May 30, 2003 - Larry Jacobs is a professor of political science at the University of Minnesota.
May 23, 2003 -
May 23, 2003 - The Legislature has reached a deal that would permit cities to extend bar closing to 2 a. m. Businesses that take advantage of the option would have to pay a fee between $200 and $600, and that money would be used to hire more state patrol officers. Gov. Pawlenty has said he will sign the bill. The Warehouse District in Minneapolis is one of the hot-spots the change will affect. Joining us on the line is Inspector Rob Allen, Minneapolis police commander for precinct one, which includes the Warehouse District.
May 21, 2003 - Minnesota lawmakers will be back at the Capitol this morning for day two of the special session. Conference committees are working out the details of the next two-year budget, but five of the nine major spending bills are still unfinished. One of those is the contentious Health and Human Services bill, which provides funding for a wide variety of social programs, including health care and childcare subsidies. Joining us now are two lawmakers, Republican Representative Fran Bradley, who is chair of the Health and Human Services Committee in the House, and DFL Senator Linda Berglin, who chairs the same committee in the Senate.
May 20, 2003 - Lawmakers at the state Capitol ran out of time in regular session to finish all their work, including a bonding bill. Senate DFLers wanted the bill this year and Gov. Tim Pawlenty agreed to it when DFLers gave up on their fight to raise some state taxes to limit deep spending cuts. The two sides agreed on a $175 million bonding bill but have yet to develop a plan on what construction projects to include. DFLers hope they can use some of that money for projects former Gov. Jesse Ventura cut from last year's bonding bill. Joining us on the line is DFL Sen. Keith Langseth, chair of the Senate Capitol Investment Committee.
May 20, 2003 - Minnesota Lawmakers will return to the Capitol this morning for a special session. They ended the regular session at midnight last night, after passing just a small portion of the state budget. The House and Senate sent two budget bills to the governor, repealed the state's Profile of Learning graduation standards and passed a 2 a.m. bar closing bill. But the final hours of the session were marked by a bitter fight on the Senate floor which prevented a Prairie Island bill from a vote. We've heard from the lawmakers. Joining us now is Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
May 19, 2003 -
May 16, 2003 - MPR's Morning Edition, Friday, May 16, 2003 First tornado reports of the season in Minnesota this week. On Wednesday, May 14, a brief tornado touchdown was reported near Sleepy Eye in Brown County, and a brief tornado touchdown was also reported near Lake Crystal in Blue Earth County. The Storm Prediction Center says that this May is on track to break the nation's monthly record for tornado reports.....
May 9, 2003 - May's weather already has our attention... We are not very deep into May yet, but the month's weather has certainly grabbed our attention. In northern Minnesota, Embarrass reported a morning low of just 11 degrees F on the 2nd, the lowest temperature in the nation that day. May 4th and 5th brought severe weather to the nation primarily the central and southeastern states, and heavy rains to parts of Minnesota as well. The following locations reported new daily record rainfall amounts on May 5th..
May 5, 2003 - Minnesota lawmakers have just two weeks before they must adjourn the session. Both the House and Senate have passed several spending packages, and now they must agree on a way to balance the next two-year budget in the face of a 4.2 billion dollar shortfall. Joining us now for a look at the week ahead is Minnesota Public Radio's Capitol Bureau Chief, Laura McCallum.