April 16, 1999 - A Mainstreet Radio special broadcast from Rochester on senior citizens and Minnesota's long-term care system. In this hour, Rachel Reabe hosts a discussion about nursing home challenges in Rochester with Dr. Kevin Fleming, a geriatrician at the Mayo Clinic; Sheila Kiskaden, a state senator; and Mark Casperson, executive director of Samaritan Bethany Heights Nursing Home.
April 16, 1999 - This afternoon House and Senate negotiators signed off on an agreement to cut a farm-aid proposal free from the ongoing wrangling over tax rebates and send it to the Governor as soon as possible. The $70-million-dollar package is meant to help farmers through the agriculture crisis by giving them a $4-dollar-an-acre rebate on the property taxes. Many farmers say the aid is a nice gesture, but it's probably not going to save many farms.
April 16, 1999 - This weekend a top official from the US Department of Justice will be in the Twin Cities to hear from farmers concerned about dropping prices and growing consolidation in agri-business. Many farmers struggling to get by, suspect one reason the prices they're being offered for their crops and livestock are so low is because there are fewer companies competing for their business.
April 16, 1999 - Mainstreet Radio’s Brent Wolfe visits a senior foster care family in southeast Minnesota. Nursing homes across Minnesota face a serious labor shortage that's forcing some to leave beds empty because they can't find nursing assistants to care for patients. Advocates for senior citizens are looking for ways to attract more workers and they're also looking for alternatives to nursing homes…one such alternative is senior foster care.
April 20, 1999 - The 90's have been tough for independent bookstores. They've lost customers to big chains such as Barnes & Noble and Borders. The newest threat is Amazon.com and other Internet superstores, but as Minnesota Public Radio's Jon Gordon reports, independent booksellers are starting to fight back.
April 20, 1999 - Northwest Airlines is reporting it lost money during the first three months of the year. But the first quarter results weren't as bad as Wall Street analysts had expected.
April 20, 1999 - More than one-thousand low income, Twin Cities children will attend non-public elementary schools next fall through a privately-funded scholarship program. The KidsFirst scholarship fund will pay up to 12-hundred dollars toward tution for eligible students who currently attend metro area public schools. Organizers say they're helping parents make educational choices for their children. But some critics say the project undermines public education.
April 21, 1999 - Last night, the board voted to undo a compromise that would have left the decision up to individual schools, but the board added a provision requiring parental consent.
April 21, 1999 - Students and teachers in Minnesota are among those struggling to understand Tuesday's shooting ramage in a Littleton, Colorado high school. The violent attack was a topic of conversation today in many classrooms. In the the Minneapolis suburb of Richfield, school officials and students were talking about the latest school tragedy and reflecting on their own preparations for a similar incident.
April 26, 1999 - Minnesota Brewing Company bottlers and brewers are on day three of a strike against the company over changes in work rules. The money losing brewery says it must cut costs.