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MinnPost •

‘The need is urgent’: Lawmakers weigh funding to address rural cancer care disparity

A pilot program that aims to address a shortage of cancer care in rural Minnesota would receive funding under legislation being considered at the state Capitol.

The Legislation would allocate $600,000 over fiscal years 2026-27 from the state’s workforce development fund to the Rural Cancer Institute to launch a pilot program aimed at exposing medical students to oncology care in rural Minnesota.
The Union-Times •

Memorial Honoring Native American U.S. Veterans proposed for Minnesota Capitol grounds

A memorial to Native American military veterans could soon be erected on the grounds of the Minnesota Capitol under a bill that was advanced by a state Senate committee on Friday, March 21.

The measure authored by Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, would create a task force for establishing the memorial at the Capitol.

The 13 member task force would be appointed by the Commissioner of Veterans Affairs and include one veteran from each of Minnesota’s 11 federally recognized tribes.
MLK Program internship •

Legacy Museum and Montgomery Landmarks Inspire Students to Honor Civil Rights History

When she discovered that the museum was one of the destinations on the University of Minnesota MLK 3000 immersion trip, she was thrilled to finally have the chance to fulfill her dream. Despite her initial excitement, De-Souza said she was taken aback by how emotionally difficult the long-awaited experience turned out to be.As soon as De-Souza stepped inside, she said the weight of the exhibits hit her immediately. Initially, she was overwhelmed by the injustices and unfairness,  but after a con...
MLK Program internship •

MLK Immersion students reflect on their experiences halfway through the immersion trip.

Johnson, who is Black, is not able to trace her lineage beyond her last few generations. She said the immersion trip has filled in gaps in her family history she wouldn’t otherwise have known about.“This trip has been able to help me see some of the insights of my ancestry and form more and stronger bonds with my culture,” Johnson said. “It's been great to do that, it's been empowering, but also of course draining because we've been learning a lot of really deep things.”“Times where I feel like...
MLK Program internship •

Activist Leroy Clemons stresses the importance of history preservation on shaping communities to MLK students

“I am extremely proud of everything that we've been able to accomplish, but I'm more proud of these young people,” Clemons said. “Now they see that their lives can be different, and they don't have to live under the shadow of what happened here in 1964. They can create their own story, and they've got a clean slate to do it on.”“You owe it to yourself not to be like that. What they're doing, that's them, but I owe it to me to not give it back the way you're giving it to me,” Young said. “You can...
MLK Program internship •

MLK students contemplate personal sacrifice in the Civil Rights Movement on Day 2 of the Immersion Trip

“Why should you vote? If people are willing to kill to keep you from voting, then that's what you need to do,” Hyland said. “If people will kill to keep you from getting education, that's all you should ever try and get.”Sitting at his feet in her hometown of Canton, Mississippi, King told a small group of activists he knew his days were numbered. Brown-Wright said she vividly remembers King’s serious expression as he asked them to make a commitment: Stand against segregation and racism and cont...
MLK Program internship •

MLK Immersion Students Uncover Little-Known Truths About Emmett Till’s Murder

Thomas has spent his entire life in Glendora. When asked why he has never moved from the town despite some of its emotional history, he didn’t need any time before responding.Thomas’ father worked for J.W. Millam when 14-year-old Emmett Till came to visit family in small-town Money, Mississippi, from his home in Chicago, Thomas said. A white woman named Carolyn Bryant accused Till of whistling at her and grabbing her waist in her family’s grocery store, although years later she confirmed she lie...
MLK Program internship •

University of Minnesota Students Prepare for second-ever MLK Immersion Trip

The MLK program, an academic advising and social justice education program within the College of Liberal Arts, primarily serves Black, Indigenous and other students of color. The program was founded following the 1969 Morrill Hall takeover, in which Black student activists protested for greater diversity among students and faculty, the establishment of ethnic studies programs and expanded student support services.“We want students to get a perspective shift throughout this trip to really pay att...
Mankato Free Press •

Small business program would get a boost under proposal at Capitol

A program that aims to help small businesses in rural areas and in other parts of the state would get another two-year funding boost under a bill being considered at the state Capitol. Legislation sponsored by Sen. Susan Pha, DFL-Brooklyn Park, would renew a $7.4 million “one-time” increase in funding to the Small Business Assistance Partnerships Program that it first received two years ago. That funding was in addition to the $5.45 million in base funding allocated to the program.In 2023, the Sm...
Mesabi Tribune •

Proposed funding would boost mental health and outdoor programs for Minnesota veterans

Nathan Burr, a member of the Minnesota National Guard, went to a resort near Ely called Veterans on the Lake for the first time in 2019 to reconnect with his wife and two young children, fresh from a year-long deployment in the Middle East .

