July 30, 2001 -
July 30, 2001 - The Minnesota Department of Human Services will send out letters this week to familes who could have some of their welfare benefits cut off next summer. The letters will explain possible extensions. The cutoff is part of a Federal Welfare Reform Act passed in 1996 which aims to encourage self-sufficiency, and places a five-year limit on cash assistance. This past session the Minnesota legislature passed some extensions, but not everyone will qualify. Last week, we heard from a woman who is working 25 hours a week and following welfare rules-- and will probably qualify for an extension of her benefits. Today, we talk with Dionne Smith. Dionne needs to find a job before next July or she will lose some of her benefits. She is 33 years old and she says things got tough for her early on.
July 31, 2001 - Minneapolis officials are downplaying the decision by the investment firm Moody's to downgrade the city's bond rating. Moody's shaved the Minneapolis rating one notch from triple-A----the best rating possible---to double-A-1. Political challengers, however, regard the news as further reason voters should oust incumbent office holders. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes reports.
July 31, 2001 -
July 31, 2001 - Two landowners in eastern North Dakota are suing the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad for illegally allowing Sprint and A-T and T to bury cable on the landowners property. They claim the railroad does not have the right to sell the rights to lay fiber -optic cables along the tracks crossing their land. Their lawyer says the lawsuit could result in millions of dollars of damages, and affect land owners across the western United States. Mainstreet Radios Bob Reha reports. (
July 31, 2001 -
August 1, 2001 -
August 1, 2001 - A Twin Cities technology company is close to pulling off what's become a difficult feat since the bursting of the dot-com bubble: it has lined up a significant chunk of new financing. As Minnesota Public Radio's Jon Gordon reports, the deal could save Eagan-based Wam!Net from the same disaster that has befallen many other Internet-related firms. Wam!Net, which handles data networks for corporate and government clients, doesn't SEEM like a success story. It's lost more than half a billion dollars since its inception in 1994, and the company laid off 20 percent of its employees earlier this year. But Wam!Net co-founder and CEO Ed Driscoll says New York City venture capital firm Cerberus Capital Management, which specializes in funding troubled comapnies, has agreed to provide 115 million dollars in operating capital.
August 1, 2001 - MPR’s Kaomi Goetz reports that some members of Minneapolis immigrant communities are asking whether they're getting undue scrutiny from city inspectors.
August 2, 2001 - When the Rochester Post-Bulletin started charging its online readers a couple months ago, other newspaper publishers around the country sat up and took notice. In these times of consolidation and conglomeration, regional papers are looking for creative ways to keep growing. Mainstreet Radio's Laurel Druley has this report.