Flights are delayed at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport after telecommunication issues caused a ground stoppage for about an hour and a half Thursday afternoon.

The FAA said it briefly paused flights into and out of Minneapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center’s airspace due to the telecommunications issues.

“Services have been fully restored, and flights are returning to normal. The FAA is investigating the cause,” an FAA spokesperson told MPR News in a statement.

The ground stoppage was in effect from about 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, airport spokesperson Jeff Lea said.

The airport is now seeing delays due to the stoppage, Lea said. He doesn’t know when the airport will be back to normal operations.

It's unknown whether the issue is related to other outages in the state. Early voting machines temporarily lost internet connectivity Thursday, and Dakota County 911 lines were down for about an hour.

Minnesota IT Services said it is responding to a service interruption from its service provider that affected state and county systems.

“Power is beginning to be restored as MNIT continues to investigate the issue in partnership with the vendor and restore full functionality. State agencies and partners will receive updates as information becomes available,” MNIT spokesperson Juliana Schacherer said.

Schacherer said there is no indication the outages are a result of a cybersecurity incident.

The Minnesota Secretary of State’s office said it’s in contact with counties where the voting systems were down. They continued processing voters using backup procedures.

The glowing red "1" atop the First National Bank Building will be fully lit again Thursday night.

The sign had been slowly deteriorating for several years until Downtown Revival Trust bought the building earlier this year. The organization’s founder Jamie Rand said the light is about 95 percent fixed and expects it to be fully completed in six months.

Downtown Revival Trust purchased the building in May for $3.8 million with plans to spend $7 million on upgrades. One of those upgrades will be making the sign change colors, Rand said.

Rand plans to change its colors for Minnesota Wild games, purple for Prince’s birthday and green for St. Patrick's Day.

The light is currently turned on through a switch on the 30th floor, but he said it’ll eventually be changed through an app.

“Sign's been dark for way too long,” he said. “It's my hope by relighting the sign and all the other restoration work that I'm doing. We're spending millions of dollars, this is just one little piece of the puzzle. I want to be the light to be a strong visual reminder of what downtown can be.”

The sign is three-sided, and Rand said one side was almost completely not working. The other two sides were operating at about 30-35 percent. Rand said it took three different sign companies to make the sign work.

"I'm not stopping here, I believe in St. Paul. I believe in downtown," he said.

Founder of the St. Paul Downtown Alliance, Joe Spencer, said he’s excited about what the relighting will mean for downtown.

“When that sign went dark, that said something, right, and we had a tough couple of years, but so too does this sign getting relit also mean something and it means something real,” Spencer said. “It's important for us to create a shared sense of place. It's an important part of our shared story, and that is a key, an important part of a downtown revitalization.”

Rand said he plans to keep First National as an office building with plans to open the skyway to increase foot traffic. He said he’s close to announcing “a few large leases” soon.

Investments by public and private groups have resulted in a collective $1.293 billion investment in downtown, according to Spencer.

“Just in the last year, we've counted up over 20 storefront businesses that have opened in downtown St. Paul,” Spencer said. “We have this palpable sense of momentum, and I want to say again, this doesn't happen by accident, it happens because of intention, it happens because of partnership.”

The sign will light up Thursday night at 9 p.m. at a relighting ceremony event.

A woman who suffered salmonella poisoning after eating takeout from a Twin Cities Chipotle is suing the restaurant chain.

According to her civil complaint filed Wednesday, Kristen Behne ordered a chicken burrito bowl from the Chipotle location in Roseville on June 24.

Three days later Behne lost consciousness, her temperature rose to 102 degrees Fahrenheit, her heart rate skyrocketed to 145 beats per minute, and she suffered severe diarrhea.

“She was very, very sick. Dehydration and the toll that salmonella takes on the body can be very serious,” Behne’s attorney Lindsay Lien said in an interview Thursday. “When bacteria gets in the bloodstream, complications can be serious and sometimes fatal.”

“These sort of infections take a long time for people to recover from, and so she’s working through that,” Lien said.

Behne, 28, was hospitalized for two days, and doctors diagnosed her with sepsis and an inflamed colon. She received two liters of intravenous fluid and was treated with the antibiotic ciprofloxacin.

The Minnesota Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention traced the salmonella bacteria that Behne ingested to jalapeño peppers in Chipotle's salsa.

Health officials have identified at least 110 cases in Minnesota and connected the majority to Chipotle. MDH has said that Chipotle has been cooperative with the investigation.

The CDC said Tuesday that the outbreak has infected 345 people in 27 states. Three dozen people were hospitalized. No deaths were reported.

The restaurant chain has said that it removed the jalapeños linked to the outbreak. MPR News requested comment from Chipotle on Behne’s lawsuit.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is once more trying to limit the number of people who are born in the country who can become American citizens, in a sign that even after his first attempt at limiting birthright citizenship was rejected by the Supreme Court, he's ready to try again.

The president said he was signing two executive actions on immigration, including one limiting the number of people eligible for U.S. citizenship after being born in the United States, while another focused on stopping people from coming to the U.S. to give birth.

The written executive order released later Thursday was narrower in scope than the previous one shot down by the Supreme Court and appeared to focus on restricting automatic citizenship to specific categories of people, including children born to adults with connections to foreign embassies or organizations as well as anyone considered an “alien enemy” of the United States.

It also aimed to restrict birthright citizenship to anyone whose parents “engaged in fraudulent activity to obtain citizenship."

A second order seeks to curb what Trump called “birth tourism” by increasing restrictions on visitors to the U.S. who want to obtain visas to give birth while in the country.

It was not immediately clear how successful the president's most recent attempt to restrict birthright citizenship would be. Trump said he thought his latest actions would be constitutional and his drive to reopen the question reflected the administration's zeal to restrict who gets to become an American.

“I thought we were going to win it at the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, we had a bad decision, very unfair decision. Our country suffers because of it and we’re ending it a different way,” Trump said.

The Migration Policy Institute noted in a 2026 article that it’s already considered fraud and grounds to restrict a visa if someone seeks a visa specifically to come to the U.S. and obtain citizenship for a child. Previous administrations have also sought to prosecute so-called “birth tourism" schemes that helped women hide their pregnancies while traveling to the United States to give birth.

Birthright citizenship has become a key rallying point in the president’s second term anti-immigration agenda, with the president and supporters arguing it makes the country a magnet for immigration and that American citizenship should be reserved for those who truly value it, as opposed to just being given to anyone born here.

But immigration advocates and many legal experts say that the Constitution is clear in outlining who is considered a citizen. They've also argued that birthright citizenship is a benefit to the U.S. by giving everyone an equal stake in the country's future and that restricting who can become a citizen would create a second-class of people in America.

The Trump administration has painted birth tourism as a widespread problem. There's no official estimate of how many births can be considered “birth tourism” births, but an estimated 26,000 might fall into that category out of the roughly 3.5 million births in the U.S. every year, MPI wrote in its 2026 article.

In June, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s previous efforts to declare that children born to people in the U.S. illegally or temporarily aren’t American citizens, and upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship.

The American Civil Liberties Union predicted that Trump's second attempt would also be rejected.

“The Supreme Court already decided this issue: Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the Constitution. No additional executive order can change the meaning of the Constitution. Any executive order that tries to rewrite birthright citizenship will meet the same fate as the last one,” said Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, in a statement Thursday.

On Trump’s first day in office of his second term, he signed an executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship, which allows anyone born in the United States to automatically become an American citizen.

Trump’s administration was immediately sued by opponents who said the executive order went against the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, which makes anyone born in the country a citizen, with very limited exceptions.

The executive order was blocked by several lower courts and never took effect.

In June, the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s order by a 6-3 vote. But the vote was too close for many immigration advocates and legal observers who felt the legal question of birthright citizenship was a long-settled issue.

When it came to the legal question of whether birthright citizenship was protected by the Constitution, the vote was even narrower. Only five justices said it was enshrined in the Constitution, while Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected the executive order, but did so specifically on the grounds that federal law conveys birthright citizenship.

Small businesses in northeast Minnesota that cater to canoeists and other summer visitors are calling for economic relief after being decimated by wildfire-related losses, even though Gov. Tim Walz indicated Wednesday that a special session to provide aid to businesses affected by the Boundary Waters fires appeared unlikely.

“It is an extremely devastating blow, and I fear for some of the businesses in this town that they may not survive this,” said Tanner Spicer, owner of Voyageur North Outfitters in Ely, who had hoped for a special session.

More than 80 businesses and nonprofits in northeastern Minnesota sent a letter to Walz and state legislators Thursday, calling for a special session for fire relief, or for an economic relief package passed when the legislature reconvenes in January.

The letter asks for grants of up to $150,000 for businesses and groups that lost at least 20 percent of revenue between July and August when compared to last year.

“We can't and don't expect a comprehensive solution today,” said Ben Seaton of Hungry Jack Outfitters. “But our officials waiting for the perfect time, the perfect words, or the perfect solution only leaves the rest of us without those very things we need so very badly right now.”

The lightning-caused fires that ignited and spread through the area last month led the Forest Service to close the entire Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for about two weeks. Resorts and other businesses that were in evacuated areas had to close, and the region was blanketed in unhealthy smoke for a couple days, keeping visitors and the money they usually spend in the area away.

Since then, cooler, wetter weather has helped firefighters gain some containment of the fires. Most evacuation orders have been lifted, and the U.S. Forest Service has reopened much of the wilderness.

But the tourism-focused businesses in Ely and elsewhere around the Boundary Waters earn nearly all their revenue for the year during the busy but short summer months. And many lost nearly all their income in July. Spicer said that’s money that cannot be made up.

“A lot of businesses lost hundreds of thousands of dollars already, and they need some relief,” said Republican State Rep. Roger Skraba, who represents Ely and the surrounding area in the state legislature.

Skraba, along with DFL State Sen. Grant Haushchild, have called for a special session to provide economic aid to businesses impacted by the fires. They also hosted two economic forums – one in Ely, a second along the Gunflint Trail– to hear from businesses impacted by the fires.

At the Grand Marais session, David Seaton, co-owner and operator of Hungry Jack Outfitters told the lawmakers he lost 98 percent of his revenue, calling the month of July, “disastrous.”

“Every one of our cabins [was] canceled. Every one of our outfitting groups could not do their trip,” Seaton said.

Cook County Commissioner Ann Sullivan said small businesses in the area are facing pushback from their insurance companies for claiming damages due to business interruption.

“At a time when cash flow has been turned off, the spigot is turned off, a lot of [small business owners] have large bills looming for canoe fleets, and also for merchandise and mortgages,” Sullivan said at the Aug. 1 discussion. “We heard from almost everyone that business interruption insurance coverage is either not available to them or is being denied. I have not heard one insurance company claim that they are going to support our businesses.”

Hauschild said they’re also targeting other sources of funding to provide businesses with some aid, from nonprofits and state agencies, including Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation and DEED, the Department of Employment and Economic Development. “We're just working on a holistic approach to provide relief,” he said.

The United Way of Northeastern Minnesota (UWNEMN) has raised more than $190,000 as of August 6 for individuals and small businesses that lost income as a result of the wildfires.

The agency plans to award grants ranging from $2,500 to $5,000 to help businesses with payroll assistance, rent, mortgage and other expenses. Individuals can apply for funding ranging from $500 to $1,500.

So far the United Way has received more than $300,000 in requests. “After weeks of critical revenue during what should have been these communities’ busiest season, we know recovery won't happen overnight,” said UWNEMN Executive Director Erin Shay. “For many, the financial impacts will continue long after these fires are out.”

Canoeists and other visitors have begun to return to northeast Minnesota. About two-thirds of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness have now been reopened.

