Digitization made possible by the State of Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, approved by voters in 2008.
February 19, 1998 - Jurors in Minnesota's tobacco trial today heard starkly differing views on whether smoking causes disease. A former tobacco company president testified the Surgeon General was "dead wrong" when he said smoking causes lung cancer, then the head of an industry-funded research group reluctantly agreed with the Surgeon General. The link between cigarettes and disease is key to the state's case that smoking leads to higher health care costs. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports...
February 20, 1998 - In contrast to the noise the demonstrators made today at the University of Minnesota, people on the street appear to be more divided in their opinions on whether to bomb Iraq. Here's a non-scientific sampling of opinion from people in St. Paul and Collegeville on U.S. policy in Iraq.
February 20, 1998 - Former President George Bush told an audience in Minneapolis last night that whatever President Clinton decides over U.S. policy and Iraq he'll support him. Bush spoke to an audience of more than 1,000 people attending a Minnesota Family Council event. Minnesota Public Radio's Karen-Louise Boothe reports.
February 20, 1998 - Very early this morning, the ladies figure skating came to a dramatic conclusion in Nagano, with Americans Tara Lipinsky winning the gold, and Michelle Kwan, the silver. Now only a handful of events remain before Sunday's closing ceremonies. A few medals have yet to be awarded in short track speedskating, men's hockey, skiing, biathlon and bobsled, and then it's all over until 2002, when the games begin in Salt Lake City. Jay Weiner, who's been covering the Olympics for the Star-Tribune newspaper, sizes up these games.
February 20, 1998 - Indictments have been issued in a firebombing four years ago that killed five children in St. Paul. Investigators say the deadly apartment fire was the work of drug-trafficking gang members trying to intimidate the children's older brother. Minnesota Public Radio's Todd Moe reports.
February 20, 1998 - The Minnesota Museum of American Art re-opens in downtown St. Paul this weekend after a five month hiatus. During that time the museum spent a half-million dollars renovating its galleries in Landmark Center. The museum has been around for seventy-one years, but in it's latest incarnation, it's smaller, more tightly focused, and content to position itself as a neighborhood museum.
February 20, 1998 - About a hundred protestors disrupted a speech by U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson in Minneapolis today. Richardson was speaking about U.S. policy toward Iraq at a forum at the University of Minnesota when the protestors marched into the hall and drowned out the ambassador's speech. Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Stucky has more on the confrontation.
February 20, 1998 - El Nino has been brutal to the California coast line, but gentle to Minnesota, bringing us one of our mildest winters on record. Some Minnesotans love it, others hate it. The ice fishing season has been extended through March first, but the DNR is now recommending ice fishing shelters should be removed from lake this weekend, especially in the southern two-thirds of Minnesota. The warmer weather means lake ice will soon be too weak to support the vehicles needed to pull the shacks off the ice. On the plus side, the unseasonably warm weather has been a boon to construction. Adolpson and Peterson Construction spokesman Harlan Hallquist says his company's job sites are about 10-percent ahead of schedule.
February 23, 1998 - Next Tuesday night Republicans and Democrats hold precinct caucuses to elect delegates to this summer's party conventions. This week Minnesota Public Radio is profiling the candidates vying for their endorsement for governor. The race is drawing attention outside of Minnesota because the race includes several sons of famous fathers. None has a bigger name, or is taking a bigger gamble now, than Attorney General Skip Humphrey. Minnesota Public Radio's Karen Louise Boothe has the first in a series of profiles of gubernatorial candidates.
February 23, 1998 - Recreational mushing is booming in Minnesota. The Beargrease sled dog marathon in Duluth and Alaska's Iditarod have increased the sport's visibility. Mushing trips for novices are one way sled dog owners can educate people about the sport and pay their bills. And as Minnesota Public Radio's Amy Radil reports, mushers are bringing dogsledding to a whole new audience.