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.
January 20, 1997 - As urban public schools struggle to increase academic achievement among many poor and minority children, a private school in Minneapolis is succeeding where others have failed. Seed Academy and Harvest Preparatory School began ten years ago as a pre-school program in its founders' house. Today there are 300 students enrolled in pre-school through sixth grade.
January 21, 1997 - Many of the residents forced to move by the closing of a Hopkins mobile home park last fall have come face to face with Minnesota's affordable housing crunch - housing costs are rising faster than a lot of peoples' wages. The mobile home residents were given a cash settlement by a developer to help them relocate. Some used the money to move to another mobile home. Others found apartments. About a third of the residents used the cash to buy a home. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reports. Christine Mcgovern knew it would be a stretch but she took a risk. She used her settlement of a few thousand dollars from the closing of the Hopkins mobile home park for a down payment on a house in Robinsdale. The monthly mortage payment of $600 was more than a third of her income - larger than most lenders say is prudent. Two weeks before Christmas McGovern lost
January 22, 1997 - MPR's Lorna Benson reports that founders of a new Center for Cross-Cultural Health are hoping to minimize medical anxieties by better preparing Minnesota health care workers trying to deal with a cultural curveball.
January 24, 1997 - Millions of people will sit down this weekend to watch a football game. But Superbowl Thirty One will come and go, on Sunday, WITHOUT one person. However, commentator Ann Daly Goodwin says she hopes everyone who does watch the game - enjoys it!
January 24, 1997 - John Coy reads from his book Night Driving, published by Henry Holt.
January 24, 1997 - The first case of a prostitute suing a customer under Minnesota's Civil Coercion law has been settled. We'll have a report.
January 25, 1997 - The St. Paul Winter Carnival is underway this weekend. To get in the spirit of winter-mania I decided to try a device relatively new to this area--a Norwegian kicksled. It looks like a dogsled but it runs on calories. About 70-thousand kicksleds are sold in Norway each year. Sue Bittken is an Interpretive Naturlist at the Lowry Nature Center. She says Americans call them kicksleds but Norweigens call them SPARKS.
January 26, 1997 - From Pro-wrestling to drag queens--TAPES ROLLING gives audiences a behind the scenes look at some pretty interesting places. The KTCA-TV show begins it's 4th season of video verite. Minnesota Public Radio's Greta Cunningham turned the tables on the producers of TAPES ROLLING and rolled some tape on them.
January 26, 1997 - The beautiful people are going home and the Park City, Utah movie theatres are empty this morning as the Sundance Film Festival ends. The ten-day festival is a showcase for independent film makers.
January 27, 1997 - Could the placement of the furnishings in your home or the color of the wallpaper in your workplace be effecting your life? Practitioners of Feng Shui (FUNG-SHWAY).... an ancient Asian practice becoming popular in the U.S. .... believe the physical structures that surround us do make a difference. They will come to your house or business to make suggestions on how to fill these spaces with positive "chi" (chee), or life energy. The suggestions could involve painting a wall a different color or removing an object filled with negative "chi." In this morning's "Odd Jobs" segment, Minnesota Public Radio's Gretchen Lehmann (lay-mun) introduces us to Erin Rafael (Rah-fy-EL) a Feng Shui (FUNG-SHWAY) practitioner who trained in California and now practices in St. Cloud. | D-CART ITEM: 1011 | TIME: 3:26 | OUTCUE: "nat-chimes ringing"