All Things Considered is a comprehensive source for afternoon news and information provided by various MPR hosts in St. Paul and NPR hosts in Washington over the decades. The program contains interviews, reports, speeches and breaking coverage.
July 21, 1997 - MPR's Mary Losure files this story about the North Shore's fishing families and the environmental catastrophes that destroyed their way of life. In the 1930's, Lake Superior supported a thriving commercial fishing industry. Now, on a lake holding one tenth of the world's fresh water, only a handful of commercial fishermen and women remain.
September 4, 1997 - MPR's Martin Kaste reports that Minnesota Indian tribes are reacting skeptically to suggestions they use their casino revenues to help pay for a new Twins stadium. The co-chairman of the Legislature's special stadium finance task force met with the chief executive of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in an attempt to get Indian money for a possible stadium financing package... but at least one Indian official in St. Paul says state politicians are "crazy" to think they can convince tribes to pay for the stadium when Minnesota taxpayers won't.
September 15, 1997 - While the Metrodome is being cast as the albatross around the Minnesota Twins' neck, just 16 seasons after it was built, sports commentator Kevin Hennessy mourns the passing of the Dome and its unique attributes.
September 17, 1997 - MPR’s Martin Kaste reports on a persistent rumor suggesting North Carolina-based NationsBank might be interested in buying the Minnesota Twins and moving team to Charlotte. Kaste looks at how it could impact legislative action at the Minnesota Capitol regarding a stadium bill.
October 9, 1997 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger takes a look back to 1989, when 500 union supporters rioted in the northern border town of International Falls. The city's largest employer, Boise Cascade, was building a huge expansion of their papermill…and bringing in thousands of non-union workers to do it. The town was divided: while local businesses boomed like never before, union workers and their families felt betrayed.
October 16, 1997 - If you're an experimental composer with classical roots, you'll probably face an uphill battle finding performance venues. The problem of getting your music heard may be compounded if you're a woman. Avant Fest, which opened last night at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis, pairs three female-led bands from Minneapolis with three from New York.
October 22, 1997 - They're still a rare sight in most of the state, but timber wolves are making a comeback in Minnesota. Held strictly to northeastern forests a few decades ago, wolves are now spreading west and south…toward St. Cloud, Grand Forks, and Elk River. Mainstreet Radio's Leif Enger reports on biologists using satellite technology to forecast where wolves will show up next.
November 5, 1997 - MPR’s Lorna Benson interviews Philip Blackburn and Chris Strouth about the creative world of electronic music. Blackburn is with the American Composers Forum in St. Paul, which promotes the work of avant-garde, jazz, classical and new age composers. Strouth works for Twin/Tone records, the label associated with Minneapolis' most famous rock bands, like The Replacements and Soul Asylum. Strouth also runs his own experimental electronica label, called "Ultramodern."
November 14, 1997 - MPR’s Martin Kaste reports that in the aftermath of the Minnesota lawmakers' vote to defeat the Twins stadium bill (voting 84 to 47 against the package), Governor Arne Carlson has offered a eulogy of sorts, seeing it as the "last, best hope" to keep the baseball team in Minnesota.
November 14, 1997 - A collection of excerpted commentary from Minneapolis residents being interviewed regarding news that the Minnesota Twins could be leaving after failure to secure a new stadium deal in Minnesota legislative session.