May 29, 1998 - The Steele County city of Owatonna is bustling today (Friday) with the grand opening of Cabela's, a massive retail hunting and fishing extravaganza. The grand opening is shared with a privately-funded museum that is a local man's vision-become-reality. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes reports. Owatonna is not a sleepy town, but it is still small enough to have its name on a water tower. After today, Minnesota residents from more than 200 miles around will be driving here. Outdoors enthusaists who used to order duck decoys and bait-casting reels from a catalog in the privacy of their own home, may just decide to get in the car and go to the Cabela's store
May 13, 1998 - It's an old argument with a new twist. Which is more important: economics or the environment? As new technologies have emerged, some people criticize the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for favoring the economics of new ventures, and ignoring the serious environmental questions posed by evolving industries. Fishing enthusiasts with the state chapter of Trout Unlimited are monitoring construction of an ethanol plant in the southeast Minnesota town of Preston. In the second story of our weeklong series, Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes reports officials with the volunteer recreation group Trout Unlimited worry about possible damage to the nearby Root River--one of the state's premier trout streams. They charge the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency with lax permit enforcement and failure to recognize the Root as a valuable resource.
May 11, 1998 - MPR’s Art Hughes reports on a highway dedication of James Wright’s poem “The Blessing.” It was written after a ride with his friend Robert Bly as they pulled their car off the road and encountered a pair of horses.
May 4, 1998 - Gubernatorial candidates Mike Freeman and Norm Coleman added to their victories in district convention straw polls over the weekend. Democrat Freeman overwhelmingly won the informal ballot in the Eighth District in Northern Minnesota, while D-F-L challenger Skip Humphrey won in the Seventh. Republican Norm Coleman continued to chalk up straw poll wins with the metro-area Fourth and Sixth Districts, but Joanne Benson and Allen Quist each took outstate wins. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes has this wrap-up of the weekend's district conventions. (ANNCR TAG: Minnesota Public Radio's Amy Radil and Mark Steil also contributed to this report) Mike Freeman's early union endorsements and years of wooing party insiders helped propel him to a commanding straw poll victor
April 23, 1998 - Twin Cities civil rights activists say they're satisfied with the progress made during meetings with a Rochester children's hospice after racist slurs were directed at one of the residents. An Iowa woman staying at Rochester's Ronald McDonald House with her severely ill daughter says another resident spewed racist insults and scrawled hateful language on her door. The woman also says Ronald McDonald House staff brushed off her complaints. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes reports. Listeners should be warned this report contains language they may find offensive.
April 14, 1998 - Some cities in southeast Minnesota worry a Clinton administration program to free up money for the Upper Mississippi Riverfront will restrict local property rights. Some call it a Trojan horse for federal restrictions. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes reports. Marilyn Hayman is the property-rights movement's dream. She delivers broad and forceful denunciations of the federal government with a softspoken, grandmotherly eloquence. Hayman lives in Maiden Rock, Wisconsin and is chair of the group Citizens for Responsible Zoning and Landowner Rights. Her message has found fertile ground in southeastern Minnesota where some local governments are resisting Minnesota's nomination of the Upper Mississippi River to the Clinton administration's American Heritage Rivers Initiative. The program i
April 8, 1998 - Nearly 30 architects are volunteering to meet with homeowners in tornado-ravaged St. Peter. Organizers of the ad-hoc program hope to save some of the historical buildings damaged in the storm. Most of the homeowners are covered by insurance and can also get some state and federal help. But in many cases, that still isn't enough to save the original craftmanship and architectural detail in buildings a century or more old. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes reports. In an age where acres of efficient, split level homes seem to radiate endlessly in every direction from cities, more than 50 St. Peter home and business owners cram into a meeting room desperate to find a way to save their drafty crumbling, old world dwellings.
April 3, 1998 - Chris Roberts talks with Art Hughes to get find out how Saint Peter is coping, five days after the tornado damaged much of the town.
April 2, 1998 - Nicollet is one of four counties included in President Clinton's disaster declaration. Saint Peter residents now have access to federal money to help repair and rebuild after Sunday's tornado. Governor Arne Carlson also sent a team from the state historical society to help calm fears that the twister robbed the city of it's original charm. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes reports.
March 31, 1998 - MPR’s Art Hughes provides an update on status in St. Peter, two days after Minnesota town was hit by devastating tornados.