September 28, 1998 - A new installation at the Soap Factory art gallery in Minneapolis is giving visitors a chance to consider how they respond to art. The small, three-room exhibit is called "Potential Space," and it's designed to create a place where the artist's intentions aren't nearly as important as the viewer's perceptions.
September 28, 1998 - Over the weekend the largest windfarm in the world was dedicated in Southwestern Minnesota, and started feeding electricity into the power grid. However if you want a smaller wind generator just for a house or a farm, you have to look further north. A Duluth company is one of only a half a dozen in the world which manufactures small wind generators intended to power single households. World Power Technologies is finding new markets for it's tower-mounted generators after riding a wild boom and bust cycle in the United States for 20 years.
September 28, 1998 - Gubernatorial candidates Norm Coleman and Skip Humphrey exchanged fire over their respective budget plans today, accusing each other of bad money management. Coleman toured the state with Governor Arne Carlson. The Republican candidate promised to lower taxes if elected, and charged Humphrey with making too many campaign promises that cost money to keep. Humphrey made much the same charge about Coleman
September 28, 1998 - More than one-hundred twenty Minnesota candidates have signed a so-called "Taxpayer Protection Pledge", promising to oppose any tax increase. The pledge is certain to be an issue in many races this year, and particularly the race for Governor - only one of the three major party candidates has signed it.
September 28, 1998 - The private company that recently began providing a portion of the health care at Minnesota prisons has a record of hiring doctors who were convicted criminals or had lost their medical licenses. An investigation by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper found that Correctional Medical Services is also criticized for providing sub-standard care to inmates in several states. The report detailed a number of cases in which prisoners died as a result of alleged neglect or improper care by the company's doctors.
September 28, 1998 - Hundreds of home health care agencies around the nation are closing their doors or struggling to survive. Their problems were caused by changes Congress made last year in Medicare repayments. The impact is being strongly felt in North Dakota, and Minnesota agencies are bracing for similar financial problems.
September 29, 1998 - Minnesota continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. At any give time there are more than twenty thousand available jobs. State and county welfare reformers are hoping to take advantage of that open job market to help Minnesota's welfare recipients move back into the workforce. And Minnesota Public Radio's Kathryn Herzog reports there's been a shift away from education to on the job training.
September 29, 1998 - This summer as many as 150 thousand fish died in four major fish kills in southeast Minnesota. Contamination from area farms was blamed for two of the kills and a spill from a local packing plant for a third. While news of the kills attracted lots of media attention, Department of Natural Resources officials don't even think they're finding all of the kills that take place. They're forming a group of scientists to try to figure out why fish kills occur and how to prevent them.
September 29, 1998 - A proposal for a shorter, lower, and less intrusive bridge over the St. Croix River near Stillwater is getting a generally favorable reaction. Interest groups have been battling over how to solve one of the twin cities most difficult transportation problems: how to increase traffic over the river without destroying its scenic beauty. Many--but not all of the interest groups -- say they can live with a consultants recomendation unveiled on Monday.
September 29, 1998 - Throughout this election season, polls have been heavily scrutinized and often criticized - sometimes by candidates who don't like the results. But do polls actually influence voting behavior? Polling experts say no - they say polls simply reflect voter sentiment at a particular point in time.