January 6, 2000 - MPR’s Lynette Nyman reports on Governor Jesse Ventura’s address to a group of employers, doctors, and health insurance administrators meeting in St. Paul to discuss the problem of rising health costs.
January 5, 2000 - As Governor Ventura meets with legislative leaders about legislative priorities, MPR’s Gary Eichten asks for listener call-in commentary on what legislative priorities should be. Program includes an interview with Ventura from previous week, and a call from Steve Sviggum, Minnesota House majority leader. Program begins with news from MPR’s Greta Cunningham.
December 28, 1999 - Governor Ventura stopped by the Minnesota Public Radio studios today to offer his reflections on his first year in office and his hopes for 2000. Ventura said he had governed to the best of his abilities, but did have some regrets, such as the controversial playboy magazine interview in which he criticized organized religion. If he gets his way with the legislature next session, the governor says taxpayers can expect another sales tax rebate this summer, and a reduction in auto license tab fees. MPR listeners had a chance to call in and praise or challenge the governor. One listener took the governor to task for not doing more to help the homeless.
December 28, 1999 - An end-of-the-year conversation with Governor Jesse Ventura about what the major issues facing Minnesota in 1999 were and what does the new millennium hold for the governor and the state?
December 15, 1999 - The Jesse Ventura volunteer committee swung into action last night, holding its first public meeting to try to mobilize citizens to support a one-house legislature -- one of the governor's pet causes. The meeting took place in District 51, where all three legislators are undecided about the issue. Since Governor Ventura has no Reform Party allies in the legislature, his volunteer committee hopes Ventura supporters can sway legislators on unicameralism and other administration priorities.
December 15, 1999 - On Sunday Russians go to to polls to decide roughly half the membership of the Duma, the Russian Parliament. It's been a contentious campaign so far, but there is a slight echo of Minnesota in one race: an internationally known wrestler who is running for elected office. From Moscow, Charles Maynes offers this profile of the man some are calling Russia's Jesse Ventura.
December 14, 1999 - Governor Ventura's office confirmed today that Ventura was never a member of the elite Navy "SEALs" -- but he says he did train to be a SEAL, and that his membership in the Navy's Underwater Demolition Teams was practically the same as being a SEAL. But a former SEAL and journalist in San Diego says the UDT's were NOT the same as SEALs during Vietnam, and he says Ventura is taking credit for the valor of others.
December 14, 1999 - The Ventura administration is announcing plans to bring advanced telecommunications services to the state's rural areas and promote competition throughout Minnesota.
December 3, 1999 - One day after announcing another whopping budget surplus Governor Ventura is rejecting claims Minnesotans are overtaxed. As lawmakers...especially House Republicans...call for an immediate permanent tax cut, Ventura says he wants to take a more deliberate approach. And at least an unscientific sampling of public opinion shows many people would rather the state spend some of the money than give it all back to taxpayers.
December 1, 1999 - Governor Jesse Ventura addresses the Minnesota Meeting. Ventura's spseech was about his support for a unicameral legislature and answer questions from the Minnesota audience and a national Internet audience. Minnesota Meeting is a non-profit corporation which hosts a wide range of public speakers. It is managed by the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.