February 5, 1998 - Money-back fertility programs: Lorna talks with bioethicist Jeffrey Kahn from the University of Minnesota and Dr. Theodore Nagel from Reproductive Health Associates.
February 5, 1998 - Over the last few years, technology used to search the bottom of oceans, lakes and rivers has progressed dramatically. One of the main tools of underwater archaeologiests and treasure hunters is called Sidescan Sonar. A vessel will tow the machine on a cable, and it sends back pictures to a computer on board the ship. Like a medical ultrasound machine, Sidescan Sonar takes pictures with sound waves. Marty Wilcox with Marine Sonic Technology says Sidescan Sonar's images keep getting better.
February 6, 1998 - Lou Bellamy, Penumbra's artistic director, says his theater has outgrown its current home in the Hallie Q. Brown/Martin Luther King Center and is looking to be a part of African American arts complex in St. Paul.
February 9, 1998 - For decades, the rule was you couldn't win against big tobacco. The companies had deep pockets to wage legal battles. Juries and judges consistently blamed smokers for their own use of cigarettes and the harm they caused. Then, in 1994, a friend of Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore came up with a new idea. If a state sued for money it paid out in medical bills for cigarette smokers, the companies might be found responsible. The tobacco companies could not claim that a state smoked a cigarette. In a new book about how the states took on the tobacco companies, The People Vs Big Tobacco, the authors follow both sides of the story that lead to the trial here in Minnesota. Co-author Adam Levy says its been difficult for individual smokers to make headway against tobacco companies.
February 9, 1998 - A House committee today will consider a bill that would make it more difficult for Minnesota cities to use public subsidies to attract businesses. The bill would penalize communities that use tax breaks or other financial incentives to lure companies away from their neighbors. We talk to DFLer John Hottinger, Senate author of the bill.
February 9, 1998 - MPR’s Dan Olson reports on Next Innovations, a Minneapolis organization that trains young non-profit employees business and leadership skills….and possibly the next generation of non-profit managers.
February 11, 1998 - President Clinton is expected to commit to a tough tobacco settlement today. The proposal would impose a $1.50 tax-per-pack and give very little protection from further lawsuits to the industry. Doug Cogan is director of the Tobacco Information Service, which tracks the industry for investors. He says the debate will come down to how much legal immunity to grant the industry.
February 11, 1998 - American athletes have begun winning gold in Nagano. American skier Picabo Street won the women's super giant slalom. And Jonny Moseley took a gold medal for the U-S in the freestyle moguls competition. Jay Weiner is a sports writer for the Star Tribune. He checks in from Nagano.
February 12, 1998 - Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Zdechlik reports on the 2,500 striking Honeywell workers who vote on a proposed contract, possibly ending their walkout now in its 11th day. The terms of the proposed settlement are not being made public but union officials say Honeywell modified what had been the company's final offer. Central to the negotiations since the first contract was rejected, has been the union's opposition to Honeywell putting together a separate compensation package for new employees. Such arrangements often called "Two Tier," contracts, have been dividing workforces for two decades in the United States.
February 13, 1998 - Whatever the outcome of the Minnesota tobacco trial, the government is already tightening regulations on tobacco. After launching an investigation in 1994, the Food and Drug Administration decided smoking posed enough of a health threat - especially to teenagers - to warrant stricter regulation. Mitch Zellar is associate commissioner of the FDA. He says before the FDA could regulate nicotine, it had to show tobacco companies intended it to act like a drug.