But people continue to cancel trips for later in the summer and fall, said Spicer. “I was just on the phone with another customer who canceled their trip for September because they're afraid of the fires and the smoke, even though we haven't had smoke since day two of the fires,” he said.

Businesses continue to battle the perception that it’s unsafe or unhealthy to visit, Spicer added. “The news makes it doom and gloom all over the place, and people think we're burning to the ground, and it's not that way,” he said. “You wouldn't even know there's a fire going on.”

He encourages people to support Ely businesses on-line and by buying gift certificates. He also wants people to call their legislators to ask for economic aid for businesses harmed by the fires.

“The skies are clear. The smoke is gone. Our businesses are open,” said Hauschild. “We want people to plan late summer and early fall trips up to northern Minnesota.”

A panel of three judges will hear a complaint that Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Lindell violated campaign finance rules by giving away pillows during campaign events.

Administrative Law Judge Nicholas Lienesch found the complaint against Lindell had enough probable cause to move on to an evidentiary hearing in front of a three-judge administrative panel.

The complaint says Lindell threw pillows from the company he started, MyPillow, to the crowd as he campaigned at a July 4 parade in Delano.

Under state law, a person cannot give away something of monetary value to induce a person to vote in a certain way, although there is an exception for food or drink under five dollars in value. Lindell testified that the pillows were purchased wholesale for $4.90 per pillow, and included campaign literature.

No hearing date has been set, but it is unlikely to happen before Tuesday's primary.

Along Highway 65 on the Nett Lake sector of the Bois Forte reservation, just south of the Canadian border, the forest runs to tall red and white pine and blue spruce. Lance Hill is the realty manager for the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe, and a citizen of the band. He has watched it buy back land the Bois Forte band lost more than a century ago.

“It hit a lot of positive notes with the band,” Hill said. “Yes, we finally get to get our land back.”

He turns his car down Palmquist Road, and the forest changes. Stands of younger, leafier aspen and birch grow back fast on ground that was logged hard for decades.

That younger forest is doing something unusual. It is helping to buy back the land it grows on.

In 2022, the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe reacquired about 28,000 acres inside its own northern Minnesota reservation, land it had lost more than a century ago to federal allotment and tax forfeiture. By the band’s account, it is the largest tribal land return in the United States. The band could not afford to buy it outright. So, it turned to carbon offsets as a way to generate revenue.

As a forest grows, it pulls carbon dioxide out of the air and stores it in wood and soil. A company that wants to offset its own emissions can pay for that stored carbon, one credit for every metric ton. Bois Forte will let most of these acres grow, sell credits for the carbon they hold, and use the money to pay off the loan it took to buy the land back. It has enrolled 22,000 of the 28,000 acres in the project.

The National Indian Carbon Coalition helped guide the project and calls it a model for tribal nations across the country. It is also an early test of a new method built to fix the flaws that have dogged carbon offsets, and one of the first times a large landowner has put that method to work.

For many in the band, it was hard to accept. When Hill and others explained that Bois Forte would get 28,000 acres back at no cost to its members, some people struggled to believe it.

“There was a lot of distrust,” Hill said. “When they hear pieces like we’re going to give you back 28,000 acres, and it does not cost anything, that almost sounds too good to be true. They were like, I got to see it.”

More than a carbon offset

The National Indian Carbon Coalition, a Native-led nonprofit that helps tribes build carbon projects on their own land, has been working with Bois Forte for the past several years. The coalition is a program of the Indian Land Tenure Foundation, the organization that helped the Bois Forte band finance the purchase of the land through its lending arm.

Bryan Van Stippen leads the National Indian Carbon Coalition. He says carbon offsets are a means, not an end.

“We talk about the carbon markets and ecosystem markets as a tool in the tool chest,” Van Stippen said. “Our mission at the Indian Land Tenure Foundation is Indian lands in the Indian hands. That's what we're trying to do.”

For Hill, the return is about far more than money.

“When you bring a lot of land back, it’s going to make people feel good,” Hill said. “Because we can practice our ways. We got more space to do it.”

The parcels that make up the band’s carbon offset project are scattered throughout the Nett Lake watershed, where the band harvests wild rice, or manoomin, central to its culture and diet.

Hill said letting the forest grow protects the water the rice depends on and restores habitat for the animals the community hunts. The band chose to track moose, wild rice and pink lady slipper flowers as an added measure of the project's health.

For now, Hill says the plan is mostly to let the forest rest. The band's carbon plan calls for letting forest stands grow rather than harvesting them, stepping in only when fire, pests or invasive species require it. Prescribed burning is part of the design, a way to restore a natural fire cycle and reduce the buildup of fuel that could feed a larger wildfire.

The Bois Forte band’s carbon offset project has a duration of 40 years. The band expects to repay the loan it took to buy the land in about 20 years, using carbon revenue. Because a fire or an insect outbreak could release some of the stored carbon, the project sets aside a share of its credits as insurance.

A market that has drawn doubts

While the land return is complete, the carbon science behind it is far less certain in a market that has drawn years of criticism.

Investigations and academic studies have found that many forest carbon offsets don't deliver the climate benefit they promise. Some projects were credited for protecting forests that were never in danger. Others claimed to store carbon that later burned. The criticism has been broad enough that the industry has spent the past several years trying to rebuild trust.

Whether the climate benefit is real is a harder question, and the answer depends on how the stored carbon gets counted.

One of the biggest doubts about carbon credits involves a concept researchers call additionality. Grayson Badgley is a research scientist who studies carbon offsets at the climate nonprofit CarbonPlan.

“You don’t want to pay somebody to not chop down trees that they were never going to chop down anyway,” Badgley said.

He says a carbon offset is sort of like draining a bathtub while the faucet is still on.

“What we’re doing with offsets is we’re basically trying to make that drain to be a little bit larger, and so if that doesn't actually happen, the water just keeps on rising, and in the end, we still got ourselves a bit of a problem,” Badgley said.

A new method for counting stored carbon

The Bois Forte project runs under a newer method, designed by the carbon registry Verra to answer earlier criticisms. Older projects set their own baseline, each one essentially predicting how much logging it was preventing.

The method, called VM0045, doesn't let a project grade itself. Instead of a fixed prediction, it uses what is known as a dynamic baseline, comparing the project against real, similar forests elsewhere, measured over time by the U.S. Forest Service, to see whether the protected land stores more carbon than comparable woodlands that aren't enrolled.

An independent body set up to certify credit quality has approved the method as one that meets its standards. Approval means the method is sound on paper. Whether it holds up in a real forest is a separate question.

“Dynamic baselines are a step in the right direction,” said Badgley. “But they're not a silver bullet.”

Everything depends on honest comparisons, Badgley said. Match a lightly managed forest against intensively logged ones, and it will look like it is storing extra carbon when it is only different. He said it's still early.

“We’ve really only had a chance to see the starts of projects,” Badgley said.

Bois Forte is among the first large landowner projects to use the new method, and its credits haven't reached the market yet.

Would the land have been saved from logging anyway?

The credits depend on an assumption about what would have happened to this land without the project. The project is built on the premise that without it, these forested acres would have continued to be logged. If the forest was already headed for protection, the companies that purchase these credits, and their customers, are buying a promise to save trees that were not in danger.

In 2020, the timber company PotlatchDeltic sold these acres not to another logging operation but to The Conservation Fund. In a news release at the time, the nonprofit pledged to keep the land “forested and sustainably managed as working timberlands.”

By the time Bois Forte acquired it, the land had already passed out of the timber company's hands and into conservation ownership.

PotlatchDeltic described the sale as part of a long-planned withdrawal from Minnesota meant to "maximize shareholder value through rural real estate sales." The company called the land "ideal for conservation."

From the seller's side, these acres were being steered away from timber, not toward it.

Asked about the sale, Van Stippen said the outcome was never certain.

In an email to MPR News, Van Stippen said the timber giant “could have just as easily sold this land to another timber company.” Without the carbon financing, Van Stippen added that the Bois Forte band might not have secured the land before it slipped back into other hands.

One conversation at a time

The band built a working group across its departments, held open houses, ran a public comment period, convened its elders, and reserved the right to refuse buyers it doesn't want, including any fossil fuel producer. Any final decisions rest with the tribe’s elected officials. Even the big conservation groups involved, Van Stippen said, are kept in their place.

Their role, Van Stippen said, is to “stand outside the tribal council room” while the band decides. “You do not run the show,” he said. “The tribe runs the show.”

Researcher Grayson Badgley does not dismiss projects like the one at Bois Forte. For him, the best way to think about most forest offsets, he said, is not as cancelling a company’s emissions but as something closer to a donation.

“I want there to be trees in my local community,” he said. “That's better than nothing, but it doesn't actually cancel out my emissions.” The forests are worth protecting, he said. They may just not carry the precise climate guarantee the market promises.

For Hill, the project was never really about carbon. He talks about distrust, land loss and about eventual repair.

“One conversation at a time,” Hill said, “goes a long way to recover that trust.”

DFL candidates U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, and GOP hopefuls Michele Tafoya and Royce White shared the stage at Farmfest. The forum focused on agricultural issues from trade wars to helping families pass farms to the next generation to immigration.

The event did not include GOP-endorsed Senate candidate Adam Schwarze, who despite the party backing, did not meet the minimum polling numbers needed to get an invite.

For Craig, it seemed like a bit of a home field advantage on a subject matter she spends a lot of time thinking about in Congress.

"I ran for ranking member of the House Ag Committee because I wanted to fight for every single one of you in farm country and in rural communities,” she told the crowd.

She said agriculture has not gotten the right support.

"We are in a spiral right now of ad hoc assistance in the farm economy. What we need is good farm policy, not ad hoc assistance,” she said.

This was the first public forum or debate for Michele Tafoya, a former sports broadcaster running her first campaign for public office.

She hammered on fraud in Minnesota, saying the state's lack of oversight made taxpayers weary. Tafoya praised farmers and touted President Donald Trump's trade deals and tariffs.

"In the short term, that causes disruptions, and that stinks. So there should be short-term bridge assistance to farmers to get through those disruptions. I'm all about that. I'm in favor of that,” she said. “But in the long term, we need to focus on what works for all of you in the long term, and that is trade agreements all over the world."

Flanagan had a much different read.

"We see these tariffs coming through. The instability is untenable for so many folks. We see the high cost right of spring planting season was up by $100 million,” she said. “This is a moment in time where we absolutely can demand better."

It was also notable how little Craig and Flanagan took aim at each other, after sparring for much of the DFL primary race.

In fact, they agreed more than they disagreed.

Asked about how they might solve agricultural workforce issues, both had similar answers, saying it's clear immigrant labor is needed for the agricultural economy.

"If somebody has been here, obeyed the law, worked on our family farms, we've got to give them a path to legal status in this country,” Craig said.

Flanagan agreed, saying the country can both secure the borders and "a pathway to citizenship for folks who have been here, who are law-abiding citizens or law-abiding folks who have been part of Minnesota."

On that topic, there was clear disagreement with Republicans.

Tafoya acknowledged the need for some immigrant labor, but she wants it on a temporary basis.

"I am not for amnesty, but I am for the Securing Agriculture's Workforce Act. I am for making conservative improvements to the H-2A law, H-2A visa, so that workers can be here for a period of time and then go back and then re-up that authorization,” she said.

Royce White took a more hardline stance.

“A pathway for people who came into this country illegally to citizenship is amnesty. Okay, if you don't have a border, you don't have a country,” White said, before adding "Mass deportations! Mass deportations!"

White, who was the GOP nominee for Senate in 2024, seemed to try to bait the other candidates, but they simply ignored him. He also took aim at Democrats in the crowd, calling them “commiecrats.”

