January 28, 1997 - Farmers are getting a break from the I-R-S, which today delayed enforcing a ruling that would strip growers of a big tax break. Before the I-R-S made its announcement today, farmers were apparently barred from using commodity contracts to defer taxes from one year to the next. The I-R-S says it will suspend the ruling to give Congress time to change the law in favor of farmers. In a moment we'll talk with Congressman David Minge about the news, but first, I asked Tom Rothman of the Minnesota Farm Network to help us understand the contracts and the confusion they created. Tom Rothman, farm director of the Minnesota Farm Network. I also called Congressman David Minge, a co-sponsor of a bill to p
January 22, 1997 - At least three school districts in southwestern Minnnesota are NOT sending kids home this afternoon because of blizzard conditions. School officials say it's too dangerous to have kids driving home or riding in buses, so they'll sleep over at school. Arnold Prince is Superintendent of the Belview-Danube-Renville-Scared Heart School district. Arnold Prince is Superintendent of the Belview-Danube-Renville-Scared Heart School district. His district is keeping kids overnight, as are the Bird Island-Olivia-Lake Lillian and Gibbon-Fairfax-Wintrop districts. Sun 28-MAY 20:58:32 MPR NewsPro Archive - Wed 04/11/2001
January 21, 1997 - As far as Larry Jacobs is concerned, you can get on President Clinton's case for any number of things, except for one thing: pandering. He says the latest research he's done does not support the contention that politicians at the Federal level are reading the polls before making policy decisions. Jacobs teaches political science at the U-of-M and, with his collleague Robert Shapiro of Columbia, had unprecedented access recently to more than a hundred workers and advisors in the executive and legislative branches. Jacobs says their goal was to test public perception of the job being done on both sides of the aisle in Washington. Larry Jacobs is a poli-sci professor at the University of Minnesota. Later, he'll be releasing more information from the interviews he and C
January 16, 1997 - If you think you have it bad in winter, Greg Rhode has a tale for you. Storms literally buried his home. Rhode says that he lives at the end of a cul-de-sac, on the other side of a wide beet field -- conditions that seem to dump snow right on their house.
January 16, 1997 - MPR’s John Rabe calls various students (MPR employees' kids) at home to see if they are reading, per Governor Carlson’s guidance, who ordered kids to read books today and report back on their reading in school tomorrow.
January 15, 1997 - MPR’s John Rabe interviews local composer Paul Siskind about his composition “Fantasy-Variations.” The piece started off as a music school assignment, and sat on the shelf for a few years. Now the Minnesota Orchestra, under Eiji Oue, will give the world premiere performance of Siskind's “Fantasy-variations : on a fragment by Schoenberg.”
January 10, 1997 - William Kennedy, the man who created one of the country's most-respected public defender's offices, lost his job yesterday. The State Board of Public Defense appointed assistant county attorney William McGee as chief Hennepin County public defender. Kennedy held that job for a quarter century, during which time he built a law organization with one-hundred lawyers. While noone disputes that Kennedy was an important advocate for the poor, neither do they dispute that he could be an abrasive man. A few years ago, he filed suit for more money for his department. More recently, there were charges that Kennedy instigated an investigation of his opponent and eventual replacement. Judge Patrick Fitzgerald, who has been on the Hennepin County bench for 24 years, says Kennedy had two important traits: he was an excellent trial lawyer, and a good administrator. Judge Fitzgerald says he'd have preferred Kennedy kept his job.
January 10, 1997 - H-I-V infections in Minnesota continue to plague the gay-bisexual population far more than other groups. Some blame it on the frenzy over promising AIDS drugs and treatments. They say this good news is detrimental because some people use it as an excuse to throw caution to the wind. But others say the REAL problem is the prevention message. British AIDS expert Edward King says he's worried about the way health officials and others seem to have forgotten that gay men are still at considerable risk for AIDS. Edward King is the author of Safety In Numbers. He's in the Twin Cities to speak at a forum sponsored by the Minnes
January 10, 1997 - WX INFO Minnesota Public Radio's own Marcie Tveidt is on a West Coast vacation. That is, she was supposed to be on vacation, but she took the Empire Builder train and, when we last heard from her, was somewhere is the middle of North Dakota's winter weather. Minnesota Public Radio's Marcie Tveidt, reporting from Stanley, North Dakota. Sun 28-MAY 21:10:04 MPR NewsPro Archive - Wed 04/11/2001
January 9, 1997 - Women in the Directors Chair, an annual film festival, is underway at the Walker Art Center is Minneapolis. The series includes films by female directors from Minnesota, movies made by girls between 7-and-19, and local premieres. Julie Swenson's film, The Fairy Gardener, shows tomorrow evening at the Walker. Swenson started making The Fairy Gardener a few years ago in New York. She now lives in the Twin Cities. The Fairy Gardener -- shot in one day -- is a very short film, with narration only at the beginning and end, with lyrical oboe music in between. I sat down with Swenson and a copy of her film yesterday. Twin Cities filmmaker Julie Swenson. The short film The Fairy Gard