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PERRY FINELLI: Good morning with news from Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Perry Finelli. First Bank Systems has agreed to acquire Omaha-based Firstier Financial for about $700 million. Firstier has 63 offices in Nebraska and Iowa. First Bank says the combined banks will be the largest banking concern in Nebraska.

Almost 2.5 million people call the Twin Cities home today. A new forecast by the Metropolitan Council estimates the population of the metro area will climb over the 3 million mark within 25 years. To put that into perspective, an additional 650,000 residents would be the equivalent of twice the current population of Dakota County. Met Council chair Curt Johnson says some planning will be needed to handle the projected growth. He says, as the Twin Cities population grows, discussions will have to focus on housing density and public transportation.

CURT JOHNSON: We could fit a lot more people into the developed part of this area but only if we're shrewd enough to redevelop certain areas so that they can accommodate really good quality residential capacity.

PERRY FINELLI: Johnson says, the growing Twin Cities population is due in part to a healthy, diverse regional economy. In Minnetonka, a man was killed, his wife treated for injuries, suffered when a bass boat struck the cabin cruiser they were riding in on Lake Minnetonka. Authorities say a storm was approaching and boaters on the lake were seeking shelter when the bow of the 17- foot bass boat tore into the cabin of the 22-foot cruiser.

Scattered thunderstorms for Central Minnesota today, some with locally heavy rainfall. High temperatures today ranging from the 70s in Grand Marais, right around 90 in Worthington and Fargo-Moorhead this afternoon. Twin Cities could see a thunderstorm yet this morning, maybe a scattered shower as well. A high temperature of 85 degrees under mostly to partly cloudy skies.

Right now in Rochester, cloudy and 72, Fargo, sunny and 78. In the Twin cities, it's cloudy and 71. That's the latest from the Minnesota Public Radio newsroom. I'm Perry Finelli.

[PIANO MELODY]

PAULA SCHROEDER: St. Paul. obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Jane Hodgson says it is lousy medicine to deny abortions to women who have an unplanned pregnancy. Hodgson delivered thousands of babies as part of her St. Paul practice in the 1950s and '60s. In 1970, Dr. Hodgson challenged Minnesota's law banning abortions by performing an abortion in a hospital. She was arrested and convicted. Later, the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned her conviction.

Today, on "Voices of Minnesota," we hear from Dr. Jane Hodgson. The 80-year-old woman is the daughter of a Crookston physician. She made the rounds with him and helped him keep the books for the practice. Dr. Hodgson had never seen a woman physician until the age of 15, when she entered Carleton College and saw a woman doctor on the health service staff.

After graduating from college at the age of 19, the depths of the Great Depression, Hodgson tried to get into a Chicago Medical School. She told the FM News Station's Liz Hannon she was rejected because the school's quota for women was filled.

LIZ HANNON: Now, was there a quota system for women students, doctors?

JANE HODGSON: Yes. I often wish I'd saved that letter. I just can't believe-- but I know my memory isn't failing me-- that it was for women, for Jews, for Blacks. And they were very nice about it, but they rejected me. But I wasn't even upset about it. I simply applied Minnesota. I thought I could get in there on the basis of my father. And--

LIZ HANNON: How many women were in your class at the--

JANE HODGSON: There were 8.

LIZ HANNON: --of M?

LIZ HANNON: One of them was Don Fraser, his sister Betty, a wonderful woman. And she and I were very close all through medical school. I miss her very much. She died rather young. The women were very close. We really stuck together. Some were in rather difficult financial conditions, and they never were sure whether the next quarter's tuition was coming from.

And we'd try to help, and we'd share our lunches. And we were very close. My father was not a rich man at all. And I know it was a real sacrifice for him to send me. But he never questioned. He never suggested it. But on the other hand, he never, never was obstructive in any way.

My mother was a little unhappy about it. She said, oh, you'll smell of antiseptics. And I can see you wearing low heels and [CHUCKLES] smelling of antiseptics all your life. You don't want to be a woman doctor.

LIZ HANNON: What did you say?

JANE HODGSON: And I just laughed at her.

[CHUCKLING]

LIZ HANNON: It seems to me that you really came to say no and to say yes rather readily at a young age. You said you got to Carlton by 15, graduated at 19. What were you in such a hurry about?

JANE HODGSON: Well, I really wasn't. And my father had always-- they never pushed scholarship. And I wasn't pushed. And the teachers, the school did it, I don't know, back in the primary grades. I started young at five, and I spent a half a year in each of the first four grades was the way it turned out.

