February 19, 1999 - The Minneapolis NAACP has released a detailed proposal for settling its education adequacy lawsuit against the state. The NAACP plan would effectively eliminate school enrollment boundaries in the metropolitan area...and pressure Minneapolis schools to quickly raise test scores. State and school district officials are reserving comment on the plan.
February 19, 1999 - State legislators have filled four seats on the University of Minnesota Board of Regents. Meeting in joint session Thursday, members of the House and Senate selected two incumbents and two newcomers to the governing body of the U of M. Despite a three-month search, lawmakers from both parties are criticising a process that produced few women or minority candidates.
February 19, 1999 - After close to a year-long search, the St. Paul schools may have found a new superintendent. Patricia Harvey has been a teacher, principal and administrator in Chicago and is credited with improving test scores in some of the cities weakest schools. She is the only candidate to replace Curman Gaines, who took a job in the private sector. Harvey has spent the last few years working at an education reasearch group in Washington, but says she's eager to get back on the front lines of education.
February 19, 1999 - The Red Wing school district will have to cut 1 million dollars out of its 20 million dollar budget this year and faces similar cuts over the next several years. School board members say the financial troubles are a result of several factors; static student enrollment and flat state funding. School districts across the state are facing enrollment declines and may find themselves making similar cuts even as the governor and lawmakers work to provide more money for education.
February 22, 1999 - A small cut in the state's 23-billion-dollar budget has business people and organized labor concerned. Governor Jesse Ventura's budget removes funding for a 60-year old apprentice training program that turns out thousands of new trade workers each year. Some worry the ranks of skilled workers are already at risk, and the shortage will be exacerbated by the cut.
February 22, 1999 - A bi-partisan group of lawmakers wants to dedicate 15-million dollars a year, from the state's tobacco settlement to health programs geared at teens.
February 22, 1999 - Officials of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service met with a coalition of church leaders and members of the latino community over the weekend. They negotiated a list of SIX demands the community want to get better service from the department's local INS offices.
February 22, 1999 - Some Minnesota lawmakers are shying away from changing the gift ban, a law that prohibits them from accepting gifts, or even cups of coffee, from lobbyists. Public opposition to loosening the ban is making some legislators nervous, and a Senate committee today delayed action on any changes until three Senators can work out a compromise.
February 23, 1999 - Doug Johnson, co-director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the U of M's Carlson School of Management; and Karl Egge, Director of the Entrepreneurship Program at Macalester College, discuss entrepreneurs and the characteristics of people who are successful in business. Program includes a rememberance of Curt Carlson. Johnson and Egge also answer listener questions.
February 23, 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.” This segment pieces together two sets of 100-year-old predictions of what Minneapolis and St. Paul would look like in the year 2000.