Was it really less just a few days ago that the Minnesota Timberwolves seemed primed to make a serious push up the Western Conference standings for the first time in this season? 

The Wolves had won a season-high five straight games to close out January with a  record of 27-21, just a half-game out of 6^th place that would provide them with a hall pass to skip the play-in tournament and avoid the ignominy of potentially not even qualifying for the postseason. Better yet, they were just a game-and-a-half out of 4^th place, a spot that would ensure home-court advantage for the first round of the playoffs. 

Seven of their next eight games were at home, the first three against eminently beatable opponents, beginning with the Washington Wizards, owner of the worst record in the NBA and in the midst of their second 16-game losing streak of the season. Then a day off and a matchup against the Sacramento Kings, a team whose star player, De’Aaron Fox, had enervated the franchise by asking for a trade. Another day off and then a contest with a Chicago Bulls squad who had won just two of its previous 10 games. 

Even the ever wary and weary Wolves fans had to concede there was an available window that just might permit some sunshine to permeate their dusky hopes. 

Hah.

It was suddenly time for the remarkable good health the Wolves enjoyed for most of the past two seasons to go kaput. That strained groin muscle forward Julius Randle had pulled 10 minutes into the game against the Utah Jazz to close out January was going to keep him on the sidelines for a while. And superstar guard Anthony Edwards, who didn’t miss a game in calendar year 2024, was hollowed out of the picture by an illness. 

Randle and Ant were added to the absence of guard Donte DiVincenzo, hobbled by a torn ligament in his big toe back in late January. And then Naz Reid jammed his fingers in the first half against the Wizards and became the last of the Wolves’ top four scorers to tap out of action. 

OK, but the Wizards were still posed to be an inconsequential obstacle, eh? Six wins in 47 games. Not one, but two 16-game losing streaks already this season. Yeah, the Wolves had played cat-and-mouse with them, grabbing the lead for only 49 seconds near the end of the first half, but never really letting the game get out of hand. And when Minnesota went on a 16-5 run in the fourth quarter to go up by three with 7:27 left to play, the natural order of things re-clicked into focus.  

For a brief moment. Then the downtrodden Wizards stirred for a 9-0 run of their own to make it 99-93 with just a little under four minutes left to play. They never trailed again, icing the victory when forward Kyle Kuzma twice isolated on the Wolves best on-ball defender, Jaden McDaniels, and turned both possessions into buckets. 

Then the Kings came to town, reeling from the announcement that Fox had indeed been traded just hours before, too soon for the players Sacramento had acquired in the deal to make it to Minnesota. Rotation player Kevin Huerter had also been dealt. 

As for the Wolves, Ant was suited up and mostly ready to go. Naz, his jammed fingers taped, was alongside him in the starting lineup. Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley and McDaniels filled out a quintet that logged 200 minutes together as a unit last season, allowing just 102.1 points scored per 100 possessions. But the short-handed, in-transition Kings scored at a rate of 177.8 points per 100 possessions before the first wave of substitutions arrived a little more than nine minutes into the game. 

But once again the score stayed agonizingly close into the fourth quarter, the teams separated by no more than six points in the final five minutes. And once again the Wolves stumbled – the final was 116-114, Sacramento. 

Citing “bad chemistry” for a team’s underperformance is usually the hallmark of lazy analysis. “Chemistry” itself is an ineffable and elusive thing that is prone to a wide array of definitions. I regard good chemistry as a synergy, a cohesion greater than the sum of its parts, arising from a shrewd assembly of complementary pieces that are further catalyzed by shared confidence, faith and trust. The less those elements exist, the more likely it is that the synergy will be stymied.

Do the Wolves suffer from poor chemistry? If you examine how the team performs when it matters most, the answer is yes. 

The NBA defines “clutch” situations as the times when the teams are within five points of each other in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime. It is when the outcome of the game is more or less a tossup, there for the taking – or the giving away. 

Over their first 50 games of the 2024-25 season, amounting to a total of 2,410 minutes played, the Wolves have outscored their opponents by 151 points. They have been pretty consistent in earning that advantage, going plus 36 in the first quarter, plus 39 in the second quarter, plus 35 in the third quarter, and plus 43 in the fourth quarter. They are minus 2 in their two five minutes (10 total) of overtime. 

Too often, however, they fall apart in the clutch. 

Specifically, in 107 minutes of clutch play, they have been outscored by 55 points. Remember, by definition, clutch minutes can only occur near the end of the fourth quarter or overtime, which makes the disparity in the team’s performance with the game on the line rather than when the pressure is less intense, even more dramatic. 

Here’s the math: Overall, the Wolves outscore their opponents by 41 points in the 610 minutes comprising their 50 fourth quarters and two overtimes. But since they are outscored by 55 in the 107 clutch minutes, that means they outscore the other team by 96 points in the 503 minutes of their fourth quarters and overtimes that aren’t clutch situations. 

Failing to deliver in the clutch has had a significant impact on the course of their season. Thirty-one of the Wolves’ first 50 games this season have included some clutch minutes – the most in the NBA. The Wolves’ record in those games is 13-18, compared to their 14-5 mark in the 29 games that aren’t close near the end of the game. They lead the NBA with 13 losses in games in which they have led in the fourth quarter.