And I think it was just because my parents spent a lot of time-- they read a lot and they-- I just had had an advanced opportunity at education was all. And socially, I never had any difficulty, although I was several years younger than my classmates. And that was true at Carleton, too, but I never thought much about it.

But my father was rather wise in and always said, don't worry about-- need to get straight A's. B's are fine. And consequently, I didn't try too hard. I got some A's. I mean, I had a good B-plus, A-minus average, but I didn't make Phi Beta Kappa or AOA in medical school because he tried to keep my perspective, keep my balance, and although he didn't encourage social activities so much. He didn't approve of dancing and that sort of thing. He always scowled when I would go out on a date. He didn't approve of that.

LIZ HANNON: Did you have a philosophy, Dr. Hodgson, about when you set up shop? Did you say, you put up the plaque with Dr. Jane Hodgson on that. And did you think, this is the practice I want to run and in your head have sort of a philosophy about what that would be?

LIZ HANNON: I had come from the Deep South. And the war after I-- my fellowship at the Mayo Clinic with my husband and I, he left for service and then eventually ended up down in Daytona Beach at a big rehabilitation hospital. And so I went down to a small town and did general practice because they were lacking a physician down there.

Everybody was away in service. It was New Smyrna beach, a little town about 15 miles south of Daytona. And it was over more than half Black population, and this was back before civil rights days. And they really had no medical care. And so that was my first taste of treating minorities, and I was there for about a year and a half before the war was over.

And I made all kinds of house calls, delivered babies back in the homes because we didn't have a decent hospital. It was one that was on again, off again. A woman nurse that would open it and have about 12 beds, but no Black patients. So there was no place to admit Black patients. It was very bad, and I got very upset. That was my first contact with civil rights and my exposure to the--

LIZ HANNON: Were you shocked?

JANE HODGSON: I beg your pardon?

LIZ HANNON: Were you shocked? Did you ever imagine that this was what happened in America?

JANE HODGSON: They would go to a-- come for medical care, and they couldn't be admitted to the hospital when they needed to be. And I had known of cases of appendicitis in Black patients that had ruptured, and they died just simply for lack of care. And we had to send them. To be sure they could get admitted, they had to go 100 miles up to St. Augustine.

That was the railroad hospital. But Daytona Beach had very limited facilities for Blacks, and they would turn them away. And so I fought that for a year and a half, and I was really exhausted. And then when I belonged to the Chamber of Commerce in New Smyrna, and when they voted to against a new hospital and voted for a golf course instead, I felt, well, that's it. I'm going to go back to Minnesota, where the standards of medicine are better. And so--

LIZ HANNON: But that planted a seed in your head about the kind of care you were about.

JANE HODGSON: Exactly. Exactly. It was interesting. I arrived down there just about the time penicillin was introduced. We had no antibiotics. And I think it was very interesting that some-- there was a high incidence of venereal disease, and we didn't have any kind of treatment back then before antibiotics. It was more or less of a noncurable situation and arsenic shots and mercury and bismuth.

And it was very, very long and painful. And many of the-- this practice that I inherited, this elderly doctor died just after he'd hired me to come and help him. And he had all these syphilitic patients that required these shots and that weren't doing a great deal of good, but they kept the disease stationary to a certain degree.

Along came penicillin, and I was able to use it on these people. And it was just marvelous. I just was so excited about it and the wonderful things we could do in the pneumonias and all the rest that it would cure. It was just like having a wonderful new toy. And I would go out into the homes. If didn't come in for their penicillin shots, I'd just go out and find them. They were amazed because they'd never had any kind of medical care like that.

PAULA SCHROEDER: St. Paul obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Jane Hodgson, talking with the FM News Station's Liz Hannon. You're listening to "Voices of Minnesota," Heard. Every week at this time on Midmorning. I'm Paula Schroeder. Our conversation with Dr. Hodgson continues in just a moment, but I want to give you a weather update.

We are expecting scattered thunderstorms to continue in the eastern part of Minnesota, with partly cloudy skies and warm temperatures in the west. Look for high temperatures from the 70s around the Duluth area to 90 degrees near Sioux Falls and the Minnesota South Dakota border. Tomorrow, a chance of thunderstorms in the north, warm and humid in the south and west, with highs from 80 in the Northeast to the lower 90s in the southwest. In the Twin Cities today, a 40% chance of thunderstorms and a high around 82 degrees.

In 1970, a woman with three children came to Dr. Jane Hodgson's St. Paul office seeking an abortion. The patient as 12 weeks pregnant. And in the first month of her pregnancy, she had contracted rubella, a disease which can cause mental retardation. Restrictive abortion laws had long since disappeared in several European countries, and some states, led by New York, were repealing anti-abortion laws. Dr. Hodgson told Liz Hannon she decided the case presented a perfect opportunity to challenge Minnesota's law restricting abortions.

