Minnesota Now: Aug. 20, 2026

This is Minnesota Now. I'm Kelly Gordon in today for Nina Moini. Google has its eye on two rural Minnesota towns. It wants to develop data centers in Pine Island and Hermantown. The company held open houses yesterday about their plans and faced big pushback. We'll have the latest. New data on kindergarten vaccine rates is out from the CDC, and it shows Minnesota has the third lowest measles vaccination rate in the country. We'll talk to a pediatrician about why rates are so low. Plus, we've been talking to the candidates for Hennepin County Attorney. Today we hear from Cedric Frazier. And we'll talk to the organizer of the first ever Midwest Black Book Fair, which takes place this weekend. All that and more right after the news. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The Trump administration is working to calm financial market pressures by buying back its own debt. Today, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration could be spending double, at least $4 billion to do it. He spoke to White House reporters about the $40 trillion in U.S. government debt, instability in the bond market, and the more than 2% rise today in global oil prices as the U.S. pursues economic warfare against Iran. We've got a spike in oil prices today that I don't really understand. You know, our announcement is for economic. action, and I think that the economic action will mean that oil prices will come down sooner. Meanwhile, the U.S. military says the Asia-based USS George Washington aircraft carrier is in the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln. The Lincoln has been deployed in the region for more than 250 days and has been the subject of inquiry following reports of mental health problems among members of the crew. North Korea fired off a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles for the third time this month. The U.S. and South Korean militaries are holding joint drills that were shortened following orders from President Trump. And Piers Anthony Kuhn has the latest from Seoul. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said they detected around 10 short-range ballistic missiles launched from the capital Pyongyang eastward toward the sea. Earlier in the day, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister Kim Yao Zhang dismissed the downsizing of the Allies' joint drills saying it wasn't worthy of comment. She called them provocative and aggressive. President Trump said he planned to meet with Kim this year. He said he had contacted Kim and received a positive response. Kim's sister said she had not heard anything about such contact. Kim acknowledged, though, the good personal relationship between her brother and Trump, despite the U.S.'s hostile policies towards North Korea. Anthony Kuhn. NPR News, Seoul.

The federal government offers financial aid to low-income families that need help paying for child care. But NPR's Joe Hernandez reports in a third of U.S. states those families may have to join a wait list. There were an estimated 400,000 children on wait lists for child care assistance programs across the U.S. in the second half of last year. That's according to a report by the National Women's Law Center. That number has more than tripled since 2024, the group said. Child care advocates say Congress has never appropriated. enough money for the Child Care and Development Fund, which helps subsidize care for low-income working families. But in recent years, wait lists have grown for other reasons. Pandemic relief money that helped support the national child care system recently ran out, and advocates say more families are now applying for aid. It comes at a time when U.S. child care prices are soaring, in some cases rivaling the cost of a mortgage or college tuition. Joe Hernandez, NPR News. This is NPR News. Support for NPR comes from NPR stations. Other contributors include Made in cookware. Made in cookware is crafted by chefs for chefs and designed for restaurants and home kitchens around the world. Their cookware can be found at madein cookware.com. This is NPR. For NPR News in the Twin Cities, I'm Todd Melby. Two Republican state legislators are hosting a roundtable town hall meeting in Appleton this afternoon on the pending reopening of the Prairie Correctional Facility. The federal government recently bought the 1,600-bed prison and will begin housing people detained by immigration and customs enforcement agents there later this year. Senator Tori Westram and Representative Paul Anderson say they want to provide residents with updates about the operation and answer questions. People who oppose the plans to house ICE detainees at the facility are holding a demonstration at the Flags of Honor Memorial in Appleton. Governor Tim Walz has authorized state disaster assistance for six Minnesota counties following severe storms and flooding earlier this summer. Those counties are Becker, Crow Wing, Fillmore, Houston, Maur, and Winona. Ahmad Hossed reports. Those counties will receive emergency assistance after severe floods and tornadoes caused significant damage in late June and early July. Wall says the state will provide funding and public assistance to help rebuild critical public infrastructure damaged in the storm. He says they'll determine the total assistance after they complete their damage assessments. I'm a medicine. Attorney General Keith Ellison has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Minnesota's ban on AI notification technology. The ban enacted this year prohibits AI platforms from generating nude photos of people. Elon Musk Company, X-A.I sued to stop the law, arguing it's too broad and limits users' freedom of speech. Larry Ellison says the ban is constitutional and necessary to protect people from having nude images made of them without their consent. The motion to dismiss was filed yesterday after lawyers for both sides were in court on a different motion. The next court hearing is scheduled for November.

