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<title>Minneapolis clearing homeless encampment</title>
<link>http://www.minnpost.com/glean/2025/09/minneapolis-clearing-homeless-encampment/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Holly Marie Moore]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2025 18:33:17 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[The Glean]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.minnpost.com/?p=2209403</guid>
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Plus: How a Somali Minnesotan is aiming for the silver screen; more renters turning to tenant unions; and more.
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/glean/2025/09/minneapolis-clearing-homeless-encampment/">Minneapolis clearing homeless encampment</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
]]></description>
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“City officials began clearing a south Minneapolis homeless encampment Tuesday morning,” according to the Minnesota Star Tribune, “<a href="https://www.startribune.com/shooting-south-minneapolis-lake-street/601475039?utm_source=gift">hours after a shootout late Monday night left eight people injured</a> — the <a href="https://www.startribune.com/five-injured-in-shooting-near-i-35w-in-minneapolis/601474664?utm_source=gift" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">second mass shooting</a> that day on the city’s South Side.”
A Somali Minnesotan is aiming for the silver screen with his first international feature film. MPR News writes “Aleel Films founder Mohammed Sheikh said he wanted to be a filmmaker <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/09/16/somali-minnesotan-mohammed-sheikh-makes-international-feature-film-barni">to combat false negative narratives of Somali people in mainstream media</a>.”
Some metro area residents are doing their part to fight for better housing conditions. Sahan Journal says “a Minnesota law passed this year encourages tenants to form unions and <a href="https://sahanjournal.com/housing/tenants-unions-growing-twin-cities-renters-rights/">penalizes landlords who retaliate</a> by increasing the rent, evicting tenants or reporting immigrant tenants to law enforcement.”
This summer saw a lot of rain, particularly in June and July. Bring Me The News explains how the state’s severe weather is getting worse and more expensive. “The mechanism for this increase in wind is the same with growing extreme rainfalls within thunderstorms: water vapor. <a href="https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-weather/why-minnesotas-severe-thunderstorms-are-getting-worse-and-more-costly">It’s already well-established that our atmosphere is holding more water vapor as it warms</a>.”

The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/glean/2025/09/minneapolis-clearing-homeless-encampment/">Minneapolis clearing homeless encampment</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
]]></content:encoded>
<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2209403</post-id> </item>
<item>
<title>Stellar performances drive “Maybe You Could Love Me,” a fresh take on age-old themes</title>
<link>http://www.minnpost.com/artscape/2025/09/stellar-performances-drive-maybe-you-could-love-me-a-fresh-take-on-age-old-themes/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Sheila Regan]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2025 15:49:49 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Arts & Culture]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Artscape]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.minnpost.com/?p=2209364</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-1024x683.jpg" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="Two young people cuddle in a bed beneath a teal tapestry." decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-190x127.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-640x427.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-768x512.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-1200x800.jpg 1200w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-780x520.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-400x267.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
At turns funny and heart-wrenching, Theater Mu’s complicated love story asks viewers what it’s all for — and for whom? 
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/artscape/2025/09/stellar-performances-drive-maybe-you-could-love-me-a-fresh-take-on-age-old-themes/">Stellar performances drive “Maybe You Could Love Me,” a fresh take on age-old themes</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-1024x683.jpg" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="Two young people cuddle in a bed beneath a teal tapestry." decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-190x127.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-640x427.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-768x512.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-1200x800.jpg 1200w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-780x520.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-1-400x267.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
There’s a scene in the play “Maybe You Could Love Me,” a fraught romance between two young Muslim women, where one of the characters, Noor, reveals to the other, Sajida, that despite their intimate relationship, she plans to marry a man. Sajida offers a counterproposal: “Maybe you could love me,” she says. Noor’s response is not what Sajida hopes for. “No,” she says. “That’s gross.”
The exchange captures a central question in Theater Mu’s world premiere by L.A.-based playwright Samah Meghjee: How can queer love flourish in a community that doesn’t condone it? 
The play, which follows its heroines from childhood through young adulthood, offers elements of comedy and drama, handled deftly by director Katie Bradley. It’s brought to life by Broadway veteran Sushma Saha, as Sajida, and the jaw-droppingly good Ashembaga Jaafaru, as Noor. The result is an excellent theatrical experience.
In the earliest scenes, Noor is 8 and Sajida is turning 9 — the age when she begins to wear a hijab. The show picks up again nine years later, by which point the friends have developed a sexual relationship and face choices about their futures. Finally, in their mid-20s, the women grapple with the consequences of their choices.
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" width="625" height="500" src="https://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-2-625x500.jpg" alt="Two young people sit in front of a desk and look apprehensively at a laptop." class="wp-image-2209369" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-2-625x500.jpg 625w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-2-190x152.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-2-768x614.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-2-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-2-2048x1638.jpg 2048w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-2-1200x960.jpg 1200w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-2-1024x819.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-2-2000x1600.jpg 2000w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-2-780x624.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-2-400x320.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">“Maybe You Could Love Me” follows its heroines from childhood through young adulthood. The play runs Sept. 16-27 at Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis. Credit: Rich Ryan</figcaption></figure></div>
Bradley shows a keen sense of subtle comedy throughout the show, alongside nuanced emotional interplay between the characters across time. Unfortunately, that work gets lost at times in cumbersome scene changes.
Scenic designer Mina Kinukawa, costume designer Sarah Bahr, and prop designers Kenji Shoemaker and Sarah Harris crafted meticulous representations of the three time periods, but multiple set and costume changes slow the momentum of the storytelling. The details are interesting, but the designs could have been simplified to speed the pace.
<h3 class="wp-block-heading has-secondary-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-8bf06671865c5e2a517d1e49751ad456"><a href="https://www.minnpost.com/artscape/2025/06/theater-mus-new-artistic-director-is-bringing-a-diverse-set-of-skills-to-minneapolis/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Related: Theater Mu’s new artistic director is bringing a diverse set of skills to Minneapolis</a></h3>
As the show progresses, Sajida and Noor reveal their own struggles to balance faith and societal rules with personal desires and identity. Sajida establishes herself early on as the more religious of the two friends, talking about ideas that are haram, or forbidden, as early as her ninth birthday. As a teenager, she attempts to break things off with Noor as the guilt of their sexual relationship weighs on her.
Noor, meanwhile, has a looser conception of the rules and bends them freely when it suits her. As a child, she’s funny, confident and full of tricks, and Jaafaru plays her with endearing impishness. Playing Noor as a teen, she brings wonderful comic timing and incredible facial expressiveness to the role.
The strongest scenes come when the characters are children. Meghjee’s script mines the girls’ complexities fearlessly as they navigate their relationship to culture and with each other. Their emotions run high, their identities begin to take shape and their friendship becomes central.
As teenagers in a sexual relationship, the young women reach an impasse. Despite Noor’s willingness to bend the rules when it pleases her, ultimately she cares too deeply about public appearances and cultural norms. She cannot conceive, for instance, of going away to college or pursuing a career. Her path includes marriage, children and staying at home, in contrast to Sajida’s dreams of scholarships and a future in the arts.
I struggled the most with the characters’ adult scenes. While Noor has married and Sajida has gone on to become a successful curator, they’ve continued a friends-with-benefits relationship. Meghjee introduces a plot twist that sidelines the characters’ ability to resolve their impasse, which feels like an unfortunate deflection from the play’s central conflict: one character who wants to continue the relationship in secret and another who refuses to hide.
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" width="640" height="427" src="https://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-3-640x427.jpg" alt="Two young people stand cheek-to-cheek and look at a notepad." class="wp-image-2209370" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-3-640x427.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-3-190x127.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-3-768x512.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-3-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-3-1200x800.jpg 1200w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-3-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-3-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-3-780x520.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maybe-You-Could-Love-Me-play_091625_RR-3-400x267.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">“Maybe You Could Love Me” brings up complex questions about identity, love and how to live one’s truth – all handled with humor and tenacity. The play runs Sept. 16-27 at Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis. Credit: Rich Ryan</figcaption></figure></div>
After the climax, Meghjee returns to a scene when Noor and Sajida are children. The move works well artistically, giving the play a circular structure. But I left the theater frustrated, not knowing what happens next in the adult storyline.
