April 14, 1998 - MPR Senior Business and Economics Editor Chris Farrell, and State Senator Doug Johnson, who has chaired the Senate Tax Committee since 1980, discuss taxes and the political and financial trade-offs between "fairness" and "simplicity", as well as various proposals to change the tax system. Farrell and Johnson also answer listener questions.
April 14, 1998 - A decade ago in Wisconsin, angry racial confrontations became everyday news when Indians began spearfishing under restored treaty rights. The same rights have been upheld in Minnesota. This spring members of the Mille Lacs and seven other Ojibwa bands are spearing and gillnetting walleye on waters in east-central Minnesota, including Lake Mille Lacs. Some worry the same kinds of confrontations could happen here. But as Leif Enger reports, the long battle over treaty rights has already strained relations between Indians and whites.
April 14, 1998 - The first of the much-anticipated tobacco company documents began trickling into Minnesota's tobacco trial today. Attorneys for the state and Blue Cross Blue Shield introduced several of the 39-thousand formerly-secret documents they obtained last week. Tobacco lawyers fought their release all the way to the U-S Supreme Court. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports... Over the objections of tobacco lawyers, lead plaintiff attorney Michael Ciresi introduced about a half-dozen formerly-privileged documents as part of his cross-examination of Brown and Williamson toxicologist Scott Appleton. One was Appleton's handwritten notes from a 1991 meeting at the Kansas City law firm of Shook, Hardy and Bacon. Appleton had just been hired by B
April 14, 1998 - If your food stamps have been cut, your health may be at risk. Those are the findings of researchers at Hennepin County Medical Center and the University of Minnesota. Their research, published in tomorrow's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, concludes patients whose food stamps have been cut have a higher incidence of hunger, and poorer health. Dr. Nicole Lurie is a professor of medicine and public health at the University. She discovered the problem after seeing a patient who had stopped taking her insulin because she was no't eating the food needed for the medication to work properly: Dr. Nicole Lurie, a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota.
April 14, 1998 - A Federal District Court Judge has up held a National Park Service decision to BLOCK contruction of a 60 million dollar bridge across the St. Croix River just south of Stillwater. Opponents of the bridge say the ruling is a major victory and will help preserve the scenic lower St. Croix river. The Minnesota Department of Transportation says its proposed bridge offered the best solution to mounting traffic problems and is considering an appeal. Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Zdechlik reports...
April 14, 1998 - Hundreds of volunteers are picking up tornado debris from southern Minnesota farm fields this week as a new phase of the cleanup from the March 29th tornadoes begins. Its estimated more than 400 farms were damaged by the storms. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil went along as volunteers cleaned fields near New Ulm yesterday: :04 (Okay if I could have everybody's attention!) Duane Laffrenzen stands in the front of a school bus parked at the New Ulm High School. The seats are filled by 50 volunteers from New Ulm, Fairmont, Minneapolis, Mapleton, and Renville.
April 14, 1998 - There's increasing concern about the future of St Peters mainstreet businesses as the city continues to clean up from last month's tornado. Preliminary estimates put damage to downtown businesses at millions of dollars. As Minnesota Public Radio's Lynette Nyman reports, some shops will have to relocate, while others will work to repair the damage and reopen. At first glance inside Nutter Clothing only a few things seem out of the ordinary. There are no clothing racks in the front and the carpet is water stained. Scott Dobie is the fourth owner of this men's clothing shop that opened in 1922. He says they dumped their entire stock because of the tornado's havoc. 39:16 Our windows were blown out. And the membrane on the roof was peeled back. And when it rained and snowed you can see it leaked all over the floor. Also the flying glass, the splinters of glass. That if we were to sell a shirt within two months from now and somebody cut themselves
April 14, 1998 - Some cities in southeast Minnesota worry a Clinton administration program to free up money for the Upper Mississippi Riverfront will restrict local property rights. Some call it a Trojan horse for federal restrictions. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes reports. Marilyn Hayman is the property-rights movement's dream. She delivers broad and forceful denunciations of the federal government with a softspoken, grandmotherly eloquence. Hayman lives in Maiden Rock, Wisconsin and is chair of the group Citizens for Responsible Zoning and Landowner Rights. Her message has found fertile ground in southeastern Minnesota where some local governments are resisting Minnesota's nomination of the Upper Mississippi River to the Clinton administration's American Heritage Rivers Initiative. The program i
April 15, 1998 - As part of the series Remembering and Rebuilding - The Great Flood of 1997, a special Mainstreet Radio program from East Grand Forks, one year after the flood. Host Rachel Reabe interviews Pat Owens, Grand Forks mayor; Lynn Stauss, East Grand Forks mayor; Cliff Barth, Breckenridge mayor; and Morris Lanning of the Red River Basin Coalition about how people of the Red River Valley are putting their lives and their communities back together.
April 15, 1998 - As part of the series Remembering and Rebuilding - The Great Flood of 1997, a special Mainstreet Radio program from East Grand Forks, one year after the flood. Host Rachel Reabe interviews several business people and families who were affected by the flood…some who rebuilt, and some who moved away.