The Minnesota State Fair is just one week away, and NPR News has compiled an ultimate guide to the fair. From ticket prices to tips on getting there, the guide has everything fairgoers need to go. Go to mprnews.org to see the full guide. This is MPR. And this is Minnesota Now. I'm Kelly Gordon in today for Nina Moyni. Google is trying to smooth over some ruffled feathers in two small Minnesota towns where the tech giant hopes to build a couple of massive data centers. Yesterday evening, Google hosted what it calls a community celebration in Pine Island, which is about 20 minutes northwest of Rochester, with free food, live music, and family events. Also last night in Hermantown, which is outside of Duluth, the company held an open house to answer questions from area residents about the hyperscale data center it wants to build there. Joining us now to talk about both events, our NPR's Rochester-based reporter, Molly Castlework, and our Duluth-based reporter, Dan Crocker. Thanks to both of you for being here. Happy to be here. Of course, thanks. Yeah. So, Molly, let's start with you. You attended Google's community celebration in Pine Island. Describe the scene for us. What was the company celebrating? Yeah, so they were celebrating the local school district. Google is promising to make an investment in the schools as part of their overall data center deal here. And the project is technically on hold right now after a lawsuit asked for further environmental review. So Google was giving the city a bit of a charm offensive in the interim, hoping to sway naysayers. Here's Halston Sleets. She is Google's Minnesota rep for the project. She took to the stage to share some announcements. We are here to celebrate the Panthers, celebrate this community, celebrate the schools. So, so excited that, you know, I think there's over 420 people here so far and more people keep coming. So we're, yeah, cheer for that because I think it's amazing. It's amazing that we're coming out and supporting this partnership, supporting the schools and supporting our youth. The celebration took place at a local park. I entered under a balloon arch to bouncy houses, food trucks, and a large stage set up for live music. Google's promised to give Pine Island schools $24 million over 20 years, and the company announced some additional investments, including new computers and a new HVAC system for the middle school. And they also had their quote, Oprah moment, where they raffled off five Chromebooks to people in the crowd. Did the residents seem to join in on the celebration? It was fairly mixed. Some people told me they figured huge data centers will likely be built somewhere, so why not in Pine Island where it can bring in new construction jobs? Here's 38-year-old Heather Gunderson. It's just going to bring investments into our community, and there hasn't been for a very long time. So I just think overall it's going to be good for us. I'm also, you know, I'm younger, so AI and everything, it's in our everyday living. I don't see anything wrong with it. But then I talked with just as many, if not more, residents who are against the project. Some say they don't trust Google will keep their promise over the course of 20 years, and many were worried about the environmental implications. 22-year-old Megan Post, who I spoke to, she went to the dollar store to get a white t-shirt before the event. She wrote with a Sharpie on the front of it, quote, no data center, protect our community. Post was skeptical of Google's intentions with the event.

I think it's a bribe, honestly. Like, this just seems like something out of a dystopian film. You know, a giant mega conglomeration holding a festival. You know, it's just, it's weird. I don't like it. It doesn't sit well with me. And that's why I came out here. But overall, I'd say the vibes were very chill. People were grabbing or gobbling up the free food and taking their kids over to play on the bounce houses. Okay. So that sets the scene. What about Herman Town? Dan, was that a similar atmosphere? Was it a party? No, it was actually totally different, Kelly. So this was the second open house actually that Google has held up in Hermantown over the past couple months to answer questions about their proposed data center up here. And it was pretty contentious. So Google went over some changes to the project design that they've made. So they've scaled down the size of their projects slightly. They're now planning three giant buildings to hold all the computing equipment rather than four. But it didn't take long for people to start interrupting the presentation. We don't trust what you've done. Thank you. So, Kelly, several people there were escorted out by police. And there's just a lot of anger and distrust about this project among some folks up here directed, both at Google, but also at the city of Hermantown. Oh, at the city too. So why are people so upset with the city? Not just Google. Yeah, so it really goes back to the fact that city officials signed these non-disclosure agreements, these NDAs a couple years ago when this project was first being discussed. And these are city administrators, so not the mayor or the city council members. And the public was really in the dark about this proposed data center until just before it kind of first went before the council last fall. And then that anger, it's really come to a head recently when the online news site, the Duluth Monitor, published some leaked recordings of internal city staff meetings. And I have confirmed the authenticity of those recordings. In one of them, the Hermantown police chief calls a Duluth resident who regularly, you know, speaks out against the data center. He called them an expletive and an idiot. In a second recording, the Hermantown city attorney suggests scripting questions for city council members to ask about the data center. And then the city administrator jokes about not emailing the questions, you know, ostensibly so they wouldn't be revealed in a data practices request. And then Monday this week was the first council meeting since those recordings were published. And here's a sampling of what city leaders heard. The idea that our elected officials would be handed a script developed by city staff and Google affiliate Mortensen as some type of orchestrated play to deceive the public is unbelievable and unethical. It frightens me that we have a fifth grader for a chief of police and a bunch of seventh graders for city staff. If I were to disparage one of my clients, I have no doubt that I would be fired immediately from my position.

