August 24, 1997 - MPR’s Dan Olson visits Minnesota State Fair bee exhibit superintendent Winnie Johnson in the horticulture building to discuss bees in our state. Johnson raises bees in Anoka County.
August 24, 1997 - Move over Shirley Temple, step aside Fred Astaire--several nationally acclaimed tap dancers are shuffeling into the Twin Cities this weekend for the Tappin' In the Twin Cities Festival. You're listenting to 18-year old St. Paul dance sensation Tyheesha Collins. She's a featured dancer in this weekend's festival. I met her between classes at the Hennepin Center for the Arts in Minneapolis . Tyheesha says she started tapping when she was two years old. Her six year old cousin was taking tap and little Tyheesha used to get in trouble for stealing her cousins tap shoes.
August 25, 1997 - One of the newer animal exhibits at the Minnesota State Fair is The Butterfly House. David Bohlken, of St. Paul, has set up a big see-through, tent-like enclosure the size of a double garage, which originator Bolhken says is a great scientific study.
August 28, 1997 -
September 2, 1997 - On the first day of school, Midday features a a back-to-school show with guest Joe Nathan, director of the Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute. Topics includes charter schools and test scores.
September 2, 1997 - As students and teachers head back to class today, one of the state's best-known teachers will be staying home. Jon Hassler, the author of novels like "The Dean's List" and "Staggerford", has retired after 42 years teaching high school and college.
September 4, 1997 - MPR's Martin Kaste reports that Minnesota Indian tribes are reacting skeptically to suggestions they use their casino revenues to help pay for a new Twins stadium. The co-chairman of the Legislature's special stadium finance task force met with the chief executive of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in an attempt to get Indian money for a possible stadium financing package... but at least one Indian official in St. Paul says state politicians are "crazy" to think they can convince tribes to pay for the stadium when Minnesota taxpayers won't.
September 6, 1997 - Midday presents two segments about helping the homeless. In the first half hour, a rebroadcast of reporter Dan Olson's Voices of Minnesota interview with the head of Catholic Charities of Minnesota, Rev. Jerome Boxleitner. In the second half hour a rebroadcast of the MPR documentary Loaves and Fishes, about a Duluth Catholic facility for helping the homeless.
September 10, 1997 - Midday guests St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman and his challenger State Senator Sandy Pappas visit the Minnesota Public Radio studios to talk about issues facing the city and to answer questions from MPR listeners. Topics include partisanship, city development, housing, and downtown revitalization.
September 16, 1997 - Mainstreet Radio’s Mark Steil reports on workers at Oak Hills Living Center, a New Ulm nursing home in southwest Minnesota, who unionized several years ago and currently are locked in a bitter strike with management. They want higher pay, but government Medicaid policies and other regulations make that a difficult goal to reach.