The opening day at the 2026 Minnesota State Fair set an attendance record, with 155,185 people walking through the gates on Thursday.

The previous attendance record for the first Thursday of 138,875 was set in 2024.

The picture-perfect weather may have been a factor. The Twin Cities saw sunshine and low humidity for pleasant fair-going conditions.

Typically, the second weekend of the fair is the busiest, with crowd numbers growing to about 200,000 each day. Wednesdays are usually the least busy, with 114,932 people attending last year.

The fair runs through Sept. 7.

More than a year after it was stolen from St. Paul’s Phalen Regional Park, a statue of Olympic gold medal gymnast Suni Lee was recovered by police Friday from a home in the city.

The bronze bust was found by officers conducting a search warrant on the city’s east side, following a shots-fired call. One person was in custody Friday in connection with the theft.

“Our city honored a great American, Minnesotan, and Saint Paulite, with a statue to celebrate her incredible achievements in multiple Olympic Games. Last year, disrespectful and shameless thieves decided to desecrate this tribute by stealing the statue from our community. I am happy to report that the statue of Suni Lee has been recovered thanks to our officers’ diligent response,” St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry said in a news release Friday.

The police department said plans are underway to reinstall the statue at Phalen Regional Park “in the near future.” It was originally unveiled there in 2023. It was reported missing on July 31, 2025.

According to St. Paul police, the series of events leading to its recovery started with a shots-fired call on the 900 block of Forest Street just after 12:30 a.m. Friday.

Officers found spent rifle casings outside of the building, conducted a sweep to make sure no one was injured, and then obtained a search warrant for the home. They found firearms, ammunition — and the bronze bust, intact.

Authorities said a man was arrested on suspicion of receiving stolen property, in connection to the statue theft. No one was arrested in connection with the gunfire.

The theft of the Suni Lee bust was the second statue theft in St. Paul in 2024. A statue of author F. Scott Fitzgerald was stolen in February 2024 and cut into pieces. A suspect in that case was arrested after allegedly trying to sell those pieces to a metal recycler.

The Lynx, “Heated Rivalry,” the cost of gas, the Artemis mission, “Frog and Toad,” climate change, corn dogs, the surveillance state, Tilt-a-Whirl, quinoa: a mixture of hot topics and state fair staples served as common inspiration for submissions in the crop art and fine arts exhibitions.

The most prevalent trend, however, was artwork inspired by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement surge in operations this past winter and how Minnesotans responded.

“Humans look to art to process experience, both collective and personal, the full spectrum from joy to trauma,” said fine arts superintendent Jim Taylor. He was speaking to a crowd at the Fine Arts preview Aug. 25. “We celebrate that here. There is a broad survey of what's on the hearts and minds of Minnesota artists today. I'm very proud to be a part of this and to support human expression.”

Early on, crop art superintendent Marta Shore recognized that artists would be responding to ICE.

“Of course, of course, Operation Metro Surge,” Shore said, nodding.

Shore said many crop artists came to her during the surge and said, “Marta, you have to let us swear this year, with everything that’s happened.”

Profanity is against the fair’s extensive crop art rules, so Shore said no. But on Jan. 23, the day many Minnesotans participated in a general strike, Shore decided to make a piece that showed one way artists could bend that rule to express themselves.

Her seed mosaic shows a duck and ice emoji; below, it says, “c’mon autocorrect.”

"Here's how you say what you want to say while still meeting the rules,” she said.

Crop artists used all sorts of word play and resistance imagery in the record-breaking 594 submissions this year (143 more pieces than 2025, which itself was a record-breaking year).

Art at the State Fair

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The rebel loon is everywhere, such as longtime crop artist Gayle Deutsch’s yellow-and-black piece “Leave Minnesota Aloon” based on the original artwork Andi Fink made for protest buttons.

There are depictions of whistles, which Minnesotans used to alert neighbors to the presence of immigration agents, as well as portraits of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, the boy from Columbia Heights who received national attention after agents detained him while he wore a blue bunny hat, and Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were killed by federal agents.

There are a few crop art pieces (and fine art pieces) depicting MPR News journalist Sam Stroozas, who ran out of her home in a robe and slippers — in the middle of winter — to document a car crash involving federal agents. A photo of Stroozas at that moment taken by a Minnesota Star Tribune photographer went viral.

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Artists also fused ICE and art history. Artist Jennifer Nelson recreated Pablo Picasso’s 1937 antiwar painting “Guernica” using a loon, an “ICE OUT” protest sign, a fallen Alex Pretti and Conejo Ramos.

“I thought there was a fitting parallel between these incidents about the high price paid by ordinary people when aggressive regimes try out new tactics of war,” Jennifer Nelson said in an artist statement. “As well as a fitting juxtaposition of the darkness of living such an experience and the light we shone through it in our own resistance and care for one another.”

First-time crop artist Bethany Nagan of Inver Grove Heights recreated the 1830 painting “Liberty Leading the People,” by Eugène Delacroix. Here, Nagan swapped Lady Liberty for a loon holding a Minnesota flag, and guns for signs.

“A painting about one of the French Revolutions, and it really rang like an echo to me,” Nagan said. “I changed all of the weapons into protest signs because I think that is the tool that we use.”

There were so many crop artworks about Operation Metro Surge this year that the manager of cropart.com created a special resistance collection on the site.

Crop art at the State Fair has a strong tradition of responding to politics, current events and resistance themes. That’s less true of the Fine Arts Competition, which this year accepted 343 pieces out of 3,185 submissions. The juried show is typically more apolitical, with artists finding inspiration in a broader array of topics. That changed this year. While there is still an abundance of classic landscapes, portraits and abstracted works, there were artworks of all mediums responding to Operation Metro Surge and the resistance movement.

“Cities of Strength,” a large-format collage by White Bear Lake artist Kristi Abbott, won the Minnesota State Fair Foundation Friends of the Fair Award. The piece features the architecture and landscapes of Minneapolis and St. Paul with a crowd at the capitol holding a cluster of protest signs that say "Resistance," “Are you OK?” and “Alex.”

Fine Arts Competition

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The dynamic painting “Red Sun Rising” by Minneapolis artist Meg Koenitzer features everything from the tipi prayer camp at the Whipple Federal Building and the protesters who dressed up as handmaidens to Renee Good’s van and, of course, a rebel loon.

“Signs of Refusal” is a photo compilation by Minneapolis photographer Drew Arrieta that features, in a grid, 117 photos of stop signs in Minneapolis. Each one is altered by a sticker or paint to say, “Stop Ice.” The artwork won two awards: The Metropolitan State University Gordon Parks Gallery Photography Award and the Minnesota Museum of American Art Award. The latter means it will enter the St. Paul museum’s permanent collection.

“Operation Metro Surge is so deeply entrenched and within everyone's spirit in Minnesota,” said Arrieta, who traveled on foot and by bike to capture as many of these signs as he could. “We're still continuing to move through that, and art is a really beautiful way to do that.”

The man who killed former DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark claims that his actions were legally justified.

Vance Boelter is serving life in prison after pleading guilty to federal murder, stalking and firearms charges, but he still faces separate state charges.

In a Friday filing in the state case, Boelter notified the court that he plans to mount a “justifiable taking of life” defense to charges of first-degree premeditated murder.

Boelter, through his attorneys, argues that he was "effecting a lawful arrest" under Minnesota's citizen's arrest statute, and believed he was in danger of great bodily harm or death. Boelter did not provide any additional details.

The Hortmans were unarmed when Boelter appeared at their Brooklyn Park home at around 3:30 a.m. on June 14, 2025.

Boelter tricked them into answering their front door by dressing as a police officer and parking a phony squad car with flashing lights in their driveway.

Boelter fatally shot Mark Hortman as Brooklyn Park police arrived and exchanged gunfire with the officers. Boelter ran inside the home, where he shot Melissa Hortman at point-blank range.

In June, Boelter, 59, admitted in federal court that he killed the Hortmans after shooting and wounding DFL State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette earlier the same morning and attempting to kill their daughter Hope.

U.S. District Judge John Tunheim sentenced Boelter to two consecutive life terms plus 40 years in line with a plea agreement with the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office. He faces a mandatory sentence of life without parole if convicted of first-degree premeditated murder in the state case.

In additional filings Friday, Boelter asked a judge to move the trial outside of Hennepin County because of “excessive pretrial publicity,” and petitioned the court to lower his $5 million bond.

Boelter argues that the charges and high bail are “politically motivated to shield the Democrats and keep the public from hearing what has been going on in Minnesota. I was in the process of exposing fraud and other crimes taking place that the public still has not been made aware of.”

Boelter also notes that he volunteered his time to “worthy civic causes,” and that DFL Governors Tim Walz and Mark Dayton appointed him to a state workforce development board. In the filing, Boelter also included an undated photo of himself and other members of the Dakota-Scott Workforce Development Board with DFL U.S. Rep. Angie Craig that appears to have been taken at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington.

In a court memo filed ahead of Boelter’s July 23 federal sentencing, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bradley Endicott and Matthew Forbes write that Boelter “committed his murders with full knowledge that the inevitable result of his killings would be a shift in the balance of power in the Minnesota Legislature.”

The federal prosecutors pointed to text messages that Boelter sent to friends and family members in which he expressed concern about Republicans losing power in Minnesota and other places where power was closely divided.

“He was aware of the party breakdown. And he knew that if he had been successful in all of his attempted murders that night, he would have killed at least two Minnesota senators ([John] Hoffman and [Ann] Rest) and at least two Minnesota House members ([Melissa] Hortman and [Kristin] Bahner), and the balance of power would have shifted in both houses of the Minnesota Legislature.”

Scientists say glaciers in this region, and around the world, are increasingly unstable because of human-caused global warming. Across the mountains of Nepal and Tibet, climate change is causing glaciers to melt at an alarming rate.

Planet-heating emissions from burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal are the primary driver of climate change. Scientists say that in addition to reducing climate pollution, renewable energy and battery technologies are increasingly price competitive with traditional energy sources.

"There's no question that this event was made more likely because of climate change and that we're seeing more likely other similar glacier hazards occurring," says Twila Moon, deputy lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Footage from the Chinese-administered Tibet side of the border with Nepal shared on local media showed a massive gush of water sweeping over a port building as people fled.

As the water barrelled down, residents filmed it sweeping away a bridge and washing away riverside settlements.

The flooding was made more severe because it happened during the heavy rains of the monsoon season, says Mohammad Farooq Azam, an expert at ICIMOD, an environmental advocacy group that focuses on Asia's high mountains. "Everything is fully saturated already," Azam said. "The rivers are swollen."

This flood is part of a trend, said Arun Bhakta Shrestha, an expert on climate change and the Himalayan glaciers.

"If you look at the whole Hindu Kush Himalayan region," he said, "it seems like the frequency, the types of those hazards are increasing." Shrestha said everything points to climate change as the reason.