Missing from the table was Adam Schwarze, not because he didn't want to attend, but because he did not meet the polling threshold needed to be invited.

"This was going to be the one time where we're all going to share a stage, and again, it just really disenfranchises the voters,” he said.

Each campaign is now kicking into high gear as they push toward the Tuesday primary.

MPR News political correspondent Dana Ferguson contributed reporting to this story from Morgan.

Minnesotans between the ages of 21 and 64 who apply for Medicaid will need to demonstrate that they have been working, attending school or volunteering for at least 80 hours each month to qualify for or retain health insurance under the joint federal-state program.

This requirement comes after President Donald Trump signed a sweeping tax and spending bill into law last July. State Medicaid programs must update their existing rules to comply with the new requirements set by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The new work rules will take effect on Jan. 1, 2027. This change is expected to result in an increase in uninsured individuals in the state.

To assist residents, the Minnesota Department of Human Services has launched a new tool available until Aug. 31. It is designed to help individuals navigate the upcoming federal Medicaid work requirements.

The state has technical resources to support the tool only until the end of August and is exploring additional options.

While Medicaid enrollees can still report exemptions and qualifying activities after Aug. 31, they may need to call or visit their county, tribe or the Minnesota Department of Human Services for guidance.

Medicaid, known as Medical Assistance in Minnesota, provides health coverage for 1.2 million residents, offering affordable health insurance to more than one in five Minnesotans, including children, people with disabilities and seniors.

To qualify for Medical Assistance, individuals must still meet specific income requirements based on factors such as age, pregnancy status and family size. Enrollees do not pay a premium for coverage, nor do they share costs for comprehensive health services.

Currently, Medicaid enrollees are required to prove their eligibility at least once a year. But the new law will change this, mandating states to check recipients' eligibility every six months. Some individuals may lose their eligibility or decide to opt out of Medicaid as these changes roll out over the coming years.

Individuals enrolled in Medical Assistance can check whether they meet the federal work reporting requirements set for 2027, as well as review a list of exemptions by using the new lookup tool provided by DHS.

To prepare for their 2027 renewal, Medical Assistance enrollees can report how they plan to qualify for an exemption from work requirements or how they will fulfill a qualifying activity.

The human services department said many people may already meet the requirements or qualify for an exemption, and sharing this information will not affect current coverage.

“Insurance supports people’s overall health, and these new federal administrative barriers will make it harder for some Minnesotans to get and keep Medical Assistance,” DHS’s temporary commissioner John Connolly said in a statement. “While most Medicaid recipients already work or meet the requirements in other ways, we are encouraging people to prepare now for the challenges of more paperwork. We want all eligible Minnesotans to keep their coverage.”

Approximately 243,000 Minnesotans on Medical Assistance will be required to meet federal work requirements. A significant number of these individuals are expected to lose their health coverage, according to DHS, because they may not meet the requirements or may fail to submit the necessary paperwork demonstrating compliance every six months.

A 2023 analysis by KFF shows that most Medicaid enrollees in the U.S. are employed.

According to the Urban Institute, about 91 percent of enrollees are working, enrolled in school, searching for employment or dealing with health issues that limit their job opportunities.

Work requirements do not apply to individuals receiving Medical Assistance due to a disability, parents living with children under the age of 19, individuals who are 65 or older, those who are 20 or younger, and pregnant people.

Certain exemptions from work requirements include American Indian or Alaska Native individuals, those living in a household receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits who are subject to SNAP work rules and individuals who meet the work requirements for the Minnesota Family Investment Program.

Exemptions also apply to those participating in drug or alcohol treatment and rehabilitation programs, individuals who are medically frail or living with a serious, complex, or chronic medical condition, or who are undergoing regular therapy, as well as caregivers of disabled individuals.

Minnesota food shelves can now receive donations of eggs that are past the “best by” or “sell by” date stamped on the carton, providing those in need with greater quantities of a nutritious source of protein while potentially keeping millions of eggs that are still good to eat out of landfills.

A new law that went into effect on Aug. 1 allows grocers and other food retailers in the state to donate eggs up to 30 days past their quality assurance date, as long as they’re kept continuously refrigerated and in their original packaging.

Before the new law went into effect, retailers were forced to throw away eggs once they reached that “best if used by” or “sell by” quality assurance date.

The egg carton now must be marked with the name of the food assistance program distributing the eggs, and a distribution date no more than 30 days after the sell by date and with the label: “Donated Eggs—Not for Resale.”

Second Harvest Heartland, the state’s largest food bank, advocated for the bill and worked with State Sen. Torrey Westrom, R-Alexandria, and Republican lead of the Senate Agriculture Committee, along with State Rep. Andrew Myers, R-Tonka Bay, and State Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, who told MPR News that eggs are one of the food items “that people want the most.”

“So this is going to help Minnesotans, and it’s free,” Maye Quade said. “It costs zero dollars for the state. It’s going to cost zero dollars for Minnesotans, and it’s going to [mean] no more food waste for some of these retailers. So, it’s a really good law, and I’m very excited about it.”

Eggs have been in high demand since the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased the number of Minnesotans who relied on food shelves, and most recently when last year’s avian influenza outbreak caused egg prices to soar.

Deisy De Leon Esqueda, manager of the ECHO food shelf in Mankato, says eggs have long been one of the food items that families most frequently request.

“We did have to decrease how much they were receiving when egg prices skyrocketed,” Esqueda said. “But we felt it was important for families to be able to receive this additional protein for their family.”

But food shelves like ECHO struggled to meet that surging demand for eggs because they couldn’t accept eggs after the quality assurance date stamped on the carton. Even though eggs are still good and good for you long after that “sell by” or “best if used by” date, it was illegal in Minnesota for grocers and other food retailers to donate the product to food shelves, so they’d have to throw them all away.

Those who work to address food insecurity saw that Minnesota law as a travesty.

“Eggs are one of the most versatile and sought-after food items we source and distribute,” said Sophie Wallerstedt, public affairs manager for Second Harvest Heartland, which is the largest distributor of food to local food shelves in Minnesota. “We have food shelves asking for eggs a lot, and we don't always have them available.”

Second Harvest is one of the organizations that pushed to change the law this spring, which the legislature did with wide bipartisan support.

“We know, and the FDA says, and the USDA says, that eggs are still safe and nutritious, pretty well past that sell-by date,” added Wallerstedt. “And so this new law that was passed this last session will now allow eggs to be donated to and distributed by Minnesota food shelves up to 30 days past that date.”

Back at the ECHO Food Shelf in Mankato, Deisy De Leon Esqueda, says she’s hoping that the recent change in state law might help make eggs more readily available for clients.

“There’s laws that go into effect that sometimes we wonder, ‘why?’ Like, ‘what is the point of it’?” Esqueda said. “But when it comes to this, it’s great. It has a positive impact on our community, and the people that are having a difficult time providing for basic necessities. So this is going to allow us as a food shelf to provide better services to them by providing this product that is still good for consumption.”

In Minnesota, eggs were the only food item that could not be donated past their “sell by” or “best if used by” date, according to Second Harvest Heartland. Items such as jarred pasta sauce, canned vegetables, boxes of cereal or pasta, that also have a “sell by” or “best by” date were and still are legally allowed to be donated to food banks and food shelves.

However, perishable products such as meat or milk, which will likely go bad after their “expires by” date, are still not allowed to be donated beyond that expiration date printed on the packaging, and will not be accepted by food shelves.

This legislation will likely increase the availability of eggs, and will help reduce the amount of food that is wasted and thrown away, said Sophie Wallerstedt of Second Harvest.

“There wasn’t really a lot of opportunity to use those eggs, and so when it comes to how this impacts food waste efforts, it keeps eggs out of landfills that are perfectly good,” Wallerstedt said, “and those eggs can then be used to help folks in the community.”

This week, Art Hounds is devoted to the Minnesota Fringe Festival. More than 100 individual plays will run on stages across Minneapolis Thursday through August. Fringe is the largest non-juried theater festival in the U.S.; amateur and professional theater makers alike pitch shows that are chosen by lottery. Each show must be fewer than 60 minutes, and there are up to seven slots a day for shows to run.

For many, it's the wild diversity of shows itself that is the draw. Performances this year span from musicals to improv, dance to clowning, one-person shows to full casts. Most performers are local, but there are visiting performers who travel to Minnesota to take part. Each show runs five times throughout the 12-day period.

Interested in going? There are ticketing options for single shows as well as a range of multi-show options. Check out the shows and ticketing options on the Minnesota Fringe website. For those attending with families, each show page includes recommended minimum ages and content warnings.

And while it's hard to select just one or even a few shows to highlight, we asked Art Hounds to do just that.

Tech: What could go wrong?

Actor Taj Ruler recommends the improv comedy show, Tech. Set on the night before an opening Fringe show, anything can and will go wrong in this ensemble led by Mike Fotus at Strike Theater.

"I'm excited because I think it is a stellar cast of improvisers, the best in the Twin Cities. So I think you're in for a good time, and it'll be different every time for the five shows that they have."

Watership Down: An authorized musical based on the classic novel

Actor and writer Isabella Dunsieth is looking forward to seeing "Watership Down." The musical is based on the 1972 novel by Richard Adams; Rachel Ropella and Timothy Kelly worked with Adams' estate as they adapted it for the stage. Bee Davis of Minneapolis wrote the music and lyrics. The novel tells the story of a band of rabbits on a perilous journey to find a new home. This show by Melancholics Anonymous runs at the Rarig Stoll Thrust Theatre.

"I can't wait to see what they do with this. 'Watership Down' with Melancholics Anonymous is a little something different for that company. Typically, they're doing silly tongue-in-cheek coming-of-age type stories. Last year at Fringe, they did Joan of Arc for Miss Teen USA, which was, you know, very funny, but also really grounded in community and girlhood and caring for others. It was very beautiful. I feel like Watership Down is maybe a little darker for melancholics, and so I'm very interested to see how they make that tonal shift."

And three more ...

Sarra Beckham-Chasnoff and her wife treat the Fringe as a staycation, taking time off work to see a show in every time slot over the next 12 days. Pressed to name a few shows she particularly wanted to see, she cited "Watership Down" and "Tech," as well as these:

Bay Creek by the Miller Company, written and performed by Derek Lee Miller, at the Barbara Barker Center for Dance

"I've seen this show performed at another fringe festival and at the Twin Cities Horror Festival, and in my mind, I forget that he's the only person on stage. It's creepy and well-acted, written beautifully, and has some surprises in it."

A Confluence of Magical Arseholes by the Winding Sheet Outfit, at Rarig Stoll Thrust Theatre.

"Winding Sheet Outfit have always done beautiful productions that really highlight why coming to a theater is so much different than going to a movie or listening to music. They often have music in their performances. Their presentations are beautiful, and I always come away feeling moved and learning something new. It appears that this one may be more comedic, and I'm really excited to see how they weave comedy into their shows."

Leave Room for Jesus by Hannah Wydeven, at Barbara Barker Center for Dance

"It's an improvised comedy musical where Hannah Wydeven takes on the role of a pastor who believes that she is very charismatic and does a revival. Her hang-ups become very clear early in the show, and she, of course, uses some information that she gets from the audience. It's just a wild romp."

Wisconsin Public Media | By Danielle Kaeding

A federal appeals court has found that Canadian firm Enbridge has been trespassing on the Bad River tribe’s reservation and must remove its oil and gas pipeline, but it gave the company more time to complete the Line 5 reroute that is already underway.

A three-judge panel for the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued the ruling Thursday. The decision comes seven years after the Bad River tribe sued Enbridge in federal court to shut down and remove Line 5 from its lands.

