July 5, 2000 - A federally funded water project in southwest Minnesota designed to serve farms and small towns is doing business with a large agri-business company, an arrangement which appears to violate federal regulations. The Lincoln Pipestone Rural Water system provides water to almost three thousand farms and rural homeowners and some two dozen small towns and cities. Critics say the company has over-pumped environmentally sensitive areas and they blame the federal agency that funded much of the project for ignoring their own rules about who should get water. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports:
July 6, 2000 -
July 6, 2000 - MPR’s Lynette Nyman reports on how immigration officials and attorneys are trying to help untangle the confusion around the recently passed Hmong Veterans Naturalization Act. The act signed into law in late May 2000 eases citizenship requirements for those who served in Laos on behalf of the United States during the Vietnam War.
July 7, 2000 - MPR’s Lorna Benson interviews Alan Hunter, an animal geneticist, about G-E-N-E, the world's first cloned bovine... a three year-old Holstein bull who weighs about one ton. Gene is part of an exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo introducing visitors to the inner-workings of a typical family farm.
July 7, 2000 - A federal judge has dismissed Minnesota's lawsuit over disparities in Medicare reimbursement. Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch and the Minnesota Senior Federation sued the federal government, arguing that the formula used to pay HMO's to provide Medicare is unconstitutional, because it results in seniors in some states paying higher premiums and getting fewer benefits than seniors in more populous states. But the judge ruled the formula is a matter for Congress, not the courts, to resolve. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports...
July 10, 2000 - MPR’s Gary Eichten talks with Walter Mondale, former U.S. vice president, who shares his experiences negotiating at Camp David in 1978. Later in program, Eichten interviews Michael Hudson, former president of the Middle East Studies Association and former director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown. Hudson is currently professor of International Relations at Georgetown University.
July 10, 2000 - A group of Minnesota teachers has filed a lawsuit claiming they are due a lot more money in retirement benefits. They say the state and the Minnesota Teachers Retirement Association illegally changed retirement plans on them without their knowledge or consent. Minnesota Public Radio's Patty Marsicano reports:
July 10, 2000 - Congress debates a bill today that will address how to pay for treating the growing numbers of veterans with Hepatitis C. The Centers for Disease Control says Hepatitus C afflicts 2 percent of the American population. But the incidence of Hepatitus C among veterans is at least two times higher. Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Scheck reports...
July 10, 2000 - President Clinton has commuted the sentence of a Minneapolis woman who was convicted of drug related offenses ten years ago. Serena Nunn was drawn into a drug ring by her boyfriend, who was the son of Plukey Duke, one of the Cities' most notorious drug lords. Nunn was convicted of aiding and abetting her boyfriend in his attempt to distribute cocaine and of possesing about 10 grams of crack and cocaine herself. Under the federal minimum guidelines she was sentenced to 14 years in prision. U-S District Judge David Doty sentenced Nunn. He wrote a letter to the President supporting the commutation of her sentence. He says that an error in Nunn's case meant he was forced to hand down an especially harsh sentence:
July 10, 2000 -