February 29, 2008 -
July 17, 2008 - We've been talking with Trisha Dillion, a healthcare consultant in Rochester, Minnesota, Steve Piragis, who owns an outfitter in Ely, Minnesota... and Jon Zitur, who works for a large local lumber company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They are among a group of people we've selected from around Minnesota to give us a first-hand perspective on the effects of the economic slowdown. We'll be checking in with them periodically over the coming months.
August 31, 2008 - Some folks are coming to the RNC to get delegates to watch movies. For the four days of the Convention the non-partisan Impact Film Festival will hold free screenings of new movies about healthcare, water protection, disaster recovery and other social challenges. The Festival opened last week at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Festival co-founder Jamie Shor (SHORE) told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr when film makers heard about the chance to show their work to policy makers, they not only offered their films for free, they all agreed to attend the screenings in person.
October 7, 2008 - Midday presents an American RadioWorks documentary titled "What Killed Sergeant Gray?" Sergeant Adam Gray made it home from Iraq only to die in his barracks. Investigating his death, American RadioWorks pieces together a story of soldiers suffering psychological scars – because they abused Iraqi prisoners.
November 14, 2008 - U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar and former U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger discussed the 2008 election results and their implications, at a recent discussion sponsored by the Minneapolis Club and the Minneapolis Foundation.
November 24, 2008 - DFL U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar will convene national health care leaders for a summit in Minneapolis. Klobuchar says she organized the event to give industry leaders an opportunity to discuss ways to strengthen America's health care system, including Medicare. She says the goal of the summit is to examine how to offer quality healthcare at an affordable price.
November 24, 2008 - MPR’s Elizabeth Baier reports on DFL U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar holding meeting with national health care leaders for a summit in Minneapolis. Klobuchar says she organized the event to give industry leaders an opportunity to discuss ways to strengthen America's health care system, including Medicare. She says the goal of the summit is to examine how to offer quality healthcare at an affordable price.
December 11, 2008 - In selecting Tom Daschle to be his health and human services secretary, President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday that he wanted Mr. Daschle, a former South Dakota senator, to pursue something that had eluded federal officials for decades: securing affordable, accessible health care for every single American. Whether Mr. Daschle, a former Senate majority leader, can succeed where others failed is unclear. Year after year, Mr. Obama said, "our leaders offer up detailed health care plans with great fanfare and promise, only to see them fail, derailed by Washington politics and influence peddling." Even Mr. Daschle, who will also be director of a new White House Office of Health Reform, acknowledges that the task will be difficult. In a recent book, he portrays the health care industry as a collection of special interests and predicts they will wage all-out war to defeat reform. Mr. Obama said Mr. Daschle, as head of the new office, would be the lead architect of proposals to expand coverage and rein in health costs.
December 29, 2008 - An initiative to make northwestern Minnesota hospitals more efficient is spreading across the state. It's called Lean Health and it uses the same ideas companies like Marvin Windows and Arctic Cat use to streamline assembly line production. Those companies are trying to encourage hospitals to use the same ideas. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Gunderson visited one hospital where the assembly line efficiency model is working for healthcare.
January 1, 2009 - MPR’s Curtis Gilbert spends a day at the Minnesota State Fair to gorge on varied food offerings to see how the fried and caloric intake may impact the body. It leads to surprising and unsurprising results.