In 2023, U.S. District Court Judge William Conley ruled Enbridge has been trespassing on 12 parcels of land, ordering the company to pay $5.15 million in restitution to the tribe. Conley also ordered Enbridge to remove or reroute Line 5 within three years, a deadline that had since been put on hold.

On Thursday, the federal appeals panel upheld the lower court’s decision that Enbridge is trespassing, but it ordered a federal judge to revisit the amount of damages and give the company a “reasonable opportunity” to complete the Line 5 reroute.

“Enbridge’s trespass cannot continue unchecked across the Band’s sovereign land. To decide otherwise would be substantially in tension with the 1854 Treaty and the statutory scheme governing rights-of-way on tribal lands,” Judge Michael Scudder wrote.

“But it weighs heavily with us that an injunctive order halting Line 5’s operation without an alternative in place risks violating the Transit Treaty, sparking international fallout with Canada, and inflicting harmful effects on energy consumers,” he continued.

Bad River declined to renew pipeline easements on the disputed parcels, which expired in 2013. Enbridge had argued a 1992 agreement overseeing pipeline easements across other tribal lands compelled the tribe to consent to their renewal. The federal appeals panel disagreed, saying the company got “what it bargained for.”

Construction of the $1 billion reroute of Line 5 is currently underway. It runs 41 miles around the tribe’s reservation in Ashland and Iron counties. The pipeline carries up to 23 million gallons of oil per day from Superior through northern Wisconsin and Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario.

Enbridge spokesperson Juli Kellner said in a statement that the company is reviewing the decision and next steps. Kellner noted the ruling recognized the pipeline’s role in foreign relations and revoked the deadline for shutting down Line 5. It also eliminated the lower court’s finding that the pipeline is a public nuisance on the reservation

“The decision also recognized the Line 5 Wisconsin Segment Relocation Project as the practical long-term solution to this dispute,” Kellner wrote.

Enbridge, the U.S. and Canada have pointed to a 1977 treaty guaranteeing the flow of oil between the two nations and the pipeline’s significance to their regional economies, which serves 10 refineries and propane facilities in the Midwest.

In the decision, Scudder wrote the three-year timeline for removing the pipeline was too aggressive, but it said the grace period it’s affording Enbridge “does not reflect our approval of the company’s behavior.”

As far as damages awarded to the tribe, the panel found Conley likely “double-counted” by giving Bad River a portion of Enbridge’s overall profits tied to Line 5’s trespass in addition to the company’s economic benefit from delaying the cost associated with rerouting Line 5.

Earthjustice Senior Attorney Stefanie Tsosie, who represents the Bad River tribe, said in a statement that it’s important the court upheld the band’s sovereign right to govern its own lands.

“Each day, Enbridge operates Line 5 in illegal trespass and makes more than a million dollars in profit. We are hopeful that Enbridge will face meaningful consequences,” Tsosie said.

Scudder ordered the district court to come up with a new award that accounts for the significant passage of time since the original amount. The federal appeals panel said the court may also consider the ongoing trespass, any interest owed for Enbridge’s failure to pay damages to date and each party’s conduct with regard to the Line 5 reroute.

The panel urged the court to take steps to provide “oversight and accountability” in the form of monetary penalties or reporting to ensure that Enbridge completes the reroute “as soon as possible.”

Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt said federal immigration officials have threatened her with prosecution and arrest.

Witt posted Wednesday that authorities describe her crime as witness tampering.

“There is no legal basis for that claim because our office is following the law,” she wrote in her post.

The New York Times reported federal agents began to hand-deliver letters in early July to Witt and other sheriffs around the country. The letters state that failing to hand over inmates sought by ICE could result in witness tampering charges, according to a review of the letters by the paper.

“Those threats won't cause me to abandon my legal responsibilities or disregard the Constitution,” Witt posted on social media. “My focus remains on doing my job: protecting all residents of Hennepin County and keeping our communities safe. I will not stray from that mission in the face of intimidation.”

The paper also reported ICE officials are also threatening to arrest Tom Dart, the sheriff in Cook County, Illinois -- which includes Chicago.

Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers will make their World Cup debuts as members of the U.S. women's national team next month.

The trio will try to help the U.S. win its fifth consecutive FIBA World Cup title. The young stars will be joined by Olympic medalists A'ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young, Kahleah Copper and Kelsey Plum.

“It’s always good when you compete for a gold medal, it's a big honor,” said Wilson, a four-time WNBA MVP. “It's something I don’t take lightly. Time to go there and have some fun and also win.”

Rhyne Howard and Aliyah Boston will also be making their World Cup debuts to round out the team.

“I’m so excited to announce the 2026 USA Basketball Women’s National Team,” USA Basketball national team managing director Sue Bird said. “This is an incredibly talented group that has earned the opportunity to compete in Berlin. Wearing a USA jersey is a privilege, and I know these 12 players will embrace that responsibility as we go after another gold medal. I can’t wait to see what this team accomplishes together.”

This is the first time that USA Basketball had a managing director choose the team. In the past it was a committee. Kara Lawson will coach the squad.

Stewart is the third player in USA Basketball history to appear in four World Cup tournaments, joining Bird, who played in five, and Diana Taurasi, who also played in four.

The Americans will face China, Italy and the Czech Republic in pool play at the World Cup, which will be held from Sept. 4-13 in Berlin. The WNBA will take a nearly three-week break in its season to accommodate the event.

Clark, Bueckers and Reese helped the Americans win a World Cup qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico in March.

Sabrina Ionescu has been a big part of the U.S. roster the last few years, but was left off this season's team.

Bird said she called many of the players who didn't make the team this time, including Ionescu.

“I think we can all agree the hardest part, which is a problem I would never trade, is that we have so much talent,” Bird said. “The beauty of that is it means almost all players are wanting to be on this team, willing to be on this team. It is a sacrifice. It is a time commitment.”

Alyssa Thomas helped the U.S. win gold at the Paris Olympics, but didn't take part in any USA Basketball camps since. Minnesota rookie Olivia Miles also hadn't taken part in any USA camps yet either.

“Tremendous player. So much fun to watch,” Bird said of Miles, who is the front-runner for the WNBA Rookie of the Year. “It’s been amazing watching her grow in this league. ... She’s played with USA basketball before. She will undoubtedly be in the mix for teams in the future.”

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has voted to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress.

Thursday's vote was along party lines, and came after Fauci refused to answer lawmakers' questions in a hearing last week about the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, citing his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.

In an opening statement during that hearing, Fauci said that the committee's chairman, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has "an unhinged obsession" with him and suggested the hearing was convened in an attempt to trick Fauci into lying under oath.

"Therefore, although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress," Fauci said, "under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions."

Fauci told the committee he had answered many of their questions already during previous testimony.

In a statement following Thursday's vote, an attorney for Fauci,
David Schertler, said, "Today's partisan committee vote is a crude political stunt intended to punish Dr. Fauci for exercising his constitutional rights."

Fauci, the United States' leading infectious disease expert during the pandemic, has long sparred with Paul over the origins of the pandemic. In the days leading up to last week's hearing, Paul released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci's private diary entries, pointing to them as evidence that he masked private uncertainty about what caused the pandemic.

Paul has argued that Fauci shouldn't be concerned about testifying, given his immunity from prosecution over pandemic-era conduct. That immunity stems from a pardon that Fauci received from President Joe Biden for conduct between 2014 and January 2025 — a pardon that the then-president described as "preemptive" given Republican scrutiny of Fauci.

The 2025 pardon wouldn't protect Fauci from any prosecution stemming from conduct after that date, including any remarks made during present-day congressional testimony.

In remarks just before the contempt vote, Paul said the committee was strictly responding to Fauci's refusal to testify, rather than his decisions during the pandemic.

"The chair directed Anthony Fauci to answer. He refused. That is what we are voting on today. Not his opinions. Not his policies. Not anything he said from the podium six years ago. We are voting on whether a witness who has received the benefit of a federal pardon can be ordered by this committee to answer questions and then defy that order without consequence," Paul said.

Democrats sought to table the vote, warning of the harm it could mean for the panel's oversight role.

"To be clear, this resolution will not provide the committee with any additional information or compel Dr. Fauci to provide answers to our inquiries," said Michigan's Gary Peters, the committee's top Democrat. "Criminal contempt is punitive. It does not compel a witness to answer questions or produce the documents we'd all like to see. What it will do is create a damaging precedent that future witnesses will use to resist legitimate constitutional, or excuse me, congressional oversight, and weaken this committee's ability to compel testimony."

It will ultimately be up to the Justice Department to decide whether to pursue a criminal prosecution of Fauci. Paul's contempt resolution, as written, directs the President of the Senate, Vice President Vance, to certify the committee's decision to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Doing so would sidestep a vote by the entire Senate, but in order for the resolution to carry the full force of Congress the GOP would need to secure 60 votes for it.

While prosecutions are rare, two former Trump advisers — Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro — were imprisoned on contempt-of-Congress charges during the Biden administration.

Many Democrats now see a similar risk for Fauci, pointing to the prosecution of other former government officials whom President Trump is critical of, including his former FBI director, James Comey.

Fauci, Paul and the debate over the pandemic's origin

Paul and the Trump administration have argued for years that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, came from a lab in China. And he alleges that Fauci, who helped lead the federal COVID-19 response, downplayed support for the lab leak theory.

Fauci strongly denies the accusation. He says the scientific evidence suggests the virus spilled over naturally from an animal into a human, and many virologists who study pandemic origins agree.

A 2025 report by the World Health Organization — based on three years of research by the 27 members of The WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens — stated that "the weight of available evidence" also supports the animal-spillover theory.

And a comprehensive 2024 study in the journal Cell looked at samples from a wet market in Wuhan, finding that those that tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus clustered around a stall where live animals were sold.

But supporters of the lab leak theory note that the analysis of the virus by scientists relied on incomplete data provided by the Chinese government. They also point to the lack of a smoking gun in previous analyses — such as samples from an animal directly infected with SARS-CoV-2 at the Wuhan market.

Copyright 2026, NPR

Mike Lindell has reshaped Minnesota's governor's race.

Having secured the endorsement of President Donald Trump, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell is confident he can win Minnesota’s conservative vote.

MPR News host Clay Masters spoke with Lindell at the end of July, before the chair of the Minnesota Republican Party raised doubts about his eligibility to run in the governor's race based on his residency and before Lindell stepped down as the CEO of MyPillow.

The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity. Click the audio player above to listen to the conversation.

How will you approach the state budget and when voters can expect to see specifics?

You should be able to see it today, if not by tomorrow. We're getting it up as fast as we can, and it's amazing. What you're going to see is, you know you have typical candidates say, ‘I'm going to do this. I'm going to lower your taxes.’ I wanted to be different. I wanted to show how we're going to do it.

How are you going to do that?

Most of it involves your healthcare, and you'll have to see it. It hasn't been done — or it's been done, but not by Minnesota. And, in fact, Walz passed something about three-four weeks ago, where if you go to private physician, you can use that deduction now against your deductible. With when you see the budget, you're gonna we're gonna save, I think it's upwards of $25 to $30 billion. Not just in cuts, making everything better feasibly. Then you could eliminate our $23 million billion income tax, so you could have zero income tax in Minnesota.

There has been a new Office of Inspector general that's been passed into law to be established that is going to look into fraud. You're laughing. Are you saying it doesn’t go far enough? It was bipartisan passed.

I don’t care who passes it. A Republican or Democrat — or who’s blocking it. When I'm governor, the people in Minnesota have had it. They want results. They want to see people prosecuted. This money would — not only the money stole from us — but also think of the people that really needed these things. There's people out there in Minnesota. They need the money from these programs.

