February 10, 1999 - Governor Ventura had a more peaceful conversation today with Fred Grandy about welfare. Grandy is the head of Goodwill Industries International. The former Republican Congressman from Iowa now oversees a charity that serves two-hundred thousand people each year. Half of them are moving from welfare to work. Governor Ventura has been relatively silent about his views on welfare reform, and Grandy says that's exactly why he wanted meet with him.
February 8, 1999 - The DFL-controlled Minnesota Senate has passed a one-billion-dollar version of Governor Ventura's sales tax rebate plan. Senate Republicans tried to defeat the sales tax rebate approach, which they call unfair to the state's wealthier taxpayers. The Republican alternative -- rebates based on INCOME taxes -- has already passed in the House, which means Senate and House negotiators now have to find a way to reconcile the two plans.
February 5, 1999 - Sam Costa is an arts instructor in the Minneapolis public schools and a dance choreographer. When his students learned he'd been diagnosed with terminal cancer, they wanted to do something to assist him. Last night, they organized a benefit dinner for Costa and invited a special guest.
February 5, 1999 - MPR New’s John Rabe interviews Garrison Keillor on his new satirical book, Me, that seems to parody Jesse Ventura.
February 4, 1999 - A new opinion poll published today shows a majority of Minnesotans polled think Governor Jesse Ventura is doing a good job. Ventura's 72 percent approval rating in the Star Tribune/KMSP-TV Minnesota Poll is the highest ever measured for a new governor in the half century of the poll. Ventura says he's encouraged by the results and predicts it will help him in dealing with the Legislature. Political Scientist Chris Gilbert agrees. Gilbert says lawmakers should try extra hard to appear tri-partisan.
February 1, 1999 - The new farm crisis was expected to be a major topic in the legislature this year but you wouldn't know it from Governor Ventura's budget proposal. Scores of Red River valley farmers have left the business and hog producers are suffering one of their worst price slumps ever. Ventura though only made a couple of suggestions to help farmers and those ideas aren't finding much support.
January 29, 1999 - A coalition of African American ministers and other community leaders today denounced Governor Jesse Ventura for failing to include any African Americans among his appointees. The group is demanding a meeting with the governor. But Governor Ventura is standing by his hiring decisions.
January 29, 1999 - One of the losers in Governor Ventura's budget proposal is public broadcasting. Ventura says he wants to gradually eliminate state subsidies for public radio and public television stations in Minnesota. The stations, some of which are in rural areas, say its money they can't afford to lose.
January 29, 1999 - The Governor's budget sets aside one-point-three billion dollars of the state's tobacco settlement. Ventura says he wants to invest the tobacco windfall in Minnesota families, medical research and public health. But not everyone at the Capitol agrees with his method of spending the money.
January 29, 1999 - Governor Ventura's budget is getting higher marks from Democratic lawmakers than from Republicans. Senate DFL'ers generally like Ventura's stance on taxes and tobacco money, while House Republicans question whether the Governor is living up to his fiscally-conservative campaign rhetoric.