September 3, 1999 - Early next year, the nation's two largest meatpackers will test market a new product---ground beef that's been irradiated to kill harmfull bacteria. The Minnesota Beef Council is all for it. The council promotes beef for Minnesota's cattle farmers. This week at the State Fair, the Council is handing out tens of thousands of free samples of irradiated beef. It's the first time irradiated beef has ever been handed out in such quantity to the general public in this country.
July 29, 1999 - A University of Minnesota study in this week's issue of the journal Nature fills in some gaps as researchers try to fit together a more complete picture of climate change thousands of years ago. Such knowledge could eventually help give scientists a better understanding of global climate change in the modern world.
July 27, 1999 - Yesterday's arrests of nine protesters opposed to the reroute of Highway 55 in south Minneapolis did nothing to discourage more activity at the Minnesotaehaha Park construction site today. Minneapolis police and state patrol officers today arrested 29 more people protesting the clearing of trees.
July 27, 1999 - Nine people were arrested yesterday as they protested the cutting of mature elms and other big shade trees in a portion of Minnesotaehaha park in south Minneapolis . The Minnesota Department of Tranporation is removing the trees to make way for the first, northernmost phase of the reroute of highway 55.
June 2, 1999 - Officials today announced plans to transfer ownership of a small portion of one of the largest undeveloped tracts of land in the twin cities metro area from the Department of defense. Just under 40 acres of the 24 hundred acre site of the former Twin Cities Army Ammunition plant will be turned over to Ramsey County and the city of Arden Hills for a maintenance facility and a new city hall. Officials say they hope the transfer is the first step in opening up the land to more public use and development.
May 26, 1999 - MPR’s Mary Losure reports that Governor Jesse Ventura has vetoed a bill that would have loosened the Minnesota Pollution Control's regulation of animal feedlots. The bill would have exempted livestock farmers from state air quality standards when they were spreading manure on farm fields. It also would have eliminated a new set of rules that govern which feedlots are subject to environmental review.
May 26, 1999 - Opponents of the reroute of highway 55 in Minneapolis have suffered more setbacks. The State Historic Preservation Office issued a report confirming the Minnesota Department of Transportation's finding that the highway will NOT destroy sites sacred to native Americans. Also, a federal appeals court dismissed an effort to stop the project.
May 24, 1999 - In Martell, Wisconsin, residents are organizing to stop a new dairy farm planned near one of the best trout streams in the midwest--- the Rush River, about an hour's drive east of the Twin Cities. Opponents say a manure spill from the farm's storage lagoons could wipe out the trout in the Rush River for years to come. Defenders of the project say such fears are based on emotion, not science, and that large scale dairy operations are the way of the future in Wisconsin.
May 20, 1999 - The Red River between Minnesota and North Dakota flows north into Canada through what was once a vast wetland. For generations, farmers in the valley built dams and straightened rivers to protect their land from flooding. Now, such flood control projects are languishing, unable to get permits or funding. Environmental groups and government agencies are trying to convince farmers to try new, more environmentally friendly tactics in their decades-long battle against water.
April 29, 1999 - A report by the Minnesota Department of Transportation says the reroute of highway 55 in Minneapolis will NOT disturb sites sacred to Native Americans. Min-DOT says construction of the much disputed highway can go ahead this summer. Members of the Mendota Dakota, a native American community whose ancestors lived in the area, disagree with the report's findings and say they'll continue to oppose the highway.