Minnesota
Hitch a ride on a birding road trip from Minnesota to Texas
Birds blow by on a screen of snow: larks, robins, blackbirds, all moving north against us as Minnesota falls behind. A dark hawk slides behind trees in northern Iowa. A turkey tiptoes out of a woods. It is mid-March, and my friend Mike and I are going to Texas to look at birds. We first detour into southeastern Iowa to find Eurasian tree sparrows.
My guidebooks show the Eurasians next to house sparrows. There is an apparent cousinly relationship that doesn’t look true in Burlington. The house sparrows look unwashed, tree sparrows bright and clean, crisply colored, obviously different at a distance.
Seriously on our way to Texas now, we follow the western shore of the Mississippi River, passing 20,000 canvasbacks on the water south of Fort Madison, Iowa, ducks as far as you can see up stream or down. We drive into the depths of Missouri, cross a state line, ricochet off suburban Memphis, cut diagonally into Arkansas.
We have driven, I am certain, for days through Missouri and now weeks across Arkansas. It seems endless. All the mobile homes begin to look alike. There are no birds.
At 6 a.m. the next day we are on the road again, in rain. We need three hours of driving to get to Jones State Forest across the Texas line, where we hope to find red-cockaded woodpeckers.
The road is lined with barbecue joints, most of them small, some no larger than a comfortable ice-fishing house. Many are in mobile homes. One is in the middle of a huge junkyard. Fronting an auto-repair business is a stained sign: “Mechanic on Duty. Spot Welding. Hot Lunches.” We drive on.
The woodpeckers are just where they are supposed to be in the state forest, working quietly in the midst of a colony area, the nesting trees all marked with vivid green paint, thank you very much. There are pileated, red-bellied and downy woodpeckers, too, with pine and prairie warblers, titmice and cardinals. The pines are tall, the brush beneath them thick, perfect for the white-eyed vireos that call and call in the morning rain.
The next day we are in Galveston, on Boddeker Avenue, along the outer beach in a serious downpour. We are looking for the kelp gull that has been seen here for two winters. There are thousands of black skimmers, laughing gulls, shorebirds, white and brown pelicans, rails, herons, egrets, terns, but no kelp gull. Offshore, ships glide in the rain, far away, each towing a cloud of gulls. Now we know where the target gull is.
We check into the Marine Motel. Our room smells of seawater and body fluids. It has sheltered too many spring breaks. The sink is plugged, coated with something black. A man comes to fix it, forcing a long wire into the drain, then violently pushing and pulling.
Mike leans into the room to see what is happening. I watch bits of black goo fly over his head. Some sticks to the bathroom wall. Mike says he will get us another room. The new room has a flowing drain but doesn’t smell any better.
We leave Galveston the next morning, taking the ferry to Bolivar Flats, where we find a huge flock of American avocets. They loaf and feed on tidal debris along the beach.
Many birds are sleeping, thousands of heads beneath thousands of wings. If we come too close, hidden eyes see us and the nerves of the flock flicker.
At midafternoon, the tide shifts. The water begins to move toward our shoes. Suddenly, the avocets are a marching army of feeders, wide awake, rank and file sweeping parallel to the beach line, heads swinging, bills splashing. You can hear them cut the water. Occasionally a bird captures a large morsel and stops to manipulate a gulp, then skips back into step.
High Island is next, up the shore, a plain little town famous for its Audubon refuge, heaven for birders at the height of spring migration. We are early. There are no birds. We tour the town, see an alligator in a small pond, then drive away.
At Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, several hundred white Ibis idle in a wetland. While we watch them, hundreds of white-faced Ibis fly over. Seaside sparrows sing.
There were blue buntings the next day at the photo blind near the campground where we spent the night. We peek at them through the narrow camera ports, Mike and me and a third birder, three of us in the blind trying not to elbow each other.
Mike and I drive on to Salineño to see friends who winter there, 100 yards from a landing on the Rio Grande. They tell us of frequent gunfire at night along the shore as drug runners beach their boats. How do you tell the good guys from the bad guys in the dark? The federals, they say, shoot tracer bullets.
