Digitization made possible by the State of Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, approved by voters in 2008.
October 22, 1986 - Charles Atkins, commissioner of welfare for the state of Massachusetts, speaking at Itasca Seminar held in northern Minnesota. The seminar’s topic was "Self Sufficiency: Is It Possible?", and Atkin’s addressed his state's efforts to place welfare recipients into jobs. After speech, Atkins answered audience questions. Mr. Atkins has developed a program in Massachusetts to move women off the welfare rolls and into jobs. 25,000 women have become employed through the Education and Training Choices program since 1983. Prior to becoming welfare commissioner, Mr. Atkins served as deputy commissioner of the addiction services agency in New York City during the early '70s. In that position, he created a program to find employment for ex-drug addicts. In 1973 and '74, he was manager of employment operations for Citibank in New York, where he found other employment within the organization for low-level employees whose jobs had been eliminated by automation. When he was in Boston's Employment and Economic Policy administration, he succeeded in obtaining a 23-million-dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to reduce youth unemployment in Boston.
October 28, 1986 - Tony Bouza, Minneapolis police chief, discusses various police matters. Topics include challenges in terminating officers, his views on civil service, privatization, rise in crime, and age/fitness of officers. Bouza also answers listener questions.
November 5, 1986 - Mitch Snyder, homeless advocate, speaking at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth and sponsored by the College's Center for the Study of Peace and Justice. Snyder’s address was titled, “The Hungry and Homeless in America." Snyder is a member of the Washington D.C. based community for creative non-violence, which provides food, shelter and other help for about two thousand Washingtonians each day. Snyder has received attention for several acts of civil disobedience on behalf of homeless people and he is perhaps best known for his highly publicized fifty-one day fast in 1984. That fast reportedly helped convince President Reagan to release almost one million dollars in funds to begin converting an unused, federally owned building into a one thousand bed shelter for the homeless.
November 5, 1986 - Election recap program, highlighting the results of the Minnesota legislative races. The big news of election was the DFL taking control of the State House of Representatives.
November 21, 1986 - Dr. Gerold Yonas, former chief scientist at the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, speaking at Minnesota Meeting. Yona’s address was on the topic "SDI: Prospects and Challenges." Minnesota Meeting is a non-profit corporation which hosts a wide range of public speakers. It is managed by the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.
December 2, 1986 - Richard Lawrence Garwin, the American physicist who authored the actual design used in the first hydrogen bomb (code-named Mike) in 1952, speaking at Minnesota Meeting. Garwin’s address was titled “Space Defense: The Impossible Dream,” and focuses on the SDI program. Garwin received his bachelor's degree from the Case Institute of Technology in 1947 and obtained his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1949, where he worked in the lab of Enrico Fermi. He was assigned the hydrogen bomb job by Edward Teller, with the instructions that he was to make it as conservative a design as possible in order to prove the concept was feasible (as such, the Mike device was not intended to be a usable weapon design, with tons of cryogenic equipment required for its use). Later on, while at IBM, he was the "catalyst" for the discovery and publication of the Cooley–Tukey FFT algorithm, and did research on inkjet printing.
December 19, 1986 - The first part of program presents a rebroadcast of Stephen Smith’s documentary report "Shelter for the Night," which examines the plight of the homeless over a period of 12 hours in the St. Stephen's Emergency Shelter. Following documentary, Nancy Nagler, chair of St. Paul Area Coalition for the Homeless, discusses the homeless problem in Minnesota and what can be done about it. Nagler also answers listener questions.
December 20, 1986 - On this Sportfolio program, Libby Riddles, professional dogsledder, discusses mushing, racing weather, and dog sledding. Riddles also answers listener questions.
December 22, 1986 - Henry Cisneros, mayor of San Antonio and president of the National League of Cities, speaking at Minnesota Meeting. Cisnero’s address was on the topic "The Survival of the American Cities in the '80s". He places a special focus on jobs. George Latimer, St. Paul Mayor, introduces Cisneros. Minnesota Meeting is a non-profit corporation which hosts a wide range of public speakers. It is managed by the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.
January 2, 1987 - On this Sportfolio program, Tom Copeland, Twin Cities physical therapist, discusses health and fitness. Copeland also answers listener questions. Opening segment of program is brief report on Jerry Burn’s animated comments at Minnesota Vikings press conference.