June 15, 1999 - Classes have ended for the year at Saint Paul's New Arrivals School...and the program for homeless and foster children might not return in the fall. District administrators, forced to make millions of dollars in spending cuts, eliminated funding for several programs next year including New Arrivals School. But they say those students will still get the help they need.
June 15, 1999 - Governor Jesse Ventura says state government needs to do everything it can to help Minnesota farmers and to prevent an economic collapse in rural areas. Last night, the governor participated in the first of four forums on agriculture this summer. He says he's open to several ideas including an anti-trust investigation of large farming conglomerates and the elimination of the state inheritance tax.
June 15, 1999 - The federal agency that regulates the nuclear power industry is changing how it inspects reactors. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission hopes to make the agency more efficient...and at the same time help nuclear power plants compete once the electric utility industry is deregulated. Northern States Power's Prairie Island plant near Red Wing is one of nine facilities around the country where the NRC is testing the new inspection process. Agency officials explained the plan to citizens last night, and got a mixed response.
June 15, 1999 - It's hard to know, just over a week after the news broke, how the merger of Minneapolis -based Honeywell and AlliedSignal will shake out. We don't know exactly how many people will be fired or moved, or how the 114-year old Honeywell will look in five or ten years. But talk to a few longtime Honeywell workers, and you can get a picture of the company's past. Minnesota Public Radio's John Rabe recently spoke with three Honeywell retirees with a combined 1-hundred-8 years of service.
June 16, 1999 - J.F Powers, One of Minnesota's most acclaimed authors died on Saturday at his home in Collegeville. He was 81 years old. Powers' first novel, "Morte D'Urban" won the national book award in 1962. In the following years, Powers published a collection of short stories, but it took him more than two decades to complete his next novel. Like most of Powers' work, that book, "Wheat that Springeth Green," explored the world of the priesthood. In 1988, just after the novel's publication, Powers told Minnesota Public Radio he'd never considered the priesthood himself.
June 16, 1999 - A report released today by a collection of government and private organizations documents a steady decline in the the health of the Mississippi River. The Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center says its Status and Trends report promises to be the start of the most comprehensive ecological study ever of the river system. By collecting years of information, scientists hope to be better at tracking the threats to the river such as sediment and farm run-off.
June 16, 1999 - St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman has formally launched his bid to bring the Minnesota Twins to downtown St. Paul. Yesterday, volunteers armed with petitions began collecting signatures to put a ballpark question on the November ballot. The proposal, however, is already drawing stiff opposition.
June 16, 1999 - Today 34 indian tribes from across the country filed a lawsuit against the tobacco industry. The tribes are demanding big tobacco companies repay the cost of treating what they say are smoking-related illnesses. The tribes, mostly from the west and midwest filed suit in New Mexico, accusing the tobacco industry of deliberately targeting Indians. The Red Lake Band of Ojibwe is the only Minnesota Band included in the suit. Bobby Whitefeather, tribal chair of the Red Lake Band, says Native Americans are bringing their own suit because they don't know if they'll get a share of the national tobacco settlement.
June 16, 1999 - Todd Gitlin is a professor of culture, journalism and sociology at New York University. He lived in San Francisco at the time the SLA was active, and has written numerous books on America's culture wars including The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage. I asked him to put the SLA in context.
June 16, 1999 - A tribal ordinance aimed at relieving chronic unemployment on the Leech Lake Reservation has ignited a firestorm of controversy. The Tribal Emplyment Rights Ordinance--- or TERO --- charges contractors a fee to work on the reservation... and requires them to hire tribal members for their work crews. Some in the non-Indian community say the TERO is unfair, and claim the tribe is overstepping its bounds.