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.
December 31, 1998 - MPR’s Laura McCallum reports that Minnesota lawmakers who've argued for less government regulation say 1999 could finally be the year they claim success. With a Republican-controlled House and a new Governor who campaigned on the issue, legislation cutting regulations may fare better than in previous sessions.
January 1, 1999 - Mainstreet Radio's Kathryn Herzog pays a visit to one small town butcher shop, where business is making for some long days. Business at meat markets and butcher shops across the state is booming during holiday season. With pork prices as low as they've been in more than twenty five years, sales of pork are on the rise.
January 18, 1999 - MPR’s Bob Kelleher reports on Madeline Island’s Windsled. Fewer than 200 people live year 'round on the Island just off the southern shore of Lake Superior near Bayfield, Wisconsin. While island life revolves around the mainland ferry schedule most of the year, islanders can drive across the ice during the depths of winter….but for a few weeks each year, the trip to shore has to be made in the island's unique water transportation vehicle.
January 27, 1999 - Mainstreet Radio’s Amy Radil profiles Duluth musher John Stetson, who ran the 1999 Beargrease mid-distance race of 150 miles. He says he loves to race because it's the ultimate test for a musher and his or her dogs.
February 15, 1999 - MPR’s Gretchen Lehmann reports that after years battling severe weather, scab and low crop prices, many farmers in western Minnesota and the Dakotas are looking for a new way to make money off the land. Farmers along Interstate-29 believe they've found the answer... join forces with your neighbors and invest in a dairy.
February 23, 1999 - MPR’s Amy Radil reports on ‘green design’ taking place on the North Shore. The idea of building a cabin using old hoses and pickle barrels may seem fantastic, but that's exactly what is happening along the shore of Lake Superior near Tofte. The unconventional materials are being used to fulfill the mission of Medora Woods, a Twin Cities-based psychologist, to build the most earth-friendly home possible.
March 1, 1999 - MPR’s Michael Khoo visits the Majestic Ballroom in Cottage Grove on the venue’s last night open. Khoo interviews ballroom dancer patrons as they kick up their heels one last time. For a quarter century, the Majestic has entertained the fancy footwork of those dancers with a taste for polkas, waltzes, and foxtrots.
March 18, 1999 - Mainstreet Radio’s Amy Radil reports on the U.S. Coast Guard's Mackinaw and the debate to replace it. The 55-year-old ship is the biggest icebreaker on the Great Lakes, and always greeted enthusiastically by commercial shippers and idle boat watchers alike. The U.S. House approved spending 130-million dollars to replace the Mackinaw, but its fans are nothing if not loyal, and are trying to keep it around.
March 25, 1999 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger reports that Mille Lacs Ojibwe leaders called for cooperation and friendship after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of treaty rights. The decision affirmed an 1837 agreement allowing eight tribes to fish and hunt without state regulation in east-central Minnesota.
March 25, 1999 - In the first of a series of reports, Mainstreet Radio's Brent Wolfe reports on the re-building of the trailer park in Le Center, after a devastating tornado a year ago.