MPR News AM Update
 
 
☀️ Most of Minnesota will see plenty of sunshine Friday. Highs will run from the 70s north to the lower 80s south. It will be cooler along the shores of out favorite Great Lake.

⛈️ Showers and thunder return Saturday, followed by hot and humid conditions with more storms next week. Get the latest weather news on Updraft.
Coming up on Morning Edition

📜 The Minnesota Legislative Auditor says poor oversight by the Minnesota Department of Education opened the door to fraud in two taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs. The report follows federal criminal charges against dozens of people connected to the Twin Cities nonprofit Feeding Our Future. MPR News reporter Matt Sepic brings us the story.

🏢 The saga of empty downtown office buildings is not a new story, but here's what is: downtown St. Paul's offices are even emptier than reported. Nick Halter, a reporter for Axios, has been going through documents released last month when downtown St. Paul's biggest landlord put its entire portfolio up for sale. He found that the company, Madison Equities, underreported its vacancy rate to the association that tracks that metric. 
Coming up at 11 a.m.

📖 After a family tragedy, Noor Khan is forced to finish her senior year of high school in a small town where she discovers — to her horror — that books are disappearing from the school library.

That’s the premise of Samira Ahmed’s new YA novel, “This Book Won’t Burn.” No stranger to book bans herself, Ahmed joins host Kerri Miller this week on Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about the freedom to read and how teenagers today are finding the courage to act against a national movement to ban books.
 
Volunteers are needed for the statewide bumble bee survey

The Minnesota Bumble Bee Atlas wants to expand its statewide survey of bumble bees, but it needs more volunteers to do the work. The ambitious project aims to expand the knowledge of where bumble bees are found in Minnesota.

There are 87 grids to be cataloged annually across the state while the project averages 30 to 40 volunteers per year. Many grids in the western and northern part of the state are not being surveyed because there are no volunteers.
 
First of its kind Animal Health and Wellbeing Gathering examines issues through an Indigenous lens

The first Indigenous Animal Health and Wellbeing Gathering will be held in Walker this coming weekend. It’s a partnership between the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and veterinary leaders from four states. A total of 11 tribes will be represented.

The gathering will feature roundtable discussions to promote collaboration on animal welfare. Topics covered will include emergency care, disease control, and environmental health and justice, all through an Indigenous lens.
 
What else we're watching:

🌪️ National Weather Service confirms tornadoes touched down in Minnesota amid Wednesday's storms. Some of the damage left by severe storms across central and northern Minnesota on Wednesday evening was caused by tornadoes. Meteorologists are still working to determine exactly how many tornadoes touched down, and how strong they were.

🧑‍⚖️ Family of innocent bystander killed during Minneapolis police pursuit files lawsuit. The officer had been involved in a dozen high-speed pursuits before the fatal crash. According to the lawsuit, only four of those resulted in an arrest of the subject of the pursuit. It alleges “MPD did not meaningfully and/or formally discipline Cummings for his dangerous conduct."

⛳ Twin Cities golf legend 'Fast Eddie' Manderville honored with clubhouse renaming . Along with new exterior signage, the club house now has displays inside, outlining the history of African Americans in the sport. It also has markers of Manderville’s own contributions and career highlights.

🌺 Listen: Strolling through a bog for lady's slipper orchids. Morning Edition’s intrepid wildflower chasers Kelly Povo and Phyllis Root found all six types of lady’s slipper orchids that naturally grow in Minnesota in just one weekend. Follow along on their journey with this audio postcard.

🎧 Professional Help: Direct advice for not so direct Minnesotans. We have a new segment we’re debuting on Minnesota Now called “Professional Help.” We all need a little help to get through life sometimes. From everyday questions to more complex problems, we’re asking the experts to lend us a hand. Throughout the series, we’ll hear some direct advice, for us not so direct Minnesotans.

— Sam Stroozas and Anna Haecherl, MPR News

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