June 22, 1999 - Carlton County authorities have until noon to charge a 52-year-old Richfield man in connection with the disappearance of Katie Poirer. The man's arrest has re-energized the search to find the 19-year-old Barnum woman who was apparently kidnapped last month from a Moose Lake convenience store. On Monday the Carlton County Sheriff's Department organized volunteers to search land surrounding the suspect's vacation home east of Moose Lake.
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.
April 19, 1999 - One losing investor has referred to Technimar as "The Titanic." The Cohasset-based business filed for bankruptcy last year after Minnesota investors poured millions of dollars into the project. Some residents hoped the NEW owner, Davisco, might still open the plant and provide local jobs making a synthetic countertop material called "Stonite." Now it appears Davisco intends to remove the Stonite-making equipment and set up shop in a new location. The decision is the final blow to the town of Cohasset, where residents are stuck paying off their town's investment in the failed venture.
April 9, 1999 - The Minnesota Gang Strike Force is seeking $6 million dollars from the state legislature to continue its work into the year 2000. Attorney General Mike Hatch is also seeking broad new gang prosecution powers. In its first year the force was responsible for 129 convictions and the seizure of drugs, money and firearms around the state. But activists have raised questions about the tactics used to identify gang members, and whether the strikeforce's work justifies its expense.
April 1, 1999 - On this special date, MPR’s Amy Radil reports that the Duluth Port Authority is scrambling to respond to unconfirmed reports of whale sightings in the Duluth Ship Canal. Biologists speculate a scarce food supply has driven a whale far inland during the spring breeding season. Authorities are trying to determine whether the whale poses a shipping hazard and how the marine mammal made its lengthy journey.
March 29, 1999 - Thousands of Minnesotans trace their ancestry, or their immediate past, to the region now subject to NATO airstrikes: Yugoslavia. Serbs and Serb- Americans in northeastern Minnesota say they feel betrayed by the U.S. military action, which has prompted frantic phonecalls to relatives overseas.
March 24, 1999 - The National Transportation Safety Board has begun its investigation into the crash of Cirrus Design's SR 20. The accident came as Cirrus was poised to begin customer deliveries of the aircraft, and the Duluth-based company was moving toward full-scale production. Now, Cirrus and federal authorities will be intensely scrutinizing the design and production process of the company's flagship airplane, with investors and customers looking on.
March 18, 1999 - Mainstreet Radio’s Amy Radil reports on the U.S. Coast Guard's Mackinaw and the debate to replace it. The 55-year-old ship is the biggest icebreaker on the Great Lakes, and always greeted enthusiastically by commercial shippers and idle boat watchers alike. The U.S. House approved spending 130-million dollars to replace the Mackinaw, but its fans are nothing if not loyal, and are trying to keep it around.
March 10, 1999 - In October 1997, a group which called itself a gang killed 18-year-old William Booth. Since then Grand Rapids police have used special anti-gang laws to counter what they say is the threat of youth gangs. However, local teenagers say the real result is they're being harassed.
February 25, 1999 - The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources today released a wolf management proposal that would allow livestock owners to shoot wolves in some circumstances. No other public hunting or trapping of wolves would be considered for the first five years after wolves are removed from the federal endangered species list. The DNR's plan echoes recommendations made by a citizen's roundtable last year. But DNR officials and others make clear the debate over public hunting of wolves is far from over.