So this each one of them, I have looked at already. We're taking each one apart. We're not leaving any one behind. So when you see this in my budget, it shows you what we save there. But you’re also going to know that when I'm governor, if there's any of them blocking us further, I don't care if it's a Democrat or Republican, you got a common sense solution, and it's blocked — like they always get blocked from because it's well the Democrats are blocking the Republican — the people in Minnesota are going to hear loud and clear hey they're blocking something that's going to help all of us.

I don't care what party you're in we're putting in common sense policies to make Minnesota so we can live here and be affordable and have good lives. This politics that have been put in is just disgusting.

At the same time, right now the Minnesota legislature is about as evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats as it can go. If you were the governor, how would you work in a bipartisan manner, or with a legislature where Democrats, at the moment anyway, have a slight majority?

For me, I don't believe you know that's — if you have common sense solutions for the people, it should be easy. And I had to do this for the last five and a half years working on our election platforms. I worked with Democrats and Republicans, and I can sit here and tell you right now, 90 percent of what I was blocked were Republicans. And everyone's going, “Well, Mike, I thought you wanted — you're a Republican.” You know, I'm common sense. I'm a conservative. I'm a conservative Christian. Okay, but if there's a common sense solution, you got to go with this. I'm a businessman first and foremost.

How do you strike a balance between policing for waste, fraud, abuse and making sure people get the services that they need?

As far as what? The services that you need?

Social services or the things that the state government provides.

Well, let me tell you, this my wheelhouse. When I quit crack cocaine and everything, by the grace of God, on January 16, 2009, I spent the next 12 years spending millions of dollars in Minneapolis and Detroit — cities, inner cities — helping people in need. What I did is I set up this amazing platform as a prototype, using private sector money to subsidize the programs you're talking about. Now that that's been like a parked car. Incidentally, Keith Ellison has attacked me for even having that — I haven't been able to do the program. The program's been sitting there.

So when I say park car, that was my focus. But doing that, you want the biggest bang for your buck. I want money put in here. I wanted it to, you know, here's your return on your investment. People that got the help, but also people want to help. And they're fed up with donating stuff where you only a nickel goes to the cause, so I set it up where I was the government, and these guys all put in their money, and it saved 40 percent — money poured in.

So you're saying you created a government?

No. Okay. I'll give you an example. You think of a big website — almost like a give-send-go. If you had a vet in need, okay. If I was out there soliciting, here's a vet in need. The streets of Minneapolis, you had all these people in addiction, and now I'm saying, ‘hey, we're gonna we're gonna give we're gonna help these people out, get them to Teen Challenge, and we need help with we help to subsidize their treatment,’ right? And people [want] to help, but they got to trust that the money's going to get there.

We have lost trust here in Minnesota because of the fraud. People lost trust, and they've lost trust because of all this money that was shipped out, and these things. And maybe these were good programs, but also I'm vetting the programs because I'm very good at improving each one. So it really gets to the help for the least amount of money and get rid of all the red tape, so to speak.

Between now and Aug. 11, what are you going to be doing to connect with voters to make them feel that you are the right person to vote for on the primary day?

Putting out that budget that their income tax can be eliminated, and they're not going to say this isn't just some big old, you know, pie-in-the-sky thing to get elected. No, I'm basically getting out my — that — plan so they see it'll be affordable. But also, I'm going to have other things that I'll be talking about — bring tourism back to Minnesota. We're known for our great 10,000 lakes. There's many things. Just getting the word out of what I'm gonna do.

What I'm not gonna do is sit and bash these other candidates like this typical politician. Oh, Mike Lindell hasn't paid his taxes. He lived in Texas for a year. You know what? They can bash me, but the public knows me. They've been bashing me for years and years, and I will not back down. I will never stop trying to save our state, and save our country and save our economy. That's it.

If you don't win the primary on Aug. 11, are you going to rally behind the Republican who does?

Absolutely, 100 percent. We got to save Minnesota. I mean, that's it. And I'd even give all my plan — but I just I'm very afraid they wouldn't implement them, and they don't they don't have the courage to go up against the industries we're going to be going up against. Everything from teachers unions, to big pharma, to the farmers.

I will never back down until we got Minnesota's affordable, and then we'll go beyond that. We want to go from the worst, one of the worst to the first.

President Donald Trump’s administration has detained dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. troops as it rolls back immigration protections for military families to pursue its mass deportation agenda, an Associated Press investigation found.

More than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty service members have been detained since Trump took office for a second term, and at least six have been deported and one self-deported, the AP found in the first accounting of such detentions, which the government does not track. At least eight immediate family members of U.S. service members remain in federal immigration custody.

Parents and spouses of people in the military have generally been shielded from deportation under bipartisan consensus for decades. But the AP found they’re now routinely being detained for months as they try to adjust their legal status through the policies available to service members’ close relatives and even as the military continues to recruit by advertising immigration benefits for enlistees' families. Experts warn that the reversal could undermine military preparedness even as the U.S. is at war in Iran. It’s left military members without emotional support and caretakers for their children, delayed deployments and forced some to take leave.

“How can I even focus on my military career because I have to worry about how my wife is doing?” said Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez, who was stationed in Fort Bliss, Texas, when his wife was detained outside a Walmart in front of their 6-year-old daughter in July.

A handful of detentions of service members’ spouses have prompted public backlash and led to intervention by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to secure their release.

The Department of Homeland Security has said it does not compile data on these cases. The AP obtained information by analyzing thousands of federal court records compiled by Habeas Dockets, a project run by the Immigration Justice Transparency Initiative; by reviewing existing media coverage; and by verifying information with family members and attorneys. The actual number is likely much higher than the 52 cases AP found.

The AP asked for comment from DHS on each case, including the individuals' immigration and criminal history. The agency did not provide specific information about the majority of cases but noted that at least seven people had been removed from the U.S. before, at least eight had removal orders and at least two had drunken-driving or drug-related convictions.

“DHS and ICE value the contributions of all those who have served in the U.S. military,” DHS said in a statement. “U.S. military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

The Pentagon declined to comment on the AP's findings.

Service members are losing their safety net

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Wendy Gbeve, 30, said she hasn’t had a good night’s sleep since her father, Luis Alberto Ramirez Zavala, was detained by immigration officials last month. Gbeve was there when he was arrested at a routine interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Missouri about his pending application for legal status.

She spent hours refreshing the USCIS page to track where the government was taking her father: from a county jail in Missouri to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Texas. Finally, roughly two weeks after he was detained, she found out he had been deported to his native Mexico.

“It’s the most frustrating, helpless feeling,” Gbeve said.

Gbeve said ICE still hasn’t informed her family why her father was removed so quickly. Ramirez Zavala spent most of his life in the U.S. working as a ranch hand in rural Illinois.

Ramirez Zavala’s wife of 30 years, a legal permanent resident, is considering returning to Mexico to be with her husband. For Gbeve, whose husband is also in the Air Force, that would leave no one to watch their children, ages 2 and 4, if both were deployed.

“That would be our entire safety net,” she said.

Military members have had to take leave or delay a deployment

Some service members have been left caring for children alone.

Army Staff Sgt. Alexis Jaramillo, an aviation operations specialist who has served for more than a decade, said he would normally be involved in training soldiers at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Instead, he is on administrative leave, caring for his 5-year-old stepson, Noah, after his Brazilian wife, Maisa Lopes Eliaser, was detained in early July.

It happened during what the family thought was a routine appointment at a USCIS office in Alabama. Eliaser arrived in the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2019, and the couple was trying to change her status.

Immigration officials asked Jaramillo and his stepson to leave the room. Minutes later, they were told that Eliaser had been detained. The next time they saw her was inside a detention facility.

“It is really overwhelming because I need to take care of my kid by myself. No one is here to help me out,” Jaramillo said.

At least one active-duty soldier halted her imminent deployment after her husband was detained by immigration officers, leaving no one to care for their then-5-year-old son, court records show. A judge eventually ordered the husband released.

Trump's policy is a reversal even from his first administration

A new policy, implemented in April 2025, states that “military service alone does not exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

Experts in military immigration law said this marks a stark shift from previous administrations across the political spectrum, including Trump’s first administration.

Dan Gividen, who served as ICE’s deputy chief counsel from 2016 to 2019 under Trump, represents a soldier’s father who has been in ICE custody for more than eight months. He said that during his time as an ICE prosecutor, immigration authorities rarely detained service members' immediate family members unless they had committed violent crimes.

“We would not place them into removal proceedings, period. That’s insane,” Gividen said. “The fact that they’re doing it now is just outrageous.”

ICE previously generally canceled past removal orders and allowed parents or spouses of troops to adjust their legal status, said Margaret Stock, an immigration attorney and retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve. She said that's because the government wanted to ensure troops focused on their duties.

“It’s the same thing that happens if you don’t provide healthcare to the troops, or you don’t provide housing to the troops,” she said. If soldiers are preoccupied with detained or deported family, “they're not concentrating on their job anymore.”

Even some congressional Republicans who are otherwise largely supportive of Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown have pushed for the release of service members' relatives.

“The immigration system is failing the honorable and good Americans,” Florida Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar said at a news conference in July advocating for the release of the wife of retired Staff Sgt. Wilmer Trujillo, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. DHS said she illegally reentered the U.S. after being deported in 2005. Her attorney says they are seeking to rescind the removal order because she was not provided proper notice of the hearing that led to it.

Although DHS said it does not have data on active-duty troops, it has released figures for former service members, who also qualify for immigration benefits along with their immediate families. From Jan. 20, 2025, through Jan. 26, 2026, immigration authorities detained 125 military veterans — placing 34 into removal proceedings — and arrested more than 150 immediate family members, DHS said in a letter to several Democratic senators.

Anh Dung Cong Tran, known as “Tony,” had both a father and son who served in the military. Tran came to the U.S. in 1990 through a program for children of American military personnel born in Vietnam. Tran, 56, was deported in July, having lived in the U.S. for decades with regular check-ins with immigration authorities after an assault conviction soon after his arrival.

His son Antonio Tran said his father persuaded him to enlist in the military in 2022. “He has a totally different view on America now,” said Tran, who was discharged as an Army specialist in March after a serious injury.

“Whatever your family have done for this country, to keep this country safe, to give the people, Americans, the freedom to walk around and to sleep safe at night, well, we don’t care about that,” Tony Tran told the AP in a video call from Vietnam.

Benefits for service members include what's known as parole-in-place

Military recruiters tout immigration benefits for troops' families as a selling point to enlist.

One of the military’s most highly advertised immigration benefits is “military parole-in-place,” which allows the spouses, children and parents of active-duty service members and veterans to obtain legal immigration status from within the country. Not everyone qualifies: Those who overstayed visas or who already applied for legal status at the border, for example.

The policy was implemented under Republican President George W. Bush during the U.S. war with Iraq in 2007 and codified under Democratic President Barack Obama. DHS agencies can grant it on a case-by-case basis.

Under Trump, the average time it takes to receive military parole-in-place has more than doubled to 12 months, according to USCIS data. That leaves military families more vulnerable to being placed in ICE custody.

Recruiters are still promoting immigration benefits

The AP found that troops’ immediate family members have repeatedly been detained by ICE while applying for parole-in-place or seeking to adjust their status, including during immigration appointments.

Marine Cpl. Jose Manuel Vilchis-Valle’s mother, Ursula Borja Valle, was detained at an appointment in August 2025 and deported to Mexico within a week. She had lived in the U.S. since the 1990s without a known criminal record. Her son was attempting to help her clear up a decades-old removal order through the immigration benefits that military recruiters had used to help persuade him to enlist.

