July 18, 2000 - An engineering consultant says St. Paul could construct an electric streetcar line along Grand Avenue for about $25 million. The proposal for a 10-mile line is still in the discussion phase. But proponents say it would reduce traffic and parking problems that have plagued the thriving commercial strip for years. Streetcars were once the main mode of transportation along Grand Avenue and the rest of the Twin Cities. Hamp Smith is a Reference Associate at the Minnesota Historical Society. He says Minnesotans who can't remember the system might be amazed at how far it extended.
July 12, 2000 - Saying AIDS is the Number one problem facing the world, United Nations ambassador, Richard Holbrooke, said today the U.N. Security Council will soon approve a resolution to intensify the international battle against the disease. In Minnesota, more than 3600 people have contracted AIDS since it was first discovered in the state some 20 years ago. Another 2700 have H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS. Dr. Keith Henry directs the H-I-V clinic at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. He says advances in the treatment of H-I-V and AIDS make it harder to track infection rates:
May 8, 2000 - Celice and Joseph are lying on a beach: both are dead. From its opening scene, "Being Dead" the new novel from English writer Jim Crace, sets the idea of the biographical novel on its head. What seems at first to be a study in describing the process of decay becomes a compeling story of Joseph and Celice's rather ordinary lives. Crace juggles the story of their past and the story of their daughter discovering that her parents are dead Crace told Minnesota Public Radio's Stephanie Curtis the death of his own father 20 years ago inspired the novel .
April 1, 2000 - American culture has shaped powerful myths about the war - and some of the most powerful ones surround the Vietnam-era veteran. This American RadioWorks documentary, “Revisiting Vietnam: 25 Years From Vietnam,” presents various reports and interviews from an American perspective.
February 28, 2000 - The February edition of Voices of Minnesota highlights the work of two African American women. MPR’s Stephanie Curtis interviews Mary Easter, Northfield dancer and choreographer, who discusses the political nature of her work. MPR’s Dan Olson interviews Dr. Geneva Southall, author and retired University of Minnesota Afro-American Studies history professor, who talks about her personal reflections on race, and her research on "Blind Tom" (Thomas Green Wiggins).
February 28, 2000 - The February edition of "Voices of Minnesota" featuring retired University of Minnesota Afro-American Studies history professor Geneva Southall and Northfield dancer and choreographer Mary Easter. Geneva Southall is speaking at 4:00 p.m. Tuesday at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Stephanie Curtis invus Easter in the first part of the program.
February 7, 2000 - Former NPR producer Gwen Macsai, takes on childhood, becoming an adult and the difficulties of marriage in her first book, "Lip-schtick". She turns these ordinary experiences into comic essays, examining the pain of the junior high crush, the romantic allure of carpenters, and how to train your husband. Macsai, formerly a Twin Cities resident, now lives in Chicago.
December 27, 1999 - To close out the millennium, Minnesota Public Radio's All Things Considered presents a look back at Minnesota life in 1900 via a 12-part series, entitled “A Minnesota Century.” This segment, a look back at what was the news at the turn of the last century.
December 23, 1999 - Christmas gatherings are the stuff of family memories. Some people remember these through photographs, others through journals. Six generations of family history are gathered in British author Sallyann Murphey's new book, The Metcalfe Family Album. Resembling a scrapbook, it's actually part fact, part fiction. It includes pressed flowers, family photos, recipes, and letters supposedly gathered at Christmas by the family matriarchs. Minnesota's Public Radio's Stephanie Curtis talked with Sallyann Murphey about how she collected real stories from letters and journals to create the book.
September 10, 1999 - The Justice Department estimates that 16% of all inmates in the United States have psychiatric problems. In this last installment of our series on mentally ill criminals, we look at the place where many advocates for the mentally ill say that the such criminals should be...a hospital. The Minnesota State Security hospital in Saint Peter acts as like a prison - patients must stay within the hospital grounds without special permission- AND a treatment center. Of the 350 patients.the majority carry the label "mentally ill and dangerous". They are the criminals who pose a significant threat to themselves or others AND have a severe mental affliction. Only about 18 to 20 people a year in Minnesota receive this designation, even though many more of the state's incarcerated population are also mentally ill. The hospital is not only better at treating the mentally ill than prison programs, it also better protects public safety. American RadioWorks' Stephanie Curtis reports.