News

Warren Buffett wants the United States to knock off its trade war.

"Trade should not be a weapon," the billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO said on Saturday morning, at his annual shareholder meeting in Omaha.

The United States "should be looking to trade with the rest of the world. We should do what we do best, and they should do what they do best," Buffett told the crowd of thousands in a downtown arena, who broke out into applause.

Buffett did not mention President Trump, whose sweeping new tariffs have ignited a global trade war, roiled financial markets, and sounded wide-ranging alarms about a recession.

But his rebuke of Trump's policies answered one of Wall Street's biggest questions of this weekend: Would Buffett weigh in on the trade war and its massive disruptions? Many of those attending this "Woodstock for Capitalists," which draws tens of thousands of people from around the world, told NPR they were waiting for Buffett to speak out on the tariffs.

Buffett, 94, also closed the event with major news, announcing that he would be stepping down as CEO at the end of the year, in favor of his long-designated successor, Greg Abel. He received a prolonged standing ovation from the audience in Omaha's CHI Health Center.

"The enthusiasm from that response can be interpreted in two ways," he quipped as he left the stage.

The Berkshire Hathaway CEO has been largely silent on trade this spring, as some of his peers have cautiously started criticizing the tariffs' impact on the global economy — and their businesses.

Buffett "has got to be frustrated by what's going on in Washington, for no other reason than it has injected a degree of uncertainty into his business," says Cathy Seifert, an analyst who covers Berkshire for CFRA Research.

Now many of the largest U.S. companies are cutting or withdrawing their financial forecasts for this year, citing the tariffs.

Berkshire added to the warnings on Saturday morning, as it reported a sharp drop in quarterly profit from a year earlier. The company said it can't currently predict the tariffs' impact on its vast array of businesses and investments, but "it is reasonably possible there could be adverse consequences."

Buffett uses his bully pulpit to advocate for America

At age 94, Buffett wields a tremendous amount of power on Wall Street and beyond.

He bought Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, when it was a struggling textile mill. Sixty years later, it's one of the largest companies in the world, operating businesses ranging from insurance and railroads to Dairy Queen and Duracell batteries. It's also a powerful investor in other companies, owning shares in Coca-Cola, Apple, American Express, and other big businesses.

"Because of its breadth and its depth … it really is sort of a microcosm for the broader economy," Seifert says.

The Omaha-born Buffett is famously folksy and tends to wrap himself in the American flag, regularly praising both his country and its systems. "The luckiest day in the world is the day I was born. I was born in the United States," he said on Saturday.

So he framed his opposition to tariffs, in part, as a matter of national security for the U.S. and its citizens.

"The more prosperous the rest of the world becomes … the more prosperous we'll become, and the safer we'll feel and your children will feel someday," he said, to more applause.

Buffett turns rote corporate event into "Woodstock for Capitalists"

Buffett spoke for more than four hours on Saturday, in a decades-old tradition that's unlike any other investor meeting in corporate America.

Most of these events are tedious, rote, and often virtual. But Berkshire and its CEO have turned its annual meeting into a party weekend in Omaha.

In person, the feeling is part fan convention, part quasi-religious revival, and part pop-up outlet mall. Buffett said that on Friday, almost 20,000 people visited the CHI Health Center's exhibit hall, full of displays — and shops — devoted to Berkshire-owned brands.

Many emerged with bulging shopping bags full of See's Candies, Fruit of the Loom underwear, and plush "Squishmallow" toys modeled after Buffett and his late business partner, Charlie Munger.

Finance bros in vests crowded past young families with strollers, foreign travelers taking selfies with gigantic Berkshire signs, and retirees who told an NPR reporter they've owned Berkshire shares for decades.

"I told my kids: Do not sell it," said Lorenzo Alaan, a retired physician who traveled to Omaha from The Villages, Florida.

"You sell your house, your jewelry, don't sell Berkshire," he added. "It's for your children and grandchildren."

Copyright 2025, NPR

---

---

More than 15,000 nurses are currently engaged in ongoing contract negotiations with several hospitals in the Twin Cities and Duluth, with some contracts set to expire in a few weeks.

