October 1, 2010 - MPR’s Tom Crann talks with NPR journalist Michele Norris, who speaks about her memoir “The Grace of Silence.” Norris describes finding out about her maternal grandmother’s Minneapolis job as an itinerant Aunt Jemima.
October 4, 2010 - MPR’s Rupa Shenoy reports the Minnesota Twins set a new attendance record this season, selling 3,223,640 tickets for games at the new Target Field. If you ask the fans at the final regular season game, the reason why is clear…the ballpark.
October 5, 2010 - Essayist Peter Smith reflects on a BWCA memory along the shore of Lake Agnes, and of an old robin he wish he had saved.
October 5, 2010 - On this Midday, a “Meet the Candidates” program with guest Tom Emmer, the Republican gubernatorial candidate. Dayton answers questions key issues in the gubernatorial election.
October 6, 2010 - Midday presents an American RadioWorks documentary titled Testing Teachers. Studies show that students with the best teachers learn three times as much as students with the worst teachers. Politicians and education reformers are calling for big changes in how teachers are trained and evaluated…and in the way teachers are hired and fired too.
October 6, 2010 - The Minnesota Twins open their postseason against the New York Yankees, a team that has been responsible for many of the Twins' woes in recent playoff appearances…and there's no expectation that the Yankees will be any less of a threat this time.
October 7, 2010 - Imagine staying awake for 78 hours straight. Now, picture yourself playing music continuously over the course of those four days...actually playing just one song, and stopping only for bathroom breaks. It's an incredibly grueling though familiar undertaking for Minneapolis singer songwriter Mark Mallman, who embarks on the third music marathon of his career at St. Paul's Turf Club.
October 7, 2010 - On this Midday, a “Meet the Candidates” program with guest Mark Dayton, the DFL gubernatorial candidate. Dayton answers questions about the key issues facing the state.
October 8, 2010 - Arthur Hoehn, MPR's first classical music announcer, joins Midday to discuss his 40-year career in radio. He is best known for hosting "Music Through the Night."
October 8, 2010 - Gov. Tim Pawlenty repeated his opposition Friday to so-called "insurance exchanges," a key piece of health care reform. He said exchanges amount to government interfering with the free market. That's a reversal from 2007, when Pawlenty proposed his own insurance exchange program for Minnesota businesses. Pawlenty says his opposition to exchanges is the reason he declined to send the US Government a state response to questions about exchanges. Three prominent Minnesota health groups secured a copy of the response and sent it anyway. Former GOP senator Dave Durenberger, a health policy expert, says their move was understandable. Pawlenty says a 2008 state analysis of exchanges found they'd be ineffective at reining in costs.