April 30, 1997 - When Minnesota schoolchildren found an outbreak of deformed frogs in the summer of 1995, scientists thought it would be only a matter of months before they figured out the cause. But nearly two years later, it's still a mystery, and the federal Environmental Protection Agency is becoming increasingly concerned. The EPA is preparing to spend several million dollars to investigate the problem, and find out whether it poses a threat not just to frogs, but to humans. Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Losure reports.
May 5, 1997 - One of the most widely debated issues in the modern workplace is whether employers should offer domestic partner benefits. In Minnesota, local governments which have sought to include unmarried, same-sex partners in their health insurance plans have run into legal roadblocks. But in the private sector, where the competition is growing for talented workers, more companies and organizations are finding domestic partner benefit packages make good business sense.
May 12, 1997 - In today's Odd Jobs feature the man who puts the "international" in Rochester International Airport. Wes Niemitalo (NEE-muh-tell-oh) is the sole U.S. Customs Agent at the aiport - paid for by the city and the Mayo Clinic. He spends most of his day waiting to check in well-to-do overseas travelers coming in their private or government aircraft to the clinic for medical treatment. Minnesota Public Radio's Brent Wolfe talked to a man who gets an inside look at the lives of some rich and famous patients.
May 12, 1997 - The tiny northwestern Minnesota town of Ada is in the midst of a medical crisis. The city lost its only clinic, hospital and nursing home to flooding last month. The facilities are doubly important because together they comprise the town's biggest employer. At first, Ada heard it would probably get enough federal funds to rebuild the hospital. But recent visits by federal inspectors have not been so optomistic. As Minnesota Public Radio's Lorna Benson reports, the hospital's future is now in doubt: Ada was one of the first communities to be hit hard by flood
May 14, 1997 - A new independent report says the Army spraying over the Twin Cities in the 1950s and 1960s probably didn't hurt anyone's health. The Army says it was testing how biological warfare substances might disperse in the air, so it sprayed zinc cadmium sulfide over several neighborhoods as well as the Chippewa National Forest. The substance is fluorescent, and can be traced easily. But cadmium's also carcinogenic, although that wasn't known at the time. When details of the spraying were revealed a couple of years ago, many people worried about the health impact, including Representative Martin Sabo, who successfully pushed for a million-dollar study. That study, by the independent National Research Council, is now complete.
May 23, 1997 - Residents of Texas can now sue their managed health care plans if they've been injured by benefit delays or denials. Texas is the first state in the nation to pass such a law. Supporters say the law allows patients to hold their health plans accountable.... but Critics warn it will lead to a rash of lawsuits and ultimately higher health care costs. So far, there has not been any similar proposal in Minnesota. But as Minnesota Public Radio's Lorna Benson reports, the state's managed health plans are coming under more intense public scrutiny and regulation:
May 28, 1997 - More than a hundred outraged veterans came to the capital today to voice their opposition to the balanced budget agreement passed by Congress last week. As part of the budget, more than two BILLION dollars is being cut from the Veterans Administration...which is mostly for health care. As Minnesota Public Radio's Lorna Benson reports, some veterans fear the cuts will do irrepairable damage to a medical system already struggling to compete in today's health care market. Initially, the V.A. thought Congress would freeze its spending for the next five years. But, in what some veterans describe as back room politics, Congress and the President decided at the last minute to cut more t
May 29, 1997 - Mainstreet Radio’s Rachel Reabe visits a correctional facility in Faribault. Secure behind high chain link fences topped with coiled razor wire, the oldest prisoners in the system live out their remaining years.
May 29, 1997 - Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone will tour several towns in the Mississippi Delta today ... in the first part of what he's billing as a nationwide poverty tour. Over the coming weeks, Wellstone plans to retrace the steps of Robert Kennedy... who visited some of the country's poorest regions in 1967 and '68. Minnesota Public Radio's John Biewen reports on how poverty has... or has not... changed... in the past thirty years. When Senator Robert Kennedy traveled to the Mississippi Delta in 1967... he found children in tattered clothing... with no access to a doctor and, in some cases, not enough to eat. Their parents had lost their cotton-plantation jobs to mechanization. A few months later... Kennedy found similar conditions among displaced coal mining families in eastern Kentucky. Georgetown
June 2, 1997 - As part of the “Voices of Minnesota" series, this program features two health related interviews. MPR’s John Biewen speaks with Dr. Ron Cranford of the Hennepin County Medical Center. Cranford is an ethicist and end-of-life specialist. Infertility specialist. MPR’s Stephanie Curtis speaks with Dr. Robert Jansen, author of Overcoming Infertiity: A Compassionate Resource for Getting Pregnant.