April 13, 2009 - Governor Tim Pawlenty joins Gary Eichten in the MPR studio to answer questions about the state's $4.6 billion budget shortfall, and other key issues being debated in the 2009 legislative session.
April 14, 2009 - Margaret Anderson Kelliher, speaker of the Minnesota House; and Larry Pogemiller, the Minnesota Senate majority leader, discuss the $4.6 billion budget shortfall and other key issues being negotiated in the final five weeks of the 2009 Legislative session.
May 5, 2009 - MPR’s Kate Smith is joined by Sandy Baum, Liz Pulliam Weston, and Steven Roy Goodman to discuss if higher education is really worth the cost.
May 14, 2009 - MPR’s Stephanie Hemphill reports that critics of Minnesota's new ballast water permit system will argue in court that the system doesn't do enough to protect Lake Superior from invasive species. They say with a deadly fish virus infesting every Great Lake except Lake Superior, the state needs to act more quickly and more effectively.
May 18, 2009 - University of Minnesota and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System Colleges expect big tuition increases.
May 18, 2009 - Minnesota's safety net hospitals are sifting through their options after Governor Pawlenty eliminated public insurance coverage for up to 35,000 of the state's poorest adults to balance the budget. The cuts don't take effect until the middle of 2010. But hospitals say they will have to start making some tough decisions now to make up for the expected *reductions*. Minnesota Public Radio's Lorna Benson reports. {
May 19, 2009 - MPR’s Tom Scheck reports that the number of people on the state's payroll has grown even though thousands of government employees have retired since Governor Tim Pawlenty ordered a hiring freeze at state agencies.
June 1, 2009 - MPR’s Elizabeth Stawicki reports on arguments to the Supreme Court over Senate seat.. Minnesota's long-running U.S. Senate race is in the hands of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Justices grilled attorneys for Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken during oral arguments. Coleman is appealing a three-judge panel's decision that put Franken ahead by 312 votes.
June 2, 2009 - Minnesota 5th District’s Keith Ellison, America's first Muslim member of Congress, reflects on his recent trips to the Mideast and previews President Obama's speech in Egypt. Ellison comments on how to rebuild U.S. relations with Muslim world and answers listener questions.
June 19, 2009 - As friends and colleagues mark the 25th anniversary of Joan Growe's 19-ballot DFL endorsement for the U.S. Senate in 1984, Growe joins Midday to talk about her career in politics. Growe also answers listener questions.