July 4, 2005 - There will be a big birthday bash later today... for the Minnesota State Capitol. There will be music, tours, and an ice cream social to celebrate the Capitol's 100th birthday. The building first opened in 1905 after nearly 12 years of planning and construction. Since then, it's been a hub of government and one of the state's most important public buildings. Leigh Roethke is completing her doctorate in art history at the University of Minnesota and is the author of a new book called "Minnesota's Captiol: A Centennial Story." She says when St. Paul architect Cass Gilbert was chosen to design the building, he had big ideas.
May 17, 2005 - Minnesota poet Robert Bly reads the poem "Driving toward the Lac Qui Parle River."
March 25, 2005 - MPR’s Julie Siple interviews members of Minneapolis band Savage Aural Hotbed. The group discusses their “home’made” instruments, performance, and “The Rate of Mass Displacement is Momentum” show.
January 13, 2005 - The Supreme Court ruled on a case involving a Minnesota Somali (and whether he can be deported to Somalia).
November 18, 2004 - MPR’s Cathy Wurzer has a conversation with Duluth writer Barton Sutter about his book "Farewell to the Starlight in Whisky." Sutter explores a wide range of topics: among them, politics, sobriety, the Minnesota wilderness, and love.
October 27, 2004 - A Michigan author has won this year's Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award with his book about the Great Lakes. Jerry Dennis grew up near the lakes and spent six weeks traveling through them as a crewmember on a tall-masted schooner. He's written a book that's both a personal adventure and a biography of the waters, telling stories of the fisherman, biologists, and environmentalists whose lives revolve around them. The book is called "the Living Great Lakes: Searching for the Heart of the Inland Seas." Jerry Dennis joins us now from Interlochen Public Radio, near his home in Michigan, to talk about it.
October 21, 2004 - MPR’s Cathy Wurzer profiles differing views of the candidates Justice Alan Page and Magistrate Tim Tingelstad for seat on the state Supreme Court.
October 14, 2004 - The documentary "Wellstone" will premiere tonight at 7pm at The Heights theatre in Columbia Heights as part of the Central Standard Film Festival. Through archival footage and interviews with friends and family, the film looks at Paul Wellstone's upbringing as the son of a Russian immigrant and his evolution from college professor to U.S. Senator. Wellstone grew up in northern Virginia and met his wife Shelia in high school. They got married while he was a student at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. In this excerpt from the documentary, Jim Stimson, a longtime friend of the Wellstones, talks about how Paul's graduate school research changed the course of his life.
May 11, 2004 - On this day in 1858, Minnesota became a state. As part of commemorative events at the Capitol today, Lieutennant Governor Carol Molneau will be presented with a new book about Henry Hastings Sibley. Sibley was Minnesota's first governor. He led the state during a time of big change, when tensions were rising between European settlers and Native Americans. Rhoda Gilman is the author of "Henry Hastings Sibley: Divided Heart." She says Sibley, who was born in Detroit, came to the Minnesota area when he was offered a new job with the American Fur Company.
January 1, 2004 - The Gophers open their Big Ten season tonight against Michigan at 7 p.m. in Williams Arena. Minnesota Public Radio's Julie Siple reports.