November 12, 1998 - The day after telling students at his old High school he didn't apply himself much to his studies... Minnesota Governor-elect Jesse Ventura is back at school. Every two years, a few weeks after the November vote, the National Governor's Association puts on "Governors school" for first-time governors --- a few days in specialized seminars and private consulations with experienced governors currently on the job. Nancy Marshall reports from this years Governors school in Wilmington Delaware. SFXX 1: Welcome to the 1998 Governor's session. . . TRXX 1: Governor Thomas Carper of Delaware is the host -- and a professor -- at this year's National Governor's Association
November 12, 1998 - Governor-Elect Ventura's victory shocked Minnesota's political establishment, but not Joram Manka , a Ventura supporter in Duluth. Manka, a student at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, won a contest on a political website by correctly guessing the outcome on nearly every race on the Minnesota ballot: University of Minnesota Duluth student Joram Manka won the checks and balances-dot com website contest by correctly guessing the outcome of the governor's race and many other contests last Tuesday. He'll be presented with the John Spanish Prognosticator Award December 3rd in St. Paul. Governor-elect Ventura has been invited as the keynote speaker. (find music)
November 16, 1998 - Logging isn't the job it used to be. A century ago, 30 thousand loggers were at work in the Minnesota woods. Today there are fewer than a thousand, using high-tech machines to supply the state's multi-billion dollar wood-products industry.
November 17, 1998 - MPR’s Dan Olson reports on how some Minnesota farmers are putting a few extra dollars in their pocket by selling what they usually plow under. A St. Peter company is making building materials as strong as wood from the straw left after farmers harvest soybeans and wheat.
November 17, 1998 - Though old-growth forests were long gone, Minnesota's timber industry revived in the 1980s when new technology made the ubiquitous aspen tree a desired commodity. For a decade Minnesota had the fastest-growing timber trade in the country.
November 18, 1998 - As part of the Our State, Our Forests series, a Mainstreet Radio special broadcast from MPR studios in Duluth, highlighting the Minnesota Northwoods. Rachel Reabe hosts a discussion/debate on forestry in Minnesota with Jim Sanders, forest supervisor for the Superior National Forest; Betsy Daub, forest program director for the Minnesota office of the National Audubon Society; and Wayne Brandt, executive vice-president for Forest Industries.
November 18, 1998 - As Ventura prepares to take office, he is sure to remember the political experts and lobbyists who gave him little respect before the election. Now some of those same people are flocking to his office asking for jobs. Morning Show humorist Dale Connelly imagined how those ‘career politicians’ are feeling about now with the song creation "Governor Body"...(with apologies to Leonard Bernstein and his "Officer Krupky" from West Side Story).
November 18, 1998 - MPR’s Martin Kaste reports on the first meeting of Governor-elect Jesse Ventura and Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe, who met privately to discuss legislative priorities for 1999. Despite what Ventura calls "philosophical differences" between the two men, their respective "to-do" lists appear to have a lot in common.
November 20, 1998 - Lieutenent Governor-elect Mae Schunk made one of her first public appearences Thursday night, at the Minnesota Rural Education Association conference in Alexandria. Since the election, Schunk has maintained a focus on her classroom teaching, but she's beginning to outline some of the priorities she and governor-elect Jesse Ventura will bring to their administration. Minnesota Public Radio's Kathryn Herzog reports. Mae Schunk says she has rural Minnesota in her heart and understands the needs of rural educators. For eight years, Schunk attended a one room school in Wisconsin, and she says she knows from experience, children learn better in smaller classes. She reiterated a pledge to make reductions in class size a a top priority...saying if teachers demand quality work form students, children d
November 20, 1998 - MPR’s Martin Kaste reports on how leaders of Minnesota's major political parties are mulling over the meaning of this year's election results…and the meaning of Jesse Ventura's surprise victory, in particular. In the DFL party, there seems to be a growing consensus that change would do the party good, but there's little agreement so far about what kind of change.