April 7, 1998 - MPR's Mary Losure talked to kids at an afterschool daycare program for a child's eye view of the severe storm and tornado that hit St. Peter, Minnesota.
April 13, 1998 - Farmers around Comfrey and LeCenter are asking for volunteers to help clear their fields of tornado debris so they can begin their spring planting. Bill Free-DELL of Lutheran Social Service says the weather delayed an immediate clean-up: Bill Fredell is with Lutheran Social Services. There are buses providing round-trips from the Twin Cities. Sun 28-MAY 11:37:29 MPR NewsPro Archive - Wed 04/11/2001
April 13, 1998 - Ojibwa Indians are gillnetting and spearing this spring, under rights first granted in 1837. After a long court battle, the Mille Lacs and other tribes were given authority to regulate their own hunting and fishing in a large section of east-central Minnesota -- including Lake Mille Lacs, the state's most popular walleye lake. It is a historic spring for the tribes -- and a dark one for treaty opponents, who still hope the Supreme Court will take up their cause. Leif Enger retraces the eight-year dispute. The 161-year-old treaty is a short, simple document -- you could read it twice before this story's over. In plain language, the Ojibwa yield t
April 13, 1998 - It will be another week before students at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter return to classes on their tornado-ravaged campus. Officials had hoped to reopen the college today, but delays in debris cleanup and restoring power pushed that back a week. The small Lutheran college faces a long and expensive rebuilding process. But the money's pouring in and administrators are confident they'll emerge from the debris even better than before. Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Pugmire reports... (Sound of bobcat) In a parking lot at Gustavus Adolphus College, workers take a break from hauling debris to unload a semi-trailer full of donated trees. The tornado stripped the campus almost bare of its large mature trees. Campus Gardener Bil
April 14, 1998 - A decade ago in Wisconsin, angry racial confrontations became everyday news when Indians began spearfishing under restored treaty rights. The same rights have been upheld in Minnesota. This spring members of the Mille Lacs and seven other Ojibwa bands are spearing and gillnetting walleye on waters in east-central Minnesota, including Lake Mille Lacs. Some worry the same kinds of confrontations could happen here. But as Leif Enger reports, the long battle over treaty rights has already strained relations between Indians and whites.
April 14, 1998 - A Federal District Court Judge has up held a National Park Service decision to BLOCK contruction of a 60 million dollar bridge across the St. Croix River just south of Stillwater. Opponents of the bridge say the ruling is a major victory and will help preserve the scenic lower St. Croix river. The Minnesota Department of Transportation says its proposed bridge offered the best solution to mounting traffic problems and is considering an appeal. Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Zdechlik reports...
April 14, 1998 - Hundreds of volunteers are picking up tornado debris from southern Minnesota farm fields this week as a new phase of the cleanup from the March 29th tornadoes begins. Its estimated more than 400 farms were damaged by the storms. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil went along as volunteers cleaned fields near New Ulm yesterday: :04 (Okay if I could have everybody's attention!) Duane Laffrenzen stands in the front of a school bus parked at the New Ulm High School. The seats are filled by 50 volunteers from New Ulm, Fairmont, Minneapolis, Mapleton, and Renville.
April 14, 1998 - Some cities in southeast Minnesota worry a Clinton administration program to free up money for the Upper Mississippi Riverfront will restrict local property rights. Some call it a Trojan horse for federal restrictions. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes reports. Marilyn Hayman is the property-rights movement's dream. She delivers broad and forceful denunciations of the federal government with a softspoken, grandmotherly eloquence. Hayman lives in Maiden Rock, Wisconsin and is chair of the group Citizens for Responsible Zoning and Landowner Rights. Her message has found fertile ground in southeastern Minnesota where some local governments are resisting Minnesota's nomination of the Upper Mississippi River to the Clinton administration's American Heritage Rivers Initiative. The program i
April 15, 1998 - Baden = BAY dun As the ice goes out on Lake Mille Lacs in central Minnesota, a new fishing season begins... this year, Indian netters and spearfishers from the Mille Lacs band of Ojibwe will be out harvesting the fish guaranteed them, under a treaty with the U.S. government. MPR's Mainstreet radio team is taking a look all this week, at treaty rights and other ways tribal sovereignty affects Native Americans. Today, commentator Jim Baden, publisher of the Mille Lacs Messenger, predicts that spearfishing season will come and go for the locals - it's the 'outsiders' who will make it a big deal. Jim Baden is publisher of the Mille Lacs Messenger. Sun 28-MAY 11:38:08 MPR NewsPro Archive - Wed 04/11/2001
April 16, 1998 - The first FEMA trailer was delivered Wednesday to a rural homestead in southern minnesota. Around one hundred trailers are expected to become homes for tornado victims while they rebuild. Many of the trailers were temporary housing for people displaced by the Red River Floods. Minnesota Public Radio's Lynette Nyman reports. The trailer sitting behind the two-story farm house of Rita and Tom Anderson looks almost new. It was cleaned up before being towed from Grand Forks. 16:46 sfx entering the trailer