November 27, 1998 - 85 years ago, 28 men sailed for Antarctica in a ship called Endurance. Their goal was to cross the frozen continent shore-to-shore. They never made it closer than a hundred miles from the coast, but the adventure they DID have could be considered even more amazing than crossing Antarctica. They got stuck in the ice and were given up for dead. But they all survived, in large part because they were led by the great explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. They spent months on ice floes and on a desolate island, and weeks at sea in tiny lifeboats. The story's been told and retold in many books, but now you can see the pictures the expedition photographer took during the journey. The photos by Frank Hurley are collected in a new book called "The Endurance" by Caroline Alexander, who spoke with Minnesota Public Radio's John Rabe. | D-CART ITEM: 1348 | TIME: 5:25 | OUTCUE: "...IT HAPPENED."
November 30, 1998 - Representative Ron Abrams of Minnetonka, new chairman of the House Tax Committee, and Representative Dave Bishop of Rochester, new chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, talk about plans for taxing and spending in the next session of the legislature. Abrams and Bishop also answer listener questions.
November 30, 1998 - A field cloaked in rusty brown grass and scrub trees near the Minnesota River was once the scene of rifle shots, battle yells and death. Now one of the best preserved battle fields from the 1862 Dakota Conflict is being restored to better tell the events of that fateful day. The Minnesota Historical Society plans to install trails and interpretive signs explaining the many perspectives of the war. Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Steil reports: Unless you're a real student of the events of 1862 its difficult to make much sense of what happened at the Birch Coulee battlefield just north of Morton in southwest Minnesota. A granite marker indicates two of
November 30, 1998 - GREEN FEATURE Like thousands of people, Moorhead resident Orval Hurner spends his fall raking leaves... but he doesn't just cram them all into garbage bags... Hurner has immortalized some of them in wood. Minnesota Public Radio's Hope Deutscher reports.
November 30, 1998 - MPR’s Dan Olson reports on the varied opinions on the war on drugs…no where is the difference more striking than on the front lines. There's a rising tide of voices saying we're not winning the war on drugs so we should legalize all or most of them.
November 30, 1998 - Governor-elect Jesse Ventura told Minnesota farmers today his wife - who raises horses - will be a voice for agriculture. Ventura addressed the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation's annual meeting, and although he was short on specifics, he got an enthusiastic response. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports... Ventura told farmers his wife Terry - who grew up in rural Minnesota and now breeds show horses on their 32-acre farm in Maple Grove - will be receptive to their concerns... ("She will probably be the best ear you have!" applause "Because one of her main focuses will be the farm industry as the firs
November 30, 1998 - The United States Supreme Court has declined to hear a dispute over where to store highly radioactive waste from the nation's nuclear power plants. Spent nuclear fuel is building up at power plants across the nation, including Nothern State's Power's Prairie Island nuclear plant. Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Losure reports. Utilities including NSP had hoped the case would force the Federal Department of Energy to meet a 1998 deadline to accept the spent nuclear fuel. The Supreme Court's decision lets stand a lower court ruling that said the DOE does not have to take the waste until the agency has a place to put it. The DOE's permanent storage site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada won't be ready un
November 30, 1998 - The manager of the Minnesota World Trade Center at 7th and Cedar in downtown St. Paul says he thinks he and his building staff aren't much different from many of their building's corporate tenants. Harp music relaxes the workers in the morning after a tense drive to work.
November 30, 1998 - MPR’s Lynette Nyman reports that Khoua Her, a St. Paul woman accused of killing her six children, changed her original plea to guilty of six counts of second degree murder. Her now faces a fifty-year prison term.
December 1, 1998 - In about a year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service is expected to take gray wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan off the endangered species list. The return of the wolf is seen by some as a high profile success for the Endangered Species Act. The purpose of the Endangered Species Act is to protect endangered animals and plants until their populations recover and they can be taken off the endangered species list.