Former Star Tribune paper boxes have been converted into Save a Life Stations with free naloxone kits, seen here at the East Side Neighborhood Service

Old newspaper boxes become life-savers as Twin Cities self-serve dispensaries

Jim Barrett and Andrew Kamin-Lyndgaard of Minneapolis created Little Free Libraries for naloxone and fentanyl testing strips as part of a growing effort to expand access to the overdose-reversing medicine.

A plume of PFAS chemicals under the east metro is moving. The state has a plan to stop it.

6:00am
3M dumped PFAS sludge in the Washington County landfill for years. It's one of two sites that seeded underground chemical pollution that state officia
Preliminary plans would include a broad and complex system of wells to control the underground flow.

U.S. Steel won't get exception to pollution rules that protect wild rice, MPCA says

3:01pm
Crude ore is fed into a grinder at U.S. Steel's Keetac plant in Keewatin, Minn., in 2022. The company sought an exemption from new water pollution rul
The company had asked the state to raise limits for sulfate in Hay Lake, downstream of its Keetac taconite plant.
Nation
21 minutes ago

Kansas has a new anti-DEI law, but the governor has vetoed bills on abortion and even police dogs

Kansas' Democratic governor on Friday vetoed proposed tax breaks for anti-abortion counseling centers while allowing restrictions on college diversity initiatives approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature to become law without her signature.
Nation
4:05pm

A convicted rapist is charged with murder in the killing of a Connecticut visiting nurse

a crime that spurred calls for better safety measures for home health care workers.
Nation
3:43pm

Emergency rooms refused to treat pregnant women, leaving one to miscarry in a lobby restroom

One woman miscarried in the lobby restroom of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to check her in. Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency room couldn't offer an ultrasound. The baby later died.
Variety
1:58pm

4/20 grew from humble roots to marijuana's high holiday

Saturday marks marijuana culture's high holiday, 4/20, when college students gather — at 4:20 p.m. — in clouds of smoke on campus quads and pot shops in legal-weed states thank their customers with discounts.
Variety
1:09pm

How to get rid of NYC rats without brutality? Birth control is one idea

New York lawmakers are proposing rules to humanely drive down the population of rats and other rodents, eyeing contraception and a ban on glue traps as alternatives to poison or a slow, brutal death.
Business
12:09pm

BNSF Railway says it didn't know about asbestos that's killed hundreds in Montana town

BNSF Railway attorneys are expected to argue before jurors Friday that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of an asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program.
Sports
8:27am

French athletes at Paris Olympics will receive better mental health protection

French athletes at the Paris Olympics will be offered better protection for their mental health, with priority given to curbing online harassment and cyberbullying.
Sports
6:42am

Soldiers who lost limbs in Gaza fighting are finding healing on Israel's amputee soccer team

When Ben Binyamin was left for dead, his right leg blown off during the Hamas attack on the Tribe of Nova music festival, the Israeli professional soccer player thought he would never again play the game he loved.
World
April 19

South Korea slows plan to hike medical school admissions as doctors' strike drags on

Desperate to end a weeks-long strike by thousands of doctors, South Korea's government said Friday it will slow down a plan to admit more students to the country's medical schools from next year.
Nation
April 18

UN approves an updated cholera vaccine that could help fight a surge in cases

The World Health Organization has approved a version of a widely used cholera vaccine that could help address a surge in cases that has depleted the global vaccine stockpile and left poorer countries scrambling to contain epidemics.
Business
April 18

Nevada Supreme Court rulings hand setbacks to gun-right defenders and anti-abortion activists

Nevada's Supreme Court upheld a state ban on ghost guns Thursday, overturning a lower court's ruling that sided with a gun manufacturer's argument that the 2021 law regulating firearm components with no serial numbers was too broad and unconstitutionally vague.
Local
April 18
Trader Joe's has recalled a packaged basil product that officials say is linked to a salmonella outbreak.

Four Minnesotans catch salmonella in outbreak linked to basil sold at Trader Joe's

Officials suspect the salmonella is linked to the Infinite Herbs brand of basil, which has been removed from store shelves.
Local
April 18

Hopkins parents charged in 9-year-old daughter's asthma death

Charges say the parents ignored their daughter's health concerns and the advice of family and friends to take her to the hospital.
Business
April 18

Kentucky governor announces lottery to award initial round of medical cannabis business licenses

Kentucky will use a lottery system to award an initial round of licenses to businesses competing to participate in the state's startup medical cannabis program, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Thursday.
Nation
April 18

Legislation allowing doctor-assisted suicide narrowly clears Delaware House, heads to state Senate

A bill allowing doctor-assisted suicide in Delaware narrowly cleared the Democrat-led House on Thursday and now goes to the state Senate for consideration.
Nation
April 18

As syphilis cases among US newborns soar, doctors group advises more screening during pregnancy

With syphilis cases in U.S. newborns skyrocketing, a doctors group now recommends that all pregnant patients be screened three times for the sexually transmitted infection.
Agriculture
April 18
Cattle at the Wysocki Dairy CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) in Armenia, Wisc. in late October. ] Aaron Lavinsky • aaron.lavinsky@s

Iowa environmental groups ask EPA to step in and protect drinking water

Inspired by a successful campaign in Minnesota, the groups want the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to intervene to prevent agricultural runoff from polluting water in northeast Iowa.
Nation
April 18

A lab chief's sentencing for meningitis deaths is postponed, extending grief of victims' families

A Michigan judge on Thursday suddenly postponed the sentencing of a man at the center of a fatal meningitis outbreak that hit multiple states, dismaying people who were poised to speak about their grief 12 years after the tragedy.
Nation
April 18

Once praised, settlement to help sickened BP oil spill workers leaves most with nearly nothing

and tens of thousands of ordinary people were hired to help clean up environmental devastation from the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
Nation
April 18

Two shootings, two different responses — Maine restricts guns while Iowa arms teachers

Six months after a deadly mass shooting by an Army reservist, Maine lawmakers this week passed a wide-ranging package of new gun restrictions.

Health news

Latest news and features coverage of health care in Minnesota and elsewhere.