Minnesota Public Radio Stories

• Dining with Dara: Fall restaurant preview
  In context and in order, Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl's impression of the most important restaurant openings of the fall.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.
• Witness says he was reluctant participant
  The prosecution's key witness in a Minneapolis triple homicide case testified Thursday in Hennepin County District Court.4:50 p.m.
• Central Corridor arts coalition gets $750K grant
  A program that employs artists to bring new life and vibrancy to Central Corridor neighborhoods disrupted by light rail construction has been given a $750,000 grant.4:54 p.m.
• Rocky Mountain team takes over Pagami Creek fire management
  The size and scope of fighting the Pagami Creek wildfire in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is growing by leaps and bounds.5:18 p.m.
• Amy Senser faces felony charge in fatal hit-and-run
  Amy Senser, the wife of former Minnesota Viking Joe Senser, was charged Thursday with criminal vehicular homicide operation for the death last month of a restaurant chef who was hit while filling his car with gas on an Interstate 94 ramp.5:24 p.m.
• Q&A: Lindsay Whalen of the Minnesota Lynx
  The WNBA playoffs begin tonight with games in Seattle and Indiana.5:43 p.m.
• Small gains in employment as state workers return; private sector adds jobs
  Minnesota added more than 28,000 jobs in August, primarily due to laid-off state workers getting back to work.5:50 p.m.
• Nation's largest racial disparity for unemployment in Twin Cities
  A study finds the unemployment rate four times greater for African Americans than for Whites in the Twin Cities — the widest disparity in the country.5:54 p.m.

National Public Radio Stories

• Boehner Offers Response To Obama's Jobs Speech
  House Speaker John Boehner ruled out tax increases and hammered at government regulations in his first lengthy response to President Obama's jobs speech last week.
• Who Will Pay To Fix That Bridge In Ohio?
  President Obama will visit the Brent Spence Bridge, which runs between Ohio and Kentucky on one of the nation's busiest trucking routes, to push his jobs creation plan next week. Officials estimate it will cost $2.4 billion to reconfigure the bridge. The question remains: Who will pay?
• Workers Start Dismantling Dams In Wash.
  Work crews Thursday begin dismantling the two dams on the Elwha River, on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. By some measures, this is the largest dam-removal project ever — and, at 210 feet, one of the dams is certainly the tallest dam ever taken down. The process is an extremely tricky one — in terms of engineering, ecology and politics — but environmentalists hope this project heralds the beginning of the end of the age of big dams in the American West. Those who like big dams, for economic reasons, worry about the same thing. Michele Norris talks with NPR's Martin Kaste.
• Texas Fire Evacuees Return To Find Only Ashes
  Like thousands of other people here whose homes were incinerated by a wildfire in Bastrop County, Texas, Linda and Roger Ward are living in a daze. The fire was not the deadliest wildfire or the largest in acreage. But in terms of destruction — 1,554 homes and counting — it is one of the worst forest fires in recent U.S. history.
• 'Deer Capital' Of Texas Struggles With Drought
  Melissa Block talks with Llano, Texas, Mayor Mike Reagor about the ongoing drought in his city. The river that runs through town is extremely low. Llano has been dubbed the "deer capital of Texas" — and Reagor says the deer, with little to drink, are withering in the heat. Reagor is also a rancher, and he says he's selling cattle because of the drought.
• How One Senator Can Stall A Widely Supported Bill
  Following a work stoppage at airports across the country last month, there almost emerged a rare consensus in Washington, D.C., that the spectacle of laying off workers in a bad economy would not be repeated. "Almost" emerged because Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn is holding up the bill that extends funding to the Federal Aviation Administration for four months. He objects to money for bike paths and similar projects in an attached transportation bill.
• SAT Reading Scores Reach Record Low
  SAT reading scores for the high school class of 2011 were the lowest on record, according to the College Board.
• How Can Parents Navigate Children's TV Shows?
  Michele Norris speaks with Dr. Dimitri Christakis, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children's Research Institute, about how parents can navigate the world of children's TV programs. A new study done at the University of Virginia with a group of 4 year olds found those who'd watched the fast-paced cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants performed worse on mental function tests than their peers who watched the slower-paced cartoon Calliou or who simply spent their time drawing. Christakis says young children's brains get over-stimulated by the faster-paced programs — and urges parents to think about what kind of television-watching experience they want their children to have.
• Here Come The Suns: New Planet Orbits Two Stars
  NASA's Kepler mission has found a new solar system where a Saturn-like planet spins around twin stars 200 light-years away from us. It's the first direct observation of such an arrangement, and astronomers say they're not sure why the planet is there.
• How 'The Book Of Mormon' Cast Album Cracked The 'Billboard' Top 10
  The South Park creators' musical broke cast recording sales records, thanks to fans and promotions.

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