“They basically told me that if you serve, and if you served honorably, you can help your parents,” said Vilchis-Valle, 23, who was honorably discharged shortly after his mother was deported. “In a perfect world, I wished, because of my service, they could have pardoned her.”

In other cases, ICE has detained people who had already been granted protection, with the agency later arguing in court filings that their parole status had been revoked.

In June 2025, the Marine Corps officially stopped advertising enlistment as a way to protect immigrant family members, in response to inquiries from the AP. But recruiters for the Army and the National Guard still promote it.

“For some service members, enlisting isn’t just about serving their country,” read an Instagram post published in late July by an official Army recruiter based in California. “It’s also about doing everything they can to help protect their parents who sacrificed everything for them.”

Recruiters are expected to highlight the benefits of service to attract applicants and military parole-in-place remains in effect, Army spokesperson Christopher Surridge said.

The National Guard said it does not track detentions of its troops' relatives or which recruiters advertise immigration benefits and referred additional comment to DHS.

A soldier who helped patrol the border grapples with his father's detention

For U.S. Army Specialist Romero Ralios, his father's detention has left him remorseful about his deployment last year to the Joint Task Force Southern Border, where he spent nine months supporting U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

His father, Sebastian Ralios Tino, a Guatemalan landscaper with no known criminal record, was detained this summer. He lived in the U.S. for nearly two decades without legal status.

Ralios’ commanding officer, Capt. Mohamed Elmaola, told the AP he wanted to speak up because Ralios is a “phenomenal soldier” whose father should receive due process.

“It’s very hard to communicate and to have credibility as a leader when your own subordinates are unable to get support,” Elmaola said. “Considering he enlisted his time and his life into supporting and defending the United States Constitution, it is the right thing to do to support soldiers and their families.”

Romero Ralios struggles to sleep at night due to the stress and wishes he had not been involved in immigration enforcement, even though he was just following orders.

“It was karma. I should’ve known,” Ralios told the AP. “All those families I broke. I have regrets.”

A day after it was announced that a former private prison in west-central Minnesota will be used to house ICE detainees, the company running the facility has announced the former prison’s sale to the U.S. government for half a billion dollars.

The private prison company CoreCivic said in an investors statement that they've sold the 1,600 bed Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, Minn., to the U.S. through the Department of Homeland Security for $495.6 million. CoreCivic will still manage the facility, which is expected to start receiving ICE detainees this fall and be up to full capacity by mid-2027.

CoreCivic, which operates more than 70 detention centers around the country, including Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, expects to continue operating the Appleton facility. Its management contract expires in August 2031. However, CoreCivic said “ICE has the ability to terminate the management contracts for non-appropriation of funds or for convenience.”

The five-year contract to manage the Appleton facility kicks in on Aug. 11. The company said it expects the site to bring in about $75 million in annual revenue. The company will receive a fixed monthly payment plus an additional daily payment based on the number of detainees in custody.

CoreCivic is also selling the government its 1,033-bed Midwest Regional Reception Center in Kansas for $238.4 million. After taxes, the company expects to net $522.5 million from the sale of both facilities.

CoreCivic said in its investor statement that the company has “recently begun discussions with ICE about the potential acquisition of additional detention facilities,” which are in the preliminary stages.

A spokesperson for the company referred questions about the contract to the federal government. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

MPR News reported this summer that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had posted a proposed contract for the facility, which has been vacant since 2010. That contract said the facility was necessary to “meet the administration’s interior enforcement and border compression goals.” The proposed contract said the facility would serve the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations from the agency’s St. Paul field office.

Detention centers used by ICE have become flashpoints for protests against the agency and the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Residents have already scheduled a weekly protest outside the facility starting this Thursday.

Gov. Tim Walz says President Donald Trump is to blame for failing to prevent a series of cyberattacks last week, and for failing to determine who was responsible.

At a press briefing Wednesday, Walz said he has not heard updates recently from federal investigators looking into the attacks. But he said he’s concerned about reports from several media outlets that officials suspect Iran is behind the attacks.

“This is the case of a war of choice by the president of the United States against Iran. That country struck into the heartland of America through cyberattacks that, had not been found by Minnesota and not stopped, could have immense consequences,” Walz said.

Federal investigators have not publicly confirmed any suspects.

The attacks targeted several local water systems in Minnesota and in at least seven other states. State officials say there was no contamination or loss of service at any of the water systems, but parts of them went offline temporarily.

Last week, when asked whether Iran could be responsible for the attacks, President Trump blamed Walz.

"You know who's behind it? Minnesota, because they're grossly incompetent,” Trump said. “I think the governor's behind it. I don't think there was an Iranian cyberattack."

Trump did not give evidence for those claims.

On Wednesday, Walz criticized Trump’s response.

“Can you simply imagine George Bush lashing out at the mayor and the governor of New York on 9/11 when we were attacked outside?” Walz said. “That is exactly what happened Friday, and thank God it wasn't the extent of the injuries on this.”

“I don't hide my great anger about this… because Americans' lives and Americans' economy and America's security is being put at risk by the very individual who started this war and then refuses to help the states in defense of that,” Walz continued.

State and federal authorities are still investigating the attacks. Workers at the water systems say they are working around the issues and trying to step up cybersecurity on tight budgets.

A three-on-one debate Wednesday distilled both policy and style differences among the candidates seeking to be the next Minnesota governor, with a trio of Republicans calling for a stark shift in direction and the DFL hopeful saying her vast experience will be a vital asset.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the presumed DFL nominee, sat on a Farmfest stage alongside Republicans Lisa Demuth, Mike Lindell and Kendall Qualls. The series of questions revolved mostly around agriculture issues and concerns of greater Minnesota, but each used every opening possible to stand out.

The event comes less than a week before the Aug. 11 primary election as Republican voters grapple with who to pick as their party’s nominee.

From the get-go, Klobuchar worked to show a been-there, done-that approach by citing measures she’s worked on in Congress, referencing places she’s been in Minnesota and ideas she’s put on the table this campaign.

“We know there are headwinds but they cannot be an excuse. I am going to transform this state government,” Klobuchar said toward the close of the hour-long forum. “And I am someone, that I think you know, when you put your trust in me I’m going to go ahead and do the work for you because I have been there with you through good times and bad.”

Demuth said it’s time to chart a new course from leadership by Democrats, who have been in charge of Minnesota’s executive branch since 2011.

“It is important to me that everyone in Minnesota, all parts of our state, has the opportunities to succeed,” the state House speaker told the sometimes-raucous audience. “And what will make that happen is an absolute culture change from how we have been led over the last 16 years.”

Lindell, who this week stepped down as CEO of MyPillow, put the stakes in more ominous terms.

“This is a spiritual battle of evil and good of biblical proportions,” he said.

And Qualls, a former healthcare executive who won the GOP’s convention endorsement, said he mixes the know-how with the fresh eyes of someone coming from outside the halls of government.

“We've been hearing from politicians from both sides for 20 years what they're going to do. The reality is we become an anti-business state,” Qualls said, adding, “when people leave the state, that's a decision based on what the Democrats have done and what the Republicans haven't done. It's time to bring outsiders.”

There were few direct exchanges between the candidates because of the round-robin format of the forum. Among the issues covered:

Tackling fraud

All four candidates said they would take a tough tack when responding to fraud in state government programs. A sample of their responses:

Demuth: “As speaker of the House, I established the Fraud Prevention and Agency Oversight Committee because no longer did I want Democrats in the state of Minnesota to be able to say that there was no fraud. From there, we added whistleblower protections, the Office of Inspector General.”

Qualls: “You hold people responsible that should have been responsible. This is a dereliction of duty in the Army. Okay, the guy the top, all the way down to the person who did it. There needs to be accountability. It's been eight to 10 years that it's been going on. The biggest issue is this: We have mega spending bills that funded the fraud programs. No more mega spending bills. One single bill item at a time, both up and down on those, so we have clear accountability.”

Lindell: “I micromanage and macro manage. And if I get a call — 300 people in my company on my direct number — if there's a deviation over here in sector three, I need to know right away. I'm making decisions based on that. Or if something's blocked. So that when getting in there, all these commissioners go on, they're all going to be held accountable in real time.”

Klobuchar: “My plan as governor will be to do this: Minute I get in there, I will launch a top-to-bottom audit of state government. I will root out the fraud. I'm going to make sure that we're vetting all the contracts. That there are surprise inspections. … And I will use my experience of running the biggest prosecutor's office in the state and in the private sector for over 10 years to get this done. People who commit fraud should go to jail.”

Immigration enforcement

There were strong audience responses as candidates discussed how they would navigate working with the federal government as it relates to immigration enforcement.

The Republican candidates took issue with state and local elected leaders in the Twin Cities who they said didn’t do enough to help the Trump administration apprehend people during the winter enforcement surge.

“I will support our federal immigration laws regardless of who is in charge,” Demuth said, arguing the Trump administration needed to toughen security at the country’s borders after former President Joe Biden left office.

Lindell agreed that if elected he would help facilitate the transfer of people serving jail sentences in the state to federal officials. He also raised concerns about local policies that prevent law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration officials.

“You cooperate with the federal government, and you say, ‘Pick these guys up,’” Lindell said.

Qualls echoed that sentiment.

“This whole idea of a sanctuary city, sanctuary state will be eliminated,” Qualls said. “We have one Constitution, one rule of law. We are a nation of laws, or we're not a nation at all. It starts right here with new leadership.”

Klobuchar condemned her Republican colleagues for not voicing concerns over the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers killing two American citizens in Minneapolis. She said she disapproved of additional federal funding to the agency that she said would be better used serving Minnesotans.

“(ICE) is bigger than the FBI now. It's bigger than the Marines. I did not support that,” Klobuchar said. “I think that $70 billion extra dollars should go to you for your healthcare. That money should go to you for your housing, and it should go on you for your child care.”

The line elicited a mixture of cheers and boos from the crowd.

Permitting changes

Asked about efforts to speed up permitting from the state, all four candidates agreed there is room for improvement when it comes to streamlining the process to get business and environmental permits.

“I am the first one to tell you that I enjoy knowing that we have clean air and clean water, but removing the amount of regulation and rulemaking that MPCA has and bringing that back into common sense, moving our state forward and eliminating the delays alone in permitting is a first step,” Demuth said.

Klobuchar has proposed streamlining state government programs and providing a refund — similar to Dominos Pizza — if the state fails to issue permits on the timeline it offered.

“If the state doesn't make a decision by then, you get your money back. This is not easy for people who are in small businesses and rural to deal with a state government that doesn't match your drive and your ambition,” Klobuchar said.

Lindell said he’d experience challenges with the state permitting process firsthand with his business MyPillow.

“Our government holding these things back, these regulations to get rid of them and to get the permits out as fast as they can,” Lindell said. “It's cost everyone money. That's going to be one of my priorities.”

Qualls pointed to his background in business as well, and also took the option to highlight the fact that he was endorsed by Republican delegates.

“Voters in the Republican Party wanted an outside business candidate, and the majority of them got that. They wanted that,” he said. “The key next, the question next is this: Can we get someone elected, and we haven't gotten it done in 20 years?”

Healthcare costs

The candidates differed on what it might take to ease healthcare costs for people, especially farmers who often purchase their family coverage on a public marketplace.

Klobuchar said she would push to reinstate federal tax credits that subsidize premium costs for insurance shoppers and had a backup plan in mind.

“If they do not extend that tax credit on those individual marketplace plans to help you bring down your tax insurance, your insurance premiums, I will do it on the state level as your governor,” she vowed.

Demuth suggested she’d try to reel back things enacted at the state level, revisiting programs such as paid family and medical leave.

