Jim Nobles spent nearly four decades uncovering fraud, waste and malpractice in Minnesota state government as the nonpartisan Legislative Auditor. He oversaw literally hundreds of investigations over his time, from police abuses of power to child care fraud to mistreatment of the mentally ill. It often took his office months to complete its work, issuing reports that were incredibly detailed and sometimes damning. The job made him new friends and enemies with each report, but even so, Nobles man...
Oct 22, 2021•26 min
Mary Moriarty spent her entire career trying to keep people out of prison as a public defender. After being ousted as Hennepin County’s Chief Public Defender, she’s now running to be county attorney to transform an agency she spent decades fighting against. If Moriarty wins, Minneapolis and its suburbs would follow cities like San Francisco and Philadelphia in electing a defense attorney who promise to remake the prosecutor’s office — replacing a tough on crime agenda with one of criminal justic...
Oct 01, 2021•26 min
The Minnesota Legislature hasn’t successfully redrawn legislative and congressional districts on time without intervention by the courts in 140 years. This time around looks to be no different. For the past 50 years, the courts have taken to drawing them when the Legislature reliably fails to agree to new boundaries. The courts don't do this unprompted — a private citizen must file a lawsuit to ensure Minnesota residents have equal representation in the Legislature and Congress. Peter Wattson, a...
Sep 17, 2021•18 min
The Minnesota Republican Party needs a new leader. But it’s a job few people want. The federal indictment of a major Minnesota GOP donor on charges of sex trafficking minors set in motion a series of events that led to the ouster of party chair Jennifer Carnahan. The crisis in leadership comes on top of persistent financial troubles and a 15-year losing streak in statewide elections. Reformer reporter Ricardo Lopez explains how Carnahan lost her grip on power and what’s next for the Minnesota Re...
Aug 27, 2021•22 min
Minnesota can’t fill thousands of job vacancies for home care workers — the people who help the state’s disabled and growing elderly population bathe, get dressed, eat, exercise and otherwise enjoy dignified lives. The cause of the shortage is easy to identify: The job is physically grueling with high rates of workplace injury, while low wages keep people on the edge of being able to pay their bills. Nearly half of home care workers in Minnesota receive some form of public assistance. The shorta...
Aug 20, 2021•25 min
Since chronic wasting disease was first found in wild deer in Minnesota in 2010, it’s shown up in more deer and in more places across the state. Preventing the so-called Zombie Deer Disease from spreading is especially difficult because the vector — a folded protein called a prion — can contaminate plants and soil for years. But stopping the spread is just as much a political problem as it is a scientific one, and the disease has pitted two industries against each other. Hunters point at captive...
Aug 13, 2021•28 min
When Tiffany Irvin lost her five children to child protective services, she was at the height of her addiction to opioids. It took her two years to get them back, an agonizing period made longer she says by not having any support to get sober. Irvin is now seven years into her recovery and leads a team of “peer recovery coaches” who have also overcome their own addictions and now help others looking for recovery. Unlike traditional treatment programs that stress abstinence, Irvin’s team at Minne...
Jul 30, 2021•27 min
It was once called a “beat the odds” school. It achieved higher math scores than any other school with such a high percentage of students in poverty in the Twin Cities. It represented the promise of charter schools to provide high-quality education to students of color. But in less than a decade, proficiency in reading and math plummeted, school directors came and left with alarming regularity, and eventually the organization overseeing the school decided the best way to fix it was to shut it do...
Jul 23, 2021•22 min
The COVID-19 pandemic erased hundreds of thousands of jobs in Minnesota and only about 65% have returned. But there’s also a bright side: Low-wage workers are seeing meaningful increases in their paychecks and the number of new businesses created over the past year has increased by 30%. Department of Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove surveys the wreckage of the past year and explains how the state is helping people get back to work, transition to better paying careers ...