<h3 class="wp-block-heading has-secondary-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ea549c4ed4c42df30c2219954a580ca9"><a href="https://www.minnpost.com/arts-culture/2025/04/secret-warriors-brings-to-light-work-of-japanese-american-soldiers-during-wwii/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Related: ‘Secret Warriors’ brings to light work of Japanese-American soldiers during WWII</a></h3>
Still, I walked away with plenty to think and talk about — in the lobby and later at home. That’s a good sign. The play brings up complex questions about identity, love and how to live one’s truth – all handled with humor and tenacity. Thanks to Bradley’s sensitive direction and Jaafaru’s revelatory performance, “Maybe You Could Love Me” sparkles. Theater Mu continues to take risks on new voices, and Meghjee stands out as a playwright worth watching.
“Maybe You Could Love Me” runs Tuesdays through Saturdays, Sept. 16-27, at 7:30 p.m., with no show on Tues., Sept. 23. Sunday performances on Sept. 21 and 28 are at 2 p.m. There is an additional 2 p.m. performance on Sat., Sept. 27. Mixed Blood Theater, 1501 S. 4th St., Minneapolis. $10-$60 with pay-as-you-are options. <a href="https://www.theatermu.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Find more information here.</a>
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/artscape/2025/09/stellar-performances-drive-maybe-you-could-love-me-a-fresh-take-on-age-old-themes/">Stellar performances drive “Maybe You Could Love Me,” a fresh take on age-old themes</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
]]></content:encoded>
<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2209364</post-id> </item>
<item>
<title>‘We’re not done yet’: Walz launches reelection bid for third term as governor</title>
<link>http://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2025/09/were-not-done-yet-walz-launches-reelection-bid-for-third-term-as-governor/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Steve Karnowski, Associated Press]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2025 15:44:08 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[State Government]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.minnpost.com/?p=2209380</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="940" height="634" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MP-GovWalz-StofSt.jpg" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="man gestures while speaking at podium" decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MP-GovWalz-StofSt.jpg 940w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MP-GovWalz-StofSt-190x128.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MP-GovWalz-StofSt-640x432.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MP-GovWalz-StofSt-768x518.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MP-GovWalz-StofSt-780x526.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MP-GovWalz-StofSt-400x270.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will run again in 2026, hoping to beat the odds to become Minnesota's longest-serving governor.
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2025/09/were-not-done-yet-walz-launches-reelection-bid-for-third-term-as-governor/">‘We’re not done yet’: Walz launches reelection bid for third term as governor</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="940" height="634" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MP-GovWalz-StofSt.jpg" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="man gestures while speaking at podium" decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MP-GovWalz-StofSt.jpg 940w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MP-GovWalz-StofSt-190x128.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MP-GovWalz-StofSt-640x432.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MP-GovWalz-StofSt-768x518.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MP-GovWalz-StofSt-780x526.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MP-GovWalz-StofSt-400x270.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/tim-walz" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gov. Tim Walz</a> said Tuesday he will seek a third term in the 2026 elections, hoping to beat the odds to become the longest-serving governor in a state where voters have usually said two terms were plenty.
In a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkQ7oX_cjfE&t=8s" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">campaign video posted on YouTube</a>, Walz said he’s running because his work is not done and he wants to make Minnesota a place where everyone has a chance to succeed.
“I’ve seen how we help each other through the hard times,” he said. “And boy, we’ve seen terrible times this year. I’m heartbroken and angry about the beautiful people we lost to gun violence. But it’s in these moments we have to come together. We can’t lose hope because I’ve seen what we can do when we work together.”
<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/kamala-harris" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Vice President Kamala Harris</a> picked Walz as her running mate on the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tim-walz-democratic-national-convention-dd8f281f5dc53c4e9e504fbad5c4f672" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">after his attack line</a> against former President Donald Trump and his running mate, then-Ohio Sen. JD Vance — “These guys are just weird” — spread widely.
Walz had been building up his national profile since their defeat in November. He was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tim-walz-speech-minnesota-legislature-1e15c79f67b222ab479aae2468705ab3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a sharp critic</a> of <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Trump</a> as he toured <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iowa-democrats-tim-walz-republican-town-halls-26a2ace4bc17422780e3ac50213f7a78" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">early caucus</a> and primary states. In May, he <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tim-walz-minnesota-governor-south-carolina-democrats-86d6d99db5f5d5f39e8df8766df32609" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">called on Democrats</a> in South Carolina to stand up to Trump, saying, “Maybe it’s time for us to be a little meaner.”
“I’ve always tried to do what’s right for Minnesota, and I’ll never stop fighting to protect us from the chaos, corruption, and cruelty coming out of Washington,” Walz said in his announcement.
Walz, 61, has been frequently mentioned as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, but <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/twin-cities/2025/07/23/tim-walz-president-2028-rules-out-governor" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">he told Axios</a> in July he would not run for president if he sought reelection.
His close political ally, former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, was assassinated in June by a man posing as a police officer. Walz <a href="https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-lawmakers-shot-funeral-biden-harris-31165984f11341a3bb6d27c01a43c7f7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">delivered a eulogy</a> at her funeral. Trump <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-walz-minnesota-lawmakers-shot-call-064092d14bea4c3141da31b7a5e5c9b3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">refused to call</a> Walz to offer condolences, saying it would have been a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-walz-kirk-political-killings-201fb03ea74da3a0f528c69578b426e9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">waste of time</a>.
Walz and Minnesota mourned again late last month when <a href="https://apnews.com/article/minneapolis-school-shooting-prayers-gun-control-391dddff5e3bcffab4efd3b47500f47c">two children were killed</a> and 21 people were injured in a shooting at a Minneapolis church where students from an affiliated school were celebrating Mass.
Walz then said he would <a href="https://apnews.com/article/school-shooting-minneapolis-gun-control-41e146a644ebdb99b7de5c607836a45b" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">call a special session</a> of the Legislature to pass school and gun safety laws, but he has not set a date yet, nor proposed specific legislation for it. He said in his announcement Tuesday that one of his priorities is to “get serious about gun violence.”
Walz’s run for the vice presidency introduced the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tim-walz-teacher-coach-lgbtq-minnesota-mankato-4e03b28f956e7862dc72d25b852af448" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">former high school teacher</a> with a “Midwest Dad” image to a wider, national audience. But it also brought new scrutiny of his <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tim-walz-governor-record-minnesota-vp-1d03387a8941cc1952e03fcf09fc1390" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">record as governor</a> and as a congressman before that, and his <a href="https://apnews.com/article/walz-military-record-weapons-harris-video-89fc6fa0c5f51c0ba657b8f808afcd87" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tendency to embellish</a> or exaggerate details and mangle his words.
He proudly touted the accomplishments of the 2023 legislative session, when Democrats used their full control to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-governor-budget-ceremony-signing-walz-5eff134a29459d943c0c5863b72d20bc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">enact a sweeping platform</a> of liberal priorities, including free school meals for all students, and expanded protections for abortion and transgender rights.
But he also faced renewed criticism from the right for his handling of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/walz-george-floyd-riots-minnesota-national-guard-2b9b0bf883828e0429c379843f16005d" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the unrest</a> that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/walz-george-floyd-police-reform-systemic-racism-e1af64685c90241b745a4c8ff4b8ad31" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">followed the murder</a> of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 and a $300 million <a href="https://apnews.com/article/feeding-our-future-pandemic-fraud-trial-847f42be252ecd373c60125fd4fae6e9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pandemic food aid fraud case.</a> Republicans are sure to use that case and newer revelations of fraud in other state-run programs against him in 2026.
Minnesota’s most prominent GOP office-holder, U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, was among the Republicans on Tuesday who highlighted fraud under Walz’s watch.
“Walz is a proven failure,” Emmer said in a statement. “Instead of boasting about a strong economy, great schools, or safe streets, the only thing Minnesotans can tout is the fact that Walz allowed the nation’s largest taxpayer-funded COVID program fraud to occur under his watch.”