At Falcon Dam the river is filled with shorebirds. Caspian and royal terns squat on sandbars. Across the river, in Mexico, seven kettles of black and turkey vultures float in the late afternoon sky, details bleached from the picture by the sun. We split our last bottle of beer.
In Surfside on the west end of Galveston Island we find a motel, the Sand Castle. We rent a room. Mike tosses his bag on one of the beds. A large bug runs from beneath the pillow. This insect is one mutation away from nursing its young, but after much searching we decide it is a loner, and go to sleep.
Next morning, water from the bathroom faucet is brackish. The coffee at the convenience store we find several blocks away is brackish, too, salty coffee for 59 cents.
Ten minutes east, we stop for coffee refills. A pleasant woman who sells fishing bait and gas pours for us. Mike tells her we spent the night at a strange motel in Surfside. “Oh,” she says, “the Sand Castle.”
We drive on. At the K-2 Steakhouse we have a wonderful prime-rib dinner. Earlier that day we had read aloud a review of a book about prions, proteins that collect in your brain and give it the airy structure of a sponge, something like mad cow disease. There is a suspected beef relationship. It is not what you should be reading in Texas.
On our way out of the state we visit Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, filled with migrating sparrows, eight species in an hour on a cold, windy day when the birds hold tight to cover.
It also is home to dozens of oil-well workers and their debris. There is some kind of deal with the devil here, wells dotting refuge landscape, rusty pipes and fast-food wrappers the most commonly seen species.
And then we drive home.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Gas prices are climbing again in the Twin Cities, with experts warning drivers to brace for more increases if oil prices keep rising.
Twin Cities gas prices see sharp increase
What we know:
According to GasBuddy’s survey of 1,106 stations, the average price for regular gasoline in the Twin Cities jumped 10.9 cents per gallon in the last week, now sitting at $4.18 per gallon. That’s 38.6 cents higher than a month ago, and $1.28 more than this time last year.
The national average price for gasoline also rose, hitting $4.48 per gallon after a 5.1-cent increase over the past week. Diesel prices are up too, with the national average at $5.62 per gallon, a 0.2-cent increase.
The cheapest gas in the Twin Cities was $3.70 per gallon Sunday, while the most expensive was $4.63 — a difference of 93 cents per gallon. Across Minnesota, prices ranged from $3.70 to $5.01 per gallon.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said, “Average gasoline prices declined in just six states over the last week, led by the Great Lakes region, where motorists in states like Michigan and Ohio saw prices fall sharply, while Indiana experienced even steeper relief after the state temporarily waived both its excise and use taxes on gasoline.”
GasBuddy’s data shows that while some states saw relief, most drivers are paying more at the pump.
Gas prices in neighboring states
By the numbers:
Gas prices in neighboring states and cities are also fluctuating. Wisconsin drivers are paying $4.37 per gallon, almost unchanged from last week. Sioux Falls saw a significant jump, with prices rising 17.3 cents to $4.13 per gallon. Minnesota’s statewide average is now $4.16, up 11.1 cents from last week.
Looking at the last five years, Twin Cities prices have varied: $2.90 per gallon in May 2025, $3.25 in 2024, $3.47 in 2023, $4.11 in 2022 and $2.76 in 2021. GasBuddy compiles these numbers from more than 11 million weekly price reports across over 150,000 gas stations nationwide.
How much more you’re paying at the pump
Dig deeper:
In the scenario that your vehicle has a 15-gallon tank that you fill up about every 10 days, here is a look at how much more it’s costing you in May versus April, and in 2026 versus last year.
Now: At an average price of $4.18/gallon at three times per month at $62.70 per trip, that comes out to $188.10
One month ago: An average price of $3.79/gallon at $56.85 per trip, that’s $170.55 per month.
One year ago: An average price of $2.90/gallon at $43.50 per trip, that’s $130.50 per month.
Drivers face more uncertainty ahead
What’s next:
De Haan said, “Those declines helped pull the national average lower by roughly eight cents over the last several days after oil prices eased mid-week on optimism that the U.S. and Iran could reach a deal. However, that optimism has since largely unraveled, with talks appearing to stall and President Trump signaling the latest proposal is unacceptable, helping push oil prices higher again in Sunday electronic trade.”
