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Friday will bring another cool morning and comfortable day. Enjoy it before the 90s next week. Get the latest on Updraft.
'Finndian?' 'Swanishinaabe?' Some Native people in northern Minn. reconnect with their Scandinavian roots

Thousands of Minnesotans identify as both Native American and white, including some who have recently reconnected with their Scandinavian ancestry in surprising ways. 

Other Native people in northern Minnesota who have reconnected with their Scandinavian roots have discovered similar parallels between cultures. Finnish people revere the sauna, for example, while Ojibwe people have the sweat lodge.  

They’re both spiritual, in different ways, said Arne Vainio, a well-known physician on the Fond du Lac reservation, who takes an hours-long sauna every Saturday morning.

Vainio, 63, grew up north of the Iron Range, the son of a Finnish father and an Ojibwe mother who owned a bar in the tiny town of Sturgeon.
'Like medicine from God': Wisconsin cherry orchard offers taste of home for immigrant families

On a single day each summer, dozens take a trip to the orchard to fill multiple, construction-sized buckets with the glossy, red fruit. Kids abandon half-filled pails to run in the tall grass. And languages from all over the world echo through tidy rows of trees, occasionally breaking into English to share recipes.

“So we do a drink. It's called vișinată, because in Romanian the name of the sour cherry is called vișină,” said Nick Grigore, who now lives in Lino Lakes, Minn. “We put it in a big glass jar and put [in] some sugar, and we let it to sit for awhile in the sun. And the juice will come out and we put some alcohol in there. It's for the winter — Thanksgiving, Christmas, things like that.”
Creating a safe space for Black bodies on bikes

“Black bodies in motion are the ultimate expression of freedom,” says Slow Roll MSP founder Anthony Taylor.

On Tuesday, Slow Roll MSP held a group bicycle ride through south Minneapolis, one in a series they are hosting throughout the summer. According to Taylor, Slow Roll MSP aims to help people reconnect to their communities and create a safe space for Black bodies on bikes.

Before each ride begins, Slow Roll MSP mechanics provide on-site safety checks to ensure each rider’s bike is functioning properly. Loaner bikes are also available for community members to ride, free of charge.
 
What else we're watching:
Farmers impacted by severe drought in southern Minnesota. Much of southern Minnesota is abnormally dry, with the Twin Cities in a severe drought. The lack of rain is a big concern for farmers as is the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine which is creating volatility in agriculture markets. Kent Thiesse is Farm Management Analyst and Senior Vice President at MinnStar Bank.  He joined host Cathy Wurzer to talk more about what Minnesota farmers are experiencing.

Who is Viktor Bout, the prisoner the U.S. may trade for Brittany Griner? Bout is a Russian who was the world's most notorious arms dealer in the 1990s and early 2000s. He's serving a 25-year prison sentence in Illinois, but could be freed as part of a U.S.-Russia swap.

Officials boost access to a drug that can protect the immunocompromised from COVID-19. The federal government is trying to make it easier for immunocompromised patients to access a treatment that can protect them against COVID-19 by allowing individual health care providers to order small amounts — up to three patient courses at a time, according to a Health and Human Services Department spokesperson.

Clarence Thomas drops out of teaching a law class after students protested. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has told George Washington University that he won't be returning to teach at its law school this fall.  The decision followed student protests over the Supreme Court's vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.
—  Sam Stroozas, MPR News
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