HyLife workers' hopes, giant nutcracker, new native leaders
Tuesday will be mild with clouds rolling back in ahead of a cool front. Highs will be mainly in the 20s and 30s. Get the latest weather news on Updraft.
Coming up on Morning Edition: Gov. Tim Walz joins MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about what's in store for Minnesota in 2024. From legalizing marijuana to protecting abortion access, DFLers passed loads of new laws last year. Lawmakers now have a month to get their agenda together for the 2024 session.
Coming up at 9 a.m.: Artificial Intelligence has the potentional to transform our lives for the better, but can it be done in an ethical way? MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Elizabeth M. Adams, a distinguished global influencer in Responsible AI, about what to pay attention to and how to stay informed as AI technology rapidly changes.
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| Six months after HyLife shut down, former workers hope for ‘better life’ if plant re-opens
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It’s been about six months since the HyLife pork processing plant in Windom closed. More than 1,000 people lost their jobs. That’s about 20 percent of the southwestern Minnesota town’s population.
The closure came as Premium Iowa Pork bought the plant in June. Now, many of the former HyLife workers are hanging their hopes and futures on the plant reopening this spring.
Inside Latino Universal Grocery Store in Windom, owners Janet Hernandez and Victor Acosta wait for customers. The couple, both 24, saw business slow down within the first few months of the plant’s closing, losing much their large customer base that mostly worked at HyLife. | |
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| | Cracking the big time: A giant attraction for a nutcracker-happy town |
The city of Luverne in southwest Minnesota has a unique plan to increase tourism: a 65-foot-tall nutcracker. It will be the tallest in the world, outpacing the current Guinness World Record holder in Neusausen, Germany, by about 30 feet.
The statue is modeled from classic nutcrackers but with a patriotic red, white and blue pattern. It will also have a working jaw, though operating it might prove tricky. It might be better suited for watermelon cracking than nut cracking. | |
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| What else we're watching: |
Minnesota Farm Bureau seeks to engage urban ag producers. The bureau is hosting its first urban agriculture conference this month in St. Paul. The century old ag organization is expanding efforts to advocate for farmers of all sizes.
Dakota women leading two Twin Cities nonprofits aim to be catalysts for change. In the past, Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi and Owámniyomni Okhódayapi were predominantly overseen by white men. Today, they are being led by Native American women.
Minnesota turtles are now protected from commercial harvest. Last year, state lawmakers approved a law eliminating the commercial harvest of two species – western painted turtles and snapping turtles. It also prohibits the use of traps to catch turtles.
Vehicles restricted from parts of Upper Red Lake after another ice rescue. On Friday, 122 people had to be rescued from an ice floe on the lake. Now motorized vehicles, including snowmobiles and ATVS, are prohibited from going on the ice.
Answers have been hard to come by for the Vikings without Cousins. The Vikings need to win at Detroit next week and have losses by Green Bay, Seattle and either Tampa Bay or New Orleans to make the playoffs. O’Connell said the team will evaluate, again, who will start next week.
— Anna Haecherl, MPR News |
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