February 24, 2004 - MPR’s Cathy Wurzer interviews Kevin Odegard, a Minneapolis musician involved in the South Minneapolis re-recording session of Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks” album. Odegard discusses the experience and book on the subject, titled “A Simple Twist of Fate.” Segment includes music clips.
February 26, 2004 - MPR’s Lorna Benson profiles Liz Mc Elhinney and Siddiqi Ray, a lesbian couple in Minnesota who recently married in San Francisco, which began to grant marriage licenses to gay couples.
February 27, 2004 - A Minneapolis Deputy Chief suspended with two other officers denies allegations she ordered the destruction of an internal memo. Police Chief William McManus suspended Lucy Gerold and two officers who serve under her while the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension conducts an investigation. The suspension comes less than two weeks after McManus took office promising a zero-tolerance stance on police misconduct.
February 27, 2004 - A delegation from the St. Paul is heading to Thailand today to visit the camp just north of Bangkok where thousands of Hmong refugees have been living for more than a decade. The group includes St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly and other government officials, as well as representatives from human services agencies and the St. Paul Public Schools.
February 27, 2004 - A national report out today attached staggering numbers to the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. It says nearly 11-thousand victims reported abuse from 1950 to 2002. 275 of those cases are from here in Minnesota. Church leaders in Minnesota say by providing information, they prove the Catholic church is committed to change. But victims of abuse say the report doesn't provide a full picture. They say thousands of cases of abuse were never made public.
March 1, 2004 - 15 years after state officials signed gaming compacts with Minnesota's Indian tribes, 18 casinos have been built. They generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, far more than anyone imagined they would. The state of Minnesota gets only a small sliver of that money and it's used to regulate the casinos.
March 5, 2004 - St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly returned from Thailand where he visited Hmong refugees awaiting relocation to St. Paul and other U.S. cities. The State Department recently declared about 15,000 Hmong refugees eligible to apply for relocation to the U.S., with between 4,000-10,000 Hmong refugees arriving in Minnesota as early as June 2004. Fred de Sam Lazaro, correspondent for PBS's Newshour with Jim Lehrer based at Twin Cities Public Television, traveled with Kelly to Thailand and prepared this report.
March 8, 2004 - Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports on need for fundraisers for people who don't have insurance. Sometimes even those with insurance need help. It seems the higher medical costs rise the more fundraisers there are for people who can't pay all their bills. Dinners, raffles and auctions are a few of the ways people donate money.
March 9, 2004 - Midday presents a report and conversation regarding Minnesota lawmaker’s debate of a bill that could lead to a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The constitution would state: "Only the union of one man and one woman will be recognized as a marriage in Minnesota."
March 12, 2004 - Over the past year several Minnesota theaters have closed their doors. Others are struggling to stay open, but the outlook is bleak. Artists say they're victims of what they call "the perfect storm."