January 18, 1999 - MPR’s Bob Kelleher reports on Madeline Island’s Windsled. Fewer than 200 people live year 'round on the Island just off the southern shore of Lake Superior near Bayfield, Wisconsin. While island life revolves around the mainland ferry schedule most of the year, islanders can drive across the ice during the depths of winter….but for a few weeks each year, the trip to shore has to be made in the island's unique water transportation vehicle.
January 18, 1999 - MPR’s Laura McCallum reports on Jesse Ventura’s lively inaugural bash as the 38th governor of Minnesota. Segment includes sounds and music clips from the event.
January 21, 1999 - Christine Jax, Commissioner of the Department of Children, Families, and Learning; and Claudia Fuentes, of the Urban Coalition, discuss a proposal by state education officials to eliminate mandatory desegregation "race quotas" to change the racial balance in Minnesota's public schools. Jax and Fuentes also answer listener questions.
January 25, 1999 - To close out the millennium, Minnesota Public Radio's All Things Considered presents a look back at Minnesota life in 1900 via a 12-part series, entitled “A Minnesota Century.” In this segment, a look back at the Battle of Sugar Point…a fight between the U.S. Government and Chippewa Tribe over timber.
January 27, 1999 - In Ian McEwan's Booker Prize winning novel "Amsterdam", opens with the funeral of a society woman attended by her husband, a publisher, and three of her former lovers; a composer, a newspaper editor and a high level politician, the British Foreign Secretary.
January 27, 1999 - Mainstreet Radio’s Amy Radil profiles Duluth musher John Stetson, who ran the 1999 Beargrease mid-distance race of 150 miles. He says he loves to race because it's the ultimate test for a musher and his or her dogs.
January 28, 1999 - Mark Yudof, President of University of Minnesota, talks about the future of the U and current issues.
January 29, 1999 - Ted Mondale, Metropolitan Council Chair discusses plans for metropolitan government. Topics include Governor Ventura's plans to close the Metropolitan Council. Mondale also answers listener questions.
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.
January 29, 1999 - I'm Lorna Benson. You're listening to a special report on Governor Ventura's budget. We invited two former lawmakers to give us their impressions of Ventura's plan. Former House Democrat Kathleen Vellenga now directs the St. Paul/Ramsey County Children's Initiative. Duane Benson is a Republican who served as Senate Minority Leader. He is now the executive director of the Minnesota Business Partnership. I asked them whether any overarching philosophy emerges from Ventura's budget. Benson says it wasn't as bold as he would have liked.