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A bag of cash, a list of jurors hidden in a water bottle and a juror who was followed home: It was all part of an alleged plot to bribe a juror in the Feeding Our Future court case. Five people have now been charged.
The Minneapolis Police union contract that would increase the department’s budget by millions gets a public hearing. We heard from the many stakeholders who made their voices heard in a nearly four hour meeting.
Plus, we talked to a Dakota writer about what her Two-Spirit identity means to her. We heard a conversation with an author coming to town. She wrote the best-selling book, “Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow.”
And our summer festival spotlight took us to Akeley for Paul Bunyan Days. Our Minnesota Music Minute was “Banjo Song” by folk singer Nolen Sellwood.
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“Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” is a New York Times best-selling book about love, art and video games.
The author, Gabrielle Zevin, will be in Minneapolis on Friday to promote the paperback launch of her book two years after release. MPR News reporter Kyra Miles spoke with Zevin ahead of the event.
For those who might not know, can you give a quick synopsis in your own words?Zevin: I’m already laughing at that because I’ve been promoting the book for two years. And it’s kind of embarrassing to say that I still find “Tomorrow” somewhat hard to synopsis. So I’ll add to that “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” is the story of Sam Mazur and Sadie Green, who have a three-decade-long friendship and artistic collaboration. And for me, the crux of the story is maybe how difficult it is to connect even though we have ever-increasing means to do so — but the real possibility of making meaningful connections in virtual spaces.
So I’ve recommended this book to a lot of people. But I think something that I always disclaim to people when I recommend it is how perfectly imperfect the characters are. How do you go about creating these flawed but realistic characters?You know, I don’t know if I’m trying to create people that are imperfect, but I am trying to create people and people are imperfect. I think there are some people that want to read characters that are maybe better than us in some way, but I am not that reader. I think the thing that moves me most in fiction is the sort of gap between the way we perceive ourselves and the way we perceive others.
So what’s exciting for you about this paperback launch?It’s been two years in hardcover. And it’s been great to just see it kind of sell and sell and sell. But with a lower price point, I’m excited that it gets to even more readers, readers who maybe felt resistant to the idea [of] a literary novel about video games, will think, “Hey, now that the price is lower, maybe I’ll try a novel about video games.”
I read lit-fic, but I am really a romance reader. And while I don’t see this book as a romance, would you consider it a love story?I mean, I think all stories are love stories or lack-of-love stories. I think, in a sense, you can find it in even the most like ostensibly just esoteric literary fiction. At core, we’re talking about: Were you loved enough? Did you love enough? And so I see all stories as love stories, even as somebody who writes literary fiction. But that said, I think the word romance has a burden that it doesn’t need to have, you know. I think the book is not a romance, not in the way people think of romance. But I do think it is about two people who have a romance of the mind, but not a romance of the body.
This book originally came out as the world was emerging from a pandemic. And now this paperback is emerging into a world where we have lots of major international conflicts going on. How do you think that will affect first time readers of this book?I think the worlds that my characters find themselves in in the book is the world. It has all of the things in it, not necessarily the particularity of 2024, you know, but it doesn’t exist in a world that doesn’t have conflict. When the book came out in 2022, there’s a little bit that has to do with gun violence in the book, or maybe not a little bit, maybe a significant part of the book. And at the time I was doing interviews, journalists would ask me, “How did you know there would be another gun crime in the U.S. when you wrote this book?” I’m like, “because there’s always another gun crime in the U.S.” And so if you write books that are, again, more in the world, I think they they feel more maybe naturally continuous with the way we live right now.
I want to ask you what’s next. But I also know that the book has been optioned as a movie. How are you thinking everything’s gonna fit into a two-hour movie?When we went out with the book, it sold in manuscript — actually, it had its first film offers before we even sold the book — they actually kind of happened at the same time. But I said to my agents that I really thought it should be a limited series. And so of course, the best offers that came back were for movies. I don’t feel desperately sad. There are some authors who are very eager to see their characters come to life on screen. But I never felt that way. Even though obviously it would be meaningful, probably financially, it would bring your books to a broader audience, and there are advantages to that happening, but I also just love the way a book can just exist as a book.
