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.
September 9, 2016 - MPR’s Tom Crann interviews 20-year-old Augsburg College student Donte Collins, who was given the Academy of American Poets' Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award for his poem "What the Dead Know by Heart." Segment includes Collins reading poem.
October 5, 2016 - On this segment of MPR News with Tom Weber program, MPR’s Doualy Xaykaothao present an interview with co-founders of Maiv-PAC, the nation's first-ever Hmong American political action committee. The group sees it as another way to engage on issues of immigration, education, gender equity, and racial justice.
November 2, 2016 - MPR’s Laura Yuen and Rahim Feshir report on disproportionately high traffic stop numbers of minority drivers. They present data and narratives on one of the most common interactions between police and the public.
November 20, 2016 - MPR’s Lorna Benson reports on a Ramsey County court ruling that Minnesota's refusal to cover transition-related surgeries violates the state constitution. State lawmakers enacted the ban in 2005, selling it as a cost-saving measure, and it only applied to people receiving state Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare benefits.