September 11, 2003 - A domestic violence organization based in Bloomington is getting ready to mark its 20th anniversary with a groundbreaking ceremony tomorrow is the executive director of Cornerstone. She says the biggest change in the past 20 years is widespread acknowledgement of the problem.
September 11, 2003 - The attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon two years ago prompted concerns about whether insurance companies could withstand a surge in terrorism. Insurance companies joined the airline industry to lobby Congress to ease the financial fallout from the attacks. Andrew Whitman, Professor of Insurance at the Carlson School of Management, says the insurance industry is still paying off the 40-billion dollars in claims related to 9/11.
September 10, 2003 - The Minnesota Thunder soccer team plays the first game of the A-League Western Conference finals Friday night in Seattle, and the deciding second game of the total-goal series takes place Sunday at the National Sports Center in Blaine. While the team has played most of the games in its 14 seasons in Blaine and is obligated to finish out its season there, it's announced it will move to a different venue in 2004. Jim Froslid is the team's president and general manager. He says the Thunder may play second fiddle to the Twins and the Vikings, but interest in soccer is growing.
September 10, 2003 -
September 9, 2003 - A day-long session in Duluth kicks off five regional public programs scheduled around the state this month to discuss identity theft. Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar is the president of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association, who along with AARP is sponsoring the forums. Klobuchar says identity theft in on the rise both across the country and in Minnesota.
September 3, 2003 - The process of picking a commemorative Minnesota quarter began in earnest today. It's part of the United States Mint's program to assign a quarter to each of the 50 states in the order they joined the union. Two representatives from the US Mint met with the 15-member state commission that will collect ideas for the quarter. Minnesota Education Commissioner Cheri Pierson Yecke chairs the state task force. Pierson Yecke says that today's meeting is just the start of a process that will result in a Minnesota quarter in 2005.
September 2, 2003 - Wisconsin re-opened its mourning dove hunting season yesterday following a two-year delay. The season was delayed because animal protection groups successfully sued to stop the hunt. An appeals court overturned that ruling earlier this year. That decision has also been appealed, but the state Supreme Court declined to delay the start of the hunt. Opponents of the hunt say the state legislature took the bird off the list of game species when it named the bird the state symbol of peace. That designation was made in 1971 at the urging of animal rights activists. Keith Warnke is a wildlife ecologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and was among those hunting doves yesterday.
September 1, 2003 - Like Messerich is dean of the business school at the University of St. Thomas.
August 26, 2003 -
August 26, 2003 - Bill Kennedy, an attorney who served as chief public defender in Hennepin County for 25 years, passed away last night at the age of 69. Kennedy started part-time as the sole Hennepin county public defender in 1972, and served until allegations surfaced in 1997 that he used his office to dig up dirt about a political challenger. Bill Kennedy was also active in the DFL and longtime Minnesota Public Radio listeners may remember him as one of our regular political commentators in the 1980s. In 1983, Minnesota businesses had complained in newspaper ads that Minnesota was losing jobs to South Dakota because of high taxes. During an MPR call-in program hosted by then MPR political reporter Pat Kessler, Kennedy criticized those ads.