April 12, 1973 - House Appropriations subcommittee hears from ten representatives of state service agencies. They say federal cuts would have catastrophic effect on the poor, retarded, sick, young, and old. Gene Daniels, speaking for the Pilot City neighborhood program, says cuts would destroy his program. Sister Giovanni, who runs a school for dropouts, is impatient with politicians. She says she despises seeing the poor and disadvantaged being used as a political football. She doesn?t know how to deal with political doubletalk. She says politicians are not doing enough, are ineffective. She asks how many bodies does she have to produce before legislators will listen to her. She wants less talk, and more action. One St. Paul DFLer is tired of being tarred with the brush of insensitivity because of the action of one man, President Nixon. He and others hope the district court order of today will help save federal community action programs across the nation.
April 11, 1973 - Speaker argues for school programs for talented children, says it?s important despite school districts facing levy limitations and wanting to cut programs. Minnesota is supposed to have one of the finest education systems in the United states but it hasn?t really taken care of one problem. Schools are ignoring talented students. He says that many students who have gone through school system end up dropouts, have behavioral problems, even end up in reformatories or other places.
April 10, 1973 - Bill to prevent experimentation on human fetuses was heard again today. Opposing the bill was Dr. Charles McCann, university surgeon and cancer researcher, who says use of embryonic human tissues is indispensible to research now being done to isolate disease viruses such as cancer and multiple sclerosis. He says the bill places serious restrictions on medical research, and that it should be rewritten and made much less restrictive. People who wrote the bill are imposing far-reaching legislation that will affect the future health outlook for people who are alive now and for generations to come. Dr. Chet Anderson of the MMA says if this type of restriction had been around over the last 30 years we would not have practically eradicated polio, smallpox, and prevented rubella. It is a necessity for this type of research to continue.
April 10, 1973 - Bill introduced in MN House that would prohibit busing of school children on the basis of race, creed, religion, national origin, or sex. Bill co-author Bradley Piper (R-Burnsville), says majority of Minnesotans are against busing. The better solution is to upgrade inner city schools and to ?protect the neighborhood schools as we know them?. Co-author Joe Connors (DFL-Fridley) says forces busing creates a threat to freedom of man (bite: welfare of state and nation best served by policy that declares state not distinguish between its citizens on the basis of race in administering its laws) He cited studies since 1966 Coleman report that he said show school integration hinders rather than helps black children, MN Commissioner of Education Howard Casmey says he doesn?t think bill would pass but if it did it would completely negate all work of St. Paul, Mpls and State Board of Education for the past 5 year. (bite: State Board has been collecting data for 5 years, hours of public hearings, thousands of hours of research vs. one presentation this morning for 40 minutes. Can?t conceive of Legislature passing legislation without a great deal more testimony. Also today Mpls/St. Paul public schools celebrate Desegregation Day, Today?s testimony this morning contrary to what is being celebrating, very sad.) Larry Heron Supt of Urban Affairs for Mpls School system, also said if passed the bill would harm progress. Bill referred to subcommittee.
April 6, 1973 - The Coleman bill on health maintenance organizations (HMOs) would allow both for-profit and non-profit HMO?s in Minnesota. Right now only non-profit HMO?s are permitted. The bill would give HMO?s a legal basis to operate and provide state regulation, both of which don?t exist now. It would also provide money for planning and research to start new HMO?s. The interviewee discussed what makes an HMO a non-profit. He says the bill would allow health consumer to choose which provides better service at a cheaper price. The state Board of Health would monitor quality control and there would be a strong reporting system with strict regulations. Group Health, the largest and oldest HMO in Minnesota wants to limit the bill strictly to non-profits; newer HMOs support the bill because it allows more flexibility.
March 27, 1973 - MPR's Dulcie Lawrence gives a summary of events at the Legislature. Nicholas Coleman talks about his handgun bill, saying if the Attorney General now sues it will be many years before all the handguns in the state have a permit because you don?t have to do anything about collector guns because they aren?t registered. This bill will achieve the main purpose of reducing violent deaths. The 18 yr old majority bill status in House and Senate is updated. Divorce reform bill author Allen Spear says the bill removes the grounds that now exist that create acrimony, hypocrisy, and sham within the court for people who mutually decide to have a divorce but have to find grounds on which to request divorce. Instead this bill provides a mechanism for a couple who mutually agree on a divorce, the vast majority of cases, to do so without going through grounds that now exist.
March 26, 1973 - A rural-dominated legislative committee takes up a bill for a Constitutional amendment would allow legislators to spend road use taxes in more diverse ways including mass transit. Funds would be distributed by a formula according to population, area and money needs. Opponents say it would lead to grandiose and expensive transit schemes when there?s not enough money in the highway fund now to keep roads and bridges in good repair and develop farm to market roads needed by farmers. C.L. Bauer of the Triple A says to undedicate highway funds would be to use them for unintended purposes. He says transit will not relieve traffic congestion, and that regarding pollution, standing on the busiest downtown street corner for eight hours is the equivalent of smoking one cigarette. Bill author Tom Berg says this is not an attempt to dissipate the fund or take outstate funds. It would give the legislature the flexibility to solve transportation problems that exist in rural Minnesota and township roads. He?s happy to support more highways in outstate, but he doesn?t think we need it in metro area, bill would take it out of current constitutional restrictions. Author bill Tom Berg asked for postponement of the vote so compromises could be worked out. A motion to kill the bill passed by a vote along rural/metropolitan lines.
March 22, 1973 - In this summary of legislative activities the Minnesota House passed a bill providing for expanding the number of Metropolitan Council members from 15 to 17 and have the chairman appointed by the governor. The other 16 members would run in newly created districts. The House gave preliminary approval to bill reorganizing state government, creating a department of finance with a Commissioner of Finance appointed by the governor, and a legislative audit commission and a legislative auditor. The Senate judiciary committee approved a bill banning experimentation and research on a ?living conceptive?, defined as any human life from fertilization through the first 265 days of life. Thomas Marhar (sp?), clinical instructor of medicine at Ramsey County Hospital, testified for the bill, saying the law was necessary after the Supreme Court?s abortion decision which will make many more fetuses available for laboratory research. He says: the new law and the trend in this country is away from Judeo-Christian ethics, and the state of medical ethics at this time hasn?t been thought out and it will be years before it will be worked out. Speaking against the proposal was Dr. Bernard Merkin from the University of Minnesota says at they have probably the most active and essentially the only unit in the world looking at the effect of drugs on developing organisms, and after delivery in young children. He says the ability to study tissue from therapeutic abortions for growth abnormalities in fetuses exposed to drugs is crucial information.
March 13, 1973 - Senator Robert Tennessen discusses the mass transit amendment failure, an amendment he proposed. Main topics of conversation: Shortage of fuel.
March 13, 1973 - State senate purposed sales tax on hospital meals to non-patients. Sales tax, hospital meals