So that was Hermantown resident Sarah Lofald, Tom Bates, and Amelia Cohos. Hermantown officials did apologize. The mayor said there's going to be an outside investigation. And Kelly, Google also announced that they're terminating all those non-disclosure agreements. But several residents said, you know, that was too little too late as the project is now public anyway. Right. These Google projects, these two, are two of at least a dozen large data center projects proposed around the state. In fact, a meta data center is under construction in Rosemont already. So there's clearly support for them too. So why are cities interested in pursuing these controversial projects? Well, I can start. In Pine Island, there's a mix of reasons. Google has promised to bring in new jobs, support the schools, invest in the community. And an extra plus is they've made promises to upgrade the plumbing and electrical system. Yeah, and up here in Hermantown, you know, there are business and labor groups that support this project. I mean, this is a nearly a $2 billion project, so lots of jobs, a big investment in the region, especially the construction jobs. Google says they would invest about $218 million up here over nearly three decades. That includes infrastructure upgrades, property taxes, payments to the city and school district. And that school piece is a big, it's big, like in Pine Island, they're promising an investment of over $40 million up here plus property taxes. And that's a big deal, you know, in a small community where, like everywhere across the state school, budgets are really, really tight right now. But the cities are also sweetening the pot for Google, too, right? Molly? Yeah, I mean, in Pine Island, they've agreed to $36 million in tax abatements, which would be issued over 20 years. Yeah, and in Hermantown, the city has offered up to $80 million in tax incentives. The city council has not voted on that package yet. But I have heard a lot of people up here ask, you know, why would the city give such a big tax break to a company that's now valued at over a trillion dollars? I know that much of the opposition to data centers focuses on the amount of water and electricity they use. How is Google and their developer partners addressing those environmental concerns? Yeah, so the Pine Island developer Ryan Company says they're using a closed loop system that they claim will use less water, even than a residential development of the same size. But they do acknowledge that will mean it uses more electricity. Here's lead developer Peter Fitzgerald. We need to be thoughtful and know that all data centers are not created equal. We have to stop the one-size-fits-all narrative. We need to judge each project on its own merits. This project is great, and this project is respectful of the environment, and this project is wonderful for the city of Pine Island.

And, Kelly, something else I think that it's important to note here is that Google is promising a really big investment in clean energy for these projects, about 2,000 megawatts for Pine Island and 700 megawatts for Hermantown. And, you know, for context, I just read a story in Bloomberg this morning about how there are, you know, 100 natural gas plants proposed as part of data centers around the country right now that together could add 20 percent to the electricity sector's greenhouse gas emissions. So, you know, I have heard a lot of clean energy advocates say that if we if we have to build data centers, that the model that Google is proposing here in Minnesota is a good one. But that's not a lot of solace to the folks I've talked to up here who live very near the proposal in Hermantown, you know, who are just adamantly opposed to this project. Right. Well, thank you both for this report. It is very informative. And, of course, it will be an ongoing story. So we appreciate you joining us. You bet. Thank you, Kelly. NPR News, Duluth reporter Dan Crocker and Rochester reporter, Molly Castlework. And, of course, you can find more information at NPRNews.org.

Get some Java. You get a table for two. Well, if you're going to get some Java, again, maybe you're on your second or even third cup of coffee by now. You'll love this song. It's Let Me Buy You Coffee by the Minneapolis band Macha Fever. And by the way, whether you're ready or not, starting today, you can get your pumpkin spice fix at Caribou. Their fall menu is live, and Starbucks fall menu will launch on Tuesday. Here it comes. This is a little sugar, sit down and tell you more. Your back since Chicago, mine says Baltimore. Now I'm in silence as they close the door. You checked your ticket, set your flight is due. Time is fading. I don't know what to do. You smiled and said I will see you soon. This is Minnesota now. I'm Kelly Gordon in today for Nina Moini. As kids start looking ahead to the new school year, health officials are looking at new immunization data, and its showing rates have continued to fall over the last few years, especially in Minnesota. Kindergarteners in our state have the second and third lowest vaccination rates in the country for DTAP and MMR, respectively. Those two vaccines are, of course, combination shots that protect against a myriad of diseases like whooping cough and measles. So low rates of vaccination, which is partly because Minnesota has one of the highest rates for students with personal belief for medical exemptions. Dr. Andreas Singh is the chair of pediatrics at Health Partners in Park Nicolet, and she joins me now to talk through what these ongoing trends mean. Welcome to Minnesota Now, Dr. Singh. Thanks, Kelly. Thanks for having me. Yeah, so you're a pediatrician with more than 20 years of experience. Do these numbers surprise you? You know, they don't surprise me given kind of what we're seeing in our clinics and the day-to-day narratives that are happening kind of in, you know, public forums. But they do disappoint me. Yeah. What are you seeing in hearing? You know, if you're talking with patients and you say it's kind of disappointing, what are some of the specific objections? Yeah. I think more and more in a clinic setting, we're getting a lot of parents that are questioning the need for vaccinations or the motivation behind vaccine, which is great. I mean, I want people to ask questions, but more and more we're getting refusals even when we share the solid evidence that says that vaccine save lives. So does it seem a little bit like people come in, you know, they're willing to talk, but their minds are made up one way or the other? And it's all everything on the spectrum. There are some people that want their vaccines no matter what. There are some people that pretty much have decided they don't want them no matter what you say. And then there's a bunch of people in the middle that are just concerned about the welfare of their kids and have some questions. Right. So what's happening here in our state of Minnesota to make these rates fall? Because we have to note, like vaccination rates here have been on the decline for years. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's a very good question. And I think there, again, a myriad of things that are contributing to this, but particularly in the state of Minnesota. Unfortunately, in the 2000s, late 1990s, there was a very targeted effort by some anti-vaccination groups to talk to immigrant communities and make some unfounded links between MMR vaccine in particular and the likelihood that your child would have autism.

