June 24, 1999 - University of Minnesota men's basketball coach Clem Haskins may soon end his 13 year tenture at the school. A copyright report published in today's Star Tribune newspaper quotes two sources close to the university who say they expect Haskins to resign or be dismissed within three days. Haskins is at the center of a university investigation into allegations of academic fraud and mishandling of sexual harassment complaints against players. Dave Mona is president of the University's AluMinnesotai Association. He says reaction to the allegations has grown more intense in recent days.
June 25, 1999 - The Minneapolis' city council has approved a resolution supporting an effort to build a new stadiumto try and keep the Twins in town. But it was significantly watered down during a rancorous debate that lasted nearly four hours. The debate over the resolution led to a battle over whether a portion of new taxes for a new baseball stadium should help finance affordable housing.
June 28, 1999 - Organizers of a petition drive in St. Paul say they have more than twice as many signatures as necessary to put a new ballpark funding question on the ballot this fall. But many questions still surround the subject -- including the finances of Major League Baseball and the viability of small market teams like the Minnesota Twins. Mayor Norm Coleman, who is spearheading the stadium push in St. Paul, says without some reform in professional baseball, building a ballpark doesn't make sense.
June 28, 1999 - The Minnesota Corrections Department has a new plan to offer inmates access to higher education. Administrators at the department cut the program earlier this year because it was funded with tax dollars. Now the program will be paid for with money inmates pay to use prison telephones. Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Sheryl Ramstad Hvass has been fighting to have the program restored.
June 28, 1999 - Mainstreet Radio's Cara Hetland reports on a product using processed cow blood as a blood substitute. It is in final trial stages and already in use in veterinarian clinics.
June 29, 1999 - The defeat of gun control legislation in the U-S House recently came as no suprise to gun policy expert Tom Diaz. In his new book Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America, Diaz says a better strategy would be to challenge gun manufacturers on their marketing of increasingly deadlier products. Diaz comes to gun policy from the perspective of someone who loved guns. From his boyhood scouting experience in Mississippi, to his military service, to collecting guns as an adult, Diaz says there were always guns in his life. Then his law degree landed him a job with the House Crime subcommittee.
June 29, 1999 - MPR’s Lynette Nyman visits Camp Ajawah to profile a new Girl Scout troop in Minnesota. It's not like most other Girl Scout troops in the state because Troop 2675 is for Southeast Asian girls. Born in the United States and growing up in the Twin Cities, these new girl scouts, who are mostly Hmong, are experiencing and learning in ways often unavailable in traditional Hmong homes.
June 30, 1999 - Garrison Keillor gives a speech at the spring commencement for the Class of 1999 at the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts. Keillor talks about growing up, what’s next for the graduates, and doing good in the world.
June 30, 1999 - Star Wars is coming to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The museum is one of six sites chosen to host a Smithsonian traveling exhibition of costumes, props, production artwork and models from the archives of Lucasfilm. The museum hopes the exhibit "Star Wars: The Magic of Myth" will draw a quarter of a million people, which would set a museum record. And if the crowds admire a few paintings and the jade mountain while they're there, all the better. To those who wonder if "Star Wars" belongs in the museum, MIA curator Lotus Stack says the movie is an important artistic statement.
July 1, 1999 - The Minnesota Vikings are launching a statewide campaign for a new stadium. The team rejected a proposal from the Minnesota Sports Facilities Commission to turn the Metrodome into a football only stadium for less than half the cost of building a new one. Instead, the Vikings want a 70,000-seat roofed football-only stadium that would cost at least 400- million dollars. Vikings owner Red McCombs says he thinks Minnesotans are behind him.