At a press conference on Thursday, the Minnesota Nurses Association, along with nurses and union leaders, expressed concerns over hospitals operating with unsafe staffing levels. They said the situation is pushing nurses to leave the profession and compromising patient care.

The union's proposed three-year contract requests that hospitals prioritize nurses' physical and mental health and improve staffing levels to ensure better patient care and safer workplaces.

Nurses are advocating for fixed nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, arguing that when nurses are assigned to fewer patients, they can focus on the best care possible. They say lower patient-to-nurse assignments reduce the length of hospital stays and are associated with fewer deaths.

Union president Chris Rubesch works at Essentia Health in Duluth. Throughout his 10-year career as a registered nurse, he has seen a steady decline in resources and staffing levels.

“We believe nurses need to have the ultimate say on what is safe for the patients they are treating,” Rubesch said.

A 2002 study found that in hospitals with high patient-to-nurse ratios, each additional patient assigned to a nurse was associated with a 7 percent increase in the likelihood of patient death within 30 days of admission. And each additional patient per nurse was associated with a 23 percent increase in nurse burnout.

Studies show inadequate staffing levels pose safety concerns for nurses. Katelyn Warren, a nurse with two years of experience, works at Allina Health’s United Hospital in St. Paul. She said that the assaults and violence she experiences as an RN have taken a toll.

“My nervous system is in survival mode every day, leaving me little space for purpose, joy, creativity, or for that inner spark that made me want to be a nurse in the first place,” Warren said.

During a recent work shift, Warren was kneed in the head by a patient. The incident could have been prevented with proper training, safety interventions and adequate staffing, which her employer denied, she said.

“Nurses don't leave because they stop caring,” said Jayme Wicklund, a nurse at St. Paul’s Children’s Hospital. “We leave because we're being asked to deliver safe care in unsafe conditions and that's not sustainable.”

Anthony Matt, a spokesperson for Duluth-based Essentia Health, said in a statement that Essentia “remains committed to reaching a fair agreement that prioritizes the safety of our patients and staff.”

“The health system has offered the Minnesota Nurses Association 54 dates to bargain, and they have agreed to eight of those dates. In discussions with the MNA, we have continued to emphasize the need for patient-focused, flexible staffing approaches over rigid ratios,” Matt said.

Aspirus St. Luke’s, a regional health care system based in Duluth, said creating staffing plans is a shared responsibility between nurses and the hospital. Nurses can vote on the plans implemented in their unit.

Allina Health said it takes significant precautions to ensure the safety and well-being of their staff and they provide care for those who need it.

The Minnesota Nurses Association is requesting an 18 percent pay increase for nurses in the Twin Cities over the next three years. In response, HealthPartners' Methodist Hospital and North Memorial have proposed a 6 percent raise. Wage proposals in Duluth have not yet been exchanged.

During the last negotiations in 2022, nurses worked off-contract for nearly six months and went on strike for three days before finally reaching a deal at the end of that year.

Negotiation talks will continue through spring, with contracts in the Twin Cities expiring this month and in Duluth at the end of June.

---

---

President Trump has repeatedly promised to "make America affordable again." But for those Americans most in need, his administration's latest budget plan would dramatically shrink the federal rental aid that helps keep millions of people housed.

In its request for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the White House called the current system of federal rental assistance "dysfunctional" and proposed essentially ending Section 8 and other housing voucher programs. Its plan calls for cutting rental aid by about 40 percent and sending that money to states "to design their own rental assistance programs based on their unique needs and preferences."

It would also impose a two-year cap on rental assistance for able-bodied adults, which it said would ensure an even bigger share of federal subsidies went to the elderly and disabled.

The budget does include $25 million in housing grants for young people aging out of foster care.

In a statement, HUD Secretary Scott Turner called the budget request "bold" for reimagining aid programs that have become "too bloated and bureaucratic to efficiently function."

The proposal comes as nearly half of all renters are considered cost-burdened and as homelessness is at a record high. Advocates say that if millions of poor people barely making ends meet were to suddenly see their rental aid shrink — or even end altogether — it would tip many over the edge.

