June 25, 1999 - The University of Minnesota announced today that men's basketball coach Clem Haskins is stepping down at the end of the month. The university is buying out the remaining three years of his contract for one-and-a-half million dollars, amid allegations of academic fraud in the men's basketball program. Some observers think the buyout is outrageous, while others say the university had little choice.
June 25, 1999 - Outside the building where University of Minnesota officials announced Clem Haskins' buy out, Minnesota Public Radio's Lynette Nyman sampled the opinions of university students.
June 28, 1999 - Organizers of a petition drive in St. Paul say they have more than twice as many signatures as necessary to put a new ballpark funding question on the ballot this fall. But many questions still surround the subject -- including the finances of Major League Baseball and the viability of small market teams like the Minnesota Twins. Mayor Norm Coleman, who is spearheading the stadium push in St. Paul, says without some reform in professional baseball, building a ballpark doesn't make sense.
June 28, 1999 - The Minnesota Corrections Department has a new plan to offer inmates access to higher education. Administrators at the department cut the program earlier this year because it was funded with tax dollars. Now the program will be paid for with money inmates pay to use prison telephones. Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Sheryl Ramstad Hvass has been fighting to have the program restored.
June 28, 1999 - Three Twin-Cities-based charities have received donations from "Ventura for Minnesota, Inc.," the private non-profit that collects royalties and licensing fees for official Jesse Ventura merchandise. "V.M.I." says the $15 thousand dollars it donated today is just the first installment of its contributions to local causes, and it says it will keep donating money as long as people are willing to buy Ventura souvenirs.
June 28, 1999 - University of Minnesota athletic director Mark Dienhart met with members of the mens basketball team to reaffirm their role in finding a successor to coach Clem Haskins. Haskins resigned under pressure last Friday with a one-point-five-million dollar settlement. U President Mark Yudof said an investigation into academic fraud in the basketball program found no direct links to Haskins. But Yudof said a change in leadership is necesssary to restore confidence in the program. Players voted over the weekend and came to the unanimous decision that they want former Washington Wizards coach Bernie Bickerstaff to replace Haskins. Dienhart says the players don't understand the process but will be part of the decision... a decision that's expected to come in the next few weeks.
June 28, 1999 - Mainstreet Radio's Cara Hetland reports on a product using processed cow blood as a blood substitute. It is in final trial stages and already in use in veterinarian clinics.
June 28, 1999 - The official search for a missing Barnum woman has again ended near Moose Lake. Meanwhile, the man accussed of kidnapping Katie Poirier has a new defense attorney.
June 29, 1999 - The defeat of gun control legislation in the U-S House recently came as no suprise to gun policy expert Tom Diaz. In his new book Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America, Diaz says a better strategy would be to challenge gun manufacturers on their marketing of increasingly deadlier products. Diaz comes to gun policy from the perspective of someone who loved guns. From his boyhood scouting experience in Mississippi, to his military service, to collecting guns as an adult, Diaz says there were always guns in his life. Then his law degree landed him a job with the House Crime subcommittee.
June 29, 1999 - MPR’s Lynette Nyman visits Camp Ajawah to profile a new Girl Scout troop in Minnesota. It's not like most other Girl Scout troops in the state because Troop 2675 is for Southeast Asian girls. Born in the United States and growing up in the Twin Cities, these new girl scouts, who are mostly Hmong, are experiencing and learning in ways often unavailable in traditional Hmong homes.