No Minnesota governor has won a <a href="https://www.lrl.mn.gov/mngov/gov" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">third consecutive term</a> since the state switched to four-year terms in 1963. But no Minnesota Republican has won a statewide race since Tim Pawlenty was reelected to a second term as governor in 2006.
On the Republican side of the race, former business executive and Army veteran <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-death-of-george-floyd-voting-minnesota-d883ab5db2a90974f3305a7490c6bb81" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kendall Qualls</a> announced his candidacy in May and hopes to become Minnesota’s first Black governor. Qualls lost the GOP endorsement in 2022 to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-minnesota-pandemics-234ec304532f2467deaa158473255926" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">family physician and former state senator</a> Scott Jensen, who announced in July that he’s running again.
The only current GOP office-holder in the race so far is state Rep. Kristin Robbins, of Maple Grove, who chairs a House committee formed this year to investigate fraud in government programs. She announced her candidacy Aug. 20.
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2025/09/were-not-done-yet-walz-launches-reelection-bid-for-third-term-as-governor/">‘We’re not done yet’: Walz launches reelection bid for third term as governor</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
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<title>‘Ghost students’ scam Minnesota colleges</title>
<link>http://www.minnpost.com/glean/2025/09/ghost-students-scam-minnesota-colleges/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lydia Moran]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[The Glean]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.minnpost.com/?p=2209295</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="600" height="397" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/TheGleanLogo600.png" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="The Glean logo" decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/TheGleanLogo600.png 600w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/TheGleanLogo600-190x126.png 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/TheGleanLogo600-130x85.png?crop=1 130w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/TheGleanLogo600-400x265.png 400w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
Rainfall causing more landslides; anonymous reporting helps prevent school shootings; and discarded goldfish become bear food
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/glean/2025/09/ghost-students-scam-minnesota-colleges/">‘Ghost students’ scam Minnesota colleges</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="600" height="397" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/TheGleanLogo600.png" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="The Glean logo" decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/TheGleanLogo600.png 600w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/TheGleanLogo600-190x126.png 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/TheGleanLogo600-130x85.png?crop=1 130w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/TheGleanLogo600-400x265.png 400w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
“Ghost students” are wreaking havoc at college campuses across Minnesota, though not the undead kind. “Ghost students are scammers who often use stolen identities to enroll online and steal money in the form of financial aid,” KSTP reports. “The Minnesota State system says it flagged more than 7,715 ‘fraudulent’ or ‘potentially fraudulent’ applications in just the last academic year.” <a href="https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/ghost-students-target-minnesota-colleges-with-thousands-of-fraudulent-applications/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">At least two ghost students stole real money from a local college this year.</a>
Heavier rainfalls due to climate change in recent years aren’t just causing damp basements across the state; they’re leading to landslides, mudslides and rockfalls, MPR News reports. “<a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/09/15/climate-change-is-causing-more-landslides-in-minnesota">The sandstone bluffs and hillsides of the Minnesota River Valley are especially vulnerable</a>.” 
Could an anonymous app-based tip line help stop school shootings before they occur? Some Minnesota school districts think so, and are using a program created by Sandy Hook Promise that lets <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/st-francis-middle-school-minnesota-say-something-anonymous-reporting-system/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">students anonymously report bullying, self-harm and more serious threats to school safety</a>. Since it’s inception, the nonprofit’s leaders say “Say Something” has helped prevent at least 18 school shootings nationwide, WCCO reports, and more and more Minnesota districts are using the free program.
There are more discarded pet goldfish dumped in Minnesota waterways than one might think, and left to multiply, they can create real environmental damage. But the city of Edina and the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District have a solution: <a href="https://www.startribune.com/edina-lake-goldfish-minnesota-zoo/601465663" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">feed the bears</a>.

The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/glean/2025/09/ghost-students-scam-minnesota-colleges/">‘Ghost students’ scam Minnesota colleges</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2209295</post-id> </item>
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<title>How a luxury travel-and-play golf club ended up in rural Kandiyohi County</title>
<link>http://www.minnpost.com/greater-minnesota/2025/09/how-a-luxury-travel-and-play-golf-club-ended-up-in-rural-kandiyohi-county/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Forrest Peterson]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Greater Minnesota]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Top Story]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.minnpost.com/?p=2209158</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-1024x683.jpg" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="Landscape with short grass and lots of sand beneath a bright blue sky." decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-190x127.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-640x427.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-768x512.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-1200x800.jpg 1200w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-780x520.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-400x267.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
One of a growing number of ‘destination’ courses, Tepetonka is slated to open next summer — with an assist from a famous voice in golf. 
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/greater-minnesota/2025/09/how-a-luxury-travel-and-play-golf-club-ended-up-in-rural-kandiyohi-county/">How a luxury travel-and-play golf club ended up in rural Kandiyohi County</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-1024x683.jpg" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="Landscape with short grass and lots of sand beneath a bright blue sky." decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-190x127.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-640x427.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-768x512.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-1200x800.jpg 1200w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-780x520.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-1-400x267.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
NEW LONDON, Minn. — When the glacier covering central Minnesota receded 12,000 years ago, it left a hilly terrain of clay, rocks and gravel — not great for farming, which early settlers attempted, but ideal for a golf course. And for Mark Haugejorde, not just any course.
Haugejorde has returned to his New London hometown to lead the development of <a href="https://url.avanan.click/v2/r01/___https://www.tepetonka.com/___.YXAzOm1pbm5wb3N0OmE6Zzo1M2MwMzRkYTdhNTI2ZjQ3M2Y4MmVjZDY4YzdiNDNjZDo3OjExYTc6ZDI2ZTM3YzIyOGFkNGY0OGJmNDUzOTNhNmJjMjFmY2U1NzM0MDExOTA5ZTYxNjRiMDg3MDY4ZGEwMmRhNzk0YzpwOlQ6Tg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tepetonka</a>, a “destination” golf club in northern Kandiyohi County. It’s expected to open next summer and will be a pinnacle of his lifetime in the golf industry, which began in his youth at nearby Little Crow Resort Golf Course, where his father was one of the founders in the late 1960s.
After high school and a state golf tournament co-championship, Haugejorde played at the University of Houston, a noted golf mecca, where he met professional golf legend Fred Couples, as well as Jim Nantz, the well-known sportscaster who is a good friend and now member of Tepetonka.
“I had been in the golf business for a long time,” Haugejorde said. “I worked for Jack Nicklaus as director of marketing for eight years. I came back here to Minnesota and helped Windsong Farm (a private golf club in Independence) increase their membership.” 
<h3 class="wp-block-heading has-secondary-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-0c040c2269a8ba3dbe51482f3226c832"><a href="https://www.minnpost.com/sports/2025/05/st-kates-katie-reeves-has-recipe-for-success-on-and-off-the-golf-course/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Related: St. Kate’s Katie Reeves has recipe for success on and off the golf course</a></h3>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Travel and play</h3>
Minnesota has many well-known high-end golf courses, of course, such as Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska and The Quarry at Giants Ridge near Biwabik. 
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-large"><img decoding="async" width="640" height="360" src="https://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-2-640x360.jpg" alt="A man with white hair in a blue vest stands next to a wall hung with large framed photos." class="wp-image-2209281" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-2-640x360.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-2-190x107.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-2-768x432.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-2-1536x865.jpg 1536w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-2-2048x1153.jpg 2048w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-2-1200x676.jpg 1200w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-2-1024x577.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-2-2000x1126.jpg 2000w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-2-780x439.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-2-400x225.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">At the Tepetonka Beach Club on Green Lake, Mark Haugejorde poses next to pictures of the former Tepetonka Lodge in Spicer. Credit: Forrest Peterson</figcaption></figure></div>
Destination clubs, as Haugejorde described them, are for golf enthusiasts who come for two or three days of golf at these high-end clubs — many of them from other states or even other countries. “Most of the destination golf clubs are golf only, so it’s for the avid player who likes to travel and try new courses,” he said. 
