Minnesota Public Radio Stories

• Erin McKeown performs in studio
  Erin McKeown joined Steve Seel in the Current studios to perform and discuss the songwriting process for for her new album, We Will Become Like Birds.3:50 p.m.
• U of M acknowledges mistakes in stem cell research
  University of Minnesota officials say discrepancies found in promising stem cell research appear to be mistakes, and not deliberate fabrications. A journal determined U of M stem cell researcher Catherine Verfaillie doubled up some data.5:20 p.m.
• Wiccans fight for soldier's rights against the VA
  Wiccans and other pagans are fighting to have the pentacle approved as a religious symbol on veteran's memorial markers.5:24 p.m.
• Lake Superior heats up
  Scientists explore why Lake Superior is warming quicker than air around it5:46 p.m.
• Bachmann: Iran has plan to turn part of Iraq into terrorist haven
  U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann appeared to back away Friday from comments about Iran she made to a St. Cloud Times reporter. In an interview, Bachmann said she knew of an agreement allowing Iran to carve out a portion of Iraq which would serve as a terrorist haven.5:50 p.m.
• Art sale recalls Middle America's brush with painting
  Painting by numbers was a fad in the '50s. Now these paintings are becoming collectors' items. One local artist is putting part of his collection up for sale in Minneapolis.6:20 p.m.

National Public Radio Stories

• Nearing Retirement, Army Chief Details Changes
  Army Chief of Staff Gen Peter Schoomaker, who assumed his post in August, 2003, is quickly approaching retirement — pending confirmation, Gen. George W. Casey will soon replace him. In those four years, Schoomaker says, the Army has changed; it now must cope with increasing demands.
• Oscar Rules for Documentary Films to Change
  From blockbusters like Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth to smaller films like Deliver Us From Evil, documentaries are drawing large audiences. But some worry that the Academy's new rules could hamper that trend.
• The Yukon Quest: For Real Mushers Only
  Most Americans have heard of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. With its big corporate sponsorships and huge field of entrants, it's the Indy 500 of mushing. But there's another 1,000-mile adventure in Alaska: The Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race, through Alaska and Canada's Yukon.
• Glimpsing a Queen's Soul: 'The Stag Scene'
  There is a moment in the Oscar-nominated film The Queen that is known to some simply as "The Stag Scene." In the sequence, Helen Mirren, as Elizabeth II, sits on a hill in the lush Balmoral countryside, brought to tears. Then she sees the stag.
• Life at GW: School's Yearly Fees Top $50K
  George Washington University in Washington, D.C., recently set the record for the highest cost for a year of education. Classes and room and board now run over $50,000 a year. Robert Siegel talks with Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, president of George Washington University, about why the school charges so much.
• Senate Democrats Seek an Opening to Curtail Bush
  Members of the House passed a nonbinding resolution opposing President Bush's troop surge in Iraq last week. Some leading Senate Democrats are now trying a new tack, aiming to repeal the 2002 use-of-force authorization Congress issued to President Bush.
• Katrina Update: Bush's Friend in the Upper Ninth
  Ethel Williams lost her home on Pauline Street in the New Orleans' Upper Ninth Ward during Hurricane Katrina. After the storm, President Bush visited Williams and promised that the federal government would help her rebuild.
• Afghan Demonstrators Call for Wide Amnesty
  Former Afghan mujahedeen and several thousand of their supporters held an unprecedented protest at Kabul's National Stadium to criticize the central government and the United States for turning their backs on their one-time allies.
• Candidates, and the Times, Leave Public Financing
  Once the strongest element of post-Watergate campaign reforms, the presidential public financing system now seems to be going down the drain. Its spending limits are too restrictive for the current era of mega-campaigns, and so far at least, every major candidate for 2008 has opted out, in favor of private contributions.
• Secretary Gates Promises Changes at Walter Reed
  Secretary of Defense Robert Gates visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center today. The occasion brought the third press conference held this week by the Pentagon in response to a Washington Post series of reports on squalid conditions at some of Walter Reed's facilities.
• Students Uncertain About Historically Black Schools
  The number of black students applying to historically black schools is on the decline. This generation of black students likes the idea of not being in the minority at college, but doesn't necessarily feel the same allegiance to these schools.
• Posthumous Sci-Fi: Octavia E. Butler's 'Fledgling'
  Much-lauded science-fiction writer Octavia E. Butler died last year in a fall at the age of 58. Her final novel, called Fledgling has recently been reprinted in paperback.
• A Doctor's Guide to the 'Art of Aging'
  Dr. Sherwin Nuland, the surgeon who wrote How We Die, calls his latest book a project he has been working on for more than 76 years. Called The Art of Aging, the book's topics range from the adjustments everyone faces with age to stories of people who retain grace and vigor.
• Two Marathons a Day in the Sahara
  Three long-distance runners have just completed a three-month run across the Sahara Desert. They crossed six countries and ran an average length of two marathons a day. One of the competitors, Charlie Engle, says he did it to raise consciousness about the lack of clean water in Africa. Melissa Block talks with Engle.
• Iraq War's Effects Seen, Felt in High School's Halls
  Nearly five years of deployments in Iraq have been tough on soldiers — and particularly hard on their children. At Shoemaker High School in Killeen, Texas, about 90 percent of the student population have a parent in the military.

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