August 17, 2000 - The athletes may get all the attention at the Olympic games. But behind the scenes, a 47-member U-S Olympic medical staff makes sure they are physically up to the challenge. Winning a spot on the medical team is no easy task... applicants must spend years volunteering with the U-S Olympic committee and then go through an intense evaluation process... and they must be willing to work for free. Park Nicollet chiropractor Andrew Klein passed the test and will head to Sydney with the team in mid-September. He says the pressure of preparing Olympic athletes for the biggest competition of their careers doesn't bother him:
August 17, 2000 - The Democratic National Convention wraps up tonight when Vice-President Al Gore formally accepts his party's nomination for President. Throughout the week, Democrats have been treading a fine line between the party's more liberal elements and the need to appeal to centrists and independent voters. Some of that tension was on display last night during vice-presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman's remarks. Earlier today, Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton attended a closed meeting with Senator Lieberman. And Minnesota Public Radio's Michael Khoo joins us now from the convention center in Los Angeles. Michael, what was on the agenda?
August 18, 2000 - About 10-thousand Al Gore supporters showed up in LaCrosse, Wisconsin this morning, where the Democratic presidential nominee and his running mate Joseph Lieberman embarked on a four-day riverboat trip to kick off the post-convention phase of their campaign. The candidates spiced their speeches with Midwestern references in their bid to both keep up the momentum from the convention, and to bolster lagging support in states that Democrats used to be able to rely on. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes has the first of two reports from LaCrosse.
August 21, 2000 - The University of Minnesota is launching an effort to commercialize promising University technologies by bridging the gap between entrepreneurs and academia. Amid worries that Minnesota has fallen behind in the high tech, information based economy, many observers say the University must play a central role in keeping Minnesota competitive. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Catlin reports.
August 21, 2000 - Agriculture changed forever in 1946 when the first herbicide, 2-4D, was introduced. Easy weed control meant higher yielding crops and less work for farmers. Many thought the endless battle against weeds was over. But in a growing number of cases, *54 years later* the weeds are winning. Minnesota Public Radios Dan Gunderson reports.
August 23, 2000 - With less than three weeks left until the September primary, D-F-L Senate candidate Rebecca Yanisch is out with a new television ad. She joins DFL'ers Mike Ciresi and Mark Dayton, whose campaigns have gobbled up huge chunks of television airtime over the past few weeks. In the latest in our series of Ad Watches, Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports...
August 24, 2000 - A state study shows that half of Minnesota's low-income children in medical assistance programs aren't recieving primary or preventative care from their H-M-O's. Federal law requires certain developmental checkups for the kids, too, yet only 6-percent of the children and teens in these publicly funded programs are recieving such treatment. Mary Kennedy is assistant commissioner with the Department of Human Services. She says the children enrolled in these programs tend to be the ones who need preventative care most:
August 24, 2000 - The chief executive of Medtronic is retiring. Bill George made the announcement at the company's annual stockholders meeting today. George has been instrumental in turning the company into the world's largest manufacturer of medical devices. Since he became c-e-o in 1991, the company's stock price has soared nearly 14 hundred percent. Art Collins has accepted the substantial job of filling George's shoes. He says he's looking forward to the challenge:
August 25, 2000 - D-F-L Senate candidate Mark Dayton spent nearly three million dollars on his campaign in the past seven and a half weeks. That's nearly twice the spending of his nearest financial competitor among the D-F-L Senate candidates. Dayton used the bulk of the money on television ads that have been saturating the airwaves and may have led to his recent bump in the polls. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports...
August 28, 2000 - The four major DFL Senate candidates squared off at the State Fair in one of the few remaining opportunities for them to try to distinguish themselves before the September 12th primary. Only a handful of differences emerged, and the four seem more willing to attack Republican Senator Rod Grams than each other, despite the fact that one of them has emerged as the leader in the race.