Other such courses — noted by their <a href="https://www.startribune.com/jim-nantz-masters-broadcaster-tepetonka-golf-project-new-london-minnesota/600299200">high fees and limited membership</a> — have opened across the country in recent decades. They include Sand Hills Golf Club near Mullen, Neb.; <a href="https://theprairieclub.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Prairie Club</a> near Valentine, Neb.; and <a href="https://www.theharvesterclub.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Harvester Club</a> in Rhodes, Iowa.
The inspiration leading to Tepetonka arose on a golfing trip to top-ranked Sand Hills Golf Course in Nebraska. In a group that included Mike Schultz, the head golf professional at Hazeltine National Golf Club, Haugejorde asked him, “How is it that Minnesota has all these great golf courses, but no destination course? Minnesotans are traveling to Wisconsin, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska to go play destination golf. We have nothing here.”
They spent three years looking for a suitable site. “You’re looking for the sandy soils. We found a couple of different options,” he said. One day back in the area visiting his mother, Haugejorde took a drive on County Road 40 west of New London toward his former pheasant hunting grounds.
Crossing U.S. Highway 71, “I went one mile and noticed land that I’ve never paid any attention to before, because now I was looking at it differently. Here was this creek, there were some very substantial undulations, moraines.” He turned south from the county road to a dead-end gravel road. “I went down half a mile, looked to my left and said, ‘There it is.’”
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Hometown contractors</h3>
When Haugejorde began working on plans for the golf course, he didn’t have far to go to find contractors to build it. Tepetonka lies in the northern portion of Kandiyohi County in central Minnesota. Duininck Golf and Marcus Construction got their start in the tiny southern Kandiyohi County town of Prinsburg. 
In 1967, Haugejorde’s father approached Duininck Construction about building the Little Crow Golf Course. “They talked the Duinincks into doing the golf course, which they didn’t want to do, and today, they’re a nationwide golf company,” Haugejorde said. Marcus Construction is building the structures.
Following the plans of golf course designers <a href="https://url.avanan.click/v2/r01/___https://www.ocm.golf/___.YXAzOm1pbm5wb3N0OmE6Zzo1M2MwMzRkYTdhNTI2ZjQ3M2Y4MmVjZDY4YzdiNDNjZDo3OmM4ZmE6Y2QzNGQ1MmVkNzIzYjA1Mjc5MTMyMmVhOWE2MTY2MmEyN2JkY2MyOTQ3NmFjNWE1MmU2MDM4OWMwY2EyZjkwZTpwOlQ6Tg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">OCM Golf</a> of Melbourne, Australia, together they are transforming 228 acres of rolling prairie into a majestic 18-hole, 71-par main course, a nine-hole short course and related lodging, food and maintenance buildings. It will be managed by <a href="https://url.avanan.click/v2/r01/___https://www.kempersports.com/___.YXAzOm1pbm5wb3N0OmE6Zzo1M2MwMzRkYTdhNTI2ZjQ3M2Y4MmVjZDY4YzdiNDNjZDo3OmQzOWM6YTZjNTkwMGMwMzlmNWRiMjlmZjcxN2M1OTI5NTYxZGUyMjRlZWRkNDkzZmQ2Y2ZjNTUzYWZiNDlmZWY0YzA1NDpwOlQ6Tg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">KemperSports</a> of Northbrook, Illinois. Haugejorde serves as president of Tepetonka Club LLC.
The name recalls that of an old resort once located in the town of Spicer on the shores of Green Lake called Tepetonka, which has been interpreted to mean “big tent” in the Dakota language. The new namesake also includes access to Green Lake at Tepetonka Beach Club. 
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Weathering construction challenges</h3>
Heavy rain events and wind over the past two summers have put the project about six weeks behind schedule.
So far, 14 holes have been completed. Because of the suitable terrain, workers moved just 1,000 cubic yards of soil, Haugejorde said. “You can call it minimalist design, because you want to do the least disruption to the land as possible.”
At the same time, about 50,000 tons of sand is being hauled in by about 2,200 truckloads to cover the greens and fairways. The sand provides a firm base and allows fertilizers to infiltrate to nourish the grass. “We are one big sponge by virtue of all that sand,” Haugejorde said.
Work to protect the natural environment includes streambank restoration on Shakopee Creek, which meanders from the northwest to southeast areas. 
“We are doing our best to do a full restoration over five to 10 years,” Haugejorde said. “We will be doing projects and specific initiatives that go way past the creek fix and pollinators. It’s more than just how to make it beautiful.” 
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">No helicopters</h3>
A project of this size requires extensive environmental review. A primary concern was potential impact on Shakopee Creek, according to Eric Van Dyken, Kandiyohi County zoning administrator. These and other issues were addressed in an Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW). 
The conditional use permit from the county allowing the project to commence included at least one unconventional condition: a ban on helicopters. With the expected upscale clientele, some area residents were concerned about helicopter noise. “This is the first time that I’ve ever specified ‘no helicopters’ in a permit,” Van Dyken said. “This is not your average market for a golf course.”
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" width="640" height="360" src="https://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-3-640x360.jpg" alt="The side of a grey house along a swath of bright green lawn facing an open body of water." class="wp-image-2209282" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-3-640x360.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-3-190x107.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-3-768x432.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-3-1536x865.jpg 1536w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-3-2048x1153.jpg 2048w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-3-1200x676.jpg 1200w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-3-1024x577.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-3-2000x1126.jpg 2000w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-3-780x439.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Destination-Golf_091525_FP-3-400x225.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The Tepetonka Beach Club on Green Lake is a part of the destination golf club package. Credit: Forrest Peterson</figcaption></figure></div>
Other environmental issues include wastewater treatment, traffic and the use of chemicals and fertilizers. “They will spoon-feed the grass with micro-doses of nutrients,” Van Dyken said. “They don’t want too much lush grass on the fairways, they want it to play hard and fast.” 
Overall, it’s a good land use compared with housing or other developments because most of the area is open space and the activity will be “quiet and serene,” Van Dyken said. Most of the building permits have been issued, he said.
<h3 class="wp-block-heading has-secondary-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-acd4411355a771b6f572b26d86692387"><a href="https://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2023/05/new-disc-golf-course-at-hillcrest-knoll-park-brings-sport-to-st-pauls-east-side/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Related: New disc golf course at Hillcrest Knoll Park brings sport to St. Paul’s Eastside</a></h3>
“Mark and the developers have done everything the county has asked of them,” Van Dyken said. “They spent a lot of money to prepare the documents (for the EAW). It made my job very easy.” 
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Local jobs and taxes</h3>
While the club will have limited membership, backers say the project represents significant economic development in construction jobs, the use of local services and tax revenue — a complement to the extensive lake-country summer economy. 
“If you think of Tepetonka, as tourism, it brings money, it brings jobs, it brings the taxes,” Haugejorde said. Noting the loss of many area resorts over the years, he said, “I’d say we replaced the equivalent of several resorts, by virtue of a golf course.”
In-season employment will range from 50 to 60 people, he said, with about 20 employed during the off-season. It will remain open year-round where winter activities could include snowmobiling, ice fishing and cross-country skiing. The construction site manager, New London resident Brock Olson, got the job after Haugejorde saw him wearing a cap for Whisper Rock (a private golf club in Scottsdale, Arizona) while playing golf at Little Crow.
Haugejorde declined to provide information about the financial backing and the membership fee, except to say that it has increased since the initial offering. He noted that other sectors of the local economy represent above-average wealth, as well, such as farmland or multi-million-dollar homes and expensive boats around Spicer and Green Lake.  
There are a limited number of memberships, and each includes ownership in the club, he said. Describing it as “high-end Minnesota casual,” Haugejorde said there’s one “rule” for membership: “no jerks.”A docuseries about the project, <a href="https://url.avanan.click/v2/r01/___https://www.tepetonka.com/content___.YXAzOm1pbm5wb3N0OmE6Zzo1M2MwMzRkYTdhNTI2ZjQ3M2Y4MmVjZDY4YzdiNDNjZDo3Ojg2YjQ6YjRjMzA5MjhjODlmOTdkZTIzN2UxOTE0MGQzYzM2ZmIxNjc5ZDRmODYxNTFjN2EwZTM1NDIyZWFjYTZlOGQyZjpwOlQ6Tg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Building the Game</a>, offers four episodes so far, created by Capture, a video and photo production agency based in Minneapolis.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the location of The Quarry at Giants Ridge, which is near Biwabik. 
