MPR News AM Update
 
We’ll see high temperatures well into the 60s with even some low 70s in southwest Minnesota. A few showers will roll through northeast Minnesota Friday night into early Saturday. Saturday brings brisk northwest winds and highs generally in the 40s and 50s with a few 60s southwest. Get the latest weather news on Updraft.

Coming up on Morning Edition: As Democratic Congressman Dean Phillips edges closer to a primary challenge to President Joe Biden, he's playing up the need for political alternatives. He faces a deadline a week from Friday to file for candidacy in New Hampshire if he intends to run. Reporter Mark Zdechlik went to Phillips' district to ask some of his constituents what they make of his White House talk.

Coming up at 11 a.m.: This week, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, host Kerri Miller sits down with C Pam Zhang to talk about what moved her to write her book "Land of Milk and Honey," how her faith background informs her view of science and why she moved from California to New York City during the pandemic.
 
Fire burning at former Lake Street Kmart building in Minneapolis

Crews are battling a large fire this morning at the former Lake Street Kmart building in south Minneapolis.

The Minneapolis Fire Department reported just after 5 a.m. that firefighters were on-scene at the vacant department store at Lake and Nicollet, just west of Interstate 35W, "with heavy fire showing."

The Kmart store was built in the 1970s, infamously blocking off a portion of Nicollet Avenue. In 2020, Minneapolis paid Kmart’s corporate owner $9.1 million to end the store’s lease early — it was scheduled to expire in 2053 — and close the site. It was the last Kmart in the state to close.

Since then, planning and discussions have been under way for redevelopment of the vacant building and property.

 
3rd District constituents sound off on Rep. Dean Phillips' possible presidential campaign

After months of flirting with the idea of running for president, 3rd District Rep. Dean Phillips faces a pivotal deadline next week in his potential bid to challenge Joe Biden for the Democrats’ 2024 presidential nomination.

Phillips has until Friday, Oct. 27 to file to put his name on New Hampshire’s primary ballot, if he decides to run.

 
What else we're watching:
Lawsuit alleges link between councilman's wife, food fraud scheme. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison alleges that the wife of a Minneapolis city council member took part in a $250 million scheme to defraud federal child nutrition programs.

Public defenders, AG challenge judge’s sentences prohibiting probationers from voting. The Mille Lacs County District Court judge in several sentencing orders barred defendants convicted on felony charges from voting as a term of their probation — seemingly in violation of state law. 

Xcel Energy seeks to grow wind energy in southwest Minnesota. The Minneapolis-based utility is asking for proposals for about 1,200 megawatts of new wind projects. That’s enough to power more than 485,000 homes in an average year. 

Biden pushes for more spending on Israel and Ukraine in Oval Office address. President Joe Biden gave a rare Oval Office address to make the case that it is in Americans' best interests to hike funding for Israel after the deadly Hamas attack — and funding for Ukraine, embroiled in its long fight against Russia.

Climate change has some moving to the Midwest. Go Midwest, young man? That’s the title of a recent piece in TIME Magazine that touts the Midwest as a place people will likely move to in the future. So which factors make the Midwest a potentially attractive place to relocate?

Minnesota unemployment rate unchanged at 3.1 percent in September. Minnesota employers added 8,000 jobs in September while the state’s unemployment rate was unchanged, according to data released Thursday by the Department of Employment and Economic Development.
 
— Sam Stroozas, MPR News


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