Because the clutch minutes vary from game-to-game, blinking off when a team pulls away by more than five points (and back on if the narrow margin returns), the Wolves are tied for fifth in the 30-team league for the sheer amount of clutch minutes at 107. The sample sizes vary wildly – from the mere 35 minutes logged by the terrible Wizards and the 48 minutes teams are able to contest the dominant Thunder, to the 117 minutes played in the clutch by the Houston Rockets. Consequently, offensive and defensive ratings (the amount of points scored and allowed per possession) can be skewed.

That said, in their relatively robust sample size, the Wolves rank 24^th in defensive rating, allowing 116.8 points per 100 possessions, and 27^th in offensive rating, scoring just 100.5 points per 100 possessions. Their net rating – points scored minus points allowed per 100 possessions – of -16.3, is better (or less worse) than only the Wizards and the Utah Jazz, the two teams with the worst overall won-lost records in the NBA. 

Put simply, the two teams who perform worse than the Wolves in the clutch perform terribly in a lot of non-clutch time as well. In fact, among the bottom nine teams in clutch-time net rating, only the Wolves have a winning record overall. (The Milwaukee Bucks, 21^st is clutch net rating at minus 6.9, but with an overall record of 26-22, is the next worst clutch performer among “winning” teams.) 

On a team-wide basis in the clutch, the Wolves are grossly underperforming the rest of the league and their own non-clutch play at both ends of the court, which is why this feels like the fault extends not only to the players logging the most clutch time, but to the way President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly has constructed the team and the way Coach Chris Finch has operated it. 

That said, Edwards is the team’s unquestioned go-to star when it matters most and his performance on offense reflects the team’s incompetence at that end. For example, the Wolves overall shooting percentage and accuracy from three-point range both take a dive in clutch situations. They are 46.3% shooters from the field overall (16^th in the NBA) and 40.7% in the clutch (22^nd). And from behind the arc, they fall from 38.3% accuracy overall (3^rd best) to 25.3% (28^th) with the pressure on. 

As the dominant locus of the offense, it is not surprising that Ant (who has logged 102.5 of the 107 clutch minutes, missing only the Wizards game due to illness), is likewise tumbling, from 44.6% overall to 39.4% in the clutch from the field, and from 42.1% overall to 28.2% in the clutch from long range. 

There is a lot more to be said about clutch minutes – Naz has just two three-point attempts, missing both, in his 23.6 clutch minutes and owns a ridiculously skewed net rating of minus 43.9. Conley is 2-13 from the floor and 1-8 from three-point territory in his 46.3 clutch minutes, yet he only played clutch minutes in 17 games and the Wolves were 10-7 and a mere minus 4 in plus/minus during his time on the court.

My take on the clutch minutes fiasco is that it is a symptom of the Wolves lack of chemistry thus far this season, in which dysfunction has made them less than the sum of their parts. And there are a lot of reasons why it has occurred. 

Begin with the major trade that happened just before training camp. I don’t disagree with it, for reasons discussed in multiple prior columns, but the timing was harmful. It disrupted the unique harmony Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns had created (designed by Finch) in the “double-bigs” lineup. It compelled not only the readjustment of supplanting Karl-Anthony Towns with Randle as the starting power forward, but altered the way Naz, McDaniels, Conley and even Joe Ingles would be deployed. 

Another reason why the Wolves aren’t thriving in pressure situations this season is because there is more ambient pressure on them in general. Last year’s 56-win campaign was a season-long party, made even more piquant by its unexpected excellence. This season, the team entered with the NBA’s second-highest salary, including big raises kicking in for Ant and McDaniels, plus an extension for Gobert. Randle and Naz have player option years on the table next season. 

The overall expectation was, if not a return to the Western Conference Finals, a standard of play that was among the elites in the conference. The fan base had a taste of consistently marvelous play, ticket prices spiked. Ant was supposedly “the face of the NBA.” It was, and is, a lot. 

Then there is the deployment of personnel. To accelerate familiarity and quicken research, Finch hewed to an eight player rotation, and even with the recent onslaught of injuries and absences, leans in that direction. But the grizzled veterans Conley and Gobert, both stellar pros who deserve respect, are having off-years and don’t deliver as reliably, especially in the clutch. 

Meanwhile, first-round lottery pick Rob Dillingham has shown enormous promise – and inconsistency. Finch, under the same gun of delivering last season’s caliber of play, plays tug of war with his support and faith. Josh Minott had an excellent preseason, barely played the first couple months, and is now in the doghouse for defensive lapses. Luka Garza has been “developing” forever but isn’t reliable. Right now Jaylen Clark is the development success story because Finch prioritizes ball pressure and he’s been delivering. 

There is, of course, a chicken-or-egg quandary to young player development. Can the Wolves sustain expectations and capably bring these bright talents along? That’s tough under any circumstances and particularly thorny at the moment, when injuries open the rotation but provide a narrower margin for success. 

Already this season we have had the notorious spat when Randle wouldn’t deliver the ball to Gobert and Rudy pouted and acted out; Ant calling out his team for lackluster play just before Thanksgiving, and Finch caustically getting on his troops after a losing streak in January. In all of these cases, the team rebounded admirably. It remains a collection of high-character individuals. Folks in limbo, like Randle, Naz, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Joe Ingles, have been pros willing to adapt to uncomfortable changes. 

