October 29, 1999 - Commentator Nanci Olesen got a couple of insights about the people who live near her. Olesen shares a Halloween memory, titled “Pumpkin.” It involves a third trimester and a very unique costume.
October 28, 1999 - Attornies delivered opening statements in Donald Blom's federal firearms trial. Blom, who is also facing first degree murder and kidnapping charges in state court in the disappeance of Katie Poirier, is accused of being a felon in possession of firearms. If found guilty in the federal case Blom faces a mandatory minimum sentence of fifteen years and could get life. Minnesota Public Radio's Patty Marsicano reports from the Federal Courthouse in Minneapolis .
October 15, 1999 - The debate over a baseball stadium in St Paul is grabbing attention these days ---- but it's only one of many projects proposed for the city. There's everything from improvements to major thoroughfares like Payne Avenue to plans for the defunct Hamms Brewery to a park promoting poetry. 80 of these projects are on view through Saturday as part of the Mayor's Design Forum at the National Guard Armory in St. Paul. They may not have lawnsigns like those promoting the stadium, but as Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Stucky reports, there's no less passion about these projects.
October 8, 1999 - Minnesota's nonprofit organizations are doing better than ever, according to a report being released in Duluth today.
October 7, 1999 - It's a delicious thought: somewhere, tucked away in a closet, or a store room near you, is something hugely valuable. A vase, an old coin, or even a picture, which could propel you to the front pages, or bankroll you through retirement, if only you can find it. The central character in the new comic novel "Headlong' makes such a discovery: a long lost masterpiece by the Flemish artist Breughel. He realizes the painting will make him a national hero if he can get it into a big museum, and probably quite rich too. The only problem: he finds it in his neighbours house. The resulting moral and artistic dilemmas spin increasingly out of control.
October 5, 1999 - Minnesotas black bear population continues to confound biologists. Once thought stable at about ten-thousand, the most recent survey estimated a total of almost three times that in the state.
October 4, 1999 - In Jonathon Lethem's new novel "Motherless Brooklyn" detective Lionel Essrog has to overcome several obstacles to solve the murder of his boss, not least the fact he has Tourettes Syndrome.
September 29, 1999 - There's an urban forest just minutes from downtown St Paul -- where a group of teens have been working to restore the native ecosystem. In addition to its natural beauty, the area ---called Swede Hollow--- has historical importance as home to a succession of immigrants. The teens worked with enviornmental artist Chris Baumler.
September 27, 1999 - Novelist Roddy Doyle is famed for his evocative portraits of contemporary Irish life, his novel "The Committments" about a Dublin soul band was made into a hit film, and he won the Booker Prize for "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha". In his new book "A Star Called Henry" he looks to Irish history, and the Easter Uprising of 1916 which lead to the formation of the Republic of Ireland.
September 23, 1999 - Shakespeare wrote all of his works without the use of a dictionary. Such a thing simply didn't exist in Elizabethan England. The dictionary as we know it is a relatively new invention, and the grandest of them all, the Oxford English Dictionary was only completed 72 years ago. Author Simon Winchester researched the creation of the OED for his book "The Professor and the Madman". He told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr when the project started in the 1850's with the audacious aim of listing every single word in the English language.