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Minneapolis was a notorious anti-union town in the early 1900s. But a series of truckers’ strikes in 1934 turned the city into one of the most powerful union cities in the United States. MN90 producer Marisa Helms reports that the strikes were part of a wave of union actions across the country and spurred passage of the 1935 Wagner Act. The federal legislation legitimated and enforced the rights of workers and unions. [Read Transcript...]

In the 1930s, St. Paul became a safe haven for every bank robber, stickup artist and kidnapper in America. The city’s police chief John O’Connor made a devil’s bargain with the crooks: as long as they didn’t commit a crime in St. Paul, police would pretend known criminals weren’t living right under their noses. MN90 producer Marisa Helms says the system worked for several years, until the Barker-Karpis gang kidnapped two of the most prominent men in St. Paul – brewing company executive William Hamm, Jr., and banker Edward Bremer. [Read Transcript...]

If you were an alcoholic in 1940s Minnesota, you could end up in a locked unit in an insane asylum. Understandably, people with financial means would do anything to avoid going to such places. Hazelden Clinic was created in 1949 to bring more respect and dignity to addiction treatment, primarily for businessmen and Catholic priests. Today, the clinic has treated hundreds of thousands of men and women. MN90’s Marisa Helms reports that the now-famous interdisciplinary Minnesota Model created by Hazelden has been adopted around the world and is probably the most common form of treatment of alcoholism and drug abuse. [Read Transcript...]

The game of lacrosse has deep roots in Minnesota and other Great Lakes states. Yet until recently there were no lacrosse programs on tribal reservations here. MN90 Producer Andi McDaniel speaks with the co-owner of the Minnesota Swarm to find out how that’s changing. (Image by Alec Schimke/mnswarm.com) [Read Transcript...]