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.
August 11, 1999 - Mainstreet Radio is visiting several towns, each trying a different technique to make sure they are "wired." Just as small rural communities once competed for rail lines, now towns see telecommunications as the vital link which will keep them flourishing.
September 3, 1999 - MPR’s Dan Gunderson reports on the International Plowing Competition in Rollag, Minnesota. Farmers from 30 states are competing for the national plowing title. The event is part of the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion.
September 6, 1999 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger reports on digitally-mapped, electronically monitored, pushbutton GPS golf. The latest lure for the golf-obsessed is satellite technology, global positioning to be exact. But at least one golf purist is not impressed.
September 10, 1999 - Mainstreet Radio's Cara Hetland reports on teacher raiding, which is becoming a common practice as the nation faces a teacher shortage. In Minnesota, competition between districts means the best staff is often going to the highest bidder.
September 27, 1999 - Ron Offutt, aka Sultan of Spuds & the Lord of the Fries, grows more potatoes than anyone else in the world, and the potatoes are perfect for French fries. But his success has a price. Growing the perfect French fry has an environmental downside, as people in small towns near Offutt's potato farms have learned to their dismay.
September 28, 1999 - Ron Offutt, aka Sultan of Spuds & the Lord of the Fries, grows more potatoes than anyone else in the world. The potatoes are perfect for French fries for fast food chains like McDonald's and frozen French fry processors like JR Simplot and Ore Ida. But Offutt’s success has a downside. Many people who live near Offutt's potato farms worry about the pesticides sprayed on his fields.....but they soon find they're up against a system much bigger than they are.
October 5, 1999 - MPR’s Mark Steil reports on the complicated nature of grain storage during the fall harvest, especially with the boom in genetically modified crops.
October 13, 1999 - Mainstreet Radio's Leif Enger shipped aboard a Bulgarian tramp freighter as it departed for Italy with a load of North Dakota wheat. Enger presents an understanding of sailor life aboard.
October 21, 1999 - MPR’s Bob Potter talks with architect Hugh Hardy, who designed Orchestra Hall. Hardy discusses the issue of acoustics and capacity. He says the new building might not have been built if the Lycium Theatre had been a little bigger.
October 21, 1999 - MPR’s Bob Potter talks with Jay Weiner, sports commentator and sportswriter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, about his memories of former Minnesota Twins owner Calvin Griffith.