January 28, 1998 - A new plan is afoot to relieve commuter congestion on Minnesota's busiest roadway. Transportation planners are proposing a commuter bus system for Interstate 35W through Minneapolis, Richfield and Bloomington. The bus plan is an alternative to the one billion dollar 35W re-design floated a few years ago to relieve car congestion. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson has more. audio . . . sfx 42nd street overpass It's 5pm on a Friday afternoon and the illuminated brakelights make the four lanes of 35W through south Minneapolis look as though they are carpeted in red. Traffic is barely moving - with one exception. audio . . . bus whoosh
January 28, 1998 - Sandy Keith retires as Minnesota's Chief Justice tomorrow (Thursday). The Rochester native is one of the few who've helped shape Minnesota from all three branches of government--as state senator, lieutenant governor and supreme court justice. Minnesota Public Radio's Elizabeth Stawicki has this profile of the outgoing chief justice. In 1946 Sandy Keith tried to shake off the dirt from what he called the hick town of Rochester and move on to bigger and better things. Keith, the son of a mayo clinic physician, headed east and obtained degrees from Amherst and Yale. After a stint as a Marine lieutenant during the Korean war, Keith returned to Rochester taking a job as an attorney in Mayo Clinic's legal department. His boss was Harry Blackmun who would later become a U-S Supreme Court Justice. Politics was always a topic of discussion in his parents' household but Keith's interest flared in the 1950's when he won a seat in the state senate. Don
January 28, 1998 - The highway lobby is trying again this year to get the Legislature to raise the state gas tax. The gas tax is constitutionally dedicated to highway construction, and the highway interests have been trying in vain to raise it for ten years. This year, they're hoping a new strategy will make the difference. Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste reports: The highway lobby and its rural allies at the Capitol have unable to get a gas tax hike through the Legislature since 1988 because URBAN legislators won't let them. A hard core of urban and a few suburban legislators has held the gas tax hostage for years because the rural lawmakers won't support more funding for mass transit in the cities. The pro-highway interests are now promising something for BOTH sides. They've introduced a bill to dedicate all sales taxes on cars
January 28, 1998 - The first witness in Minnesota's tobacco trial says nicotine is an addictive drug, and a cigarette is the most efficient way to deliver nicotine to smokers. Doctor Richard Hurt's testimony is key to the state's contention that tobacco companies manipulated nicotine content to make cigarettes more addictive, and suppressed information about the health risks of smoking. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports...
January 28, 1998 - A Minnesota house committee has delayed action on a bill to restrict automatic teller machine surcharges. The bill authored by house banking chair Irv Anderson would ban surcharging by banks that own more than 2 ATMs, but it places no restrictions on surcharges by convenience stores and other retailers that own ATMs. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Catlin has more. The ATM surcharge came in for lots of criticism at the house financial institutions and insurance committee hearing. The fees have provoked a number of bills to reign them in.
January 28, 1998 - President Clinton tried to lay controversy aside last night as he delivered his State of the Union Address in the face of swirling allegations he had an affair with a White House intern. The president's speech was greeted cordially if not warmly by Democrats and Republicans on both sides of the aisle in Minnesota's Congressional delegation. Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Roberts reports.
January 28, 1998 - Mass transit trains for the Twin Cities will be in the spotlight today (WED) at the state capitol. Committees in both the House and Senate plan to consider light rail and commuter rail projects, and a coalition of interest groups are announcing their support for a bill to raise the gas tax and put some of the money into mass transit -- possibly, RAIL mass transit. Urban lawmakers say they think this may the year for rail transit at the Capitol... but as Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste reports, they've been optimistic before: The Twin Cities have been on the verge of building a rail system for YEARS... in 1988, then-Hennepin County Commissioner John Derus was SURE a Minneapolis light rail system was just around the corner:
January 28, 1998 - The first day of testimony begins today in Minnesota's tobacco trial. The State will call a Mayo clinic researcher as its first witness. Dr Richard Hurt is expected to testify about nicotine and addiction. Minnesota public radio's Elizabeth Stawicki reports.
January 28, 1998 - MPR’s Bob Potter talks with Robert Lavenda, anthropologist at Saint Cloud State University and an expert on town festivals in Minnesota, about the origins of the carnival legend.
January 29, 1998 - MPR's Mary Stucky reports on folks at the Science Museum of Minnesota hoping to broaden public understanding of what Mozart called the "king of instruments." They'll do this through a special organ festival of concerts, exhibits, and tours sponsored in part by Minnesota Public Radio.