May 8, 2001 - A St. Paul art history professor who secretly photographs women and then kills them is John Sandford's villain in his new book "CHOSEN PREY." In the 12th book in a best-selling series, Sandford's detective hero, Lucas Davenport wrestles with his personal life even as he chases the serial killer through the Twin Cities. Sandford was a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper. He left journalism several years ago to begin writing the "Prey" books. Sandford told Minnesota Public Radio's Greta Cunningham sticking with the same main character though so many stories introduces some challenges.
May 9, 2001 - Walker Art Center officials are downplaying reports they will have to close for up to a year during construction of the museum's ninety (M)million dollar expansion. At a community meeting earlier this week, Walker admisitrative director David Galligan raised that possibility. But he says at this point, it's only speculation:
May 11, 2001 - In Nani Power's novel "Crawling at Night," a Japanese chef leads a lonely, but obsessed, life in New York. His obsessions? Making the best sushi possible, and finding his lost love. He's been forced to move from his homeland to the U.S. by a dark secret, and finds his new life hard. In Japan his skills preparing raw fish were revered: in America they prompt irritating remarks.
May 14, 2001 - MPR’s Tasha Rosenfeld talks with Bob Frame, executive director of The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota, about organization’s list of the state's "ten most endangered historic properties." The annual register includes typical historic sites, including an old school house, a series of stone arch bridges, and Minnesota's oldest hospital. But at the top of the list is the Guthrie Theater, a structure built just four decades ago.
May 15, 2001 - Ramsey County dedicated its first Heritage park today to honor almost three thousand poor people buried in unmarked graves more than a century ago. The county is recovering the Maplewood site with fill leftover from recent sandbagging along the Mississippi. Robert Vogel is the Historic Preservation Planning Consultant for the project. I asked him to describe the site today:
May 15, 2001 - PRONUNCIATION: Wing Young Huie (Huie = HUE ee, like dewey) Guards, metal detectors and locked doors at the new Ramsey Council Juvenile Detention Center in downtown St. Paul create an unmistakable impression of a secure facility. A permanent collection of huge black and white photographs of Minnesota's young people add a striking human dimension to the institution's walls. The pictures have been taken by Minneapolis photographer Wing Young Huie (HUE ee). For thirteen years, Huie who is a native of Duluth, has balanced his commercial photography business with his interest in documentary photography. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson talked with Wing Young Huie about the images in the Detention Center, starting with one showing riders of all races and ages packed into a 21A Lake street bus.. Minneapolis photographer Wing Young Huie (HUE ee) talking with MPR's Dan Olson. A new permanent exhibit of Huie's pictures were unveiled today at the new Ramsey County Juvenile Detention Facility in downtown St. Paul. A private benefactor, not taxpayers, paid for the installation.
May 17, 2001 - Over the last few weeks bright orange and black butterflies have been returning to the Minnesota landscape. As ever the Monarchs look remarkably fresh for having flown a long and circuitous route from their winter homes in Mexico. That journey has long been a source of fascination and mystery to humans. Every year volunteers, many of them school students, tag thousand of butterflies in the hope they will be captured in Mexico, and reveal a little more about how the Monarchs make their trip. For her book "Four Wings and a Prayer" author Sue Halpern spent almost a year travelling the Monarch flyways meeting the scientists and others who are trying to piece the puzzle together. She told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr her fascination began in Mexico. Author Sue Halpern will read from her book "Four Wings and a Prayer" at the Como Lakeside Pavilion on North Lexington Avenue in St Paul tonight at 7.
May 18, 2001 - A grafitti writer in Duluth is interviewed. Winners of Minnesota Music Awards.
May 18, 2001 - A traveling exhibition of artifacts from the Harlem Renaissance are heading back to the Weisman Museum.
May 18, 2001 - This Sunday Open Book in Minneapolis celebrates its first anniversary, and a very successful year. Co-owned by the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, the Loft Literary Center and Milkweed Editions publishing company, Open Book is the nations first center of its kind: a place to read, write and bind books. Minnesota Public Radio's Marianne Combs reports: { At the center of the Open Book building white panels furl out from the handrail of a large spiral staircase. Sculptor and Book Artist Karen Worth, who helped design the staircase is writing a series of words onto scrolls of paper attached to the panels - she says the staircase is not only a physical connection between the floors of the building but also a metaphorical connection between the different book organizations working in the building.