MPR News Features are news segments created for various long-form programming, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered, amongst others. Features run the gambit of interviews, reports, profiles, and coverage.
April 23, 1996 -
April 23, 1996 - For many people who love books: the feel of them, the look of them and especially the way ideas take shape in them, its anathema to think books might one day come in an electronic form. But to others its the much- anticipated soon-to-be-realised inevitable future. Imagine being curled in bed, reading Jane Austin or Mark Twain, words blinking from a laptop computer. In this first of two reports on the future of the book, Mary Stucky talks to some of those who've been thinking the most about how technology may change the way we read.
April 23, 1996 - Construction will begin later this year at Saint Cloud State University on a new library. At 33-million dollars, it will be the most expensive building ever for a state university campus in Minnesota. To win legislative approval, Saint Cloud State officials had to convince some doubters of the need for a conventional library in the midst of an information technology revolution.
April 23, 1996 - Fired public safety commissioner Michael Jordan says he's considering legal action in response to what he calls "hostile" treatment from governor Carlson. Carlson dismissed Jordan Friday...saying the commissioner had repeatedly shown poor judgement...culminating with the mishandling of a death threat incident. Jordan says he believes he fell into disfavor because he challenged politically-motivated directives from the governor's office.
April 23, 1996 - Believe it or not, three companies in the world build machines that can simulate earthquakes. They are Mitsubishi and Hitachi - both located in Japan - and MTS Systems Corporation, located in the geologically stable town of Eden Prairie, Minnesota. MTS recently upstaged its competition by selling a 24-million dollar machine - its largest earthquake simulator ever - to the Japanese government. Scientists will use the machine to simulate the quake that devastated the city of Kobe in January, 1995, and then to run tests aimed at improving the design of buildings and bridges in Japan.
April 23, 1996 - MPR’s Chris Roberts presents a profile of new Minneapolis band Semisonic. Roberts interviews drummer Jacob Slichter, who shares thoughts about the band, the album “Great Divide,” and the record industry.
April 24, 1996 - Depending with whom you talk, American book publishing is either stronger than ever or nothing more than a tawdry extension of Hollywood. Americans bought a record number of books last year. And some say books available to the consumer are not any better nor any worse than years past. But as Mary Stucky reports, there's growing criticsm of publishers for just focusing on what sells.
April 24, 1996 -
April 24, 1996 - State senator Skip Finn will resign. The Cass Lake DFLer awaits sentencing on charges related to taking money from a tribal insurance fund he set up for the Leech Lake Band of Chippewa. But no sooner did legislative leaders close the book on one legislative ethics case, they re-opened another.
April 24, 1996 - With spring weather finally moving in, the air is filled with chirping birds... buzzing bees... and -- the chest-rattling thumps of car stereos. As Minnesota Public Radio's John Biewen found out, young men with big woofers in their backseats spend the winter pining for spring, and the chance to share their 'bumps' with the rest of us.