September 3, 1997 - The Minneapolis murder rate is down sharply. So far this year 36 people have been killed. That compares with 69 at this time last year, and 73 for the same period two years ago. Homicides two years ago set a record. Police, prosecutors and politicans told reporters Wednesday what they think has worked and what still needs to be done.
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 7, 1997 - Today is your opportunity to peek inside the beautifully restored homes in the Ramsey Hill section of St. Paul... through The GABLES, GARDENS AND GHOSTS tour. The Ramsey Hill neighborhood is the second largest contiguous Victorian District in North America. I had the opportunity to preview two of the homes with the Ramsey Hill Association's--Maryanne O'Brien and Tom Zahn--the former preservation planner for the city of St. Paul. We began our tour near Summit and Arundel at the stately Victorian home of Sara Kinney...a long time Ramsey Hill Resident.
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.
September 17, 1997 - MPR’s Martin Kaste reports on a persistent rumor suggesting North Carolina-based NationsBank might be interested in buying the Minnesota Twins and moving team to Charlotte. Kaste looks at how it could impact legislative action at the Minnesota Capitol regarding a stadium bill.
September 18, 1997 - Just a few months after flooding irreversibly changed thousands of peoples' lives in the Red River Valley...some are telling their stories for posterity. MPR's Hope Deutscher spoke with two people who are gathering individual stories of struggle, despair and recovery...for very different reasons.
September 20, 1997 - Republican state party delegates have gathered in Bemidji today for their state convention. Delegates are casting a straw ballot for candidates running for governor and attorney general. MPR's political reporter Karen-Louise Boothe is in Bemidji this morning. She says the results of today's straw poll are not terribly significant.
October 2, 1997 - MPR’s Chris Roberts presents a report on The Jayhawks, who have decided to stay together and embark down a new musical path with album, "Sound of Lies." Roberts interviews band members Gary Louris and Marc Perlman about that new musical journey.
October 6, 1997 - Mainstreet Radio’s Mark Steil revisits the southern Minnesota town of Good Thunder and takes a look at the continuing economic development struggles on Main Street. With the state’s economic boom in the 1990s, officials would love to bring some of those jobs to their town, but that just hasn't happened.
October 7, 1997 - Remember the house of straw? Built by a hasty and foolish piglet, blown down with ease by a hungry wolf - the straw house was a warning to us all. Well, in fact, it turns out straw makes a pretty good house. Nebraska farmers knew it a century ago, and now houses made of strawbales are making a revival that's reached from New Mexico, to New Zealand, to Northern Minnesota.