December 11, 2002 - More and more people are choosing to buy organic food, but now some poor people are finding they don't have the option. The Women Infants and Children Program (WIC) helps low-income women feed their families better. The program covers nearly half the babies born in the U.S. every year. The people who run the program in Minnesota have told participants they can't use WIC vouchers to buy organic food anymore. They say it's too expensive. The Whole Foods Co-op in Duluth is trying to persuade the state Health Department to reverse the ruling. Mainstreet Radio's Stephanie Hemphill reports. {
December 11, 2002 - Prescription drugs are expensive in the U.S. More and more Americans are getting around the high prices by going to Canada or Mexico for their medications. Now, some companies are helping people get drugs from Canada without having to travel. A small company in Duluth is hoping to cash in on the trend. Mainstreet Radio's Stephanie Hemphill reports.
December 13, 2002 - The pressure pattern at higher latitudes has had more to do with our weather this fall than El Nino. Indices of atmospheric pressure such as the Arctic Oscillation, North Atlantic Oscillation, and Pacific North American pattern all favored periodic intrusions of polar air over Minnesota. These have been very evident on numerous days. Minnesota has reported the lowest temperature in the contiguous 48 states this fall on the following dates.....
December 20, 2002 - MPR's Morning Edition, Friday, Dec 20, 2002 Happy Holiday Season to our friends who work for the National Weather Service which provides us with updated forecasts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Their guidance is especially appreciated during the heavy travel time over the holidays. Topic: HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE!
December 27, 2002 - Young people at St. Mark A-M-E Church in Duluth are having some serious fun with religion. The small church has youth outreach programs that perform praise dances and offer a ministry of stepping and stomping for other young people all over the country. Mainstreet Radio's Stephanie Hemphill reports.
December 30, 2002 - Brainerd officials are trying to figure out what's causing a hole in the ice of North Long Lake. The hole is about than 21 hundred feet long and 400 feet wide. It was first discovered last February and reappeared again this year when the rest of the lake froze over. Dick Beeson is president of the Thirty Lakes Watershed district. He says the district is sending divers into the hole later this week to conduct tests. He says the hole could have been caused by a minor earthquake that opened up a hot spot more than a mile below the water's surface:
December 30, 2002 - Minnesota researchers are developing what could become the state's next cash crop. Russ Gesch is a research plant physiologist at the U-S-D-A Agricultural Research Service in Morris, and one of only a handful of people across the country working to create a domesticated version of the cuphea (coo-fee-ah) plant. The seeds of the cuphea produce a type of oil that's used in hundreds of everyday items, from toothpaste to detergent. Gesch says American companies now import coconut and palm oils to manufacture such household products. He believes the cuphea plant could eliminate the country's foreign dependence and shift business to the Midwest.
January 1, 2003 - Franklin Avenue in south Minneapolis has survived bouts with booze and drugs and appears to be on a path to recovery. The decades-long renewal picked up speed in 2002 with construction of a new housing project. And there are prospects several new businesses will open their doors this year. However, Franklin avenue's road to recovery is bumpy. A landmark business closed its doors yesterday, and future development is tied to the health of the economy. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reports.
January 3, 2003 - Youth, alcohol and mild winter weather are factors contributing to a sharply higher number of road deaths in Minnesota. State safety officials say there's an eighteen percent increase in the state's traffic crash fatalities in 2002 from the year before. A surprising finding is most of the fatalities are on Minnesota's rural roads during daytime hours. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reports.
January 8, 2003 - Nearly 300 workers at the Blandin paper mill in Grand Rapids lost their jobs today. That's more than a third of the workers at the plant. Blandin is owned by U-P-M Kymmene (KIH-muh-nee) of Finland. U-P-M announced this morning that it's shutting down two of the four production lines at the mill in Grand Rapids. Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Julin reports.