February 15, 1999 - Members of the House and Senate will sit down this week for what promises to be lengthy negotiations over tax rebates. Legislators in both chambers say they want to find a way to send the rebates to taxpayers as simply and efficiently as possible, but if past experience is any example, that's easier said than done.
February 15, 1999 - A report released today by a Washington research group says that most states have inadequate laws to prevent financial conflicts of interest among local lawmakers. On the national level, members of congress essentially have to give up their outside jobs when they get elected. Federal law requires them to file annual disclosure reports showing their outside income, their investments and any gifts they receive. But on the state level, most legislatures are part-time, and-according to today's report-state conflict-of-interest laws are often easy to dodge.
February 15, 1999 - MPR’s Gretchen Lehmann reports that after years battling severe weather, scab and low crop prices, many farmers in western Minnesota and the Dakotas are looking for a new way to make money off the land. Farmers along Interstate-29 believe they've found the answer... join forces with your neighbors and invest in a dairy.
February 16, 1999 - Instant reality is the theme of an exhibition of photographs on display in Northeast Minneapolis . It's called "The Moment Seized," and the only criteria for the hundreds of pictures adorning the walls of the Acme Visual Arts gallery is that they be shot with a polaroid camera.
February 16, 1999 - Two weeks ago, Governor Ventura got permission to carry a concealed weapon at the capitol. Ventura said he wanted the gun permit because his state security guards can't be with him at all times. The decision continues to generate a lot of local discussion. Here's a sampling of opinion gathered at one St. Paul gas station.
February 16, 1999 - Minnesotans had a chance to question Governor Jesse Ventura, and other state leaders, last night over issues of Education. The Minnesota Citizen's Forum was broadcast on KTCA-TV and Minnesota Public Radio. It was also covered by the Star-Tribune newspaper. All three media outlets were SPONSORS of the event.
February 16, 1999 - A new report on conflict of interest laws for public officials ranks Minnesota in the bottom third among states. The Center for Public Integrity - a Washington-based non-partisan watchdog group - found a number of weaknesses in Minnesota's laws requiring state legislators to disclose their financial interests. The report comes in the wake of an ethics finding that Senator Dallas Sams improperly concealed a consulting payment from the University of Minnesota.
February 16, 1999 - The State Department of Children, Families and Learning plans to issue its new desegregation rule today, a controversial policy several years in the making. The new rule does away with 25 years of racial quotas, and tries to address trends such as "white flight," the desire for community schools and increased immigration into Minnesota's rural areas. Essentially the state says separate CAN be equal. In so doing, many critics charge the state with gutting its own mandate.
February 16, 1999 -
February 16, 1999 - Thousands of Northwest Airlines ground workers are voting today on a tentative agreement that could resolve the contract dispute they've been working under since the fall of 1996. The same workers rejected the last tentative agreement their union leaders reached with management last summer.