The Hibbing Community is coming together after learning that more than 600 Iron Rangers are being laid off, an epidemiologist with the Minnesota Cancer Reporting System has information on reducing your lifetime risk of melanoma, and Minnesota-born college basketball star Paige Bueckers is slated to be the number one draft pick at this year’s WNBA draft night.
Transcript
HOST: You're listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a daily newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota.
ANCHOR: Today, we hear about community members coming together after announced laid offs in Hibbing. Also, Minnesota has one of the highest melanoma rates in the nation, and a Minnesota-born college basketball star is about to really shine. I'm Gracie J.
The Hibbing community is coming together after learning that more than 600 Iron Rangers are being laid off towards the end of May. Cleveland-Cliffs recently announced it is temporary closing of two of its mining plants in northern Minnesota. When Emily and John Law, owners of Flom Designs & Photography, heard about the layoffs, they told Northern News Now TV in Duluth that they knew they had to do something. The couple is offering free senior pictures for students of families affected by the layoffs. The pictures normally cost more than five hundred dollars.
Next, Minnesota has one of the highest melanoma rates in the nation with, on average, 37 cases per 100,000 individuals. Reporter Britt Aamodt has the story.
Britt Aamodt: April, the weather is warming up, and more Minnesotans are going outside, getting more sun than they have since last September, probably. So this is as good a time as any to talk about melanoma.
Margee Brown: We know that Minnesotans have very high rates of melanoma.
Britt Aamodt: Margee Brown is a cancer epidemiologist with the Minnesota Cancer Reporting System housed within the Minnesota Department of Health. Minnesota ranks among the top five states with the highest rates of melanoma.
Margee Brown: The reasons for that are unclear. It's suggested or surmised that it may have to do with many of us are of lighter skin color, kind of Nordic heritage, and we're more susceptible to melanoma. We also are more likely to have a bad sunburn at some point in our life, maybe in part, because we aren't exposed to as much sun, you know, year round, and then it becomes warmer weather and we're out getting sun.
Britt Aamodt: This doesn't mean if you have darker skin, you can't get melanoma. According to the American Cancer Society, the lifetime risk of getting melanoma is 0.1% for Black, 0.5% for Hispanic and 3% for non-Hispanic white people. But melanoma is often detected in individuals with darker complexions later, and that can be serious. Melanoma is a type of skin cancer, the most dangerous type, because it can spread quickly to other parts of the body. And its cause is linked, in many cases, to sun exposure.
Margee Brown: There are certain occupations where people have a lot more exposure to sun, such as construction workers working outside, or farm workers. And then there are genetic components to melanoma as well. But I mean, just overall, it's mainly caused by UV exposure from the sun.
Britt Aamodt: People are always getting blemishes, insect bites, cysts, other marks on their skin. So how can you tell if what you've got on your skin could be melanoma?
Margee Brown: If you have a new mole that looks kind of large, larger than an eraser head, and if it bleeds, or if it's irregular or different colors, varying colors, those are suspicious.
Britt Aamodt: You can get melanoma anywhere on your body, even where you've never had a sunburn. Face, arms, hands, neck, back, scalp. Even on your eyeball, though that's rare. But Margee Brown says there are steps you can take to reduce your risk, in addition to not going outside at peak times of the day.
Margee Brown: Sunscreen, sunblock with a high SPF, hats, clothing that also has UV protection. And if you have any type of a suspicious mole or lesion, absolutely you should get it checked out.
Britt Aamodt: For North Star Stories, this is Britt Aamodt.
ANCHOR: You are listening to North Star Stories. Minnesota-born college basketball star Paige Bueckers is slated to be the number one draft pick at this year's WNBA league's draft night. The WNBA is the Women's National Basketball Association. Bueckers played point guard for Hopkins High School, a suburb of the Twin Cities. She went on to play for the University of Connecticut for five seasons. She garnered multiple awards, including the 2025 big east player of the year. She accomplished this after recovering from multiple injuries. The 2025 WNBA draft night takes place on April 14th. The season starts on May 16th.
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.