November 7, 2002 - Minnesota Senator-elect Norm Coleman says he hopes to persuade interim Senator Dean Barkley to step down before the newly elected members of Congress are sworn in. On November 4th, 2002, Governor Ventura appointed Barkley to replace the late Senator Paul Wellstone who died in a plane crash two weeks ago. Coleman will follow Barkley after defeating former Vice President Walter Mondale in Tuesday's election.
October 18, 2002 - MPR's Tom Scheck reports that former Twins star and Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett has been charged with felony and misdemeanor counts for an alleged sexual assault. The Hennepin County Attorney’s office accuses Puckett of dragging a women into a restaurant bathroom last month and groping her.
October 11, 2002 - MPR's Tom Scheck reports it's not just the players and fans who would like to see the Minnesota Twins success in playoffs last another couple of weeks through to the World Series…so would downtown businesses and merchandisers who are profiting themselves from the Twins' success.
October 9, 2002 - As the Minnesota Twins battle the Anaheim Angels in American League Championship Series, MPR's Tom Scheck reports that many fans both inside and outside the dome are engaging in peculiar habits to ensure that the Twins will keep winning all the way through the World Series.
October 3, 2002 - MPR’s Jon Gordon provides a summary of Game 2 of the ALDS, in which the Oakland Athletics beat the Minnesota Twins 9-1.
October 2, 2002 - MPR’s Jon Gordon breaks down Game 1 of American League Division Series game, matching the Minnesota Twins against Oakland A’s. Twins' post-season inexperience was on garish display early in the game, but the team is savoring innings four through nine, during which it battered the vaunted Oakland pitching staff and silenced the A's bats for a 7-5 victory.
October 1, 2002 - The Minnesota Twins open the postseason on the road against the Oakland Athletics. One is in the playoffs for the third straight year, the other hasn't tasted baseball's post-season since 1991…but as MPR’s Jon Gordon reports from Oakland, the Twins and the A's have a lot in common.
September 26, 2002 - The Mainstreet Radio documentary “An Uncivil War” examines The US-Dakota War of 1862, a war fought in the Minnesota River valley back in 1862 that still leaves scars today. On one side were the Dakota Indians. On the other, settlers and the U.S. government. Hundreds of people died on both sides of the five-week long war. It lead to the largest mass execution in U.S. history, when 38 Dakota were hanged in Mankato.
September 25, 2002 - MPR’s Art Hughes and Brandt Williams report on the tenth anniversary Jerry Haaf murder. The thirty-year police veteran died on the floor of the Pizza Shack restaurant in south Minneapolis after being shot in the back during his morning coffee break. The execution-style shooting remains one of the most shocking acts of violence against an officer in Minneapolis history.
September 15, 2002 - On this American RadioWorks special radio report, “Nature's Revenge - Louisiana's Vanishing Wetlands” looks at a region of the United States that is crumbling and sinking into the sea. Scientists say it's causing one of the worst and least-publicized environmental disasters in America's history. As Daniel Zwerdling reports for NPR News and ARW, there's a moral to this story: when humans try to outwit nature, it can strike back with a vengeance.