January 16, 2002 - The Stadium Task Force presents it’s recommendations to Minnesota Legislature, with panel voting 13-4 on option of financing two new sports stadiums, and public financing for new facilities, as opposed to funding. The loan would be repaid to the state through a variety of revenue services.
January 16, 2002 - Minnesota U-S Senator Mark Dayton today met with interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai during his tour of Central Asia. Dayton, a D-F-L'er, says the U-S should provide 50-Million dollars in immediate aid to Afghanistan. Dayton and members of the congressional delegation have also had meetings with Pakistani leaders--including President General Pervez Musharraf (pur-VEHZ' moo-SHAH'-ruhv)--to discuss the war on terrorism. Dayton says the purpose of the trip is to give U-S lawmakers the opportunity to see the region first-hand:
January 16, 2002 - Minnesota Public Radio music host, Mindy Ratner talks with conductor Yakov Kreizberg about the renowned conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein. Kreizberg leads the Minnesota Orchestra in the second part of the Bernstein Festival, a two-week event exploring Leonard Bernstein's legacy as a conductor, composer, pianist and educator.
January 16, 2002 - Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer interviews Mee Moua, who won a DFL primary for the District 67 state Senate seat last night, beating state Representative Tim Mahoney and three other DFL candidates. Moua discusses education and housing.
January 16, 2002 - Mee Moua comments on her who hope to become the first Hmong person ever elected to a Minnesota state legislature.
January 17, 2002 - Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone joined local officials for a closed meeting in St. Cloud this afternoon (THURSDAY), one day after the city's second-largest employer announced it was probably going out of business. The parent company of Minnetonka-based Fingerhut announced it eliminate the catalog and internet retailer if a buyer cannot be found. It would be the biggest one-time job loss in Minnesota history. And it would be a major economic shock for St. Cloud, home to almost half of Fingerhut's workforce. Mainstreet Radio's Jeff Horwich reports St. Cloud is already bracing for the impact.
January 17, 2002 - MPR’s Greta Cunningham interviews conductor Nicholas McGegan as he prepares The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for their performance of George Frideric Handel's "Gloria in Excelsis Deo," a piece that had been lost and wasn't performed for more than 300 years.
January 18, 2002 - Mainstreet Radio’s Laurel Druley reports that city and county leaders throughout the state have been complaining about Governor Ventura's budget deficit plan for about a week. Many worry the proposal cuts too much state aid to local governments. Some state nursing home workers may be without jobs and the governor's plan cuts money that would go to rural road expansion and repairs.
January 21, 2002 - On Martin Luther King Day, former Vice President Walter Mondale joins MPR’s Gary Eichten to talk about the civil rights movement, yesterday and today. Mondale also discusses a wide range of current events.
January 21, 2002 - What if you could remember everything that's ever happened to you--the good and the bad. That's the premise of Minnesota-born author Anne Ursu's new novel "Spilling Clarence." The book centers on the psychological reactions that afflict the residents of Clarence, Minnesota after a leak at a psychopharmaceutical factory spills a drug into the atmosphere. One by one, the residents are traumatized by memories of the past. Anne Ursu says the idea to write a novel focusing on memory was a happy accident.