But adjusting to those changes hinders synergy. Ditto injuries, which, to be fair, the Wolves have mostly been lucky with the past couple seasons. Ditto the pressure of repeating last year’s standard. The NBA is rife with teams that made a leap and then took a step back. 

The wider lens is that all this can change, in a blink or inexorably, until you see the blooms. Just a few days ago, the Wolves seemed primed for an 8-game winning streak. Now it is comparatively bleak. But this too could change. 

We’ll know it has if they suck it up in the clutch and begin winning tossups.

Britt Robson

Britt Robson has covered the Timberwolves since 1990 for City Pages, The Rake, SportsIllustrated.com and The Athletic. He also has written about all forms and styles of music for over 30 years.

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Via the Associated Press and KARE 11: The U.S. Department of Education is investigating five universities, including the University of Minnesota, over reported antisemitism. It’s part of President Donald Trump’s promise to take a tougher stance against campus antisemitism and deal out harsher penalties than former President Joe Biden’s administration, which settled a flurry of cases with universities in its final weeks.

Paul Walsh at the Star Tribune is reporting federal customs personnel in the Twin Cities intercepted more than $1 million worth of gas-powered engines that officials say were shipped illegally from China.

Jane McClure at My Villager reports US Internet’s request to provide services in Highland Park from a new facility on Randolph Avenue will be heard by the St. Paul Planning Commission Feb. 7 with a recommendation of support from the Highland District Council.

Via Bring Me the News: Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman has been suspended for 10 games for roughing the Ottawa Senators’ Tim Stutzle during Saturday’s game in Ottawa, Ontario.

Via FOX 9: Protests against Project 2025 and President Donald Trump’s executive orders are planned for Wednesday at state Capitol buildings in all 50 states.

Also from the Star Tribune: Organizers of the Minnesota Yacht Club festival at St. Paul’s Harriet Island Regional Park announced Monday that the lowest-priced general admission passes for their July 18-20 lineup are already sold out, less than a week after going on sale.

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No.

An email response from the Office of Vital Records at the Minnesota Health Systems Bureau confirms that birth certificates are the jurisdiction of the state where an individual was born. Because of this, Minnesota’s Office of Vital Records can only work to help people amend birth certificates if they were born in Minnesota. Other states have varying requirements for amending a birth certificate, along with filing fees.

If someone was born in Minnesota and wanted to change the gender on their birth certificate, they must have a letter from a physician indicating that they are receiving care associated with gender transition, or a court order to change gender on the document. Some other states, including neighboring Wisconsin, only allow a gender marker change to someone’s birth certificate if they have undergone gender-affirming surgery. Kansas and Tennessee do not currently allow gender to be changed on birth certificates.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

MinnPost partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs.

Sources

• Minnesota Office of Vital Records: Email correspondence
• TotalLegal.com: How Do I Make Changes to or Amend My Birth Certificate?
• Kansas Department of Health and Environment: Can I amend my birth certificate to align with my gender identity?
• Advocates for Trans Equality: ID Documents Center
• Advocates for Trans Equality: Tennessee Identity Documents
• Minnesota Department of Health: Change a Birth Record
• Minnesota Department of Health: How Do I Make Changes to or Amend My Birth Certificate?

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During his first week in office, President Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, declared an energy emergency, renewed his vow to “drill, baby, drill,” and began dismantling American climate policy. That has left environmental advocates looking to states to lead the nation’s efforts to burn fewer fossil fuels — and a report released Wednesday shows there is much more they can do.

One of the most powerful tools at each state’s disposal is the ability to work with utilities to encourage energy efficiency. But, the report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, or ACEEE, details how only 26 states, along with the District of Columbia, have established a so-called “energy-efficiency resource standard,” or EERS. These targets, set by legislators or utility regulators, require utilities to implement programs — such as weatherization or rebates on appliances — that cut energy consumption by a certain amount each year.

“There is more work that needs to be done,” said Jasmine Mah, a senior research analyst at the Council and an author of the report. Since 2012, just three states have added such a standard, while New Hampshire, Ohio, and Iowa repealed theirs in favor of less ambitious or scaled-back programming. Arizona is also pursuing a rollback. Mah says the report is aimed at state policymakers and regulators, who could shift that tide. 

“We hope that highlighting the positive impacts of having an EERS in place would encourage states to pass a policy,” she said. An earlier ACEEE report found that, as of 2017, states with an energy-efficiency resource standard saw four times the electricity savings as states without one. In 2023, states with such a plan accounted for about 59 percent of the U.S. population but 82 percent of the savings.

“States aren’t doing this just because of climate change,” said Barry Rabe, a political scientist at the University of Michigan who studies energy and climate politics. “There is an economic advantage.”

Fossil-fuel friendly Texas, Rabe noted, was the first to adopt an EERS in 1999. But efficiency can become less of a priority when energy supplies are abundant and costs are stable. “The decline in interest,” Rabe said, “has in some degree coincided with the massive increase in natural gas use in the U.S.” 

Still, the Council also found that many states have gone beyond baseline policies and implemented what the report dubs “next-generation” initiatives that aim to lower greenhouse gas emissions, spur electrification, serve lower-income populations, and reduce consumers’ financial energy burdens. All but four of the 27 states (including D.C.) with an energy-efficiency resource standard have implemented at least one such effort, but only nine have adopted all of them, leaving plenty of room for growth. 

