Friday brings abundant sunshine to Minnesota. In fact, Friday, Sunday and Monday look like spectacular spring days. Highs Friday will push 70 degrees in southern Minnesota with 60s north. More showers are possible Friday night into Saturday before things brighten back up Sunday. Get the latest weather news on Updraft.
Coming up on Morning Edition: Minnesota's fishing opener is one week away and anglers are eagerly waiting to drop a line. But did our unseasonably warm winter negatively affect fish, lakes and rivers — or should the season be smooth sailing? And pro-Palestinian demonstrations are taking place on university campuses around the world. NPR's international correspondents report from three countries where antiwar sentiments are on display.
Coming up at 11 a.m.: Jamie Figueroa’s new memoir “Mother Island” is stylistically unique. She combines prose and creative nonfiction, myth and short stories to explore her memories. As she tells Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, “[My mother] was concerned about how we were seen. She wanted to be included. Anything she could do to get closer to ‘white identity’ made it easier for her. As a daughter, I respect those were the choices she was forced to make — and I feel like my life is lived in opposition to that.”
The DFL-led chamber on a vote of 68-64 approved the proposal that would require gun owners to lock, unload or store a firearm when it’s not in their possession after an hours-long debate. Improperly storing a firearm would carry a petty misdemeanor charge with stiffer penalties if the gun is left in an area where a child is present or where someone not allowed to have one can access it.
Lawmakers also passed a proposal that would boost the penalty for buying firearms for people who can't legally have them. Those who buy firearms for ineligible people would face a felony charge, up from the current misdemeanor charge and face a maximum of two years in prison, under the bill.
Before adjourning after midnight Friday, the House also unanimously approved a bill ramping up penalties for swatting of public officials.
A nearly $2 million budget shortfall is forcing the closure of a 15-bed shelter for men in Moorhead. The Dorothy Day House is one of three shelters operated in the Fargo-Moorhead area by the Churches United organization.
Most of the men staying at the Dorothy Day House found other places to stay, but two men who are registered sex offenders will likely be on the streets because no other shelter will accept them.
What else we're watching:
Pro-Palestinian protesters, University of Minnesota reach agreement to end encampment. Protest organizer Adam Abu, a junior, said he is pleased that there’s an agreement in place, but said it’s a wait and see situation.
Listen: Minneapolis band Red Thread live in-studio with new Serbian and Yiddish album, ‘Immigrantke.’ Minneapolis band Red Thread joined the Minnesota Now arts takeover to celebrate their recent album release. The album is called Immigrantke, which means “female immigrant” in Yiddish.