And unfortunately, some of those beliefs have been pervasive, even though we've got lots of evidence that says that the two things are not related. Okay. So, and I'm guessing, you know, as immigrant groups continue to rise, if those beliefs are, you know, kind of locked in, it's like harder to reach those groups, I would imagine. It is. And again, I think I go back to like, what are parents' motivations? Parents' motivations are they just want what's best for their child and anything that might potentially negatively impact their child's health, they're going to question. But yes, it is very challenging once a particular community starts to believe something to sway that opinion. But we're trying. And the medical community really has a lot of experts. We're lucky we live in Minnesota where there are a lot of people. that are very knowledgeable about this stuff. And to be clear, the new report still shows the majority of parents in Minnesota are getting their kids vaccinated. Like 86% of kindergartners are up to date on their shots when they go to school. But I know that dips below the quote unquote herd immunity level, which I think is around 95% of kids should be vaccinated. So if that's true, explain what that could mean, especially as we think about kids going back to school here the next few weeks, both this year and in years to come. Right. So I think it is important to know we talk about this thing called herd immunity, which often is in that 95% range, but ideally at least over 90% for our communities. And really that is a number of we want that percentage of the population to be vaccinated in order to protect those that can't be vaccinated yet and the more vulnerable members of our community. What's really interesting and sometimes gets lost in this measles narrative and the vaccine narrative is that measles is one of the most contagious diseases that exist. person that has measles is in a room with a group of unvaccinated people, at least 10 to 12 of those unvaccinated people will get measles just from the breathing, the air that the other person got. And that doesn't hold true with a lot of other diseases. So it's very easy to spread measles once there might be one person that is infected. The other piece, I think that's really important about measles that sometimes isn't talked about is that while some people that get measles might just have cold symptoms or a rash and then get better, there is a subset of people that have super, super scary, significant illness and actually die of measles or have brain consequences that lead to death later on. There's actually a condition called... SSP or subschloric panencephalitis that can happen after a measles infection. Your child has measles. They get better. They are perfectly normal for seven years and then they get this brain infection that kills them and there's no cure.

There's also a loss of what we call B-cell immunity with some people that get measles infections where it's kind of like when somebody gets chemotherapy and they get their immune system kind of completely wiped out and they have to start from fresh getting all sorts of new infections. When you get measles, your B-cell immunity gets wiped out. So every new infection that you get afterwards will be more significant for you. So these vaccines have existed for years, I mean, decades, really. Can you talk about how they get vetted for safety and effectiveness over time? Because I think that that's, you know, at the heart of what some people are concerned about. Of course. So there is a long process that vaccines and really any medicines in our country go through with multiple trials, first not being involved in live subjects and kind of moving forward and assessing safety. Part of the reason our vaccine schedule is built the way it is like with kids for particular vaccines at particular ages is that's when these vaccines have been tested. like that time period within and for safety. And the vaccines that we have that are combination vaccines have been tested as combination vaccines. And so we know that they are safe. So it's very rare. I mean, we had a kind of a fast track of some vaccine stuff that happened with COVID. But things with MMR and DTAP, there have been years and years and years of data and science. behind approvals for these vaccines. Right. And you kind of referenced there, this combination vaccines, I'll just, in case people haven't been aware, President Donald Trump did sign an executive order last week that calls for the revamping of the schedule of vaccines. And among other things, that order recommends that the MMR vaccine be given as three separate shots, MMR. Ultimately, states have authority over vaccination requirements for kids, but what do you make of the order? Yeah. Well, there's one hiccup. Well, first of all, I would say the MMR vaccine is proven to be safe and appropriate as a combination vaccine. But the other thing I would say that's really important is there's no such thing in the United States as individual measles. comma mumps, comma rebella vaccines. They are not manufactured here in the United States. They don't exist. And in order for us to get them to exist, a manufacturer would have to agree to produce them, but then they need to be studied. You're not going to give your child something that hasn't been studied independently. And so it could be 10 years plus before those products might come to market. And it is super dangerous. to, you know, not vaccinate a cohort of children for the next 10 years. Right. So in our last remaining minute here, talk to me a little bit about how, you know, maybe people are listening and thinking, yeah, I have friends or family members who are hesitant to get their kids vaccinated. How would you recommend? How do you talk to people who, you know, this is a tricky subject and it's personal? It is. It is a very tricky subject. And I do my best to come from a place of trust.

reminding whether it's fellow clinicians that I'm working with or families and parents that parents are centered around what's good for their children. And everyone needs to respect that and have conversations. So I encourage families that might be doubting or unsure to talk with their trusted medical professional and clinician that is an expert in caring for children. People that go into the field of pediatrics do it because they love children. And they spent many, many years of their lives learning about the data and the science between what makes kids healthy and what's appropriate. And so ask the questions. Don't be scared. Don't not vaccinate because you heard something on social media and you're just embarrassed to ask. Ask and we can help work with you on helping to make you comfortable. But we know 100% that vaccines in general are safe and that they save lives. Thank you. Yeah. So Dr. Andrea Singh is the chair of Pediatrics at Health Partners and Park Nicolet. Programming supported by Hamlin University, where adult learners can take the next step toward their goals with bachelors, masters, and doctoral degree programs designed for busy people. Details at hamlet.edu slash next. Still ahead on Minnesota now, we continue our series of conversations with the candidates for Hennepin County Attorney. Today we're going to hear from Cedric Frazier. Plus, we'll learn about the inaugural Midwest Black Book Fair in North Minneapolis. But first, let's get some news headlines with Todd Melby. Hi, Todd. Hey, Kelly. Thanks. The U.S. military says the Asia-based USS George Washington aircraft carrier is now operating in the Middle East. This ship is relieving the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln following reports of mental health challenges and supply shortages aboard the vessel. The Lincoln's deployment has included a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 250 days. Horizon oil prices is sending worries about inflation and bond yields higher. That's erasing some of the relief after the U.S. Treasury Department moved to ease pressure from the bond market. Brent Crude's prize rose 1.9% today following President Trump's latest threats to Iran. The S&P 500 fell about 0.3% and is on track for a fourth loss in five days. META is defending itself in the California federal court against allegations that its social media business poses harm to children and teenagers. Four states accuse META of contributing to the youth mental health crisis by deliberately designing features that get children addicted to scrolling. The company says it has implemented safety measures for young users and will add more. Instagram and Facebook have added features over the years to report inappropriate content and enhance privacy, but critics say the safety measures don't go far enough.