LIZ HANNON: What were the events surrounding that particular case? Who did it involve, and what brought you to the decision that was the thing to do?

JANE HODGSON: Well, it was the result of years of frustration of trying to work under that law. And it was my patience, really, that taught me, that changed my attitude. I had always been brought up to obey the law and respect it.

And as far as the moral aspects were concerned in medical school and even in my fellowship at my internship out in Jersey City and my fellowship at the Mayo Clinic-- all through those years, we were taught that one never invaded a pregnant uterus for any reason whatsoever, except possibly to save a woman's life in such a situation. With the advent of antibiotics, such a situation never occurred. I mean, a woman could survive a pregnancy, as long as with modern medicine.

So I had always believed that, so it was a very gradual evolution in my thinking. I think what started it off was early in my practice, I went to a lot of medical meetings, and some of them were international. I was interested in infertility, and I had just as many women coming and crying because they were not pregnant as because they were pregnant when they hadn't planned it. And I realized that one was just as intense as the other.

I noticed that in other countries they were performing abortions, even though it was against the law and they were very open about it. This was true in Puerto Rico back in the '50s. When we went-- I went toward a hospital, and here they were doing them in a Catholic-- a government hospital it was. But they were scheduled them as DNCs and tubal ligations. And I was very amazed, really.

And the same was true in many of the European countries, in Denmark and Holland. So over the years, learning what was going on in the rest of the world-- and of course, England liberalized their laws in 1967. The movement began worldwide, really, in 1920 with the Russians. And the Chinese then legalized their laws in the '50s.

And more and more of the rest of the world were making it a legal procedure and seeing that it was a public health problem. It was the reason for many of them, was the main reason. It was because of a health issue.

And I began to see that it was a health issue, that it was horrible medicine for me to see a young woman come in with an unplanned pregnancy, desperate and begged me for help and me to send her out, warning her not to go to an abortionist. But she would, and knowing full well she would, and then come back infected and bleeding and maybe sterile for life and maybe even lose her life.

So I thought, this isn't good public health medicine. This is not preventive medicine. I can see this coming. And with our current techniques, we could safely terminate this pregnancy at this point. And this woman could go on with her college course, or she could feed her children better. [CHUCKLES] And that's all those various arguments for the different women that I would see.

LIZ HANNON: Did you talk to your husband? Did you talk to peers about this, about your decision? Or did it come naturally?

JANE HODGSON: --peers?

LIZ HANNON: Peers, other doctors.

JANE HODGSON: Well, there were a handful of us here in the Twin Cities, and we did meet and discuss what could we do about it. And we'd been thinking about-- we tried very hard. I was served on the committee with-- the State Medical Society asked me to be on the Committee for a study of the reform of Minnesota's abortion law, which was one of the harshest in the country. It was because it involved-- both the patient and the physician would be liable to two to four years in prison.

And most states did not punish the patient. And so it was particularly harsh. And we studied-- the committee was too large. It was a big committee, about 21 people. And we met for several years-- this was in the late '60s-- and never got anywhere as far as any decision because nobody wanted to give up the doctor's right to make the ultimate decision, deciding who should have one and who shouldn't.

We finally ended up deciding on recommending to the legislature that there be a five-man committee of doctors who would sit-in judgment on this poor woman and decide whether or not she was-- would qualify. Well, you can imagine, it was very lucky that they ignored that recommendation because it would have been horrible, as it proved in other states that had committees like that back in the '60s-- Colorado was one, and California.

And the committee system never worked, and it never worked in Canada. And for years after Roe v. Wade, Canadian women were coming down to the Duluth Clinic that we have up there. They would come down simply because they despised this committee system, which existed in Canada, requiring that a woman go before a three-doctor hospital committee.

LIZ HANNON: And plead her case.

JANE HODGSON: And plead her case. And it was just so demeaning and so unjust sometimes and varied and unpredictable that-- well, it was just outrageous, really.

LIZ HANNON: You determined that it was a time in your life to take action, it seems to me.

JANE HODGSON: Well, the legislature wouldn't act. We were unable to get any kind of a recommendation to them from the State Medical Society. And the doctors themselves were divided about it. They couldn't quite come to a decision.

So I was familiar with what was going what going on in the other states. New York, of course, had fully removed all restrictions in 1970, 3 years before Roe v. Wade. And I followed their legislative actions in great detail up until they voted that law through.

