April 28, 1998 - Mental health experts say talking is the best way to recover emotionally from a disaster. And that's the advice the people of Comfrey and St. Peter are getting as they rebuild following last month's tornadoes. Talking about loss and suffering is especially important for children. Minnesota Public Radio's Cara Hetland reports. 12-year old Paul Honnerman was not home when the March 29th tornado heavily damaged his family's northern Nobles County farm. He and his 7 year old sister Jill were staying five miles away at their uncle's. Paul was outside flying his kite before the storms moved through. : (and right at the time the tornado was hitting at our place
April 17, 1998 - Sioux Falls is the only place in South Dakota with a clinic providing abortions. The clinic no longer has a permanent on-sited physician and abortion opponents say the situation is putting both patients and staff at other clinics at risk... a claim the clinic denies. Minnesota Public Radio's Cara Hetland reports: The Sioux Falls Women's clinic located near South Dakota's largest shopping mall is routinly the site of protests. The clinic merged with Planned Parenthood of Minnesota and South Dakota four years ago when the only doctor in South Dakota who admitted performing abortions prepared for retirement and trained a replacement. That physician left last October. but Planned Parenthood regional manager Carolyn Woodly says the clinic is still providing its full range of services. :
April 16, 1998 - All this month, in a series of reports and commentaries, Minnesota Public Radio is exploring relgious issues in everyday life. Americans are searching for spiritual meaning...even at a time when church attendance is on the decline. One Lutheran pastor in Sioux Falls is working to bring a few new words to her deaf congregation. Minnesota Public Radio's Cara Hetland reports: service, ten people gather in a small white chapel next to the sanctuary of Eastside Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls. Music from the worship service next door bleeds through the walls, as Pastor Melanie Lichtenberg leads the litergy...and the worshippers respond.
April 2, 1998 - MPR’s Cara Hetland reports that the tornadoes in Comfrey and St. Peter has brought memories back for the residents of Chandler in southwest Minnesota. A tornado in 1992 wiped out nearly all of the town. They have rebuilt their town and gone one with their lives but the memories and emotions are still strong.
March 5, 1998 - Thirty-six years of beef slaughtering ends Saturday in Luverne in Southwestern Minnesota. The IBP meat packing company is closing its Luverne plant leaving 370 employees out of work. This comes hard on the heels of the Campbell Soup plant closing in Worthington last year. Minnesota Public Radios Cara Hetland reports everyone in the town will be hit in some way by the plants closing.
February 27, 1998 - MPR’s Cara Hetland reports on 25th anniversary of Wounded Knee, a 72 day stand-off between members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the tribal and federal governments. Some regard the incident at Wounded Knee in western South Dakota as the beginning of an era of increased Indian activism and by others as the end to progress on the reservation.
February 26, 1998 - A woman who fought for years on behalf of children, the homeless, and hungry in Sioux Falls has died. Vada Thomas is credited for starting the local food bank, the ecumenical soup kitchen called "The Banquet" and the homeless shelter. Minnesota Public Radios Cara Hetland reports.
February 18, 1998 - Ranchers and hunters are at odds in South Dakota over wildlife and property rights. Some landowners are threatening to blockade hunters from using their land unless lawmakers come up with a plan to compensate them for deer killed on their land. Hunters want more public land so they don't have to compete to hunt on private land. Minnesota Public Radio's Cara Hetland reports the issue is intensifying in a state where hunting is a big part of the economy.
January 27, 1998 - MPR's Cara Hetland reports from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where the Minnesota Twins are utilizing a caravan to hopefully draw crowds to ballpark as the team fights for a new stadium… while at the same time cutting team player payroll and dealing with talk of selling/moving team. Players admit it's tough to sell tickets for what may be a lame duck season.
January 20, 1998 - The US Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking federal protection for a Minnesotaow found in the upper midwest. Farmers who may have to change operation practices resent the governmental intervention. While environmentalists say the decline in population of the Topeka shiner should be a sign and we should all sit up and notice.