Russia has launched a massive nighttime aerial strike on Kiev using missiles and drones, killing at least 16 people. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged countries to send more patriot air defense interceptors as Ukraine struggles with a shortage. The attack targeted Kiev, leaving about 40 people wounded. The air assaults have alarmed European neighbors, prompting Poland and Romania to activate air defenses. This is NPR News. And this is Minnesota Now. I'm Kelly Gordon and today for Nina Moini. State Representative Cedric Frazier is one of two winners from last week's primary for Hennepin County attorney, which sets up a November matchup with former acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota, Andrews Folk. We heard from folk yesterday. So today we'll hear the conversation between Representative Frazier and Minnesota now host Nina Moini. Frazier is a three-term DFL's state representative and former public defender. His campaign has focused on gun violence and youth crime. He's also calling for more crime prevention and alternatives to incarceration. Representative Frazier, you rose to the top in a five-way primary and you're going to face Anders Folk in November. What do you think voters responded to in your campaign that allowed you to finish first? I think voters responded to my wide variety of experience. You look at my resume, I've been a criminal defense attorney, I've been a city council member, worked in a school district in their legal counsel office, and I've also represented educators across the state as a labor attorney for our teachers' union. And I think that broad perspective, also with my lived experience as well, being in close proximity to the issues. that many communities feel when these systems aren't working well. I think that really resonated with the voters. And the fact that I was willing to explicitly and openly say, we're going to make sure that we prosecute federal agents. that have caused harm within our state and within our county. I think that really resonated with people, and that's the kind of leader that they want to see in this office. Yeah, your yard signs, say the words, prosecute ICE, bigger than your name. Just this week, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Miri Moriardi announced a lawsuit they're filing in response to Operation Metro Surge. What role do you see yourself playing in investigating federal agents? Well, as the next leader of the head of the county attorney's office, I will continue to lead those investigations in that office. And when we have the evidence, as we're fighting to get now from Texas and from the federal government, when we have what we need to pursue those cases, if the evidence shows us that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt, that there's been harms and laws violated within our county, within our state. I'm going to continue to prosecute those cases. We'll move forward and we'll bring charges and we'll prosecute. And you've said your office would not work with ICE. Are there any circumstances in which the Hennepin County Attorney's Office should cooperate with federal immigration authorities?

I mean, if there are issues that are not a, that we can move forward, not violating people's constitutional rights and it is deemed necessary to ensure that we have safe communities and protecting public safety, absolutely. But I will not participate or collaborate or coordinate with a federal agency that has shown itself to not follow the Constitution and is very open to violating constitutional rights. When someone, when it comes to public safety, how are you seeing when someone should be prosecuted aggressively versus maybe diverted into treatment or other supportive programs? How do you make those decisions? If you're someone that is terrorizing and causing harm within your community, I think those cases absolutely should be prosecuted. And one of the tools of that, one of the tools to break up the loop of violence and to stop further violence, it is bringing charges. It is prosecution. It's holding individuals accountable. And that will lead to incarceration or jail time for those individuals. I think those are absolutely appropriate. If it's a situation where it is a crime that has not caused, great harm or great physical harm, and that individual doesn't have a long record, a criminal record or other issues of that nature, then we can look at diversionary matters. At the end of the day, the goal is to make sure we're doing, we're taking action that is going to keep our community safe and make our community safer. That would be the overall arching theme about how we look at every single case and determining whether or not we're going to give someone the opportunity for diversion or whether or not we're going to go through with the prosecution and seek. a penalty that would require an individual to remove from the community, therefore by being incarcerated. It's hard for people to see, you know, when really young people, juvenile people commit crimes, what consequences should there be for a young person who commits a serious or violent offense? How do you approach that? Look, I think the problem in what we really need to focus on is the fact that we've taken away many of the tools that we've had to deal with our young people, particularly when young people have made poor decisions and they need to be removed from their home or their community where they can be harmful to themselves or harmful to others. We closed the Hedipin County homeschool a few years ago, and we really have not had an answer or resource that we can use to remove young people and put them in a place where they can get the resources that they need. same time be held accountable. And I will absolutely be advocating with our county commissioners and our state legislators and elect local officials to make sure that we can bring resources like that back to the table to put at our disposal so that we can make sure that we can address appropriately our young people when they make poor decisions and they can call harm to themselves or harm to others in the community. Broadening out a bit, you've stated that ending gun violence is your top priority. What else specifically would you change about how Hennepin County handles gun violence?

