April 20, 1999 - The 90's have been tough for independent bookstores. They've lost customers to big chains such as Barnes & Noble and Borders. The newest threat is Amazon.com and other Internet superstores, but as Minnesota Public Radio's Jon Gordon reports, independent booksellers are starting to fight back.
April 20, 1999 - Northwest Airlines is reporting it lost money during the first three months of the year. But the first quarter results weren't as bad as Wall Street analysts had expected.
April 20, 1999 - More than one-thousand low income, Twin Cities children will attend non-public elementary schools next fall through a privately-funded scholarship program. The KidsFirst scholarship fund will pay up to 12-hundred dollars toward tution for eligible students who currently attend metro area public schools. Organizers say they're helping parents make educational choices for their children. But some critics say the project undermines public education.
April 20, 1999 - When Republicans took control of the Minnesota House, they talked about cutting government spending, and appointed one of their most fiscally conservative colleagues to chair the committee in charge of funding certain state agencies. Republican leaders then told State Government Finance Committee chair Phil Krinkie to spend one-hundred million dollars LESS than Governor Ventura proposed in his budget. Krinkie has gone even further, chopping another 40-million, and ruffling some feathers in his own caucus in the process.
April 20, 1999 - The St Paul City Attorney's office WON'T bring misdemeanor charges against a police officer who drove a van into a crowd of Holidazzle parade spectators last Winter. Two people were killed; 10 were injured. St Paul investigated the case for Minneapolis to avoid a conflict of interest. As Minnesota public radio's Elizabeth Stawicki reports, the lawsuits are far from over.
April 20, 1999 -
April 21, 1999 - Last night, the board voted to undo a compromise that would have left the decision up to individual schools, but the board added a provision requiring parental consent.
April 21, 1999 - Students and teachers in Minnesota are among those struggling to understand Tuesday's shooting ramage in a Littleton, Colorado high school. The violent attack was a topic of conversation today in many classrooms. In the the Minneapolis suburb of Richfield, school officials and students were talking about the latest school tragedy and reflecting on their own preparations for a similar incident.
April 21, 1999 - A new report says Minnesota loggers are taking so much timber from the state's forests there won't be enough harvestable wood within a decade to support some of the state's timber industries.
April 21, 1999 - U-S Attorney General Janet Reno said she wishes the nation could see the success of Minneapolis ' Hawthorne neighborhood to give americans hope as they mourn the tragedy in Colorado. Reno visited Minneapolis today to speak to several groups including the Hawthorne neighborhood and at a national symposium on improving public safety.