Twin Cities

Slow but 'fruitful' negotiations continue in state consent decree of MPD
Officials with the city of Minneapolis say they’re making progress in negotiations with the state that could lead to a consent decree governing the Minneapolis Police Department’s policies and practices.  
Winter Play: Melting the stress of frigid cold at a Minnesota bath house
As winter cold bites deep, MPR News is celebrating the best of the season through a new series called Winter Play. Our staff across the state set out to try a new-to-them winter pastime. MPR News producer Samantha Matsumoto and reporter Simone Cazares visited Watershed Spa in northeast Minneapolis to take a much-needed break from winter. 
‘It’s really saving folks’: Meet Minnesota’s first all-trans, nonbinary hockey team
Team Trans Twin Cities is the only ice hockey team in Minnesota made up of all transgender and nonbinary players. They scrimmaged at the Xcel Energy Center Jan. 31 and talked empowerment, friendship and trans joy.
Minneapolis has increased police presence at encampment clearings
Minneapolis police and Mayor Jacob Frey say the larger police response is due to activist “attacks,” but public records show none of the activists who were arrested for trying to stop encampment evictions in recent years have been convicted of felony assault.
Seasoned Love: Theatre 55 offers a production of 'Rent' with an older cast
Theatre 55, which features cast members aged 55 and up, takes a look at Jonathan Larson’s “Rent.” The musical is set during the AIDS crisis and looks at a bohemian community in Manhattan — stories that many in the cast share and even lived.
Watch out, Minneapolis: The tow truck cometh
Minneapolis has handed out more than 2,000 tickets in the last three days and towed more than 200 vehicles off of the even sides of non-snow emergency streets, as they pick up enforcement of a winter parking ban instituted last week. 
Avivo Village shines as solution for unsheltered homelessness in Minneapolis
In 2020, the nonprofit Avivo went tent to tent at the massive encampment in Powderhorn Park to learn what it would take for residents to come indoors. From that came Avivo Village, an indoor community of 100 small units in the North Loop designed specifically for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
Is providing a portable toilet an endorsement of a homeless encampment?
Minneapolis has stopped fulfilling requests for portable toilets at encampments on city property. Some city council members say they think it’s a way for the city to skirt responsibility for its encampments.