April 27, 2001 - The Minnesota Senate has approved a higher education bill worth nearly three billion dollars. Most of the money would be split between the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. The bill includes an amendment designed to reduce the number of students who arrive at college unprepared to do coursework. Data released by the state's public colleges and universities shows nearly one-third of students from the class of 1999 had to take remedial classes in college. DFL Senator Tony Kinkel is behind the amendment.
April 27, 2001 - A bill suggests that colleges would charge high schools for underprepared students because the school needs to spend money on facilitating remedial classes that do not count toward student tracks. Exceptions include if the student is ESL or if they transferred to the high school during junior year or later.
April 30, 2001 -
May 1, 2001 - Family members of children killed at Columbia claim that video games like Doom inspired the violence at the high school.
May 3, 2001 -
May 4, 2001 - MPR's Morning Edition, Friday, May 4, 2001 Topic New voices for NOAA Weather Radio The National Weather Service is conducting an online poll to test the public reaction to new synthesized computer voices for broadcasting over the NOAA Weather Radio system.
May 4, 2001 - Senate wants to spend more than House and Governor.
May 7, 2001 -
May 7, 2001 - MPR’s Marisa Helms reports on a two day conference on Tibetan medicine, which coincides with Dalai Lama's visit to Minnesota. The healing practices are one of the oldest forms of medicine, dating back to the 4th century AD. The main components involve dietary and lifestyle changes, herbal medicine, and massage. Minnesota has the country's second-largest Tibetan Buddhist community.
May 8, 2001 - The Minneapolis School Board is holding a public meeting tonight to discuss the district's plan to radically change high schools to improve performance. Minneapolis has a 47 percent graduation rate... the second lowest in the state. The district will use a one (M)million dollar grant from the McKnight foundation to create what it calls "smaller learning communities." Bob McCauley is co-chairing the project. He says most dropouts return to highschool multiple times before leaving for good: