As a decades long staple to the listening audience, Morning Edition combines a host program in St. Paul and NPR hosts in Washington and Los Angeles, bringing news from overnight and information throughout the state and world. Programming includes reports and interviews.
April 29, 1997 - MPR’s Karen-Louise Boothe reports on members of the Minnesota House debating for more than two hours the merits DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), a measure banning same-sex marriage. The roll call vote was preceeded by more than two hours of sometimes very personal and emotional testimony. In the end, representatives voted overwhelmingly to keep it as amended to the omnibus health and human services bill.
April 30, 1997 - Ojibwe Band members had hoped to be spearing and netting fish on dozens of central Minnesota lakes by now. For seven years a group of tribes, led by the Mille Lacs Ojibwe, worked through the courts to restore fishing and hunting rights given them by treaty in the 19th century. It appeared the tribes would finally exercise those rights this spring. But a group of local landowners won an injunction earlier this month, halting the Indians' plans, at least for now.
May 1, 1997 - Bud Selig, Major League Baseball's acting commissioner, told state lawmakers the league wouldn't prevent the Twins from leaving Minnesota. Selig says the team needs a new stadium to remain financially healthy. Selig failed to fully endorse two elements many stadium supporters hope to see in a ballpark bill: financing with gaming revenues, and partial state ownership of the team.
May 29, 1997 - Mainstreet Radio’s Rachel Reabe visits a correctional facility in Faribault. Secure behind high chain link fences topped with coiled razor wire, the oldest prisoners in the system live out their remaining years.
June 5, 1997 - MPR's Laura McCallum reports on the efforts underway in the small north-central Minnesota community of Staples to restore a hidden theater. Built in 1908, Batcher's Opera House is located above a department store-turned-antique shop. History buffs say it provides a rare glimpse into theater in the early 20th century.
July 27, 1997 - MPR’s Laura McCallum reports outside All God’s Children’s Metropolitan Church, where picketers from Fred Phelps anti-gay group were met by hundreds of gay rights supporters. Attenddees at service included four of the DFL gubernatorial candidates.
September 16, 1997 - Mainstreet Radio’s Mark Steil reports on workers at Oak Hills Living Center, a New Ulm nursing home in southwest Minnesota, who unionized several years ago and currently are locked in a bitter strike with management. They want higher pay, but government Medicaid policies and other regulations make that a difficult goal to reach.
October 6, 1997 - Mainstreet Radio’s Mark Steil revisits the southern Minnesota town of Good Thunder and takes a look at the continuing economic development struggles on Main Street. With the state’s economic boom in the 1990s, officials would love to bring some of those jobs to their town, but that just hasn't happened.
October 30, 1997 - As part of a collection of profile reports on candidates for Minneapolis mayor, MPR’s Dan Olson looks at incumbent Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton and her political tenure in the city.
January 27, 1998 - MPR’s Karen Louise Boothe profiles Jesse “The Body” Ventura, who is jumping back into the political ring with his decision to run for governor on a Reform Party ticket. It's hard to pin a label on Ventura. He's not your typical politician.