May 26, 2005 - Governor Tim Pawlenty signed the 2.8-billion dollar higher education funding bill today (THURSDAY) in Rochester. It's the first major budget legislation to pass in the regular session. Lawmakers continue to meet in special session to patch significant gaps in the remaining two year state budget. The state's college and university leaders say the recent session was much better for higher ed than past efforts. But students and others say the progress isn't enough. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes reports.
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May 30, 2005 - opular Twin Cities author Lorna Landvik is trying something new in her latest novel, "Oh My Stars." For the first time she's set a story outside of Minnesota and in a period before she was born. It's the depression-era story of Violet Mathers, an 18 year old Kentucky girl who's been beaten down by life. Just as she reaches her lowest point, she winds up traveling the midwest with a trio of musicians.
May 31, 2005 - MPR’s Tom Crann interviews North Dakota poet Larry Woiwode on his dismay over Minneosta Governor Pawlenty’s decision to veto bill that would have established a poet laureate for Minnesota. At least 34 states have poet laureates. Like the majority of those writers, a Minnesota poet laureate would have received no tax dollars. But it wasn't the money that concerned Governor Pawlenty. Instead, he feared that naming a state poet would lead to requests for a Minnesota mime or state interpretive dancer.
June 1, 2005 - All Things Considered’s Tom Cran talks with Mo Chang, the charter school liaison and special project coordinator for St. Paul Public Schools, about the closure of Wat Tham Krabok and what life was like in the camp. As a child, Chang lived in Thai refugee camps. In 2004, she was part of a group that traveled with St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly to learn more about life at Wat Tham Krabok.
June 2, 2005 - MPR’s Bianca Vazquez Toness reports on the growing influence of women in the Twin Cities hip-hop music scene. They call themselves B-girls. That's B for “breakdance,” and that's what some of these female hip-hop artists do, but others use verse, spray paint, and music to tell their story.
June 2, 2005 - DFL State Senator Steve Kelley says he's in the race for governor next year. The Hopkins resident says his campaign will focus on his bread and butter issue, education. He says the state is drifting toward mediocrity under Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty and needs a change. But Republicans says he's not the one to bring that change. Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Scheck reports...
June 3, 2005 - MPR’s Karl Gehrke interviews Minneapolis saxophonist Pete Whitman about his love for the improvisation of jazz and the complexity of performing within a group.