Minnesota
Our View: How can Minnesota still be so unprepared?
We certainly saw this coming. For years and even decades, the professionals who care for aging Minnesotans have been hollering and waving proverbial red flags about the rapidly graying baby-boomer generation; how it could overwhelm assisted-living facilities, nursing homes, and other senior-care services; and how there just won’t be enough space or workers to care for everyone. In just the last decade, the population of Americans over 65 has ballooned by a third. And in Minnesota, by 2030, a fourth of the state is predicted to be older than 65, the age when long-term care is more likely a necessity.
Knowing all this, Minnesota is ready, right, after heeding the many, many calls for action? Right?
Hardly. Instead, 12,500 caregiving positions statewide are currently vacant, and while experts determined 27,000 additional nursing-home beds would be needed by 2045 to meet the coming demand, one in three beds have disappeared since 2000. Since the pandemic, especially, nursing homes and other senior-care facilities, rather than expanding, have been closing off wings, shutting down floors, or going out of business entirely, due to a lack of public and health-insurance funding and a dearth of workers willing to care for the elderly at wages clearly not competitive enough.
“At a time where we should be ramping up services for seniors (and) access to services, we’re actually seeing the access to senior care decline,” Kari Thurlow, president and CEO of
LeadingAge Minnesota
, an advocacy nonprofit in Minneapolis, said in an exclusive interview last week with the News Tribune Editorial Board. “Especialy in rural communities (like so much of Northeastern Minnesota), it is very difficult to staff nursing homes. Then it becomes a cycle. If you’re not able to admit residents even when they need it, you’re not able to generate revenue to sustain the operations. That leads to further financial fragility. …
“It’s heartbreaking and quite frankly shouldn’t be the way that we should be treating our seniors,” Thurlow additionally said.
Her organization and the Bloomington nonprofit
Care Providers of Minnesota
together make up the
Long-Term Care Imperative
, a collaborative advocating for seniors and senior care, especially at the state Capitol in St. Paul — where there’s lots of overdue work to be done this session.
Minnesota’s elected state representatives and state senators are uniquely positioned to address the coming crisis. They’re the ones who set the rates nursing homes and other care facilities charge both Medicaid and private-paying patients. And those rates are what determine caregivers’ salaries and benefits, the services residents receive, and the number of residents served by each facility.
“But lawmakers are apathetic,” Care Providers of Minnesota charges on its prepared materials. “Despite public support, the Legislature has chosen not to invest in long-term care.”
In 2023, the Legislature did allocate $300 million to struggling facilities. However, it was one-time funding, not a long-term solution, and it has since ended. Also, new mandates from the Legislature have heaped nearly $200 million in additional costs on already struggling facilities, specifically $20 million for time and a half pay for 11 holidays for care-facility workers and $175 million for minimum-wage increases. And Gov. Tim Walz’s budget proposal this year would cut $700 million from those same facilities.
“(With the) mandates, plus the governor’s cuts, you’re going to see financial conditions worsen and you’re going to see an increased lack of access,” Care Providers of Minnesota CEO Toby Pearson said in the interview with the Editorial Board. “And it’s going to hit in rural Minnesota first, because that’s where we have more of an aging population.”
To be sure, without legislative action this session, Minnesotans can expect even more wings, floors, and entire facilities to close — all with that boom of aging baby boomers about to be in need of care in those facilities.
One pair of bipartisan measures
in the House
and
in the Senate
would modify elderly waiver rates and nursing facility reimbursement rates. Another pair of companion bills in the
House
and
Senate
would make necessary changes to Minnesota’s Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board. Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar is a co-author of the House version of each. The Republican from Fredenberg Township, whose district includes a bit of Duluth, is a former senior-care operator and long-time advocate for the industry and the residents it serves.
Even just the introduction of legislation is reason for optimism, according to Pearson and Thurlow. But it needs to be followed by overdue action.
“We feel like the committees are listening to us,” Thurlow said. “Obviously, it’s a great thing when it’s bipartisan.”
“We have been at the table at the Legislature saying we need more money to pay workers’ wages and benefits,” said Pearson. “They have repeatedly said no. … It’s frustrating on two levels. On one level, for a long time we were trying to get people’s attention (about the coming crisis), and now it’s hard because people have heard it so much it’s hard for them to hear the actual urgency.”
That urgency isn’t new. Neither is Minnesota’s long-time lack of meaningful action in response. That demands to end. This legislative session. Now.
“Our View” editorials in the News Tribune are the opinion of the newspaper as determined by its Editorial Board. Current board members are Publisher Neal Ronquist, Editorial Page Editor Chuck Frederick, and Employee Representative Kris Vereecken.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Temperatures dropped into the negative Saturday, with the coldest temperatures in the morning.
