February 21, 2003 - Former Minnesota Governor Orville Freeman, who served as Agriculture Secretary under Presidents Kennedy andohnson, has died. He was 84. His family says Freeman died last night of complications from Alzheimer's disease. He had been living at Walker Methodist Health Center in south Minneapolis. Minnesota's 29th governor was a Minneapolis native. He was a University of Minnesota football star, a Marine during World War II and a close friend of Hubert Humphrey. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reports.
February 21, 2003 - The National Transportation Safety Board report in the plane crash that killed Senator Paul Wellstone last October says the Chief pilot initially decided not to fly after receiving a weather briefing that morning. After talking to a scheduler for the Wellstone campaign, however, he reversed his decision and took off for Eveleth with Senator Wellstone and 7 others aboard. The hundreds of pages of investigatory information made public today seems to lessen the likelihood that airframe icing was a significant factor in the crash, and seems to increase the role an airport navigation beacon played.
February 24, 2003 - (EMBARGOED UNTIL MONDAY 2/24/03 A.M.) A new poll shows most Minnesotans are ready to accept the level of spending reductions outlined in Governor Tim Pawlenty's budget plan. Last week, Pawlenty released a deficit-reduction package that pruned back planned spending by almost $3 billion dollars and offered no new tax increases. But the survey, conducted for Minnesota Public Radio and the St. Paul Pioneer Press, also shows that majorities of respondents expect the cutbacks to fall hard on some Minnesotans. Minnesota Public Radio's Michael Khoo has more.
February 25, 2003 - MPR’s Brandt Williams reports on Minneapolis budget cuts. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak says proposed cuts in Local Government Aid will cost the city nearly forty-five million dollars over the next two years. Rybak offered a preliminary estimate of how much each department will have to cut from in order to balance the city's budget. The cuts will be deepest in the city departments with the largest budgets: police, fire and public works. Some city officials say they fear these cuts will make it harder for police and fire departments to protect the people of Minneapolis.
February 26, 2003 - A new Minnesota Public Radio-St. Paul Pioneer Press poll finds nearly half of those polled think Governor Pawlenty is doing a good or excellent job. It's the first poll to ask about the governor's job performance since he was elected in November. Pawlenty supporters say the numbers are surprisingly high, coming after the governor released a budget that makes major spending cuts in a number of areas. Political observers say his approval rating could drop after the full impact of those cuts is known. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports...
March 6, 2003 - MPR’s Laura McCallum reports on more than a thousand gay and lesbian Minnesotans appearing at the Minnesota State Capitol to protest a proposal to remove sexual orientation from the state's human rights law. They called the bill mean-spirited. The bill's author says he wants to prevent homosexuality from being taught in the schools.
March 7, 2003 - The state of Minnesota is expected to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal matching funds... if the legislature passes Governor Tim Pawlenty's proposed cuts to health care programs in the state's budget. Missing out on the federal dollars is the topic of an article in this week's edition of "The Business Journal." Scott Smith is the reporter who wrote the story. He says state health officials are trying to calculate how much federal money the state will lose.
March 10, 2003 - County commissioners and other local leaders, are looking for ways to cope with the funding cuts in Governor Tim Pawlenty's budget. The governor's spending plan calls for cuts in many programs to fill a $4.2 billion shortfall. As debate over the proposal heats up, some officials are questioning the long term affects, especially in social programs. Mainstreet Radio's Bob Reha reports. <
March 10, 2003 - As part of the series “A Lesson on Learning: Behind No Child Left Behind,” MPR reporter Tim Pugmire reports on the battle over federal and local control over education in K-12 schools.
March 11, 2003 - James Fallows, author and international correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly discusses the long-term repercussions of the United State's military and political involvement in Iraq.