March 2, 1998 - President Clinton says he'd like to see more more college students become "guardian angels" to low-income youngsters. It's part of his efforts to encourage students to attend college. A number of colleges and universities in Minnesota have had mentor/tutor programs in place for years. As Minnesota Public Radio's Todd Moe reports, such programs are proving to be beneficial for both the pupils and their college mentors.
March 2, 1998 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger profiles the Red Lake Warriors, who after a tragedy, are regrouping and preparing for another run at the state title.
March 2, 1998 - The chief executive of the nation's number one cigarette maker testified today in Minnesota's tobacco trial he doesn't believe his company's products kill people. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports... Philip Morris is the tobacco industry leader, with about half the nation's cigarette market share - maker of number one Marlboro, Benson and Hedges and Virgina Slims, among others. Its CEO, Geoffrey Bible is easily the most influencial tobacco executive to testify in Minnesota's trial. His testimony as a hostile witness comes less than a week after Bi
March 2, 1998 - Last spring the flood-swollen Red, Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers carved a trail of destruction across the upper Midwest. Through a combination of backbreaking sandbagging and a healthy dose of luck some communities such as Fargo Moorhead, Mankato, and St Paul held off the floodwaters. Other towns lost the battle... Ada and Breckenridge were swamped twice...and hundreds of people were evacuated. But when the Red River rolled over the dikes into Grand Forks and East Grand Forks on April 18th the eyes of the nation were drawn to the unfolding tragedy. Nearly 60- thousand people were forced to leave...the largest single evacuation in U-S history. Then fire broke out in the flooded downtown and people watched in horror while a dozen buildings burned as firefighters looked on helplessly. In the first of a five part series on the Flood on 1997 Minnesota Public Radios Dan Gunderson looks back at that catastrophic weekend.
March 3, 1998 - Minneapolis will spend millions of dollars over the next few years to upgrade its water treatment system, and St. Paul may have to follow suit. The expenditure is in response to proposed federal regulations which are largely the result of the 1993 cryptosporidium outbreak in Milwaukee. 100 people died and 400,000 got sick from a parasite in the water. Minnesota Public Radio's Perry Finelli reports.
March 3, 1998 - The cities of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks... at least as the locals knew them... disappeared April 19th, 1997, when the Red River burst the dikes, washing through the streets, destroying houses and businesses. In the days following the flood local officials worried about a mass exodus from the area. Some people predicted as many as 20 percent of the people would leave forever. That didn't happen.... in the end, only three percent moved elsewhere. But as Minnesota Public Radio's Hope Deutscher reports in the second report of our flood series, rebuilding has been a long and frustrating process that is still far from over.... (sound of measuring...work, etc.)
March 3, 1998 - Today is the 37th anniversary of the founding of the Peace Corps. Minnesotan and Peace Corps volunteer Marianne Combs is stationed in a poor village in the African country, Ivory Coast. In her latest "Letter from Africa," she describes how hard it is to introduce western health care to people who have to choose between vaccinating a child or buying food at the market.
March 3, 1998 - A history on the evolution in Minnesota's political system from University of Minnesota historian Hy Berman. The caucus and primary designs are detailed.
March 4, 1998 - The boys' hockey tournament, Minnesota's biggest high school sporting event, opens this week in St. Paul. The tournament comes two weeks after the (first) girls' hockey tournament, and the constrast could not be more striking. No body checking is allowed in the girls' tournament. Boys, on the other hand can use their body anywhere on the rink to slam into whomever has the puck. Rink-wide checking has been the rule in boys' hockey for 25 years. Checking is popular with fans, but critics say it should be banned because of the rising rate of injury. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reports. Nineteen year old Ben Peyton from Edina remembers seeing his teammate pass the puck to him. tape . . . and as i was looking back, i to
March 4, 1998 - Republican Party officials in Rochester- one of the party's strongholds in the state- were disappointed that turn out was light for party caucuses last night. They said people probably stayed home because there was no straw poll for Republican gubernatorial candidates and those candidates don't have differing views on divisive issues like abortion. Minnesota Public Radio's Brent Wolfe reports on the caucus meeting of Rochester's largest Republican precinct.