May 24, 1999 - One day after the "made-for-tv" movie "The Jesse Ventura Story" air from coast to coast on NBC, the reviews have been uniformly bad. And Governor Ventura added his own thumbs down today at the annual meeting of the Minnesota Film Board saying he only watched the first few minutes.
May 21, 1999 - On Sunday evening, NBC will broadcast "The Jesse Ventura Story" a made for TV movie commissioned shortly after Ventura was elected Governor of Minnesota. Critics have panned the movie, calling it shallow and inaccurate. Still it presents a generally favorable --- if simplistic --- view of Ventura and his anti establishment message.
May 21, 1999 - The Twins haven't been doing so well recently. But as commentator Nanci Olesen has found out, recently winning isn't necessarily the important thing.
May 18, 1999 - While it seems we're constantly assailed with stories of writers being offered huge advances on the strength of a single sample chapter: the journey to being a published author is often long and lonely. Just ask Minneapolis writer Wendy McCormick who labored for years, and crossed an ocean, before she finally saw her name in print. McCormick's first book, a picture book for children, is appropriately enough, about travelling.
May 3, 1999 - On this segment of Mainstreet Radio’s Rural Diversity series, commentator George Rabasa wants to talk about the immigrant "home."
April 29, 1999 - Tales of torture and abuse are the stuff of nightmares: this weekend a such a story is being retold, but this has, if not a happy, at least a hopeful, ending. The Macalester College theater department is presenting the world premiere of "Return to Kanburi" a remarkable story of how Eric Lomax, a British soldier tortured in by the Japanese during World War 2, found one of the men responsible decades later, and forgave him.
March 25, 1999 - You may not know his name, but you probably know his work. Ralph Rapson has put his mark on the Twin Cities as only an architect can -- in the buildings many of us see and live with nearly every day... the Guthrie Theater, the Cedar West highrise apartments, and many houses for people of modest and not so modest means. Perhaps most importantly -- he was head of the University of Minnesota school of architecture for 30 years --- educating the architects of the future. And now opening this weekend the first major retrospective on Rapson career along with a new book on his life and work.
March 23, 1999 - Note time reference in intro. The crash of the Cirrus SR 20 this afternoon is raising serious concerns for Duluth-based Cirrus Design in addition to a lengthy investigation by Federal authorities. Prospects were bright for Cirrus when its new single-engine airplane was approved by the FAA last year, and orders brisk for the single-engine, four-seater aircraft. But now the cause of the crash, and the consequences for the company, are unclear.
March 16, 1999 - A bill toughening Minnesotas drunk-driving law has been moving through the Minnesota House. 1998 saw an increase in alcohol-related highway deaths, and the bills proponents say lowering the blood-alcohol limit from point-one-oh to point-oh-eight would save lives. State highway patrol officers, meanwhile, say drunk drivers are one of their most persistent challenges. The patrol spent last week training new recruits in the art and craft of detecting drunks.
March 12, 1999 - MPR’s Vaughn Ormseth takes a look at Einojuhani Rautavaara, one of Finland’s best-loved composers. Rautavaara has come to Minnesota with new work, "Finlands Spirit: Rautavaara." The premiere is sponsored by the Plymouth Music series, in collaboration with the University of Minnesota and St. Olaf College.