November 27, 2002 - MPR’s Cathy Wurzer interviews Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak about Tyesha Edwards shooting. Two men, ages 21 and 23, are in custody in connection with the shooting.
November 27, 2002 - A special re-broadcast of a "Voices of Minnesota" interview with the late James Griffin, the first African American to become deputy police chief in St. Paul, and to hold various leadership positions in the St. Paul Police Department. Griffin died on Saturday. We'll also explore charitable giving during the Thanksgiving holiday, and the lastest happenings at the Union Gospel Mission in St. Paul.
December 2, 2002 - MPR’s Lorna Benson talks with Met Council’s Frank Hornstein about which languages will appear on ticket vending machines for the Hiawatha light rail line. Under the current proposal, the machines will operate in English, Spanish and Hmong…the three most widely used languages in the Twin Cities. But Somali advocates are protesting the plan because so many Somali citizens live along the Hiawatha route. It would cost more than $100,000 to add a fourth language to the vending machines.
December 2, 2002 - MPR’s Greta Cunningham interviews Met Council Frank Hornstein about meeting to reconsider which languages will appear on ticket vending machines for the Hiawatha light rail line. Under the current proposal, the machines will operate in English, Spanish and Hmong- the three most widely used languages in the Twin Cities. But Somali advocates are protesting the plan because so many Somali citizens live along the Hiawatha route. It would cost more than $100,000 to add a fourth language to the vending machines.
December 3, 2002 -
December 6, 2002 -
December 6, 2002 - Work crews in St. Paul braved the cold Thursday to erect two giant steel oak leaves that tower over a set of colorful public benches. Sponsors of the sculpture say it's the first artist-designed bus shelter in the city, and they hope it'll be inspiration for more public art on a notoriously bland commercial strip. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes reports.
December 6, 2002 - MPR’s Tom Scheck reports on the expensive Minnesota's U.S. Senate race.
December 9, 2002 - On the prairies of southwest Minnesota, hundreds of wind turbines generate so much electricity that the state's largest utility, Xcel Energy, plans to build over a hundred miles of new transmission lines to bring power east to the Twin Cities. If the project is approved, it will be the biggest one built in Minnesota since a nationwide boom in transmission line construction ended twenty years ago. Some in the industry say now we need to build the next wave of transmission lines. But in Minnesota, many people remember a time when a powerline project went wrong. In the late 1970's, a mass protest swept through the normally conservative farm country of west central Minnesota. Farmers tried to stop construction of a 400 mile long transmission line that would cross their land on the way from North Dakota to the Twin Cities. In this special report, "Powerline Blues," MPR reporter Mary Losure looks back the conflict through the eyes of people who lived it. It's a story of how a system they didn't think was fair turned ordinary people into radicals.
December 11, 2002 - As local governments finish the annual budget process, they are holding public hearings to give property taxpayers a chance to comment on the tax bills they'll get in the new year. This year the meetings occur against the ominous backdrop of a big state budget deficit that has cities, counties -- and taxpayers -- worried about what the future holds. Minnesota Pubilc Radio's William Wilcoxen attended last night's "Truth in Taxation" hearing in Saint Paul and has this report...