October 3, 2001 - The planned expansion of a landfill which serves seven southwest Minnesota counties is on hold because of a dispute over a wetland. Lyon County officials lack the necessary state and federal permits for the expansion and the landfill is almost out of garbage storage capacity. The federal Environmental Protection Agency is the latest to step into the fight, citing the county this week for illegally dumping fill material into the wetland. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports:
October 1, 2001 - Some 28-thousand state employees are on strike today. Talks between the state and its two largest employee unions broke down Saturday over wages and healthcare coverage. Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, or MAPE, are walking picket lines all round the state. Union officials toured Minnesota today, warning members they should be prepared for the long haul. The state employees strike includes a couple dozen workers at a state veterans home in Luverne, in southwest Minnesota. National Guard troops are filling in for the strikers. On the first day of the work stoppage, world events were as much an issue as labor disagreements. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports:
September 28, 2001 -
September 28, 2001 - FOR USE FRIDAY The terrorists attacks have disrupted the congressional schedule but at some point this fall the U.S. House plans to take up the question of farm subsidies as it debates a new farm bill. Minnesota farmers have collected about four and a half billion dollars in federal assistance the last five years, something many credit with saving thousands of farms. But farmers and others complain the federal money too often goes to undeserving recipients, raising the question why farm payments aren't limited to those who really need it. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports:
September 7, 2001 -
August 27, 2001 - The future of a regional planning center in southwest Minnesota is uncertain because of financial fallout from a tourism center that closed less than a year after it opened. The Southwest Regional Development Commission holds the debt on the seven million dollar Prairie Expo project in Worthington. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports:
August 21, 2001 - Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil profiles the The Continental Co-ets, one of the first all-girl garage bands from the 1960’s. Steil interviews Co-et’s guitarist Carolyn Behr and drummer Vicki Steinmen. Others involved with band’s history also make comments.
July 13, 2001 - American farmers are struggling with low prices but in at least one area farm income is booming. Last year farmers received billions of dollars in federal aid. Exactly why congress is so eager to help farmers is bound up in politics and history, seasoned with an abiding faith in a way of life.
May 10, 2001 - Investing in a value-added company doesn't guarantee that you will gain and you might actually lose everything.
April 25, 2001 - As part of Mainstreet Radio series "Broken Trust: Civil Rights in Indian Country,” MPR’s Mark Steil reports on funding and discrimination battles Native American farmers face with the U.S. government.