September 25, 1998 - Jim Ramstad, 3rd district Republican congressman and member of the House Ways and Means Committee, discusses issues facing Congress in the next two or three weeks before the election recess. Topics include taxes, impeachment, and outstanding bills in Congress. Ramstad also answers listener questions.
September 25, 1998 - With 1998 Major League Baseball season coming to a close, MPR’s William Wilcoxen looks at the gloomy outlook for Minnesota Twins as play on the field and empty seats in the Metrodome do not bode well for the future.
September 28, 1998 - Tim Penny, former Minnesota congressman, discusses his book, "The 15 Biggest Lies in Politics." Penny states that some of the things we think of as basics in American government are really lies, such as tax cuts, balanced budgets, the influence of money in elections, and more. Penny also answers listener questions.
September 28, 1998 - MPR’s Elizabeth Stawicki profiles Paul Molitor, who may have played his last ballgame. The Minnesota native has played in the major leagues for 20 years, raking up statistics that many analysts say make him a shoo-in for the MLB’s Hall of Fame.
September 28, 1998 - Country musician and novelist Kinky Friedman likes to irritate people. He grew up in a liberal Jewish family in Texas, but soon was making people wince if only through the name of his band "Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys." In time Kinky turned to writing novels: crime thrillers with a jewish Texan detective called, strangely enough, Kinky Friedman. His eleventh novel "Blast From the Past" was just published, and now he is touring the country reading from the book and irritating people some more. However when he came into the MPR studios today, brandishing his trademark cigar, it was his turn to be a little miffed when he heard how Garth Brooks sold out a series of concerts at the target Center in just hours last week. Friedman told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr he considers Brooks to be "the anti-Hank", the epitome of everything Hank Williams was not.
September 28, 1998 - A new installation at the Soap Factory art gallery in Minneapolis is giving visitors a chance to consider how they respond to art. The small, three-room exhibit is called "Potential Space," and it's designed to create a place where the artist's intentions aren't nearly as important as the viewer's perceptions.
September 28, 1998 - Over the weekend the largest windfarm in the world was dedicated in Southwestern Minnesota, and started feeding electricity into the power grid. However if you want a smaller wind generator just for a house or a farm, you have to look further north. A Duluth company is one of only a half a dozen in the world which manufactures small wind generators intended to power single households. World Power Technologies is finding new markets for it's tower-mounted generators after riding a wild boom and bust cycle in the United States for 20 years.
September 29, 1998 - Our September installment of the MPR "Voices of Minnesota" series is a special baseball edition, with profiles of Minnesota baseball stars Paul Molitor and Kirby Puckett. MPR’s Elizabeth Stawicki interviews Molitor and Jim Bickal interviews Puckett. Following interviews a conversation with sports commentator Howard Sinker and call-in from listeners.
September 29, 1998 - The Assassination Records Review Board which has spent the past four years pouring through classified documents on the assassination of President Kennedy, will present its final report to President Clinton tomorrow. The Board's main goal was to find and release as much information on the case as possible, to help restore Americans' trust in government following years of conspiracy and coverup rumors. U.S. District Judge John Tunheim of Minneapolis served as Chairman of the review board. He says the panelists succeeded in releasing more than 4 million pages on the assassination and learned a lot in the process.
September 29, 1998 - Minnesota continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. At any give time there are more than twenty thousand available jobs. State and county welfare reformers are hoping to take advantage of that open job market to help Minnesota's welfare recipients move back into the workforce. And Minnesota Public Radio's Kathryn Herzog reports there's been a shift away from education to on the job training.