The world will see "more and more events like this," says Alton Byers, a faculty research scientist at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado Boulder. "Things are getting warmer," he says.

Permafrost on the mountains, the continuously frozen soil and sediment, is now changing, said Byers. He uses the analogy of a stick of butter left out of the refrigerator. "It's going to get softer," he says. "And it's going to lose its structural integrity."

Preliminary reports indicate that Nepal's flood warning system wasn't equipped to handle these floods. That's despite significant government investment in flood warning systems over the last decade in Nepal. Many flood-prone valleys in the country have warning alarms, but as NPR has reported, the government has struggled to keep up with the cost of maintaining the systems.

NPR's Rebecca Hersher contributed to this reporting.

Copyright 2026, NPR

On a rainy overcast day, Father Dennis Zehren sits in his old office. The one that was peppered with bullet holes after a shooter fired dozens of rounds into the stained glass windows of the church.

"This office space we had to abandon shortly after the shooting because it was a mess,” Zehren said.

In the aftermath, the staff moved to a temporary space on campus. Now, Zehren said things are slowly going back to normal.

“We're just trying to pick up the pieces and bring light to a place that became a place of darkness.”

‘Weep with those who weep’

Last year, Zehren said his sermons focused on assuring the school children and church parishioners that things would be OK. Today, the pastor looks at how scripture talks about trauma.

“Saint Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that we are to weep with those who weep,” Zehren said. “So, the Bible never just tells us we'll just try to cheer them up or just try to get them to move on, but he tells us to weep with those who weep.”

Zehren teaches that Jesus heals suffering from within and, as a Catholic, believes that suffering is a part of everyone's journey.

“And we don't feel like it's something that God has abandoned us when we suffer. We recognize that God is right there in the midst of it.”

Zehren said the year has had its ups and downs as the church figures out how to move forward from this tragedy. The shooting was in his first week as pastor, and now that he’s gotten to know the school children, he’s also been able to see more of their resilience. For example, on Halloween one student’s costume made him tear up.

“One little first grader. She was wearing a blue running suit and a blue baseball cap that was put on backwards, and she ran up to me and she said, ‘Father, guess what I am?’ And I said, ‘I don't know. Are you a Smurf?’ And she said, ‘No, I'm Sophia."

Sophia Forchas is a student who was critically injured in the shooting. She wore an all-blue outfit when she was released from the hospital.

“I think she recognized that Sophia was somebody that inspired her, and somebody that she had grown to love through this experience,” Zehren said. “And that's one of the ways we find healing.”

‘This is my home’

Zehren said as the year went on, he had to be more sensitive about how he approached difficult issues because the children were in different places of healing, but he encouraged them to own their stories.

“Children are storytellers, and they love to hear the stories of our faith, and you know they find applications for their own lives. And that's one of the things that I try to impress upon the children is like you've got a story here, you know, and it's up to you how you're going to tell it.”

Zehren is the first pastor in over 30 years to live in the house on campus. He said the children are surprised to find out he lives where they go to school and church, but he sees it as a way to give them peace.

“This is my home, and I hope that kind of instills in them a sense of security and a sense of safety, and just the knowledge of knowing that Father is always here, looking over his sheep, always looking over the sheepfold, and making sure everything's all right,” Zehren said. “So, I would hope that the gift of presence is gonna bear fruit for them as they grow.”

Annunciation school’s theme this year is Guide Our Feet into the Way of Peace. Zehren said they chose it because they don’t want the students to see peace as passive, they want to teach them to take steps towards peace and actively seek it.

It happened at 63rd Avenue North and Brooklyn Drive near Centennial Park. Police say the girls — both under the age of 10 — were on a minibike traveling east when they were hit by a vehicle traveling south.

One of the girls died at a hospital. The other was reported to be in critical condition.

The driver of the vehicle remained at the scene and is cooperating with authorities. The circumstances of the crash remain under investigation.

The planned merger of North Memorial Health and South Dakota-based Sanford Health is moving forward.

This development follows the announcement by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Friday that the two health systems have reached a 10-year oversight agreement after his office reviewed the merger plan, which was first announced in May.

The 10-year agreement is far longer than Sanford’s initial commitment to maintain core services at North Memorial’s Robbinsdale hospital for only two years.

Terms of the agreement include $600 million in investments in North Memorial’s Maple Grove and Robbinsdale hospitals, and maintaining the Level 1 trauma center in Robbinsdale for at least a decade.

Among other terms, the agreement also includes commitments to honor all collective-bargaining contracts, maintain a corporate presence in Minnesota and maintain air and ground ambulance services in the state.

“We have agreed to respect all the collective bargaining agreements that are in place, and there will be no job eliminations associated with this integration, because we all agree that healthcare is fundamentally local,” Trevor Sawallish, chief executive at North Memorial Health, said at a press conference Friday outside of the Robbinsdale hospital.

The oversight agreement states that the combined health system “shall not reduce the scope of reproductive health care and gender-affirming care services” at its Minnesota locations as of the closing date of the merger, “to the extent consistent with applicable law and regulations.”

“We have a ground-breaking agreement to protect Minnesotans," Ellison said in a news release. “The commitments and expressions of strong intent that Sanford Health and North Memorial Health have made to make significant investments in facilities and people and maintain key services in Minnesota — and their willingness to be held accountable to those commitments in an oversight agreement for 10 years — are in the public interest.”

The agreement calls on Sanford Health leadership to hold quarterly meetings with the Minnesota attorney general “to discuss integration, operations, and adherence to the terms of the oversight agreement” for a period of 10 years.

“As one nonprofit health system, we will preserve essential care at Robbinsdale Hospital, expand access to specialty care, invest in our people, create a more resilient emergency and trauma network and strengthen care across rural and urban Minnesota,” Bill Gassen, president and chief executive officer of Sanford Health, said in a news release.

For the past several months, a coalition of organizations has been advocating for a community benefits agreement to protect patients, healthcare workers and Minnesota's healthcare system amid significant federal cuts to healthcare funding.

Minister JaNaé Bates Imari, co-director of ISAIAH, represented the coalition at the press conference outside North Memorial’s Robbinsdale Hospital. She said the merger is “a really good thing” because it guarantees the hospital's long-term viability.

“This hospital serves a significant Black and Brown population, working-class families, Medicaid patients, and people for whom losing this hospital does not simply mean driving a few more miles, it can mean losing access to care altogether,” Bates said.

She said this merger will bring greater stability and investment to the hospital serving the North Minneapolis community.

In addition to its two hospitals in Robbinsdale and Maple Grove, North Memorial has 22 clinics, urgent and emergency care throughout the Twin Cities, as well as medical transportation services in Minnesota.

Sanford Health is the largest rural health system in the U.S., operating hospitals and clinics across the upper Midwest, including Minnesota. The merger marks Sanford Health's expansion from its Sioux Falls base into the Twin Cities market, following a previous deal with Fairview Health Services that fell apart three years ago.

The two health systems had previously said they planned to finalize the merger this year, pending state and federal approval.

A party in Minneapolis next week will bring the underground music scene to one of the city's best-known music institutions.

Local DJ collective Pivot takes over First Avenue’s 7th Street Entry on Friday, September 4 for a night of music made for dancing.

Think techno, house, electro and everything in between, said Oriana, a Pivot DJ also known as Ori the Ghost. “The idea was to just create a night of intermixing of people and sounds.”

Pivot’s nine DJs have been hosting parties in homes and warehouses throughout the city for years, playing music until the very early hours of the morning.

But if you're not part of the Minneapolis dance music scene, you might not know it exists.

“We tend to throw pretty intense parties for a non-partygoer to appreciate, which is staying out until 4 a.m. or 6 a.m.,” said Willy, another DJ who goes by XMinus1. “That makes a lot of people gasp.”

The two say Pivot is drawn together more by a shared ethos than any one type of sound. While Oriana plans a techno set with what she calls “Latin flair,” each DJ has their own specialty. Their music stretches across and beyond genre.

“Like my favorite techno is usually techno that people argue whether or not it's techno,” Oriana said. “That's pretty fun to me.”

At their upcoming show, DJs will spin sets side-by-side, back-to-back, in a “versus” style. And while EDM and other dance music parties have gone viral on TikTok with big lights and spectacle, Willy says that’s not Pivot’s style.

Regulars know to expect both intensity and comfort. Pivot is a queer DJ collective and works to create a space where people can feel safe.

“And as a consequence, we have these kinds of transient spaces that exist in which people can come together and be themselves and have a lot of fun,” Willy said.

Sometimes people just want a dark space and good music.

Documents released a year after the deadly shooting at Annunciation Catholic church and school provide a detailed account of the swift and widespread response by law enforcement officers — who arrived within minutes and began triaging injured students.

But the nearly 1,500 photos and hundreds of pages cataloging witness interviews, evidence and officer accounts of the shooting at Annunciation Church and School don't shed much light on why 23-year-old Robin Westman launched the Aug. 27, 2025, attack that killed 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski. At least 21 other children and adults were wounded before Westman died by suicide.

Files provide insight into what officers encountered

The documents released this week by city officials as part of a records request show dozens of officers from Minneapolis and a half dozen other state, federal and neighboring local law enforcement agencies arrived quickly — with the first on scene about three and a half minutes after the first report of a possible shooting, the dispatch records showed.

By that time, Westman, who was armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol as well as knives, smoke bombs and multiple rounds of ammunition, was already on the ground suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The documents detail a sprawling crime scene filled with bullet holes and littered with shell casings recovered from around the church, the neighboring playground and as far away as the walls and gutters of houses in the surrounding neighborhood.

The first officers entering the sanctuary described encountering a horrific scene of victims lying across pews, “vast” amounts of blood, broken glass and the smell of gunpowder in the air. One officer’s report began with the disclaimer that he had not reviewed his body camera video from the call — and did not plan to.

Officers triaged as many patients as they could, holding pressure against wounds and applying a tourniquet for an adult who was wounded in the parking lot — shot in the leg and losing blood quickly. The officer rode with her to the hospital, where staff said he likely saved her life.

Survivors recount a Mass disrupted, lives shattered

Many survivors described sitting in Mass when they began hearing shots coming from outside, and the windows began to shatter. At least one described holding the inner doors to the church shut as they heard the outside doors rattling.

Many of the children told officers they had ducked under pews or followed adults to hide in other areas of the church. Preschool teachers described barricading classrooms and trying to keep children calm and as sheltered as they could.

Officers also described the throng of parents searching for children and spouses who worked at the school, including a woman who said her husband had grabbed their child and hidden near an ice machine in the basement of the church.

The records provide few new insights into motive

Overall, the records — lists of evidence, weapons, journals and other seized belongings — are a compilation of information that has been previously reported, though a handful of new details were released, including some of Westman's actions before the shooting.

Investigators had previously said Westman was “full of hatred” and seeming admiration for previous mass shooters — writing their names on the weapons, gear and ammunition used in the attack along with a slew of statements attacking religions, race and ethnicity in an unclear mishmash that provided little insight into Westman's target and decisions.

