March 31, 1998 - MPR’s Eicthen takes a listener call who describes a harrowing in-person experience of the tornado that struck the town of Comfrey, Minnesota.
March 31, 1998 - Dennis Gimmestad, member of the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office, comments on tornado damage to historic buildings in St. Peter.
March 31, 1998 - MPR’s Perry Finelli interviews Greg Aune, choral director at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, as he describes the scene after tornado hit the town. Like other parts of town, Gustavus Adolphus College was severely damaged, including the chapel...which lost its 137-foot spire. Aune says the campus has been transformed.
April 1, 1998 - DFL Senator Larry Pogemiller and Republican Representative Alice Seagren discuss education funding and issues. “Profile of Learning” standard is part of discussion. Pogemiller and Seagren also answer listener questions.
April 1, 1998 - MPR’s Euan Kerr presents yet another April Fools’ Day treat. In a secret location just a few miles over the Minnesota border into Wisconsin. Kerr interviews Milt Whiting, who is an attempting to bring the little known, but possibly illegal, European practice of fish-grooming to the Midwest.
April 1, 1998 - MPR's Bob Kelleher reports from Duluth, where one of the Ojibwe Bands that had staked its fortunes on a casino at Hudson, Wisconsin is now struggling under a new financial crisis. Northern Wisconsin's Red Cliff Band was one of three whose joint application to build a new Casino near Minnesota's border was rejected by Interior Department Secretary Bruce Babbitt, triggering a federal investigation. The Red Cliff Band has declared a state of emergency after discovering a huge shortfall of cash intended to support social programs. Now it is trying to keep services in place.
April 1, 1998 - MPR’s Gretchen Lehmann profiles the historical impact of the “Willmar 8” and how it will be remembered by future generations. Lehmann interviews a member of the “Willmar 8” and two academics.
April 1, 1998 - In his new book Slaves in the Family Edward Ball tells a quintessentially American story. It begins in 1698 when Ball's ancestor, Elias Ball leftEngland for South Carolina to claim his inheiritance: a small rice plantation and twenty slaves. The author follows the story of the Ball family and the story of the Ball plantation slaves and their descendants. Ball started his research with records from his ancestor's plantation... and used them to track down the living kin of the slaves that worked the land. He told Minnesota Public Radio's Perry Finelli how the slave descendants reacted when he made contact with them.
April 1, 1998 -
April 2, 1998 - Steven Schier, Carleton College political science professor, and employment lawyer/sexual harassment expert Ellen Sampson, of the Minneapolis law firm Leonard, Street and Deinard, discuss the implications of the Paula Jones lawsuit being thrown out of court. Schier and Sampson also answer listener questions.