Minnesota Public Radio Stories

• Slow going for State Canvassing Board in U.S. Senate recount
  Minnesota's State Canvassing Board finished its first day ruling on challenged ballots. MPR's Steven John talked to correspondent Mark Zdechlik about the board's slow progress.5:20 p.m.
• MPR, churches oppose proposed LRT route
  Minnesota Public Radio and two neighboring churches in downtown St. Paul are escalating their opposition to a proposed route for a light-rail transit line. In the latest salvo, MPR has asked the project planners to study alternative routes through downtown St. Paul.5:24 p.m.
• Chat with Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson
  MPR's Tom Crann spoke with Anderson about the earning numbers Best Buy released today and recently offered voluntary buyouts.5:50 p.m.
• Fusion centers protect us, but at what cost?
  Preventing terrorism is the goal of an expanded domestic intelligence plan now in place in all 50 states including Minnesota, but privacy advocates worry it goes too far, with too little oversight.5:53 p.m.

National Public Radio Stories

• Researchers Find New Evidence Of Dark Energy
  Studying the growth of galaxy clusters has led researchers to new clues about the possible existence of dark energy. Though some say it could be that scientists just don't fully understand gravity yet.
• Economic Crisis Hampers Chelyabinsk's Growth
  Ten years ago, the factories of Chelyabinsk were almost at a standstill. Then prices for raw materials and metal began to rise, which fueled extraordinary growth. Now factories and businesses have started cutting back again.
• Classical CDs For Budget Shoppers
  Music critic Tom Manoff says you needn't spend a fortune on classical music CDs for holiday gifts. Hear his top picks for inexpensive classics, from renaissance masses to 20th-century guitar concertos.
• Fed Sharply Cuts Key Interest Rate
  The Federal Reserve has cut the federal funds rate to the lowest level on record. The new target is a range of zero to 0.25 percentage points. The drop in the rate is expected to result in a quick reduction in the prime lending rate.
• Chicago Schools Chief Is Obama Education Pick
  President-elect Barack Obama has named Arne Duncan of Chicago as his secretary of Education, drafting a fellow Chicagoan who has been associated with innovations in that city's troubled schools. Obama said Duncan was a "hands-on" practitioner of school reform.
• Duncan Appointment Examined
  Before being named President-elect Barack Obama's Education secretary, Arne Duncan ran Chicago schools for seven years. Chester Finn, Jr., president of Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based, education think tank, offers his insight on the appointment.
• Author: Bravado Drives Ponzi Schemes
  Why would someone like Bernard Madoff allegedly get involved in a Ponzi scheme? Nomi Prins, former Wall Street insider and author of Other People's Money: The Corporate Mugging of America, offers her insight into how scam artists in the finance world think.
• In Calif., Deficits Could Spur Taxes, Program Cuts
  California faces the largest budget deficit of any state. It is now estimated at $42 billion over the next 18 months. That means severe cuts in state programs, major new taxes, or, according to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, both.
• U.S. Returns Bosnians From Guantanamo
  The United States has repatriated three Guantanamo prisoners to Bosnia. They are three of the five detainees that a federal judge had ordered the government to release. He said the government had only an unreliable tip that the men were planning to engage in terrorism with al-Qaida and he urged the Justice Department not to appeal his ruling.
• Letters: High College Tuition, Tech Gift Guide
  Listeners respond to the story on the way some families are coping with high college tuition, and the choice of digital photo frames as holiday gifts.

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