And there were a handful of other states, California, Maryland, Colorado, had modified laws with some restrictions. They tried everything. They tried quotas. They'd say, we'll do so many. Of course, that was not constitutional either.

And California would allow it for psychiatric reasons and so made liars out of all our women. We sent a lot of women regularly out to California, great expense because they had to pay two psychiatrists for consultations and pretend that they were really off their rockers [CHUCKLES] and pay psychiatric fees and then pay for hospital abortions.

And it was-- so that was limited to only the well-to-do, and the poor women had no place to turn to. And I saw all this. We estimated that prior-- in the early '70s, there were probably 1 to 200 women a week leaving Minnesota through the help of the clergy counseling service, which was an underground network of clergymen here in the area. And they did a wonderful piece of work, really, in helping these women get to Canada, get to California, Mexico, wherever.

So it was a bad system, women having to go out of state for medical care. I began to realize that the only way we could do would be to change the law. The legislature wasn't going to do it. And so the only way to change the law would be to challenge it. But I still waited until this perfect case walked into my office.

LIZ HANNON: You were arrested for your actions.

JANE HODGSON: Oh, yes. Yes. But first, I went to court, to federal court and asked to have the law declared unconstitutional. First, they put it off. And I explained that it had to be done right away because the woman was about 12 weeks pregnant. And if I waited, she'd be too far along. We didn't dare. It wasn't being done any beyond that stage at that point.

And I went back, came back to federal court. And they said, well, you're in no jeopardy. So we see no reason that we have to do anything about this. They just swept it under the rug. Well, then finally, when I got indicted, arrested, and went back again asking them to declare the law unconstitutional, why, they said, well, you're in state-- this belongs in state court, not in federal court. This is a state law that you're challenging, so we can do nothing to help you.

LIZ HANNON: We haven't talked about him very much, but you did mention that you were married to a physician who has been at your side throughout these. Does he ever say, you know, Jane, just let this be, let this one go by?

JANE HODGSON: Yes, he did-- he's been very supportive. But when my case-- before I performed the abortion, I remember he said, why not-- why don't we pay and send her to Mexico, and we'll pay for it, and/or somewhere?

And of course, the point was that this patient could have afforded herself. She was not a welfare patient, or a low income even, and she could have afforded to go. And he said, that would be easier for you. But that's the only one time. And he never, never-- he's been very supportive. He's a wonderful, wonderful partner.

JANE HODGSON: Dr. Hodgson, I don't know this, but do you have children?

JANE HODGSON: I have two daughters, both attorneys. [CHUCKLINGS] I think it's rather amusing that they decided that medicine was not the role for them and they both went into law.

LIZ HANNON: Did you work during your pregnancy and then go back to work, to the practice?

JANE HODGSON: I never stopped work, no. [CHUCKLES] When I was in-- we kept women in, of course, a week in those days normally, or even 10 days, and--

LIZ HANNON: Now you're lucky that you get the 24 hours.

JANE HODGSON: Isn't it horrible? I couldn't do it, because I know there are too many women that shouldn't go home in 24 hours. I would fight that, too, if I were doing obstetrics.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

PAULA SCHROEDER: Dr. Jane Hodgson of St. Paul, considered Minnesota's pioneer in legal abortion. She spoke with the FM news station's Liz Hannon. "Voices of Minnesota" can be heard every week at 10:00 as part of Midmorning and is repeated Saturday afternoons on Week in Review. You can hear this interview with Dr. Hodgson this coming Saturday. Next week, we'll hear from former Minnesota Governor Al Quie. The producer of this series is Dan Olson with assistance from research intern Dan Romeo.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

It's 10:30. Coming up in the next half hour of Midmorning, we will bring you up to date on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is an author on death row for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer. His attorneys are asking for a new trial. And we'll also have a listen to the music of George Gershwin. There's a new book out about his life. That's all coming up after the news. Here's Perry Finelli.

PERRY FINELLI: Good morning, Paula. Croatia has resumed attacks on rebel serbs, continuing a three-day offensive in Eastern Croatia. Earlier, the two sides had an agreement for the rebels to hand over the heavy weapons. In return, the Croatians promised safe passage for Serbs fleeing east into Bosnia. Now, Croatian radio claims Serb jets today bombed the city of Kutina.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin is trying for peace in the Balkans. The Interfax News Agency says Yeltsin has invited the presidents of Serbia and Croatia to Moscow. He's back at work today after being hospitalized nearly a month for what aides called acute heart trouble.