“We found that low-income targets are the most common complementary goal related to efficiency standards,” said Mah. “[But] not many states had provisions for energy affordability.”

The report spotlights five states that have been particularly effective at employing these programs. Illinois has targeted using only clean energy by 2050. Massachusetts aims to install half a million heat pumps by 2030. Michigan mandates that utilities dedicate at least 25 to 35% of their energy-efficiency funding to programs serving low-income customers. Utilities in New York and Minnesota have capped the portion of a customer’s income that can go toward utility costs at 6 and 4%, respectively.

President Trump’s push to repeal the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, likely won’t impact state EERSs because they are generally funded through fees added to utility bills. “We see that as probably the best way to bring significant funds,” said Justin Brant, the utility program director at the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project. 

Critics of Arizona’s EERS, which was adopted in 2010, point to the $3 billion cost to customers. “Utilities should select the most cost-effective energy mix to provide reliable and affordable service, without being constrained by government-imposed mandates that make it more expensive for their customers,” said Arizona Corporation Commissioner Nick Myers in a statement last year. But the state’s largest electric utility found that, in 2023, EERS investments reaped about twice as much in returns as was spent. 

“We’re saving money for all customers, even those who aren’t participating,” said Brant. 

The IRA does provide nearly $9 billion for energy-efficiency and electrification programs, almost all of which is distributed via states and could be used on next-generation programs, like those serving low-income households. That money has already been awarded. But the Republican-controlled Congress could roll back federal tax credits for energy efficiency and electrification, which indirectly make it easier for states to achieve their energy-efficiency resource standard and next-generation goals. 

Brant says he would add another policy to the Council’s “next-generation” wishlist for states: programs that encourage customers to spread out the timing of their daily energy use. Lower peak demand means power plants don’t need to be as large and that, he said, will be especially critical as renewable energy becomes an increasing part of the country’s electricity mix. 

“​​Time shift is not something that this report looked at,” he said. “I think that’s another piece that needs to be prioritized.”

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/energy/almost-half-of-us-states-havent-done-the-bare-minimum-to-cut-utility-bills/. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

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Nick Lentz at WCCO reports: “The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a 46-year-old inmate who escaped police custody Sunday afternoon.”

Adam Uren at Bring Me the News reports: “A teenage boy is dead after a shooting in St. Cloud early Sunday morning.” 

Mara Gottfried at the Pioneer Press reports: “Jason Jensen is used to helping other people — as both a Lakeville police officer and a hockey coach – but now the police and hockey communities are rallying around him and his family since he was seriously injured in a fall during practice.”

Briana Bierschbach at the Star Tribune reports: “Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is sitting on more than $1 million in campaign funds if he chooses to seek a third term as governor in 2026.”

Nick Halter at Axios reports: “Metro Transit said it gave 47.5 million rides last year, a 6% increase over 2023 … but (t)hat’s still down 39% compared to 2019, when the agency reported 77.9 million rides.” 

Matt Sepic at MPR News reports: “After years of investigation, charges and guilty pleas, a central figure in the Feeding Our Future case appeared in federal court in Minneapolis as jury selection, which started Monday morning, wrapped up by late afternoon. The panel of 16 people includes four alternates.”

David Pierini at North News reports: “(A) new apartment complex towers over a neighborhood. The residents want it torn down.”

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WASHINGTON — Although they’ve been paused for 30 days, President Donald Trump’s tariff threats showed how dependent Minnesota is on trade with Canada and Mexico.

According to the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, about half of Minnesota’s exports went to those two countries and China in 2021, up from about one-third in 2002. And the chamber said trade between Minnesota and Canada grew about 39% from 2019 to 2021.

Those Minnesota exports would suffer if the nations Trump has threatened with tariffs follow through with their own threats to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.

And the huge list of U.S. imports from the countries subject to the new tariffs — which range from cars and wine to pharmaceuticals — would be subject to substantial price hikes, fueling inflation, as U.S. importers pass the cost of the new tax along to consumers.

A trade war with the United States’ closest neighbors and allies was forestalled when Trump reached deals with Mexico and Canada, which would have been subject to 25% tariffs on Tuesday.

But on Tuesday, 10% tariffs will be placed on Chinese goods, which already bear tariffs.

Under the terms of Trump’s agreement with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico would send an additional 10,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and the United States would aim to stop U.S. trafficking of high-powered weapons to Mexican drug cartels.

An agreement with Canada took two phone calls between Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had said he would lodge a protest at the World Trade Organization against the new U.S. tariffs, seek redress under the USMCA and impose more than $155 billion worth of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports.

In a posting on X, Trudeau said he “had a good call with President Trump” on Monday afternoon and suggested the pause on tariffs on Canadian goods was in response to Canada’s agreement to target the flow of fentanyl across the border into the United States.

But while a trade war has been postponed, the threat of an economic upheaval still remains.  

Canada’s retaliatory tariffs would be applied to more than 1,000 American products — from agriculture commodities to clothing and shoes to high-tech products. The list also includes paper products and other goods exported to Canada by Maplewood-based 3M.

“3M is reviewing the recently announced tariffs,” the company said. “We are continuing to monitor the situation.”

