July 21, 2016 - MPR’s Dan Kraker reports on the impact of powerful overnight storms in Duluth area. Wind gusts toppled trees on top of homes and cars, downed power lines, and blocked streets.
July 21, 2016 - MPR’s Marianne Combs reports on the opening of play Disgraced at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. The play deals with racial politics and reflects the Guthrie's effort to stage more diverse stories, with more diverse casts. Combs reports that there's another diversity push getting underway - backstage.
August 2, 2016 - MPR’s Doualy Xaykaothao reports on renewed efforts of the Minnesota Hmong Chamber of Commerce to help support Hmong-owned businesses and grow new ones. The Minnesota Hmong Chamber of Commerce was founded nearly two decades ago, but since that time, it hasn't been very active in the Twin Cities. Some of its co-founders are looking to re-invigorate the group.
August 4, 2016 - Ojibwe author, poet, playwright Jim Northrup died at 73, due to complications from cancer. As part of a wake, a traditional fire is being started at his residence in Sawyer. Matthew Northrup, joins MPR’s Tom Crann to talk about his father, and what it was like being raised by Jim, who was known and quoted as being a tough man.
August 5, 2016 - MPR’s Dan Kraker profiles Duluth's five lift bridge operators and their very unique work window view. The Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge span goes up and down about 4,500 times every year, 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the Great Lakes shipping season that runs from March to January.
August 9, 2016 - MPR’s Euen Kerr reports on poet, novelist and academic Gerald Vizenor’s new novel “Treaty Shirts.” Book is a satirical novel examining the impact of the document in the future, blending Ojibwe history, tradition, and dream narratives with popular culture and science technology to create a surreal but pointed view of modern native life. Report includes interview and reading from Vizenor.
August 11, 2016 - MPR’s Solvejg Wastvedt joins St. Paul middle-schoolers who took on a different kind of summer challenge recently, learning about leadership and racial equity as they got an up-close look at history.
August 11, 2016 - MPR’s Tom Weber interviews Sean Christenson, Willmar's city engineer, about how the city is dealing with historic deluge on August 10, 2016…one he considers a 1,000-year rainfall event.
August 25, 2016 - All Things Considered’s Tom Crann talks with MPR reporter Nancy Yang about the history of Minnesota State Fair’s mascot, ‘Fairchild.’ The gopher character has been at the fair for 50 years. He even has a sidekick, Fairborne.
August 26, 2016 - MPR News producer Max Nesterak set out to meet some of those people that make the Minnesota State Fair, including one of the fair's mainstays...the bright pink haunted house. If you've ever walked by, you may have been heralded by its veteran promoter, Eric James.