April 7, 2005 - MPR’s Michael Khoo reports that the Minnesota Senate upended an attempt to force a vote on a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages. The legislation would allow voters to decide whether to amend the state constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman.
April 20, 2005 - All Things Considered’s Tom Crann interviews Rick Linsk, reporter at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, about Vang Pao Foundation. The non-profit foundation named for General Vang Pao, a leader in the Hmong community, faces a law suit from the office of State Attorney General Mike Hatch. The suit alleges that the Vang Pao Foundation engaged in questionable spending, and bypassed state charity laws.
May 13, 2005 - MPR’s Toni Randolph explores The Illusion Theater’s latest production "Undesirable Elements: Ten Years Later." The downtown Minneapolis theater explores the mixed reception immigrants and other minorities have received upon arriving to the U.S.
May 18, 2005 - MPR’s Tim Pugmire reports on how globalization has brought an increasing diversity to places like the St. Paul School District. Now officials are trying to spice up their lunch menu to satisfy the tastes of students from all over the world.
May 19, 2005 - The Twin Cities area offers refuge for many immigrant groups from around the globe escaping social and political problems in their homelands. One such group is the Oromo people from Ethiopia. The Twin Cities is home to one of the largest populations of Ethiopian immigrants in the United States. The many varied cultures and disparate groups from the eastern African nation makes national identity a complex and touchy issue. The Oromo find fertile ground in the Twin Cities for speaking out against claims of human rights abuses in their homeland. Meanwhile, relationships with fellow Ethiopian immigrants remain strained because of a long history of political differences. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes has another in our series of "Think Global" reports.
June 1, 2005 - All Things Considered’s Tom Cran talks with Mo Chang, the charter school liaison and special project coordinator for St. Paul Public Schools, about the closure of Wat Tham Krabok and what life was like in the camp. As a child, Chang lived in Thai refugee camps. In 2004, she was part of a group that traveled with St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly to learn more about life at Wat Tham Krabok.
June 9, 2005 - MPR’s Bob Kelleher reports that a Sawyer County judge heard pre-trial motions, setting the stage for the September date on Chai Vang's murder trial which will be held in Hayward, Wisconsin. Vang is the Twin Cities Hmong man charged in the shooting deaths of six Wisconsin deer hunters last November, and the wounding of two others.
June 13, 2005 - MPR’s Bianca Vazquez Toness profiles La Loma, a commercial kitchen in Minneapolis that makes about 13,000 tamales a week. Toness interviews the owners about how they started and there goals for the future.
July 11, 2005 - MPR's Bianca Vazquez Toness reports on scouting and its appeal to Muslim girls. The scouts are adapting, changing their ways to attract and keep girls who haven't traditionally joined a troop, including the children of immigrants.
July 13, 2005 - MPR’s Marianne Combs reports that The MacPhail Center for Music is building a new home in Minneapolis…and a new future while breaking down old walls. MacPhail unveiled the design for an expanded music education center in the Mill District, in what's becoming a new cultural corridor.