A USMCA fact sheet says that in 2019 Canada was Minnesota’s largest export destination and Mexico was the state’s second destination of the state-produced goods, accounting for a combined $7.2 billion in export sales that year.

Trump said he plans to extend tariffs to other nations — including European Union countries — and that they are needed to raise money for the U.S. Treasury. But most economists say U.S. consumers will pay for the cost of the tariffs, not foreign exporters.

“Families are already struggling with high prices and across-the-board tariffs will make it worse,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who supported tariffs on foreign steel she said was dumped at lower prices to hurt domestic producers.

“Tariffs should be applied with scalpel-like precision with specific goals,” Klobuchar said. “Instead, the president is using a sledgehammer and it’s going to clobber our economy.”

Well-traveled pigs

Minnesota’s farmers would be hard hit if there’s a trade war with Canada.

When Trump instituted smaller tariffs on certain imported goods and imported steel and aluminum, Minnesota farmers were hurt by plunging commodity prices and a drop in exports.

Trump was forced to tap a Great Depression-era program, the Commodity Credit Corporation, to pay farmers $28 billion as recompense for their losses.

The USDA estimated that those payments constituted more than one-third of total farm income in 2019 and 2020.

Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation President Dan Glessing said he hoped Trump’s more recent tariffs threats are merely a “bargaining chip” the president is using to seek concessions from allies.

Glessing said the state’s farm economy could survive a new trade war “as long as it does not drag on too long.” But he said the disruptions in the market come at a bad time — on the heels of a two-year slump in U.S. farm exports.

Klobuchar called Canada “a key economic partner for the northern states” and that tariffs on potash from that nation would sharply increase fertilizer costs for Minnesota farmers.

Trump’s tariff policy also raises other questions because of the close relationship of Minnesota’s farmers with their counterparts to the north.

Canada has an agreement with Minnesota pork producers that send piglets to grow into hogs in Canada. These hogs are shipped back to Minnesota and processed into meat products. Some of those pork products are exported back to Canada.

“When you think of how much back-and-forth there is (in the operation), those tariffs could be considerable,” Glessing said.

Ana Radelat

Ana Radelat is MinnPost’s Washington, D.C. correspondent. You can reach her at aradelat@minnpost.com or follow her on Twitter at @radelat.

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Kirsten Mitchell at WCCO News talked with Minnesota business owners taking part in “A Day Without Immigrants,” a nationwide initiative happening Monday aimed at demonstrating the vital role immigrants play in the U.S. economy and protesting recent anti-immigrant policies.

Katie Wermus at FOX 9 has some early tallies from the Minnesota State Patrol on the overnight and morning snow effect on traffic. So far, there have been 83 crashes, four injury crashes, one fatality, 21 vehicles off the road, five vehicle spinouts and one jackknifed semi.

Allison Kaplan at Twin Cities Business interviews north Minneapolis entrepreneur Houston White about Target Corp.’s rollback of some DEI initiatives.

Feven Gerezgiher at MPR News talks with trans University of Minnesota student Micah Leroy after several right-wing commentators criticized his videos on social media related to a gender-affirming operation, drawing hateful attention and leading Meta to shut down his accounts on Instagram and Facebook.

Susan Du and Jessie Van Berkel at the Star Tribune are reporting Minnesota’s rollout of one of the nation’s first Medicaid-funded programs to help people find and keep housing has been deeply flawed, according to some providers.

Via Bring Me the News: A goalie mask designed by Mdewakanton Dakota artist Cole Redhorse Taylor and worn by Minnesota Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has been purchased by the Minnesota Historical Society and is now on display at the Minnesota History Center.

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One in five Minnesota households face food insecurity.

Twenty-six percent of Minnesota households with one or more children under 18 were also food insecure. For households with at least one school-age child from 5 to 17 years old, the percentage of food insecure households jumped to 28%. The results of Second Harvest Heartland’s statewide hunger survey, conducted with help from Wilder Research, were evocative. 

Households of color – defined in the methodology as households where at least one member is  Black, Indigenous or from another community of color – were also disproportionately affected by food insecurity. Karen Spitzfaden, director of consumer insights and digital strategy at Second Harvest Heartland, noted that 40% of Minnesota households of color were food insecure compared to 20% of households overall. Fifty-two percent of Minnesota households with at least one Black member, along with 52% of American Indian and Alaska Native Indigenous households in the state, were also food insecure. 

Food insecurity is where households were unable to get enough food with or without help from the emergency food system. 

Even Minnesotans who were food secure based on survey data have concerns about affordability. Allison O’Toole, chief executive officer of Second Harvest Heartland, said 30% of all Minnesotans are “worried they won’t be able to afford food in the next year.” For households of color in Minnesota, that number is 47%.

“People are living paycheck to paycheck. Grocery prices are about 30% higher than they were in 2019. The same goes for energy prices; the cost of rent (and the cost of) childcare. When you put all those (together), it’s a confluence of events,” added O’Toole. 

Though she noted that federal and philanthropic assistance helped her organization provide Minnesotans with food during the height of the pandemic, food insecurity went back up after those supports sunsetted. By the end of 2023 the Food Group, which tracks visits to food shelves in Minnesota, had recorded around 7.5 million visits according to O’Toole. 

“I’ve heard now that it is 9 million or more (visits in) 2024,” said O’Toole. “What that tells me is the status quo isn’t working.”

