December 4, 1996 - The Minnesota Twins say their financial losses continued to mount in 1996, reinforcing the need for a new ballpark. Team officials revealed their latest figures while renewing their pitch for a stadium before the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission.
December 4, 1996 - Sandra Peterson is the president of the Minnesota Federation of Teachers, one of the state's two major teachers' unions. Her reaction to the plan was not favorable.
December 4, 1996 - A mediation committee has failed to reach agreement on a plan to revise management of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness. The committee negotiating the best uses for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area struggled to find any consensus after a proposal once considered a possible compromise was rejected by some Ely area residents and those who want to expand the wilderness.
December 4, 1996 - MPR’s Chris Roberts interviews Jane Anfinson, electric violinist and vocalist of Own, a Minneapolis art rock band that combines classical and jazz influences with traditional pop song structures. Anfinson discusses redefining instrumentation and abstract lyrics.
December 5, 1996 - Midday discusses the various changes being proposed for Minnesota's education system with guest Joe Nathan, the director of the Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute. Nathan also answers listener call-in questions.
December 5, 1996 - In Scadinavia, Knut Hamsun is a conflicted figure. He is one of the most revered Norwegian novelists, yet he supported the Nazi's. Hamsun was born in Norway in 1859, and died there in 1952 at the age of 93. In between, he travelled twice to the United States, lectured in Minneapolis , wrote plays, short stories, essays, and 21 novels, won the Nobel prize, and eulogized Hitler. More of his novels have been made into movies than any other Norwegian's, from Growth of the Soil in 1921 to last year's Pan. And this year saw the premiere of a biographical film, starring Max Von Sydow as the author. The U Film Society in Minneapolis is showing a bunch of the movies this month and next, so we asked Bill Mishler, professsor in the U of M Scandinavian Studies department, for a primer on Hamsun, starting with 1890's Hunger.
December 5, 1996 - State lawmakers opened a new chapter in public education six years ago by creating an alternative school structure for new and innovative learning programs. Minnesota's first charter school opened in 1992. Today, there are 19 schools with enrollment totaling 21-hundred students. State education officials are currently reviewing the progress of charter schools. The Department of Children, Families and Learning will present a report to the state legislature in January. Charter school advocates say they're creating a flexible and creative learning option for children, but some question whether the schools have enough money to succeed.
December 6, 1996 - Negotiations in the federal mediation of the Boundary Waters issue are taking some time off after 14 non-consecutive days of negotiations. After months of discussion it seems there are still large disagreements over basic issues. In fact, one of the participants, Bill Hansen, a second generation canoe outfitter, has proposed just sticking with the status quo.
December 9, 1996 - Hour 2 of Midmorning, featuring Voices of Minnesota with Barbara Frey, outgoing executive director of the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights and conversation with Minnesota writer Mary Casanova.
December 11, 1996 - The first part of this story is directed at kids ... Kids, if your mom or dad is talking about buying a computer for Christmas, make sure you get them to promise to take care of it. You should make it clear that owning a computer is a big responsibility, and you know they're going to be asking you to show them how to work it. Now, for the adults in our audiences ... I asked Jon Gordon, host of Minnesota Public Radio's Future Tense, the best way to go about buying computer stuff during the holidays.