March 10, 1998 - Minnesota lawmakers might be able to again accept food and other favors from lobbyists. DFL Representative Tom Rukavina of Virginia inserted a proposal into a state government spending bill to allow lobbyists to spend up to $5 on legislators. State Senator John Marty, who wrote the 1994 state law preventing elected officials from receiving anything of value from lobbyists, strongly objects to the change. But Rukavina says one of the consequences of the ban is it's cut off regular people's access to their lawmakers. He says legislators rarely turn up for meetings sponsored by high school or community groups anymore.
March 5, 1998 - Jeff Nachbar directs the "Minnesota Join Together Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking." He says Minneapolis' findings are pretty consistent with what's been found statewide, that about half the time underage kids are successful buying alcohol.
March 4, 1998 - The United States has begun vaccinating all Gulf War troops against Anthrax. The United Nations has said it has evidence Iraq has been hiding biological weapons and the United States and Britain both contend there is evidence that Iraqis were growing anthrax for use in weapons. Most of the concern about biological weapons has been with regard to troops in the Gulf but Minnesota state epidemiologist Michael Osterholm told MPR's Gary Eichten, bioterrorism is a real threat to Americans at home, and public health authorities are not prepared: State epidemiologist Michael Osterholm speaking with Minnesota Public Radio's Gary Eichten. Their hour-long discussion will be repeated at 9:00
March 2, 1998 - Marilyn Chiat directs the Center for the Preservation of Places of Worship. She's just finished a book surveying five hundred places of worship across the United States. She makes the case that churches are key to understanding American history.
February 26, 1998 - Amid the glitter and glamour of the Grammys last night a University of Minnesota student adviser and a string musician walked up to claim his prize. Jon Pankake won a grammy for his essay included in the liner notes for the "Anthology of American Folk Music." It's a collection of some 84 songs originally compiled in 1952 by Harry Smith, an experimental filmmaker. Smith chose country, blues, hillbilly and gospel songs from his own record collection, a selection some say evokes a "lost America." Pankake's contribution to the CD re-issue of the Anthology was a personal essay about how Smith's selections influenced and inspired him as a musician and educator. We reached Pankake in New York, where he's still mulling over last night's experience.
February 24, 1998 - Ted Mondale is currently running second to Skip Humphrey in a poll of likely Democratic primary voters. A Minnesota Public Radio/KARE 11/Pioneer Press/ poll finds 35-percent of likely voters favor Humphrey while Mondale has 11-percent, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman has nine-percent, Mark Dayton- seven, State Senator Doug Johnson --six, and State Senator John Marty --five. Twenty-seven percent of the voters are undecided. On the Republican side, 37-percent of likely primary voters favor St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman, 14-percent favor Lieutenant Governor Joanne Benson, eleven-percent back Allen Quist, and four-percent backed state Senator Roy Terwilliger who dropped out of the race today. Thirty-four percent of these voters are undecided. If the election were held today, Humphrey would edge out Coleman. The poll's margin of error is three-and-a-half percent. Democratic political consultant Pat Forciea says its a bit early to put much stock in the numbers.
February 24, 1998 - Tomorrow in Minneapolis three tons of rice will be dropped on the stage at Northrop auditorium. Rice will trickle, then cascade over a monk's head, while dancers toss and shape into a landscape on stage. It's part of a performance by the Cloud Gate Dance Theater, Taiwan's most successful theatre company. Artistic director Lin Hwai-Min says the performance, "Songs of the Wanderers" was inspired by a religious experience.
February 24, 1998 - Pillsbury announced its bake-off winner today in Orlando Florida. Ellie Mathews of Seattle won a million dollars for her salsa couscous chicken recipe. Mathews beat out 98 other contestants, including three from Minnesota, who all entered dessert recipes. And that wasn't what the judges were looking for. We reached her at an airport pay-phone on her way to the Rosie-O'Donnell show.
February 20, 1998 - The Minnesota Museum of American Art re-opens in downtown St. Paul this weekend after a five month hiatus. During that time the museum spent a half-million dollars renovating its galleries in Landmark Center. The museum has been around for seventy-one years, but in it's latest incarnation, it's smaller, more tightly focused, and content to position itself as a neighborhood museum.
February 20, 1998 - In contrast to the noise the demonstrators made today at the University of Minnesota, people on the street appear to be more divided in their opinions on whether to bomb Iraq. Here's a non-scientific sampling of opinion from people in St. Paul and Collegeville on U.S. policy in Iraq.