January 29, 1999 - Christine Jax, commissioner of Children, Families and Learning, discusses the Governor's education budget with the chairs of the House and Senate K-12 education committees - DFL Senate Chairman, Larry Pogemiller; and Republican House Chair, Alice Seagren. Jax, Pogemiller, and Seagren also answer listener questions.
February 1, 1999 - Playwright, actor, and director, Lillian Garrett-Groag just had a unique experience at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis . Not only is she one of the few living writers to see her work performed on the Guthrie stage... her play depicts her own life-story. Garrett-Groag told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr "The Magic Fire" is a fictionalized account of her childhood in Argentina, as the daughter of European immigrants.
February 1, 1999 - The House Tax committee today backed a one-billion dollar income tax rebate, tossing out Governor Ventura's sales tax rebate plan. D-F-L'ers on the committee argued a sales tax rebate would benefit more Minnesotans, but Republicans say the bulk of the state's budget surplus came from income taxes, so the rebate should go back to income taxpayers.
February 2, 1999 - Pat Harrison, project director of the Minnesota Student Survey, discusses the findings of the latest survey about teen sex, drugs, smoking and alcohol. Harrison is with the Department of Human Services. Harrison also answers listener questions.
February 3, 1999 - The Minnesota Supreme Court today hears arguments on whether the Attorney General's office can investigate whether the Twins threat to move to North Carolina violated anti-trust laws. Attorneys for the Twins and Major League Baseball say the investigation is pointless because Baseball is exempt from anti-trust laws.
February 3, 1999 - A lawyer for the Minnesota Twins asked the State Supreme Court today to block Attorney General Mike Hatch's investigation into whether the ball club broke anti-trust laws. The A-G's office wants to look into whether Major League Baseball conspired to keep other baseball teams from locating to Minnesota if the Twins made good on their threat to move to North Carolina.
February 3, 1999 - Minnesota Republican Senator Rod Grams wants to rename the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in honor of a prominent Democrat. Today, Grams introduced a bill to rename the BWCA the Hubert H. Humphrey Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Grams says doing so would honor the late Vice President.
February 4, 1999 - A stabbing last weekend at the Mall of America and an unrelated gunshot incident only weeks before have led to increased scrutiny of security at the suburban shopping center.
February 4, 1999 - Governor Ventura and lawmakers from both parties say they want to eliminate the so-called "marriage tax penalty". Nearly everyone agrees taxing married couples at a higher rate than single people is unfair, but some lawmakers worry that lower-income taxpayers and single parents will pay the price.
February 4, 1999 - Folks in Devil's Lake North Dakota read in their morning paper that they'd be part of a space experiment today. The Mir space station was planning to shine a mirror on them at 7:30 tonight and illuminate the town. Space officials hoped the operation would prove it is possible to use to moon to give extra light to sun-starved cities. But the experiment hit a snag when the mirror got caught on the cargo ship's antenna. Fred Bott is the Mayor of Devil's lake. We asked him how it felt to find out he'd be part of an experiment, and then NOT.