“What's driving up the cost? And it is unfunded mandates, or it is business mandates. Again, paid family leave, the other pressures that put on all our business, all of our businesses, including healthcare,” Demuth said. “Those are Democrat-created issues here at the state level that need to be changed.”

Lindell previewed a forthcoming budget plan, which he said would come out Thursday.

“This primary direct primary care, it's amazing, especially for rural Minnesota and especially for the inner city, with both of them,” he said. “Because people are going to get direct care from their physicians that they didn't have before because of their doc or the deductibles that they didn't want to go take,” he said, leaving further details out prior to the plan launch.

Qualls said he would pursue an unspecified waiver and said healthcare is an example of a letdown by lawmakers in both parties.

“When President Trump won in 2016, the key was we're going to repeal and replace (of Obamacare),” Qualls said. “We had the trifecta in the federal government to do that, and he got betrayed by our own party.”

Taxes

The candidates were asked what they would do to hold down taxes, particularly those levied on property.

Demuth mentioned the state-government imposed requirements around time off and a clean energy mandate that she said was partly to blame. She touted recently approved property tax help from the Legislature.

Qualls said it comes down to dramatic change in how the state funds and delivers services, but he steered clear of specific proposals.

Lindell said his budget plan would address this, too.

“The first thing I'm going to do is spell and cancel all the unfunded mandates,” he said.

He also criticized the way school districts seek funding and don’t deliver on student achievement.

“When they need funding, they put bonds upon top of bonds. It's like a Ponzi scheme,” he said. “When they don't have the money, they raise your property taxes.”

Klobuchar adopted something of a no-new-taxes pledge.

“I'm very focused on what's happening with county property taxes. I'm not going to increase your taxes,” she said. “I'm going to make sure that we balance our budget. But the one thing that I'm going to do is make sure that the local government aid is there, county program aid, add to school credits that matter a lot for our rural schools.”

The Farmfest debate was the last before next week’s primary. It was moderated by WCCO political analyst Blois Olson.

Gov. Tim Walz said Wednesday that he does not see a need to call a legislative special session to extend the state’s peacetime emergency declaration for the wildfires in the Boundary Waters.

Those fires, sparked by lightning, have burned tens of thousands of acres over the past month. But fire activity has been relatively calm in recent days, as hundreds of firefighters from across the country work to contain them.

At a briefing in St. Paul, Walz praised the work of those firefighters and other first responders who have helped battle the fires in the northern Minnesota wilderness.

“Great thanks and admiration to those on all levels of this fight, those firefighters who are out there — no loss of life, no significant injury, and protection of the vast majority of our infrastructure,” he said.

The peacetime emergency is set to expire next Tuesday.

Walz also said calling a special session to address economic relief for businesses affected by the fires, and by last month’s closure of the Boundary Waters wilderness, appears unlikely at this point.

“I think all of us … know the difficulty of coming to an agreement on a special session, especially at a time of political campaigns going on — probably makes it challenging,” he said. “But look, I want to let the folks up there know — if we can come to some type of agreement and we can get a package that can get forward, I’m certainly open to that.”

Walz said the Legislature should act as soon as it can, either in a special session or the next regular session, which begins in January.

“I would encourage the Legislature to right now, start working on a package of relief for the area. We certainly can get that ready … as we assess the damage over the time,” he said. “This is the peak earnings season for many of the folks up there in Ely and in the North Country, and we want to make sure we’re there to make them as whole as possible.”

The fire has burned more than 65,000 acres in the BWCA.

Abdul El-Sayed has won Michigan’s Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, defeating U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens in a massive victory for the party’s progressive wing in a battleground state.

The real test of El-Sayed’s and progressives’ strength will now come in a November matchup against Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman who ran unopposed for the GOP nomination. The seat is pivotal to Democrats’ chances of flipping the Senate and El-Sayed will face the challenge of uniting a divided Democratic base after a bruising primary.

The race remained tight throughout Tuesday night, with a winner not declared until early Wednesday. In his final remarks at a primary night party before the race was called, El-Sayed said “tomorrow we begin to mend fences.”

El-Sayed's campaign said Stevens called to concede Wednesday.

In a statement, Stevens said she would back El-Sayed’s candidacy.

“I am proud to offer my support as he takes on Mike Rogers in the general election,” she said.

Stevens added, “This was a thorough and rigorous campaign that brought out the full span of views within the Democratic Party - and that is why we have primaries.”

El-Sayed’s win represents a significant shift for the Democratic Party; in 2018 he lost the gubernatorial primary to now-Gov. Gretchen Whitmer by 21 percentage points.

El-Sayed, a former health official, campaigned on “Medicare for All,” halting military aid to Israel and campaign finance reform. He had support from progressive leaders including Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who framed the race as a grassroots-focused movement and a broader fight against the establishment and big-money spending.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, another progressive leader who endorsed El-Sayed, said the race “should be a wake-up call to the Washington Democratic establishment.”

“He was running against a lot of Washington insiders as well as parts of the Michigan Democratic establishment. And he won,” said Van Hollen. “That's an incredible story.”

“Congratulations to him,” said Sen. Gary Peters, the Michigan Democrat whose retirement spurred the contentious primary to replace him. Peters had endorsed Stevens.

Now comes the more difficult challenge for Democrats: uniting the party to defeat Rogers, for whom Republicans have already reserved large sums of money ahead of the general election. Democrats consider the seat a must-win if they are to flip control of the Senate this year.

El-Sayed called for unity to defeat Rogers

Early Tuesday evening, El-Sayed’s supporters in Detroit’s Majestic Theatre cheered at the first batches of votes, before mellowing. Hours later Stevens’ previously subdued partygoers roared as she narrowed the margin.

“Whatever happens tonight,” El-Sayed told a thinned but still energetic crowd, “we have a responsibility to ensure that we unite, unite to make sure that Mike Rogers never sees the inside of the U.S. Senate.”

El-Sayed, a former Wayne County health director, campaigned on “Medicare for All,” campaign finance reform and ending military aid to Israel.

Stevens, a four-term congresswoman, focused on manufacturing and the economy. She stressed her past victories in tough races, saying she would be best positioned to beat Rogers.

Stevens benefited from tens of millions of dollars in outside spending, including the largest investment in a race ever from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which supports pro-Israel candidates.

Michigan is a must-win Senate race for Democrats

The race will help decide which party controls the chamber in the last two years of President Donald Trump’s term. Those stakes have added heat to the rivalry, with moderates arguing that El-Sayed would have a harder time than Stevens against a Republican in the general election.

Stevens won election to Congress in 2018 after serving as chief of staff to President Barack Obama’s auto task force, which helped oversee the federal rescue of General Motors and Chrysler. Her campaign and allied groups have repeatedly highlighted that experience.

El-Sayed cast himself as the anti-establishment candidate and argued that Democrats need to reject corporate influence and embrace a more progressive agenda.

While the candidate has said he is not a democratic socialist, he found support from some of the group’s members. That included Melat Kiros, who recently beat a longtime incumbent in a Democratic primary for a Denver-based House seat and was at El-Sayed’s watch party. Also there was Hasan Piker, a progressive and controversial influencer online.

The candidates’ differences were clear to some voters.

Kenneth Woodside, 87, of West Bloomfield, said he voted for El-Sayed over Stevens because “the nation is ready for someone who wants to take some more action rather than on the road we are now, which is on the road to an oligarchy and authoritarianism.”

Nessa Fuller, 51, of Birmingham, said she voted for Stevens because she will “fight to get the right things done, and she’ll work with other people, which is really important to me.”

Outside influences spent millions on the Senate race

National groups poured unprecedented sums into the race, making it one of the country’s biggest tests of outside spending.

Groups backing Stevens spent more than $50 million, led by more than $30 million from AIPAC and its affiliates.

The spending thrust Israel policy into the center of the race even though the ads never mentioned it. While El-Sayed called for ending military aid to Israel, Stevens maintained strong support for the relationship.

Israel became a contentious issue within the Democratic Party amid a war in Gaza that killed more than 73,000 Palestinians in its retaliatory offensive after about 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages were taken in attacks by the militant group Hamas.

McKinney wins Detroit US House primary

In a heavily Democratic district representing Detroit, the 13th, state Rep. Donavan McKinney defeated Rep. Shri Thanedar. McKinney argued that the city should once again have a Black representative in Congress.

After Thanedar won election in 2022, Detroit had no Black representation in Congress for the first time since the early 1950s.

The city of St. Paul began clearing a longstanding homeless encampment at Pig’s Eye Park Wednesday morning, despite weeks of pushback from residents, volunteers and service providers at the camp who warn it will fracture community and ongoing care for people who are trying to survive.

The clearing remained relatively calm throughout most of the morning, as city staff largely hung back while dozens of volunteers helped residents move their belongings in wagons and cars. Volunteers also drove residents to alternative locations. For many that was other encampments in the city. The city will also clear other camps, however no dates have been set yet.

“We appreciate that level of support from our community, and we also know that we still have a few individuals that are still there,” Assistant Mayor Cedric Baker said during an update Wednesday afternoon. “And our process is to really go slow and steady in this.”

Baker estimated that 20-30 residents still remained at the camp around noon. When asked where encampment residents were relocating, Baker did not answer the question directly but said city and county workers are letting residents know that shelter space is still available. He acknowledged many had relocated to another encampment.

Scenes from the encampment on Wednesday

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MPR News was not able to immediately confirm how many shelter beds or what type of shelter beds were available. One encampment in the woods near Shepard Road has more than doubled in size, according to longtime residents and volunteers there.

An estimated 100-200 people were living at the camp, also known as Fish Hatchery, that closed Wednesday. The mayor’s office announced the closure last month, citing worsening health and safety concerns.

In the weeks leading up to the closure, outreach workers from the city and county were tasked with expanding efforts to connect people to shelter and eliminate barriers to housing, including replacing necessary documents — though there’s still a lengthy housing wait list and many residents feel unsafe at shelters or do not want to part with their pet or belongings.

But in the final day leading up to the closure, many residents remained uncertain about what they were going to do next, while others — like Ksenia Gabrielle Burgoyne — said they planned to move to another encampment. Burgoyne said she’s been on the housing wait list for nearly five years.

“I think it’s really cruel to kick a homeless person out,” Burgoyne said, while rushing to pack up her belongings. “I personally don’t have a family member that I can call to say I’m struggling. I have absolutely no one.”

Still, Burgoyne said she’s grateful for community members who regularly come to the encampment to help out. On Tuesday morning, many of those volunteers walked through the camp, delivering sandwiches and water, and connecting with residents while time at the camp ran out.

Jim Seemann, 79, is a volunteer who has been bringing resources to the camp for the past two years.

“After a period of time, you get to know these people, think of them as your friends — even begin to love them,” he said. “It’s very difficult for me to say goodbye.”

The mayor’s office said a major impetus for the closure was that the camp grew too big. Seemann said he only noticed significant growth after a different encampment closure last year.

“It seems to me that the city is unintentionally playing a game of whack-a-mole,” Seemann said.

But Seemann said he promised many residents he would follow them wherever they go next in the city.

One 53-year-old resident, Gregory Schulz Jr., said he already set up at a different camp.

Schulz said he was banned from shelters after fighting someone who provoked him and hasn’t been able to get into housing, despite multiple attempts, because of a criminal record.

But he has been trying to help other camp residents, coming back each day to make the move easier for others — especially the “old timers,” he said, like a man with a wheelchair who didn’t know where he would go.

Schulz said he doesn’t have much family left. Many family members have died or don’t want anything to do with him anymore, he said. But he has his own non-biological family in the encampment — his brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews — who he is trying to stick with.

