communities, specifically in politics here in Minnesota?I think there’s some momentum for them, and I think it allowed them to dream big. You know, as the first guy to be in the House, I always had to be extra, extra careful of what I say or do, because the last thing I want to do is look incompetent. If people think that, “Oh my god, these Hmong guys are incompetent. They come in, they don’t know what they’re doing, can’t laws, don’t understand.” That’s all I was thinking for those eight years. I didn’t want the next Hmong person to have to answer that question. Now that we’ve been here more than 50 years, I don’t think we feel like that anymore. We kind of graduate to that point of not even questioning qualification anymore. I think at a point in our history that was a big deal. We’re nearing the 50th anniversary of Hmong people being in Minnesota. How are you reflecting on this moment in time?When you say 50 years, that’s a really long time. But it doesn’t feel that long for a guy like me, who kind of went through the whole thing, but it is long. I think, the transformation of the community when my parents first came, they worry that they don’t speak enough English to get a job. Now my daughters, they don’t speak one word of Hmong. And for sure, my grandkids, they probably can’t find Laos on the map. Former Minnesota Representative Cy Thao poses for a portrait at his home in Bradenton, Fla. Octovio Jones for MPR NewsIt’s kind of sad, but in a way that’s just kind of the history of America anyway. It doesn’t matter which group, who comes from where, I think the minute you step foot in America, you’re going through this transformation. And your community will have a hard time at the beginning, but eventually they’ll find their footing. And then once they find their footing, they’ll start doing amazing stuff. Then eventually they won’t even be Hmong, they’re just gonna be Americans. One day, eventually, I don’t think they’re even gonna say, “I’m Hmong American.” They’re just gonna say, “Yeah, I was born in America. I’m American. My ancestor came from here.” That’s no different than anyone else. We’re just like one little blurb in that whole story of America now.

After plowing through two deadlines — one constitutionally required for session adjournment and another for an aspirational pre-Memorial Day finish to budget work — lawmakers are setting a new target to complete a $66 billion budget. It likely isn’t early enough to prevent thousands of furlough notices from going out to state workers starting June 1 — this coming Sunday. The letters would warn of possible layoffs that would result if the Minnesota Legislature can’t remaining pieces of the state budget before July.  Legislative leaders and the governor are hopeful they can avoid that worst-case scenario. “June 1 does matter, because we are obligated, by law, with our contracts, to send out those, those furlough notices, those layoff notices,” Gov. Tim Walz said May 23 on the MPR News Politics Friday show. “I know we have a close Legislature. We have just a couple things to button up.” State employee contracts require 30 days notice “whenever practicable” to employees who might get let go. Those who work for agencies and on programs that haven’t been funded yet are at risk. A few budget bills have been signed into law, but the vast majority of the two-year plan is unfinished. For some, it’s a double whammy: Layoff letters could come just as the state implements new rules requiring that state employees work half the time each month in the office or work site. State leaders met over the holiday weekend. One said Tuesday that there was progress in finishing outstanding bills. House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman said a special session is possible as soon as next week. “We’re hoping to wrap things up this week, and then the revisor will finish drafting,” Hortman said Tuesday.  House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman speaks to the press on May 20, the final day of the scheduled 2025 Minnesota legislative session.Clay Masters | MPR NewsLawmakers rolled out a workforce and jobs budget bill on Tuesday. But other proposals on taxes, education and health and human services were still being finalized. It’s difficult to gauge exactly where each of the budget bills stands since most of the work of crafting them has occurred behind closed doors. Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope, voiced frustration on Tuesday about a proposed change to Minnesota law governing non-compete agreements for Minnesota workers, which apply when certain employees move companies within the same industry. Democrats and Republicans on the workforce and jobs working group couldn’t agree on how to proceed. “We continue to have a conversation about changing the law that would handicap workers at a moment when we are days away from sending out layoff notices because we can’t get the work done here,” Frazier said. “I am very frustrated about the whole idea of this happening here in this moment.” Republicans on the said it was important to strike a deal that would roll back some of the policy.  “If we don’t do something to help our partnership and our large companies with noncompetes, it hurts Minnesota companies, this will hurt jobs, future growth in Minnesota,” Republican Rep. Dave Baker said. “We have people on this committee who have zero interest in negotiating anything. That’s why we’re here.” Republican State House Rep. Dave Baker discusses the Civility Caucus with DFL State House Rep. Sandra Feist, co-chair of the caucus, in the House Chambers at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul on Feb. 26.Tim Evans for MPR NewsAnother hard deadline on the horizon is July 1. If a budget isn’t done by then, the state would face a partial government shutdown. Given some of the gridlock in these working groups, it could get close to that. Leaders point to the narrow divide in the Legislature — 101 Democrats and 100 Republicans. That’s meant there has to be compromise in every bill that moves forward. And that’s tough. Because committees in the House are evenly split, it takes from both political parties to advance budget bills. There have been instances where Senate Democrats and some House agree, which normally would be enough to move a bill out of a working group or conference committee. But that tied House makes it harder to get enough to close deals. That happened yesterday during a working group meeting on taxes. Senate Taxes Committee Chair Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, put up an offer that was what House proposed. “Let it be known to our leaders that the House cannot even accept their own proposal. Now we will take a recess,” Rest said. Sen. Ann Rest, DFL- New Hope, (center) and of the legislative working group on taxes hold their first meeting after the legislative session to negotiate a tax bill that did not on May 20.Peter Cox | MPR NewsA leading House Democrat, Rep. Aisha Gomez, laughed off the remark. Moments earlier, previously told Rest that it’s hard to move portions forward without a full picture. “We haven’t had the conversation about how we’re going to fund our bill, how we’re going to meet our target,” Gomez said. “If we cannot advance that, we cannot advance our bill.” Additional details about the tax proposal came to light this week. Proposed provisions that would bump up Minnesota’s cannabis tax from 10 percent to 15 percent, along with a new electricity exemption for data centers is estimated to raise tax revenue by $108 million over the next two years. That could be a challenge as Republicans have said they don’t want to raise taxes this year. At least one House Republican would have to it for the measure to move forward.  Hortman and House Speaker Lisa Demuth, a Republican, signed off on the budget deal. That means they would be expected to bills even if all others in their caucuses vote against elements of it.

The book “Washita Love Child: The Rise of Indigenous Rock Star Jesse Ed Davis” follows the arc of the Oklahoman’s life — from his homelands and ancestors, throughout his music career in the 1970s and 1980s, and his early death. Davis played guitar alongside musicians such as Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, Jackson Browne, John Lennon and John Trudell. Before author Douglas Miller entered kindergarten, he listened to Davis on Jackson Browne’s tune “Doctor My Eyes.” In the book’s preface, Miller re reading album liner notes and later becoming a musician. Miller says he spent several years in Minneapolis playing with his band and studying history. “I like to tell people I’ve been listening to Jesse Ed Davis since my earliest memories and ‘Doctor My Eyes’ was Jackson Browne's first top 10 hit on that first album. And Jesse Ed Davis played the searing guitar solo,” said Miller, an associate professor of Native American and United States History at Oklahoma State University. “That is sort of well-known in the classic rock canon as one of the great guitar solos.” Davis died from substance use in 1988 at 43 years old. Miller says Davis has been ed mainly for how he died, less so for how he lived. “I just wanted to fill in the rest of the story,” Miller said. “I thought he was someone who had been robbed of the real beauty of his life and the way that he was ed and mised.” Miller will discuss the book, with a focus on Davis’ work with Dylan and Trudell, at the Landmark Center in St. Paul, Wednesday at 7 p.m. Miller was interviewed by Native News editor Leah Lemm. The conversation was lightly edited for clarity. Miller: “Washita Love Child” is a book about Jesse Ed Davis, who was a relatively unheralded Kiowa, Comanche, Cheyenne, Seminole and Muskogee musician from Oklahoma. In 1966, he hopped on Route 66 west of California with a dream of making it in the music business, and it worked. He ended up achieving an extraordinary career playing with Bob Dylan and John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Star, Leon Russell, Taj Mahal, Jackson Brown and on and on — roughly well over a hundred of the greatest artists of