May 24, 1999 - One day after the "made-for-tv" movie "The Jesse Ventura Story" air from coast to coast on NBC, the reviews have been uniformly bad. And Governor Ventura added his own thumbs down today at the annual meeting of the Minnesota Film Board saying he only watched the first few minutes.
May 24, 1999 - Governor Jesse Ventura has moved from wrapping up a legislative session to selling his new autobiography. Ventura kicked off a promotional tour this weekend with a book-signing at the Mall of America. The event drew hundreds of fans, but the book and the tour have attracted some criticism as well.
May 25, 1999 - St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman is floating an idea for a new outdoor ballpark for the Minnesota Twins. The mayor argues a stadium in St. Paul would help revitalize the city's downtown core. He hasn't offered any specifics yet, but already the proposal is drawing some criticism.
May 25, 1999 - After three years of national welfare reform, we know fewer Americans are getting benefits, but we have little other information on how they fare when the checks stop coming. Today, an amendment by US Senator Paul Wellstone to require federal tracking of welfare recipients failed by just one vote. Wellstone says he offered the amendment because states need to make sure people going off welfare aren't falling into poverty.
May 26, 1999 - Legislators and special interests spent the day picking through the 37 vetoes Governor Ventura dropped on them last night . The vetoes are far-ranging, and they cancel about $140 Million dollars of state spending and borrowing, depending on how you count them. The beneficiaries of specific projects are up in arms over the vetoes... but legislative leaders are not so upset, now that they've had a few hours to look them over. Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste reports: Measured by sheer dollar amount, Winona State University lost the most from Ventura's flurry of vetoes. The University's physical plant manager, Dick Lande (LAND-ee), says the school was counting on $6 Million dollars in state bonding money to pay for three new boilers in the heating system. Ventura vetoed that money, and now Landee has to worry about possible structural damage if the old boilers fail before the Legislature can draw up a new bonding bill next year:
May 26, 1999 - MPR’s Mary Losure reports that Governor Jesse Ventura has vetoed a bill that would have loosened the Minnesota Pollution Control's regulation of animal feedlots. The bill would have exempted livestock farmers from state air quality standards when they were spreading manure on farm fields. It also would have eliminated a new set of rules that govern which feedlots are subject to environmental review.
May 26, 1999 - With his stack of vetoes behind him, Governor Ventura has launched his national promotional tour for his autobiography "I Ain't Got Time To Bleed". This evening he'll appear on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum joins me now from the NBC studios where taping will get underway in a little while.
May 28, 1999 - Six hundred people packed the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California yesterday to hear Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura talk about politics and his new autobiography, I Aint Got Time to Bleed. The crowd cheered for Ventura's political successes, laughed at his jokes and bought hundreds of books at 20 bucks apiece.
May 31, 1999 - To close out the millennium, Minnesota Public Radio's All Things Considered presents a look back at Minnesota life in 1900 via a 12-part series, entitled “A Minnesota Century.” This segment profiles the Merritt brothers and their Minnesota ore discovery.
May 31, 1999 - The May edition of our "Voices of Minnesota" series, featuring novelist Jon Hassler, Regents Professor at St. John's University and Ian Barbour, the Carleton College professor who recently won the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.