July 8, 2002 - Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak proposes capping city spending increases at no more than eight percent a year. The plan enjoys majority support on the City Council, but it means the city will have to cut six million dollars as elected leaders prepare for next year's budget.
July 9, 2002 - The Senate is expected to vote within the hour on a plan to create a permanent storage facility for high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel in Nevada. If the Senate votes to approve the plan, as expected, it will end a decades-long congressional debate over hazardous waste disposal. The plan calls for nuclear waste shipments to travel through at least 43 states, including Minnesota, on their way to Nevada. Senator Paul Wellstone says he is planning to vote against the resolution because it doesn't include a plan to safely transport the waste:
July 12, 2002 - The Independence Party holds its state convention tomorrow in St. Cloud. Delegates are expected to endorse Tim Penny for governor and chose a candidate to challenge incumbent DFL Senator Paul Wellstone. Earlier in the week, party officials announced a slate of about a dozen legislative candidates who left other political parties to join the IP. And state Senators Sheila Kiscaden and Martha Robertson announced they were leaving the Republican Party for the IP. Kiscaden, of Rochester, is seeking re-election to the Senate, while Robertson is Penny's running mate. University of Minnesota political science professor Larry Jacobs says the Independence party needs to try to build an organization beyond Governor Jesse Ventura:
July 15, 2002 - Minnesota's Democratic and Republican U.S. Senate candidates raised several million dollars during the second quarter of the year. Incumbent DFL-er Paul Wellstone took in nearly two million dollars, Republican challenger Norm Coleman more than one point seven million. Both campaigns say they're pleased with the pace of their fund raising. Coleman says he needs all the money he can get to keep up with Wellstone. Wellstone says his fund raising is more appropriate than Coleman's because he says most of his money is coming from relatively small contributions.
July 15, 2002 - MPR’s Greta Cunningham interviews Minnesota author Brian Malloy about his debut novel "The Year of Ice," which is set in the Twin Cities in 1978. The story revolves around 17-year-old Kevin Doyle, a boy struggling with the death of his mother, his isolation from his father, and coming to terms with his sexuality.
July 16, 2002 - Prior Lake, Minnesota is the inspiration for the fictional town of Acorn Lake, Minnesota in Jean Harfenist's new book "A Brief History of the Flood." The book is a collection of short stories set in the 1960's and centered around the Anderson family. The stories follow the developement of the Anderson's daughter, Lillian--from young child to young adult. Lillian is a small town girl dealing with an alcoholic father and a mother who views the world like a romance novel. Lillian is also trying to avoid her mother's mistakes and is focusing on becoming a self-sufficient working woman. Harfenist grew up in Prior Lake and says Minnesota is an essential element to "A Brief History of the Flood." Jean Harfenist is the author of "A Brief History of the Flood." The book is published by Knopf.
July 17, 2002 - The State Fair is more than a month away, but the employment office at the fair is already conducting background checks on potential employees. More than 4-thousand people work at the fair during the 12 days leading up to Labor Day. Because of the September 11th terrorist attacks, officials will be doing more background checks this year and are increasing other security measures as well.
July 17, 2002 - Ray Crump, former Twins equipment manager and owner of Dome Souvenirs Plus, shares his optimism of the 2002 Minnesota Twins roster. The team has a nine game lead in the division. At this time in 2001, the Twins led the division, only to see that lead disappear as they collapsed in the second-half of the season.
July 17, 2002 - A new book brings renewed attention to an historic civil rights case on the Minnesota iron range. In 1988, Lois Jenson sued Eveleth Mines for the sexual harassment she endured at work. Her case eventually altered the very nature of sexual harassment suits. Journalist Clara Bingham and attorney Laura Leedy-Gansler are the authors of "Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case the Changed Sexual Harassment Law." Both women came by the studio to discuss the case. Bingham says there is a macho culture on the range that contributed to the harassment in the mines.
July 19, 2002 - Minneapolis native Arthur Phillips novel is set in Budapest in 1990. It's called "Prague" though, because that's where the expatriate Americans in the story worry they really should be. The group includes entrepreneurs, writers and diplomats, caught in the excitement of the fall of Eastern European totalitarianism. Yet they can't shake the feeling they are missing the real action elsewhere. Arthur Phillips himself lived in the Hungarian capital in the early nineties. His novel had drawn critical acclaim for it's depiction of a unique period of recent history. "Prague" opens with some of the Americans sitting in a cafe playing "Sincerity", a game where each player makes a series of statements, only one of which is true. The players score by fooling the other players and guessing correctly when they are lying. Phillips told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr the game reveals a great deal about the players.