I think what we're going to focus on, I carry the extreme risk protection order law that's in place now. There is currently a liaison within the office to make sure that they can connect with community. They can do trainings with law enforcement to ensure that people have the resources they need and the information they need and know how to file for those petitions. I will make sure that we continue to do that work. Right now, I'm looking at, I'm looking at potentially what I'd be able to do as the next Hennepin County attorney and enjoining the lawsuit that the attorney general. Keith Ellison has initiated now where it is pursuing action and action against the Glock manufacturer, gun manufacturer. And the way I see that, I think about it as in line with what happened with tobacco industries and when those lawsuits came, those industries knew that they were causing harms in the communities that they were selling their product to, and they did nothing about it. Right now, we know that these guns are able to be altered and turned into automatic weapons, causing great harm and mass casualties. only in this state, but around the country. And I think there should be accountability for that. We should not have the harm and terrorist has been caused in our community where these manufacturers, these billion-dollar manufacturers are profiting off of that harm and tragedy within our community. So that's another way I'd be looking at going after gun violence within the communities. You are a former public defender. Your opponent, Anders Fulke, has pointed out you don't have the same prosecutorial experience. Why are you the right person to lead a prosecutor's office? Well, we should look at the numbers. You know, 77% of the voters on primary night said that they did not want my opponents as the lead in this office. 77% of voters said that they didn't want someone who was current, who previously worked for Donald Trump and defended corporations to be their next Hennepin County attorney. And then also, 77% of those voters said, look, we don't want someone that took a max campaign donation from the defense attorney of Jonathan Ross, the federal agent that killed Renee Good. I think those things are really resonating. They will continue to resonate throughout this process. We have built the broadest coalition that this race has ever seen. We are the DFL endorsed candidate, and we're also the labor endorsed candidate. And I think that says a lot, and especially that labor endorse piece because working families and working people are saying, we don't want someone to be our next county attorney that is more interested in protecting corporations than they are protecting the working people. And I've committed to making sure that we use this office. and all the tools and resource that it has to make sure that we protect working people so that they can have the best life possible in this county. When it comes to Hennepin County's current county attorney, Mary Moriarty, what from her approach to the job would you continue if elected? One of the things, let me say this, and I'll just say this. You know, one of the things is I see myself as a change candidate. And regardless of what happened, there's going to be changed within this office because Mary Moriarty isn't running again.

And what the voters have to decide on is if they want their next person that leaves this office to be the change that moves us forward or the change that moves us back to the status quo. What I'm looking forward to doing is continuing. What I'm looking forward to doing is moving forward. And that means that that work has to be connecting with the community, knowing that they're going to have a leader that's going to make sure that we're building a system that works for them and not against them. That means that we're going to... keep some things in place. One of the things that I think about the most is the conviction integrity unit. It is a unit that will look at cases when there's any allegations of misconduct and make a determination on whether or not that case should be, have a deeper look at that and make sure that we can rectify any harms or any mistakes that were made in pursuing that case. And I think that's vitally important because two individuals have been exonerated through that process. One of those individuals lost over, you know, 20 years of their life. of their freedom and we can't give that back but i do think in order to build trust and we should be clear that there's been generations of people in this state and in this county that have not had trust within this uh within the county attorney's office and it's because they feel like the system is working against them and not for them and so my goal would be to make sure that we are building a system that is working for people not against people having those individuals engaged on a day-to-day basis and figuring out what it is that they want to make their communities feel safer. So conviction integrity only is just one of the things that I would be looking at to make sure that we can continue to move that forward so that we can have a tool that when things are not working well or if there's misconduct, we can say, look, as a system, we see this, we've looked into it. Here's how we're going to rectify that. And I think that will go a long way. and building trust within this institution and within the community. And then lastly, people really want to make sure that we hold the federal agents accountable. The current county attorney is moving forward on those cases, and I will, and I have committed to this, I will move forward on those cases as well. The relationship between Mary Moriarty and the previous Minneapolis police chief, Brian O'Hara, was really fraught. With O'Hara resigning, there will eventually be a new MPD chief you'll be working with. How do you approach the relationship with public safety? Well, whoever the new leader is, I'll be making sure that I, right away as soon as possible get a chance to connect with that individual, sit down, talk about what their vision, what their vision is, what their goals are for the office. And you got to understand, this individual is going to be coming in to a department that is right now operating under a consent decree that is overseen by our Department of Human Rights here at the state level. And I think it is very important for that next leader to really kind of focus in and lock in to make sure that we're trying to meet those goals in order to build some trust within that department and within the community of Minneapolis, but also with the community at large and Hennepin County. Minneapolis is important to this county. It is our largest city.

