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 29, 2000 - MPR’s Brandt Williams gets a tour of “The Electric Bus,” a portable sampler of Seattle's 240 million dollar interactive museum called the Experience Music Project. Inside the exhibit visitors can get a history lesson or play around with some high-tech toys.
October 30, 2000 - MPR’s Bob Reha profiles William "Jack" Jackson, a North Dakota author who travels around gathering strange stories…like a dogfight with a UFO over Fargo, finding the back door to hell, and meeting a ghost named Sophie.
November 10, 2000 - It's an event that's a part of Great Lakes lore. On November 10, 1975, The SS Edmund Fitzgerald, one of the biggest, fastest, and most powerful iron ore carriers at the time, sank in a fierce storm on Lake Superior. All 29 crew members went down with the ship. MPR’s Cathy Wurzer talks with Captain Dudley Paquette, the last living captain who sailed on Lake Superior during the infamous storm.
November 10, 2000 - MPR’s Cathy Wurzer interviews meteorologist Mark Seeley about the Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940. The storm brought strong winds which averaged over 25 mph for a 24-hour period and gusted over 60 mph. Rain turned to sleet and snow in the late morning on November 11th, and worsened to blizzard conditions very rapidly, as snowfall rates approached 4 inches per hour. The air temperature fell by as much as 40 degrees over 24 hours and inch thick ice coated poles and phone lines, breaking many of them. 49 Minnesotans perished; many duck hunters caught off-guard by the storm.
November 14, 2000 - MPR’s Maris Helms reports that more than 300 government officials and business leaders were in St. Cloud to give Governor Jesse Ventura feedback on budget proposals he will take before the legislature in January. One of the top issues was funding K-12 education.
November 20, 2000 - MPR’s Lynette Nyman reports that the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis has launched a survey of several hundred Hmong business owners and households in St Paul. The Fed wants to know how well the banking system is meeting the needs of Hmong entrepreneurs. They hope the survey will illuminate the obstacles to Hmong people's access to capital.
November 22, 2000 - MPR’s Patty Marsicano reports on the University of Minnesota's Women's Athletic Department, as it turns 25, and shares how the department has grown since its start in 1975. Marsicano interviews a variety of student athletes, as well as the women’s athletic director at U of M.
November 23, 2000 - MPR’s Tom Crann interviews Irish virtuoso flute player James Galway. The two discuss conductor Herbert von Karajan, religious aspects of Mozart compositions, challenges as a conductor, and Galway’s personal success.
November 30, 2000 - Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer talks with Minnesota House Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty, a Republican from Eagan, about his thoughts about state surplus and what should happen going forward. Pawlenty is concerned about Governor Ventura’s idea of lowering state sales tax, but raising in other areas.
December 6, 2000 - Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer interviews Dave Meltzer about new football league, the XFL, which is coming to Minnesota and Governor Jesse Ventura is going to be a sports announcer. The league is considered a raunchy version of the NFL.