May 17, 2001 - MPR’s Elizabeth Stawicki reports on dedication of Mondale Hall at University of Minnesota Law School, which naked its building complex after its most acclaimed alumnus, Walter Mondale. Former President Jimmy Carter spoke at the dedication and praised Mondale as a man of integrity.
May 17, 2001 - MPR’s Michael Khoo reports that it's unrealistic to expect the House and Senate to be settled on big bill items by June 30th. Governor Ventura said that he is not going to bail them out by allowing for a special session.
May 18, 2001 - MPR’s Laura McCallum reports that another day of budget negotiations passed at the Capitol with no deal. Legislative leaders have been meeting on and off with aides to Governor Ventura to try to break a logjam over major tax and spending issues. With less than four days left until Monday's adjournment deadline, a special session seems inevitable, and there's plenty of finger-pointing going on.
May 18, 2001 - This Sunday Open Book in Minneapolis celebrates its first anniversary, and a very successful year. Co-owned by the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, the Loft Literary Center and Milkweed Editions publishing company, Open Book is the nations first center of its kind: a place to read, write and bind books. At the center of the Open Book building white panels furl out from the handrail of a large spiral staircase. Sculptor and Book Artist Karen Worth, who helped design the staircase is writing a series of words onto scrolls of paper attached to the panels - she says the staircase is not only a physical connection between the floors of the building but also a metaphorical connection between the different book organizations working in the building.
May 18, 2001 - With just four days to go until Legislators are required to adjourn, there is a lot left to do. There is still no agreement on major spending bills. Other issues are also far from being settled. The House and Senate have passed bills dealing with racial profiling, but a long meeting yesterday failed to produce a compromise. St. Paul NAACP President Nathaniel Khaliq has been in on the negotiations. He likes the Senate bill because it includes money to buy video cameras for squad cars.
May 22, 2001 - Minnesota Public Radio's William Wilcoxen reports that a handful of teams are surprising the baseball world with strong starts this season, but none is more surprising than the Twins. The Twin Cities will get a look at the top two teams in baseball, when the Minnesota Twins host the Seattle Mariners at the Metrodome.
May 23, 2001 - MPR’s Art Hughes reports on the results of Minnesota’s U.S. census figures. Highlights include the state’s population is older than it was ten years ago; Minnesotan's are much more likely to own their homes than residents in the rest of the nation; and the dramatic increase in the state's Hispanic population is made up largely of people of Mexican heritage.
May 24, 2001 - The Duluth native has seen his life and music career documented over the airwaves, on television and film and on pages and pages of print. But perhaps no single person has written as much as music historian Michael Gray. Gray's latest book, "Song and Dance Man 3: The Art of Bob Dylan” is a detailed analysis of Dylan's 40 year career.
June 5, 2001 - MPR’s Bill Catlin reports on the “Gay Index.” The vigorous debate over Minnesota's economic future in a high tech world has featured a variety of prescriptions for prosperity -- like using tax dollars to invest in Minnesota start-ups, and more state spending on high tech research. Now, some controversial new research from Carnegie-Mellon University suggests cities that want to promote high tech industry should make themselves attractive to gay men.
June 7, 2001 - MPR presents a report entitled Postcard From A Lynching, which looks at the history of a 1920 murder of three Black men in Duluth by a local mob. It’s a history that many in Duluth tried to forget… but others fought to bring the horrific lynching to light in the community and bring dignity to the slain men. [Content Warning: some content, language, and statements used in this story may be triggering to listeners]