Jul 16, 2021•25 min
Republicans haven’t won a statewide race in Minnesota in 15 years. Now, as they look to the midterms, they must confront the lasting influence of Trump and Trumpism, which continues to divide the GOP. Representative Jordan Rasmusson, R-Fergus Falls, looks like he could be the future of the party: a 28-year-old Harvard graduate hand-picked by his predecessor. But he sounds a lot like the party’s past: appealing to moderate suburban and rural voters with promises of tax cuts and deregulation. This...
Jul 02, 2021•22 min
For six years, environmentalists and Native tribes have been trying to stop the Canadian company Enbridge from building a new oil pipeline through northern Minnesota. So far, Enbridge has been winning, with another recent victory this week in the Minnesota Court of Appeals. Despite the blow, activists say a long summer of opposition to Line 3 is just heating up. Opponents continue chaining themselves to equipment and facing arrest in an effort to slow construction while Enbridge races to finish ...
Jun 18, 2021•22 min
High demand and record-low supply are pushing housing prices to new heights in the Twin Cities. And developers aren’t building enough homes that most people can afford. The Twin Cities has historically had among the highest rates of homeownership in the country, but that rate is falling. At the same time, the region confronts a widening racial gap in homeownership, one of the largest in the nation. If it’s bad now, what will it be like in 20 years? Libby Starling talks about the present and futu...
Jun 11, 2021•23 min
Facing an existential threat to his department, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo found support among a group of vocal, concerned citizens. A pro-police grassroots movement? Not entirely. Hundreds of emails obtained by the Reformer show Arradondo coordinated closely with a start-up group called Operation Safety Now devoted to swaying public opinion and showing strong support for a larger police budget. A city council member called the relationship “unprecedented” and the group’s leader ...
Jun 04, 2021•28 min
127 days ago the Teamsters Local 120 called a strike at the Marathon oil refinery in St. Paul Park alleging unsafe working conditions and unfair labor practices. Some 200 workers haven’t returned since. Marathon says it has rigorous health and safety standards and an exemplary record. Workers say a disaster is all but certain. This week, a 22-year veteran of the refinery explains why he’s so worried and what will get him back to work.
May 28, 2021•24 min
U.S. Representative Betty McCollum is a fierce and longtime critic of Israel’s military occupation and human rights abuses. It was once a lonely and politically precarious stance in Congress, before her position was bolstered by a new generation of Democratic lawmakers. After the latest conflict left at least 230 Palestinians and 12 Israelis dead, we talk to McCollum about her advocacy for Palestinians including a bill she introduced earlier this year that would prohibit Israel from using U.S. a...
May 24, 2021•18 min
It was supposed to be one of the most consequential legislative sessions in nearly a decade. But after debating tax hikes, police reform, COVID-19 precautions, the governor’s executive powers, vehicle emissions standards, marijuana legalization, voter ID, rent control, abortion clinic licensing and other thorny political issues, lawmakers adjourned with only a “numbers only” budget agreement that still needs to be crafted and passed by June 30. This week, senior political reporter Ricardo Lopez ...
May 21, 2021•26 min
Sammy McDowell didn't set out to create anything more than a restaurant. But Sammy's Avenue Eatery has become ‘the Cheers bar’ for people of all walks of life in north Minneapolis. Sammy talks about making it through a year that has been ruinous for restaurants, small businesses and Black-owned businesses. He weathered COVID-19 shutdowns and the civil unrest, with neighbors turning his cafe into a hub for donations and volunteer security operations. And, he talks about becoming an accidental bri...
May 14, 2021•20 min
Gov. Tim Walz has promised more police reform after Daunte Wright was killed, but he'll have to beg and barter to get it through a divided Legislature. Walz explains what he wants passed and reflects on the state’s largest police response to protests since last year’s unrest — what went wrong in Brooklyn Center and what’s his plan for the next time police kill someone. And, nearly a year after George Floyd was killed by police, forcing the national reckoning on racial inequities, Walz confronts ...
May 07, 2021•22 min
Each week, Reformer Radio goes deep with people at the center of important stories from around our state. We bring you context and analysis to explain not just what happened, but why it happened, who is responsible, and what it means for Minnesota.
Apr 12, 2021•2 min
