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 31, 1997 - As part of the Voices from the Heartland series, Minnesota poet Diane Glancy reads her poem "The Back Porch of the Country."
January 31, 1997 - Many Minnesota school districts are wondering how to make up for missed "snow days". There's a lot of winter still to come, and while it's common for schools to build two or three extra days into the educational calendar, two or three extra weeks are another matter.
January 31, 1997 - Larger-than-life puppets and the magical realism of writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez come together in the latest production of "In the Heart of the Beast" Mask and Puppet Theater in Minneapolis. "A very old man with enormous wings" tells the tale of a broken, elderly man with wings who mysteriously appears in a coastal village and causes an uproar. While the story sounds more like an ancient legend, the production's creators believe it resonates in modern times.
January 31, 1997 - Pioneer Press architecture critic Larry Millett gives us a critique of the Twins' proposed new ballpark.
January 31, 1997 - "The Loon Resort and Bait Shop" opens in Bemidji tonight. Playwright Phil Holt, a Bemidji native who now lives in Minneapolis, says the play is about returning to one's hometown after many years away.
February 1, 1997 - Minnesotans got their first look yesterday at the new baseball stadium the Twins want them to help build. The stadium design features a ten-acre sliding roof, 42-thousand seats on four decks, and left-field bleachers that hang over the field. It was was unveiled at the Mall of America on the site of the Twins' former home, Metropolitan Stadium. The stadium's price is estimated at 350 million dollars. The taxpayers would have to come up with about 200 million dollars. The saga of the Twins stadium captured headlines this weekend...Weekend Edition Sports Commentator Jay Weiner says he can sum up his reaction to the new stadium design in one word.
February 2, 1997 -
February 3, 1997 - Many children growing up in the sixties assumed that by the time they were adults they would all be travelling in spaceships and making regular trips to the stars. Of course it hasn't quite worked out that way..... but in central Minnesota, the children of some of those wanna-be intergalactic explorers ARE getting a practical lessons in outer space. One teacher in Sauk Rapids has teamed up with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration--NASA--to teach students about space and aeronautics, but also about how to learn. . . . Minnesota Public Radio's Gretchen Lehmann (lay-mun) reports:
February 3, 1997 - In technology news today, Israel as the Middle East's high-tech capital, Compuserve as the beneficiary of AOL's troubles, and Andy Inahtko defines “hacker.”'
February 3, 1997 - The 1997 legislative session will be relatively low-key when it comes to health care. There are no major health reforms in the works...at least not anything on a scale comparable to the 1992 MinnesotaCare legislation. But, there is at least one health care issue brewing this session that could significantly change the way MinnesotaCare is financed. Minnesota Public Radio's Lorna Benson reports: MinnesotaCare is the state's subsized health care insurance plan for the uninsured. It's funded primarily through a 2-percent tax on providers including medical doctors, chiropractors and dentists.