July 12, 2000 - The lasting heat and humidity is making some electricity providers sweat. Power company officials are on the look-out for so-called "peak alerts" when the demand for power exceeds what's readily available. Some places around the country expect short blackouts at times of high demand. In Rochester, the municipal utility company is sending a more potent message. It's warning residents that their electric bills could spike from a normal of three dollars a day to as much as 100 dollars if they don't conserve energy. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes explains.
July 20, 2000 - An expert in forensic dentistry says the single tooth and parts of a jawbone found in Donald Blom's firepit are those of Katie Poirier. Blom is charged with abducting and killing Poirier last May. The prosecution is trying to build its case against Blom hampered by the fact it has very little physical evidence. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephanie Hemphill reports. { Testimony in the trial this week is focusing on the tiny bits of evidence found in the firepit on Donald Blom's property just outside Moose Lake. Forensic odontologist Dr. Anne Norlander told the court she believes "to a reasonable degree of medical certainty" the bone fragments and tooth found there belong to Katie Poirier.
July 27, 2000 - The Granite Falls tornado highlighted the need for people to have ample warning before severe weather strikes. The national weather serivce provides a warning network for homes or businesses that will automatically turn on radios when severe weather strikes. But not everyone in Minnesota is covered by the service. WCCO meterologist Paul Dougas says the service is centered in big cities, but the coverage gap is about to close. A bill that passed in the last Legislative session provides money to build 13 transmitters to make sure the entire state is covered. George Wilcox is a public affairs officer with the National Oceanic and Atmostpheric Administration or NOAA -- the organization that oversees the National Weather Service. He says NOAH weather radios operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
August 2, 2000 - Local officials from northeastern Minnesota sat down with Governor Ventura's staff today and shared ideas about how to grow the region's economy. It was the first time the Governor's cabinet has met outside St. Paul, and state officials say this trip was so successful, similar meetings around the state could become a regular feature of the Ventura Administration. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephanie Hemphill reports. { During the election campaign Jesse Ventura didn't know what I-triple R B stood for, and he stumbled on the Tonight show with Jay Leno when asked to describe taconite. But no more. Ventura and the heads of twenty-four state agencies learned about mining and a lot more on a two-day tour of the Iron Range. Yesterday they toured Minntac, the state's largest iron ore mine and taconite plant. Today they heard from local officials about efforts to diversity the Range economy.
August 3, 2000 - Mainstreet Radio's Cara Hetland reports that farmers in Day County in northeastern South Dakota have spent the past eight years watching their farm fields become lakes. Day County is in an area known as the “prairie pot hole.” There's no drainage system for the sloughs now filled with water. Landowners who once grazed hundreds of head of cattle now see a new sight on their pastureland…fishing boats.
August 4, 2000 - Jurors in an Iron Range Courtroom heard a tape of Donald Blom confessing to abducting and killing Katie Poirier Thursday. The taped confession which Blom has since recanted, was a long-awaited and painful part of the prosecution's case. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephanie Hemphill reports. { The Virginia courtroom was more crowded than usual, and Katie Poirier's friends and family wiped their eyes and gave each other supportive hugs as they heard Blom's voice describe taking the teenager from the convenience store where she was working alone late at night, driving to his nearby property, and strangling her. The tape was actually dominated by the voice of BCA investigator Paul Wagner, who conducted the interview. Blom said he'd been drinking that night and his memory of what happened hazy. Wagner had to lead him repeatedly through various episodes, trying to corroborate evidence provided by witnesses, or just trying to get Blom to recall exactly what happened.
August 4, 2000 - The prosecution has rested its case in the Donald Blom kidnap and murder trial. Three weeks of testimony culminated with emotional stories from two women who had been kidnapped and assaulted by Blom seventeen years ago. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephanie Hemphill reports. { The Blom jurors heard two women describe how - 17 years ago when they were both in their teens - they picked up Blom who was hitch-hiking near Stillwater. They said he threatened them with a knife, forced them into the woods, and attempted to choke and rape one of them. When a police car stopped to check on the abandoned vehicle, Blom ran off. One of the women recognized him two months later and he pled guilty to the assault and served four years in prison.
August 7, 2000 - Environmental questions are seldom simple. A little publicized fight over hydro-electric power in Manitoba is a classic example. Dams built over the last three decades have caused irrevocable change the Manitoba landscape and destroyed the traditional lifestyle of Cree Indians living in the area. Now the demand for electricity is increasing, and one of Manitoba Hydro's biggest customers Northern States Power is considering a new contract. There's a possibility of new dams. Some of the Cree people are campaigning for the removal of hydro power and have enlisted Minnesota activists to help: but as Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Stucky reports they are opposed by members of their own tribe, who say the future lies in embracing the new projects.
August 7, 2000 - Amy Blom today told a Virginia Courtroom her husband, Donald Blom, was at home with her and their four children the night Katie Poirier disappeared. The wife of the man accused of kidnapping and murdering Poirier in late May last year was the first defense witness to testify at the trial. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephanie Hemphill reports. { Amy Blom said her husband was away two nights the week Katie Poirier disappeared, but she said on the night in question he was in their Richfield home. She told the court she remembered the events of Wednesday, May 26th because the next day she saw a report about the missing convenience store clerk on television. She says it "stuck out in her mind" because the Bloms owned vacation property near Moose Lake. She said Blom telephoned her from work during the day on Wednesday to say he was going to spend some time fishing. He arrived home around 9:30, they watched the 10:00 news, and then went to bed. The next morning Blom said her husband was gone, but she thought he'd gone to work because the coffeepot was on as usual. Security video tape from the convenience store, which is just off I-35 about 100 miles north of the Twin Cities, shows Poirier being abducted at about 11:30 Wednesday night by a man wearing a New York Yankees shirt .
August 7, 2000 - For the first time in 40 years, peregrine falcons are nesting and raising young on the cliffs along the upper Mississippi River. They're taking back nesting spots that have sat empty since peregrine falcons were nearly wiped out by the insecticide DDT. It's one of the final stages in the spectacular comeback of the once-endangered birds. Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Losure reports.