A search warrant in the documents showed the car Westman drove to the church that morning and in the days before the shooting had a dashcam. Officers described the videos recorded by that camera, writing that Westman seemed agitated after a visit with family and at times sobbed before driving by the church and school the night before the attack.

The records also include transcripts of police interviews with Westman's father, ex-girlfriend, close friend and former co-workers, describing Westman as somewhat of a loner prone to depression. Many of those people had not previously spoken publicly about the shooting or about Westman.

While several said Westman had expressed suicidal ideations years earlier, they also said they had not seen signs that Westman was capable of hurting others. Westman's father said he hadn't seen a reason to be worried about his child before the shooting, noting only that Westman had been struggling to eat and had lost significant weight. Several relatives declined to speak with law enforcement altogether, according to the record release.

City officials said more documents or videos could be released in coming weeks. Many of the documents already released had been redacted to protect the privacy of the victims. There were no photos or visuals released from inside the church.

Derek Francis’ debut children’s book is a kid-friendly introduction to an often-overlooked moment in Minnesota’s history: when Minneapolis in 1971 paired a majority black school and majority white school for integration.

“This is history in Minnesota that, growing up, I did not learn about,” Francis said.

“I learned about Ruby Bridges and how that looked in New Orleans but never had a chance to learn about that first integrated bus ride between Hale and Field Elementary,” he said.

“Our First Bus Ride,” is something Francis hopes will make the Hale-Field school pairing better known, better understood and more easily accessible.

The story is short, with colorful illustrations of Molly Johnson and Monica Lash, two 7-year-olds who were friends and part of the integration project. Readers gain insight into the former students’ relationship — roller skating, playing with puppies and getting ready for their first day of school. The story follows the friends as they learn about their school’s plans for the pairing, witness vehement opposition to integration in their city, and share bus rides and class time at their new school.

Francis hopes the book will be a relatable way for students to learn about Minnesota history.

“Humanity across race or across identity is something that I think is important for children to see … and learn that there was a time, unfortunately, where people did not go to schools together based on their race, and what that process was like to change those things so that things can be fair,” Francis said.

This is not the first time Francis has introduced students to this aspect of Minnesota’s history. He worked as a school counselor at North High in Minneapolis and is currently the culturally responsive instructional lead for Brightworks, a nonprofit school cooperative.

He collaborated with Monica Lash and Molly Johnson to produce a documentary on the Minneapolis’ 1971 integration efforts. He also got their support for the book as well as help from Mike Andrews, who worked at Field School from 1971-1989, and illustrator Ashley Finch.

“Just like in other parts of our country, Minnesota had segregated spaces, including communities, neighborhoods, housing, red-lining, restaurants that people of color in the community knew they could not go to,” Francis said. “This is an opportunity to learn about this history and understand that these events did happen in Minnesota.”

The book is one Francis hopes will give people a gentle way to start important conversations.

“(I want) to create a space for people who it may be hard to talk about race,” Francis said. “I know and understand (in) this day and age where (for) some people, books about race are uncomfortable. This is done in a way for people to learn. It’s to let the guard down to talk about our background.”

The book was published in January 2026.

Derek Francis will be reading from his book at an event in Duluth at Zenith Bookstore on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

MN Shortlist is the MPR News weekly roundup of arts and culture recommendations. This week’s picks include a new Prince album party, a ceramics extravaganza, the Millstream Art Festival in St. Joseph, remembering Dolly Parton through film and more.

‘TIMELESS’ Global Album Release Party at Paisley Park in Chanhassen — Aug. 28

Prince spent his career bending genres, rewriting the rules of pop stardom and making sure the world knew exactly where Minneapolis was. The new collection “TIMELESS” features music from across five decades of his career.

Celebrate its release inside Paisley Park with a panel discussion of the stories behind the music, then dance into the night with longtime Prince DJ Dudley D.

Parking is limited, so organizers recommend planning ahead or carpooling. The party starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $30. (Annie Russell)

American Pottery Festival at Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis — Aug. 28-30

The Northern Clay Center hosts its biggest event of the year — the free American Pottery Festival, now in its 28th year. The weekend welcomes ceramic artists and clay enthusiasts from around the country, as well as artist talks, studio demos and workshops. Hundreds of pieces of pottery will be on view. Visiting artists include KyoungHwa Oh of Colorado, Celia Feldberg of Philadelphia and Marissa Childers of Oklahoma. (Alex V. Cipolle)

‘Art of the Game’ mural celebration in Ball Club — Aug. 29

Arts and culture collective Fire in the Village will celebrate what the group says is the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe’s first mural on a basketball court at the Ball Club Community Center on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. It features the imagery of two medicine wheels – a circular symbol that represents interconnectedness – as well as a turtle and a bald eagle.

Leech Lake citizen Annie Humphrey, who co-founded Fire in the Village, painted the artwork. According to a release, she worked with youth in the community who play basketball at the court.

The community will celebrate with a family-style basketball tournament during the day followed by an evening concert and fashion show. (Chandra Colvin)

Millstream Arts Festival in St. Joseph — Aug. 30

Downtown St. Joseph becomes one big open-air gallery for the 45th Millstream Arts Festival. The free celebration features 60 juried artists, live demonstrations, local authors, music, street performances and hands-on activities for kids. Organizer Alicia Peters says attendees can expect everything from metalwork to woodturning to basket weaving. “We don’t charge for any activities at the festival,” Peters said. “We want people to buy the art. We are there for the artists, so the community can see how amazing the area is.” The festival runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. (Emily Bright)

‘9 to 5’ at the Twin Cities Liberation Center in Minneapolis — Aug. 30

“Don't get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life,” Dolly Parton once said. Wise words from Saint Dolly, which could also be applied to the 1980 film Parton starred in with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. To honor the passing of the country star, the Twin Cities Liberation Center is hosting a memorial screening of the feminist labor comedy at 4 p.m. Sunday at 301 Cedar Ave.; $5 suggested donation. (Alex V. Cipolle)

Midnight screening of ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ at Parkway Theater in Minneapolis — Aug. 29

If you’re also grieving the death of Tim Curry, another pop culture icon who entertained the world and challenged norms for generations, The Parkway in Minneapolis hosts its next midnight screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” with a live shadow cast Aug. 29. Tickets are $10-$15. (Alex V. Cipolle)

‘Geo Rutherford: Spooky Waters of the World’ at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona — Through Feb. 14, 2027

If you suffer from thalassophobia (the fear of deep bodies of water) or megalohydrothalassophobia (the fear of large, submerged objects or creatures in bodies of water), you might want to avoid this new exhibition by Sauk City, Wisconsin-based artist Geo Rutherford. The artist-educator and TikTok creator went viral for Spooky Lake Month, an annual October video series where Rutherford talks about what lurks in the deep of the Great Lakes and beyond. The Minnesota Marine Art Museum exhibition features original illustrations from her 2024 nonfiction book, “Spooky Lakes,” and the forthcoming “Spooky Rivers,” due out Sept. 15.

“Spooky waters or spooky lakes are not really about ghosts or ghouls or anything haunted,” Rutherford told MPR News. “It's actually more about disasters, nature being spooky all by herself and humans interacting with nature, like diving or shipwrecks.”

Rutherford will also display sculptures, collages and collections of curious objects she found on the shores of Lake Michigan. She will give a museum talk on Oct. 3. (Alex V. Cipolle)

Minneapolis marked one year since the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School with a day of service and remembrance.

Eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski were killed in the Aug. 27, 2025, shooting, and 29 others were injured.

In their honor, dozens of volunteers gathered Thursday at Pearl Park in south Minneapolis, about a mile from Annunciation, to collect school supplies, pack care kits for young people experiencing homelessness and work on a community garden.

Children drew with chalk and blew bubbles on the warm, sunny afternoon. A small crowd gathered around a table with churros, sambusas and Somali tea donated by area businesses.

Local elected officials hosted the event. Minneapolis City Council member Jamison Whiting said organizers wanted to honor the Annunciation community’s request to commemorate Aug. 27 with acts of service — and bring people together.

“What we do is come around each other. We hold each other through the hardest of events, and that's what you're seeing today, is a culmination of that effort, that love, hope and joy that we do here in the city of Minneapolis and across this state,” Whiting said.

The idea to pack care kits came from an Annunciation eighth grader. Volunteers wrote encouraging messages to include in each one, assembling 150 total.

Annunciation planned private events on Thursday, but some parents and children joined the event at Pearl Park, too. They wore shirts bearing the school’s theme for the coming year.

“Guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Annunciation remembrance event

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A record 594 crop art pieces were submitted to the Minnesota State Fair this year, up from last year’s record 451.

On day one the lines to see the works remained tangled outside of the Agriculture Horticulture Building, a tradition that is sure to continue the next 12 days.

The pieces focused on topics like the federal immigration-enforcement surge last winter, Minnesota Lynx players and the debut of the smash-hit TV show “Heated Rivalry” last November.

Every seed used must be from a Minnesota-grown crop. In 2027, quinoa will be banned from the competition because Minnesota farmers don’t grow the seed. Crop artists told MPR News it will be a big loss. In 2023 the fair banned yellow mustard seed after many artists had already started their entries. The ban was later reversed.

The competition has exploded in recent years according to crop art superintendent Marta Shore, but there is only so much space to display the pieces in the building.

“If someone would like to donate $10 million to build us a crop art building, we would love it,” Shore said.

President Donald Trump said Thursday he is renaming Lake Ontario to be known as “Lake America” in the United States as he exacerbates his trade war with Canada.

The Republican president signed an executive order that updated the lake's name for the U.S. geographic naming service. Trump cannot force Canada to follow his preferred naming convention, however.

Trump has been floating the idea of the name change in recent days as the U.S. announced it was imposing 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods over the weekend after talks between the countries broke down. Trump has been needling America’s northern neighbor since he returned to the White House last year, suggesting the ally with whom the U.S. once had warm relations should instead be absorbed as the 51st state.

Canada responded to Trump’s import taxes this week by imposing retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion worth of American goods, including steel, dairy products, appliances and farm equipment

Trump, who signed the order as he was sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, had a large sign behind him propped on a stand with a map of the Great Lakes. Over Lake Ontario, in big red letters, the map read “Lake America.”

On the other side of the president was another map with the words, “MAKING THE GREAT LAKES EVEN GREATER.”

He told reporters that Canada is “the worst” to deal with on trade. “They feel entitled and we can’t have that,” he said.

The office of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lake is one of multiple Great Lakes that the U.S. and Canada share borders along.

The move, which Trump said was “effective immediately,” is reminiscent of his move last year to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.’”

Trump on Thursday suggested his push to rename bodies of water may not be finished.

“So, if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean,” Trump said. “So maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them.”

Minnesota's Secretary of State's Office warns that it's too late to start a recount of the governor's race primary and complete it before ballots need to be prepared for the general election.

