November 3, 2000 - The presidential candidates are racking up thousands of frequent flier miles, and the Gore campaign was back in Minnesota yesterday. Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman made two stops in northeastern Minnesota just one day after George W Bush held a rally in Duluth. Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Julin has more.
November 7, 2000 - Minnesota's first significant winter storm is underway. Greg Gust is the lead forcaster with the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, North Dakota. He says the storm is just starting to pick up steam over western Minnesota and eastern North Dakota.
November 9, 2000 - A solution to the odor problem at a Saint Paul ethanol plant may still be months away... but city officials say new steps on the legal and environmental fronts represent progress toward taming the smell coming from Gopher State Ethanol. Minnesota Public Radio's William Wilcoxen reports. Saint Paul Mayor Norm Coleman and city council member Chris Coleman, whose district includes the ethanol plant, announced two new developments in the ongoing saga of the stink. The city and Gopher State Ethanol have entered into an agreement with a non-profit environmental group that will conduct a thorough study of the odor, its causes, and possible long and short-term solutions. In addition, the city council asked the city attorney for a report on what legal leverage Saint Paul may have in its effort to reduce the odor. Chris Coleman, unrelated to the mayor, says the environmental group is the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy or M-C-E-A, which has worked on industrial odor issues at Koch Refinery and Andersen Windows. He says the legal opinion from the city attorney is due on November twenty-second...
November 10, 2000 - MPR’s Stephanie Hemphill profiles Frank Kutka and his farm near Mahtowa, about an hour south of Duluth. Kutka is experimenting with corn from all over the world to create a variety that will grow up north. His work is attracting attention around the country, and experts are hoping it may result in new crops that will help marginal farms.
November 20, 2000 - Some owners of gas stations and convenience stores around the state are getting nervous as Wal-marts and Sam's Club stores begin selling gas at discount prices. Nationwide, nearly 2,000 discount stores and supermarkets sell gas, but so far Minnesota has seen only skirmishes in this latest assault in the gas wars. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephanie Hemphill reports.
November 21, 2000 - University of Minnesota astronomy professor Rebecca Humphreys has an added incentive to study the solar system these days -- keeping track of her namesake. A former student of Humphreys named astroid number 1-oh-1-7-2 after her last week. Asteroid Humphreys is three to eight miles in diameter and orbits the sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. I asked her what it was like to get the news:
November 21, 2000 - Dava Sobel came across the subject for her book "Galileo's Daughter" when researching what became her best-seller "Longtitude." She uncovered a letter to the 16th-century astronomer written by his daughter, a cloistered nun. Sobel discovered it was just one of a hundred letters written during one of the biggest battles between science and theology...the debate over whether Galileo's book proving Copernican theory that the earth revolves round the sun was heretical. She told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr the letters reveal Galileo, far from being an enemy of the church, was a devout Catholic who was trying to protect his religion.
November 21, 2000 - Duluth's Great Lakes Aquarium, open since August, has lost its education director and two board members in a controversy involving a major funder. The flap started with a newspaper opinion piece by the education director opposing a power line proposed by Aquarium backer Minnesota Power. The controversy is heating up, just as public hearings on the line get underway in Wisconsin. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephanie Hemphill reports. Andrew Slade had been with the Great Lakes Aquarium for eight years during its planning and development. He designed and ran its educational programs. He's also a guest columnist on environmental issues in the Duluth News-Tribune. His September column criticized the proposed powerline, saying the environment would be better off if consumers reduced their electricity use, and power companies would develop solar and wind energy.
November 21, 2000 - It looks like a good winter for people who want to look at snowy owls, but a tough year for the owls themselves. Unusually large numbers of northern owl are showing up in Minnesota this fall. The birds aren't finding enough to eat in their home range, so they're moving south, in what's called an owl "irruption." Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Julin reports.
November 22, 2000 - Representatives at a climate conference at the Hague this week are trying to agree on how to cut down on pollutants that are believed to cause global warming. One of the main pollutants is carbon dioxide. The United States supports what its calls a flexible plan. In part, that means forests that absorb carbon would count toward meeting reduction targets. There has even been talk of paying farmers here in the United States to plant trees rather than crops. The European Union rejected the United States' plan yesterday. John Pastor is a biology professor and part of the University of Minnesota's Natural Resources Research Institute in Duluth. He's on the line now. John Pastor is a biology professor at the University of Minnesota-Duluth