How cold it got in Minnesota Saturday
By the numbers:
Here is how cold the temperatures got in Minnesota:
- Hinckley: -20 degrees
- Bemidji: -20 degrees
- Ely: -18 degrees
- Brainerd: -18 degrees
- Detroit Lakes: -18 degrees
- Hibbing: -17 degrees
- International Falls: -17 degrees
- Duluth: -16 degrees
- Alexandria: -12 degrees
- St. Cloud: -12 degrees
- Cambridge: -11 degrees
- Grand Marais: -10 degrees
- Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport: -6 degrees
- Red Wing: -6 degrees
- Morris: -6 degrees
- Hutchinson: -5 degrees
- Rochester: -5 degrees
- Mankato: -3 degrees
- Windom: 0 degrees
- Marshall: 0 degrees
Here are the lowest wind chills across Minnesota from Saturday:
- Bemidji: -37 degrees
- Ely: -35 degrees
- Duluth: -34 degrees
- Brainerd: -32 degrees
- Detroit Lakes: -32 degrees
- Hibbing: -31 degrees
- Alexandria: -29 degrees
- Hinckley: -27 degrees
- Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport: -24 degrees
- St. Cloud: -24 degrees
- Willmar: -22 degrees
- Cambridge-21 degrees
- Grand Marais: -21 degrees
- Hutchinson: -21 deegres
- Morris: -20 degrees
- Faribault: -18 degrees
- Mankato: -18 degrees
- Marshall: -17 degrees
- Red Wing: -16 degrees
- Owatonna: -16 degrees
- Windom-12 degrees
Cold continues Sunday
What’s next:
The Twin Cities are under a cold weather advisory that is expected to last through Sunday morning, so residents should prepare for frigid conditions if they have plans to be outdoors.
Sunday will be slightly less frigid with temperatures climbing above zero. However, it will still feel like 10 below zero in the afternoon.
Milder and warmer temperatures are expected to return for the work week.
Minnesota
Minnesota Wild acquires NHL star Quinn Hughes from Vancouver Canucks in a blockbuster trade
The Minnesota Wild made an all-in move for one of the NHL’s best players in his prime, acquiring defenseman Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks in a blockbuster trade — their boldest action yet toward ending a decade-long skid of playoff series defeats.
The teams announced the seismic move on Friday night, after the 2024 Norris Trophy winner as the league’s top defenseman had been the most talked-about trade candidate over the past couple of weeks. Minnesota sent center Marco Rossi, defenseman Zeev Buium, winger Liam Ohgren and a first-round pick in the 2026 draft to suddenly rebuilding Vancouver to complete the deal.
The trade was the second major swap of the day, after two-time Stanley Cup Final runner-up Edmonton finally made a move for a goaltender, acquiring Tristan Jarry from Pittsburgh.
Rossi (24), Ohgren (21) and Buium (20) fit the mold of the young talent the Canucks were speculated to be targeting if they were going to trade Hughes. Rossi (2020), Ohgren (2022) and Buium (2024) were all recent first-round draft picks by the Wild.
“Quinn played hard, led by example and did a lot of very good things for the Canucks,” Vancouver general manager Patrik Allvin said. “Trading away a player of this caliber is never an easy decision to make, but it was one we had to do to make our team better. We are so excited to add a solid centre in Marco, a good young blueliner in Zeev and a versatile forward in Liam. This year’s draft is a strong one, so acquiring a first-round pick was also a big part of this deal.”
Hughes had no trade-blocking protection in his current deal that pays him an average of $7.85 million annually. Hughes, who is 26 and widely considered the best at player on the blue line behind only Colorado’s Cale Makar, is signed through the 2026-27 season before he can become an unrestricted free agent.
The Wild will not be allowed to extend Hughes until July 1, and it’s unclear if he would consider signing a new contract with them. There has been plenty of buzz around the league that Quinn wants to play with his brothers, Jack and Luke, with the New Jersey Devils.
They could potentially be teammates on the U.S. Olympic team, either in February in Milan or in 2030. Wild general manager Bill Guerin runs USA Hockey’s management team.
The long-term outlook for Hughes can wait until next summer, though. The Wild are focused on challenging the two top teams ahead of them in the loaded Central Division, rivals that happen to also have the top two records in the NHL: Colorado and Dallas.
The season-long celebration of the franchise’s 25th anniversary would be a lot more meaningful if the Wild can finally advance in the playoffs, having lost nine straight series after a first-round victory over St. Louis in 2015. The Wild have passed the second round just once in their entire existence, when they were swept in the Western Conference finals by Anaheim in 2003.
Hughes is a significant upgrade to Minnesota’s blue line, anchored by captain and 16-year veteran Jared Spurgeon, smooth-skating 14-year veteran Jonas Brodin and young stalwart Brock Faber. The emergence of rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt this season has given the Wild a reliable tandem with Filip Gustavsson in the net, with star winger Kirill Kaprizov leading the attack after recently signing the richest contract in hockey history to stay in the “State of Hockey” through 2034.
After a rough start, the Wild are 14-3-2 since Nov. 1. They host Ottawa on Saturday and Boston on Sunday night, with the latter game likely the more realistic one for Hughes to debut.
Hughes had two goals, 21 assists and 32 blocked shots in 23 games this season with the last-in-the-NHL Canucks. When he won the Norris Trophy two seasons ago, Hughes had 17 goals and 75 assists, both single-season franchise records for defensemen and the most among all blue liners in the league. Drafted seventh overall in 2018 out of Michigan, the native of Orlando, Florida, spent time growing up in the Boston and Toronto areas while his father, a hockey coach, moved around.
This was Hughes’ third season as Vancouver’s captain, and his abrupt exit paves the way for more change 11 months since the trade of J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers and in the aftermath of coach Rick Tocchet’s departure.
“With the circumstances surrounding J.T. and now Quinn, we are fortunate to acquire these very good young players from Minnesota,” Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said. “They will be a key part of the rebuild that we are currently in, giving us a bright future moving forward. The hockey club will continue to build with talented young players using that as a blueprint to become a contender sooner rather than later.”
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