February 22, 2005 - A Hmong resettlement program is up and running again, now that officials have put in place more stringent tuberculosis screening at a Thai refugee camp. The State Department halted Hmong refugee immigration from the camp last month after T.B. was discovered in a few Hmong refugees in Minnesota and some other states. Kris Ehresmann, oversees the Minnesota Department of Health's TB program. She says officials had been screening for TB all along but are now looking even more closely and at kids as well as adults.
February 22, 2005 - A Hmong refugee resettlement program put on-hold last month because of concerns about tuberculosis, is up and running again with new T.B. screening in place.
February 23, 2005 - Retired federal judge Miles Lord is asking Governor Pawlenty and the legislature to put a moratorium on new taconite projects on the Iron Range, until questions are answered about health concerns. Lord issued the landmark ruling in 1974, that forced Reserve Mining Company to stop dumping its waste rock into Lake Superior. Scientists had found asbestos-like fibers in the rock. Now Lord says the state hasn't done enough to find out whether those fibers are making miners sick.
February 23, 2005 - Retired federal judge Miles Lord says Minnesota should do more to protect the health of taconite miners -- before the going ahead with several new taconite projects on the Iron Range.
February 23, 2005 - Retired federal judge Miles Lord is calling on Governor Pawlenty and the legislature to do more to protect the health of taconite miners -- before they go ahead with several new taconite projects on the Iron Range. Lord issued the landmark ruling that forced Reserve Mining Company to stop dumping its waste rock into Lake Superior, because scientists had found asbestos-like fibers in the rock. Now he says those fibers could be making a lot of miners sick.
February 24, 2005 - Retired federal judge Miles Lord is calling on Governor Pawlenty and the legislature to do more to protect the health of taconite miners -- before they go ahead with several new taconite projects on the Iron Range. Lord issued the landmark ruling that forced Reserve Mining Company to stop dumping its waste rock into Lake Superior, because scientists had found asbestos-like fibers in the rock. Now he says those fibers could be making a lot of miners sick.
February 25, 2005 - The head of a California youth detention program has been suspended following the shooting of a Ramsey County sheriff's deputy. Yatau Her escaped from a California Youth Authority work program, and is now accused in the Wednesday shooting of Chris Tayson, who was trying to make a drug arrest. Nancy Lundgren is with the California Youth Authority. She says Her is a prominent member of a gang involved in gun trafficking, prostitution and drugs in California and the Twin Cities, and he should have been more closely monitored.
March 2, 2005 - Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports on how the Minnesota town of Appleton honors fallen soldiers. Funeral services for Sergeant Jesse Lhotka will be held in his hometown of Appleton. A roadside bomb killed Lhotka and two other Minnesota National Guard soldiers in Iraq. Lhotka is the most recent in a long line of Appleton residents to die in battle and reminders of the town's service are everywhere.
March 8, 2005 - White Earth has become the first reservation in the country to ban the introduction or growth of genetically modified wild rice seeds. Now, some White Earth Band members want to take it one step further. They want the Legislature to ban genetically modified wild rice statewide. Wild rice experts with the University of Minnesota, however, say the tribe's worries are unwarranted. The lakes and rivers on the White Earth Indian Reservation in northwest Minnesota are an ideal habitat for wild rice, and an important cultural food to the Ojibwe people.
March 9, 2005 - A Minnesota Senate committee has rejected a proposal that would have required all driver's license exams in the state to be conducted in English.