There’s a blood shortage in Minnesota – MinnPost

There’s a severe blood shortage in Minnesota. The “blood emergency” came after a drop in donations this summer, “brought on by vacations, school being out of session, and severe heat, which [Memorial Blood Centers] say keeps many from donating blood,” WDIO reports. If you’d like to roll up your sleeve, blood donation appointments can be scheduled on the MBC website. 

That ominous wall holding up St. Anthony Falls is back in the news, and still nobody wants to take responsibility for its repairs. The “150-year-old wall has literally kept St. Anthony Falls from disintegrating. Were it to fail, the resulting flood would be disastrous,” the Star Tribune reports. The Army Corps of Engineers released a disposition study for the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam earlier this summer, and volleyed responsibility for the cutoff wall back to the state. Officials don’t agree. “USACE cannot legally construct a navigational project and then unilaterally decide that the State has ongoing responsibility for that project,” wrote DNR Assistant Commissioner Jess Richards.

A grain elevator caught fire in northwestern Minnesota Friday, prompting an evacuation order that has since been lifted. Investigators determined a lightning strike to be the likeliest culprit, Bring Me the News reports. A boil water advisory is still in effect in parts of Norman County.

White Earth Nation’s Bison Program welcomed its first calf Thursday, which is a bit ahead of schedule; program coordinators were not expecting a calf until spring 2026. “Wildlife doesn’t follow a script. This bison calf was born, it didn’t follow a script either,” Jack Heisler, bison foreman of the program, told MPR News. White Earth’s efforts to restore bison to Anishinaabe lands are part of the InterTribal Buffalo Council, “a partnership of over 80 tribes aiming to restore bison herds to tribal lands for cultural and spiritual enhancement and preservation.”

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