“I’ve done four deployments but only one with kids, and it’s a completely different thing,” Burr said.

A year later, Burr heard the organization that runs the resort needed board members, and after conferring with his wife, decided to give back to the organization after a stay that had meant so much to him and his family.
KAXE •

MN law change could ease restrictions, expand sales of homemade food

ST. PAUL — People who sell baked goods, jams and jelly, and other foods they make at home without a license would be allowed to sell more with fewer restrictions under a change being considered at the Minnesota State Capitol.Since 2015, Minnesota has allowed the sale of homemade products that are shelf-stable without refrigeration. Known as “cottage foods,” the products are officially defined as “non-potentially hazardous food and canned goods.”People registered with the Minnesota Department of...
MLK Program internship •

Civil Rights Icon Bettie Mae Fikes Commemorates Bloody Sunday with Soulful Tribute

Students, faculty and staff alike sat in awe as the sound of Bettie Mae Fikes' voice swept over the 60 listeners in the room Jan. 30 during the 60th Anniversary Jubilee of the Bloody Sunday march in Selma, Ala. Fikes, known as the Voice of Selma, has been involved in Black Freedom activism since she was a teenager, including the Bloody Sunday march with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. across Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge.State troopers and local residents on March 7, 1965, attacked unarmed protes...
The Minnesota Daily •

How Minnesota keeps its Scandinavian heritage alive

When Swedish, Norwegian and Danish immigrants first set foot in Minnesota, they came for the promise of land and opportunity, but they remained determined to preserve their culture and traditions. Nearly 150 years later, Scandinavian cultural centers are living proof of how early settlers shaped Minnesota’s identity.Today, about 43% of Minnesotans who reported multiple ancestry identify as Scandinavian, according to the 2023 American Community Survey. Evidence of the state’s Scandinavian roots i...
The Minnesota Daily •

Symbols of resistance, the identity of movements

When describing the historical pattern of missing and murdered community members that motivated former roller derby player and Navajo activist Melissa Skeet to roller skate across the United States with a red handprint painted on her face, the name Matoaka came to mind. She is known to many as Pocahontas, a Native American woman who fell in love with colonizer Captain John Smith in the 1995 movie of the same name. Indigenous activists remember Matoaka differently, as the first Missing and Murder...
The Minnesota Daily •

Muslim and Jewish students navigate rising tensions on campus

Since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent conflict in Gaza, Jewish and Muslim students at the University of Minnesota learned to balance their expressions of religious identity with concerns about increased hate speech and isolation from campus communities.The number of reported antisemitic incidents across the U. S. was 8,873 in 2023, according to an audit by the Anti-Defamation League, an almost 140% increase from 2022.A report by the Council on American-Islamic Relation...
The Minnesota Daily •

Board of Regents approve President’s Biennial Budget Request

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents unanimously voted to approve the President’s Recommended FY 2026-27 Biennial Budget Request on Oct. 10.The Board also unanimously approved the President’s Recommended 2024 Six-Year Capital Plan and 2025 State Capital Request. The Six-year Capital plan is required by Board policy and is the document that sets the direction for major capital projects, according to Alice Roberts-Davis, the vice president of University Services.For 2025, the University wi...
The Minnesota Daily •

Police present as protesters gathered in front of Minnesota Hillel

Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated in front of Minnesota Hillel, a University of Minnesota Jewish cultural center, following UMN Divest Coalition’s “One year of Genocide” walkout on Monday, Oct. 7, according to Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) officer Lieutenant Marcus Brenner.Minnesota Hillel planned on hosting events on Monday to commemorate the Oct. 7 attack and mourn the loss of Israeli lives with events leading up to a memorial service and dinner, according to its website.Minnesota...
The Minnesota Daily •

UMN protesters walk out on one-year anniversary of Oct. 7

Around 100 protesters gathered at the University of Minnesota at noon Monday, marking the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel where the Israeli government estimated 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 hostages were taken.Protesters chanted outside the Coffman Union, “Up up with liberation, down down with occupation,” among others, before placing small colored flags on the lawn in the pattern of the Palestinian flag. Some protesters would later gather in front o...
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