That police department is our largest police department. And it is important for people to know that when they pick the phone up to call someone, that they're coming in to protect and serve and not to harm them. And it's also important for people to know that these officers are going to be operating with the utmost respects of decency and humanity for those individuals. And that is a conversation I'll be having with the next leader, that I want us all to be on the same page and ensuring that we have all of our police departments, but particularly with MPD, that we have a department that is there to serve the people and protect the people. Representative Frazier, thank you for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you for having me. That was Minnesota Now host, Nina Moini, speaking with Hennepin County Attorney candidate, Cedric Frazier. You can hear the conversation with Anders Fulke, the other person on the ballot, running for that office, by heading to the Minnesota Now page at nprnus.org. Yesterday on Minnesota now, we heard from a local brewer who is concerned about a looming federal hemp ban that impacts his hemp-derived THC drink business. Today, we're turning to another group impacted by the ban, farmers. Minnesota hemp farmers are pulling back from the crop as the demand falls and the federal ban threatens to shrink the market even further. One Hastings farmer has decided to grow more soybeans instead. Reporter Nicole Kai visited his farm to find out why and why he hopes plant hemp again. So what you see here is soybeans. What we've got normally is a rotation of corn or hemp. For the first time since 2019, Jeremy Seresig is not growing hemp at his farm in Hastings. Instead, he planted more soybeans. New state licensing requirements for hemp played a role. We've done hemp here on this field the last three out of seven years. This year, though, the market has been affected federally. The demand isn't there. The processors are a little hesitant to contract or buy anything. Taking a year off this year. The proposed ban adds to an industry that's struggling to find stable footing. It would sharply limit THC in drinks and edibles, further hurting demand. Looking at his 200 acres of soybeans, Ceresic sees something else. The lost opportunity of another year of R&D, another year of moving the market. He says he's still sitting on at least 15,000 pounds of last year's crop. And he's not alone. I know farmers that are sitting on leftover biomass from last harvest, that they are having trouble moving. And because of that sentiment, a lot of farmers are not growing at all this year. That's Dennis Mistrioti. head of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable. He says the uncertainty around the ban is hurting farmers. The ripple effects are also reaching manufacturers, too. In Burnsville, Kyle Marenkovic walked me through the production floor at his facility. This is the emulsion lab and then also gummies. He says it would normally be bustling.

But these days, it's quiet. Marenkovic works with six Minnesota growers, including Ceresig. None planted hemp this year. They're not going to grow something that they don't believe they can sell. He says sales have flattened this year as retailers and distributors order less. If the ban takes effect, it could shudder his business. We would be at best. a much smaller operation. Unless some of our other products could pick up the slack, we'd probably have to shut down, yeah. It's dire. For Ceresic, hemp also hasn't been as profitable as his other crops. We just have put in enough. risk enough where we can keep going with everything else. He isn't the only Minnesota farmer stepping away from hemp. Angela Dawson grew the crop for four years before stopping in 2024, citing changing state packaging rules, a slow COVID recovery, and difficulty finding banks willing to work with her business. Now, she's shifting to recreational cannabis. We had a really great success when we were growing hemp outdoors up there, and I'm really sad that we're not doing. doing that anymore, but, you know, we're pivoting with the times. Lawmakers at Capitol Hill are still working to delay the ban, while others have introduced legislation to regulate the hemp industry. In the meantime, Seresig is hoping to plant again next year. Despite this year's challenges, he's optimistic. I do see a future for it. I really do. He says hemp can help people, and he's not ready to give up on that just yet. But for now, His fields are growing soybeans. Nicole Kai, MPR News, Twin Cities. Support comes from the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, presenting Gordon Coons. Giddy Bajamomen, We Tell Stories, Ojibwa Traditions and Woodland Style Imagery, Storyt Storytelling Tool for Teaching and Community Connection through August 30th, MMAM.org. This weekend is a first for Minnesota's literary scene. The inaugural Midwest Black Book Fair will bring black authors and booksellers to North Minneapolis Saturday afternoon. There will be food for sale and books, of course, as well as workshops and panels. Joining me to talk more about it is the person now behind this event, Teresa Hardaway. She's the owner also of Black Garnet Books in St. Paul. Welcome to Minnesota now, Teresa. Hi, thank you so much for having me. Yeah, I'm really excited to have you here. This is going to be really exciting. You told NPR News previously that you got the idea for this event from a monthly meeting of the National Black Bookstore Coalition. So can you tell me more about what led you to organize this book fair? Yeah, so I typically organize like really large-scale events, like gathering community, you know, building relationships. That's really something that I have like really tried to perfect over the years of my organizing career. So, you know, planning something around like the black literature space now that I'm a bookstore owner just totally made sense. And I just was having conversations with, you know, folks who are already in this space and was like, hey, would y'all be interested in coming together?

