February 19, 2001 - More than half of Minnesota school superintendents say they are having problems finding enough teachers. Consider that baby-boomers, the biggest group of teachers, are just a few years from retirement, and the current teacher shortage looks to some like a looming crisis. St. Cloud State University already produces more teachers than any school in the state, and a new accelerated masters degree program is reaching out to unconventional candidates. Jeff Horwich has this Mainstreet Report.
January 24, 2001 - Heating bills are not the only place Minnesotans will feel this winter's soaring natural gas prices. Expensive natural gas means expensive fertilizer -- and an uncertain spring for the regions' farmers. Minnesota Public Radio's Jeff Horwich has this Mainstreet report (There's not much farming to be done in January, so John Wojtanowicz brings his mammoth potato picker in for a tune-up. Before the picker sees any action this spring, his 1200 acres of potatos will need hundreds of pounds of nitrogren. The same goes for his 2000 acres of corn and kidney beans, hungry for anhydrous ammonia and urea -- two popular fertilizers made by mixing raw nitrogen with natural gas.