December 15, 1998 - Rivers of red ink are threatening to drown hog producers all across the midwest. Prices are the lowest they've been in more than 25 years. It's a variation on the oldest of economic forumula's too many hogs despite healthy demand. U.S. meatpackers can't process the animals fast enough to keep ahead of the glut. Some farmers wonder if the rise of a new form of hog marketing, the contract, is causing the industry's current problems. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports: These are gloomy days for hog producers. Everyone expected a price drop, but no one thought it would get this bad. J
December 15, 1998 - St. Paul-based U-S Satellite Broadcasting is being sold to Hughes Electronics -- the owners of DirecT-V -- for approximately one-and-a-quarter billion dollars. Minnesota Public Radio's Michael Khoo has more. NARRATION: Hubbard Broadcasting, owner of the K-S-T-P television and radio stations in the Twin Cities formed U-S-S-B, at a time when many doubted consumer interest in the technology. Programming is delivered through satellite dishes the size of a pizza box. U-S-S-B has not shown a profit since going public in 1996 even thought the satellite T-V industry now serves millions of subscribers. But chairman Stanley Hubbard says that will change once the deal is complete.
December 16, 1998 - A Minneapolis city council committee has authorized issuing up to $55 million dollars in bonds to build a Target store downtown. The committee also voted to support an affirmative action plan filed by Dayton Hudson corporation, needed for the Target store project to proceed. More from Minnesota Public Radio's Eric Jansen: Minneapolis officials say Dayton Hudson's filing of its affirmative action plan has resolved the last thorny issue blocking plans for a Target store on Nicollet Mall. Dayton Hudson has said a downtown Target store is not one of its priorities --- its stores do best in suburban locations. But city leaders, including Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton, s
December 17, 1998 - A new housing development in Minneapolis' Phillips neighborhood will convert several landmark mansions into condominiums. Residents say the project is not gentrification that will push poor people out but instead is the beginning of a long awaited turn-around for the inner city neighborhood. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reports. The wrecking ball has taken many of the mansions along Park avenue in the Phillips neighborhood. But a few remain, and Lutheran Social Services spokesman Bill Vanderwall says three near their headquarters building will become condominiums. The units will sell for $90,000 to $145,000. Vanderwalle says the housing and other projects in the works will change the face of the city's poorest neighborhood.
December 21, 1998 - MPR’s Dan Gunderson reports on the lefse industry in Minnesota.
December 21, 1998 - Low crop prices, a decrease in land values and poor export markets are creating a new farm crisis. In the 1980s, farmers experienced several years of the same... and as a result, Congress added a chapter to the bankruptcy code giving farmers more negotiating tools with lenders and more options to stay in business. By April, lawmakers will decide whether or not to keep the Chapter 12 provision alive in the bankruptcy code. In this first of three reports, Mainstreet Radio's Cara Hetland looks at farm bankruptcy provision... and whether Chapter 12 works, or delays the inevitable. OUT COPY:
December 21, 1998 - THE MINNESOTA VIKINGS' BEST-EVER SEASON GOT EVEN BETTER LAST NIGHT (SUN) WITH THEIR FIFTY-TO-TEN THRASHING OF THE JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS. WITH ONLY ONE REGULAR-SEASON GAME REMAINING, THE VIKINGS ARE NOW ASSURED OF FINISHING THE YEAR WITH THE BEST RECORD IN THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL CONFERENCE ... AND THAT MEANS THEY WILL ENJOY THE HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE IN THE N-F-C PLAYOFFS. MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO'S WILLIAM WILCOXEN HAS THIS REPORT... --------------------------------------------------------- | D-CART ITEM: 5286 | TIME: 3:15 | OUTCUE: standard. --------------------------------------------------------- THE JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS REALLY ARE A GOOD TEAM -- THE BEST IN THEIR DIVISION, IN FACT. BUT THEY MAY NEED A REMINDER OF THAT AFTER LOSING BY FORTY POINTS TO THE MINNESOTA VIKINGS. THE BLOWOUT VICTORY WAS THE VIKINGS' FOURTEENTH WIN THIS YEAR COMPARED WITH ONLY ONE LOSS. THAT RECORD PUTS THIS YEAR'S VIKINGS IN
December 22, 1998 - Mainstreet Radio's Tom Robertson reports on the people behind the balsam boughs in Minnesota.
December 22, 1998 - In the next couple of months farmers around the region will be asking bankers for money to plant next years crop. Nationally, the Farm Credit System reports more than one billion dollars in bad farm loans this year. In Northwestern Minnesota, some experts say 60 percent of farmers may not qualify for financing next year. That's causing sleepless nights for farmers and lenders. Minnesota Public Radios Dan Gunderson talked to one lender on the front line.
December 22, 1998 - For the past two days, a Worthington grocery store has sold pork for 30 cents a pound to protest the low prices paid to pork farmers. That's about a dollar cheaper per pound than usual. Hog producers are weathering the lowest prices in decades because there is a huge oversupply of pork on the market. Manager of the County Market in Worthington, Scott Anderson, says consumer demand for pork HAS remained high ... but even he was surprised at how many people were willing to brave the cold temperatures to buy drastically reduced pork. Scott Anderson is Manager of the County Market in Worthington. He says the grocery store basically broke even on the pork sale.