July 2, 2009 - MPR’s Stepanie Hemphil visits the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to see the landscape a decade after devasting blowdown. Ten years after millions of trees blew down in Minnesota's pristine Boundary Waters Wilderness, the forest is in the midst of a comeback. Segment includes recollections from guide who experienced storm first hand.
July 2, 2009 - MPR’s Mark Zdechilk presents the MPR Special Report “Minnesota’s Unending Senate Battle - Al Franken's Road to the Senate.” Chapters include The Campaign, The Election, and The Recount Trial.
July 6, 2009 - We talk about his ties to St. Paul
July 7, 2009 - MPR’s Elizabeth Stawicki profiles a woman who shares a lifetime of domestic abuse. It’s a story that is seldom spoken about.
July 7, 2009 - Minnesota colleges hope to use early retirement as a way to help balance their budgets. Higher education officials say offering retirement incentives to older employees is a better option than laying off younger workers. But some wonder if early retirement has much appeal in these tough economic times. Tim Post reports.
July 14, 2009 - Riley Spartz is back on the case. Spartz is a fictional TV reporter that fans may remember as the main character from the mystery novel "Stalking Susan." In a new sequel called "The Missing Mark" Spartz is looking into a human interest story, but winds up in the middle of a missing person case. Amid the mystery and suspense "The Missing Mark" examines how news organizations decide which missing person cases to cover. Both books are set in the Twin Cities. Author Julie Kramer.... a former investigative producer with WCCO-TV told me she got the idea for the book from a classified ad.
July 17, 2009 - Midday’s Gary Eichten talks with sports commentator Howard Sinker about the Minnesota Twins season thus far, as the second half of 2009 Major League Baseball season begins. Sinker sees a team with much more potential than their American League standing.
July 21, 2009 - A story of hope amid despair. A new novel by Mayo Clinic doctor and obesity researcher James Levine tells the story of a young Indian girl forced into a life of prostitution. Dr. Levine says the novel sprang from a visit to the slums of Mumbai and encounter there that haunts him to this day.
July 23, 2009 - All Things Considered’s Tom Crann talks with Democratic U.S. Representative Tim Walz, of Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District, about his and Mayo Clinic’s push for Medicare reform in health bill.
July 31, 2009 - MPR’s Brandt Williams visits the Metrodome for Minnesota Twins batting practice to get a closer look at the bat…or more specifically, the wood of the bat. Traditionally, Major League Baseball bats have been made from white ash, but increasingly organizations are using maple as well. Use of white ash bats are at risk with the spread of emerald ash borer, a green buprestid or jewel beetle native to north-eastern Asia that feeds on ash species.