Digitization made possible by the State of Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, approved by voters in 2008.
March 24, 1997 - The Minnesota Gopher mens basketball team makes its first ever appearance in the NCAA Final Four Saturday. Minnesota plays Kentucky in the semi-final game. The Gophers' electrifying play through the initial rounds of the tournament has been matched only by the enthusiasm of fans who have followed them hundreds of miles to watch them. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Wareham has a report.
March 24, 1997 - Next week the Clay County Commission will consider Sheriff Larry Costello’s plan to put jail inmates to work. The sheriff has received support and a fair amount of criticism for proposing what he says has wrongly been dubbed a chain gang. Minnesota Public Radio’s Dan Gunderson reports.
March 25, 1997 - With the Minnesota Gophers Basketball team appearance in 1997 NCAA Tournament’s Final Four, Midday discusses intercollegiate athletics and Gopher teams with guest Mark Dienhart, University of Minnesota Men's Athletic Director. Program also includes listeners call-in questions.
March 26, 1997 - Midday discusses the U. S. economy with author and well-known economist Lester Thurow, a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Topics include interest rates, inflation, stock market, health care, labor market, and monetary policy. Thurow also answers listener call-in questions.
March 26, 1997 - The Hartford Whalers professional hockey team announced today they have rejected an offer from the Connecticut goverment for a new arena and will leave the state at the end of the season. The team has not decided where it is headed, but St. Paul is under consideration as the Whalers' new home. St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman has been courting the team since the Winnipeg Jets decided not to relocate here. Coleman says the Whalers decision widens the window of opportunity for St. Paul.
March 26, 1997 - Would you take a rabid Golden Gopher fan into your home, no questions asked? Hundreds of gopher fans are hoping for some hoosier hospitality as the NCAA final four approaches, and a Stillwater charter firm may be their link to finding a temporary home in Indianapolis. For the last four years Creative Charters has been taking gopher football and basketball fans to games around the country. With the Final Four, Creative Charters owner Steve Erban says his firm began to run into trouble finding affordable centrally located hotel rooms for gopher fans. Erban ended up calling an old fraternity brother who also happens to be director of the Indiana basketball hall of fame to find out whether Indianapolis residents would be willing to share their homes with the gopher faithful, and the Adopt A Gopher program was born.
March 26, 1997 - With all the predictions of severe flooding this spring, some Minnesotans are considering taking rather extraordinary precautions, such as flooding their basements themselves before murky flood waters can penetrate them. In the southwestern Minnesota town of Dawson, the local fire department has told residents it will fill their basements with clean water when flood waters begin to rise. The idea is to equalize pressure inside the home to protect foundations from crumbling and prevent the muck from gathering in the basement. We contacted Duane Hoeschen (Hession), regional coordinator in Mankato of the department of public safety's division of emergency management, to find out what he thought of the strategy and to explain it in a little more detail. Duane Hoeschen, regional coordinator of the state's divisio
March 26, 1997 - A new study shows a 25 percent drop in the rate at which mercury is accumulating in Minnesota lakes. The decline comes despite the fact that mercury contamination levels worldwide continue to climb. Like acid rain, mercury pollution is hard to fight, since it can spread thousands of miles from its source. The study, published in the April issue of Environmental Science and Technology, offers some of the first evidence that local cutbacks in mercury emissions are paying off close to home. Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Losure reports.
March 26, 1997 - A key Minnesota house committee today approved legislation that would require snowmobile owners to have liability insurance on their snowmobiles. This bill is one of many this year fueled by the 32 snowmobile related deaths this year in Minnesota. The House Financial institutions and Insurance Committee passed the requirement after hearing tearful pleas from the mothers of two children killed by snowmobilers this year. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Catlin has more.
March 26, 1997 - Today is crunch time at the state capitol, as lawmakers rush to get their pet bills past the first major deadline of the legislative session. One of the bills that didn't make it was the "right-to-carry" bill, legislation that would have made it easier for law-abiding Minnesotans to carry concealed handguns. Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste reports.