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This week our summer festival spotlight series takes us to Akeley, a small northern Minnesota town of 400 people, located just 40 miles south of Bemidji.
Akeley claims to be the birth place of Paul Bunyan. So it’s only fitting the town celebrates the giant lumberjack every summer. This year will be the 75th year of Paul Bunyan Days.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talked to Akeley Chamber of Commerce President Peggy Davies about the festivities, which kick off Friday and last all weekend.
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During Pride month, many folks around the state are reminded, or learning for the first time, that gender and sexuality is a spectrum that goes beyond the traditional LGBTQ+ umbrella.
One identity that often gets misrepresented — or even left out entirely — is Two Spirit, an identity unique to Indigenous people.
Yanktonai Dakota poet and New Native Theatre senior artistic producer Charli Fool Bear shared what her Two Spirit identity means to her in a conversation with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.
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In a city struggling to maintain police officer staffing levels, the Minneapolis City Council is holding public hearings on a tentative union contract that would make Minneapolis officers some of the highest paid in the state.
Despite pressure from the mayor and his allies to quickly approve the contract, council members want the public to have time to consider whether the city is getting enough reforms to make up for the additional 20 million dollars it will cost over the next two years.
MPR News senior reporter Jon Collins reported on the nearly four hour meeting on Tuesday night.
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Prosecutors Wednesday announced jury bribery charges against three of the defendants in the recent Feeding Our Future trial along with two other people.
MPR News correspondent Matt Sepic joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to share what he heard at a news conference at the U.S Attorney’s Office in Minneapolis.
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We’re well into the official start of summer, and teenagers across Minnesota have a break from their jam-packed school schedules. Between homework, extracurricular activities and part-time jobs, many teenagers don’t have time for much else during the school year — which makes summer the perfect time for those things that get sidelined. Like therapy, for example.
A therapist joined the show to explain why summer therapy for teens can be beneficial. Lexi McMullen is a Moorhead-based family therapist at The Village Family Service Center.
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Prince’s album “Purple Rain” turned 40 on Tuesday. The man behind the beat of the album, record producer and musician Bobby Rivkin “Bobby Z” joined Minnesota Now.
Rivkin played in Prince’s band, The Revolution, from 1978 to 1976. After Prince’s death in 2016, he and other members of the band reunited and kept performing.
The band played two anniversary shows on Friday and Saturday to commemorate Purple Rain. Some fans who took part in the weekend’s celebrations got a preview of an upcoming musical based on Purple Rain, the film, where Rivkin is serving as a musical advisor for the project.
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On Tuesday afternoon a state senate committee will hold a hearing at the Capitol on what they call a pattern of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incidents at the University of Minnesota since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, as well as the administration’s handling of these incidents.
Included is accounts from Jewish students and community members about what they feel is an anti-Jewish atmosphere on campus. Also up for discussion, the university’s decision to rescind an offer to Israeli historian Raz Segal to lead the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. DFL State Senator Ron Latz, the chair of the committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, joined the show to talk about it.
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A state senate committee is trying to learn more about what it calls a pattern of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incidents at the University of Minnesota. Lawmakers invited professors, students and administration to speak at a committee hearing later Tuesday afternoon. The committee chair joined Minnesota Now.
Forty years ago Tuesday, Prince released Purple Rain. We talked about the album with one of the people who helped make it — and learned about a Prince-themed musical coming to Minneapolis.
If you have kids in your life, you know they are some of the busiest people among us. We talked to a therapist who says summer break is a good time to focus on teen mental health.
We remembered an icon of the Minneapolis folk music scene, “Spider” John Koerner.
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On Tuesday, a legendary Minnesota high school coach will be inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame.
Gail Nucech started the girls volleyball program in Hibbing in 1969 and holds a Minnesota record of 884 match victories over 44 seasons, including leading the team to 23 state tournament appearances. She also coached gymnastics, basketball, softball and track.
