November 18, 2003 - Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman chaired a hearing today on the practice of marketing tax loopholes. The accounting firm KPMG is alleged to have developed, marketed and implemented tax shelters for wealthy clients. Coleman is the chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is holding this week's hearings. He says KPMG isn't the only accounting firm to have used such practices.
November 14, 2003 - Back in 1998, Minneapolis was among the first cities to start its own e-democracy list. And over the years, while the issues that are discussed have drawn attention, the list itself has received coverage for the impact it's had on city politics. David Brauer is a founder of the Minneapolis Issues list. He's also editor of the Minneapolis-based newspapers Southwest Journal and Skyway News. He says the list has a core membership of 900 people. And although only about 50 of them consistently post messages, Brauer says you'd be hard pressed to find a local forum with a larger number of engaged participants.
November 14, 2003 - Minnesota is one of several states in a Midwestern belt that experiences a weather phenomenon called "thundersnow" -- when lightning flares and thunder rumbles in the midst of a snowstorm. Meteorologists really don't know a lot about thundersnow, and that's why a University of Missouri researcher has just been awarded a half-million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation to find out more. Patrick Market has been studying thundersnow for the past four years. He says thunderclouds that form in the winter are much different from those we see in the summer.
October 30, 2003 - Radio talk show host and political commentator Rush Limbaugh put the issue of drug abuse on the front pages a few weeks ago with his admission that he's addicted to the drug OxyContin and other painkillers. OxyContin is the same drug that's perplexed physicians and law enforcement officials in northern Minnesota because its abuse has become one of their biggest problems. Dr. Jon Hallberg is medical director of the University of Minnesota Primary Care Center and our regular medical analyst here on All Things Considered. He says OxyContin presents a particular dilemma.
October 29, 2003 -
October 28, 2003 - Most Twin Cities adults say they're aware of child sexual abuse, but still don't know what to look for to prevent it. That's one of the findings of a random phone survey of adults in the Twin Cities metro area. The survey was commissioned by Stop It Now Minnesota, an organization that aims to prevent child sexual abuse through adult education and community involvement. Yvonne Counrnoyer is a program director for Stop it Now. She says the random survey revealed significant progress in the education effort.
October 27, 2003 - Efforts to put the Middle East roadmap to peace back on course have been thwarted by an increase in violence in recent weeks. Marcia Freedman says that's no reason to give up. The U-S born Freedman immigrated to Israel in the 1960s, was elected to the Israeli Knesset and served from 1973 to 1977.
October 24, 2003 - Minnesota Health Department officials say there's plenty of vaccine to go around this influenza season. But having flu vaccine available and preventing the spread of the flu are two different things. Many people still need convincing to undergo innoculation. Dr. Jon Hallberg is the medical director of the University of Minnesota Primary Care Center and our regular medical analyst. He says the flu virus kills nearly 36,000 Americans each year and infects up to 20 percent of the US population.
October 21, 2003 - The University of Minnesota today is facing its first strike in nearly 60 years. More than 18-hundred clerical workers belonging to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees local 38-hundred went on strike this morning. The union rejected the university's final offer last night. It included a one-year wage freeze and a two-and-a-half percent pay increase in the second year. It would also increase employees' share of health-care premiums. University officials say that state budget cuts have limited their ability to offer more. Tom Juravich is director of the Labor Relations and Research Center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He says, in some cases, a strike can be an effective tool for workers.
October 20, 2003 - One man's train is another man's paperback. Little Canada resident Paul Lareau says he couldn't live in a world without books. And he's making sure no one else has to either. The 61-year-old computer analyst, and former librarian, is part of a growing international movement called BookCrossing. The group's members place books in public places in hopes that others will pick them up, give them a read, and then leave them for someone else to enjoy. Over the last few months, Lareau has released more than 3000 books into the world -- abandoning them everywhere from coffee shops to roadside rest stops. He says the goal of the BookCrossing movement is to create a free book exchange of infinite proportions.