October 9, 1997 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger takes a look back to 1989, when 500 union supporters rioted in the northern border town of International Falls. The city's largest employer, Boise Cascade, was building a huge expansion of their papermill…and bringing in thousands of non-union workers to do it. The town was divided: while local businesses boomed like never before, union workers and their families felt betrayed.
October 14, 1997 - Midday discusses qualifications of school board members and issues they must be prepared to address with guests Jan Rhode, director of board training and development for the Minnesota School Boards Association; and State Representative Mindy Greiling, who was a member of the Roseville School Board for many years. Listeners also call in with questions.
October 16, 1997 - If you're an experimental composer with classical roots, you'll probably face an uphill battle finding performance venues. The problem of getting your music heard may be compounded if you're a woman. Avant Fest, which opened last night at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis, pairs three female-led bands from Minneapolis with three from New York.
October 22, 1997 - They're still a rare sight in most of the state, but timber wolves are making a comeback in Minnesota. Held strictly to northeastern forests a few decades ago, wolves are now spreading west and south…toward St. Cloud, Grand Forks, and Elk River. Mainstreet Radio's Leif Enger reports on biologists using satellite technology to forecast where wolves will show up next.
October 23, 1997 - The name Disneyland conjures images of fairy tale castles, Mickey Mouse, clean and tidy streets and glimpses of the future; a place where nostalgia and fantasy are woven together. Disneyland has also become a metaphor for American popular culture and its grip on the rest of the world. Many cultural critics cringe at Disney's sweeping global influence. But a new exhibit making its American debut at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis seeks to supply a new, more historical perspective on Disney's cultural rise to power. Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Roberts spoke with the exhibit's curator, University of Minnesota Art Historian Karal Ann Marling.
October 30, 1997 - As part of a collection of profile reports on candidates for Minneapolis mayor, MPR’s Dan Olson looks at incumbent Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton and her political tenure in the city.
October 31, 1997 - With a mandolin revival underway in the music world, MPR’s Dan Olson profiles the University of Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra.
November 10, 1997 - MPR’s Mary Stucky profiles The Minnesota Klezmer Band. Stucky interviews band members Joseph Vass and Jerry Gotler, who describe what’s behind the music of klezmer.
November 14, 1997 - MPR’s Martin Kaste reports that in the aftermath of the Minnesota lawmakers' vote to defeat the Twins stadium bill (voting 84 to 47 against the package), Governor Arne Carlson has offered a eulogy of sorts, seeing it as the "last, best hope" to keep the baseball team in Minnesota.
November 18, 1997 - Much of what we know as Minnesota's fertile farmland would still be swamp had it not been drained. A hundred years ago it was common practice to dig ditches and dredge rivers, and today those ditches and rivers keep the land arable. But conservationists say increasingly, it's a practice out of sync with environmental biology; and a proposal for a major ditch overhaul in northwestern Minnesota has divided local residents.