May 20, 2004 - Everyone's talking about marriage these days. The debate rages from pulpits to the legislature. Most of the discussion centers on who can get married - whether gays and lesbians should have that right. We wanted to back up a step and ask, What is marriage? MPR's Chris Julin presents a discussion among several gay and straight couples about the meaning of marriage.
May 21, 2004 - MPR’s Laura McCallum profiles Cy Thao, a legislator and artist, who has an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "The Hmong Migration" is a series of fifty oil paintings by Thao, and represent the unfolding of 5,000 years of Hmong history. Thao said he feels an obligation to tell the Hmong story, and to preserve it for generations.
May 26, 2004 - The Minneapolis Police Department is investigating the death of a man who died after being subdued and arrested by Minneapolis police officers earlier this morning. Police officers responded to calls about a man who was acting erratically. Police officials say after the man was subdued by officers, the man began having trouble breathing and was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. The incident will apparently test the recently signed federally mediated agreement between police and community leaders.
May 28, 2004 - Mainstreet Radio's Tim Post profiles Cody Rogahn and Jonathan Yarbrough, a couple from west-central Minnesota that became one of the first same-sex couples to take advantage of the new Massachusetts law allowing gay couples to wed.
June 2, 2004 - Chris Roberts profiles Venus, a transgender musician and visual artist from Duluth. Roberts interviews the artist, spouse, and Twin Cities filmmaker who follows the band All the Pretty Horses in documentary “Venus of Mars.”
June 3, 2004 - By the end of the 2004, the Twin Cities will have nearly 5000 new Hmong residents as they arrive from Thailand. They'll join the more than 20,000 Hmong who began arriving here in the 1970s. While this new wave of refugees will have some obstacles to overcome when they arrive, they'll have some advantages their predecessors never did.
June 4, 2004 - The U.S. Justice Department has determined that no federal criminal charges should be filed against two Minneapolis police officers accused of sexually assaulting a suspect last October. Officers Todd Babekuhl and Jeff Jindra were accused of sodomizing Stephen Porter with a toilet plunger handle during a drug raid at a north Minneapolis home. Minneapolis police say the determination means the case is closed. But some community activists say the case isn't necessarily done yet.
June 7, 2004 - Mainstreet Radio's Annie Baxter reports that for thirty years, St. Cloud has had an ordinance on its books that forbids immigrants from driving taxis. It wasn't enforced; in fact, most people had forgotten about it. City officials were embarrassed to learn of the ordinance recently, and promptly swore they'd get rid of it. The matter is under consideration in the city council, but even so, Somalis say they can't get jobs as taxi drivers...and they're wondering why.
June 10, 2004 - Mainstreet Radio's Rachel Reabe explores the history of the Great American Think-Off, held annually in New York Mills, Minnesota. in 2004, the amateur philosophers address the question of same-sex marriage.
June 10, 2004 - MPR’s Chris Roberts talks with champion air guitarist Jonathan Maki, who shares a few ‘tricks of the trade’ in the art form. Maki is one of the seven finer practitioners in the area to gather at the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis for the U.S. Air Guitar Regional Championships.