January 6, 1998 -
January 7, 1998 -
January 7, 1998 - Minnesota Attorney General Skip Humphrey may be investigating Major League Baseball. Commissioner Bud Selig and Twins owner Carl Pohlad say they've received questionnaires from Humphrey's office that indicate he's interested in challenging Baseball's 76-year-old anti-trust-exemption. The exemption allows baseball to operate as a monopoly, and many of baseball's critics say it makes it easier for teams to pressure taxpayers for financial help, as the Twins did last year.
January 7, 1998 - Name a local theater that's been around for more than 20-years in the theater-saturated twin cities and you're likely to come up with a relatively short list. For the last 22-years, The Park Square Theater in downtown St. Paul has quietly built an audience that's becoming the envy of theaters across the metro area. The people who run Park Square say one of the secrets to their success is....customer service.
January 7, 1998 - The nation's largst meatpacker says it will close a plant and end 370 jobs in southwest Minnesota because it can't find enough cattle to process. IBP will close its Luverne plant March 7th. The shutdown occurs as a political debate in Minnesota over large-scale livestock operations heats up. Supporters say the large facilities are needed to keep the meatprocessing industry in the state.
January 8, 1998 - Since the baseball season ended, players have been breaking records OFF the field. Free agents are demanding some of the biggest salaries ever seen -- and ballclubs are paying up. Some baseball observers believe only the biggest, richest markets will be able to keep up with the rising salaries, and they say even a luxurious new stadium might not be enough to keep a team viable in a small market like the Twin Cities.
January 8, 1998 - A nationwide survey of wildlife refuges shows a low rate of frog deformities. It's an indication that most deformed frogs may be confined to isolated "hot spots" like Minnesota ----not part of a widespread problem.
January 8, 1998 - Twin Cities-based Northwest Airlines and Houston-based Continental Airlines are talking about an alliance in which they'd funnel passengers between the two airlines. Leaders of Northwest's pilots union are meeting in Minneapolis today and tomorrow to determine whether teaming up with Continental would benefit the union. Whatever thy decide will be critical to prospects for an alliance because the pilots are in a position to reject the arrangement.
January 9, 1998 - The latest cold blast brings an eye-watering focus back to our winter, which has been so unseasonably mild so far. While many of us have celebrated the nice weather by brazen tee-shirt-wearing, the warm weather has meant many different things to people in our region. With the thermometer plunging we went out to get a sampling.
January 9, 1998 - As the annual flood of tax mailings enters the mailstream...state education officials are spreading the word about the state's new tax credit and deduction law. The new law allows low income families to take a dollar-for-dollar credit for educational expences incurred this year...and increases the deductions available for all families. They'll actually see the money in next year's tax refunds...but education choice advocates who helped pass the controversial law say they now want to make sure people are using it now. Businesses providing some of the services eligible for the tax breaks are also gearing up for the law's potential impact.