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/greater-minnesota/2025/09/how-a-luxury-travel-and-play-golf-club-ended-up-in-rural-kandiyohi-county/">How a luxury travel-and-play golf club ended up in rural Kandiyohi County</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
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<title>Walz can provide leadership and call for a summit on gun violence prevention</title>
<link>http://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2025/09/walz-can-provide-leadership-and-call-for-a-summit-on-gun-violence-prevention/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Marshall H. Tanick]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Community Voices]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.minnpost.com/?p=2209189</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Assault-Weapon-Ban-Rally_090525_es-5-1024x683.jpg" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Assault-Weapon-Ban-Rally_090525_es-5-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Assault-Weapon-Ban-Rally_090525_es-5-190x127.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Assault-Weapon-Ban-Rally_090525_es-5-640x427.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Assault-Weapon-Ban-Rally_090525_es-5-768x512.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Assault-Weapon-Ban-Rally_090525_es-5-780x520.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Assault-Weapon-Ban-Rally_090525_es-5-400x267.jpg 400w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Assault-Weapon-Ban-Rally_090525_es-5.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
The Minnesota governor should assemble a broad-based roster of anti-violence experts, community leaders and Second Amendment advocates.
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2025/09/walz-can-provide-leadership-and-call-for-a-summit-on-gun-violence-prevention/">Walz can provide leadership and call for a summit on gun violence prevention</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Assault-Weapon-Ban-Rally_090525_es-5-1024x683.jpg" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Assault-Weapon-Ban-Rally_090525_es-5-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Assault-Weapon-Ban-Rally_090525_es-5-190x127.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Assault-Weapon-Ban-Rally_090525_es-5-640x427.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Assault-Weapon-Ban-Rally_090525_es-5-768x512.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Assault-Weapon-Ban-Rally_090525_es-5-780x520.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Assault-Weapon-Ban-Rally_090525_es-5-400x267.jpg 400w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Assault-Weapon-Ban-Rally_090525_es-5.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
Since President Donald Trump, not surprisingly, has shown no inclination, ability or willingness to exercise unifying leadership with respect to gun violence in this country, preferring instead to foment about retribution and vengeance, it’s incumbent upon lower-level public officials to take up the mantle.
The dearth of leadership at the federal level provides an opportunity for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as an example, to do what the president can’t and won’t do.
Walz could convene an Anti-Violence Summit (AVS) comprised of a broad-based    gathering of bipartisan political figures, law enforcement personnel, security experts, business and finance people, faith leaders, mental health professionals, representatives of the firearms industry and Second Amendment advocates, judges, media members, social media influencers, educators, parents, students and others to address a number of issues relating to gun violence. 
The group should include a cross-section of individuals from various sectors, geographic regions, genders, races, religions (and the irreligious), ages and other features representing the type of desirable diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) that Trump so loathes — not to spite him, but to have a knowledgeable and sensitive group with a vast number of perspectives. 
Its agenda should include examining the history of gun violence, its root causes, its impact on society, relevant legal issues, and, most importantly, means of ameliorating the gun violence scourge that has developed, among other issues. 
After meeting together, the group could then divide into various task forces for more intense, targeted study of these issues and produce a timely report addressing these and other germane matters, with the principal goal of devising recommendations and helping to implement them to curb the crisis that has developed. 
Following this approach could be a real boon to the governor if, as anticipated, he shortly launches what promises to be a challenging reelection campaign for an unprecedented third four-year term. The effort could propel him back into the national spotlight on an issue that is likely to be at or near the top of the list of voter concerns during the next few election cycles. 
But more important than a political stratagem, summoning an AVS might yield viable recommendations to stakeholders, including the governor, whose main impulse seems to be enactment of more laws, which have proved to be of limited effectiveness in curbing gun violence. This is not to say that legislation is unnecessary or superfluous, but a recognition that it is only one piece of the perplexing puzzle.
If Walz won’t lead this effort, someone else should step up to the plate, perhaps a joint group of a big city mayors, to take charge with the development of an AVS that will not only redound to their credit but also has potential to actually accomplish something beyond offering vacuous “thoughts and prayers,” which seems to be the only effort at the federal level from the Trump administration and its majority MAGA allies in Congress.
Bypassing them, state and local elected leadership should take advantage of the old saw: “Never let a crisis go to waste.” 
Marshall H. Tanick is a Twin Cities constitutional and employment law attorney. 
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2025/09/walz-can-provide-leadership-and-call-for-a-summit-on-gun-violence-prevention/">Walz can provide leadership and call for a summit on gun violence prevention</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2209189</post-id> </item>
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<title>Annunciation parents’ pain dominates Minnesota Capitol gun violence hearing</title>
<link>http://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2025/09/annunciation-parents-pain-dominates-minnesota-capitol-gun-violence-hearing/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Matthew Blake]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2025 23:59:39 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Public Safety]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[State Government]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Top Story]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.minnpost.com/?p=2209345</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-1-1024x683.jpg" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-1-190x127.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-1-640x427.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-1-768x512.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-1-780x520.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-1-400x267.jpg 400w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-1.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
"My children are not the same kids," one parent testified during an emotional meeting of the gun violence working group considering new Minnesota laws.
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2025/09/annunciation-parents-pain-dominates-minnesota-capitol-gun-violence-hearing/">Annunciation parents’ pain dominates Minnesota Capitol gun violence hearing</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-1-1024x683.jpg" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-1-190x127.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-1-640x427.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-1-768x512.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-1-780x520.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-1-400x267.jpg 400w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-1.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
To begin the working group he convened on gun violence, Ron Latz led not with a policy proposal but a frightening personal experience as a St. Louis Park City Council member. 
“In my first month on the city council I got a death threat on my voicemail because of action we were taking with regards to the deer population,” the DFL state senator said.
What ensued after Latz’s remarks on Monday was north of three hours of utterly gut wrenching public testimony in a packed Minnesota Senate Building hearing room. 
Parents of the children shot <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/metro/2025/08/minneapolis-mourns-tragedy-at-annunciation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">two weeks ago</a> at Annunciation Catholic School detailed not just learning of a shooting that killed two and injured 21 people, but the traumatic aftermath.
“My children are not the same kids that I dropped off that morning,” testified Carla Maldonado, parent of two Annunciation students. “They have nightmares. They flinch at loud noises. They scream for me with a panic in their voices that makes my heart hurt.”
And lawmakers voiced their discomfort at being back at the Capitol and in the public eye, three months after the <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2025/06/her-mirthful-eyes-her-sharp-humor-colleagues-remember-melissa-hortman-assassinated-at-age-55/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fatal shooting</a> of state Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, and assassination attempt on Sen. John Hoffman, DFL-Champlin. 
Security personnel at the hearing asked for identification from visitors. But the state has not moved forward with larger security precautions, such as metal detectors at the Capitol or Senate Building. 
“It gave me pause to actually come in here today,” Latz said. 
Between the searing testimony and the working group lacking authority to advance legislation, we don’t know what was tangibly accomplished at Monday’s hearing. But it was a memorable scene. 
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">What was different about the gun violence hearing Monday?</h3>
Hearings I have gone to at the Minnesota Senate Building are largely barren. Even legislative analysts, lobbyists and reporters whose job it is to keep track of these meetings often just watch the video feed.
But on Monday the room was packed with parents, gun control advocates and foes, and politicians including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and state Attorney General Keith Ellison. 
Frey testified about a proposal to let cities ban guns on municipally-owned property. Ellison advocated for a new law that <a href="https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/08/08/dfl-senator-to-propose-ghost-gun-regulations/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">could pass legal muster</a> banning guns that do not have serial numbers. 
