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 28, 1997 - High school classes are scheduled to resume this morning (Monday) in Ada, where students were displaced by floodwaters for three weeks. School officials must demolish the Ada-Borup high school due to severe water damage. The Department of Children, Families and Learning says 20 Minnesota school districts closed at least one day due to flooding. East Grand Forks was forced to end the school more than a month early. Hundreds of students, teachers and administrators are working to reclaim their waterlogged schools and get back in business. Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Pugmire reports... Seventh through 12th grade students in Ada will finish their schoo
April 28, 1997 - The Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing additional funding to expand mental health counseling services in the Dakotas and Minnesota. Officials in Fargo are calling for licensed psychologists and psychatrists to volunteer services to help people deal with stress. Minnesota Public Radio's Cara Hetland reports on counseling services available to victims of severe weather.
April 29, 1997 - MPR’s Karen-Louise Boothe reports on members of the Minnesota House debating for more than two hours the merits DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), a measure banning same-sex marriage. The roll call vote was preceeded by more than two hours of sometimes very personal and emotional testimony. In the end, representatives voted overwhelmingly to keep it as amended to the omnibus health and human services bill.
April 29, 1997 - Minnesota drivers would pay an extra four-cents for a gallon of gas under a bill approved by the Senate Taxes committee last night (Mon). Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste reports. The Senate bill would raise the per-gallon price you pay at the pump by two cents this summer, and then another two cents next year. That's in addition to the current 20-cent-per-gallon tax. The money raised by the gas tax is supposed to be spent solely on transportation, and that means most of the money goes to highways and bridges. The highway construction lobby and rural lawmakers have been pushing for the increase, which they say is long overdue. The last increase was in the late 80s, and the bill's author, Willmar Republican Dean Johnson, says it's time to catch up
April 29, 1997 - Criminal prosecutors will get an extra edge in the courtroom under legislation passed today by the Minnesota Senate. Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste reports.
April 29, 1997 - State lawmakers on the House and Senate tax committees will be discuss proposals for financing a new Twins stadium…and It's a critical day for stadium supporters, because with less than three weeks left in the legislative session, they still have no politically viable plan to pay for a new ballpark.
April 29, 1997 - Flood ravaged communities up and down the Red River, are sizing up damage to their towns, trying to figure out how much it's going to cost to repair, roads and bridges, and sewer, gas, electric and water lines. The cost is certain to be hundreds of millions of dollars. Grand Forks North Dakota sustained some of the heaviest flood damage and as the water continues to receed , local officials are beginning to slowly find out just what it's going to take to put their city back together. And as the work continues on a municiple level , so to do recovery efforts among homeowners and businesses. Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Zdechlik reports.
April 29, 1997 - It's been more than a week since residents of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks were evacuated from their homes because of rising flood waters. About 37-hundred evacuees have ended up in Bemidji. Some of the refugees have been told they may be able to return to their homes this week. Others are settling in for the long run. Coping with upturned lives has been easier for some than others, as Minnesota Public Radio's Christina Koenig (KAY-nig) reports.. Kristy Erickson watches her son play with baseball cards on the floor of the Evangelical Covenant Church in Bemidji as her mother-in-l
April 29, 1997 - Federal Mediation over the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness ended without any settlement on the use of trucks to pull boats between lakes in the wilderness. But Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone may now support re-opening two of the former truck portages, based on a plan that was narrowly defeated in mediation. Minnesota Public Radio's Bob Kelleher reports from Duluth. The truck portages represent the deepest division among Minnesotans over the region's management. For decades, trucks pulled motorized boats between Boundary Waters lakes on which motors are allowed. But a Federal court closed the four portages to trucks based on what some consider an overly-narrow interpretation of the 1978 law which created the wilderness area. Wilderness advocates won their argument that trucks are inappropriate and th
April 29, 1997 - Sweeping welfare reform has passed both houses of the Minnesota legislature and travels to the Governor's desk for a quick signature. Minnesota Public Radio's Karen-Louise Boothe reports.