his time and place, for the better part of 15, 20 years before an untimely ing. Lemm: Why isn’t Jesse Ed Davis more widely known? Miller: He had these, sort of, high-profile moments, but he's there as, you know, sometimes a session man, sometimes a side man. So, I think his career got pulled in numerous different directions and that made it difficult, I think, for his legacy to be easy to comprehend. And then I would couple that with, when Jesse Ed Davis died in 1988, he was at a sort of a second, I think, artistic peak working with John Trudell, the great Dakota artist and poet and musician. But Jesse's popular profile had reached sort of its lowest point. So, when he died, he wasn't in the public perception the way Jim Morrison was, or Janis Joplin or Amy Winehouse or Kurt Cobain or someone like that. Lemm: How do we know what we know about him? Miller: First, we know a lot about him from the music he made. He appears on roughly a hundred major albums so I could kind of hear the music as a primary source. There were some materials available to me. He did a handful of interviews, but in addition to the music, there were two other great sources for me. He had a sort of adopted son named Billy Noriega. Billy preserved all these years later a pretty nice collection of Jesse Ed Davis material that he endowed to me for the book project. And finally, I did just over 120 interviews with Jesse Ed Davis’ music partners like Jackson Browne and Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, Robbie Robertson, all kinds of great musicians, as well as his personal band mates and friends and family . Everybody I could think of, even some fans. Lemm: Early on in the book you mentioned that you didn’t want his death, which was tragic and untimely, to be the story of his life. Miller: That was part of the mystery and motivation for me. Jesse Ed Davis died from an injection of heroin. A rock and roll star, a rock and roll lead guitar player who dies from drug addiction, that often becomes people’s stories in that context. And what about all the rest? You know, what’s the story of Jesse’s life as a Native American kid growing up in Oklahoma? Who were his ancestors? Where did he come from? Where did his sound come from? I wanted to sort of find that dimension of his legacy. I wanted to see him on stage and in studios and tell all these great stories about him.

An old mine cart is parked outside the Gila County Historical Museum in Globe, Ariz. Mining is still part of the local economy, but many area residents have low-wage jobs that make them eligible for Medicaid.Linda Gross for KFF Health NewsLike many residents of this copper-mining town in the mountains east of Phoenix, Debbie Cox knows plenty of people on Medicaid. Cox, who is a property manager at a real estate company in Globe, has tenants who rely on the safety-net program. And at the domestic violence shelter where she volunteers as president of the board, Cox said, staff always look to enroll women and their children if possible. But Cox, who is 65, has mixed feelings about Medicaid. "It's not that I don't see the need for it. I see the need for it literally on a weekly basis," she said. "I also see a need for revamping it significantly because it's been taken advantage of for so long." It wasn't hard to find people in Globe like Cox with complicated views about Medicaid. Debbie Cox, a property manager, says she has tenants who need Medicaid to get medical care, but she also thinks the program needs to be strengthened to prevent abuses.Linda Gross for KFF Health NewsGila County, where Globe is located, is a conservative place — almost 70 percent of voters went for President Trump in November. And concerns about government waste run deep. Like many rural communities, it's also a place where people have come to value government health insurance. The number of Gila County residents on Medicaid and the related Children's Health Insurance Program has nearly doubled over the past 15 years, according to data from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. Today, almost 4 in 10 residents are on one of the health insurance plans for low- and moderate-income people or those with disabilities. So, since House Republicans ed plans to cut roughly $716 billion from Medicaid, the national debate taking place over the program hits close to home for many Globe residents, even as some welcome the prospect of tighter rules and less government spending. For a rancherFor Heather Heisler, the stakes are high. Her husband has been on Medicaid for years. "We're ranchers, and there's not much money in ranching," said Heisler, who gets her own health care from the Indian Health Service. "Most people think there is, but there isn't." Heisler was selling handicrafts outside the old county jail in Globe on a recent Friday night when the town hosted a downtown street fair with food trucks and live music. She said Medicaid was especially helpful after her husband had an accident on the ranch. A forklift tipped over, and he had to have part of his left foot amputated. "If