Nucech joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to reflect on her coaching career ahead of her induction.
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Ȟaȟá Wakpádaŋ or Bassett Creek travels from the Medicine Lake in the western suburbs of the Twin Cities to the Mississippi River.
And now, you can hear Indigenous voices from the Bassett Creek watershed area through an oral history project. It’s the first gathering of suburban Indigenous oral histories in the United States or Canada.
MPR News Native News senior editor Leah Lemm joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk more about the stories and the people telling them.
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The southern Minnesota town of Henderson is holding an emergency city council meeting Monday night after flooding from the Minnesota River is causing the town to quickly become surrounded by water. Henderson is down to just one road to get in and out of town. Joining MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer is Henderson Mayor Keith Swenson.
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We’re watching a dam just south of Mankto that is at risk of breaking. We talked with our reporter on the scene. Meanwhile in Henderson, the city is holding an emergency council meeting as flooding from the Minnesota River washes out roadways.
E-bike popularity is skyrocketing, and that’s got folks looking into the safety risks of owning one. We spoke with the deputy director of Bike Minnesota.
A local girls volleyball coach is being inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame. She shared some career highlights.
A museum is gathering oral histories from Native people living around Bassett Creek, the first project of its kind in the suburbs. We heard more from our Native News team.
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The county says the rain-swollen Blue Earth River has cut around the west side of the dam and there are concerns about debris in the river. Authorities are notifying residents downstream of the dam.
MPR News senior reporter Hannah Yang was on the scene and told us what was happening.
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There has been a surge in popularity of e-bikes recently. Sales of electric bikes rose by 400 percent since 2020. And with a recent effort to launch a state rebate system for e-bikes in Minnesota, they've been an even hotter topic.
But with owning an e-bike comes a bigger responsibility than a regular bike. There are more safety risks when it comes to riding and charging your e-bike.
In New York City in 2023, e-bike batteries were the source of 255 fires, 150 injuries and 18 deaths. Riding them have also proven to be more dangerous. A recent report from the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that fatalities associated with e-bike ridership also increased exponentially.
Bike Minnesota Deputy Director Angela Olsen joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer to discuss how you can stay safe.
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V3 Sports will hold its grand opening on Saturday. The aquatics and recreation center is one of the largest private investments ever in north Minneapolis at $126 million.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke to the executive director of V3 Sports, Malik Rucker, and Ayanna Rakhu, who planned all of the swimming programming.
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The Minnesota Twins are in a tough series against the Tampa Bay Rays. Baseball legend Willie Mays has died, and the beginning of his career brought him to Minneapolis.
Plus, we’ll take a look at the Minnesotans vying to be in Paris this summer for the Olympics.
Joining us to break down this sports news is Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Langfellow is the creator of “Minnesota Score” magazine and is the host of the “Ten Thousand Takes” sports talk show. Nelson co-hosts that show; he’s the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports’ “Eye on Football” show.
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Water is rising to dangerous levels and has resulted in a disaster declared in St. Louis County in northeastern Minnesota. We’ll hear from a business owner with a flooded building and officials who are managing the crisis.
And a new north Minneapolis aquatic center is opening with an emphasis on connecting families of color to water sports.
We are spotlighting a small goat business that’s getting creative about removing buckthorn.
A long motorcycle trip gone wrong and the generosity of a stranger up north. More on that.
And Thursday means Minnesota sports! We’ll hear about the late Willie May’s impact on baseball in Minnesota and get the latest on Minnesotan's performances at the Olympic trials.
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The St. Louis County Board has declared a local disaster in response to flooding and other damage resulting from recent torrential rain that swept across the region.
In downtown Cook, homes and businesses are under several feet of water with flooding from the Little Fork River. The owner of the 85 year old Comet Theater said many businesses, including theirs, don’t have flood insurance because it’s too expensive.
Ryan Horner the owner of the Comet Theater and Dewey Johnson, Emergency Support Services Administrator for St. Louis County spoke to MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.
- Visa fler