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.
February 1, 2002 - MPR's William Wilcoxen reports on The Minnesota Twins, who are preparing for their 42nd season…knowing that it could be their last. Major League Baseball executives say they're proceeding with plans to dissolve two teams, including the Twins, but it's not clear if and when it might actually happen.
February 6, 2002 - All Things Considered’s Lorna Benson interviews Chinese American composer and conductor Tan Dun. He is in the Twin Cities to conduct The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in two performances of the Crouching Tiger Concerto.
February 14, 2002 - MPR’s Marianne Combs profiles acclaimed playwright Lee Blessing's new play Thief River, which portrays two gay men growing up in rural Minnesota who choose very different paths in life. Over the next fifty years they remain in contact; their experiences reflect the changing attitudes toward homosexuality in America.
February 19, 2002 - MPR’s Jeff Horwich reports how the use of technology is helping to make planting crops a precise science. Instead of kicking back during the winter, many farmers are now keeping busy…at the computer. They’re using global positioning systems to do what’s called "precision agriculture," which uses satellite coordinates to help map their fields.
February 26, 2002 - The Fargo North High School Orchestra plays a very special concert…on borrowed instruments. The students' own instruments were destroyed in a bus fire as the orchestra was returning from performing in the Twin Cities. Orchestra Director Dan Italiano says the bus drove over a mattress in the middle of the road. He says no-one realized the mattress was hooked up underneath the bus.
March 6, 2002 - MPR Classical Music Host Lynn Warfel-Holt interviews Thomas Rossin, music director of Twin Cities based group Exultate, about Johann Sebastian Bach’s personal bible. Rossin has been studying the book for insights into Bach, the musician, and the spiritual man.
March 15, 2002 - Governor Jesse Ventura enters the Twins ballpark debate with a plan of his own. Ventura's proposal avoids any new taxes, user fees, or surcharges, and relies strictly on a multi-part financing plan to shift the costs entirely onto the team. Lawmakers say the plan shows promise, but the package requires a substantial upfront investment by the Twins. The team has recently balked at paying cash upfront.
March 25, 2002 - MPR's William Wilcoxen reports that even as state lawmakers debate whether to help finance a ballpark, potential host cities have been jockeying for position. St. Paul city officials said the city has three downtown sites that could become the next home to the Minnesota Twins. Business and labor leaders joined Mayor Randy Kelly at City Hall to describe the sites.
March 26, 2002 - Andrew Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College and the author of a book called Baseball and Billions, comments on local stadium actions. Fifty St. Paul business owners started a campaign against a proposed food, beverage, and lodging tax to fund a Twins stadium, while Minnesota House approved a bill for a $330 million open-air stadium that allows the host city to levy the tax to help repay bonds.
April 3, 2002 - MPR's Brandt Williams looks at the life of Minnesota civil rights pioneer Nellie Stone Johnson, who passed away on April 2nd, 2002. Johnson spent the majority of her life fighting for social causes, especially those focused on the rights of labor unions, African Americans, and women. Those who knew her say that her activism was a testament to her passion for equality.