May 3, 2004 - MPR’s Dan Gunderson profiles Coya Knutson, the first woman elected to Congress from Minnesota. In May 1954, Coya Knutson stepped to a podium in Moorhead to announce she was running for Congress. Then, in November 1954, Knutson became the first woman elected to Congress from Minnesota. Congresswoman Knutson made a splash in Washington with her plainspoken politics and persuasive personality. But she also challenged the leadership of the newly formed Minnesota DFL party.
May 3, 2004 - As a shy, self-conscious boy growing up in St. Paul, Charles Schulz experienced the kinds of cruelty that belong uniquely to kids. And after attending a U of M extension class in cartooning and landing a job at the Pioneer Press, he experienced adult-style cruelty as well. He would go on to use those experiences -- and the hope and perseverance that accompanied them -- as inspiration for his new comic strip, "peanuts." A new collection of the very earliest Peanuts cartoons comes out today. They were drawn between 1950 and 1952. In the book's forward, Garrison Keillor calls Schulz "an innovative genius of American comics." Jean Schulz -- who called her husband "sparky" -- says she's amazed at what the early work reveals of a different side of her husband's creativity.
May 5, 2004 - A group of mostly-immigrant workers at a meat-packing plant in Buffalo Lake turned down a chance to unionize today. Union organizers charge some workers at the Minnesota Beef Industries plant were threatened or intimidated into not voting to unionize. Minnesota Beef would not comment on the matter. An increasingly large immigrant labor force is changing the way Minnesota's meat-packing plants do business -- and the wages they're willing to pay. Katherine Fennelly (FENN-a-lee) is a professor specializing in immigration and public policy at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota. She says immigrants are doing work that others won't.
May 6, 2004 - MPR’s Chris Roberts profiles Coach Said Not To, a Minneapolis rock foursome that deliberately tries to defy categorization. Roberts interviews members Lee Violet and Eva Mohn about the thinking person's rock band.
May 10, 2004 - Up until last Friday, most Twins baseball games were only broadcast on the team-owned Victory Sports One, a channel available to very few cable TV subscribers across the state. But a new eight-year contract with Fox Sports Net will put games back onto the regional Fox sports channel, available to many more viewers. The deal effectively ends the ambitious Victory Sports experiment.
May 11, 2004 - On this day in 1858, Minnesota became a state. As part of commemorative events at the Capitol today, Lieutennant Governor Carol Molneau will be presented with a new book about Henry Hastings Sibley. Sibley was Minnesota's first governor. He led the state during a time of big change, when tensions were rising between European settlers and Native Americans. Rhoda Gilman is the author of "Henry Hastings Sibley: Divided Heart." She says Sibley, who was born in Detroit, came to the Minnesota area when he was offered a new job with the American Fur Company.
May 13, 2004 - Governor Tim Pawlenty says he's taking the next step on the issue of drug reimportation. A plan Pawlenty announced today (Thurs) would allow Minnesota's 120 thousand state employees to get certain drugs at no cost to them if they buy from a Canadian internet pharmacy. He says the employees and the state will save a significant amount of money on drug costs. Minnesota is the first state in the nation to take such action. But critics say the action is illegal and will have a short shelf life. Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Scheck reports....
May 13, 2004 - Flyte Tyme, the hit producing Edina-based recording studio run by Jimmy Jam Harris and Terry Lewis, is relocating to Los Angeles. Roberts reports on how the news is being received in the Twin Cities, and the legacy Harris and Lewis are leaving.
May 14, 2004 - Midday continues to broadcast live from the State Capitol. Host Gary Eichten and MPR's political editor Mike Mulcahy talk with key lawmakers at the MPR broadcast table. Guests include Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar; Governor Pawlenty's chief of staff, Dan McElroy; Senator Dick Cohen, DFL-St. Paul; Representative Jim Knoblach, R-St. Cloud; Representative Doug Stang, R-Cold Spring; and Senator Stevey Kelley, DFL-Hopkins.
May 14, 2004 - Midday broadcasts live from the Capitol rotunda on one of the last regular days of business for the state legislators. By law, the state legislature must adjourn in three days. Key legislators stop by the MPR broadcast table, including House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon; Senator Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis; Representative Phil Krinkie, R-St. Paul; Senator Keith Langseth, DFL-Glyndon; House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, DFL-St. Paul; and Representative Alice Seagren, R-Bloomington.