Oh deer! A St. Louis Park officer rescued a fawn from a window well. WATCH: https://fluence-media.co/4l8EHJA
More than a month after the Camp House Fire, signs of life are returning. SEE: https://fluence-media.co/4eg2jKc
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COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS TO CELEBRATE: Flint Hills Resources and its employees are proud of the company they keep, including many community partners that help make Minnesota a better place to live and learn. Not only is the Pine Bend refinery celebrating 70 years, many of the company’s long-time partnerships have milestones in 2025 — 25 years of the Flint Hills Family Festival in partnership with the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, 25 years with Friends of the Mississippi River to restore critical habitat, 30 years with the Minnesota Zoo, and 40 years with Ducks Unlimited. WATCH: https://fluence-media.co/3ZfDkjY (SPONSORED: Flint Hills Resources)
All Fluence tipsheets are now available to read and share online at our website, The Daily Agenda:
SERVICE DOGS: Via KMSP-TV, VERBATIM: “As a veteran who suffers from PTSD, Aric Elsner's constant companion Minnie helped bring him back from the brink. ‘She is super chill and I need that. She gets me back out doing the things I need to do as a dad as a father,’ said Elsner. But he says the service dog he's had for the last nine years wouldn't have been the perfect match if it weren't for Melissa Hortman and her family. ‘Honestly, I have thought of the Hortmans every day since I've had Minnie because of this gift that I got,’ said Elsner. The backstory: Helping Paws says the Hortmans began volunteering with the nonprofit in 2014, when their daughter signed up to train a service dog named Minnie.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/43P9CVu
MORE: From Helping Paws via Facebook, VERBATIM: “She was a Helping Paws Foster Home Trainer, a neighbor, and a friend. The Hortman family raised and trained Minnie, who is now a working service dog partnered with a Veteran. They also helped raise and train Gilbert, a service dog in training who was eventually career changed and became a cherished member of their family.” POST: https://fluence-media.co/3TqxjNQ
TWINS CAMP: Via CCX Media, VERBATIM: “Young baseball fans got a chance to play ball with the professionals in Brooklyn Park Friday morning at the Twins Fantasy Camp. The event is a free camp for kids with disabilities. Sixty of them signed up to learn the basics of baseball and softball, with accommodations made for anyone who needed them.” QUOTE: “I truly believe that recreation is a right, not a privilege,” said Erin Bonikowske, Brooklyn Park’s adaptive recreation specialist. “Everyone deserves the opportunity to recreate with their peers in an inclusive environment.” WATCH: https://fluence-media.co/45s715g
ARTISTS: Via MPR, VERBATIM: “Artists from across the Upper Midwest are gathered this week in Fergus Falls, Minn., for the 3rd annual Rural Futures Summit. The event is hosted by [Springboard for the Arts], a nonprofit based in both St. Paul and Fergus Falls. The summit has featured celebrations, arts and culture workshops and story circles at different venues around town, including the Kaddatz Galleries and the Spies Riverfront Park pavilion overlooking the Otter Tail River. ‘We started this program because rural artists are doing really critical work in their communities, and it can be a really isolating role to have,” says Michele Anderson, the rural director for Springboard.’” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3ZxZAWn
SATURDAY: Via CCX Media, VERBATIM: “For the first time, Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center are partnering to celebrate Juneteenth. It will be an event for all ages, offering a resource fair, food, family activities and music. It’s scheduled for a few days after the holiday, on Saturday, June 21 at North Hennepin Community College. Cindy Hill, a member of the committee that planned the event, said it will be a great partnership that showcases and celebrates the community’s diversity.” WATCH: https://fluence-media.co/44iUtMf
MORE: Via KTTC-TV, VERBATIM: “As many in the community prepare to celebrate Juneteenth, a Minnesota historian is telling the story of a man buried in Rochester who is connected to the origins of the historic day. Karen Sieber is a Minnesota social justice historian and educator who has been working to build a database of black freedom seekers through museum studies, historic preservation, and oral and digital history.” WATCH: https://fluence-media.co/4kNIvQK
QUIET: Via MplsStPaul, VERBATIM: “Last October, Questlove, the polymath drummer for The Roots, bandleader for The Tonight Show, and Oscar-winning documentarian, flew to Minneapolis for two film projects he describes as ‘Prince heavy.’ He explains that in order to get a response from ‘The Park,’ as he refers to the Prince estate’s HQ, oftentimes it’s best just to show up in person. While in town, he figured he could also cross two purple side quests off his list: an Airbnb stay at the Purple Rain house and a visit to Orfield Laboratories, home of the certified quietest place on earth.” QUOTE: “My chief of staff reminded me,” he says, “‘Hey, that silent room that you keep reading about is up there too—should I pencil that in?’” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3G0nX8m
HAIR ART: Via MPR, VERBATIM: “Karen Keenan is on a mission to revive the centuries-old art of making jewelry from human hair. But first she needs to overcome the ick factor.” QUOTE: “I have gotten anything from ‘Oh, that’s disgusting,’ to ‘Oh, that’s creepy,’ to ‘Yuck,’” Keenan said when she pitches people on the history of hair art. “And then they say, ‘Huh.’ You can almost see the change happening in them. And then they say, ‘This is very interesting.’” LISTEN: https://fluence-media.co/3SWPwm1
FRESH15: The latest season of Fresh15 includes interviews with new Minnesota House members. So far, five new members have shared their goals, background and fun facts before they take office in a historic session this January.
Rep. Kari Rehrauer
Rep. Wayne Johnson
Rep. Julie Greene
Rep. Keith Allen
Rep. Peter Johnson
Follow on your favorite podcast platform, or at www.TheDailyAgenda.com/Podcasts. (SPONSORED: Minnesota Telecom Alliance)
VETERAN: Via CCX Media, VERBATIM: “A World War II veteran in Plymouth has lived a colorful life. Much of that life is documented in photographs. At Rick and Janet Peterson’s longtime home, Rick looks over photos from his time in the Navy. One, a picture of the ship he worked on to transport marines at Iwo Jima . . . Rick earned a Purple Heart after he was shot, losing his foot . . . He’s 100 years old now, and has a prosthetic foot. He’s had that for many years. But you could never guess his age — or that he wears a prosthetic foot — just by looking at him. His service, while important, is a small part of his story.” WATCH: https://fluence-media.co/3TqvLDv
REFUGEES: Via Sahan Journal, VERBATIM: “Fifty years after she fled Laos as a child, Pam Thao still remembers the percussion of bombs exploding, the shock of a man dropping dead before her, the warmth of blood on her feet as she ran home to her village through the dark. Every year on the Fourth of July, the pop of firecrackers brings back those harrowing moments. Thao is among the thousands of Hmong who arrived in the United States as refugees in the 1970s following the ‘Secret War,’ a CIA-back military operation to prevent the spread of communism from North Vietnam to neighboring Laos.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3G2XaIB
ST CLOUD: Via WJON-Radio, VERBATIM: “After months of planning and fundraising, a new indie music cafe is opening this month in downtown St. Cloud. B-Side is the permanent home of Project 37, a branch of the non-profit Independent Music Collaborative of Central Minnesota. Their goal is to provide a safe and sober space for all ages to enjoy and perform live music.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3SVaeTd
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