July 30, 2014 - MPR’s Tim Nelson provides details on Mendota Heights police Officer Scott Patrick being shot and killed Wednesday in West St. Paul during what police termed a routine traffic stop. By nightfall, authorities had captured a suspect they sought in the killing.
July 15, 2014 - On this Appetites segment, Tom Crann interviews Minnesota author Beth Dooley about the various food offerings of Hmong growers at farmers markets in the Twin Cities.
June 3, 2014 - For more than 20 years Bemidji writer Kent Nerburn has walked a fine line. He's tried to respectfully explore Native American culture as a white author.His books "Neither Wolf nor Dog" and "Wolf at Twilight," tell of his complex relationship with a Lakota elder named Dan. He's now completed the trilogy with "The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo" which delves into Native spirituality. Nerburn says it was also the most difficult of the trilogy to write. "In my own way, with such talents or such spiritual capabilities as I had, I prayed for guidance on this."As in the others in the series the new book tells of a road trip Nerburn takes with his friend Dan. Dan is a real person, a Lakota elder approaching the end of his life. Like all the characters in Nerburn's trilogy, though, Dan is not his real name. Nerburn has renamed everyone except himself.Dan is surrounded by a group of very protective friends and relatives. They regularly warn off Nerburn if they think he is getting too close, telling him he has no place in the native community. "The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo" Courtesy New World LibraryHowever, for reasons Nerburn doesn't understand, Dan keeps pulling him back. The man needs to resolve some questions before he dies -- most importantly, what happened to his sister. She was taken to a boarding school and never returned. Dan wants Nerburn's help to find out what happened.In the first half of the 20th century the U.S. government placed thousands of native children in such schools. They were often far from their homes and families, and the experience scarred entire generations. In the new book, Nerburn writes about a place that may have been worse.
May 30, 2014 - All Things Considered’s Tom Cramm talks with DFL Congressman Tim Walz about his perspective on the resignation of Eric Shinseki as the Secretary of Veterans' Affairs and on the larger VA investigations. Walz had called for Shinseki’s resignation after a VA scandal in Phoenix, Arizona.
May 2, 2014 - MPR’s Nikki Tundel profiles soul singer Sonny Knight, who finds himself back in the music scene after decades long absence.
April 15, 2014 - On this episode of Appetites, James Nortton, author of “Lake Superior Flavors: A Field Guide to Food and Drink Along the Circle Tour,” shares highlights of traveling around the big lake in search of regional foods.
February 4, 2014 - MPR’s Tom Crann interviews former U.S. President Jimmy Carter about Joan Mondale, who passed away on February 3rd, 2014. Carter reflects on Mondale’s legacy in advocacy for the fine arts.
November 20, 2013 - In this episode of Appetites, MPR’s Tom Crann talks with Minnesota poet and writer Heid Erdrich about the local food movement. Though seen as a relatively recent phenomenon, Erdrich argues in a book that the local food movement goes back to the indigenous populations of our region.
November 20, 2013 - MPR’s Dan Kraker reports that after more than a decade of falling water levels, Lake Superior is on the upswing. For 14 years, water levels in Lake Superior, the world's largest freshwater lake, remained below their long-term average, the longest stretch of below-average levels in recorded history. The big lake reached its all-time low in 2007.
September 3, 2013 - The Obama administration trying to line up support on Capitol Hill for some sort of military action against Syria. In the House of Representatives, leaders from both parties now say they support U.S. action, but rank-and-file members of Congress are less sure.