December 28, 1998 - * for Monday 12/28 ** With 19-98 drawing to a close, there is bound to be more and more talk about 'Y-2-K'... the 'year two thousand' dilemma. Big companies have spent millions of dollars and years trying to get their systems ready for 2000...and with just over a year left, most are in the final stages of preparation. But for small business owners the situation is quite different. Many are just starting to think about Y-2-K. Mainstreet Radio's Gretchen Lehmann reports. The Small Business Adminstration's Year 2000 website opens to a
December 29, 1998 - Walter Mondale, former vice-president, and his son Ted Mondale, former state senator and gubernatorial candidate, talk about politics and politicians...then and now. Topics include leadership, trust, and necessity of genuine debate. The Mondale’s also answer listener questions.
December 29, 1998 - In the past, mining towns in northeast Minnesota were the battlegrounds in hard-fought labor disputes. One weapon used by the steel companies was a vast, intricate spy system among their workers. Chisholm native Tom Selinski has created a video documentary, "Spies in Steel," describing that era, and how the spy network was ultimately exposed. Minnesota Public Radio's Amy Radil reports. Today union offices occupy some of the most prominent buildings in Iron Range towns. But in the early part of the century, union meeting places were makeshift -- and clandestine. Workers met in storefronts and basements, knowing they'd be fired by the mining company if their union membership was revealed. Raising the stakes, and increasing the risks were company spies...in barber shops, hotels, and among their own members. Tom Selinski grew
December 29, 1998 - Lawmakers want uniform laws in the four states to help independent producers stay on the farm. State lawmakers from Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota sponsored an organizational meeting in Sioux Falls today to combat low hog prices. Farmers are seeing prices as low as they were in the 1950's. Minnesota Public Radio's Cara Hetland reports: Seven hundred hog producers, bankers and state officials packed a three-hundred seat cattle barn at the Sioux Falls stockyards. Many of these hog farmers are facing record low prices. If a 250 pound hog sold today a farmer would get 37-dollars and 50 cents. Four months ago that same hog brought 82-50 to the farmer. On the short term farmers want disaster assistance in order to make loan payments.
December 29, 1998 - Molnau = MOLE now The two new transporation leaders in the Minnesota House of Represenatives share the view that Twin Cities suburbs need more roads. Representatives Carol Molnau (MOLE now) from Chaska and Tom Workman from Chanhassen say the additional lanes are needed because traffic congestion in the suburbs is a problem. Minnesota Public Radio Radio's Dan Olson reports. Republican Representative Carol Molnau, a farmer from Chaska, says when she moved there nearly three decades ago, only 20 vehicles a day used the road by her place. Since then, she says, the road has been paved but not widened and Molnau says the traffic count has risen to 16,000 vehicles each day. She says the suburbs need more lanes.
December 29, 1998 - Honey, we can't afford to fix the car! Right now we need every penny to pay our taxes!..)) Jesse Ventura didn't make a lot of specific campaign promises on the election trail last fall... but he did get specific on the subject of tax relief, in radio ads like this one:
December 29, 1998 - Most farmers in our area will shudder when they think back on 1998. The agricultural economy moves in well defined peaks and valleys. 1998 was a valley. Nearly every farmer felt the disquieting unknown of economic hard times. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports: The seeds of the farm slump were as farflung as the asian financial crisis and as down-home as weather, overproduction and disease. It was a year when Minnesota farmers took home their first billion bushel corn crop, a record soybean harvest and wagons full of red ink. The farm crisis o
December 30, 1998 - MPR’s Martin Kaste reports on that Governor-elect Jesse Ventura spoke to reporters about his agenda for the 1999 legislative session, which begins next week. But Ventura did NOT get very specific, and he stopped short of presenting a short list of his legislative goals.
December 30, 1998 - Throngs of harried workers in hard-hats are scurrying about St. Paul's Union Depot trying to put the finishing touches on the much-hyped Titanic exhibit. Today, workers are filling a giant salt-water aquarium which will hold a 20-ton section of the ship's hull recovered from the ocean bottom this summer. When the exhibit opens to the public Friday, visitors will see dozens of relics ranging from the ordinary to the exquisite. Chunks of coal used to fire the ship's engines will be displayed alongside luggage, a steward's jacket, crystal decanters and diamond rings. Titanic Conservator Stephane Pennec (steh-FAHN pon-ECK) explained the story behind some of the relics during a recent tour.
December 30, 1998 - Minnesota's tobacco trial will go down as one of the nation's biggest legal stories of the year. Twin Cities lawyers took on what's historically been a tough industry to battle and secured nearly seven-billion dollars for the State and Blue Cross Blue Shield Minnesota. Minnesota Public Radio's Elizabeth Stawicki looks back at the trial of the year.