September 6, 2000 - MPR’s Tim Pugmire reports on the opening of more than a dozen new charter schools in Minnesota, bringing the state's total to 64. This year's batch of schools includes some that are targeting specific racial and ethnic groups -- an approach that worries some education leaders.
September 12, 2000 - Business on Lake Street, one of Minneapolis ' busiest commercial thoroughfares is booming - with one glaring exception. The sprawling twenty acre site formerly occupied by a Sears retail and catalog business is nearly vacant, and the ambitious plan for it's reuse - funded with a big dose of taxpayer dollars - is at a standstill.
September 14, 2000 - MPR’s Annie Feidt reports that the University of Minnesota men's swimming team will be well represented at the summer Olympics. No U of M swimmers made the United States Olympic team, but five members of the gopher's squad from four nations will represent their home countries in the pool in Sydney.
September 25, 2000 - MPR’s Lynette Nyman reports on preserving the history and culture of the Hmong through the mission of an established archives in St. Paul, called Hmong Nationality Archives. Organizers hope to collect, catalog, and make available materials about or by Hmong in Minnesota, and eventually around the world.
September 27, 2000 - Mainstreet Radio's Tim Post reports that Governor Jesse Ventura spent the day in St Cloud, talking with students at St. Cloud Tech High School about the importance of voting. Ventura says it's part of his effort to increase turn out at the polls this November. He will also raise money for the Independence Party's U.S. Senate candidate, Jim Gibson.
October 5, 2000 - Minnesota's top African American law enforcement officials met Wednesday night to discuss racial profiling. The discussion was sponsored by the Minnesota chapter of National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. Participants offered various reasons people of color seem to get singled out disproportionately in the criminal justice system and possible solutions to the problem.
October 6, 2000 - MPR's Brandt Williams reports on dirt finally being turned on the long underdeveloped parcel of land in downtown Minneapolis known as Block E.
October 6, 2000 - MPR’s Annie Feidt reports on the University of Minnesota's newest varsity team, the women's rowing team, as it prepares for its first competition. They will race in the Head of the Mississippi regatta, a three-mile race on the Mississippi River that cuts through the middle of campus.
October 12, 2000 - The clear blues skies over Snowbank Lake filled with billowing smoke, as the Forest Service set a prescribed fire in timber blown down in the July 1999 windstorm. Fire experts consider controlled burn just the first of many more to come in and near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
October 12, 2000 - A bill that would increase protection for women and children who are victims of international sex trafficking is headed to president Clinton after passing in the Senate yesterday. The CIA estimates that as many as 50 thousand women and children who enter the United States illegally each year are forced to work as prostitutes, forced laborers, and servants. This legislation has been a priority for Senator Paul Wellstone. He says his wife Shelia deserves credit for getting the bill through Congress.