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.
December 4, 1996 - MPR’s Chris Roberts interviews Jane Anfinson, electric violinist and vocalist of Own, a Minneapolis art rock band that combines classical and jazz influences with traditional pop song structures. Anfinson discusses redefining instrumentation and abstract lyrics.
December 5, 1996 - Novelist Umberto Eco's latest book "The Island of the Day Before" tells the strange tale of a 17th century Italian adventurer who is marooned on a ship straddling the international dateline. As with his other novels, "The Name of the Rose" and "Foucault Pendulum" Eco entwines an intricate story with musings on history philosophy and what he calls "lunatic science." Eco is in the Twin Cities to read from his book. Tomorrow he travels to the St John's University in Collegeville to speak, and to visit the monastic library. He told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr he researched "The Island of the Day Before" for five years and even went to remote Pacific islands to experience life on the international dateline.
December 5, 1996 - In Scadinavia, Knut Hamsun is a conflicted figure. He is one of the most revered Norwegian novelists, yet he supported the Nazi's. Hamsun was born in Norway in 1859, and died there in 1952 at the age of 93. In between, he travelled twice to the United States, lectured in Minneapolis , wrote plays, short stories, essays, and 21 novels, won the Nobel prize, and eulogized Hitler. More of his novels have been made into movies than any other Norwegian's, from Growth of the Soil in 1921 to last year's Pan. And this year saw the premiere of a biographical film, starring Max Von Sydow as the author. The U Film Society in Minneapolis is showing a bunch of the movies this month and next, so we asked Bill Mishler, professsor in the U of M Scandinavian Studies department, for a primer on Hamsun, starting with 1890's Hunger.
December 5, 1996 - State lawmakers opened a new chapter in public education six years ago by creating an alternative school structure for new and innovative learning programs. Minnesota's first charter school opened in 1992. Today, there are 19 schools with enrollment totaling 21-hundred students. State education officials are currently reviewing the progress of charter schools. The Department of Children, Families and Learning will present a report to the state legislature in January. Charter school advocates say they're creating a flexible and creative learning option for children, but some question whether the schools have enough money to succeed.
December 5, 1996 - Governor Carlson is calling for standardized zoning rules for hog farms and other livestock operations in Minnesota. Carlson says local governments' ability to pass ordinances blocking the construction of livestock farms is hurting the competitiveness of Minnesota's pork industry.
December 6, 1996 -
December 6, 1996 - Negotiations in the federal mediation of the Boundary Waters issue are taking some time off after 14 non-consecutive days of negotiations. After months of discussion it seems there are still large disagreements over basic issues. In fact, one of the participants, Bill Hansen, a second generation canoe outfitter, has proposed just sticking with the status quo.
December 6, 1996 - A new Minnesota museum honoring the late Senator and Vice-president Hubert Humphrey has opened in his adopted hometown of Waverly in Wright County. The fledgling museum hopes to compliment the state's other sources of Humphrey material - the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute and the Minnesota Historical Society. Organizers say they'll focus on Humphrey's rural roots, and try to educate young people about his place in history.
December 6, 1996 -
December 6, 1996 - Authorities have blocked off a portion of East Hennepin Avenue in the 3100 block because of a chlorine leak at a chemical company. Reports from the scene indicate a two block area around a pool supply company has been evacuated. The evacuation includes an apartment building. There are no reports of injuries. The area affected is just west of Highway 280.