anything happens, he's able to go to the doctor," she said. "Go to the emergency room, get medicines." She shook her head when asked what would happen if he lost the coverage. "It would be very bad for him," she said. Among other things, the "Big, Beautiful Bill" ed by House Republicans would require working-age Medicaid enrollees to prove they are employed or seeking work. The bill, which has advanced to the Senate, would also mandate more paperwork from people to prove they're eligible. Difficult applications can dissuade many people from enrolling in Medicaid, even if they're eligible, researchers have found. And the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates more than 10 million people will likely lose Medicaid and CHIP insurance under the House Republican plan. That would reverse big gains made possible by the 2010 Affordable Care Act that has allowed millions of low-income, working-age adults in places like Globe to get health insurance. More people with health insuranceNationally, Medicaid and CHIP have expanded dramatically over the past two decades, with enrollment in the programs surging from about 56 million in 2005 to more than 78 million last year, according to federal data. "Medicaid has always played an important role," said Joan Alker, who runs the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. "But its role has only grown over the last couple of decades. It really stepped in to address many of the shortcomings in our health care system." That's particularly true in rural areas, where the share of people with disabilities is higher, residents have lower incomes, and communities are reliant on industries with skimpier health benefits such as agriculture and retail. In Globe, former Mayor Fernando Shipley said he's seen this firsthand. "A lot of people think, 'Oh, those are the people that aren't working.' Not necessarily," said Shipley, who operates a State Farm office across the road from the rusted remains of the Old Dominion copper mine. "If you're a single parent with two kids and you're making $20 an hour," he added, "you're not making ends meet. You've got to pay rent; you've got to feed those kids." Fernando Shipley is the former mayor of Globe, Ariz. He says many of the people who rely on Medicaid are working, and otherwise wouldn't be able to afford health care for their families.Linda Gross for KFF Health NewsNot far away, at the local hospital, some low-wage workers at the registration desk and in housekeeping get health care through Medicaid, chief financial officer Harold Dupper said. "As much as you'd like to pay everyone $75,000- or $80,000-a-year, the hospital couldn't stay in business if that was the payroll," he said, noting the financial challenges faced by rural hospitals. The growing importance of Medicaid in places like Globe helps explain why Republican efforts to cut the program face so much resistance, even among conservatives. "There's been a shift in the public's attitude, and particularly voters on the right, that sometimes government plays a role in getting people health care. And that's OK," said pollster Bob Ward. "And if you take away that health care, people are going to be angry." Ward's Washington, D.C., firm, Fabrizio Ward, polls for Trump, among other clients. He also works for a coalition trying to protect Medicaid. At the same time, many of the communities where Medicaid has become more vital in recent years remain very conservative politically. More than two-thirds of nearly 300 U.S. counties with the biggest growth in Medicaid and CHIP since 2008 backed Trump in the last election, according to a KFF Health News analysis of voting results and enrollment data from Georgetown. Many of these counties are in deep-red states such as Kentucky, Louisiana, and Montana. Voters in places like these are more likely to be concerned about government waste, polls show. In one recent national survey, 75 percent of Republicans said they think waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid is a major problem. The actual scale of that waste is hotly debated, though many analysts believe relatively few enrollees are abusing the program. Mountains of mine tailings, or waste, above the valley where Globe, Ariz., is located. The area has been a center for copper mining since the 19th century.Linda Gross for KFF Health NewsNevertheless, around Globe, Republican arguments that cuts will streamline Medicaid seemed to resonate. Retiree Rick Uhl was stacking chairs and helping clean up after lunch at the senior center. "There's a lot of waste, of money not being ed for," Uhl said. "I think that's a shame." Uhl said he's been saddened by the political rancor, but he said he's encouraged by the Trump istration's aggressive efforts to cut government spending. Back at the street fair downtown, David Sander, who is also retired, said he doubted Medicaid would really be trimmed at all. "I've heard that they really aren't cutting it," Sander said. "That's my understanding." Sander and his wife, Linda, were tending a stall selling embroidery that Linda makes. They also have a neighbor on Medicaid. "She wouldn't be able to live without it," Linda Sander said. "Couldn't afford to have an apartment, make her bills and survive." KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism. Copyright 2025, NPR