A filing Wednesday with the state Supreme Court seeks dismissal of Republican candidate Mike Lindell's bid for a hand recount.

Lindell failed to formally request and pay for a recount by a Monday deadline. He went to the high court to seek a more-expansive recount than a state-approved plan. He objected to the structure in which only votes for him and Lisa Demuth would be counted by name and all others would be combined in a third pile.

Lindell lost the GOP primary to Demuth, the Minnesota House speaker, by 45,000 votes. She faces DFL nominee Amy Klobuchar, a U.S. senator, and the Green Party’s Steven Young for the open office.

The brief on behalf of the Secretary of State’s Office and the Canvassing Board said the ballot printing process begins Sept. 3 for early voting that starts on Sept. 18.

If the court grants Lindell what he wants, the recount might not start immediately because new procedures would need to be finalized and new cost estimates would be required, the state argues.

“Lindell’s petition threatens to delay the ballot printing process to the degree that counties may not be able to begin absentee voting by the legally required deadline,” state attorneys wrote.

Lindell was informed he had to request and pay $825,000 for the recount prior to midnight Monday. He withheld payment as he sought a broader recount, alleging without much documentation that there were anomalies in the Aug. 11 primary count.

The union representing Chisago County workers who’ve been on strike for almost four months has ratified a tentative contract agreement.

Amy Perusse, with Teamsters Local 320, said all three groups of affected workers approved the three-year deal on Friday.

“Our folks are very excited to get back to work. This contract resolution gives them the wage and health insurance protections they were looking for, and so they are very excited to end this chapter and get back to serving the community,” Perusse said.

Perusse said the agreement addresses two main sticking points that led to the lengthy strike — including a wage increase of 20.5 percent over three years, and offering health insurance through the Teamsters.

Perusse said the Teamsters health insurance plan is cheaper than that of other workers.

“The county wanted to keep that savings, and we felt that we should be treated and get the same health insurance contribution — regardless of which plan it went to — as other county workers.”

The county said it agreed to an employer contribution to the Teamsters health insurance, with a cap.

The county also said the agreement calls for a wage package with a “3 percent general increase in each of the first two years and a 4 percent general increase in the third year.” Perusse said the union is describing this as a 20.5 percent increase over three years because it’s combining the general increases and step increases from each year of the contract.

About 125 union members have been on strike since May 1 — representing about 30 percent of Chisago County employees. It includes health and human services workers and government center professionals. A small third group of engineering technicians wasn’t on strike, but “we were able to get a tentative agreement and ratify that for their group with the same conditions,” Perusse said.

The strike followed negotiations that had started last fall.

“This historic strike is equaled by the historic settlement,” Erik Skoog, the union’s secretary-treasurer and principal officer, said in a statement. “This was a battle of giants, and our sisters and brothers stood strong and won an amazing settlement.”

At nearly 120 days, the strike — while long — is not the longest public-sector strike in Minnesota history.

A spokesperson for the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services said the longest was by city workers in Park Rapids, who went on strike for 240 days. That strike ended in 1977.

The Minnesota Truth Council held the first in a series of public meetings Wednesday. The 15-member body is tasked with creating a public record on the impact of the surge of federal immigration enforcement in the state earlier this year. During the operation, agents killed Renee Good, Alex Pretti and wounded Julio Sosa-Celis. Agents also arrested more than 3,700 people.

Court documents show that hundreds of people were illegally detained during Operation Metro Surge and were released by judges' orders.

A large number of people arrested by agents were held at the Whipple Federal Building.

Hanne Sandison is the Director of Immigration Legal Services for The Advocates for Human Rights. She described what she saw in some of the rooms at the holding facility inside the building during the height of the surge.

"I looked into each room as we walked by. No one had any of their paperwork,” she said. “Everyone I saw was shackled at the ankles, even while in the cell, and even while sleeping. I didn't see anyone who had a blanket, a pillow, a sleeping bag, or a cot. The people I saw sleeping were on the floor, shackled and with no bedding."

Several people who spoke during the hearing pointed to instances of agents targeting people based on their race, ethnicity and country of origin.

“I want to speak to the harm caused by relentless targeting, racial profiling, and pervasive surveillance,” said Sarah Lopez, policy director of Unidos Minnesota.

Lopez said agents were visibly present in neighborhoods that featured Latino-owned businesses in Minneapolis and in cities like Willmar.

“They went into restaurants that are beloved institutions like Hola Arepa and Rectangle, and in Willmar, four agents sat down at lunch at El Tapatio,” she said. “And that evening, after the family closed early, agents followed them out and detained the owners of the restaurant and the dishwasher.”

Like members of the Latino community, Somali Americans found themselves as frequent targets of surveillance and detention by agents. The overwhelming majority of Somalis in Minnesota are U.S. citizens. However, Yusuf Abdulle, executive director of the Islamic Association of North America, said that didn’t protect community members from being targeted.

Abdulle became choked with emotion as he talked about how the President of the United States called Somalis ‘garbage.’

“These dehumanizing words were followed by attacks on the Somali community, especially in the social media — where every Somali became a target."

The Minnesota Truth Council was created by an executive order from Gov. Tim Walz in March.

Retired Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill is the chair of the council. He said over the next few weeks, the group will listen to testimony about Operation Metro Surge and Operation PARRIS — which targeted refugees.

“The whole purpose of the public meetings is to take testimony so that we can prevent the recurrence of unlawful or harmful conduct by federal agents,” he said. “Also, to document the abuses that occurred, and also to document how Minnesotans came together, showed their resilience and showed their support for our neighbors, and how they persevered through both of these operations.”

The council will release a preliminary report around the end of October and a final report in December.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer charged with shooting a man and lying about it during the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis was released from a Texas jail Thursday, after a judge refused to order his return to Minnesota.

Christian Castro was released at the break of dawn from a detention center in Brownsville. He motioned his hand toward a few camera operators and a reporter crowding around him and quickly got into an SUV that drove off.

A day earlier, U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. wrote in an order that said he couldn't prevent a county sheriff from releasing Castro or order Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to sign his extradition warrant.

Castro is charged in Minnesota with assault and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 shooting of 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.

Castro is accused of firing gun through door of home

Castro is accused of firing a gun through the front door of a Minneapolis home, shooting Sosa-Celis in the leg. Prosecutors say Castro also falsely accused Sosa-Celis and another man of attacking an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel.

After a Minnesota judge issued a nationwide warrant for Castro's arrest in May, authorities, including Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, arrested Castro in Cameron County on May 29. Minnesota authorities have sought his extradition since his arrest, but he remained in custody in Brownsville, a city bordering Mexico.

Under Texas law and barring extradition, Castro had to be released after 90 days of detention, which was Thursday.

Minnesota officials believe Castro could flee to Mexico.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a request for a temporary restraining order last week seeking to block Castro’s release or to order his return to Minnesota.

Abbott waiting for internal state investigation about Castro

Texas attorneys on Tuesday argued the judge could not rule on a decision that’s still pending. Abbott has not denied the extradition. Instead he is waiting for the outcome of an internal state investigation considering whether Castro was legally a “fugitive” under the Extradition Clause, the lawyers said.

The judge wrote in Wednesday’s order that the court couldn't yet step in.

“The Court concludes that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction because the case is not ripe for adjudication,” the order read. “Minnesota cannot premise its causes of action on the allegation that Governor Abbott may violate those authorities in the future; it must prove that a violation has already occurred.”

The judge said in his order that the extradition laws do not outline how long the Texas governor can take to make that decision.

Abbott said last week he would not respond to the extradition request, citing the ongoing investigation into fraud in government social service programs in Minnesota, which President Donald Trump used to justify his immigration crackdown there.

Abbott directs ‘bad lawyers’ comment at Minnesota attorney general

After the judge's decision, Ellison posted online that the Texas governor had an obligation to extradite Castro. And by refusing to extradite him, “Greg Abbott is turning Texas into a sanctuary state for violent criminals.”

Abbott responded to Ellison.

“You guys are such bad lawyers. You showed up unprepared, uninformed & unpersuasive,” Abbott wrote online. “You don’t know the law & it showed.”

The Texas governor accused Minnesota of refusing to enforce immigration laws and threatened to send immigrants in the future to their state as he did with New York City, when thousands were released into Texas under President Joe Biden's administration.

A message seeking reaction from Ellison was sent to his office Thursday.

Minnesota officials say Castro could flee the country, citing calls he made from jail to a woman in Mexico, talking “about marrying her and buying a house in Mexico when he is released,” according to the lawsuit.

The judge conceded that Castro could flee the country but added that “the threat of injury by itself does not create an issue ripe for adjudication.”

The NFL will play a record nine games internationally this season and they include three cities hosting for the first time: Melbourne, Australia; Rio de Janeiro; and Paris.

Jacksonville and San Francisco both play two games abroad: the Jaguars back-to-back in London; the 49ers in Melbourne and later in Mexico City.

Here’s some handy information about the games and locations.

Melbourne, Week 1

Talk about pushing boundaries. The Los Angeles Rams face the San Francisco 49ers in a game at Melbourne Cricket Ground. The league has never staged a regular-season game so far from home. It’s a nearly 16-hour flight from the West Coast. The NFL West matchup will kick off at 10:35 a.m. local time Friday, Sept. 11, in Melbourne — which will be 8:35 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10, on the U.S. East Coast.

The 100,000-capacity stadium, known as “The G,” is the largest on the NFL schedule this season. Aussies call American football “gridiron” so as not to confuse it with Australian Rules Football. Visitors might want to look up Shane Warne to get a flavor of Australian cricket history.

Rio de Janeiro, Week 3

“America’s Team” is coming to the famed Maracanã Stadium on Sept. 27. The Dallas Cowboys will play just their second-ever regular-season international game when they face the Baltimore Ravens. In 2014, the Cowboys beat the Jaguars 31-17 at Wembley Stadium.

Rio is hosting for the first time and has what looks like a good QB matchup: Dak Prescott vs. Lamar Jackson. The league has committed to playing at least three regular-season games in Rio over the next five years. There have been two previous games in Brazil — both in Sao Paulo.

Dallas to Rio is an estimated 10-hour flight.

The Maracanã has staged two men’s World Cup finals — in 1950 and 2014. It was also the site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2016 Summer Olympics.

London, Weeks 4-6

London has been a mainstay for the NFL since 2007. Forty-two of the 62 regular-season games played internationally so far have been staged in London. Three more are on tap this season.

The first two will be at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: Indianapolis vs. Washington on Oct. 4; and Philadelphia vs. Jacksonville on Oct. 11.

The Jags pull double duty by staying to face the Houston Texans on Oct. 18 at Wembley Stadium — and by doing so will become the first team to play two home games abroad in the same season. The Jags, who have a 7-7 record in London games, are undergoing stadium renovations at home.

Washington’s only other trip to London ended in a 27-27 tie — or a “draw” as the locals would call it — with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2016. Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels will look to make his international debut after missing last year’s Madrid game because of injury.

