September 17, 1997 - Daniel Pinkwater has several fan clubs. Childless adults know him for his public radio commentaries. Parents know him as one of the nation's premiere kids' book writers. Kids know him becuase they eat up his books. But there's another audience, one Pinkwater is aiming at with a new compilation of his young adult novels: adults who read his young adult books when they were young adults but who still dip into them now and again. Pinkwater says he writes for the kid he was.
September 17, 1997 - President Clinton today called for sweeping changes in the proposed national tobacco settlement, including industry penalties of up to a $1.50 per pack if teen-age smoking fails to fall sharply over 10 years. In making his first detailed comment on the $368-billion tobacco settlement reached in June, Clinton effectively refused to endorse the agreement, outlining so many changes that it was certain to serve as little more than a starting point for any legislation that Congress may ultimately fashion. Minnesota's lawsuit against the industry is set to go to court in January. State Attorney General Skip Humphrey, who has been highly critical of the tobacco companies and the settlement, says the original settlement is dead. It's not, he says, just a bargaining tactic by the President.
September 17, 1997 - MPR’s Martin Kaste reports on a persistent rumor suggesting North Carolina-based NationsBank might be interested in buying the Minnesota Twins and moving team to Charlotte. Kaste looks at how it could impact legislative action at the Minnesota Capitol regarding a stadium bill.
September 18, 1997 - Just a few months after flooding irreversibly changed thousands of peoples' lives in the Red River Valley...some are telling their stories for posterity. MPR's Hope Deutscher spoke with two people who are gathering individual stories of struggle, despair and recovery...for very different reasons.
September 18, 1997 - Jane Kenyon was an essayist and poet who published several collections of work and contributed to the New Yorker and Atlantic magazines. Kenyon wrote about many things including her own battle with depression. MPR's Steven Smith talked with Kenyon in 1994 for his documentary "A Suffering Mind". During that interview, she read poem "Woodthrush."
September 18, 1997 - MPR’s Greta Cunningham talks with poet Donald Hall about his wife and fellow poet Jane Kenyon, who passed away in 1995. Hall reads Kenyon’s poem “The Needle.”
September 19, 1997 - A new non profit organization has been formed to promote conservation on Minnesota’s rivers and streams. The Rivers Council of Minnesota meets this weekend at the Moorhead State University Regional Science Center to plot strategy. The goals of the organization include more water quality monitoring, and a stronger voice for rivers in environmental policy discussions. Minnesota Public Radio’s Dan Gunderson reports.
September 19, 1997 - capitol for Morning Edition/ATC Friday Die Hard Republican party activists will gather in Bemidji tomorrow (saturday) for an off-year state convention. few voters are as interested in the gubernatorial campaign as THESE delegates are, but their straw poll on the race CAN either add some energy to, OR deflate a candidate's campaign. Minnesota Public Radio's Karen-Louise Boothe reports: Party leaders project a low turnout even among the most fervent party loyalists. Among some 21-hundred republican delegates statewide...between 700 and 800 are expected. And if the old adage "politics belongs to those who show up" is TRUE, which candidate belongs to the delegates? Republican political analyist, Tom Horner says among the FOUR candidates in the race so far...Alan Quist could very well have his day in the sun again. Somethi
September 22, 1997 - It's yellow, has a hole punched in the upper left hand corner, and has been in continuous publication for more than two-hundred years. It's the Old Farmer's Almanac. The hole was for the nail in the outhouse wall, and a brief unscientific office poll discovered that the modern inside bathroom might be a frequent resting place for the modern Almanac.
September 22, 1997 - Next time you drive over a bridge, say a word of thanks to underwater welders. They are the hardy souls who brave the cold and muck of lakes and rivers to build bridges, repair dams and all other manner of wet construction work. In this week's Odd Jobs segment, Minnesota Public Radio's Gretchen Lehmann uncovers the world below with Minnesota School of Diving instructor Mark Owens and his student Garrett Silvernail as they practice underwater welding in a water tank in Brainerd.