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered that the latest suspect arrested in the Feeding Our Future investigation remain jailed after allegedly trying to flee the country. Prosecutors say that Hibo Daar of Eden Prairie bought an airline ticket to Dubai on the same day that federal agents searched the New Vision Foundation, a St. Paul nonprofit that allegedly operated fraudulent meal distribution sites. FBI and IRS agents arrested Daar on Sunday evening at MSP Airport as she tried to board her flight. Daar is the 71st person charged in a years-long investigation into a fraud scheme centered around the defunct nonprofit Feeding our Future that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, according to federal prosecutors. Daar is charged with wire fraud. She has not entered a plea. Investigators say lax oversight during the pandemic and COVID-era rule changes opened the floodgates to massive fraud in the Summer Food Service Program and the Child and Adult Care Food Program. When former U.S. Attorney Andy Luger announced charges against the first four dozen defendants in September 2022, he said it was the nation’s largest COVID-19 scam. In a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday, federal prosecutors allege that Daar, 50, ran a phony meal distribution site called Northside Wellness Center under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future. Northside allegedly collected nearly $1.8 million from Feeding Our Future after submitting fraudulent meal reimbursement claims. FBI forensic ants say that Northside spent less than $2,000 of that money on food.  According to the criminal complaint, Daar allegedly received $110,000 in fraud proceeds herself. Northside Wellness also made large payments to others involved in the scheme, including $72,000 to Feeding Our Future employee Hadith Ahmed. Ahmed pleaded guilty in 2022, and testified at the first Feeding Our Future trial in 2024 that he set up a phony consulting company to collect kickbacks from meal site operators.   Prosecutors say that Northside claimed to have served “about 40,000 meals to children every week,” including 5,600 suppers and snacks every day during April 2021 from an address on E. Hennepin Ave. in Minneapolis. A spreadsheet that prosecutors showed jurors earlier this year at the trial of Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock and restaurant owner Salim Said lists Northside among the 25 most prolific filers of fraudulent reimbursement requests. Investigators say the group submitted claims for 1,025,746 meals. In the complaint, prosecutors allege that Northside used fraudulent invoices to back its reimbursement claims including one from Premuim [sic] Fresh Produce for nearly 3,000 gallons of milk. During Daar’s initial court appearance Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Bobier said that prosecutors notified Daar last month through her attorney that she was a target of the investigation and might be charged.  On Thursday, federal agents executed a search warrant at the New Vision Foundation, a St. Paul nonprofit that also allegedly operated a fake meal site, and claimed to have served 1,052,874 meals. On the same day that MPR News and other outlets reported on the search, Bobier said that Daar bought an airline ticket to Dubai. Daar is not an employee of the New Vision Foundation and the search warrant unsealed Thursday does not list her name. But it does mention a company called “Campus Trading & Supplies, LLC.” New Vision allegedly used phony invoices from Campus Trading to back its own fraudulent reimbursement claims.  Campus Trading’s address on the invoice included in the search warrant matches the same Eden Prairie apartment complex listed as the business address of Northside Wellness Center and Daar’s residence. In fraud cases, prosecutors typically do not request pretrial detention. But Bobier argued that because Daar tried to leave the country, she presents a flight risk. Magistrate Judge David Schultz agreed, and ordered that Daar remain jailed until at least Friday, when she has a formal detention hearing.  Aaron Morrison, a federal public defender who represented Daar at her initial appearance, argued that Daar does not present a flight risk because she’s a U.S. citizen with extensive ties to the Twin Cities. Morrison added that if prosecutors were concerned about Daar fleeing the country, they should have filed charges sooner. Of the 70 other defendants charged in the case since September 2022, 38 have pleaded guilty. Another seven — including ringleader Aimee Bock — were convicted at the second Feeding Our Future trial in March.  Bock and her co-defendants are jailed and awaiting sentencing. Five other defendants charged in indictment with Bock are due to face trial Aug. 11.