November 29, 2001 - The United Nations is appointing former U.S. Senator George McGovern as the U.N.'s first global ambassador for hunger. McGovern will organize relief efforts in Third World countries and help people there improve food production techniques. He just finished serving as ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agricultural program in Rome. McGovern grew up during the Great Depression. He says he never personally knew real hunger, but his family provided food to young men in need:
November 30, 2001 - The University of Minnesota will continue to allow cigarettes to be sold on campus. The Student Board of Governors for the Twin Cities student unions voted unanimously last night Helms reports.
November 30, 2001 - South Dakota needs 47.5 million dollars in reserve funds to balance its books for this year and next. Governor Bill Janklow proposed his 2.5 billion dollar budget to lawmakers Thursday in Pierre. He says state revenues are coming in at about a third of the pace anticipated. Minnesota Public Radio's Cara Hetland reports.
December 3, 2001 - Governor Ventura has announced the formation of a tri-partisan task force to study rising health care costs and the quality of care. Ventura says the state's double-digit health insurance increases and a floundering economy could lead to higher uninsurance rates. However, he says the task force will not make recommendations until after next year's gubernatorial election. Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Scheck reports.
December 5, 2001 - Legislative leaders have started highlighting their proposals to fix the state's nearly 2-billion dollar budget shortfall announced yesterday. Caucus leaders spoke today at the Association of Minnesota Counties' Annual Conference in St. Paul. They say they will wait for Governor Ventura to outline a plan that could help balance the budget, but started making recommendations which include raising taxes and cutting services. Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Scheck reports.
December 11, 2001 - The Minneapolis-based American Refugee Committee is launching a program to combat the spread of tuberculosis in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. A team of health experts just completed a tour of the camps to assess the need for drugs and diagnostic equipment. A-R-C executive director Joe Bock led the trip. He says conditions in the camps were worse than he expected:
December 11, 2001 - A Defense Department study shows Gulf War veterans are nearly twice as likely to develop Lou Gehrigs Disease- or ALS- as other military personnel. Department of Veterans affairs continue research on the connection between other illnesses and the Gulf War and increase research into ALS in search of a cause, treatment and cure. Moorhead native Kevin Shores believes he is suffering from a gulf war illness. He says The new research, which included nearly 2.5 million military personnel, is one of the largest epidemiological studies ever conducted and offers the most conclusive evidence to date linking Gulf War veterans to a disease. Still, researchers don't know why these veterans were more likely to get sick. Kevin Shores has gulf war sydrome
December 11, 2001 - A Massachussets congressman is proposing legislation that would crack down on Web sites that sell cigarettes to minors. This is Future Tense for December 11th, I'm Jon Gordon. The bill would require companies to verify a buyer's age on Web sites and again when the cigarettes are delivered. A new study by the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina counts more than 88 companies in 23 states using the Web to sell discount cigarettes online. Kurt Pribisl is the study's author. ((q/a)) Tobacoo control policy expert Kurt Pribisl of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A companion study, co-authored by Pribisl, found that 2 percent of 17,000 California high schoolers surveyed have attempted to by cigarettes over the Internet.
December 12, 2001 - Nearly a week after Sun Country Airlines laid off virtually all of its 900 employees, many of them attended a series of job counselling sessions run by public officials in Bloomington earlier today . Minnesota Public Radio's Kaomi Goetz reports.
December 13, 2001 - The St. Paul Companies announced yesterday it would stop offering medical malpractice insurance. The announcement came as part of a broad cost-cutting initiative that included hundreds of layoffs. The decision to end medical malpractice insurance dealt a blow to many long-term care providers in Minnesota and across the country. For many nursing homes in the state, the St. Paul was the last company to offer insurance at reasonable rates. Minnesota Public Radio's Andrew Haeg reports.