Minnesota businesses brace for an increase in the state’s minimum wage. Then, WTIP reports on a new population – of turtles – living in northeast Minnesota. And, a Twin Cities high school student gets national recognition.
—–Executive Producer: Victor Palomino Producer: Victor Palomino Anchor: Chantel SinGsReader scripting: Victor Palomino Fact checking: Joel Glaser, Victor Palomino Editorial support: Emily Krumberger Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood
Transcript
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HOST: This is North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live. Today in Minnesota…
ANCHOR: …Businesses brace for an increase in the state's minimum wage. Then, WTIP reports on a new population living in northeast Minnesota. And, a Twin Cities high school student gets national recognition.
I'm Chantel SinGs.
Some Minnesota businesses are preparing for an increase in the minimum wage. The increase goes into effect on January first, bringing the new rate to 11 dollars and 41 cents an hour. That's an increase of 28-cents an hour, or about 2.5 percent. Teen workers in their 90-day training period will see their minimum wage go up to $9.31 an hour. The change does not affect local ordinances that require a higher rate. Minneapolis requires a minimum of $15.97 an hour, while in St. Paul, the rate is $15 for small businesses and $15.97 for larger ones. The federal minimum wage remains unchanged at $7.25.
Next, WTIP News Director Kalli Hawkins talks about the community's efforts to preserve the landscape and a new population of turtles found living in Lake County. Here's North Star Stories Director of News Victor Palomino.
Victor Palomino: The northeast corner of Minnesota is recognized statewide for its natural beauty, fauna and flora. Recently, WTIP director Kalli Hopkins reported on a new population discovery in the area.
Kalli Hawkins: This is a research project that I've been tracking for about three years, and I spoke to some of the researchers two years ago, as they were undergoing this wood turtle research project in Lake and St Louis counties.
Victor Palomino: The researchers were looking for reasons why turtles are being killed along roads, and also for nest success.
Kalli Hawkins: And a part of that discovery, they were able to find a new population of wood turtles in Lake County,
Victor Palomino: And now they are looking to see if the species can be found in other places.
Kalli Hawkins: There are researchers, Gia Crozier that I spoke with, she's the Non-Game Wildlife Specialist with the Minnesota DNR. She said that there are not, at this time, any documented wood turtles in Cook County. But they're always accepting pictures of random, unique turtles from individuals, and so there could be a population in Cook County, but more research needs to be done.
Victor Palomino: In other news from the northeast, I asked Kalli about what is happening with the Grand Marais hillside.
Kalli Hawkins: So this topic has been one of discussion for many, many decades among our community. The question being whether to develop the hillside, which overlooks Grand Marais. But now this new focus, a new property, is the John Sheaf property, which is about 80 acres, and it would, in essence, based off of what a Cook County Judge has recently approved, that he's able to gain access to his landlocked piece of property that he bought back in 2005.
Victor Palomino: The ruling will allow for road construction through the bedrock area
Kalli Hawkins: It'll be very difficult. It'll require about a mile of a road to be built through, and— something that would potentially depend upon the path of that road—be very visible.
Victor Palomino: A community group is invested in keeping the views as they are.
Kalli Hawkins: About 15 Cook County residents, some local officials involved in there, just in a volunteer manner, have organized and mobilized to try to purchase that 80 acres from John Sheaf.
Victor Palomino: Recently, the Cook County Board of Commissioners expressed an intent to buy the land with the provision that taxpayers' money won't be used and the county is not allowed to fundraise to buy the property.
Kalli Hawkins: There's people that share both perspectives of, you know, we have minimal private land in Cook County to develop. It would improve our local tax base if this property was sold to developers or private individuals. So there's pros and cons to this, and something that our community and some of our residents are waiting right now.
Victor Palomino: To hear the full stories and all the news from the northeast, visit WTIP.org. For North Star stories, I'm Victor Palomino.
ANCHOR: You are listening to North Star Stories.
Minneapolis teen Huxley Westemeier has won a 25-thousand-dollar Davidson Fellows Scholarship for his technology project detecting Artificial Images on the web. The award is one of the nation's most prestigious honors for students 18 and younger. Huxley created a tool that detects whether an image is real or generated by Artificial Intelligence by analyzing the unique "fingerprint" of authentic photos. The software runs on almost any device without internet and accurately identifies manipulated sections of images. Huxley is a senior at St. Paul Academy and Summit School and will represent the U.S. at the 2026 Taiwan International Science Fair.
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HOST: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at ampers dot org.