He warned that if oil prices continue to climb, the national average could approach $4.65 per gallon. Ongoing refinery issues are also affecting diesel production, especially in the Great Lakes region, where prices are nearing record highs.
Should geopolitical tensions escalate further, fuel prices could rise even more sharply in the weeks ahead, De Haan said. Many drivers are watching prices closely and hoping for relief, but experts say the outlook remains uncertain for now.
What we don’t know:
It’s unclear how long prices will continue to rise or when drivers might see relief at the pump. Future changes will depend on oil markets, refinery operations and global events.
The Source: This story uses information from GasBuddy.
Cori Roberts of St. Cloud, Minnesota, incurred more than $8,000 in medical bills after she was diagnosed at CentraCare with early-stage cervical cancer. She says the health system told her she made too much — about $41,000 a year — to qualify for financial aid.
Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune
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Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune
ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Cori Roberts was living in a rented basement four years ago when she was diagnosed with early-stage cervical cancer.
Recently divorced, the former stay-at-home mother had returned to work in her mid-40s, taking a human resources job that paid $41,000 a year. Then, despite having insurance, she was hit with more than $8,000 in medical bills.
“I had my car and a basket of clothes,” Roberts recalled. “Medical bills were not something I could have afforded.”
Roberts sought financial assistance from CentraCare, the St. Cloud-based health system that treated her. It’s a nonprofit charity that receives millions of dollars in federal, state, and local tax breaks. In exchange, it’s obliged to offer charity care to patients who can’t afford their medical bills.
But Roberts said CentraCare told her she made too much to qualify.
Roberts instead scrimped on groceries and Christmas gifts for her kids and paid off more than $6,000 over two years. Then CentraCare sued her last year because she hadn’t paid off all the debt.
“They’re supposed to be a nonprofit,” Roberts said. “It’s like, ‘Come on!’”
This story was a collaboration between KFF Health News and the Minnesota Star Tribune.
A sliver of financial aid
CentraCare earmarks just a tiny fraction of its budget for helping patients with medical bills they can’t pay, but it’s not alone in that, a Minnesota Star Tribune-KFF Health News investigation found.
Minnesota’s hospitals and health systems are among the least charitable in the country, the investigation found, providing less financial aid as a percentage of their operating budgets on average than hospitals in almost every other state.
The investigation drew on a detailed review of every hospital charity care program in the state, an analysis of five years of hospital financial data, and dozens of interviews with patients, hospital executives and state officials.
Nationally, hospitals spend an average of about 2.4% of their operating budgets on charity care, according to federal hospital data compiled by Hossein Zare, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University. Minnesota hospitals spend about a third of that, on average.
CentraCare’s flagship hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota, earmarks only a fraction of its budget for helping patients who can’t pay their medical bills.
Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune
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Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune
Some spend considerably less. Of Minnesota’s 123 general hospitals, 62 devoted less than 0.5% of their operating budgets to charity care from 2020 through 2024, the Star Tribune-KFF Health News investigation found.
“The system is not working,” said Erin Hartung, director of legal services at Cancer Legal Care, a Minnesota nonprofit that helps patients with medical debt and other financial challenges. “And the burden is falling hardest on the people who are least able to bear it.”
CentraCare’s flagship St. Cloud Hospital spent less than 0.25% on charity care, according to the analysis. That works out to $25 in patient aid for every $10,000 spent on hospital operations.
A growing burden
Charity care will become even more vital in coming years as Americans lose health coverage or can’t afford rising copays and deductibles. The nation’s uninsured rate has been ticking up and is expected to increase further as budget cuts pushed by President Trump force states to pare back Medicaid and other safety net programs.
Nationwide, healthcare debt — much of it from hospitals — burdens an estimated 100 million people. And charity care, which was historically aimed at the uninsured, is now critical to many people with health insurance who can’t afford their bills.
Hospital officials say it’s unfair to expect them to solve this affordability problem when many of their facilities are financially strained. “No amount of charity care from hospitals will ever fully meet the needs of uninsured or underinsured Minnesotans. The need is simply too great,” Minnesota Hospital Association spokesperson Tim Nelson said in a statement.
But Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said hospitals have a duty to increase charitable help for all needy patients in exchange for the tax breaks they receive.