Paris, Week 7

The NFL finally makes it to the City of Light. Practices in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower perhaps?

The New Orleans Saints have the French connections and the Pittsburgh Steelers have the star quarterback — Aaron Rodgers — for the first regular-season game in Paris. The 42-year-old Rodgers headlined Dublin’s debut as a host city last season and figures to be in the spotlight at Stade de France on Oct. 25.

The 80,000-seat stadium, located just north of the capital in Saint-Denis, was the centerpiece of the 2024 Paris Olympics — Tom Cruise descended from the roof during the closing ceremony. It opened in 1998, when it hosted the FIFA World Cup final — France beat Brazil 3-0.

Madrid, Week 9

Joe Burrow goes international for the first time — as a player anyway. The Bengals quarterback was a hit at Vogue World 2024 in Paris.

He's set to make his international debut at Bernabeu Stadium when Cincinnati faces the Atlanta Falcons on Nov. 8. It will be Cincinnati’s first game outside the U.S. since a 24-10 loss to the Rams in London in 2019 in Zac Taylor’s first season as head coach. The Falcons lost to the Colts in Berlin last season.

The 83,186-capacity Bernabeu is home to Real Madrid soccer club — one of the most recognized sporting brands in the world. Real Madrid's soccer team has more Instagram followers — 180 million — than the combined total of all 32 NFL teams.

Last year, Bernabeu hosted Spain’s first regular-season game when the Miami Dolphins, led by quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, beat the Washington Commanders 16-13 in overtime. Tagovailoa has since joined the Falcons.

Munich, Week 10

The Patriots-Lions matchup in Bavaria looks promising. New England reached the Super Bowl last season but the big draw will be a homecoming for Detroit wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. The star's mother was born in Germany and he has a big following among the NFL’s large German fan base.

The Nov. 15 game at Bayern Munich’s home stadium will be the third NFL game in Munich. The first one, in 2022, was Germany’s first regular-season NFL game and Tom Brady led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers past the Seattle Seahawks 21-16. Days earlier, Brady had been gifted lederhosen. The crowd sang ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ — and the seven-time Super Bowl champion called it “one of the great football experiences that I’ve ever had.”

Note to visiting fans, if you enjoy downing pre-game beers, probably best to bring some with you on the train ride to the stadium. Seahawks fans complained no alcohol was served by vendors outside the venue.

Mexico City, Week 11

The NFL returns to Mexico City for the first time since 2022 for a matchup between the 49ers and Minnesota Vikings on Nov. 22.

Azteca Stadium, which has been renamed Banorte, hosted the very first regular-season game played outside the U.S. when the Arizona Cardinals beat San Francisco 31-14 in 2005 before a crowd of 103,467. (A Cowboys-Giants regular-season game in 2009 eclipsed 105,000). The first play from scrimmage was a wild one — a strip-sack that resulted in a touchdown.

Four years ago, the 49ers were prepared for the high altitude and beat the Cardinals 38-10. Azteca then underwent renovations for the 2026 World Cup and its current capacity is 87,523.

The Vikings played in Dublin and London in consecutive weeks last season and are 5-1 overall in regular-season international games.

The Minnesota Timberwolves agreed to terms with power forward Jonathan Kuminga on a two-year, $12.4 million contract on Wednesday, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team had not confirmed the agreement. ESPN reported that Kuminga's contract includes a player option for the second season, which would give the seventh overall pick from the 2021 draft an opportunity to hit the free agent market in a year.

Kuminga will fill an obvious need in the frontcourt for the Timberwolves, who traded Julius Randle and Naz Reid as part of their offseason acquisition of point guard LaMelo Ball.

Kuminga, who will turn 24 on Oct. 6, averaged a career-best 16.1 points during the 2023-24 season for the Golden State Warriors, who drafted the Congo native but never found the right fit for him before ultimately trading him to the Atlanta Hawks in February. Kuminga fell out of favor with Warriors coach Steve Kerr and out of the rotation last season, making his departure an inevitability. He played in only seven of his last 38 games with the Warriors.

He'll have a fresh start with the hungry Timberwolves, who'll have the challenge of finding enough shots for Kuminga and fellow forward Jaden McDaniels in a lineup that will revolve around Ball and superstar Anthony Edwards. In 278 NBA games, Kuminga has averaged 12.5 points and 22.1 minutes. He's a 50.2 percent shooter from the floor.

Lawrence Butler homered, Alika Williams hit a two-run triple and the Athletics beat the Minnesota Twins 7-4 on Wednesday night to win the three-game series.

Minnesota (64-70) fell four games behind Cleveland for the final American League playoff spot.

Tommy White had three hits for the A's, who have won four of five following a five-game losing streak. J.T. Ginn (9-8) allowed six hits and four runs in six innings.

Elvis Alvarado pitched a scoreless ninth for his fifth save.

After Jonah Heim singled with one out in the sixth, Andrew Morris (4-6) replaced Twins starter Connor Prielipp. White singled and pinch-hitter Jeff McNeil doubled in a run before Williams' triple gave the Athletics their first lead. Darell Hernaiz added an RBI single that made it 6-4.

Butler’s solo shot in the seventh capped the scoring.

Brooks Lee homered in the first inning and Trevor Larnach and Kaelen Culpepper hit back-to-back shots in the second to give the Twins a 3-0 lead.

Michael Stefanic doubled home a run and Brian Serven followed with an RBI groundout that trimmed it to 3-2 in the fourth.

Royce Lewis hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2 in the sixth.

Prielipp allowed three runs and six hits with five strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings.

Up next

Twins RHP Dean Kremer (2-4, 5.22 ERA) starts Friday at home against White Sox RHP Luis Castillo (4-10, 5.19).

The Athletics visit Baltimore for a three-game series that begins Friday.

The city of St. Paul says it’s removing its two Flock cameras amid concerns over who has access to the data they collect.

In a joint statement issued Wednesday night, announcing the removal of the two automated license plate readers, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her and Police chief Axel Henry said they “understand and share the concerns raised by our community about other jurisdictions accessing data during Operation Metro Surge.”

Her and Henry said they met with law enforcement agencies from across Ramsey County last week to discuss the use of the cameras, and they called on Minnesota lawmakers “to create a statewide standard that creates a balance between privacy and public safety needs.”

“In the interim, the two cameras owned by the City of Saint Paul will be removed,” the mayor and police chief announced.

St. Paul joins a growing list of cities and counties across Minnesota and nationwide that have chosen to remove their Flock cameras.

The announcement came after the St. Paul City Council earlier Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution calling on the city and Ramsey County to end their respective contracts with Flock.

While the city of St. Paul is removing its two cameras, the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office still operates several license-plate reader cameras in the city, in addition to its cameras elsewhere in the county.

Supporters of Flock and similar cameras say they’re a powerful tool for solving crimes.

Resident feedback

Several dozen people from St. Paul and elsewhere in the Twin Cities spoke Wednesday afternoon during a special council meeting focused on police surveillance technology and data privacy.

Chris Daniel, a Ward 1 resident and technology professional, thanked his council member, Anika Bowie, for sponsoring the hearing.

“Throughout the past couple of decades, we’ve witnessed tech companies pushing the boundaries of established law in order to extract profit,” Daniel said. Tech giants, he added, run ahead of regulators and lawmakers — who he said don’t take the time to understand tech.

Ward 1 resident Paige Crawford had a question for council members and all those in positions of power in Minnesota.

“Why are you willing to work with corporations that have used their technologies to commit horrific acts of systemic and direct violence against the people of Minnesota and across the globe?” she asked.

Crawford also asked council members “to seriously reconsider what it means to maintain a contract like this, and the message that decision sends to constituents in the broader Twin Cities metro.”

Council President Rebecca Noecker, who had proposed the nonbinding resolution last week, said after the hearing that law enforcement can keep the community safe without Flock cameras.

“This is about a particular third-party company that has shown egregious abuses of people’s data. Our own police department had shared our people’s data with 60 other agencies until just a couple days ago,” Noecker said, saying that Flock “is not a company that we can trust.”

Noecker said the city made a deal with Flock without notifying City Council.

“Flock was passed last February, and we did not see that contract. I still haven’t seen that contract as of today,” she said after Wednesday’s public hearing.

Noecker said the council has discussed which contracts it should review.

Bowie, the Ward 1 council member, said she looks forward “to having a broader conversation around our contract review and approval authority.”

Fourteen-year-old Endre Gunter was ecstatic about returning to football practice this month. At 6 feet, 2 inches, the budding athlete hopes to one day make it to the NFL.

That possibility was barely imaginable a year ago.

Endre was shot in the side during the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis on Aug. 27, 2025. He underwent abdominal surgery that hospitalized him for days and had to relearn how to sit up, eat and move.

He had a slow but ultimately near-complete physical recovery. Doctors cleared him to play just in time for his first year at Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield.

“I’m definitely very happy because I always wanted to play football in high school,” Endre said.

His mother Danielle Gunter said he still has scars from two bullet wounds and surgery on his stomach, though. The markers drew attention when he first went swimming after the injuries.

And while Endre said he’s doing better with time, he doesn’t yet feel mentally “100.”

“Before this all happened, I didn’t have all these worries on my mind,” he said. “I wasn’t worried about going to school. I wasn’t worried about like all this stuff. And I just feel like now, you know, that’s on my mind.”

As he heads to ninth grade, Endre is among dozens of Annunciation students carrying physical and psychological scars into their new schools.

Hundreds of Annunciation students were present for Mass when a shooter fired into the church, leaving two children dead, 29 injured and the lives of countless more forever changed.

Resources poured into Annunciation in the aftermath. Therapists, security guards and a cute bunny helped ease the return to school. The close-knit community found solace in each other.

For rising freshmen, the transition to high school means leaving the support system that has sustained them over the last year —and a space shadowed by violence.

Excitement for change

In his room, Javen Willis holds up the parting gift Annunciation gave its 8th graders: a blue and green bow in a white frame. It’s one of his favorite school mementos.

The bow is repurposed from one of the thousands that people tied around the Twin Cities to show support for the Annunciation community after the mass shooting. Javen displays it prominently in his room, though he’s mindful to not think of that day too often.

“I try to think about it like every one to two days. I don’t want to forget about it,” he said. “I don’t want it to leave my mind because it’s like a big change in my life. But I don’t want to think about it all the time. Just brings stress on me.”

Javen is matter-of-fact about what happened and what has followed. He said he doesn't think anything has changed for him, though so much has.

The 14-year-old said the tragedy brought him closer to God and to the friends who have helped him move forward. The things he took for granted have meaning now, too.

He looks forward to being in a new school and making new friends. When touring DeLaSalle High School, a Catholic school open since the early 1900s, he said it felt like home. It’s downtown and on an island which is cool, he said.

Baseball is also top of mind. He wants more exposure in the scene, with hopes of playing in college.