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" width="640" height="427" src="https://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-11-640x427.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2209311" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-11-640x427.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-11-190x127.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-11-768x512.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-11-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-11-780x520.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-11-400x267.jpg 400w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-11.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey hugs Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison during a meeting of the Gun Violence Prevention Working Group at the Minnesota Senate Building on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. Credit: Ellen Schmidt/MinnPost/CatchLight Local/Report for America</figcaption></figure></div>
But their testimony was overshadowed by those of parents as well as medical professionals who treated Annunciation students.
“Due to the smaller nature of children’s bodies, a single bullet can do an incredible amount of damage,” said Dr. Rachel Maureen Weigert, a pediatric emergency medicine doctor at Children’s Minnesota. “A bullet from an automatic rifle is designed to splinter into dozens of twisted metal shards, which can instantly kill a child due to critical organ and blood vessel damage. That is how Fletcher and Harper were murdered in their church that morning.” 
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" width="640" height="427" src="https://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-8-640x427.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2209316" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-8-640x427.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-8-190x127.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-8-768x512.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-8-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-8-780x520.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-8-400x267.jpg 400w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-8.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Malia Kimbrell, mother of Vivian St. Clair, a student at Annunciation Catholic Church and School who was shot, listens after giving public testimony during a meeting of the Gun Violence Prevention Working Group at the Minnesota Senate Building on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. Credit: Ellen Schmidt/MinnPost/CatchLight Local/Report for America</figcaption></figure></div>
Brock Safe, the parent of an Annunciation student, teared up as he said, “My 10-year-old daughter, along with many others, are left to cope with horrific images that only seasoned combat veterans experience on the battlefield.”
<h3 class="wp-block-heading has-secondary-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-4e4a0d191cacf325827ec0f71b8694c1">Related: <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2025/09/after-annunciation-shooting-will-minnesota-go-the-way-of-texas-or-connecticut/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Will Minnesota address gun violence more like Connecticut or Texas after shooting? </a></h3>
Lawmakers spoke with moral and religious fervor. 
Sen. Bonnie Westlin, DFL-Plymouth, said her best friend killed himself with a gun and that she used the Hebrew spiritual practice of Mussar to cope. 
Sen. Eric Lucero, R-Dayton, said that the problem is not guns, but the evil in people themselves, who will kill with whatever weapon available. Lucero cited the Book of Genesis where Cain used a large stone, and not a gun, to kill Abel. 
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" width="640" height="427" src="https://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-10-640x427.jpg" alt="gun violence hearing" class="wp-image-2209312" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-10-640x427.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-10-190x127.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-10-768x512.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-10-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-10-780x520.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-10-400x267.jpg 400w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-10.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Republican State Sens. Andrew Mathews, left, Eric Lucero, center, and Jeff Howe listen as parents of Annunciation students give public testimony during a meeting of the Gun Violence Prevention Working Group at the Minnesota Senate Building on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. Credit: Ellen Schmidt/MinnPost/CatchLight Local/Report for America</figcaption></figure></div>
Despite the highly emotional tenor, at no point did the working group veer into confrontation. 
For example, when Rob Doar, senior vice president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, testified against an assault weapons ban, Latz effusively thanked him for his perspective. Latz expressed hope that time would allow for Doar to speak up on other bills (Doar did not testify again). 
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Where does this leave us in terms of changing Minnesota laws?</h3>
To review, the Legislature <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2025/06/minnesota-lawmakers-grit-teeth-pass-state-budget-in-crammed-special-session/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">adjourned this spring</a> after it passed state budget bills, and it is not scheduled to reconvene until February. But the Legislature could reconvene before then if Gov. Tim Walz calls a special session.
Since the Annunciation shooting, Walz <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2025/09/walzs-urgency-to-act-on-gun-violence-runs-into-political-reality-in-divided-legislature/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has repeatedly said</a> that an assault weapons ban is an urgent enough matter to order lawmakers back to St. Paul. Walz met again with legislative leaders Monday about the mechanics of a special session. 
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" width="640" height="427" src="https://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-6-640x427.jpg" alt="gun violence hearing" class="wp-image-2209322" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-6-640x427.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-6-190x127.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-6-768x512.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-6-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-6-780x520.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-6-400x267.jpg 400w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-6.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">DFL State Sen. Zaynab Mohamed speaks during a meeting of the Gun Violence Prevention Working Group at the Minnesota Senate Building on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. Credit: Ellen Schmidt/MinnPost/CatchLight Local/Report for America</figcaption></figure></div>
In the meantime, we have this working group launched by Latz and Sen. Zaynab Mohamed, DFL-Minneapolis, whose district includes Annunciation. The working group cannot vote to advance a bill unless the Legislature is called. 
<h3 class="wp-block-heading has-secondary-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-1f45c2138ef17627ffba776f966e15e9">Related: <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2025/09/walzs-urgency-to-act-on-gun-violence-runs-into-political-reality-in-divided-legislature/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Walz’s urgency to act on gun violence runs into political reality in divided Legislature</a></h3>
The group can propose and debate bills, and on Monday twelve potential new laws were considered. 
One, authored by Mohamed, was a detailed proposal to outlaw 17 different types of firearms that the lawmaker deemed as “any ammunition feeding device with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds.” 
“This legislation addresses a narrow but deadly category of firearms that have repeatedly been used in mass shootings,” Mohamed said. 
Mohamed’s bill went on to also ban high-capacity magazines, which she defined as holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition. 
Most of the other legislative proposals ran less than a page and did not include ideas about how the law would be enforced or funded. 
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" width="640" height="427" src="https://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-7-640x427.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2209319" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-7-640x427.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-7-190x127.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-7-768x512.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-7-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-7-780x520.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-7-400x267.jpg 400w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Senate-Gun-Prevention_091525_es-7.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A group wearing Moms Demand Action shirts listens during a meeting of the Gun Violence Prevention Working Group at the Minnesota Senate Building on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. Credit: Ellen Schmidt/MinnPost/CatchLight Local/Report for America</figcaption></figure></div>
A few smaller measures would appear to have bipartisan support, including one Hoffman wrote to make impersonating a police officer a felony. Hoffman let shooting suspect Vance Boelter into his home because Boelter allegedly said that he was a police officer. 
(Hoffman is still recovering and did not attend Monday’s meeting.)
“It’s pretty helpful and it’s something I’d personally support,” Latz said of the measure. “But it’s not going to stop most of the gun violence in our country.” 
The working group will meet for a second session Wednesday, one that will be without public testimony. 
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2025/09/annunciation-parents-pain-dominates-minnesota-capitol-gun-violence-hearing/">Annunciation parents’ pain dominates Minnesota Capitol gun violence hearing</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2209345</post-id> </item>
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<title>90,000 Minnesotans face big health insurance premium hikes without congressional action</title>
<link>http://www.minnpost.com/national/washington/2025/09/90000-minnesotans-face-big-health-insurance-premium-hikes-without-congressional-action/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ana Radelat]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2025 18:07:28 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[National]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Washington]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.minnpost.com/?p=2209191</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-1024x683.jpg" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="A person reaches their arm out for a blood pressure band to be wrapped around it." decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-190x127.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-640x427.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-768x512.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-1200x800.jpg 1200w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-780x520.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-400x267.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
A ‘premium cliff’ looms as increased subsidies for MNsure enrollees are about to end.
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/national/washington/2025/09/90000-minnesotans-face-big-health-insurance-premium-hikes-without-congressional-action/">90,000 Minnesotans face big health insurance premium hikes without congressional action</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-1024x683.jpg" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="A person reaches their arm out for a blood pressure band to be wrapped around it." decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-190x127.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-640x427.jpg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-768x512.jpg 768w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-1200x800.jpg 1200w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-780x520.jpg 780w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/AP23299712108553-400x267.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
WASHINGTON — For 90,000 Minnesotans, the Affordable Care Act may soon become unaffordable.
That’s because a COVID-era policy by the Biden administration that has lowered the cost of an insurance policy in the ACA marketplace, called MNsure in Minnesota, will end on Dec. 31 unless Congress acts.
