June 25, 2003 -
June 25, 2003 - The budget balancing pain has been dramatically unequal this year in the state's two largest school districts. School boards in Minneapolis and St. Paul approved operating budgets last Tuesday night for the coming school year. St. Paul officials cut one-point-nine million dollars to balance the budget, while Minneapolis had to solve a 30-million dollar deficit. Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Pugmire reports...
June 26, 2003 - Grand Rapids is hoping to lure a couple thousand Judy Garland fans to town this weekend. It's the annual Judy Garland Festival. And this year, the town is unveiling its new Judy Garland museum. Chris Julin paid a visit, and he has this Mainstreet Radio report.
June 26, 2003 -
July 1, 2003 -
July 2, 2003 - In the wake of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church, diocese across the country have set up policy review boards. Two boards in central Minnesota are beginning their work, one at St. John's Abbey and the other at the St. Cloud Diocese. Their purpose is to monitor the church's policies and response to sexual abuse. Church officials say the boards have been thoughtfully developed. They say many have a mix of non-Catholic as well as Catholic members, abuse victims and law enforcement officials. But victims' rights groups are less optimistic. They doubt the review boards will have the power to make any real change in church policy. Mainstreet Radio's Tim Post has more in this report.
July 3, 2003 - About 1500 members of American Mensa, the high IQ society, are in St. Paul this week for the group's 41st annual gathering. The group is open to people 14 and older who score in the top two percent of the general population on a standardized intelligence test. However, some of it's members say there's more to intelligence than a test score. Minnesota Public Radio's Brandt Williams reports.
July 7, 2003 -
July 7, 2003 - School districts around the country are bracing for today's release of "the List." The federal government is expected to release its list of public schools that are not making adequate progress in student achievement according to the "No Child Left Behind Act." Minneapolis and St. Paul schools are expected to dominate the list in Minnesota. Joining us on the line is Pat Harvey... superintendent of the St. Paul Public School District. That is St. Paul School Superintendent Pat Harvey.
July 8, 2003 - An English teacher in Japan has caused an international stir by exposing some strange coincidences between the recent lyrics of Bob Dylan and a book by Japanese doctor and writer Junichi Saga. Chris Johnson, a native of Minnesota, is a Dylan aficionado who happened across Saga's "Confessions of a Yakuza" in a Japanese book store. Saga's book is an oral history of a gangster who was one of Saga's patients. On a Dylan internet site, Johnson claims that lines on Dylan's latest album "Love and Theft" were lifted from Saga's book. Paul Williams is the editor of the Rock N Roll magazine "Crawdaddy," and the author of several books on Dylan's music. He says it's not the first time Dylan has taken a line from another writer.