"We would see, I think, homelessness escalate in a way that has been really unprecedented, and unheard of," said Kim Johnson, policy manager with the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Already, federal rental aid falls far short of need. It's available for only about a quarter of all people eligible for it. "Cutting that really feels like cutting into bone," said Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

The president's budget is only a suggestion, since Congress holds authority over spending and will create its own budget. But lawmakers are under pressure to find deep savings to enact Trump's larger agenda, which includes sweeping tax cuts.

Some congressional Republicans have already targeted healthcare and food aid for next year's budget, but "I don't think Congress has the appetite to enact cuts to the housing programs," says Kevin Corinth, with the conservative American Enterprise Institute. He sees the White House getting a kind of "free pass" to propose more ambitious HUD cuts that likely will not actually happen.

States would get more control over how HUD aid is spent — and more responsibility

While the White House budget blueprint would significantly shrink federal rental aid that helps millions of people, it said states could choose to pitch in with their own funding to make sure the same number of people are covered.

The plan does give states more flexibility on how they can use that smaller pool of money, by sending it in the form of block grants. Welfare funding works this way. Over time, however, many states have diverted much, if not most, of that money to things other than cash aid for poor families.

Housing advocates noted all this would be disruptive not only for tenants, but also for the millions of landlords who receive federal rental aid.

Another part of Trump's budget calls for shrinking HUD funding for homelessness by 12 percent and putting a two-year cap on people's eligibility for aid. It also proposes a fundamental shift in how homelessness funding is allocated that would bypass thousands of local nonprofits and give the money directly to states.

"That is very concerning to us," said homelessness advocate Oliva. "Homelessness is a very local issue. It happens in people's neighborhoods, it happens on city blocks and in city streets."

Oliva said states simply don't have the infrastructure or expertise to ensure homelessness funding can go to where it's most effective.

This change would also upend decades of federal policy by moving money away from permanent housing and toward shelters and shorter-term housing.

The impact of HUD cuts would ripple across local communities

Local advocates said the fallout from HUD cuts would affect much more than housing. "We're talking about a massive impact across communities," said Jessica Kubicki with the Housing Collective in Connecticut.

For example, people who may no longer be able to afford health insurance would be more likely to seek care in emergency rooms. The need for food aid would increase. And children in school could suffer if their parents were forced to leave their housing and squeeze in with family or friends.

"Because you've got maybe three kids sleeping in the same room, in the same bed," Kubicki said. "They're not sleeping well. They're not doing well educationally. They don't have food."

The cuts would also come on top of another impending loss of HUD funding. In 2021, as part of the COVID-era American Rescue Plan Act, the Biden administration funded 70,000 emergency housing vouchers for people without housing or at risk of losing it, and for those fleeing domestic violence.

That money was supposed to last until 2030. But it's running out faster than expected because of how much rents have spiked in recent years. HUD has told local housing authorities to prepare for emergency voucher funding to end next year — and possibly sooner.

In Connecticut, Kubicki is hoping the state can pick up that extra funding to give emergency voucher holders more time. But deep cuts to HUD's broader budget would make that even more difficult.

"This is not fixing anything," she said. "This is making everything so much worse."

The case for making housing aid less generous

While Corinth of AEI does not believe Congress will slash HUD's budget, he does think it's worth asking whether federal housing programs are fair. "It makes sense to get people aid when they need it," he said, "but we don't necessarily want them to stay on it forever."

Many people receive housing subsidies for well over a decade. "If the median or fair market rent is around, say, $4,000 for a family in San Francisco, your income can get really high and you're still going to be getting those subsidies," he said.

Corinth also said when there's such a severe housing shortage like now, federal subsidies can goose the market and push up prices for everyone. He'd prefer to help people through other benefits, like tax credits.

Another way he thinks rental aid is not fair: There's not nearly enough to help most people who are eligible for it. "So I think it's very reasonable to say we should lower amounts, or have some kind of time limits," he said, "to kind of share around the resources to others." Corinth suggested a five year time limit.

Housing Secretary Turner has said the agency's ultimate goal is to "get people off subsidies and live a life of self-sustainability." On a recent trip to Arkansas, where the prospect of federal budget cuts came up, he said HUD's job is to "maximize the budget that we do have."

Layers of cuts could be ‘destabilizing’ for the broader housing economy

Beyond rental aid cuts, the White House budget for HUD would eliminate a program that creates more affordable housing, and another that funds nonprofits to enforce fair housing laws.

Also on the chopping block: community development grants that cities can spend on everything from childcare services to home repair for seniors. The White House said that money has been used for things the federal government should not fund, like a concert plaza and skateboard parks.

Johnson, with the low-income housing coalition, said shrinking HUD funding could undermine the Trump administration's pledge to build affordable housing on federal lands. "How are you going to build affordable housing if you're also cutting the programs that make those deals pencil out for developers?" she said.

Advocates worry that HUD funding for disaster recovery could also be disrupted.

"In my own experience, folks who can get out of a disaster shelter on their own do so," said Oliva, with the homelessness alliance. But those who were already precariously housed or who have disabling conditions, she said, "without additional support, they will end up in the homeless services system."

The White House proposal to shrink HUD's antipoverty programs doesn't come in a vacuum. The administration has already pushed out thousands of agency employees and signaled more staff cuts to come. It's canceled contracts that support low-income housing, and targeted housing and community development programs at other agencies.

In a recent report on those moves, even before the White House's budget proposal came out, the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders warned of far-reaching consequences.

"These disruptions would ripple through the broader economy, reducing construction activity, limiting job creation, and potentially destabilizing housing finance markets that depend on the certainty and liquidity provided by federal programs," the report said.

Copyright 2025, NPR

---

---

After spending weeks applying to dozens of jobs, Ruby Coty felt hopeless.

She’s used to nailing interviews, mostly for $15 to $18 an hour service jobs. But she’s always waiting for the other shoe to drop — her background check coming back red.

“I was gonna give up,” said Coty. “I had seen the email that Allied Security had denied me and I was just crying, tears flowing.”

Other than minor traffic violations and a few petty misdemeanors like loitering and riding public transit without paying, Coty has one more serious conviction: a felony aggravated robbery charge.

She pled it down to felony theft and it was then reduced to a misdemeanor conviction when she completed probation in March 2020. Coty said she committed the crimes when she was homeless or financially unstable, and pleaded guilty when she wished she fought in court.

But it always came down to not having money or time.

“It's been so long. I am not that person,” said Coty. “You're digging in my past for what reason? This is 2025, get out my past. Don't continue to hinder me.”

While she was scrolling on her phone for ways to get around her criminal record, she stumbled across Minnesota’s new criminal expungement law. The 2023 Clean Slate Act automatically seals criminal records of low-level offenses, with the hope of giving an estimated 500,000 Minnesotans a “fresh start” with accessing jobs and housing.

“I said, is this God speaking to me? I'm still crying, but it's a joyful cry now,” said Coty.

BCA aims for late June to have first round of criminal records sealed

Coty is one of the 500,000 in Minnesota who are waiting for their records to be sealed. Under the law, certain petty misdemeanors, misdemeanors, gross misdemeanors and felonies are eligible for automatic expungement. The case must have been resolved at least two to five years ago, depending on the crime. Most violent convictions are not eligible for sealing.

The law went into effect on Jan. 1 but has been delayed because of technical issues with processing millions of records dating back almost 100 years.

“The last thing we want to do is seal a record that should be available for a variety of things to get sealed erroneously,” said Drew Evans, superintendent at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

“And so that's why we've been doing that, and that's what's led to the delay. But we are working through that now with a new approach.”

The new approach, which includes hand review of eligible records, has allowed the BCA to start sending criminal records to courts as of April 21. Courts will have 60 days to review and dispute any records. The agency is aiming for June 20 to have the first records sealed.

In total, the agency estimates 2 million records are eligible for automatic expungement. Expungement means criminal records can’t be accessed by the public, but they are not erased completely. 

Most employers and landlords will not be able to see a sealed record, but it could still be viewed by law enforcement agencies and opened as part of a Department of Human Services background check for certain jobs or licenses.

“So when I go on to the judicial branch website and conduct a search on somebody, an expunged record would not show up for me — a random person looking at the publicly available database,” said Lucy Chin, a lawyer with The Legal Revolution.

Chin says if someone with an expunged record is suspected of a crime in the future, a judge can order for the record to be reopened, she added.

