Digitization made possible by the State of Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, approved by voters in 2008.
June 6, 1997 - With alumni such as Lou Brock and Gaylord Perry, the St. Cloud Rox is a tough act for any baseball team to follow. The former minor league team was a sports staple in Central Minnesota through the 40s, 50s and 60s and sent on more than 60 players to major league teams such as the Chicago Cubs and the New York Giants. A new amateur team, the St. Cloud Riverbats, has decided to try and build on memories of the Rox . . . and maybe give them a run for their money. Minnesota Public Radio's Gretchen Lehmann reports:
June 9, 1997 - Truckers can be a lonely bunch. Long hours on the road transporting goods back and forth across the country mean time spent away from friends and family. In the Twin Cities, an organization called Transport for Christ hopes to lighten their burden with counseling and worship. Their pulpit? A '73 Kenworth semi. For this installment of the Odd Jobs series, Charles Maynes visits with a truck stop chaplain at the depot just over the border in Hudson, Wisconsin.
June 9, 1997 - A Voices of Minnesota interview with Mary Beth Blegen for Mon, June 9, 1997. Mary Beth Blegen spent her school year traveling as the National Education Association's teacher of the year. In July, the Worthington educator takes a new job as a consultant in Washington D. C. at the Department of Education. Today on our Voices of Minnesota interview we'll hear Blegen talk about her life. She's been a writing, history and literature teacher for 30 years at Worthington High School. The 52-year-old South Dakota native is also well known to Worthington-area readers through her weekly newspaper column. Blegen told Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Steil her column often became a public expression of personal struggles.
June 9, 1997 - MPR’s Euan Kerr talks with guitarist Steve Tibbetts about his recent work. Tibbetts, whose work is primarily instrumental, is trying something new…but also very old, with his latest album "Cho." He adds music to a 900-year-old acapella song cycle performed by Buddhist nuns in Nepal.
June 9, 1997 - Today is the 25th anniversary of one of the most deadly flash floods in U-S history. The Rapid City, South Dakota, flood killed 238 people and four additional bodies have never been found. In this first of two reports - Minnesota Public Radio's Cara Hetland talks with several people who lost their homes and neighbors in the flood. ANNOUNCER OUT COPY: Tomorrow we'll hear about that clean-up - the funerals and the recovery in Rapid City and how some of the decisions made 25 years ago effect how we handle natural disasters today.
June 9, 1997 - Governor Carlson plans to call a special legislative session in to deal with the Minnesota Twins request for a publicly-funded ballpark. Carlson says he believes the Twins will leave if lawmakers don't approve funding before October, when the team can opt out of its Metrodome lease.
June 9, 1997 - Two Voices of Minnesota interviews: Mary Beth Blegen, National Teacher of the Year from Worthington, Minnesota. And a conversation with Minnesota School Psychologist of the Year, Sally Gotelaere. She works for the Hermantown School District.
June 10, 1997 - Midday’s Gary Eichten talks with Suzanna Sherry, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, about some current and past cases facing the U.S. Supreme Court. Topics include doctor-assisted suicide, line-item veto, and religious freedom. Sherry also answers listeners call-in questions.
June 10, 1997 - It was fun and games at the Minnesota Children's Museum today as "Sesame Street" characters Rosita and Maria entertained a group of children from Hennepin County Head Start. But interspersed between the songs and dances was a very serious message about lead poisoning. More than 4,000 Minnesota children have elevated levels of lead in their blood. At least 439 of those kids have levels so high they're at risk of brain damage and even death. The "Sesame Street" tour is the first "all-out" lead awareness campaign in the state. But as Minnesota Public Radio's Lorna Benson reports, for years a Minneapolis neighborhood has waged it's own quiet war against lead.
June 10, 1997 - The Willmar School District has settled a class action lawsuit brought by Hispanic and Latino families last year. The families claimed the district discriminated against their children, putting them in inappropriate classes and disciplining them more harshly than other students. The central Minnesota district won't have to pay any monetary damages but it will have to make a number of policy changes. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Wareham reports.