March 29, 1999 - Wells Fargo and Company says it plans to cut its workforce of 92 thousand by about 46 hundred people as a result of last year's merger with Minneapolis -based Norwest Bank. Many of cuts will be handled through attrition, however bank executives indicate some lay offs are also likely.
March 29, 1999 - Governor Ventura spent part of the weekend back on the campaign trail, barn-storming through south-central Minnesota in support of senate candidate Terry Anderson. Anderson is the Reform Party candidate in the special election in district 26, and the party's leaders consider this their first realistic chance at winning a legislative election. As Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste reports, the party wants to prove Ventura's upset victory in November was NOT an isolated event.
March 29, 1999 - Senate Democrats and House Republicans called on each other today to give in and break the deadlock over tax rebates before the Easter break. Each side accuses the other of being inflexible, and neither shows signs of giving in.
March 29, 1999 - Thousands of Minnesotans trace their ancestry, or their immediate past, to the region now subject to NATO airstrikes: Yugoslavia. Serbs and Serb- Americans in northeastern Minnesota say they feel betrayed by the U.S. military action, which has prompted frantic phonecalls to relatives overseas.
March 29, 1999 - Voters in Minnesota's largest county will pick a new commissioner tomorrow. The winner will replace Hennepin County commissioner Mark Andrew, a DFLer who resigned mid-term. The election pits Republican Peter Bell, who's favored by Governor Ventura, against DFLer Gail Dorfman, who's endorsed by Andrew.
March 29, 1999 - Governor Ventura and the Metropolitan Council want to set aside $25 million dollars a year for mass transit projects. They made the proposal at the Met Councils "State of the Region" address today.
March 30, 1999 - This week some farmers will start preparing the fields for spring planting. Commodity prices, usually volatile, have been more so lately making the financial outlook for farmers shakier than it's been in years. This weekend thousands of high school and college students gathered in Brookings, South Dakota, for an agricultural exposition. As Minnesota Public Radio's Cara hetland reports the 'future farmers' have watched their parents deal with a volatile industry and seem to have learned some important lessons.
March 30, 1999 - For Tuesday A legislative change gives Governor Jesse Ventura a chance to put a new face on the Metropolitan Council by naming up to sixteen new members at once. The speculation is that he make announce the names as early as today. The council is in charge of such mundane metropolitan matters as treating sewage and making sure the buses run on time. But it is also has the power to regulate Twin Cities development. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson talked to three people who have ideas for how the reconstituted Council should do it's job.
March 30, 1999 - The House has approved a bill ending auto emissions testing on older cars in the Twin Cities.
March 30, 1999 - St. Peter residents spent the weekend in a mostly soleMinnesota remembrance of the tornado that tore through their town a year ago today. In the time since then, roofs and windows have been replaced and broken tree stumps have been pulled from the ground. The site where the city's Community Center once stood is now a vacant block and many other buildings---including over a hundred homes---have been torn down and carted away as trash. The city has long since tallied the loss in terms of numbers. But many homeowners in St. Peter regard their houses as much more than just shelter. In the last of a series of reports remembering the tornado, Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes looks at efforts to rebuild and preserve the historic buildings people as the heart of St. Peter.