March 10, 1999 - Voters in Hennepin County's third district will choose between an array of candidates in a primary election next Tuesday. The candidates are vying for the seat vacated by Commissioner Mark Andrew.
March 11, 1999 - Howard Sinker, MPR sports commentator; and Jay Weiner, MPR sports commentator, discuss the allegations of academic fraud in the University of Minnesota basketball program. MPR reporters William Wilcoxen and Tim Pugmire contribute reports. Basketball coach, Clem Haskins, discusses big-time athletics in the University setting.
March 11, 1999 - University of Minnesota administrators and students are trying to make sense of the academic fraud allegations against four men's basketball players. U of M officials declared the players ineligible for today's NCAA tournament game, and an internal investigation is pending. University Regents tried conducting business as usual, and reserved comment about the scandal. But around the campus, students freely shared their opinions, and few are defending the accused players.
March 11, 1999 - MPR’s Lynette Nyman presents a series titled “This Is Home: The Hmong in Minnesota.” In this part, Nyman reports on an increasing number of Hmong Americans returning to visit their homeland of Laos…or Thailand, where refugee camps became home for thousands after the war ended in 1975 and Laos became a communist country.
March 11, 1999 - The season is over for the gopher men's basketball team. Today in Seattle, they lost 63 to 75 to Gonzaga in the first round of the N-C-A-A tournament. University officials declared four gopher players ineligible today after allegations surfaced that they had cheated on their academics. The University is investigating the incident. We'll have more on that story in the next half hour. But on the court today, City Pages Sports reporter Britt Robson says the Gophers played out a respectable game.
March 11, 1999 - The Moorhead Police Force will soon expand by a dozen. But The city is not hiring new officers, its starting a volunteer citizen police unit. As Minnesota Public Radios Dan Gunderson reports, law enforcement agencies across the country are finding new ways to use volunteers.
March 11, 1999 - House Republicans are offering to relent in the two-month-old standoff over tax rebates, but their capitulation may cost the Governor and the Democrats more than they're willing to pay.
March 11, 1999 - Following the Gophers 75-63 loss to Gonzaga, Coach Clem Haskins and players Quincy Lewis and Dusty Rychart spoke to the press. Haskins stressed he was proud of his team's performance despite missing four players through ineligibility including two starters, and another who was injured.
March 11, 1999 - Crop insurance got a lot of attention on Capitol Hill Wednesday, with committees of both the Senate and the House taking first steps to overhaul the program. There appears to be committment from all sides to somehow overhaul crop insurance -- but exactly what changes, and how to pay for the changes, are the subjects of intense debate.
March 11, 1999 - The Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled protesting at privately-owned shopping malls such as the Mall of America is not protected speech. The ruling stems from the case of several animal-rights activists who were arrested while protesting a Macy's department store fur sale.