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.
May 8, 2003 - All Things Considered’s Lorna Benson chats with MPR’s William Wilcoxen about the Minnesota Wild as they prepare for game seven of the second round playoff series with the Vancouver Canucks. If they win game seven in Vancouver, the Wild would become the first team ever to come back from a three games to one deficit in two straight playoff series.
May 8, 2003 - MPR’s Lorna Benson sits down with American singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega to discuss her music career. Vega also talks about hosting Minnesota Public Radio's American Mavericks Series. The 13-part program features the life stories and music of the tradition-breaking composers that helped shape American classical music.
May 8, 2003 - All Thing’s Considered’s Lorna Benson interviews Democratic Senator David Tomassoni about the K-12 education funding bills that have passed in the state House and Senate. Both would allow school districts to sell naming rights to corporate sponsors to raise extra revenue.
May 14, 2003 - MPR’s Nikki Tundel speaks with Erich Mische, the state director for U.S. Senator Norm Coleman, about a St. Paul high school student facing deportation. Tchisou Tho was scheduled for deportation just 22 days before he would have become the first in his family to graduate from high school, but won a delay that will allow him to graduate with his classmates in June.
May 23, 2003 - MPR’s Michael Khoo talks with All Things Considered host Lorna Benson about a Minnesota legislative plan that extends nuclear waste storage at Xcel Energy's Prairie Island plant. The proposal is meant to keep the facility operating through 2014, but has run into objections from environmental advocates. Critics say it lacks a strong commitment to renewable energy alternatives and provides no explicit role for lawmakers in future nuclear waste storage debates.
May 23, 2003 - Mainstreet Radio's Stephanie Hemphill reports on birthday celebration for Bob Dylan at Duluth’s Armory building. A teenage Dylan was inspired by a Buddy Holly concert at venue.
May 27, 2003 - MPR’s Mary Losure reports that a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the federal government does have the authority to deport a local Somali immigrant to his homeland, even though Somalia has no functioning government. Attorneys for immigrant Keyse Jama say they will appeal, and the case could go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
June 10, 2003 - Opera lovers in Sioux Falls are trying to light the flame in hopes of it catching on in the northern plains. Two South Dakota natives, both of which are now opera stars, are performing scenes from several operas as a way of introduction. Mainstreet Radio's Cara Hetland caught up with Louis Otey, one of the performers, to talk about the efforts.
June 12, 2003 - MPR’s Greta Cunningham interviews author Regina McBride about her novel The Land of Women, which tells of a complex relationship between mother and daughter.
June 19, 2003 - MPR’s Lorna Benson interviews Jim Quackenbush, a pork producer, about fast-food giant McDonald's asking its meat suppliers to phase out the use of antibiotics which promote animal growth. The company is responding to concerns that antibiotics given to animals in feed reduces the effectiveness of antibiotic medicines in humans. The announcement is likely to have a profound effect on beef and pork producers in Minnesota.