August 21, 2003 - A South Dakota state patrol accident report says Congressman Bill Janklow was traveling as much as 20 miles an hour over the speed limit when he ran a stop sign and collided with a motorcycle, killing the rider last weekend. Mainstreet Radio's Cara Hetland reports from Sioux Falls.
August 21, 2003 - MPR’s Mark Zdechlik reports on the first day of the Minnesota State Fair, which opened for business with none other than Governor Tim Pawlenty greeting some of the first visitors early in the morning. As always, there's a mixture of new attractions and old standbys at the fair, which officials hope will draw more than 1 and 3/4 million people over the week and a half of State Fair.
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August 26, 2003 - US Central Command says another American soldier has been killed in a bombing northwest of Baghdad in Iraq. A total of 139 soldiers have been killed since President Bush declared major combat over -- which is one more than died during the heavy fighting before that declaration. The violence in Iraq could soon be a part of life for a man who's worked at City Hall in Eden Prairie for nearly two decades. Don Uram (YER um) has been serving as Eden Prairie's director of management and budget, and is going to try his skills in a Basra, Iraq. He's joining a nonprofit called Research Triangle Institute International, which aims to improve local government in Iraq under a contract with the US government. Don Uram (YER um) joins us now.
August 26, 2003 - Bill Kennedy, an attorney who served as chief public defender in Hennepin County for 25 years, passed away last night at the age of 69. Kennedy started part-time as the sole Hennepin county public defender in 1972, and served until allegations surfaced in 1997 that he used his office to dig up dirt about a political challenger. Bill Kennedy was also active in the DFL and longtime Minnesota Public Radio listeners may remember him as one of our regular political commentators in the 1980s. In 1983, Minnesota businesses had complained in newspaper ads that Minnesota was losing jobs to South Dakota because of high taxes. During an MPR call-in program hosted by then MPR political reporter Pat Kessler, Kennedy criticized those ads.
August 26, 2003 - President Bush pulled in more than a million dollars this afternoon at a downtown St. Paul fundraiser for his re-election. Speaking to several hundred supporters at the RiverCentre, Bush touted his accomplishments in the White House over the past two-and-a-half years and said his work in Washington has only begun. Meanwhile, the president's critics offered a much different message outside the event. Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Zdechlik has the first of two reports on the president's visit.
August 26, 2003 - President Bush will is in Minnesota today raising money for his 2004 re-election campaign. The president will appear at a $2,000 a plate lunch in downtown St. Paul that is expected to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for his campaign. Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Zdechlik reports...
August 27, 2003 - Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak says he wants a police chief who keeps city streets safe, but also holds officers accountable and can be creative with the department's complex budget. Rybak makes his comments as the search for a replacement for Police Chief Robert Olson gets started in earnest.
August 27, 2003 - The state campaign finance board has dismissed complaints against Governor Pawlenty for consulting income he earned while running for governor. Pawlenty received 60-thousand dollars from political ally Elam Baer's pay phone company, Access Anywhere. The DFL and Green parties had filed complaints over the matter. They questioned whether Pawlenty's consulting company - BAMCO - was an attempt to circumvent political contribution limits, and whether the payments were corporation contributions, which are prohibited by law. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum joins me now from the Capitol. Laura, explain the campaign finance board's ruling. The board dismissed all of the complaints except one, which the board referred to the Dakota County attorney. The board said Pawlenty wasn't required to disclose his BAMCO earnings - candidates are required to report income from "associated business" which is defined as two or more people - and Pawlenty was the sole employee of BAMCO. Pawlenty also made no contributions to his own campaign - neither did Elam Baer. The board said it doesn't have the authority to investigate whether Pawlenty or Access Anywhere violated the ban on corporate contributions, which falls to the Dakota County attorney to investigate.
September 2, 2003 - Ed Meese, U.S. Attorney General under President Reagan, was in Minnesota today speaking about the Patriot Act. He called the act an important step in protecting America from terrorists. However, some groups call the legislation a threat to civil liberties. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports.