August 15, 2001 - Minnesota's two largest food banks have announced they will merge at the beginning of October. Second Harvest Greater Minneapolis will combine with Second Harvest St. Paul to create a new organization that will be able to provide an extra 5-million pounds of food annually. Dick Goebel has been the executive director of Second Harvest St. Paul for nearly 20 years. that's Dick Goebel who is retiring after 20 years with the Second Harvest Food Shelf of St. Paul.
August 16, 2001 - There's one Minnesota politician who's attracted more media coverage than Governor Ventura this summer - Attorney General Mike Hatch. Hatch has been in the news recently for his investigation of Allina Health System, and throughout his term, has gotten attention for focusing on health care, privacy and consumer issues. Political observers say Hatch would be smart to seek a second term next year, although the Democrat has long sought the office across the hall - the one occupied by Jesse Ventura. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports...
August 21, 2001 -
August 22, 2001 - E-P-A officials are outlining a plan to clean-up asbestos-contaminated property in Northeast Minneapolis at a neighborhood meeting tonight. The contamination was caused by asbestos fibers in vermiculite ore. The E-P-A expects to spend more than one-million dollars to complete the clean-up. The agency hasn't set a deadline for homeowners to request an assesment of their property... But neighborhood activist Kevin Reich is worried E-P-A officials will leave before all of the affected residents have had a chance to come forward:
August 23, 2001 - The Minnesota Zoo has closed down its popular sheep and goat barn because of a contagious virus. The virus, sometimes called orf, causes pimples, blisters and scabs- much like chicken pox- primarily around an animals mouth and eyes. Jim Rasmussen is the Zoo Veterinarian. I asked him how the sheep contracted the virus:
August 23, 2001 - A study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine shows intra-uterine birth control devices are much safer than previously thought. In the 1980's, a Minnesota law firm led a legal battle against the makers of an I-U-D called the Dalkon Shield... which caused pelvic infections that made many women sterile. The Dalkon shield was taken off the market in the early 1980's...and I-U-D use plummeted in the United States. David Hubacher is an epidemiologist at Family Health International and lead author of the study. He says his research on women in Mexico-- where modern I-U-D's are popular-- shows the devices don't pose an increase risk of infection:
August 27, 2001 - Two months after lawmakers barely averted a government shutdown, the state is now facing another potential shutdown because of a labor dispute. About 30-thousand state employees vote this week on whether to walk off the job in mid-September. If members of the state's two largest public employee unions reject the state's latest contract offer, it would be the first state employee strike in twenty years - and the largest ever. Union representatives say a strike appears imminent, and state officials are preparing for the possibility. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports...
August 27, 2001 -
August 27, 2001 - A new study of Minnesota teenagers shows one-in-ten girls and one-in-twenty boys have experienced date rape or date violence. The data was compiled from surveys more than 80-thousand of the state's ninth and twelfth graders filled out in 1998. Lead author Diann Ackard says the numbers are alarming and researchers are not sure why they are so high:
August 27, 2001 - MPR’s Kaomi Goetz reports on how some Hmong face cultural hurdles to mental health care. A murder case of a Hmong immigrant that stabbed to death two of her children illustrates a larger problem confronting the Hmong community…how to recognize and effectively treat mental illness.