March 13, 2008 - MPR’s Tom Crann talks with guitarist Brian Miller, who is reviving some songs that were nearly lost to history. They're the melodies and lyrics of Minnesota's Irish lumberjacks, who logged the boreal forests in the two decades around the turn of the last century.
March 13, 2008 - St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman joins Midday to discuss the challenges facing his city, and the achievements that have been made in the past year. Coleman also answers listener questions.
March 14, 2008 - MPR News analyzed the governor's campaign travel, his public events schedule and press accounts and found that he's been out of the state all or part of the day at least 25 times between January 1st and March 12th, 2008.
March 14, 2008 - MPR’s Steven John interviews renowned poet Maya Angelou, who shares thoughts on her life and politics.
March 18, 2008 - MPR’s Art Hughes reports on Minnesota colleges and universities endowment growth, as well as tuition hike ups.
March 18, 2008 - MPR’s Laura Yuen reports on local female ski jumpers who are pressuring the International Olympic Committee to create a women's event for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Ski jumping is the only event in the Winter Olympics that excludes female athletes.
March 19, 2008 - MPR’s Stephanie Hemphill reports on ATVs in the north woods. The U.S. Forest Service is about to make a major decision about where ATVs can go and cannot go in the vast Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota. Segment includes various interviews of residents and environmentalists.
March 19, 2008 - The Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota, home to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, is planning to close some roads, and designate others for all-terrain-vehicle use. Matt Norton, a member of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, says the agency wants to convert too many old logging trails into permanent roads, encouraging motorized recreation at the expense of quiet sports.
March 20, 2008 - MPR’s Kerri Miller interviews multiple education experts on the rise of tuition and how that is also affecting endowments. While college tuition continues to rise, a record 76 colleges and universities have achieved endowments of $1 billion or more. Some members of Congress are putting more scrutiny on those endowments, and asking whether schools should use their endowment money to moderate tuition increases.
March 20, 2008 - Reknowned Minnesota author Jon Hassler died this morning. Hassler wrote about small town Minnesota life in novels such as "Staggerford," "Rookery Blues" and "The Dean's List." In 1999 Hassler told Minnesota Public Radio that he got his first real training as a novelist while working as a boy at his father's grocery store in Plainview.