His mom Melissa Willis thinks the transition to high school will be a good and needed change. She’s reassured by the school’s proactive outreach to Annunciation families.

“It’s just a very welcoming community, and all the things that we’ve gone to as parents as well have allowed us to meet other parents and kind of make the transition seem pretty seamless.”

‘My kids are still being kids’

“I’m ready for a change of place,” said Tommy Copps, 14, wearing a newsboy cap, a nod to the character he played in Annunciation’s production of “A Christmas Story.”

Tommy is excited to participate in band and the theater program at Academy of Holy Angels, which he will attend with his older sister, his friend Endre, and many other Annunciation alumni. He already knows the musical this year is “Hello, Dolly!”

He said he doesn’t think about the Annunciation shooting unless it’s brought up, though in one instance he stopped himself mid-breath to instead refer to it as “the thing.”

His parents tell a different story. They pick up on how he is startled by unexpected sounds and checks on others who seem to be struggling, including his teacher and younger sister, also an Annunciation student.

Teresa and Corey Copps are glad Tommy can be in a new environment. They refer to a heaviness to contend with around Annunciation, particularly the church.

“It's hard to go back in there and be in a mindset to worship,” said Corey Copps, who is also the facility manager at Annunciation. “We’re still coming to terms with that, trying to figure out how we move forward here.”

There are heavy emotions around the church. Many can’t bring themselves to reenter. Eighth grade graduation was relocated to the school auditorium, as was Mass.

Teresa Copps said this past year has been incredibly long and difficult. Everyone in their family of six is in therapy. She finds resilience in seeing her kids moving on.

“Seeing my kids thrive, seeing Tommy perform in the musical, seeing him perform in the talent show, seeing my youngest saying that fourth grade was an awesome year, and in my eyes, this was the longest year ever … that is where my hope and comfort is: is that my kids are still being kids,” she said.

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School leaders prepare for transition

Annunciation students are not heading into ninth grade alone.

Area high schools, both public and private, banded together and reached out to Annunciation in the spring, according to Lauren Nietz, director of the training institute and clinical development at the Washburn Center for Children, the mental health care provider leading therapy at Annunciation for students and staff.

The schools sought advice on how to best to ensure Annunciation 8th graders were supported in their move.

“It was a wonderful conversation about stress biology, traumatic responses, about how adults can show up as regulating partners for children, as well as this unique experience that Annunciation kids went through,” Nietz said.

Washburn and Annunciation leaders provided professional development for Holy Angels and DeLaSalle, where many students are going. Some schools planned for a dedicated counselor or individualized check-ins for former Annunciation students. They set up meetings with families before the school year and ensured August 27 was an excused absence.

Nietz said Washburn will continue being a resource for other schools.

Still, Endre and his mom are grappling with other aspects of the transition to high school. For them, the biggest reassurance over the last year came from the security team at Annunciation.

Danielle Gunter said her son wouldn’t have returned to school without them.

“Going back to school without having security, is always now — that’s going to be like more of like a thought, like will it happen again? I just keep on praying that it won’t happen again,” Endre said.

His parents had originally planned for him to attend public school but decided to pivot because most of his friends will be at Holy Angels. His new school stepped in to help make it financially feasible, according to Gunter.

Outside of school safety, Endre is worried about math and getting good grades in high school.

He rides his e-bike, plays video games and hangs with friends in the meantime, wearing a gold Saint Benedict necklace for protection.

The weather looks lovely for the first two days of the Minnesota State Fair. It will be dry and pleasant Thursday and Friday with temperatures in the 80s.

A beautiful Day 1

Minnesota really could not ask for better weather to open the State Fair. From nearly full sunshine to low humidity and dry conditions, Thursday will be really pleasant. The UV index, however, looks to be really high, so bring the sunscreen.

Expect highs in the mid-80s. The area could see an urban heat island effect making it several degrees warmer around the fair compared to the overall Twin Cities forecast high.

The fairgrounds are likely to be in the 80s for several hours given the blacktop nearby plus all the machines whirring.

Not heading to the State Fair on Opening Day? We are all dry through Friday, as the map below shows. A few rain showers are possible on Saturday morning, with the current forecast holding steady.

Warmer weekend

As always, the first weekend of the fair will be buzzing with people — and it will be hotter.

Your best bet might be to go early or late. The newest weather data shows highs near 90 degrees in the vicinity of the fair. That means it could be well into the 90s when it comes to the urban heat island nearby.

Right now, early next Thursday and possibly the following weekend could be the best chances of rain across the state and at the fairgrounds.

Scott Knutson, 61, is terminally ill and incarcerated at a state prison in Faribault for a nonviolent crime. He uses a wheelchair, rarely leaves his cell and suffers from multiple serious medical conditions affecting his breathing and kidneys.

Knutson has been hospitalized repeatedly. His anticipated prison release date is March 2029, but Machelle Frisbie, an advocate for Knutson, said she does not believe he will live that long.

Medical staff both inside and outside the state prison have recommended that Knutson be granted medical release.

“But then the commissioner, for whatever reason, decided not to let him out,” Frisbie said.

Knutson’s case was among several highlighted Wednesday at a press conference organized by the Minnesota Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee and advocates for incarcerated people. They said families are “begging” for their loved ones to be allowed to return home before they die.

Advocates discussed four incarcerated people whose medical conditions prompted healthcare providers to recommend medical release. In two of these cases, the Department of Corrections commissioner approved the releases, but the individuals have remained incarcerated for months and even years afterward.

Release approved, but still in prison

Starr Hein advocates for Michelle Koester, a terminally ill woman incarcerated at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee. Koester requires specialized medical care and personal care attendants. Her mobility is severely limited, and she suffers from late-stage heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She also requires oxygen and treatment for skin sores.

Koester’s physicians recommended her for medical release three years before the DOC ultimately approved it. But approval did not mean she could immediately leave prison.

“There’s no statute or administrative policy outlining the time frame for medical release once it’s been granted,” Hein said. “That means Michelle can be held indefinitely at Shakopee Women’s Prison pending placement.”

Hein added that Koester has been waiting for placement since November 2025.

“She was granted release because she has exceptional needs that the DOC cannot provide, and she’s physically too frail to be a public threat,” Hein said.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections said it follows statutory requirements governing conditional medical release and acknowledged that complex circumstances can sometimes prevent an immediate release even after one has been authorized.

“There have also been instances where advocates and others have identified cases that appeared to meet the statutory elements for conditional release consideration, but factors unknown to them informed the ultimate denial of conditional medical release,” Shannon Loehrke, the DOC’s director of communications, said in a statement.

A high bar for release

Under Minnesota law, the DOC commissioner can grant conditional medical release to an incarcerated person with a severe, terminal or incapacitating medical condition who does not pose a threat to public safety.

Similar medical or compassionate-release laws exist in nearly every state. The programs are intended to provide a pathway out of prison for people who are seriously or terminally ill.

But advocates and researchers say qualifying for release can be difficult.

The Prison Policy Initiative has described medical parole as setting “an extremely high bar for applicants,” with a lengthy and complicated application and hearing process. As a result, many applicants remain incarcerated while their cases are pending, and some die before a decision is reached.

Minnesota’s prison system has also seen a significant number of deaths and medical transports. A 2025 Minnesota Department of Corrections Health and Safety in Correctional Facilities Legislative Report found that 59 people died in Minnesota prisons over the previous five years. The report also recorded over 7,000 medical transports last year.

A 2025 article in the Minnesota Journal of Law argued that compassionate release can serve as both a public safety measure and sound fiscal policy, describing it as “a safe and responsible alternative to the continued incarceration of the elderly and infirm.” The article estimated that state governments could save $66,294 annually for each aging prisoner released through compassionate release.

‘They want to keep him there until he dies’

For Knutson, advocates say time is running out.

Frisbie said Knutson has stopped contacting her because he rarely leaves his cell. His repeated hospitalizations and serious medical conditions have made his life in prison increasingly difficult, she added.

“He’s so sick,” Frisbie said. “The commissioner, for whatever reason, decided not to let him out and refused to give an explanation as to why. They want to keep him there until he dies. And I think that anything that we can do to help get Scott out would be great.”

MPR News politics fellow Cait Kelley contributed to this report.

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art.

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

Austin ArtWorks Festival brings visual art, music, books and film downtown

Gretchen Ramlo has been involved with the Austin ArtWorks Festival since the beginning, but lately she has stepped back and is looking forward simply to attending this year. The free annual festival takes place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 28, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 29.

The festival includes more than 80 juried artists working in a variety of artistic media as well as a stage with live music. This year’s author’s tent includes authors writing romance, crime and thrillers, and Austin history.

The festival kicks off Friday at 4 p.m. with a talk by mystery writer William Kent Krueger. Ramlo says she is looking forward to that event as well as a film screening of the documentary “The Life & Art of Eric Anfinson.”

Artists respond to Operation Metro Surge in Northeast Minneapolis exhibition

Tricia Heuring is artistic director of Public Functionary in Northeast Minneapolis. She’s excited about a group show taking place in her neighborhood at a nontraditional space: findfurnish on Central Avenue. Titled “The Radical Act of Having Each Other’s Back,” the exhibit features the work of 26 artists created during and since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements' Operation Metro Surge. There is an opening reception Thursday, Aug. 27 from 6 to 9 p.m., and the exhibition remains on view through Sept. 20.

At the center of the exhibit, four graffiti writers have created their own black-and-white version of Picasso’s painting “Guernica,” his response to the Nazi bombing of Guernica, Spain, during the Spanish Civil War. Heuring says this version, and the show, allows artists to reclaim the narrative following the height of ICE enforcement activity during Operation Metro Surge. Visitors can add magnetic pieces to the Guernica mural as a way of interacting with the story it is telling.

“I really hope this is the first of many, many shows by artists processing what's been happening in our cities and and in our country. And I really hope that it inspires more artists to start opening up about the narratives that they want to share, so that we can continue just resisting and talking about the things that are happening.”

Dede Decker transforms latch hook into contemporary fine art

Jes Reyes is an artist and arts administrator in St. Paul. She wants people to know about Dede Decker’s latch hook exhibit at Fresh Eye Gallery in Minneapolis, which runs through Sept. 27.

Reyes says: “I'm drawn to artists who embrace intuitive making, blur the boundaries between craft and fine art and create work that is both joyful and deeply personal. As a fiber artist myself, I feel a particular connection to Dede's practice. I'm fascinated by the way she transforms latch hook — a medium many people associate with craft kits — into contemporary fine art through her own original designs. Dede's work also resonates with my own belief that fiber belongs firmly within contemporary art.”

(Correction Aug., 27, 2026): A previous version of this story contained a misspelling of Jes Reyes. It has been corrected.

Hundreds of eager bakers form a snaking line that runs up and down the streets surrounding the Minnesota State Fair creative activities building. They carry coolers, cake boxes and pie dishes. Some hands are full wheeling wagons or clutching their aluminum-wrapped submissions like newborn babies.

