April 7, 2003 - MPR’ Brandt Williams reports on a Sunday evening worship service held in the State Theater in Minneapolis, where Black leaders told the crowd of nearly 500 that African Americans still face high rates of unemployment, poverty and health problems. They expressed hope that through church and community collaboration, those problems can be solved.
April 9, 2003 - MPR’s Dan Olson reports from the Mondale Lecture Series. A panel of Democrats, led by former Vice-President Walter Mondale, remember the so-called, "fabulous 89th", the Congressional session where many of this country's most familiar social programs became law.
April 10, 2003 - All Things Considered’s Lorna Benson interviews Peter Thompson about his views on the Iraq War. He spent three weeks in Iraq during December 2002 as part of a delegation from Chicago-based Voices in the Wilderness.
April 21, 2003 - MPR’s Bob Kelleher reports on efforts by Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa officials to relocate the remains of Ojibwe, whose graves were uprooted and moved more than one hundred years ago from a cemetery on Wisconsin Point, which lies along the shores of Lake Superior. The remains were reburied in a mass grave in Superior, Wisconsin.
April 25, 2003 - All Things Considered’s Lorna Benson interviews Jim Crotty about The Boys and Girls Clubs of America announcement of deep cuts to its Twin Cities programs. The organization is facing a budget shortfall of nearly $300,000, after a reduction in the amount of individual and corporate contributions. The seven clubs in the Twin Cities will operate four days a week instead of five and every employee will take a 20% pay cut.
May 7, 2003 - MPR’s Art Hughes reports on U.S. Ambassador to Laos visiting Minnesota to promote the start of normal trade relations with the communist country. The visit sparked protests, organized primarily by Hmong veterans who sided with the United States during the Vietnam War, but who were driven out when the U.S. withdrew its support. They say opening relations with Laos only rewards a brutal regime.
May 12, 2003 - A Midday broadcast of four former Minnesota governors (Arne Carlson, Wendell Anderson, Elmer L. Andersen, and Al Quie) speaking at the 2003 Freeman Forum - Community, Consensus & the Common Good.
May 14, 2003 - MPR’s Nikki Tundel speaks with Erich Mische, the state director for U.S. Senator Norm Coleman, about a St. Paul high school student facing deportation. Tchisou Tho was scheduled for deportation just 22 days before he would have become the first in his family to graduate from high school, but won a delay that will allow him to graduate with his classmates in June.
May 27, 2003 - MPR’s Mary Losure reports that a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the federal government does have the authority to deport a local Somali immigrant to his homeland, even though Somalia has no functioning government. Attorneys for immigrant Keyse Jama say they will appeal, and the case could go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
June 11, 2003 - A last-minute infusion of money will allow the Minnesota Gang Strike Force to remain intact through another year after the Legislature grabbed most of its budget to help balance the state budget. Attorney General Mike Hatch announced that his office was providing $135,000 to help the strike force stay afloat. Created in 1997, the strike force brings together officers from across the state to work as one unit in fighting gang crime. What is the future of the strike force, and predicted summer gang activity in Minnesota? Ron Ryan, commander, Minnesota Gang Strike Force, discusses these questions.