September 28, 2000 - The Boy Scouts recieved bad news from 2 places today: Medtronic decided to exclude the group from its United Way donation this year and the United Way of Duluth voted to pull its funding of the Voyaguers Area Council of the Scouts. This is the first United Way in Minnesota to decide against funding the group because of the recent Supreme Court ruling that the Boy Scouts can exclude homosexuals. Roger Engle is the Volunteer President of the Voyaguers Area Boy Scout Council He says he was dissapointed when he heard the decision:
September 27, 2000 - There was more good news on Minnesota's economy today. An annual report from the Census Bureau shows that incomes in the state are rising as the poverty rate falls. The annual median income in the state was up 3.3 percent, to just over $48,000. The poverty rate fell 1.2 points to just under nine percent. Tom Stinson is the state economist. He says the good numbers can be traced back to the tight labor market.
September 26, 2000 - Public Safety Commisioner Charlie Weaver is canceling the next round of state trooper training due to lack of funds. The state patrol is currently 26 troopers short, and 64 troopers will reach retirement age by the end of the year. The canceled January class would have trained thirty recruits to fill some of those spots. Republican lawmaker Carol Molnau chairs the House transportation finance committee. She says the money should be there.
September 26, 2000 - Privacy has been a worry throughout human history. As soon as people learned to write, they wanted to be able to encrypt their messages so not everyone could read them. The earliest ciphers were simple, you would replace a letter with a number or another letter. The receiver of the message would use a key to decipher the meaning. Simon Singh explains the history and the mechanics of ciphers in his new paperback, "The Code Book". While secret messages most often are used in government, the military and commerce, Singh told Minnesota Public Radio's Stephanie Curtis, that regular people have used secret codes, too, usually for very personal reasons.
September 25, 2000 - The new Excel Energy Center, home for the Minnesota Wild hockey team, was open to the public this weekend for tours. The brand new building sports a flashy sign and wide glass walls that promise a better view of the city than the old Civic Center. Larry Millet, architecture critic for the St.Paul Pioneer Press, toured the facility. He says that the inside is nice, but the outside's dull, which is not what a sports center should be.
September 12, 2000 - The Environmental Protection Agency is testing soil in Northeast Minneapolis for asbestos contamination. The W.R. Grace and Company once ran a plant in the area that produced vermiculite, a white fluffy material used for gardening and insulation. Vermiculite has been linked to several serious health problems including asbestosis, mesotheliaoma and lung cancer. Len Zintak, the E-P-A's on-scene coordinator, says that the agency has already identified a few sites that will need to be cleaned up soon.
September 11, 2000 - The new Bruce Vento Elementary school was dedicated today in Saint Paul. Congressman Vento attended a ceremony at his alma mater, formerly known as East Consolidated, that included songs from the current students and the burial of a time capsule. The legislator plans to retire after 24 years in the U-S Congress to concentrate on his family after finding that he has cancer. Vento gave a speech to thank the school board for the honor of having a school named after him. He also brought some memoribilia.
September 6, 2000 - The Nature Conservancy of Minnesota has nearly doubled its holdings with the purchase of 25,000 acres in Northern Minnesota. While it is now prairie, gravel and wetlands, the conservation group's new land once was completely underwater, part of the Lake Aggasiz lakebed. Aggasiz was huge, three times the size of Lake Superior. It covered parts of what is now Minnesota, the Dakotas and Canada. When it drained, the Aggasiz shoreline became wetlands and prairies. "Glacial Ridge," as the Nature Conservancy is calling its new purchase, was part of that former shoreline. Rob McKim, the State Director of the Minnesota Nature Conservancy, says that the area is important because it connects other wildlife management areas, and because Aggasiz left behind a unique topography.
September 5, 2000 - The two major daily newspapers in the Twin Cities have issued their endorsements in the DFL US Senate race. The Star Tribune endorsed Democratic US Senate candidate Mike Ciresi as the best DFL candidate to run against incumbent Republican Senator Rod Grams. The St. Paul Pioneer Press endorsed Rebecca Yanish last month. Vaughn Ververs is managing editor of the Hotline, a daily news briefing on American politics. He says that in today's world of the internet, television and newstands full of magazines an endorsement is not as important as it was in the early days of print:
September 4, 2000 - Ten years of economic sanctions have taken their toll on Iraq. According to UNICEF, the number of infant deaths has doubled since the sanctions began. One of the most pressing problems is the scarcity of adequate water purification systems. A group of US veterans hopes to change that. Veterans for Peace, a pacifist organization, is sending a group of volunteers to a small city in southern Iraq to rebuild a water treatment plant damaged by bombing. Minnesotan Barry Riesch is a Vietnam Veteran who will be on the trip. He says Iraqi civilians are so overwhelmed by sanctions they can't fix the water system on their own.