“My street family is more my family than my own family,” he said.

With less than 24 hours to go before the closure, Kat Donnelly, a nurse with Healthcare for the Homeless, prepared for her job to change overnight. For the past couple years, Donnelly said she’s been able to make great progress with patients through the consistency of regularly checking in at the encampment.

“It takes a long time to build trust in this community,” she said. “I’d like to hold up my end of the bargain. I’ve promised that I will be there to care for people and I want to continue to be able to do that.”

Late Tuesday morning, Donnelly scrambled to keep that promise — refilling medications, letting patients know drop-in sites where they can find her and trying to make sure a number of people with upcoming surgeries would be able to get that care.

She said she has been asking all of her patients what their plans are.

Donnelly said with little time left, she was still hearing the same thing, over and over: “I’m not sure. I’m not sure. I’m not sure where I’m going to go.”

Late Tuesday afternoon, the city announced that starting Thursday, county outreach workers will be available downtown from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at a “transitional hub.” They will be there for the next two weeks to connect residents to shelter, housing, health care and financial assistance.

The city has said it is providing limited storage for residents “prioritized for individuals who accept shelter” and the Familiar Faces program and HART teams will offer residents rides to available shelter.

Target Field concession workers have announced a one-day strike set for Wednesday at the sold-out Noah Kahan concert.

The labor action follows a similar one in June when the Twins played the Los Angeles Dodgers. According to UNITE HERE Local 17, many fans were still waiting to get into Target Field in the third inning due to the strike.

Delaware North, the company that manages concession stands at Target Field, said the venue will be fully staffed for the Noah Kahan show.

Union Secretary-Treasurer Sheigh Freeberg doesn't believe the company's claims.

"Last time they said the exact same thing,” Freeberg said. “They said it will be exactly the same. It will be totally, fully staffed, but that's not the truth.”

He added that stands were not open or were not set up. “Fans had a terrible experience waiting for an extremely long time," he said.

Freeberg called it “bravado” from the company.

The union and the concessions vendor have been in negotiations since March.

Delaware North said in a statement they offered non-tipped, part-time workers a $20 an hour wage and a health care plan, comparable with other venues in town.

“The union is in agreement that the employers finally made movement on the first year's wages. They have agreed to move a good number of people to $20 an hour,” Freeberg said. He added that it is about 300 members.

Both sides also don’t agree on who is considered non-tipped.

“Along with that, in the second year and the third year of the contract, they're only proposing 75-cent wage increases, which is pretty minimal given how much everything costs and how high inflation is,” he said.

Freeberg also said the health care proposal would only apply to about 10 out of the union's 500 concession and hospitality workers.

With weeks before the 2026 Minnesota State Fair starts, one Grandstand concert is already sold out.

No tickets are available for the TLC and Salt-N-Pepa concert with En Vogue. The Sept. 5 show is part of their “IT’S ICONIC” national tour.

The headliners are among the most influential female groups in modern history. TLC defined R&B and pop music in the 1990s with songs like “No Scrubs” and “Waterfalls.” Formed in 1985, Salt-N-Pepa helped pave the way for women in rap and is known for hits like “Shoop” and “Push It.”

However, people seeking tickets can have some hope. There may not be a need to “creep” on the concert from outside the Grandstand or worry “What about your friends?” who failed to snag seats earlier.

“Ticket availability can fluctuate closer to the concert. Sometimes, more tickets become available that were being held for production or something like that,” said Maria Hayden, the Minnesota State Fair marketing and social media supervisor.

Hayden advises people to continue to check the State Fair website for tickets or visit the box office on the day of the show.

Tickets are limited for the “Weird Al” Yankovic concert with Puddles Pity Party on Aug. 28, according to Hayden.

Single seats or obstructed view seating may remain. In the latter instance, people can call the Grandstand to learn how views are limited and purchase tickets.

Shows are scheduled each night at the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand spanning gospel, country, blues, rock and pop genres, in addition to the fair’s Amateur Talent Contest finals.

Another legendary R&B group, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, will perform on Aug. 29.

Minneapolis police and fire officials say a fall that left an 18-year-old with life-threatening injuries this week highlights the dangers of so-called “urban exploring.”

The victim fell an estimated 20 stories at a decommissioned grain elevator Monday night.

Police said the victim was part of a group of teens and young adults who were trespassing at the former Checkerboard grain elevator near 38th and Hiawatha in south Minneapolis at about 8:30 p.m.

Minneapolis Police Sgt. Garrett Parten said the victim, whose name has not been released, reportedly was hanging from a beam when they fell. Parten said at a news conference Tuesday it’s “miraculous” the victim survived.

Interim Fire Chief Melanie Rucker said the victim fell onto a flat roof membrane that may have slightly cushioned the fall.

Rucker and Parten both noted social media videos that show other people entering abandoned buildings — posts that may motivate others to try to do the same.

“We use the term ‘urban explorers’ like this is exciting — and it’s not urban explorers. You are trespassing. You’re breaking the law,” Rucker said at Tuesday’s news conference, livestreamed by KARE 11.

She said friends of the victim of Monday’s fall had to call for help.

“Just think of the trauma experiencing that,” she said. “One of your close friends falls to almost — they’re thinking — to their death.” Rucker also noted other dangers in old buildings, like chemicals and asbestos.

Parten said police tracked “over 80” reports of urban explorers in the city last year. This year, the total is already over 100 — including one church in northeast Minneapolis that’s had nine “urban explorer” break-ins in the past month.

Parten said people have also tried breaking into U.S. Bank Stadium. And in another case, seven people were found atop a 35-story high-rise — and one of them threw a crowbar from the top. Parten noted none of those people were from Minneapolis.

Parten said 15 people have been arrested in the city while urban exploring this year — with potential charges ranging from misdemeanor trespassing to felony damage to property.

Parten also said police have taken previous reports of trespassing at the grain elevator where Monday’s fall happened, and they have walked the property with the owners to identify where people entered. He said the owners have taken action to block those points — only for trespassers to find another way in.

Parten encouraged people to call 911 if they suspect someone is illegally entering a building. And he said the social media posts that may be fueling that trespassing can also be used by investigators.

“It literally records evidence of their activities, and it links specifically to their accounts. So, yes, it does help — in addition to the cameras that are also in the area that help us understand perhaps how they made access,” he said.

Monday’s incident was not the first time in recent years that people have been seriously injured — or died — while trespassing in abandoned buildings in Minneapolis.

There were fatal falls at an abandoned grain elevator in the Como neighborhood in 2015 and 2006.

A man died in a fall at an abandoned mill near Glenwood Avenue in 2006, and several other people have been seriously injured at the same site over the past two decades.

The Winona Police Department is investigating who stole the city’s fleet of Flock traffic cameras.

In a news release, the department said all eight of their Flock cameras, which automatically read license plates and capture other vehicle information, are gone.

The discovery was made over the weekend. Police said that on the evening of Aug. 1, “an officer noted that there had been no recent activity on the cameras. Officers subsequently checked the various locations where the Flock cameras were placed and found that the poles were cut down near the base.”

The release added that the poles were found in weeds nearby, but the cameras were missing.

The cost to replace each camera and pole is about $3,000.

The department's ongoing investigation follows a rash of Flock camera vandalism. Cameras in Faribault, Edina and Duluth have been damaged or stolen as well.

The use of Flock cameras is growing controversial all across the country. The devices, developed by the Atlanta-based company Flock Safety, are automated license plate readers, but critics say they do much more than that.

The cameras use artificial intelligence to scan each vehicle that passes by and then compiles the time, date and direction of travel, as well as other data, including vehicle make, model, color, license plate and even bumper stickers, which is all uploaded to a national vehicle tracking database.

There’s been a growing anti-surveillance backlash to cities and towns using Flock cameras. Civil liberties groups say the cameras allow police to track people’s movement and whereabouts without a warrant.

The city council in Twin Cities suburb of Columbia Heights recently voted to cancel its contract with Flock Safety and stop using the devices. Some people have even alleged that rogue police officers have used the cameras to stalk people.

A familiar landmark for drivers traveling between the Twin Cities and Rochester is set to be removed this week.

The city of Zumbrota said its old water tower near U.S. Highway 52 will be taken down on Thursday.

“The tower has already been decommissioned for approximately two months and is obsolete following the completion of our water main looping project,” the city reported. “The new water system improvements have eliminated the need for the tower, making it time for its removal.”

The old tower is located just east of the highway, on the northwest side of Zumbrota. The function of the tower has now been replaced by the city’s newer ground storage reservoir tank, located on the east side of Zumbrota.

The city council in June approved a bid of just over $54,000 to remove the old tower.

“For everyone’s safety, please stay well clear of the work area while demolition is underway,” city officials said. “There will be heavy equipment and crews working throughout the day (on Thursday), and we ask that residents avoid the area until the project is complete.”

The Zumbrota tower will be the second one razed along the Highway 52 corridor this year.

Earlier this year, the old water tower in Hampton, just south of the Twin Cities, was removed after being replaced by a new tower on the other side of the highway.

Chipotle Mexican Grill said Tuesday that it had removed jalapeños from some of its restaurants after determining the peppers could potentially be tied to a salmonella outbreak public health officials are investigating.

In a brief statement, Chipotle maintained that the “health and safety of our guests and employees is our highest priority” — and that it had pulled the jalapeños out of an abundance of caution and “replaced them with product from different growers” in all locations where a previous common lot had been distributed.

The company did not specify where the initial peppers came from but noted that the jalapeños in question were sent across multiple states to several retailers.

The Minnesota Department of Health on Tuesday confirmed that it was investigating a salmonella outbreak tied to several Mexican-style, quick-service restaurants — with jalapeños as the suspected source. Officials identified 110 cases in the state. Chipotle made up the majority of those where they were able to reach impacted consumers for an interview — who ate at the chain between mid-June and mid-July — but not all.

“Based on all the evidence so far, the food that made people sick was served at other restaurants as well,” Carlota Medus, senior epidemiologist supervisor in the Minnesota Department of Health's Foodborne Diseases Unit, said in a statement.

Medus said Chipotle had been cooperative over the course of the investigation — and that given the measures the company put in place, her department was not concerned about the chain at this time. Still, she said it was “too soon for us to know if the outbreak is ongoing” and that it's possible contaminated food is being served elsewhere.

The Minnesota Department of Health noted that other states are contributing to the investigation, without elaborating further. On the federal level, the Food and Drug Administration is conducting the traceback probe, covering but not limited to jalapeños.

The FDA on Tuesday confirmed it initiated its traceback investigation “of multiple ingredients” on July 22, in response to a cluster of salmonella illnesses identified by both state officials and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a statement, the agency said it appreciated Chipotle's cooperation and that it would “provide additional information if and when there is an actionable public health update.”

The CDC did not respond a request for further comments Tuesday afternoon.

Symptoms of salmonella poisoning include diarrhea, fever, severe vomiting, dehydration and stomach cramps. Most people who get sick recover within a week. Infections can be more severe in young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems, who may require hospitalization.

Chipotle has been battered by larger outbreaks in years past — notably between 2015 and 2018, where a string of E coli., norovirus and food poisoning illnesses sent sales plunging. The California-based company has since boasted stronger food safety practices.

The latest salmonella outbreak arrives at a tough time for restaurant-goers and the dining industry nationwide. A handful of fast-casual chains are still wrestling with the fallout of a separate, wider cyclospora outbreak linked to shredded lettuce that has sickened thousands of Americans.

Chipotle hasn't been tied to or named by government investigations into those cyclospora illnesses. Still, the company is among those bracing for lower sales because of that outbreak.

Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill plunged nearly 10% Tuesday.