In response to the survey, Second Harvest Heartland gathered 300-400 partner organizations at its first Make Hunger History summit on Jan. 31 – an opportunity to promote collaborative solutions. Though Second Harvest Heartland’s mission to get 90% of Minnesota households to food security by 2030 was announced last year, more recent uncertainty around federal funding was a topic of discussion. 

In the midst of federal uncertainty, Gov. Tim Walz emphasized the state’s resilience and willingness to tackle the problem of hunger, noting that Minnesota’s “superpower” is how Minnesotans act collaboratively, building ecosystems of support between federal and state governments, local nonprofits and faith-based organizations. 

“I’ve been using a phrase I heard somewhere, ‘Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare,’” said Walz. “I think we possess both of those in Minnesota. We are enthusiastic, but we will not back off.”

Speakers on a panel at the event on the topic of food as medicine also voiced concerns around federal funding. Lisa Lane, chief external affairs officer of Open Arms of Minnesota, which sends nutritionist tailored meals to critically and chronically ill people, said her organization receives federal funding through the Ryan White CARE Act and the Older Americans Act. As this funding may be in jeopardy, Open Arms is looking to philanthropy to help fill in the gap. 

Abby Gold and Terese Hill work for the University of Minnesota and Fairview Health Services, respectively and receive federal funding from the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program. One part of this funding allows the organizations to participate in produce programs, where health systems work with farmers to provide freshly grown produce to patients. This service isn’t just about providing food to people who are ill, but about preventing illness. 

“Yes, we want funding for food for people (who) need it,” said Hill. “But also there’s a whole amount of work around prevention and how we can keep people well, rather than treating the illness.” 

“One of the reasons we’re talking about food as medicine is because we have to frame it (that way) so that we get those resources from a medical system that sucks up so much of the oxygen,” added Dr. Nathan Chomilo, medical director of Minnesota’s Medicaid and MinnesotaCare programs. “This is a decision we’ve made as a country. It’s a decision that’s rooted in our health care system being founded in capitalism. There is no real reason that we shouldn’t have created a system where everyone doesn’t need to worry about food.”

Deanna Pistono

Deanna Pistono is MinnPost’s Race & Health Equity fellow. Follow her on Twitter @deannapistono or email her at dpistono@minnpost.com.

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A 7-0 St. Paul City Council vote on Jan. 22 made the capital city the last of Minnesota’s 25 largest municipalities to add administrative citations — non-criminal fines — to the city’s toolbelt for ordinance enforcement. 

Before the amendment, the city could either issue a warning and hope for compliance or take someone to court — there was no in between. Administrative citations serve as an enforcement middle ground, allowing the city to enforce a civil fine rather than seek a criminal charge. 

Administrative citations are not the most exciting conversation starter — for most people, at least. This is not the case for St. Paul City Council President Mitra Jalali, who has been working to achieve this charter amendment for over five years. 

“This is an example of a very unappealing issue that has a very important everyday impact,” said Jalali, who recently announced her resignation from the council, effective Feb. 5. 

Council members have attempted to make this amendment at least two times in the past. One of these times was in 2021, in the early years of Jalali’s tenure. The attempt to make this change to the charter in 2021 did not move forward because there was a single council member opposed to the idea, Jalali said. 

“I’m frankly relieved that our council was the one that accomplished this. I don’t think another council could have gotten it done,” Jalali said. 

In order to make a change to the St. Paul city charter, a unanimous vote is required. That’s partly why it has taken multiple attempts to make this change. 

How can administrative citations be used? 

One of the clearest examples of how administrative citations can be used to enforce current city policy is providing renter protections. 

“Administrative citations provide a tool to hold the biggest, most disconnected property owners and employers in our city accountable to the rules and laws of our city,” Jalali said. 

For example, a council-approved citation could be used to enforce the city’s “advanced notice of sales” policy. This policy required landlords to pay relocation assistance to  displaced renters in the event a rental property is sold.

Administrative citations can also be used to enforce policy around earned sick and safe time. If an employer isn’t granting this time, which they are required to do by law, the city can now implement a fine that does not rise to the level of criminal citation but goes beyond education or a warning. It could also be used to enforce the city’s conversion therapy ban, which Jalali said is imperative in keeping the city’s LGBTQ youth safe and healthy. 

These are only a few examples of how these citations can be used, Jalali noted. The goal is not to penalize individual residents of the city, but rather large corporate entities and large property owners who are out of compliance with city policy and ordinances, she said. 

Creating an equitable citations framework  

The addition of this tool to the city charter does not mean citations will be issued immediately. The council still has to approve cases in which these fines will be used. 

In addition to the charter change, the council passed a resolution to create a temporary advisory committee that will spend the next year designing an “equitable” framework for implementation and enforcement of citations.

The resolution to create the advisory committee was brought forward by council member Anika Bowie, who said in an email that, when misused, administrative citations can “function as a hidden tax” on low-income and Black communities. 

The committee will establish transparency measures, impact assessments and accountability mechanisms. The intent is not to have citations used as revenue for the city’s general operations, but rather for priorities like housing stability, tenant protections and public safety, Bowie said. 

Bowie is from the historic Rondo neighborhood and said she has seen how parking tickets and city fees can trap people in cycles of debt while those who ignore city policies face no real consequences. 