It’s Saturday and the baked goods submission process has just opened. This year, it was a record turnout with 4,135 submissions, up by 30 percent from 2025.

Among the participants lined up is Jill Stanton of Minneapolis who waits with a tote bag of Tupperware of her cookie entries. In her nearly decade of submitting cookies, she has landed a single fourth place ribbon.

“We’re all here for the joy of it,” Stanton said. “If you ask anybody in line, I don’t think anyone here is gonna say like ‘I’m here for the ribbons.’”

For Stanton, she’s got six entries — all cookies. They’re her “wheelhouse,” she said. For years, she’s hosted a bake-a-thon weekend with her friends during the holidays where they bake all day and into the early morning.

Those weekends became a training ground, with built-in taste-testers and ample ingredients, but rarely, as they crank out dozens of cookies, do they consider the same criteria the fair judge’s use. For example, a baker only enters four cookies per batch and their appearance has to match.

“I swear, I probably spent more than an hour just looking,” she said. “They have to look good and they have to look consistent.”

Like any competitor with a superstitious ritual, Stanton has one of her own.

“I’ve never needed it, but I bring two containers of each cookie in case I’m standing in line or I'm walking over there and something happens and I break a cookie.”

Farther down the line, Katie Kelly carries her culinary masterpiece: banana bread. It’s her third year entering a baked good and each time, she changes it up, experimenting with a different category and recipe.

“I did put a little cardamom in. Don’t tell anyone,” she joked to her friend Anne Collingwood, who she bumped into while lining up.

Kelly’s joined in line by her 2-year-old daughter Louise and a friend who’s wrangling her. She jokes it’s her civic duty to participate in the fair.

“I love to like encourage anyone to do just anything. You can submit anything,” she giggles.

Collingwood carries four tightly wrapped submissions in a hamper. It’s a transportation method she adopted after a horror story they watched in real time last year when a woman dropped her entry while walking to the line.

“It was a cautionary tale for me because I didn't have anything like this last year,” she said. “I gotta have the stuff contained. The bread underneath here is inside of a shoebox, inside of a bag.”

They spent Friday and Saturday baking. It’s a system they say works for them, while others mix cookie dough and freeze it.

“There’s calculation there. I love that,” Kelly said. “I feel like we operate on a different, we have like a millennial approach. It’s just like vibes and chaos.”

Both Collingwood and Kelly have a tradition to make their way through the Creative Activities Building during the fair, filling their phone’s camera rolls with ideas for next year.

“I just love being able to be a part of my favorite thing on the earth, the fair,” Collingwood said.

For Kelly, it’s important to pass on that State Fair love to her daughter. Three years ago, she learned after she dropped off her baked goods, that she was pregnant.

“I felt really sick, and I thought it was because I had been like eating too many cookies,” she said. “I had to make my husband eat the rest of the cookies to test them, and then I went and got a pregnancy test after I dropped off my baked goods. So she’s been to the State Fair like four or five times, in and out of utero.”

Baked goods aren’t the only submissions

The nickname for Paul Chouinard's State Fair maple syrup tells a different part of the story.

“With all of our friends knowing about the syrup, they were all excited for me, and they were sure I was going to win a ribbon,” he said. “When I came home empty-handed, we all jokingly called it the loser syrup.”

This year, Chouinard is up against over 150 other maple syrup competitors.

Chouinard began making maple syrup during the COVID pandemic. During that time, he could monitor the sugaring process while working from his home in the aptly named suburb of Maple Grove.

It’s hard to believe with the thick August foliage, that just months ago a network of tubing, 5-gallon pails and spiles hung from trunks and littered the forest floor. In early spring, he spends weeks collecting sap from about half their trees and boiling the nearly 100 gallons down.

One of his biggest challenges is boiling it down throughout the day after returning to work, but Chouinard, who is an engineer by trade and has always enjoyed tinkering, quickly got to work.

“I came up with a pump. So the pump will actually top off the sap as it boils down, and so it can run now essentially and tend to itself for periods of time,” he said.

He’s even made his own boiling system that alerts to temperature fluctuations. After years of modifying his set-up, what keeps him coming back is bigger than any possibility of a ribbon.

“It’s community too, right? You go there and you kind of appreciate how much time and effort people pour into these entries and the pride that they take in them,” he said.

Fine arts and craft submissions scheme for an entry point

K Daphnae Koop has tried submitting a fine arts entry for over 25 years, but has been rejected each time.

“There’s been years when it’s been really disappointing, but quite honestly, once I started approaching 20 [entries], I started getting kind of proud of it, like ‘my perfect record,’” Koop said.

Koop, who’s based in the Northrop King Building in northeast Minneapolis, has been an artist for over 50 years. She works with almost entirely recycled mixed media on carved wood, often with shattered glass and other materials inlaid into the surface.

“There have been years where I really felt like, ‘Oh, this piece — they're going to love it’ and have been very surprised at my rejections,” she said. “And there have been years where I've thought, ‘oh, this one's a little bit iffy.’”

She admits her work is unusual and may not translate as impactfully in a photograph – which is how they submit now — compared to in person.

“It mostly baffles me because sometimes I go to the State Fair and I think ‘that got in and mine didn't?’” she said.

As for handcraft submissions, Stanton also submits pieces. This year, one of her submissions was a Rebel Loon design made from pull tabs and meat raffle tickets she’s gathered for months with the help of friends and a local bar.

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Her entries are for the “other” category. Often she doesn’t see anything like her designs.

Last year, she won a fourth-place ribbon for an 8x11 blue ribbon fashioned from copies of previous submission rate sheets.

“There was comment on one of my rate sheets that said ‘interesting.’ And I was like, ‘That is so Minnesotan.’ So I put that in the center circle of the blue ribbon, and guess what was on my rate sheet for that handcraft? ‘Interesting.’” she said.

“That was kind of perfect, right? That it that the ‘interesting’ got an ‘interesting. I had labeled it ‘my biggest achievement in nine years of creative activities competition.’”

It’s the happiest day of the year for many Minnesotans. Gates opened for the Minnesota State Fair at 7 a.m. to begin the 12-day run.

Tickets can be purchased at the gates for $20 for people ages 13-64, $18 for seniors age 65 and older and $18 for kids ages 5-12. Children 4 and under are always free.

MPR News staff will be reporting from the fairgrounds throughout the first day of the fair. Check back for updates.

And that’s it folks

11:42 p.m. | Sam Stroozas

Thanks for tuning in to a full day of live updates from the fair! But wait — the fun doesn’t stop yet. Make sure to follow along as we share stories in the next 11 days of profiling sanitation workers, exploring the rise of global flavors on the grounds and paying homage to a leader in the industry. And, as always visit @mprnews on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube to see our latest social content.

See you tomorrow!

A pickle night cap

9:03 p.m | Peter Ecklund

My cousin and I are on the hunt for our family memorial bench, but no luck so far. The yellow bench zone has expanded substantially. We’ve made our way up to Machinery Hill from the Agriculture Horticulture building, and are coming back South along the Eastern border.

The journey has been longer than expected, so we stopped for a slice of pickle pizza. The line was shorter than usual.

An evening stop at the Fine Arts building

8:04 p.m. | Chelsea Ihle

I’m always in complete awe of the artistic talent our state has and I look forward to seeing what comes together in the fine arts building every year. Sculptures, paintings, photos and even some live demonstrations.

This year there were quite a few pieces representing current events in our state. Don’t miss this exhibit but leave your donut and malt outside!

Golden hour for corn

6:31 p.m. | Chelsea Ihle

The six o’clock hour is the magical time for corn at the fair! The process of getting a ticket, being handed a lightly charred ear of corn, sprinkling with salt, and taking a first bite took only 2 minutes — most of which was me trying to find a $5 bill in my pocket full of napkins.

It’s a great first food option for the evening dinner trip to the fair.

A print for Dolly

6:10 p.m. | Sam Stroozas

The Minnesota Newspaper Museum always has souvenirs hot off the press but this year, they decided to shake things up last minute. Noam Sienna, a volunteer printer at the museum, said after Dolly Parton died this week he wanted to make a print in her honor.

“It needed to be acknowledged. She was so universally loved, our goal here is to always find messages that will resonate with everyone at the fair,” he said.

There are two commemorative prints that, of course, come in pink. One reads, “I Will Always Love You,” and the other, “Find Out Who You Are and Do It On Purpose.”

Sienna said he can’t print the pieces fast enough. They’ll be available for the rest of the fair.

Giant Purple Sing Along

5:21 p.m. | Anika Besst

The Giant Sing Along on the north end of the State Fairgrounds is extending to include an hour of Prince music in the evenings. Throughout the day, it plays repeat playlists of classic and show tunes. This is the first year including an hour of solely Prince.

The Giant Sing Along booth offers karaoke for 32 brave singers daily at the fair.

Snoopy, crop art and cookies? Sweet.

5:13 p.m. | Anne Guttridge

My first crop art piece is on display in the Ag-Hort building!

While I didn't keep track of how long it took, this piece was a labor of love. By the time I finished my back was aching, I had glue under my fingernails and there were pieces of quinoa and red lentil everywhere.

I wanted to create something that was a nostalgic and cute, so I put Snoopy and Woodstock together on a State Fair bench enjoying some Sweet Martha's cookies.

The bench is dedicated to Peanuts creator and native Minnesotan Charles M. Schulz. It's made out of wild rice, French lentils and mung beans.

Snoopy is made of wild rice, quinoa and canola seeds and Woodstock is made of wild rice and mustard seeds. I also have some flax seeds and sorghum that make up the cookie bucket. The background is, of course, red lentils.

Since I wasn't able to get to the fair Thursday, my colleague, MPR News photojournalist Ben Hovland, kindly snapped this photo of my first crop art entry.

I plan to wait in the hourlong line with my mom on Monday. I'm looking forward to seeing it up on the wall!

Princess Kay carving day

5 p.m. | Aleesa Kuznetsov

The 73rd Princess Kay of the Milky Way is having her likeness carved in butter. Jena Hanson was crowned Wednesday night. Less than 24 hours later she’s sitting in a rotating refrigerator in the Dairy Building.

Each sculpture is carved from a 90‐pound block of Grade AA butter. Artist and Minnesota native Gerry Kulzer is the resident butter sculptor.

Apple fries, feeling fine

3:45 p.m. | Ellie McKinney

My year-over-year State Fair favorite for as many years as I can recall is gone (RIP corn fritters, a real sleeper hit of pillowy corn delight). I have had to open my mind to new fair faves. I tried a new food this year and was pleasantly surprised: apple fries!

They tasted to me like a lighter apple pie. The have cinnamon and sugar on really nice tart apples — some pieces even had pretty pink peal on them — very appealing. They come with a caramel dip.

I will always carry a candle for the corn fritters, but the apple fries certainly gave me something new to enjoy.

Pickle flavored lip gloss? Oh, yes.

