December 10, 2003 - MPR’s Cathy Wurzer interviews Tony Bouza, former Minneapolis police chief, on his thoughts about the hiring of a new police chief. According to Mayor Rybak's PR people, the mayor will release names of finalists for the job of police chief in Minneapolis. They anticipate six or seven finalists. Tony Bouza discusses the process, including benefits of hiring outside the department. He also speaks of hiring a black or female police chief.
December 10, 2003 - MPR’s Chris Julin presents a Mainstreet Radio report on the Greenberg family, who bring holiday music to the Duluth area.
December 11, 2003 - Six children were crushed to death by a collapsing wall during an assault by U.S. forces on a compound stuffed with weapons in eastern Afghanistan, an American military spokesman said Wednesday, the second time in a week that civilians have died in action against Taliban and al-Qaida suspects. Today on MIDDAY, an update on the situation in Afghanistan and a discussion with Ambassador Peter Tomsen.
December 11, 2003 - A remembrance of the late Gisela Konopka, U of M professor, an expert on helping troubled kids. The internationally known University of Minnesota professor of social work died Tuesday (12/09/2003). She was born in Berlin, Germany, and was a resistance fighter during World War II. She was interviewed in 1995 for MPR's Voices of Minnesota series.
December 11, 2003 - For the most part folk music is happy wholesome stuff. But there is a dark edge to some of it, and that's where a new local band Folk Underground comes in. MPR’s Euan Kerr talks with the trio about their first album release "Buried Things." It features a mixture of traditional music and the band's own material which displays members describe as 'happily morbid.'
December 12, 2003 - MPR’s Marisa Helms reports on thousands of Mexican Americans in Minnesota celebrating a Mexican national holiday, the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
December 12, 2003 - Jan McElfish, member of the American Swedish Institute, gives MPR’s Great Cunningham a tour of the Turnblad Turn-blahd Mansion during the holiday season.
December 18, 2003 - Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer interviews Mee Moua, a Minnesota state senator, about the potential of new Hmong refugees to the Twin Cities. The U.S. State Department has reached an agreement with the government of Thailand which could bring thousands of new Hmong refugees to the United States. 14,000 Hmong people are living in the last refugee camp of its kind in Thailand.
December 19, 2003 - MPR’s Cathy Wurzer interviews Barbara Johnson, Minneapolis city council member about prospective candidates for new Minneapolis police chief. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak has officially narrowed his list of candidates for the next police chief to Charles Moose, the former chief in Maryland's Montgomery County, and William McManus, Dayton, Ohio police chief. The decision cut from consideration two respected deputy chiefs currently in the department, Lucy Gerold and Sharon Lubinski. While the mayor has supporters for the finalists, there are signals that the outsiders will be a tough and divisive sell. Johnson, who represents the city's 4th Ward, says she's disappointed that Gerold and Lubinski did not make the final cut.
December 22, 2003 - MPR’s Cathy Wurzer interviews Eddie Roth, an editorial writer for the Dayton Daily News, about his take on Dayton Police Chief William McManus. At a committee meeting today, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak is expected to officially nominate Dayton, Ohio Police Chief William McManus as his pick to be the city's next police chief. McManus will need to be confirmed by the Minneapolis City Council. Eddie Roth discusses impact of McManus’s two year tenure in Dayton.