June 9, 1998 - This week on Minnesota Public Radio we are looking at what some are calling the new Midwestern Farm Crisis. Despite almost perfect growing conditions many farmers are facing financial hard times because of changing regulation and economic conditions. In today's Mainstreet Radio report Cara Hetland reports local farmers are selling to a global market where outside pressures such as the Asian and Russian financial crisis can have an impact on how they farm. --------------------------------------------------------- | D-CART ITEM:3381 | TIME:6:40 | OUTCUE: "...Minnesota Public Radio." --------------------------------------------------------- Anchor Outro: Tomorrow in the final part of our series, Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Gunderson reports on how U.S. agricultural policy has been designed more to keep food affordable than to keep farmers in business
June 9, 1998 - Norwest bank's proposed merger with Wells Fargo and move to San Francisco has lots of people wondering if the company's charitable giving in our region will decline. Norwest officials say it will not. The bank's Norwest foundation is one of the area's top charitable contributors. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson has more. When company's move, Jon Pratt says, the eyes and ears of their top executives quite naturally focus on charitable needs in their headquarters city. Pratt is executive director of the Council on Non-Profits, a Twin Cities advocacy group non profit organizations. He says Norwest's merger and move may mean the new company gives fewer dollars to Minnesota causes. audio . . . one of the distinctive features of minn
June 9, 1998 - U-S Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman visited Minnesota and North Dakota Monday offering emotional support and announcing changes to farm programs in hopes of helping struggling upper Midwestern farmers. Glickman visited individual farms, and then spoke to two thousand farmers at a forum. Minnesota Public Radio's Hope Deutscher reports... (walking through field) As about a dozen reporters and Congressional delegates tagged along, East Grand Forks farmer John Driscoll told Secretary Glickman farmers are suffering. There's been years of bad weather, low prices and a succession of blig
June 9, 1998 - U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigators have more evidence linking Malt-o-Meal's Northfield cereal plant to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 200 people. Minnesota Public Radio's Eric Jansen has more: This much is certain: FDA investigators discovered salmonella bacteria in unopened boxes of Malt-o-Meal cereal produced at the company's Northfield plant. FDA spokesman Don Ayrd says the salmonella from the unopened boxes is the same strain that sickened hundreds throughout the Midwest and East Coast. "The odds of it being .... almost confirmation." :10 Ayrd says all that's left to do to be 100 percent sure is to perform what he calls a "fingerprinting" test:
June 9, 1998 - St. Paul Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman edged out State Attorney General Skip Humphrey in a straw poll of Minnesota AFL-CIO members. But the results may indicate big labor won't rally around a single candidate until after the September primary. Minnesota Public Radio's Karen-Louise Boothe reports.
June 9, 1998 - The news from farm country is not good. Prices are low and costs are high. The squeeze is reminiscent of the farm crisis 20 years ago. The response by farmers is to buy more land and equipment to raise more food. Getting bigger in order to sell more product, the argument goes, is the only way to survive low prices. But a handful of farmers are going in the opposite direction. They're farming smaller, and they are making a living. But it may not be a style of farming others can afford to follow. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson has more. A January wind dragging temperatures below zero did nothing to cool the anger of thousands of farm families gathered 13 years ago at the capitol in St. Paul.
June 9, 1998 - Wall St. today lost some interest in the merger of Norwest Corporation and Wells Fargo. The stocks of both companies declined in heavy trading. At the same time, Minnesotans are sorting out what it means to lose the headquarters of another large Minnesota corporation. Bill Catlin has this report. Norwest officials say it makes sense to go to California, which has nearly 4 times the new company's deposits as Minnesota. The move affects 830 corporate jobs, out of Norwest's Minnesota workforce of ten thousand. The Midwest banking operations will remain headquartered here. Bill Cooper, the head of TCF Financial says he was surprised that Norwest would agree
June 10, 1998 - On the opening day of the World Cup Soccer Championship, Alan Merrick, former pro player and coach, who now runs the Alan Merrick Soccer Academies, in Bloomington. Merrick discusses the various styles of play throughout the world. Merrick also answers listener questions.
June 10, 1998 - MPR's Lynette Nyman reports from Owatonna, where there are fights breaking out between some of the new and the old residents. That includes clashes against Somali members of the community.
June 10, 1998 - Scott County and the city of Savage have abandoned their plan to extend a highway through a rare wetland known as the Savage Fen. The proposed road was blocked by the state Department of Natural Resources in order to protect the wetland and its rare and threatened plants. Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Losure reports. SFX bird sound The Savage wetland is what scientists call a