🌧️ Snow and rain showers will continue to rotate around a slow moving low across northern Minnesota. Temperatures will remain cold in the low 40s and 30s with blustery northwest winds at 10-20 mph. The chill persists into the weekend. Get the latest on Updraft.

🌍 Here's our Earth Week fact for Friday: There are about 6 million acres of peatlands in Minnesota — nearly 10 percent of our state. And it turns out, peat bogs have climate change fighting superpowers! Learn more about them here.

🎧 Coming up at noon Friday, MPR News guest host Brian Bakst talks about the state budget under construction at the Capitol with two leading DFL lawmakers who have their eyes on the big picture and a Republican who says the pace of spending is unsustainable.

This family moved to Minnesota to access gender-affirming care. More might soon

Living in Minnesota has made a positive difference for Wes Samuelson and his 11-year-old child Liz. The two moved to Duluth from Wyoming in 2020 after they could not get access to gender-affirming care.

“I was going to be worried if we stayed in Wyoming much longer,” Samuelson, who is transgender, said on a recent weeknight as he made dinner in his Duluth home for Liz and his partner, Beram Compo, who is also trans. “I am living a normal life and that feels nice.”

Samuelson said the freedom to live his life in peace is all he ever wanted. The lack of accessible care and social support in Wyoming forced him into the closet, and deeply hurt his mental health. But that changed, he said, when he got to Minnesota and was able to receive hormone treatments within 2 months and top surgery, or male chest reconstruction, within 6 months.

What else we're watching:

Late-season snow leads to power outages, school cancellations in parts of Minnesota. MnDOT reported snow-covered roads across most of the northern half of the state early Friday, and utility companies reported about 2,000 homes and businesses were without power.

The Prairie Chicken Society: Celebrating and protecting a prairie icon. The Minnesota Prairie Chicken Society celebrates 50 years of working to protect the iconic prairie species. Once abundant, the prairie chicken is now mostly found in a small area of western Minnesota.

Loons fall from the sky in Wisconsin; late April cold snap to blame. While “loon fallout” hasn’t been reported in Minnesota this season, freezing rain this weekend up north could prove treacherous for the state bird.

‘Our Seams' photographer Diana Albrecht explores the tension between tradition and modernity. Photographer and Korean adoptee Diana Albrecht is set to unveil her latest collection, “Our Seams,” at the Public Functionary's northeast Minneapolis gallery on April 22.

Arts Briefs: Printmaking guru bids adieu. In this week’s arts briefs: Cole Rogers retires from Highpoint Center; Candy Box Dance Festival; Black millionaire, arts patron, died; Minnesota author publishes new fantasy novel, Record Store Day; virtual meeting for artists with disabilities: Absolute Bleeding Edge: breathing through a saxophone.

- Sam Stroozas, MPR News digital producer

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Minnesota Public Radio and the Star Tribune are taking Talking Volumes on the road with two special events in Greater Minnesota this May. These special Talking Volumes pop-up events will be hosted by award-winning journalist Kerri Miller.

Join us on May 6 at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester as Kerri sits down with author and illustrator of the "CatStronauts" series and "Waffles and Pancake" series, Drew Brockington.
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We will head north to Duluth for our second spring Talking Volumes event where Kerri will interview William Kent Krueger at Mitchell Auditorium at the College of St. Scholastica on May 18.
Get tickets today!

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