Minnesota Public Radio Stories

• Car sales revving up in Minnesota
  The 40th annual Twin Cities Auto Show is underway at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Crowds of people come to admire the pristine new vehicles, many with dreams of owning one. But this year more visitors are likely to put their money where their dreams are. New car and truck sales have been on the upswing.3:50 p.m.
• Legislation would provide amnesty to underage drinkers in emergencies
  People who've had too much to drink can sometimes wind up in dire situations -- beaten up, passed out from alcohol poisoning, or sexually assaulted. But when a young person is involved, many times no one calls 911 because underage drinkers are afraid police will cite them. An attempt to change that is being made in Minnesota.3:54 p.m.
• Art Hounds
  Each week Minnesota Public Radio News asks three people from the Minnesota arts scene to be "Art Hounds." Their job is to step outside their own work and hunt down something exciting that's going on in local arts.4:44 p.m.
• Monarch butterfly population drops ominously
  The Minnesota state butterfly, the Monarch, is in trouble. Scientists report a drop of nearly 60 percent in the number of Monarch butterflies making it to their winter home in Mexico this year -- the lowest level since record-keeping began 20 years ago.4:50 p.m.
• Dayton's revised budget raises $1.8B for education, economic development
  Gov. Mark Dayton's revised budget plan relies on higher income taxes for the state's top earners and an increased cigarette tax to erase a projected deficit and increase spending for education. The revised plan does not include a sales tax on services and does away with Dayton's earlier $1.4 billion plan to give homeowners a $500 property tax credit. Dayton said increasing taxes on the wealthy is a matter of fairness.5:20 p.m.
• Minneapolis Basilica celebrates Mass, special ties to new Pope Francis
  The Basilica was decked out in papal colors, gold and white bunting hung from the entrance, and a flag with the pope's coat of arms was displayed near the pulpit.5:24 p.m.
• Car sales revving up in Minnesota
  The 40th annual Twin Cities Auto Show is underway at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Crowds of people come to admire the pristine new vehicles, many with dreams of owning one. But this year more visitors are likely to put their money where their dreams are. New car and truck sales have been on the upswing.5:50 p.m.
• Legislation would provide amnesty to underage drinkers in emergencies
  People who've had too much to drink can sometimes wind up in dire situations -- beaten up, passed out from alcohol poisoning, or sexually assaulted. But when a young person is involved, many times no one calls 911 because underage drinkers are afraid police will cite them. An attempt to change that is being made in Minnesota.5:54 p.m.

National Public Radio Stories

• Courts Become A Battleground For Secularists, Islamists In Syria
  Islamist brigades are competing with pro-democracy civilians to shape Syria's future. In many areas in rebel-held northern Syria, Islamists have set up religious courts that deliver rulings under Shariah, or Islamic law.
• Modern Dating Is A Group Sport For The Hashtag Generation
  The online dating website Grouper helps single people find love with six-person blind dates. Why? "For a generation of people who grew up with participation trophies, rejection is a hard thing," says CEO Michael Waxman.
• Conservative Conference A Parade Of Potential Candidates For 2016
  The annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference began on Thursday. The lunchtime speakers were Senators Marco Rubio and Rand Paul.
• Obama's 'Organizing For Action' Inherited His Campaign's Resources
  President Obama spoke Wednesday night to a group of Democratic donors and organizers who attended the first meeting of Organizing for Action. The group is an out growth of his 2008 Obama for America and 2012 Organizing for America.
• As Global Chains Move In, The Champs Elysees Gets A New Look
  Some Parisians worry that an avenue once considered the most beautiful in the world is starting to take on the character of an American shopping strip.
• 'God Particle' Discovery Disappoints Some Physicists
  Scientists working with data from a large particle accelerator in Europe are now almost certain they have pinned down the elusive subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson.
• Binge Drinking Sticks Wisconsin With A Hefty Tab
  Wisconsin has the highest number of binge drinkers in the nation, and they cost the state $6.8 billion in 2012. Most of that economic burden is from lost productivity — missing work, premature mortality, incarceration, and absenteeism.
• Pope Francis Criticized For Not Confronting Dictatorship During 'Dirty War'
  Audie Cornish talks to Michael Warren, Buenos Aires Bureau Chief for the Associated Press, about Pope Francis and his time with the Roman Catholic Church during Argentina's "dirty war" in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
• Pope Francis' Namesake Was Patron Saint Of Animals, Ecology
  Saint Francis of Assisi is the namesake of the new pope, Francis. To learn about the life of Saint Francis and his legacy in the Catholic Church, Melissa Block talks with with Father Jeremy Harrington. He's guardian of the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America.
• Molly Malone: A Soup And Song For St. Patrick's Day
  Irish cookbook author Rachel Allen shares a recipe for Molly Malone chowder, a soup inspired by the Irish folk song about a doomed fishmonger.

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