for something a little bit more like formal, something that people understood the purpose of why they would be attending something like this. And, you know, the folks that I was around at the time, which was the owner of Strive Bookstore Mary and the owner of Baby Kate's Bookstack and the owner of In Black Inc., you know, they were all very interested. And as soon as I, you know, said, okay, I think we should do something in August. They were like, okay, here's who you need to talk to. And so they introduced me to a ton of other people. who are doing really great, amazing work in the literary space in intersection with blackness. And it just all kind of spun from there. Wow. So it must have spun up pretty quickly because, I mean, or maybe I should ask, how long did it take you to kind of go from like that initial conversation to here we are? It's happening this weekend. Yeah. I would say that initial conversation was probably five months ago. Wow. And then I really started to hone down in organizing, like putting out a call for authors and vendors and stuff, probably three months ago. So it has really been like a kind of truncated, you know, timeline. I'm hoping. that in the future, you know, I have a bit more time. But it was just like, you know, it was just my idea. And I'm like, you know, let's just see what happens. And it's happening really well. Yeah, I was going to say that. I think that that probably speaks to how much support there is for it. Have you felt that? Yeah, you know, when I first started the event, I was just thinking to myself, like something has to happen. We have to do something. And then having over 90 authors reach out and say, I want to have my book at this book fair. I want to table this book fair. To me, just spoke to the need, like the necessity of having a space dedicated to black stories and connecting those black stories with community, connecting black retailers with communities so that folks know who we are, where we are, and that, you know, we're here to stay. You mentioned that you're an organizer, but I think that you're also a visual artist, right? You're the owner of the Social Justice Design Studio Blackbird Revolt, an associate professor of graphic design at the U of M. So I'm interested how you went from kind of this other world, you know, this kind of graphic, this picture world to this word, book, literary world. Have they always like books been a part of your life? That is such an interesting, like a very good question because everything that I do really begins to intersect at the concept of Black liberation and abolition. And as an educator, right, I'm an author myself. And so I know how hard it is to get into the publishing industry. I know how hard it is to finish a book, you know, 60,000, 70,000 words. Like I know the difficulty of that. For me, you know, being a graphic designer, you know, is just taking stories and making them visual, having people be able to consume what it is that we are trying to tell or be able to like create, you know, movement centered propaganda that speaks in a visual way so that anyone of like any, you know, sort of like reading level would be able to engage with the work that we're doing. So for me, you know, then, you know, getting ownership of this bookstore, I really just played into the intersection that I already

know and am. I'm an educator. I'm a designer. And so, you know, the branding for the event looks really amazing because I did it. So, like, again, visually using, you know, language and icons and imagery to evoke, like, the sense of, you know, what we're trying to do, which is like uplift Black August, uplift, you know, black stories and narrative. So for me, it all works together, you know, I think I saw an article saying, you know, she likes to keep busy. And it's like, I do, but I don't think it's super heavy because they all intersect. You know, if there's something happening at the bookstore, I'm really able to, you know, engage my team at Blackbird Revolt to be able to support that. And vice versa, along with the university or any other organizations that I'm a part of. So you mentioned Black August. And earlier, I don't want to skip over it, you talked about the importance of Black Revolutionary. So will you talk about how, why it was so important for you to connect those events, this event, to that kind of history and where this stems from? Yeah. So we already know about. independent bookstore day, which happens in April. And so when I was thinking, you know, conceptualizing of this event, I'm like, okay, I want to have something that isn't just like a reflection of like black history because that's its own month too. Let's try and uplift something that maybe may be less known in our broader, you know, communities. And so Black August being, you know, a month long commemoration of freedom fighters and. prison abolition, you know, all of the folks who have done a lot of on the ground grassroots efforts to make sure that black people are sustained, that we get reparations, that we are essentially. fighting for our rights still, I think it was really important to have something that also commemorates those stories happen in this month. We also have Black, there's like Black Business Week, Black Business Month happening in August. It just kind of all aligned. And I will say this is where the Black Bookstore Coalition really helped in framing what sort of day or month I was trying to have the event in because they were already sort of planning some sort of national recognition of black bookstores in August. Okay. So who are some of the authors, publishers, booksellers, in the Midwest, excuse me, who you really want to highlight through this event? Oh, I want to highlight everybody. But I definitely want to highlight the folks who was really on the ground with me at the beginning of this and who I approached. So again, Baby Cakes, the Bookstack, Greo Arts, Adam Rochester, in Black Ink, Mind's Eye Comics, which again, I just learned about very recently, you know, a black-owned comic bookstore, you know, some organizations being the more than a single story, the Givens Collection, you know, the Henneken

Pink County Library, all of these folks really, you know, sort of sit on this advisory team and helped connect me with all kinds of folks that, you know, I knew I should have been connected with. I also had really extensive conversations with the lead for the Minnesota Black Authors Expo because I was like, I don't want to repeat that, but I do want to support that. And so how do I do that? And I, again, I just speak to like the beauty of our community to be able to reach out and connect me with all of these folks who are already doing really amazing stuff in this space and just coming together. really going to be an event full time. Yeah. So as of last week, 800 tickets have been reserved. So I'm curious in our final minute here, you know, like, where are you now? If people are listening and they're like, I would love to attend, are there spots still available? Yeah. So it has almost doubled since last week. Yeah. Like 1600 tickets. Yeah, last time I checked, we had like 1,450 tickets acquired. I just increased the free tickets to an additional 200 because I just want folks to be able to register, although we might need to do some navigation around like, okay, like, you know, move to these other spaces. How much space is there? Yeah. But there's a ton of stuff happening outside too. So like I don't imagine that folks are going to be just standing in line. Like there's going to be a DJ outside. There's going to be food trucks outside. There's going to be just kids activities, things to do. So I don't imagine it being, you know, a big long wait. However, we do have a lot of people registered. And so unfortunately, there are no swag bag tickets left. A lot of folks are in our comment session asking about that. But we do have some free tickets. And if anyone doesn't pick up their swag bags at 2 p.m., they are going to be released to the public. So if you are still there and folks haven't picked up their bags, which I'm sure there will be folks who haven't picked up a bag, you can, you know, your chances for that too. 2 o'clock release time. Okay, fantastic. And they can look for it next year, I'm sure. So Teresa Hardaway is the owner of Black Garnet Books in St. Paul and the creator of the Midwest Black Book Fair, which is happening this Saturday for the first time.