September 5, 2002 - Northwest Airlines announced today it's following other major U.S. carriers in adopting a so-called "Use it or Lose it" policy. Under the policy, the airline will no longer let travelers change their itineraries after their ticketed flight has departed. Northwest will allow changes before a flight departs - for a $100 fee. Northwest says the change will allow the airline to better manage its inventory and reduce its no-show rate. Neal Kraemer is co-owner of Twin Cities-based Carousel Travel. He says he's not suprised Northwest is adopting the policy but he thinks it could drive customers away.
August 8, 2002 -
July 23, 2002 - Alice Sebold is currently living every writer's dream. After quietly turning out work that went mostly unpublished for almost two decades, her new novel is climbing the New York Times Bestseller list. Better yet, the book, called "The Lovely Bones" has become one of the most critically acclaimed books of the year. The book is narrated by a 14-year-old character named Suzy who is raped and murdered in the first chapter. She tells her story from heaven. Sebold herself was brutally raped when she was a freshman in college.
July 16, 2002 - The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts has named David Galligan as its new President and CEO. Galligan will oversee the Ordway's business operations. Past President Kevin McCollum, now the Ordway's artistic producer in charge of programming, will oversee the Center's creative work. Galligan has been second-in-command at the Walker Art Center since 1986. He says he's looking forward to joining the Ordway at such a pivitol point in its history:
June 11, 2002 - St. Paul Pioneer Press reporter and architecture critic Larry Millett is retiring after 30 years with the paper. Millett began writing a column on architecture and design in the mid-1980's, after a prairie school exhibit at Landmark Center stirred up an interest in architecture he had had since childhood. In the late 1980's, Millett wrote a series of columns on historic buildings the city had torn down, which he turned into a book called "Lost Twin Cities." Millett published his last column today. He says when he started at the paper, downtown St. Paul was in the throws of massive downtown urban renewal.
June 10, 2002 -
June 4, 2002 - Minnesota is among the states with the lowest number of people living below the poverty line. New rankings by the U.S. Census Bureau released today (Tuesday) show Minnesota second to the bottom in both individuals and families in poverty and fifth overall in the greatest number of people emerging from poverty since 1990. The state is 11th in the nation for median income. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes reports.
June 3, 2002 -
May 31, 2002 - The 29th celebration of Grand Old Day happens this Sunday along Grand avenue in St. Paul. Organizers call it the largest one-day street fair in the Midwest. If you aren't planning to attend Grand Old Day, Grand "Young" Day, is another option. Commentator Marliss Schmidt has been making an annual pilgrimage to the unusual music event since she moved to Minnesota five years ago:
May 30, 2002 - Tony Parsons has been a rock journalist, a TV host, and a columnist for The Mirror. His novel Man and Boy has been such a big hit in Britian, his name was the correct answer on a recent episode of the game show "The Weakest Link." It's the story of Harry Silver, a 30-year-old TV producer in London who suddenly finds himself raising his 4-year-old son as a single father after his marriage dissolves. The novel is more than a little autobiographical. Parsons raised his own son alone after a much-publicized divorce in the mid-1980's. And like his protagonist Harry, Parsons idolized his father, a decorated World War II hero. He told Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Crann the daily details of life as a single father were only the beginning of the challenges facing Harry: