December 26, 2003 - MPR’s David Molpus interviews Don Blyly about a peculiar Christmas Day surprise at his Minneapolis bookstore.
December 23, 2003 - Throughout the first part of December, Minnesota Public Radio has asked listeners to join in the spirit of the season by setting new lyrics to old holiday tunes. The entries were judged, and winners have been chosen. In the "Jingle Bells" category, open to young people, Michelle Boursier of Maple Grove, was the winner. Segment includes interview with Michelle and a clip from her entry, recorded by the singing group “Dare to Breathe."
December 22, 2003 - MPR’s David Molpus interviews a winner of Merry Happy Lyrics’ "Hark the Herald Angels Sing” category. The entry is by a cowboy poet who goes by the name of Wally Firesteel.
December 17, 2003 - Next month Governor Pawlenty is to decide whether to support the State Corrections Department in its call for new funds to expand Minnesota's prisons. Corrections officials say the state's capacity to accomodate a rising inmate population with current facilities is near an end. As Deputy Corrections Commissioner Dennis Benson put it in an interview with Minnesota Public Radio. "our backs are against the wall with only 85 vacant beds in the entire statewide system." That means states eight prisons are filled to 99 percent capacity.
November 28, 2003 - While President Bush made a surprise visit to U.S. troops in Iraq this week, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton chose to spend Thanksgiving with Army paratroopers in Afghanistan. The former First Lady warned Taliban rebels that they are "fighting a losing battle," and said she is very impressed by the determination of the new civilian government there. For a different perspective on how things are going in Afghanistan we turn to Greg Mortenson, who divides his time between visits to rural parts of Afghanistan and the U.S. He runs the Central Asia Institute, based in Bozeman, Montana. Mortenson, a native of Minnesota, says schools are the key to Afghanistan's revival. But security problems and economic issues inhibit the country's stability.
November 24, 2003 - The Medicare prescription drug legislation moved closer to passage in Congress today, as Senate supporters turned back attacks launched by opponents. The bill would make the most sweeping changes in Medicare since its creation in 1965 by providing a prescription drug benefit for the program's beneficiaries and giving insurance companies broad leeway to offer private coverage to 40 million elderly and disabled Americans. Susan Foote is the director of the division of Health Services Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. She says that, while the numbers are shifting as the bill moves closer to passage, the benefit would require significant contributions from individual Medicare recipients.
November 21, 2003 - An interview Jim Walsh, music critic for City Pages, about Prince’s career and selection as one of the 2004 inductees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
November 20, 2003 - Oleg Timofeyev plays and discusses a Russian seven-string guitar with MPR’s Mindy Ratner. Timofeyev learned the instrument so he could play medieval music, never dreaming the he would ever perform 20th century Russian music. Later he discovered the work of Georgian-born composer Matvei Pavlov-Azancheev, who created a body of work for the Russian seven-string guitar while imprisoned in a Soviet labor camp during Stalin’s regime.
November 14, 2003 - The U.S. Department of State's Richard Boucher is in the Twin Cities speaking about Iraq, terrorism, and foreign policy. The State Department spokesman led a town hall meeting in St. Paul yesterday. He told the audience that the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq does not mean they won't be found eventually or that the original invasion decision was wrong. Several of Boucher's comments provoked some heckling from the audience. I spoke with Boucher this afternoon about the U-S approach to Iraq. He said the Bush administration is accelerating the process of turning authority over to a new Iraqi government.
October 31, 2003 - Charlie Weaver, Governor Pawlenty's chief of staff, is stepping down to become the head of the Minnesota Business Partnership, an association of chief executives from Minnesota's 100 largest companies. Weaver says the opportunity was one he couldn't pass up.