The ACA helps people pay insurance premiums on a sliding scale according to their income. The subsidies, or tax credits, were boosted and extended to higher-income people in 2021 through the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1319/text" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">American Rescue Plan.</a> 
That made health insurance effectively free for many Americans close to the poverty line and offered <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/health/2025/03/key-aca-subsidy-could-end-increasing-mnsure-premiums-and-ranks-of-uninsured/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">new financial assistance</a> to individuals earning about $60,000 and a family of four with an income of more than $128,600 in 2025.
The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that an end to the enhanced credits would result in huge increases in premiums for enrollees, especially those in rural areas, and about 4 million more Americans being uninsured.
Most Minnesotans get their health care coverage through their employers or through government plans like Medicare and Medicaid.
But more than 167,000 Minnesota obtained private health care coverage through <a href="https://www.mnsure.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MNsure</a> this year, mostly students, younger retirees, contractors and the self-employed, including farmers. A majority of those those enrollees — 90,000 — benefited from the Biden-era enhanced subsidies.
“I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of resentment,” said Anthony Wilkerson, a broker who helps people enroll in MNsure, if Congress fails to extend the program. Wilkerson also said that “if that (federal help) is not there, it’s going to cause a lot of pain.”
MNsure Chief Executive Officer Libby Caulum warned of what many are calling a “premium cliff.”
“If Congress doesn’t act quickly, farmers, small-business owners and other Minnesotans who get federal tax credits through MNsure will see their monthly premiums go up by 54%, on average, and over 19,500 will lose access to all financial help next year,” Caulum said.
The upheaval and “hard choices” would begin when Minnesotans begin to consider their 2026 coverage options in November, she said. “Some could decide to drop coverage, with negative impacts for their personal health and for Minnesota’s first-class health care system,” Caulum said.
Yet voting to extend the program, at a cost of more than $30 billion a year, is difficult for Republicans who have opposed the ACA and the American Rescue Plan that created the enhanced subsidies.
They now say the enhanced tax credits were needed to help people get health coverage during the pandemic and are not needed anymore.  
Still, a group of vulnerable Republicans in “purple” districts are nervous about the end of the subsidies and have sponsored legislation to extend them, at least temporarily.
<a href="https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/09/10/congress/ways-and-means-gop-has-tense-meeting-on-aca-tax-credits-00556553" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According to Politico</a>, Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee — a panel that has jurisdiction over the ACA credits and whose members include Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-7th District — had a “tense” meeting last Wednesday over the politically divisive issue.
Democrats may insist that an extension of the credits be part of a short-term budget bill that would avert a federal government shutdown after Sept. 30.
“Republicans have to come to meet with us in a true bipartisan negotiation to satisfy the American people’s needs on health care or they won’t get our votes, plain and simple,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned at a press conference last week.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., posted on X: “This year, your health insurance costs will spike higher than they have in 15 years because Congressional Republicans are refusing to extend the health care tax credits. Democrats are united in fighting to extend these credits and lower your health care.”
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">‘Catastrophic damage’</h3>
Rep. Kelly Morrison, D-3rd District, an OB-GYN, has, with other Democratic lawmakers who are doctors, pressed for the extension of the enhanced ACA credits. “We are set to face enormous increases in health insurance premiums for tens of millions of Americans,” she said.
Morrison said the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that set President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda has already “ripped health care away for millions of Americans” through its cuts to Medicaid.
“Now they are threatening even further catastrophic damage by raising health insurance premiums for tens of millions of Americans,” she said.
The OBBB also banned DACA recipients – immigrant youth who have been given temporary protection from deportation and work authorization through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — from purchasing insurance in the ACA marketplace and shortened the ACA’s annual enrollment period.
Those changes, and others, including new restrictions that will end the ACA’s financial help for lawfully present immigrants, will mean that more than 62,000 Minnesotans — or about 45% of MNsure enrollees — will drop their private health plan coverage,” Caulum said.
Rep. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, was part of a news conference held by Democrats at the U.S. Capitol last week to introduce a bill that would reverse the OBBB’s health care cuts and extend the ACA credits. That legislation has slim chances of passing, but advances the Democratic aim of making health care an issue in next year’s midterm elections.
“By slashing Medicaid and allowing the Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire, congressional Republicans have moved to rip health care away from 17 million Americans in order to fund massive tax breaks for billionaires and wealthy corporations,” said Craig, who is running for the U.S. Senate.
The Kaiser Family Foundation <a href="https://www.kff.org/affordable-care-act/who-might-lose-eligibility-for-affordable-care-act-marketplace-subsidies-if-enhanced-tax-credits-are-not-extende" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">identified those</a> who would be most affected by the “premium cliff.”
A KFF analysis said that, nationally, about 51% of the higher-income enrollees (measured as income that’s four times the federal poverty level, or about $62,600) who would lose assistance are between the ages of 50-64, a group that is faced with the highest health insurance rates.
And KFF said that based on 2025 premiums, a 60-year-old couple earning $85,000 annually (416% of the federal poverty level in the contiguous 48 states) would see their monthly premium payments increase by $1,507 a month, or more than $18,000 a year.
Self-employed individuals would also be hard hit, with about 38% of them losing their ACA subsidy eligibility, the KFF study said. 
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to add comment from Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/national/washington/2025/09/90000-minnesotans-face-big-health-insurance-premium-hikes-without-congressional-action/">90,000 Minnesotans face big health insurance premium hikes without congressional action</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2209191</post-id> </item>
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<title>Hungry Mind bookstore put Minnesota’s literary community on the map</title>
<link>http://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2025/09/hungry-mind-bookstore-put-minnesotas-literary-community-on-the-map/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Paul Nelson]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2025 18:02:31 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Arts & Culture]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[MNopedia]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.minnpost.com/?p=2209201</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="640" height="427" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Hungry-Mind-MNopedia_091525_MNopedia-1.jpeg" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="A large room filled with bookshelves and three people standing and reading." decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Hungry-Mind-MNopedia_091525_MNopedia-1.jpeg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Hungry-Mind-MNopedia_091525_MNopedia-1-190x127.jpeg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Hungry-Mind-MNopedia_091525_MNopedia-1-400x267.jpeg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
Guests at Hungry Mind events ranged from Gloria Steinem to Jimmy Carter, Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson and Hilary Clinton — just to name a few.
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2025/09/hungry-mind-bookstore-put-minnesotas-literary-community-on-the-map/">Hungry Mind bookstore put Minnesota’s literary community on the map</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="640" height="427" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Hungry-Mind-MNopedia_091525_MNopedia-1.jpeg" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="A large room filled with bookshelves and three people standing and reading." decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Hungry-Mind-MNopedia_091525_MNopedia-1.jpeg 640w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Hungry-Mind-MNopedia_091525_MNopedia-1-190x127.jpeg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Hungry-Mind-MNopedia_091525_MNopedia-1-400x267.jpeg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
In its nearly 34 years, from 1970 to 2004, the Hungry Mind grew from a tiny neighborhood bookshop to a regional powerhouse with a national reach. It became a favored venue for appearances by hundreds of authors of local, national and international stature. Its quarterly book review, the Hungry Mind Review, reached tens of thousands of readers in all fifty states and across Canada. Its press, Hungry Mind Press, published fifty titles. It promoted the local literary arts, especially small presses, poetry and fiction, and their creators. Financial pressures forced it to close in the summer of 2004.
In 1970 an idea occurred to David Unowsky: Open a bookstore in his neighborhood, near Macalester College in St. Paul. It debuted with two small rooms in October of that year, and he called it the Hungry Mind. In 1972 it became the Macalester College bookstore, and the college became its banker and landlord at its permanent location, 1648 Grand Avenue.
Unowsky took as his missions providing a wide variety of titles, tending to his customers’ interests, and supporting local writers and presses. In the late 1970s the store began hosting author readings — at first, mostly local poets. This practice slowly expanded. By the mid-1980s national publishing houses were regularly sending, at their expense, writers of national and international renown.
