March 7, 2002 - This late return of cold, winter weather has been unwelcome news for the growing number of homeless people in Minnesota. Statewide the number of people seeking help from shelters and transitional housing was up five percent last year. The number turned away for lack of space was up as well. In St. Cloud, there is an acknowledged shortage of beds in town. But Mainstreet Radio's Jeff Horwich reports this winter the city's churches have provided warm spaces for a few more.
March 7, 2002 - A strong winter storm has been pushing its way across Minnesota. Right now, the arrowhead is reporting some of the heaviest snow. Mark Kavinsky, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, says the storm totals will vary widely.
March 7, 2002 - Hotel workers in Duluth have been picketing for the last three months in front of five downtown hotels. Picketing is a standard strategy in labor disputes, but these workers are not on strike. They're demanding that their employers stay out of a union organizing effort. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephanie Hemphill reports its becoming an increasingly popular tool for unions.
March 7, 2002 - Two separate storm systems could dump as much as 12 inches of snow on parts of the state by Saturday morning. The first storm is already moving across the state, with the heaviest snow falling around Duluth and freezing rain and drizzle.. The second system should move through the state late Friday, again bringing heavy snow north and mixed precipitation south. National Weather Service Meteorologist Mark Kavinsky says snow lovers in the state should finally get what they've asked for:
March 8, 2002 - Hope you are bracing for some nasty weather on Friday and Saturday.....record snowfall for Saturday is 10.9 inches in the Twin Cities (1918).
March 8, 2002 - The second winter storm in as many days is heading into Minnesota this evening. The national weather service says it will dump between three to eight inches across much of south central and central Minnesota, including the Twin Cities and parts of northwestern Wisconsin. By tomorrow morning, winds up to 40 miles an hour are expected to create near blizzard conditions in parts of central Minnesota. In the south tonight, more sleet and freezing rain is expected. Yesterday's storm dumped as much as 10 inches in the arrowhead region. Jim Vic is marketing director for Lutsen ski resort on the north shore of lake superior. He says today was the best skiing of the season:
March 14, 2002 -
March 14, 2002 - Byron Paulson is a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Chanhassen. He says the most persistent band of heavy snow right now is located just north of the Twin Cities:
March 14, 2002 - The Minnesota Zoo is celebrating a major breakthrough in a decade-long attempt to artificially inseminate a clouded leopard. Researchers don't know if the procedure they performed earlier this week will result in leopard cubs, but they are happy to have even completed it. Clouded leopards are extremely hard to breed. The males tend to have low sperm counts and the females have erratic heat cycles. So a few months ago, researchers decided to use a norplant implant to shut down the reproductive system of a seven-year-old clouded leopard female, named Kuala. They then started her system back up by using hormonal injections to stimulate ovulation. That finally occured earlier this week and tropics zoologist Beth Jo Schoeberl (SHOW-burl) says researchers immediately sedated the cat and made a surgical incision directly in her uterus to inseminate her.
March 14, 2002 - A winter storm across the southern Minnesota is creating dangerous driving conditions, closing schools and cancelling flights. The storm is expected to drop 8 to 14-inches of snow on the Twin Cities, and nearly two feet on parts of central and west central Minnesota. Mainstreet Radio's Tim Post reports.