April 19, 2016 - As part of MPR News series “Minnesota's Opioid Epidemic,” MPR’s Jon Collins profiles Lexi Reed Holtum and her legislative efforts against opioid epidemic after the death of her fiance, Steve Rummler. The two were engaged when Rummler died from a heroin overdose of in 2011.
April 20, 2016 - As part of MPR News series “Minnesota's Opioid Epidemic,” MPR’s Jon Collins profiles Lee Hertel, a Minneapolis activist who hands out clean needles and medicine that can reverse overdoses. Hertel says he's trying to save the lives of people he believes society has forgot.
April 20, 2016 - As part of MPR News series “Minnesota's Opioid Epidemic,” MPR’s Jon Collins talks with Nick Leclair, a young man from Elk River who discuss the struggle of drug addiction and the loss of his best friend, Dylan Pearson, to a heroin overdose.
April 21, 2016 - As part of MPR News series “Minnesota's Opioid Epidemic,” MPR’s Jon Collins profiles James Cross, a former drug dealer who is now helping addicts in the Native American community he once sold drugs to.
April 21, 2016 - As part of MPR News series “Minnesota's Opioid Epidemic,” MPR’s Jon Collins profiles Liz Casper, a recovering heroin addict, about her struggles and hopes for the future.
April 21, 2016 - MPR’s Tom Weber talks with Minority Leader in the House Representative Erin Murphy, a representative of St. Paul; and Peggy Flanagan, representative of St. Louis Park. The two legislators discuss how members of the DFL party are critiquing how well candidates of color have, or haven't, found success in gaining their party's endorsement at local conventions.
April 27, 2016 - MPR’s Marianne Combs visits musician Gaelynn Lea. The Duluth fiddler recently won National Public Radio's Tiny Desk Contest, and as a result is performing in cities across the country. Lea is using the exposure both to build her career and to raise awareness about issues for people with disabilities.
May 4, 2016 - MPR’s Laura Yuen followed Diamond Syas, a Black student at Kennedy High School in Bloomington, for the course of a school year to see what it would take for her to make it to graduation day.
July 14, 2016 - People in our community are expressing their feelings about the death of Philando Castile in many ways. 15 local poets gathered at the Penumbra Theater in St. Paul for a community reading. It was part of Black Poets Speak Out, a poetry-driven protest that began after the death of Michael Brown in 2014. Report includes an excerpt of Michael Kleber Diggs reading his poem "St. Paul Morning."
August 31, 2016 - When most people are leaving the State Fair, some others are just arriving. A team of sanitation workers clean through the night emptying trash cans, cleaning toilets and scrubbing floors, among other things. MPR’s Max Nestrak interviews Jeffrey Martinez, a floor cleaner about his fairgrounds night shift in the Food Building.