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
April 20, 1998 - Hundreds of students and faculty members at St. Olaf College are putting pressure on administrators to fully explain recently-announced cuts in academic programs and sports. A group of faculty at the four-year liberal arts college in Northfield says the changes will ensure St. Olaf's long-term success. But some students say they feel betrayed. Minnesota Public Radio's Todd Moe visited the campus and filed this report... St. Olaf Colleges' expenses are growing faster than it's revenues. The private school's tuition is 21-thousand dollars a year while it spends more than 30-thousand dollars annually per student. To reduce costs, a Dean's Council, composed of seven long-time
April 21, 1998 - A Mainstreet Radio special broadcast from Mille Lacs Indian Museum, highlighting Indian treaty rights and Native American sovereignty. Rachel Reabe interviews Don Wedll, Commissioner of Natural Resources for the Mill Lacs Band of Ojibwe; Doug Sam, tribal elder; and Henry Van Offelen, treaty biologist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Group discussion includes spearfishing topic and answering audience/listener questions.
April 21, 1998 - A Mainstreet Radio special broadcast from Mille Lacs Indian Museum, highlighting Indian treaty rights and Native American sovereignty. Rachel Reabe interviews Henry Buffalo, a Minneapolis attorney, sovereignty expert, and member Red Cliff Band of Ojibwe; Chief Tribal Judge Mary Jo Brooks Hunter, of Ho chunk Tribe; and Jim Genia, solicitor general for the Mille Lacs band of Ojibwe. Discussion topic is tribal sovereignty and how the rules are different on the reservation.