January 16, 1997 - If you think you have it bad in winter, Greg Rhode has a tale for you. Storms literally buried his home. Rhode says that he lives at the end of a cul-de-sac, on the other side of a wide beet field -- conditions that seem to dump snow right on their house.
January 16, 1997 - ((NO INTRO -- USE KLB's pkg as intro)) This is Martin Kaste. State legislators' reaction to the Governor's State of the State address was, on the whole, polite. There were a few instances of crude jokes and notes being passed among the DFL's backbenchers during the speech itself, but their leaders were more diplomatic. House Speaker Phil Carruthers praised what he called the Governor's "bipartisan spirit": ((In many ways his agenda is the same as ours.... similar agenda... welfare reform ... I think there's a termendous numbe of areas where there's going to be a lot of bipartisan cooperation. 0:22)) But the DFL leadership's conciliatory
January 16, 1997 - Governor Arne Carlson delivered his annual "state of the state address" to a joint convention of the legislature. As Minnesota Public Radio's Karen-Louise Boothe reports, the Governor made his first DIRECT pitch for funding a new baseball stadium and hammered familiar themes of his administration's policies: The annual State of the State Address is a Governor's time to take center stage and be his or her persuasive BEST. THIS year, the governor had reason to sound fairly upbeat. The state is enjoying a projected surplus of 1.4-BILLION dollars, unemployment is low and job creation is ahead of the national average. Another factor leading to the Governor's optimism is the promise by state lawmakers to work harder than ever to be bi-partisan and civil when it comes to doing the state's business.
January 16, 1997 - One estimate places the number of homeless teenagers in Minneapolis at well over 1500. There's room for several dozen at emergency shelters, while many others find a temporary place to stay with friends or relatives. Others live in cars or vacant buildings before they move on. Youth advocates say homeless teens need permanent housing before they can begin getting their lives back together. A refurbished apartment building opened in Minneapolis recently with 30 units of permanent housing for homeless young people. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reports. Stereotypes of homeless teenagers melt away on meeting 'Amy'. Wearing a new flannel shirt and blue jeans, the self confident sixteen year old could just as easily be class president instead of a teenager who's been on the move for two years.
January 17, 1997 - On this installment of Voices from the Heartland, Duluth poet Barton Sutter provides a commentary on the late Minneapolis poet John Engman in a reading of “Citizen of the Milky Way: Eulogy to John Engman.”
January 18, 1997 - Cakes, wizards and stiltwalkers are appearing at the Science Museum of Minnesota today. The Museum marks it's 90th Birthday...and to celebrate the Museum is throwing a party and offering FREE admission today. Over 800-thousand people visit the museum annually---and it's also the number one destination for school field trips. The Museum's Director of Marketing and Communication--Jane Eastwood--says many things have changed over the past 90 years...but the focus has remained the same.
January 20, 1997 - Ambassador Andrew Young says his friend Martin Luther King, Jr. "did everything he could to be an ordinary person but became a man of destiny." Young worked with King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and was on the motel balcony next to him when a sniper killed King. Young spoke today in Minneapolis at the 7th annual Martin Luther King,Jr. day breakfast sponsored by the General Mills Foundation. We have a couple of excerpts of Ambassador Young's remarks. Ambassador Young said the civil rights work to be done in this country is what he calls integrating the nation's money. Young says people whose neighborhoods are redlined by lenders are like residents of an underdeveloped nation living inside the United States.
January 20, 1997 - On this Odd Jobs feature, MPR’s Euan Kerr interviews Steve Sklar, a local throat singer. Sklar specializes in a style of music born on the windy steppes of Mongolia. He describes and performs various traditional styles of throat singing.
January 20, 1997 - MPR’s Tim Pugmire profiles Seed Academy and Harvest Preparatory School, an African American private school in North Minneapolis. The school began in 1985 as a pre-school program in its founders' house. Ten years later there are 300 students enrolled in pre-school through sixth grade.
January 21, 1997 - The state legislative auditor says the cost of special education is going up fast in Minnesota -- almost twice as fast as the cost of general K-12 schooling. The finding is part of a report released today (Tuesday) that has many legislators worried that special education may soon become too expensive for the state to bear... but as Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste reports, legislators aren't sure what to do about it: Minnesota schools spent 1-point-1 Billion (B) dollars on special education students in 1995... that's about 21 percent of their total budgets. On a student-by-student basis, that works out to about 12-thousand dollars a year. Non-special ed students cost less than 6 thousand dollars a year. The numbers are impressive, but not particularly surprising to the legislators who appropriate the money being spent. Senate K-12 Budget committee