February 25, 1999 - The hearing into fraud allegations against Piper Jaffray took up some of the central charges in a Minneapolis courtroom yesterday. The Securities and Exchange Commission is accusing Piper and several employees of artificially propping up the price of a fund whose value was sinking because of derivative securities.
February 25, 1999 - Minnesotans contributed more than thirty thousand dollars last year to help pay President Clinton's lawyers. Minnesota Public Radio's Jon Gordon has a look at who chipped in, and why.
February 25, 1999 - What is your work worth? Well, if you're a CEO - a chief executive officer - for one of America's biggest companies you can expect to earn tens, even hundreds of millions in pay and other benefits. Minnesota Congressman Martin Sabo says the pay gap between executives and workers is unhealthy. Once again, he's proposing legislation to limit the tax deduction companies can claim for executive pay.
February 25, 1999 - The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources today released a wolf management proposal that would allow livestock owners to shoot wolves in some circumstances. No other public hunting or trapping of wolves would be considered for the first five years after wolves are removed from the federal endangered species list. The DNR's plan echoes recommendations made by a citizen's roundtable last year. But DNR officials and others make clear the debate over public hunting of wolves is far from over.
February 26, 1999 - St. Paul business leaders welcomed Governor Ventura into their midst today. Ventura offended some St. Paul residents and Irish-Americans this week by joking on the David Letterman show that drunk Irishmen must have designed the streets in St. Paul. But Mayor Norm Coleman calls Ventura a huge asset to the city.
February 26, 1999 - A Minnesota audience will be transported to the Alaskan wilds tomorrow night to experience the landscape and creatures of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. A traveling show of music and photography called "Caribou Commons" is stopping in St. Paul to raise support for protecting the habitat of the porcupine caribou herd. Each year some 150-thousand Caribou migrate hundreds of miles from their wintering grounds in Canada to the Alaskan coastal plain. Environmentalists are fighting to protect the herd's calving ground from oil development. Yukon writer and photographer Ken Madsen created the Caribou Commons project.
February 26, 1999 - Many people have a hard time finding the humor in air travel, but for Rene Foss... it comes naturally. Foss is an aspiring actress living in New York who makes her real living as a flight attandent with Northwest Airlines. It's a job she landed after graduating from the University of Minnesota. Fourteen years later, her career provides more than a paycheck, it's also the source of her comic material for the cabaret show "Around The World in a Bad Mood" opening in Minneapolis this weekend.
February 26, 1999 - The biggest cross-country ski competition in North America gets underway in Hayward, Wisconsin this Saturday. The Birkibiener draws competitors from across the country and around the world. More than 6,500 skiers have already signed up to tackle the 52 kilometer course. Carl Swensen won last year's race, which went ahead despite dismal snow conditions. Swensen says this year the snow is good and the Birkie is shaping up to be a fast race.
February 26, 1999 - State legislators have an extra $282 Million dollars to work with before this fiscal year ends in June. The Finance Department today predicted the state's budget surplus will be that much bigger than previous estimates -- an increase economists attribute mainly to rising wages and increased income tax revenues for the state. The additional revenue raises the stakes in the tax relief negotiations between the House, Senate and Governor Ventura.
February 26, 1999 - A new study on attitudes towards housing and development confirms what many planning officials have long suspected: Residents in the Twin Cities area prefer single-family homes on large lots away from town, rather than living in the city.