August 13, 2003 - Mall of America officials are disputing a Newsweek article in which an FBI agent says the mall "is a huge recruiting center" for teen prostitution. The article features the Bloomington mall in a photo and an interview with a 16-year-old girl who said she was approached by three pimps while shopping. Mall officials say they have many methods in place to deter pimps---including a parental escort policy, two outreach programs and a substation of the Bloomington police. Leslie Johnson is a spokeswoman for Catholic Charities--and is involved with an outreach program targeting troubled teens at the mall. She says there is a rise in the number of teenage prostitutes--but it's not just at the Mall of America. Johnson says anywhere teens congregate is a magnet for people who try to recruit teens into prostitution. In her work with the Catholic Charities' Hope Street Program, she sees many homeless teens who are vulnerable to predators.
August 13, 2003 - MPR’s Lorna Benson interviews Tony Woodcock, who has been chosen to lead the Minnesota Orchestra as the new president replacing the retiring president, David Hyslop. The orchestra also begins an entirely different movement this fall with a new music director, Osmo Vänskä.
August 11, 2003 - A team of paleontologists and geologists have just begun a dig in an area of Montana that hasn't been excavated in at least 100 years. Kristi Curry Rogers, the curator of paleontology at the Science Museum of Minnesota, is part of the group. Earlier this year she helped to uncover evidence of cannibalism among dinosaurs. For the past week, Curry Rogers has excavated in a remote area of Montana known as the Missouri Breaks National Monument area. Curry Rogers says site has potential to be a very useful and important area for paleontology.
August 8, 2003 - The Mississippi National River and Recreation Area consists of seventy-two miles of the river and a host of parks, trails, and historic sites along the riverbanks in the Twin Cities area. In an effort to call attention to this network of assets, the National Park Service this weekend celebrates the opening of a visitor center at the Science Museum in downtown Saint Paul. National Park Service Director Fran Mainella is in town to christen the center. She was appointed by President Bush to lead the Park Service back in 2001. Mainella says the Mississippi River Park and its new visitor center are the wave of things to come at the Park Service.
August 7, 2003 - A Minnesota company that once rode the highest Internet wave has crashed along with much of the dot-com industry. Edina-based software maker Net Perceptions says it will return about two-thirds of the 59-million dollars it has left in its accounts to shareholders. Net Perceptions' business has been in steep decline for three years. Yesterday, Chief executive Don Peterson resigned and just ten employees remain, down from 375 in 2000. During the height of the Internet boom, Net Perceptions had a stock value of more than 1-and-a-half billion dollars. Michael Gorman is managing general partner of St. Paul Venture Capital, which was a very early investor in Net Perceptions. He says the company's rapid ascent paralleled the rise of internet retail.
August 5, 2003 - Minnesota's first gypsy moth infestation of the season has hit trees apparently shipped from the East Coast. Evidence of the moths appeared in nursery trees in St. Paul and St. Cloud, and at a housing development in Blaine. The gypsy moth, originally brought to the western hemisphere to help the silk industry, is considered the United States' number one tree pest. Geir Friisoe is the manager of the plant protection programs at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. He says, in a normal year, the department will find one nursery with one or two of the months. This year is different.
August 4, 2003 - Former Governor Jesse Ventura hinted yesterday that if he ever ran for office again, the only office he'd be interested is that of president. Ventura stressed he wasn't making any announcements, but that he'll never say never when it comes to getting back into politics. Ventura made his comments while in Iowa to receive professional wrestling's Frank Gotch award for bringing the sport to a new level through his work as a politician. While he was in Iowa, Ventura's former Independence party colleagues held their state convention in Inver Grove Heights. Party delegates chose Jim Moore to be their new chair. Moore was the party's unsuccessful candidate for U--S Senate last year. He says the party has plenty to learn from its losses in 2002.
July 31, 2003 - The Bush economics roadshow is apparently just one of what will be numerous political treks through the Northstar state. President Bush and several Democratic presidential candidates made trips to Minnesota within days of each other last month. Bush is scheduled to return for a campaign stop in St. Paul next month. Both parties consider the state winnable in 2004, and a prominent national political analyst says that, among the states that voted for Gore in the 2000 election, Minnesota is the most likely to vote for Bush next year. Larry Sabato {SAB-ah-toe} is director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. He says Minnesota is no longer a Democratic stronghold.
July 30, 2003 - The McKnight Foundation has named Minneapolis painter Mike Lynch the sixth recipient of its Distinguished Artist Award. The annual award honors an individual who has contributed to the state's tradition of arts and culture, and carries a $40,000 grant. Past winners of the award include poet Robert Bly, choral conductor Dale Warland and book publisher Emilie Buchwald. Lynch works largely between dusk and dawn, capturing images of Minnesota landscapes, buildings and artifacts. Two years ago, he described his catalog of Iron Range colors to Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Stucky.
July 29, 2003 - All Things Considered’s Greta Cunningham talks with Lee Pao Xiong, a local leader in the Hmong community, about housing issues in Twin Cities. Xiong states housing is the foundation for everything.