“Too often, enforcement in our city is either too weak to be effective or too harsh in ways that disproportionately impact Black and low-income communities,” she said.  

Why there’s opposition 

There is still a chance the amendment could be challenged and put to a vote in November. Former council candidate Peter Butler has said he is working on collecting 2,000 voter signatures to attempt to freeze the charter amendment and place the amendment on the ballot in November. Butler has 60 days to submit these signatures. 

Bowie said many concerns around the use of this kind of city ticketing are based on examples of misuse in other cities.

One of the most infamous cases of this is in Ferguson, Missouri. The city relies heavily on fines and fees to generate revenue. In 2015, a U.S. Department of Justice investigation revealed the city was bringing in over $2.6 million annually, accounting for nearly a quarter of its general fund budget. Black residents were disproportionately targeted, receiving 85% of vehicle stops, 90% of citations, and 93% of arrests, despite making up only 67% of the population.

“That’s exactly what we must prevent in St. Paul,” Bowie said. “I share the concern that administrative citations could be misused, which is why this committee is critical. We are designing a system with safeguards to ensure that fines are used for compliance, not as a revenue stream.”

A changing council 

The charter amendment passed three days before Jalali announced she would be stepping down from the council to prioritize her mental and physical health. 

Jalali said she’s proud of many accomplishments during her tenure, including the citations charter change. 

“It feels like a great point of pride for me that I was able to work with my colleagues and the charter commission and our administration to get this done,” Jalali said. “It was not an individual person’s effort by design, and I felt a tremendous sense of responsibility to deliver this charter change.”

Jalali has served on the council since 2018 and was sworn in as president of the first all-female City Council last January. She was the first Iranian American elected official in Minnesota and the first Asian American woman and first openly LGBTQ+ member of the council.

In the letter announcing her departure from office, Jalali said: “Rarely, if ever, are women of color in leadership positions allowed to show the impact on their health of the constant stressors of public leadership. I am following the leadership of Simone Biles and taking a step back, because continuing through injury is unsafe in the short term and unsustainable for the long haul. It is important for me to live out the truth that powerful women of color do have limits, are not superhuman and will not break themselves in the name of the work continuing.”

This week, the council elected Ward 2 member Rebecca Noecker to serve as the body’s new president.

Winter Keefer

Winter Keefer is MinnPost’s Metro reporter. Follow her on Twitter or email her at wkeefer@minnpost.com.

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Back when Katy Armendariz, founder of Roots Wellness Center, was earning a master’s degree in social work, she nearly worked herself into the ground in order to complete her degree program’s unpaid field internship requirement.

“I did two nine-month unpaid internships — and I also worked three jobs,” Armendariz said. “It was a lot, to say the least.” 

Field internships, or time spent working directly with patients in a clinic or agency under supervision, is a key requirement in all masters in social work training programs (MSW) in Minnesota. To earn an MSW, schools require students to complete a minimum of 500 hours a year in an internship, an experience considered essential in the training of future mental health professionals.  

For MSW students with adequate resources, this requirement may not feel burdensome, but it can present a roadblock for those who are BIPOC, first-generation or low-income students. This complication partially explains why Minnesota has so few licensed mental health professionals of color. 

Armendariz, who built her clinic with the goal of creating a welcoming space where Black and brown people could seek mental health support from professionals with shared life experiences, wants to do whatever she can to support BIPOC graduate students through the process of earning their degrees. 

Her own experience — of having to work multiple jobs to support herself through graduate school — was tough. “I don’t want other people to have to work like I did just so they can complete their schooling,” she said. Too often, the daunting financial reality of having to complete an unpaid internship causes less financially-secure graduate students to drop out or delay completing their degree.  

Some social work internship programs — usually those offered by larger employers — offer funding to support students. But many programs, especially those at smaller agencies like Roots, do not. A few years ago, Armendariz was excited to learn about Minnesota’s Cultural and Ethnic Minority Infrastructure Grant (CEMIG), a program that provides funding to help recruit more BIPOC providers to work in health and substance-use disorder care. 

“The state Legislature approved this funding,” Armendariz explained. “The goal is to increase the ability of Black and brown trainees to become mental health professionals and clinical supervisors.” 

As soon as word got out about CEMIG, Armendariz applied for a grant to help fund potential interns and intern supervisors at Roots Wellness. Her first few applications to the state weren’t approved, but she kept at it.  

Rounding up money to pay BIPOC interns and supervisors is “something that’s been on my mind for a very long time,” Armendariz said. “I’m always looking for funding to help attract and retain interns.” This year, Armendariz applied for a CEMIG grant again. “I told myself, ‘We’re in a great position to apply,’” she said. Armendariz’ confidence turned out to be justified: “We finally got the grant,” she said. 

Paving the way for future therapists

Roots’ CEMIG grant — approximately $200,000 a year for three years — will go a long way to support Armendariz’ goal of helping to expand the number of Black and brown mental health professionals in her practice — and in the state.

“We are able to do a number of things with this grant,” she said. “We can offer diagnostic assessment and therapy services to people who don’t have insurance so that’s not a barrier. We can also pay $1,000 per month for BIPOC interns — with clinical supervision toward licensure provided by a BIPOC clinical supervisor.” 

Another potential roadblock for MSW candidates are the fees associated with state board exams. Roots’ CEMIG grant money will be used to subsidize those costs. “It’s a great equalizer,” Armendariz said of the grant. 