“There is a benefit you get from being a nonprofit hospital in the state of Minnesota,” he said. “But do the people get the benefit?”
Several factors help explain why Minnesota hospitals provide so little financial aid. For one, job-based insurance and an expanded Medicaid program offer broad coverage. Hospitals in states with less government assistance and more uninsured people typically spend more on charity care.
Eligibility standards vary
But patients also face significant barriers accessing financial aid at many hospitals, including inconsistent eligibility standards and extensive applications, the Star Tribune-KFF Health News investigation found.
To qualify at many hospitals, patients must submit detailed personal information, including bank statements, retirement accounts, mortgage documents and estimates of other assets such as cars, homes or livestock.
Cori Roberts, who was sued by her healthcare provider after she was unable to make full payments for her treatment, thumbs through copies of her payment records at her home in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune
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Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune
And because Minnesota has not standardized the criteria for charity care, patients might receive aid at one hospital but not another. The investigation found that some hospitals give free care to patients with an annual household income of $47,000, while others cap it at about $15,000.
There are similar variations in charity care standards at hospitals nationwide, KFF Health News and other researchers have found. A recent analysis by the nonprofit Lown Institute found that one hospital in Boston set the limit for free care at less than half the level as another hospital just a few block away.
In Minnesota, had Roberts driven 30 miles east or 35 miles north, she would have found medical providers with more generous financial aid policies than CentraCare. But she didn’t know to look.
Roberts, now 49, has remarried and lives in a split-level home in St. Cloud decorated with inspirational plaques such as “Faith, Family, Friends.” CentraCare recently dropped the lawsuit against her, but only after she took out a loan against her retirement plan to pay off the medical debt. “It just feels very unfair,” she said.
CentraCare spokesperson Karna Fronden said medical privacy laws prevented her from discussing Roberts’ case. She also declined interview requests about the health system’s charity care spending.
In a statement, Fronden said CentraCare provides assistance in addition to charity care, such as helping enroll patients in insurance. “This helps provide broader, longer-term protection for patients,” she said.
Other hospital leaders said they serve their communities in ways besides forgiving medical bills, including training doctors and nurses and preserving money-losing services such as obstetrics and mental health care.
Hospitals in rural communities specifically also play an important role as employers, said Robert Pastor, chief executive of Rainy Lake Medical Center in International Falls, Minn.
“We are the second- or third-largest employer in town, running on razor-thin margins while navigating escalating labor and supply costs and routine underpayment by public programs,” Pastor said. “Meanwhile, many health insurers post billions in profits.”
“Rural hospitals like ours are often portrayed as though we are sitting on piles of cash and simply choosing not to spend it on charity care. That is far from the reality,” he said.
Hospital executives say they have a responsibility to ensure that limited resources for charity care go to patients who need them, said Travis Olsen, chief executive of Hendricks Community Hospital, near the South Dakota border.
Burdensome application process
To determine eligibility, some Minnesota hospitals consider only income, the Star Tribune-KFF Health News investigation found. But most demand information about patients’ bank accounts as well. More than two-thirds require even more information, including the value of retirement accounts, life insurance policies, property and vehicles.
In addition to copies of tax returns, W-2 forms, pay stubs and bank statements, Hendricks asks aid applicants 53 questions about their finances. These include questions about the make, model and value of vehicles; the current market value of farm equipment, livestock and land; and the purchase price and square footage of homes.
Other hospital applications ask patients to detail their monthly spending on food, utilities and other medical bills.
All these questions discourage patients from seeking assistance, said Jared Walker, founder of Dollar For, a nonprofit that helps people apply for charity care.
“The drop-off rates are much higher the more questions you ask and the more documentation you have to provide,” he said.
By contrast, most hospitals make it very easy for patients to click a button on the hospital website to pay their bills, Walker said. “Hospitals have optimized to get payment,” he said. “If you want to get on a payment plan, if you want to get on a credit card, it’s so easy.”
Back in St. Cloud, Roberts said that when she drives past CentraCare’s $200 million expansion at its Plaza campus in St. Cloud, she wonders why Minnesota hospitals don’t live up to higher standards.
“They have all the money,” she said. “But they can’t grant a good person some grace?”
This story was produced by KFF Health News and the Minnesota Star Tribune.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF.
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