Records are still maintained by state agencies and are only sealed in Minnesota, meaning agencies outside of the state are able to access and request expunged records.

Life still on hold for Minnesotans waiting for records to be expunged

In the meantime, the six-month delay has real consequences for people like Coty, who constantly get denied employment. She just got a new job at Domino’s, but is on the search for a second job.

“My goal is to get my record clean, cleared, sealed and expunged, so I can be able to leave Domino's to get a better position where I will be in a better position to be able to provide for my food trailer,” she said.

Her dream is to start her own food truck business, selling soul food. But it’s a dream that is out of reach on $15- to $18-an-hour jobs.

“I'm going to work this job. I'm not going to stop. I'm going to work this job and do what I have to do to make ends meet, but I'm still going to be looking for something better,” she said.

For others, having a criminal record is getting in the way of pursuing a better career. Morgan Pogatchnik is the single mother of four kids in Oakdale, and her primary job is caring for her disabled son, Koreon, who is 14 years old. 

Koreon is diagnosed with epilepsy and a brain injury that hinders his ability to speak and move on his own.

“The best way to describe it is he's equivalent to a newborn in his development skills and what he can do for himself. So he needs all cares to be provided by someone else, but overall, he's happy and he's comfortable. And that's my main concern, is to just keep him happy,” she said.

His medical condition resulted from medical negligence when he was born in 2010. Pogatchnik started going to Minneapolis Community and Technical College to become a pharmacy technician, hoping it could help her take better care of her son.

But she was also struggling with anxiety and trauma from his birth and used cannabis to cope. Shortly after Pogatchnik graduated MCTC in 2013, she was caught using cannabis and was charged with a felony drug possession. 

The drug charge, which was reduced to a misdemeanor after she completed a diversion program, is the only crime on her record apart from minor traffic violations. Still, Pogatchnik says that has hindered her. 

She can’t pass a background check to get a job as a pharmacy tech or to get into nursing school.

“Originally I wanted to do pharmacy technician, and that completely took away the option for me with that being on my record. The nursing has affected majorly because I want those — well, I need that education to better care for my son. So that's important to me,” she said.

Because of her record, Pogatchnik says she also had to go through additional hoops to secure medical treatment and funding through the state to care for her son.

“It’s kind of triggering to be told that – not to say you’re not good enough – but because you have this on your record, we need to know more. And we need to look deeper into you as a person to give your own child care,” said Pogatchnik.

She plans to pursue nursing again after her record is sealed.

Most people won’t know their records are sealed

The vast majority of Minnesotans who are eligible for expungement don’t know it, according to community organizers. The law as it’s written does not require the BCA to notify Minnesotans that their records are being sealed.

That’s created more work for nonprofits like T.O.N.E. U.P., which helps Minnesotans coming out of the justice system. Founder Antonio Williams advocated for the Clean Slate Act when it was being proposed, but has been disappointed by the delayed rollout.

“It's lazy legislation,” said Williams. “It’s lazy implementation. These are things that should have been thought out as this bill was being put together.”

For the past several months, Williams’ nonprofit has been doing outreach on the Clean Slate Act to fill the gap in education for those who could benefit from expungement. But it’s been a challenge.

“The hard part is getting people to know exactly what their case is because people haven't really learned how to collect their stuff. You have some who are very into their own thing, but then you have a lot of people too who are like, I don't even know what statute this is,” he said.

He’s also working against the stigma around having a criminal history. Williams says it’s time consuming to figure out what crimes are eligible for expungement, when the law is mostly clear about what isn’t eligible.

If Minnesotans want to learn if they’ll have their record sealed, lawyers like Chin recommend checking online records to see what’s publicly available and compare it to the list of crimes under the Clean Slate Act that can’t be sealed.

Here are two places people can use to search their records:

• The Minnesota Court Records Online website

• Minnesota BCA online database

“Checking your records is free,” said Chin. “I recommend looking yourself up and knowing because that is the only way you'll know if you have records that are eligible to benefit from the Clean Slate Act.”

The BCA also says Minnesotans can submit a request for copies of their criminal record to check if their records have been sealed.

Correction (May 2, 2025): An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated whether the Department of Human Services can consider expunged criminal records when doing background checks. It has been updated.

---

---