While the CEMIG money is only enough to sponsor four interns (“If we want to add another intern,” Armendariz said, “we would have to take from the uninsured grant pot or from the licensure pot”), it is an important start: “It will go a long way to making it possible for students to complete their MSWs. And it will help create a new crop of BIPOC therapists and clinical supervisors.” 

Programs like the CEMIG grant are key to supporting the education of today’s social work students, said Sharyn DeZelar, St. Catherine University MSW program director and assistant professor of social work. Compared to college students of the past, who usually had the time and resources needed to devote to a full-time education, DeZelar said the “profile of today’s college student is much more someone who needs to work, who has caregiving responsibilities and, with the rising costs of a college education, has many more barriers to completing their degree.” 

Add to that the complications baked into being  a student of color or someone who comes from a lower-income or first-generation college background, and, DeZelar continued, “the financial strain is just compounded.” The CEMIG grant gives clinics like Roots the opportunity to support students through internship placements so they don’t have to work full time while they are completing their degree. “They can really focus on their studies and get the most out of it. They can have a much more engaged experience because their basic needs are being met,” she said.

DeZelar said that St. Catherine has placed several of their MSW students in internships at Roots. The internship requirement of a social work degree has presented a roadblock to some of her students; knowing that Roots will now have funding to support interns is good news. 

“Having these grants can be a big attraction,” DeZelar said. “There are a lot of people who would like to do this kind of mental health work but they think, ‘I don’t have in my capacity to do all this free labor.’ Now, if they know they are going to get a stipend or a supplement, maybe they will feel they can go to grad school. It will attract a more diverse pool of students.”

Eli Wood, St. Catherine MSW field director, said that being able to pay interns will help Roots attract students who otherwise may feel like they have to select paid internship positions at larger agencies. He said that many of his program’s students agree with Roots’ mission and would like to support it, but because of their own financial situation, they may make their final decision based on the available funding. 

“A lot of our students tend to prioritize placements that are paid,” Wood said. “My concern is that if students are just focused on getting paid for the placement, they may pick one that doesn’t actually align with the work they want to engage with in their careers.” Because CEMIG funding can free up space and time that otherwise would have to be occupied by an extra job, he added, “These grants help students say, ‘I can now really prioritize my learning.’” 

Student social work interns are actually an important part of Minnesota’s mental health workforce, DeZelar said. Just like medical interns or residents, social work interns treat patients and provide important feedback and insight to their colleagues. It doesn’t seem fair to her that their work so often goes unpaid. 

“[Interns] should be paid because they are providing services,” DeZelar said. Because a lack of funding makes it harder for students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds to complete this degree requirement, she explained. “It’s a social justice issue,” she said. “In the medical field we pay resident doctors. So why in the mental health field are we expecting all this free labor from our students?”

The importance of shared experience

Diversifying Minnesota’s mental health workforce is essential to providing high-quality care for the state’s increasingly diverse population, Armendariz said. Being able to work with a mental health professional who looks like you or whose life mirrors your own makes seeking mental health care feel less intimidating. Schools and mental health care organizations like her own should do whatever they can to level the playing field, so that more people of color will be able to enter the profession.

“Research shows that people prefer working with someone they believe represents them and their experiences with systemic oppression,” Armendariz said. “Representation matters.” On the training end, it also matters that BIPOC student interns are able to work with clinical supervisors who understand their unique point of view or way of interacting with the world: “Too often, there are clinical supervisors who have a Black or brown intern who may say something like, ‘Are you sure?’ or ‘That seems overly sensitive.’ We need to work with people who get us.” 

For BIPOC patients, the feeling of somehow being on the outside of a white, American ideal can feel particularly disheartening, Armendariz said. During this particular moment in history, mental health care is essential to working through feelings of displacement, anger or fear. 

“These political times are incredibly scary,” she said. “We have culturally responsive therapists. People don’t always have access to that.” 

DeZelar said she and her colleagues at St. Catherine understand the importance of diversifying the mental health workforce. “There is a big call to get more BIPOC folks into the field so that the providers look more like the people they are serving and have that lived experience,” she said. “That’s what Roots and Katy are all about. It’s also what we’re about. That’s why we as a program like to partner with them.” 

The CEMIG grant is another feather in the cap for Armendariz and Roots. The organization has seen steady growth in the number of patients it serves and the providers it employs. Since its founding in 2013, Roots has expanded its offering to include culturally specific chemical health services, and, in January, it officially moved into its new headquarters, the former Keystone Community Services building at 1916 University Avenue W. in St. Paul. 

“It’s super exciting,” Armendariz said of the  move. “We closed on the building in December 2023 and spent a year getting ready.” Her vision is to one day turn the building into a community hub focused on Black and brown wellness.

Armendariz said she wants the new space to feel welcoming and safe, an island of mental wellness in what can sometimes feel like a rocky sea. “I would like this to be a place of help, where people can come and say, ‘I need help. I don’t know where to start,’” she said. “I want this to be the place where they know that help is there.”

Andy Steiner

Andy Steiner is a Twin Cities-based writer and editor. Before becoming a full-time freelancer, she worked as senior editor at Utne Reader and editor of the Minnesota Women’s Press. Email her at asteiner@minnpost.com.

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