☀️ Friday’s high temperatures will warm into the 60s across the state with some upper 50s expected for the arrowhead region. Saturday and Sunday look very pleasant with quiet conditions and plenty of sunshine. Get the latest weather news on Updraft.

Coming upon Morning Edition

🛶 We know that wetlands are important. They help prevent flooding, filter pollution and store carbon. And they provide habitat for birds and other wildlife. But did you know some parts of Minnesota have lost more than 90 percent of native wetlands due to draining and filling for farming and development? MPR News reporter Kirsti Marohn tells us about a program helping landowners bring lost wetlands back to life.

🚨Criminal charges were filed earlier this week against the man authorities say killed two people and injured nine others at a St. Louis Park restaurant Sunday night. According to the charges, Steven Frane Bailey, 56, drove his car into the outdoor patio at the Park Tavern. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty says his blood alcohol level was four-times the legal limit at the time of the crash. He had five previous DWI convictions and previously had an interlock ignition device put on his car. DFL state Sen. Ron Latz, who represents St. Louis Park and chairs the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, joins us to talk about what needs to change within state law.

Coming up at 11 a.m.

📚 The 25th season of Talking Volumes launches later this month. To celebrate, we are bringing you one of our favorite conversations from last year.

📻 The 2023 season finale of Talking Volumes brought author and columnist Margaret Renkl to Minnesota, just hours after the first snow carpeted our Northern landscape. She declared it “magical” — a theme familiar to those who’ve read her New York Times columns or her newest book, “The Comfort of Crows.” Tune in at 11 a.m. on Bold Books and Big Ideas to hear the replay.

Bringing back ‘bio supermarkets’: Program helps landowners restore vanished wetlands

Wetlands help prevent flooding, filter nutrient pollution, store carbon and provide wildlife habitat. But many have disappeared due to draining and filling. A partnership between the federal government and a nonprofit is helping willing private landowners restore wetlands in the Upper Mississippi headwaters.

Michael Niziolek restored his first wetland nearly three decades ago. It’s now a resting stop for migrating sandhill cranes and monarch butterflies, and home to Blanding’s turtles, a threatened species in Minnesota.

Resident assistants feel new pressures, responsibilities in post-COVID college life

Colleges rely on resident assistants to help support students during the school year, but the job has become more complex in an era when student mental health needs have increased. With the new school year starting, RAs and their trainers say the demands have never been greater.

“Whether you’re on duty or not, in the back of your mind you’re always prepared for something to happen,” said Rose-Marie Athiley, a Hamline University alum who worked as an RA from 2018 to 2021, before and during the pandemic.

What else we're watching:

🏛️ Federal program that could help thousands of undocumented Minnesotans now on hold. Keeping Families Together can help certain noncitizen spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens apply for green cards and eventually citizenship without leaving the country.

🌿 Tribal nations are expanding their footprint in the cannabis industry. Bois Forte Band’s dispensary is close to opening. White Earth Nation plans another cannabis dispensary, this time outside of reservation borders.

🏅 Minnesota’s Ian Seidenfeld wins bronze for table tennis at Paralympics. Ian Seidenfeld competed against Italy’s Matteo Parenzan for a spot in the gold medal match on Thursday night, but fell short and took home the bronze. Seidenfeld is from Lakeville and attended the University of Minnesota.

🧑🏽‍⚖️ Hunter Biden enters surprise guilty plea to avoid tax trial months after his gun conviction. Hunter Biden’s stunning decision to plead guilty to misdemeanor and felony charges without the benefits of a deal with prosecutors came hours after jury selection was supposed to begin in the case accusing him of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes.

💻 Biden says rural electrification and internet improvements underscore ‘American comeback.’ President Joe Biden traveled to rural southwest Wisconsin on Thursday to champion new investments in electrification and expanded high-speed internet, proclaiming that “all these investments mean family farms can stay in the family.”

💰 Woman who carried cash in Feeding Our Future bribery case pleads guilty. A Seattle woman pleaded guilty Thursday to attempting to bribe a federal juror in the first Feeding Our Future trial — admitting she left a Hallmark gift bag with $120,000 at a juror’s home and said she would pay more in exchange for a not guilty vote.

— Sam Stroozas and Anna Haecherl, MPR News