<h3 class="wp-block-heading has-secondary-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-b127e5f4064214d68bf9b9d4402ca2eb"><a href="https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2025/08/how-minneapolis-became-home-to-one-of-the-oldest-lgbtq-lending-libraries-in-the-country/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Related: How Minneapolis became home to one of the oldest LGBTQ+ lending libraries in the country</a></h3>
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<figure class="alignright size-large"><img decoding="async" width="508" height="500" src="https://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Hungry-Mind-MNopedia_091525_MNopedia-3-508x500.jpg" alt="A man wearing amber glasses and a green suit jacket leans against a foot ladder in front of bookshelves where people are browsing." class="wp-image-2209233" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Hungry-Mind-MNopedia_091525_MNopedia-3-508x500.jpg 508w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Hungry-Mind-MNopedia_091525_MNopedia-3-190x187.jpg 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Hungry-Mind-MNopedia_091525_MNopedia-3-400x394.jpg 400w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Hungry-Mind-MNopedia_091525_MNopedia-3.jpg 650w" sizes="(max-width: 508px) 100vw, 508px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">David Unowsky inside his bookstore, the Hungry Mind, 1994. Credit: Steve Woit via MNopedia</figcaption></figure></div>
The writers who appeared at Hungry Mind events (there would be more than 1,500) ranged from Minnesota baseball stars Dave Winfield and Kirby Puckett to Nobel Prize winners Orhan Pamuk and Kazuo Ishiguro. Others included Jimmy Carter, Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson, Isabel Allende, Studs Turkel, Molly Ivins, Norman Mailer, John Updike, Gloria Steinem, David Sedaris, Hilary Clinton, and hundreds more recognizable names. Hungry Mind readings were always free, but due to high demand many had to be held at much bigger venues, often at Macalester College or Central Presbyterian Church in downtown St. Paul. By the mid-1990s the bookstore routinely offered over 200 events per year. More than 1,700 authors made Hungry Mind appearances between 1978 and 2004.
In 1985 Unowsky, with Bart Schneider as editor, launched the Hungry Mind Review, in time a quarterly journal of book reviews, author interviews and original artwork. Like the author appearances, the Review employed local, regional and nationally prominent writers; it also made a point of supporting local presses, such as Milkweed Editions, based in Minneapolis. In its first decade or so it was distributed solely through independent bookstores; it eventually achieved a circulation estimated at 50,000. In 1994 Unowsky and a small team of investors and collaborators created the Hungry Mind Press, which specialized in publishing out-of-print titles they believed had been overlooked by the big publishing houses. Though Unowsky denied ever having a business plan, the effect was to create a Twin Cities literary ecosystem with the Hungry Mind at its center.
All of these ventures took place in the context of turmoil in the bookselling trade, most notably the rise of enormous chains such as B. Dalton (based in Minneapolis), Barnes & Noble, Waldenbooks and Borders, and large independent stores in the Twin Cities, such as Gringolet, Baxter’s (both Minneapolis) and Odegard’s (Minneapolis and St. Paul). The Hungry Mind outlasted almost all the independents, but the competition was intense, and made worse by the appearance of the online bookseller Amazon in 1995.
By the late 1990s the Hungry Mind was selling more books than ever, holding more events, employing more people — up to 50, with health insurance — and losing money. It secured a temporary lifeline when a California publisher bought the Hungry Mind name; Unowsky then renamed his enterprises Ruminator. Despite the losses, in 2001 he opened a second store at Open Book, a book arts hub in downtown Minneapolis. This proved to be a fateful error.
The Minneapolis store lost money from the first and closed in 2003, at which time Unowsky owed Macalester College, which had financed his ventures since 1972, over $600,000. He tried frantically to erase the debt in late 2003 and early 2004, to no avail. The bookstore closed in July of that year, and Unowsky went into bankruptcy. The Ruminator Press had already ceased to publish; Ruminator Review lasted a few months longer.
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Bibliography</h2>
[Editor’s note: A more complete list of sources is provided in the author’s Minnesota History article on Hungry Mind, cited below. Major sources of information used in its writing are reproduced here.]
Beren, George. “An Independent Mind.” St. Paul Pioneer Press, January 21, 1996.
Bielenberg, Tom. Interview with the author, October 7, 2024.
Chanen, David. “Hungry Mind Fills Owner’s Needs, Readers’ Shelves.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, January 4, 1990.
Hellman, Dan. “Declaration of Independents.” City Pages, August 22, 1990.
Nelson, Paul. “<a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/mnhs-org-support/mn_history_articles/69/v69i05p192-203.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">That Great Good Place: the Hungry Mind</a>.” Minnesota History 69, no. 5 (Spring 2025): 192–203.
Otarola, Miguel. “His West Bank Bookstore Was a Literary Hub and Springboard.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 2, 2020.
Sorenson, Bob. “Book Boom: Tale of Twin Cities.” Minneapolis Tribune, June 17, 1967.
Trueheart, Charles. “St. Paul’s Hungry Mind Review Is a Sophisticated Look at Books.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 23, 1990.
Unowsky, Dave. Interview with the author, November 17, 2024.
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Related Resources</h2>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Secondary</h3>
Friss, Evan. The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore. Viking, 2024.
Oldenburg, Ray. The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. Marlowe & Company, 1999.
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2025/09/hungry-mind-bookstore-put-minnesotas-literary-community-on-the-map/">Hungry Mind bookstore put Minnesota’s literary community on the map</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
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<title>Annunciation victim remembered ahead of school reopening</title>
<link>http://www.minnpost.com/glean/2025/09/annunciation-victim-remembered-ahead-of-school-reopening/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Holly Marie Moore]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2025 17:10:49 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[The Glean]]></category>
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Plus: 'Music' of bees and butterflies inspires local composer; Minnesota creators make custom piñatas; and more.
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/glean/2025/09/annunciation-victim-remembered-ahead-of-school-reopening/">Annunciation victim remembered ahead of school reopening</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="400" height="265" src="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/TheWinterGlean400.png" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/TheWinterGlean400.png 400w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/TheWinterGlean400.png?resize=130,86 130w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/TheWinterGlean400.png?resize=190,126 190w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/TheWinterGlean400.png?resize=50,33 50w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/TheWinterGlean400.png?resize=75,50 75w, http://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/TheWinterGlean400.png?resize=200,133 200w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
As Annunciation Catholic School prepares to welcome students back to campus three weeks after the mass shooting that took two children’s lives and injured at least 21 other people, WCCO TV says many came together to honor one of the victims this weekend. “Hundreds gathered at the Lake Harriet Bandshell in Minneapolis on Sunday to celebrate the life of 10-year-old Harper Moyski, one of the two young students killed. … <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/harper-moyski-celebration-of-life-annunciation-catholic-church-shooting-minneapolis/">Parents Mike Moyski and Jackie Flavin opened up about the difficulty of their loss</a>, which no parents should ever have to endure.”
When most people think of bees and butterflies, they recognize them as garden visitors. But a Minnesota composer is looking beyond what he sees and even closer at what he hears. MPR News writes, “Doug Harbin’s written lots of compelling music and he’s experimented with unusual sounds. … <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/09/15/minnesota-composer-uses-bees-butterflies-to-make-music">So when a scientist friend suggested he listen in on the noises of bees and butterflies for inspiration</a>, the Moorhead composer couldn’t resist.”
Minnesota creators are finding joy in making piñatas into anything you can imagine, from superheroes to Labubu characters. Sahan Journal reports “for the past two months, Nancy Ruiz has spent her spare time cutting cardboard at home. <a href="https://sahanjournal.com/business-work/custom-pinatas-demand-growing-minnesota/">Patience is crucial as she molds it into various shapes</a> and brushes on adhesive.”
Heading to a Vikings game this season? Bring Me The News has a list of foods you should try and foods you should avoid at U.S. Bank Stadium. <a href="https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-lifestyle/revealed-the-best-and-worst-new-foods-at-u-s-bank-stadium-for-the-2025-vikings-season">A couple of mac and cheese dishes top the recommended list</a> while their writers don’t recommend the “Graceful Beef Nachos.”
The post <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/glean/2025/09/annunciation-victim-remembered-ahead-of-school-reopening/">Annunciation victim remembered ahead of school reopening</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.minnpost.com">MinnPost</a>.
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