November 4, 1999 - Governor Ventura will sell Minnesota's agriculture and basketball today on his fourth day in Japan. Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste is travelling with the governor:
November 3, 1999 - Governor Ventura is just starting his second full day of his ten day trade mission to Japan. Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste is in Tokyo with the Governor and has more on today's itenerary.
November 2, 1999 - If you haven't made it to the polls yet, you still have a little more than 3 hours to do so. The polls close at 8:00 tonight. Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer has spent the day traveling to polling stations around the state. She says voter turnout is impressive, considering its an off-year election.
October 27, 1999 - The two democratic front-runners in the Presidential race, vice president Al Gore and former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley will hold their first debate tonight. The one hour "New Hampshire Town Meeting" will take place at Dartmouth College and audience members will get a chance to ask questions. You can hear the debate live on Minnesota Public Radio tonight, starting at 7. With a little more than a year to go before the election, politically active Minnesotans are starting align themselves with candidates. We invited two prominent democrats to tell us why their man should win. Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe is supporting Al Gore. Former St. Paul Mayor George Latimer favors Bill Bradley.
October 27, 1999 - Like any truly committed professional, ballerinas give up a lot to attain an elite level of performance. For many, the sacrifices are worth it. For others they're not. For most, even when their career is over, it's hard to let it go. In her new book The Old Ballerina, Ellen Cooney tells story of a retired ballerina who renews her passion for life and dance when she teaches a class of teenage boys.
October 25, 1999 - While Buchanan's switch may not be popular with the Reform Party leadership in Minnesota, at least one of Buchanan's local supporters thinks its a good idea. Wilbert Schmidlin of St. Paul has been contributing regularly to the Buchanan campaign this year.
October 14, 1999 - Willem Breuker has been a fixture on the European jazz scene for thirty years, He's also written symphonies, film scores and music for theater. It's all likely to fly from the stage tonight as he brings his 11-piece band, the Willem Breuker Kollektief, to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis tonight. Brueker, who's Dutch, dropped by our studios this afternoon with Lorre Trytten, the Kollektief's American violinist to talk about his particular brand of jazz.
October 7, 1999 - Real Estate developer Donald Trump announced today he's formed an exploratory committee for a Presidential run. He's having dinner in New York tonight with Governor Ventura, who's urged him to consider running on the Reform Party ticket. Dean Barkley who ran Governor Ventura's successful campaign and is now Ventura's Planning commissioner has been mentioned as a possible Trump campaign manager. Barkley says neither he nor his boss have made ANY committment to Trump yet.
October 5, 1999 - Curt Johnson is a veteran of the Carlson administration, where he served as Chief of Staff and later Chair of the Met Council. He's familiar with sweeping policy agendas like the one unveiled by the governor today. Johnson says on first glance, it seems like the "Big Plan" is more a collection of priorities, than a specific list of goals.
September 9, 1999 - Donald Blom has a history as a repeat sex offender against young girls. He was convicted five times in the seventies and eighties for sexually assaulting and in some cases kidnapping of girls ages 13 to 16 in the Twin Cities area. The longest continuous period he served in prison was four years after committing three sexual assualts in the 1980's. Criminal histories like Blom's are of particular interest to the group WATCH, which monitors felony-level sex crimes against women and children in Hennepin County. Executive Director Jacqueline Hauser says sentences have gotten tougher of late, but the changes came too late to protect Katie Poirier.