May 28, 1999 - Twin Cities' school bus drivers -- employed by Ryder Student Transportation Services -- have voted NOT to unionize. The results of last night's balloting came as a surprise to the Service Employees International Union which was attempting to organize some 15-hundred drivers.
May 28, 1999 - Minnesota refugee resettlement agencies now have official word that Kosovar refugees could arrive in Minneapolis and Saint Paul as early as next week. The agencies started preparation for their arrival several weeks ago, but the work is only the beginning of making Minnesota "home" for a while for the Kosovars.
May 28, 1999 - Mosquito experts are expecting a bumper crop after all the recent wet weather. That's troubling for health officials in the Twin Cities and southeastern Minnesota - areas of the state with mosquitos that carry encephalitis. Nearly a quarter of the state's encephalitis cases since 1985 were recorded in sparcely populated Houston County in the far southeast corner of the state.
May 31, 1999 - To close out the millennium, Minnesota Public Radio's All Things Considered presents a look back at Minnesota life in 1900 via a 12-part series, entitled “A Minnesota Century.” This segment profiles the Merritt brothers and their Minnesota ore discovery.
May 31, 1999 - Tucked away in a small patch of southwestern Minnesota prairie is one of the state's enduring mysteries. Centuries ago people carved thousands of symbols into rocks near the small town of Jeffers. Who were they, and why did they painstakingly carve petroglyphs of animals and other figures? This summer archeologists will take another crack at answering the questions. But in the meantime, the site is becoming a hot spot for visitors interested in the carvings.
May 31, 1999 - Hundreds of volunteers spent part of their Holiday weekend searching swamps and roadsides near Moose Lake, for evidence into the disappearance of 19-year old Kathryn Poirier.
May 31, 1999 - The Grand Portage National Monument has opened for the summer season at the site of an 18-Century fur trading post a few miles down the North Shore from the Canadian border. For the first time, monument maintainance is being provided by the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa instead of the National Park Service.
May 31, 1999 - In the western United States the LYNX -- a large cat with big whiskers and snowshoe-like paws -- has become the latest focus for wilderness disputes, and Minnesota will soon be forced into the fray. This summer the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service will rule on whether to add the lynx to the federal endangered species list in the entire lower 48 states. While environmental activists in Minnesota are supporting a listing... the state DNR is dead set against it. At issue is whether such a listing could alter logging, road-building and other activities in the name of lynx habitat.
May 31, 1999 - This year marks the 100th anniversary of the VFW--the Veterans of Foreign Wars. It's an organization of veterans, for veterans. Its members visit VA hospitals and care centers and raise money for disabled vets. As Minnesota public radio's Elizabeth Stawicki reports, the VFW is facing challenges that threaten its survival as it moves into its second century.
May 31, 1999 - Today is the deadline for developers of a long-vacant block in downtown Minneapolis to submit further details of their plans. City leaders have been trying for more than a decade to develop notorious Block E across from the Target Center. The developers, already on their third deadline extension, were still scrambling late last week to line up a crucial tenant for the $100 million dollar retail and entertainment complex they envision.