Thank you for eight great years!

Episode 11 of Rochester Rundown is now live. This week, Isaac dives into Thursday's Destination Medical Center Corporation board meeting, the first since Covid-19 threw the global economy into chaos. The leaders of the $5.6 billion initiative, the largest public-private partnership in Minnesota history, now must decide what DMC can and should be as staff begins to draw up the board's next five-year plan. Can DMC financially support small businesses? Is it within their limitations to do so? What will have to be sacrificed as the local government tightens its budget? The eight people at the top of the organization had some interesting things to say.

The new guidelines issued by Gov. Tim Walz on Wednesday were intended to give restaurants some relief, but it’s caused quite the opposite feeling for some. A vast number of Rochester’s restaurant owners say they can’t go on like this for much longer, and the new guidelines call to use spaces that they simply don’t have. We talked to local restaurant owners and leaders of local hospitality organizations to find out what restaurants can do to maximize the space they have, plus what the city and other organizations are planning to do to give landlocked eateries a lifeline.

For the reboot of the podcast, Isaac dives into campaigning through Covid-19: what political candidates are doing to keep the ball rolling toward November, after the pandemic threw their entire playbook out the window. We hear from local candidates and campaign managers in races from city council to Capitol Hill.