February 15, 2001 - Winter Olympic Competition will be in high gear one year from now in Salt Lake City, Utah. And there will be no shortage of Minnesotans on hand to help out, especially when nordic events take the spotlight. Minneapolis ski-enthusiast Bjorn Lasserud will be volunteering during the cross country ski races. He says his specific job will be guarding the course from spectators.
February 8, 2001 - With each passing year, mountains of aging film stock shot in the last century nudge closer to becoming unviewable. And as that happens, more and more Hollywood studios are looking seriously at preserving the classics stored in their vaults. An executive from Paramount Studios spoke to students at the Univeristy of Minnesota today about the importance of restoring old films. Barry Allen's recent preservation work includes Nicolas Ray's "Johnny Guitar" and the 1949 classic, "The Red Pony." Allen says the old films are national treasures:
January 30, 2001 - Greg Galloway, a supervisor with St. Paul's sewer maintenance division, discusses how a storm's heavy rain caused huge puddles to build up on Twin Cities roads. Crews in Minneapolis and St. Paul worked all night and day to open catch basins and allow the water to flow into the sewer system. Galloway has just 31 employees to oversee the maintenance of 20,000 catch basins.
January 25, 2001 - MPR’s Annie Feidt reports on The Midwest Food Alliance, a new local organization that is hoping to convince Minnesotans to pay closer attention to the source of their food. The alliance supports and promotes the products of local farmers who practice environmentally sound, sustainable agriculture. The organization hopes consumers will search out its brightly colored stickers on produce and meats, the way some look for the organic label.
January 24, 2001 - MPR’s Lorna Benson interviews John Brandl, dean of the Humphrey Institute, about his take on Governor Ventura's two year budget plan. It has been drawing mixed reaction from citizens and lawmakers. Many Democrats are concerned about Ventura's minimal spending increase, and some Republicans have echoed similar concerns. Brandl says Ventura's desire to hold the line on spending is flawed.
January 24, 2001 - A Minnesota man is enjoying his first free days in eleven years thanks to a last-minute commutation from President Clinton. Kim Allen Willis was convicted of conspiring to distribute cocaine in 1990 for a small role he played in the notorious Plukey Duke drug ring. Under mandatory minimum drug sentencing laws, U.S. district judge David Doty was forced to sentence Willis to 15 and 1/2 years in prison. In a letter to President Clinton petitioning for Willis' release, Doty wrote "before I pronounced Mr. Willis' sentence, I told him that he did not deserve the sentence I was going to impose on him, but I had no other choice except to do what the law required." Willis says he got the news of his commutation when he called a friend on Saturday morning:
January 23, 2001 - Seventh district D-F-L Congressman Colin Peterson was among a group of democratic and republican lawmakers who met with President Bush this afternoon. Peterson says the new administration invited lawmakers it views as policy-minded rather than partisan-minded for a get-to-know-you session. He says he came away from today's meeting with a good feeling about Bush.
January 18, 2001 - The Norwegian foreign ministry is considering closing its Consulate in Minneapolis. The consulate opened in 1906, the year Norway gained independence from Sweden. About two dozen countries have honorary consuls in Minnesota, but only Norway and Canada operate full service consulates staffed with career diplomats. Consul General Ulf Christiansen says the consulate would be missed:
January 17, 2001 - Term limits have been set for Minnesota politicians since 1990.
January 16, 2001 - Local baseball analyst Kevin Hennessy shares his thoughts about former Twins outfielders Dave Winfield and Kirby Puckett, who both have been elected to baseball's Hall of Fame.