Minnesota Now

Minnesota Now: Dec. 15, 2025

Jewish Minnesotans are condemning a mass shooting in Australia marking the first day of Hanukkah that left 15 people dead. It follows another shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island on Saturday where two students were killed. We'll hear from one local rabbi affected by both tragedies. An MPR News investigation shows Planned Parenthood in Minnesota is facing strife amid staff complaints and financial pressures. We'll hear more about the situation. Plus, we'll meet a Duluth foster parent who's just won an award for her work building connections between foster and birth families. And a food shelf operator talks about how he's responding to an ongoing uptick in demand. Our Minnesota Music Minute was “Happy Hollow” by Pert Near Sandstone and our Song of the Day was “8 Days (of Hanukkah)” by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings.

Finally, a good weekend for Minnesota sports

The Minnesota Wild had a big weekend. It started with a major trade. A star player for Vancouver came to St. Paul. And three former Wild players are now Canuck. The move seems to be paying off so far. Joining Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to talk about this and what was overall a pretty good weekend for Minnesota sports are sports contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson.

A St. Paul rabbi's son survived the Brown University shooting. Then came the Australia Hanukkah attack

The weekend brought news of multiple horrifying shootings. On Friday, a shooting in the parking lot of Stewartville High School in southern Minnesota left a student hospitalized in critical condition and the gunman dead. Then, Saturday afternoon a gunman targeted students at Brown University, which killed two people and injured 9 more. And Sunday, here in the U.S. we woke up to news of another mass shooting, this time in Australia. Officials are calling it a terrorist attack. Two gunmen targeted and killed 15 people and injured dozens more at a Hannakuh celebration. Rabbi Adam Stock Spilker is the senior Rabbi at Mount Zion Temple in St. Paul. His son Eiden is a recent Brown University graduate who now works there. He was in the building where the shooting happened over the weekend. Less than 12 hours after the shooting at Brown, the shooting in Australia unfolded. Rabbi Spilker said the shooting half-a-world away still hit home in Minnesota, especially for the Jewish community.

Owatonna food shelf operator says increased need will continue into the holidays, new year

Food shelves across the country are seeing increased demand. And a new survey [https://www.supershelfmn.org/minnesota-statewide-survey?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=4d8b9e1e-4ac4-4b71-9000-b98e1a18f593] carried out by the University of Minnesota Extension and Minnesota-based nonprofit Foundation for Essential Needs provides a closer look at the need. Among the takeaways from the nearly 10,000 Minnesotans who responded this past spring: more than half say they got half or more of all their food from a food shelf. Dom Korbel is with Community Pathways of Steele County in Owatonna. He’s joined Minnesota Now to share how he uses the results of the survey to stock the shelves and what the need looks like ahead of the holiday season.

Duluth foster parent recognized for building connections between foster and birth families

A movement in Minnesota and nine other states calls for an approach to child welfare that maintains connections between foster and birth families, so they can work together to give children love and support. It’s called the Quality Parenting Initiative, or QPI. For Jessica Gunnarson, this strategy was a natural response to her personal experience on different sides of the child welfare system. Gunnarson is a foster parent in Duluth and she’s receiving an award this week from the initiative. And Kate Rickord works with the Youth Law Center, a national group behind QPI. Gunnarson and Rickord joined Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to talk about the unique approach to foster care.