Digitization made possible by the State of Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, approved by voters in 2008.
March 19, 1997 - State education officials say the state's eighth-grade students did slightly better in the second year of the basic skills reading test...but test scores stayed the same in math. Nearly a third of the students who took the tests for the first time last year failed. The Department of Children Families and Learning released the latest test scores this morning. Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Pugmire reports... The basic skills tests represent part of the state's first effort to impose minimum high school graduation standards. The tests help determine if students are on track for graduation. This is the second year students h
March 19, 1997 - Expansion of the Minneapolis Convention Center is on the legislature's plate again following the governor's veto of a convention center appropriation last year. The House Economic Development and International Trade Committee takes up the bill today. Minnesota Public Radio's Karen-Louise Boothe reports.
March 19, 1997 - Mainstreet Radio’s Catherine Winter looks at Challenge Incarceration Program, a Minnesota juvenile boot camp in Willow River. Supporters say strict discipline and hard work will knock some sense into criminals. But research seems to indicate that boot camps don’t work, don’t save money, and they don’t rehabilitate criminals.
March 20, 1997 - Minnesota eighth graders' mediocre performance on the state-wide math and reading tests caught people's attention at the state capitol yesterday (Wed). Lawmakers expressed disappointment in the scores, but they're already hard at work writing laws to require MORE state-wide standardized tests. Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste reports: --------------------------------------------------------- | D-CART ITEM: 2594 | TIME: 2:41 | OUTCUE: "...soc --------------------------------------------------------- The news media's side-by-side comparisons of school districts based on their performance on the grad rule tests is making some people at the state capitol squirm. It was the Legislature that originally mandated the state-wide tests... but now some DFLers wonder whether they've delivered ammunition to Governor Carlson for his attacks on teachers unions and the job they've don
March 20, 1997 - On this first day of spring, Mainstreet Radio’s Mark Steil presents some stories from the winter of '97…and shares words from winter's past in the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder and O.E. Rolvaag.
March 20, 1997 - The U.S. Forest Service is asking for public comment on a plan to log 110-year old red and white pines in the Superior National Forest. A blockade by members of the environmental group Earth First! stopped the logging in December, but if the new plan goes ahead, the trees will be logged next winter. Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Losure reports.
March 20, 1997 - Minneapolis-based First Bank announced today it would acquire one of the largest and oldest banks in the Pacific Northwest, U.S. Bancorp, for about $9 billion dollars in stock. The new entity will be the 14th largest banking firm in the U.S., and will take the name U.S. Bancorp. Officials say some 4,000 positions will be eliminated, the majority in the Portland area. Analysts say the announcement has relatively little bad news for Minnesota. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Catlin has more.
March 21, 1997 - Midday discusses the results of the basic skills tests given to Minnesota eighth-graders. Guests Mike Tillmann, who coordinates graduation standards for the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning; and State Representative Becky Kelso, chair of the K-12 Education Finance Division, give their perspectives on the test numbers and answer listener call-in questions.
March 21, 1997 - School district officials from throughout the nation will be in Minneapolis next week to recruit Minnesota college students for teaching jobs. Students attending the Minnesota Education Career Fair will find they are much in demand. U-S Secretary of Education Richard Riley recently warned of a nationwide shortage of teachers. Minnesota has traditionally had a surplus of teachers, but some teaching skills are in especially high demand. Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Pugmire reports... Saint Paul needs teachers...a lot of them. The district, which has a record number of vacancies this spring, has hired about 300 teachers each of the past four years to keep pace with rising enrollment and normal teacher
March 21, 1997 - A SENATE COMMITTEE HAS DEALT A BLOW TO THE MINNESOTA TWINS EFFORT TO GET A TAXPAYER PAID STADIUM BUILT FOR THEM. MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO'S BOB COLLINS REPORTS AFTER MORE THAN 3 HOURS OF TESTIMONY AND DEBATE...AND WITH SOME MEMBERS WANTING TO CALL IT A NIGHT TO WATCH THE GOPHERS PLAY BASKETBALL, THE SENATE METROPOLITAN AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE DECIDED TO TAKE NO ACTION ON THE MEASURE TO SPEND OVER 400 MILLION DOLLARS ON A NEW BASEBALL STADIUM. THE LEGISLATION ISN'T DEAD BY A LONG SHOT, BUT THE COMMITTEE FACES A DEADLINE OF NEXT WEEK TO TAKE ACTION ON THE MEASURE AND THERE APPEARS TO BE PLENTY OF WORK YET TO BE DONE ON IT.