3:18 p.m. | Sam Stroozas

The biggest line I can find at the fair? The collection of pickle-flavored lip glosses at the e.l.f. booth on Wright Avenue. From 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., the brand is distributing free pickle lip glosses in a blind box-inspired giveaway.

Emily Keenan, 14, said she only waited for about 30 minutes. She got the spicy dill flavor which is what she wanted, but her sister got the same so they had to find someone willing to trade.

Diah Swenson decided to come to the fair Thursday without her husband or kids. “I’m doing whatever I want to do,” she said. And that whatever includes being at the end of the very long line.

She loves everything pickle, and is a skin care and lip gloss enthusiast. She’s not too worried about the wait and is crossing her fingers for the spicy pickle flavor.

A different kind of Cubano

3:10 p.m. | Peter Ecklund

I am a lifelong vegetarian, so I can't compare it to an authentic Cubano, but I highly recommend the Herbivorous Butcher's The Fried The Furious Cubano Drift.

The flavor was complex, with a nice, medium-level spice. Beware, though, it's pretty hefty.

Student projects rock

1:54 p.m. | Sam Stroozas

I love to check out the 4-H building because I always learn something. And I respect the hard work the students put in!

My favorite area holds the trifolds projects. This year I spent time admiring tips for bonding with your cat by Charlotte Struffert of Anoka.

The 4-H building is set to undergo major renovations so things might change for next year.

Creative Activities building

12:45 p.m. | Ellen Keal

Every year the one thing I make sure to do is stop in the Creative Activities building. As a crafter myself, I always get inspired seeing everyone's projects. I also appreciate how they display every single one of entries. Some of my work this year didn't win a ribbon, but I was able to find all my entries after about 30 minutes of searching.

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‘Info Booth Ladies’ honor one of their own

11:53 a.m. | Sam Stroozas

The information booth by the Creative Activities building is a little different this year. Kristen Donaldson, Margie McCarron and Kathy Riewe worked the morning shift at the booth for years and started a podcast called “Info Booth Ladies” in 2021 about their experiences.

Riewe died suddenly this spring, and McCarron and Donaldson are trying to honor her the best they can this fair season. Riewe worked at the fair for over 50 years.

The manager of the information booth put up a photo in her honor. (Read more about the trio.)

New ice cream flavor

11 a.m. | Ahmed Hassan

Moo-sota Apple Pie has debuted at the dairy building and I got my hands on it. This new ice cream has me feeling a type of way.

The lines are long but they'll only get longer, so I recommend getting your hands on this ice cream as soon as possible. This year’s new flavor is the 11th edition of Midwest Dairy’s flavor of the year tradition.

Mini print vending machines

10:50 a.m. | Sam Stroozas

Mini print vending machines have made their way to the fair! There is a a small stand set up at Steller Handcrafted Goods at the International Bazaar by printmaker and librarian Rebecca Beatty. I tried my luck and got a Swedish tea kettle print!

Others have popped up on social media, and if you don’t like the fair but still want to participate, you’re in luck. Mini fair-inspired prints will be available for sale at Dogwood Coffee in northeast Minneapolis by MinnePrint and at Madge Home + Market in the North Loop in Minneapolis.

State Fair bag policy

10:30 a.m. | MPR News Staff

Heading to the fair? Here's the policy for bags, coolers and what you can bring:

Minnesota State Fair security allows you to bring in bags, purses and coolers for a long day on the fairgrounds. Keep in mind, all bags, purses, coolers and packages are subject to search at the entrance — and weapons, fireworks, outside alcoholic beverages, illegal substances, drones, bikes or other wheeled devices, pets and face coverings are prohibited. Some exceptions for service animals and face coverings for health and religious reasons are allowed.

If you have limited mobility or disabilities that require a scooter, stroller or wheelchair, there are some size restrictions: 48 inches long and 32 inches wide, and operated at a reasonable walking pace or slower.

Some items are prohibited from the Grandstand concert venue, like audio and recording equipment, coolers, selfie sticks, signs, strollers and laser pointers. Umbrellas are not allowed to be open during a performance at the fair. (You can have one for bad weather, but during a show they should be put away.)

Outside food is allowed at the fairgrounds.

Find more detail descriptions of what is allowed at the Minnesota State Fair website.

2026 crop art display

10:05 a.m. | Alex V. Cipolle

And so a new tradition begins: The line to the crop art exhibition now starts outside, and by 9 a.m. Thursday, there were already hundreds of people wrapping around the Ag-Hort building. Crop art superintendent Marta Shore says the change was necessary because in past years the crop art line was blocking other exhibits in the rotunda.

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Hot tip: The scarecrows are now in the same room as crop art (well-deserved as their own wild and free art form), and that line begins inside the rotunda. If you don’t want to wait in the crop art line, get in line for the scarecrows and you can get a pretty good view of both. While you’re at it, say “hi” to Dolly Parton — artist Heidi Gerst of Edina was prescient to make a scarecrow ode to the icon who died earlier this week.

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Spin the prize wheel at the MPR booth

10 a.m. | Jeff Moores

MPR's prize wheel is up and running. A line formed 20 mins before the fun commenced. New this year: a cool bandana, a sweet (sweet) corn necklace, magnets, keychains and more.

First day foods

9:30 a.m. | Sam Stroozas

It’s time for breakfast! Even when it’s hot I like to start the day with something warm. I always get the Poutine on day one. This is when I tell you I’m vegetarian and yes there is meat gravy, but I think at the fair that’s OK.

Now I’m headed to Anchor Coffee to get a mini donut latte (the line is already stretching down to the Minnesota Lottery stand). There’s some competition this year: Hamline Church Dining Hall has switched from the maple espresso shaker to a mini donut espresso shaker. Of course, I’ll have to try both and report back. The maple cold brew at Farmers Union is also a favorite.

Crop Art line moves outside

9:18 a.m. | Lisa Ryan

Fairgoers will now enter the crop art display from outside, unlike in previous years when the line clogged up the Ag-Hort building. The line stretched down Judson Avenue on opening day.

Amish doughnuts

9 a.m. | Kaila White

My best friend Meredith Howell loves to attend opening day of the State Fair and she makes a beeline for Peachey’s Baking Company to get their incredible Amish doughnuts. Thursday she is elated to report the company has expanded their trailer and the historically long line is moving way faster than last year! She and her husband waited just 10-15 minutes to get a box of doughnuts around 8:30 a.m., significantly less than the hour she’s waited in the past. Here's hoping she saves one for me!

On the bus!

8:58 a.m. | Ahmed Hassan

After a roughly 30 minute wait, we made it on the bus and are on our way to the fair!

Our MPR State Fair booth is open

8:45 a.m. | Sam Stroozas

The MPR booth is open for business! And we have a new look for the season. Visit us at the corner of Judson and Nelson and spin our giant wheel for a prize. Gear up with new merch and our limited edition State Fair tote bag and Nalgene water bottle.

Can’t make it to the fair? We have you covered. You can give online and have the tote or water bottle shipped to your home.

8:45 a.m. | Emma Ujifusa

If you’re looking for a morning pick-me-up, Java Jive has all the classic coffee options. Highly recommend using the QR code to order ahead and skip the line. Now I'm ready to go clock in at the MPR booth!

Park and ride wait times

8:30 a.m. | Ahmed Hassan

I've been waiting for about 10 minutes and still no bus at the University of Minnesota lot. The mood seems very chill and upbeat, but you can definitely tell people at the end of the line are eager for it to pick up. Everyone seems pretty excited though.

Breakfast time

8 a.m. | Jeff Moores

I can report that the people have arrived and they are craving breakfast. 10-minute waits already for the big breakfast spots: crepes, French Meadow and yes, even the burger spots.

Fair competitors

7:50 a.m. | Sam Stroozas

Well, I’m a loser again. My cookies were up against 116 others in my category (ball type, not flattened before baking). This is only my third time entering. I grew up in western Wisconsin and was always jealous of everyone else who could enter stuff, so when I moved to the Twin Cities I knew I had to start competing!

I join a long list of other State Fair losers, but it’s a title we hold proud. Even though I’d like a little glory — we do it for the love of the fair.

My coworker Anika Besst wrote a beautiful story that came out Thursday, talking to other competitors about the joy of entering. Make sure to read it!

Park and Ride up and running

7:40 a.m. | Emma Ujifusa

I’m at the Minnetonka Boulevard park and ride this morning on my way to the fair. I arrived at 7:30 a.m. despite bus service not beginning until 8 a.m., and my call time at the MPR booth not until 9 a.m.. (I learned my lesson last year that the line starts early!) The line spans about halfway across the bridge over Interstate 394.

Prepare for the fair

7:15 a.m. | Sam Stroozas

My parents are on their way to pick me up! We go to opening day of the fair together every year. I only missed one year and my first visit was at 2 months old. I like to stay prepared so my bag is full of stuff. My ticket, hand sanitizer, plastic bags (leftovers, anyone?), ChapStick, lotion, sunscreen, deodorant… you get the picture.

But there are some things you can’t bring into the fair, like pets, alcohol, weapons, selfie sticks and bikes and skateboards. Check out the full list here.

Gates are open!

7:10 a.m. | Estelle Timar-Wilcox

The gates are officially open! The first-in-line title this year goes to 9-year-old MaryJane Burgett, with her parents Clayton Burgett and Rose Hume. They got here 24 hours ago, and got a little sleep in a tent by the gates.

It's MaryJane's fourth year in a row getting to the gates early. It's a family tradition now, she says.

For anyone showing up on a less- nocturnal schedule: there was already a bit of a line for a fair parking lot around 6 a.m. this morning. Check out the fair's park-and-ride shuttle options, bus routes and bike lock areas if you're looking for an easier commute.

Competition results coming soon…

7 a.m. | Sam Stroozas

I am anxiously awaiting the results from the baking competitions to get posted. My colleague Lisa Ryan and I waited on Saturday for drop off and the line was ginormous. But — update from the fair — there’s a reason for that. There was a 30 percent increase in folks who submitted baked goods this year for a record number of 4,135.

The results are usually posted by 9 a.m. Wish us luck! I made Chai Tea cookies and Lisa made sourdough tortillas.

Ideal weather for opening day

6:55 a.m. | Ben Cathey

The weather looks lovely for the first day of the State Fair. We have pretty ideal conditions out on the Midway — it will be nearly full sunshine, low humidity and dry with temperatures in the 80s. But the sunburn risk is high nearly all day, so bring the sunscreen.

Princess Kay of the Milky Way is crowned

4 a.m. | Sam Stroozas

Jena Hanson from Steele County was crowned as the 73rd Princess Kay of the Milky Way. Hanson was one of 10 women from across Minnesota who competed for the title to serve as a goodwill ambassador for the state’s dairy farmers.

She was crowned in a ceremony at the Minnesota State Fair Bandshell Stage the night before the fair. Soon she and the other finalists will have their likeness sculpted from a 90-pound block of butter in a rotating cooler inside the Dairy Building by butter sculptor Gerry Kulzer.