February 6, 2003 -
February 7, 2003 -
February 10, 2003 - Minnesota health officials announced details today . Officials say it should take a few weeks to vaccinate about 27-hundred health workers who have volunteered. Minnesota Public Radio's Marisa Helms reports.
February 13, 2003 - Hundreds of people, including nursing home residents, their relatives, and nursing home employees, held a rally at the state Capitol Thursday morning to urge lawmakers not to cut state funding for long-term care. That's a big order given the cost of nursing homes -- about $1 billion. How the state cares for the elderly and disabled in nursing homes is a huge issue for those people, their families, those who work in nursing homes and the cities and towns where the nursing homes are located.
February 13, 2003 -
February 17, 2003 - MPR’s Laura McCallum reports on bills that ratify contracts for state workers clearing legislative hurdles. The bills include pay and benefit provisions agreed to by state employee unions and the Ventura administration. But they're missing another provision -- health benefits for same-sex domestic partners. Gay and lesbian groups say removing the benefits is a slap in the face.
February 17, 2003 - Mainstreet Radio’s Dan Gunderson reports on pesticide misuse in Minnesota, and investigates how violations of the law are often not punished, and sometimes ignored.
February 21, 2003 - An attorney for Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco, or MPAAT told a Ramsey County judge that the organization has radically changed how its board operates and has boosted funding to help individual smokers quit. The changes were in response to Attorney General Mike Hatch and the judge's criticisms that the anti-smoking organization was rife with conflicts of interest and spent too much money on attempts to sway anti-smoking actions in buildings and workplaces. Minnesota Public Radio's Elizabeth Stawicki reports: MPAAT attorney Lew Remele told Judge Michael Fetsch that the anti-smoking organization has evolved and has taken to heart the court and the Attorney General's criticisms. Remele said MPAAT now flatly prohibits grants to current board officers, their family members or affiliated organizations. He also said MPAAT will restructure its board so it's not comprised solely of healthcare and anti-tobacco representatives. Remele said MPAAT will help individual smokers by setting up sites in health care centers to offer assistance; meet with labor unions to set up MPAAT sites in workplaces; and work specifically with groups that were targeted by tobacco companies including people of color.
March 6, 2003 - MPR’s Jeff Horwich reports on an old business with a new owner. The Renville Locker butchered meat under the same family ownership for 38 years in southwestern Minnesota. Over that time the population of the region has changed, and more change is on the way. There may be no better symbol of the shift than the new face behind the meat market counter.
March 7, 2003 - The state of Minnesota is expected to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal matching funds... if the legislature passes Governor Tim Pawlenty's proposed cuts to health care programs in the state's budget. Missing out on the federal dollars is the topic of an article in this week's edition of "The Business Journal." Scott Smith is the reporter who wrote the story. He says state health officials are trying to calculate how much federal money the state will lose.