Jewish settlers in the West Bank have staged another protest against expanding Palestinian self-rule. The settlers are upset about an emerging deal between Israel and the Palestine liberation organization, turning over West Bank towns and villages to the PLO. Japan's government faces a new demand for compensation over World War II. Lawyers for 15 Chinese nationals have filed suit in Tokyo, seeking more than $2 million each for suffering at the hands of Japanese troops.

General Motors plans to spin off its electronic data systems division. Under the deal, EDS would become an independent public company and would stay in its headquarters in Plano, Texas. Specific terms of the deal have yet to be developed. And Baseball Hall-of-Famer Mickey Mantle will not be released from the hospital today. Doctors had hoped to release the 63-year-old, but he will likely receive more blood transfusions to combat chemotherapy-induced anemia.

The weather forecast for the state of Minnesota today-- scattered thunderstorms in central Minnesota. Some locally heavy rain is possible. High temperatures 70s near Duluth, right around 90 in Mankato today. Twin Cities, still a possibility of a thunderstorm, some showers this morning, a high temperature of 85 degrees with mostly cloudy skies.

In Duluth, it's cloudy and 68. St. Cloud, cloudy and 68 as well. In the Twin Cities, it's cloudy and 71 degrees. And that's the latest from the Minnesota Public Radio newsroom. I'm Perry Finelli.

PAULA SCHROEDER: OK, thanks, Perry. 28 minutes now before 11 o'clock. You're listening to Midmorning on the FM News Station. I'm Paula Schroeder. Well, a Philadelphia judge just this morning granted an indefinite stay of an August 17 execution date for a convicted police killer, Mumia Abu-Jamal. Court of Common Pleas Judge Albert Sabo said at a retrial hearing that he was granting the stay to give Abu-Jamal time to complete the appeals process in his death penalty case.

While his defense attorneys are working to save the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal, he is an author and one-time public radio reporter on death row for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer 14 years ago. His attorneys are appealing for a new trial, and they're asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to delay his execution. As we just heard, the Court of Appeals has done that. Jamal has been at the center of an extraordinary international campaign, supported by actors, writers, and politicians, who are protesting his conviction and sentencing. From Philadelphia, Pat Ford reports.

SPEAKER 1: Mumia must stay alive! Mumia must stay alive!

PAT FORD: The several dozen people who rally almost daily at Philadelphia City Hall for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal are perhaps his most ardent supporters, but they are far from the most influential. Jamal counts in his corner TV star Ed Asner, writers William Styren and Salman Rushdie, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, and the lower house of the Italian parliament, which has called for the lifting of his death sentence.

In Europe, the intellectual left has seized Jamal as a symbol of their two favorite American targets, racial inequity and the death penalty. Certainly, Jamal's recently published book about life on death row has helped him win such esteemed support. But to many observers, including Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, who was district attorney at the time of Jamal's conviction, the specific details of Jamal's case don't always get full consideration.

ED RENDELL: It's amazing to me that people get involved in this case. And when you ask them what the evidence is, did they know, for example, that Mumia was found shot 4 feet from the dead officer with his gun having fired five rounds and the officer's gun having fired one, and the ballistics test linked them up? They just don't know those facts.

PAT FORD: If Jamal's supporters lack familiarity with the facts, they seem to make up for it in the passion of their belief that Jamal was railroaded. Carlos Africa is one of the organizers of Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a group that's raising money for his appeal. He says it was virtually impossible for Jamal to get fair treatment from Philadelphia police, especially in 1981, when the Department was known for brutal treatment of suspects.

CARLOS AFRICA: They hated Mumia, and they despised him because of his outspokenness about putting out the truth about what happened with the Panthers in the early years, where issues that came up, racial issues and other issues that came up within the poor people in the communities and stuff like that that he wrote about and spoke about in his journalism.

PAT FORD: The undisputed facts of the case are that on December 9, 1981, Officer Daniel Faulkner stopped Jamal's brother, who was driving a cab in center city, Philadelphia, that Jamal was nearby, saw Faulkner and his brother fighting, and ran to his brother's aid, that in the moments that followed, Officer Faulkner was fatally shot and fired a bullet into Jamal, that police found a wounded Jamal and his gun with five bullets fired 4 feet away from the slain officer.

The only issue in conflict is, who fired the shots that killed Faulkner? Jamal's defense says that Officer Faulkner fired at Jamal first and that as Jamal lay wounded on the ground, a third unidentified man arrived, shot the officer to death, and fled. The prosecutor at the trial, Joe McGill, says the evidence that it was Jamal who killed Faulkner was unusually conclusive, including testimony from three eyewitnesses.

JOE MCGILL: It is extraordinarily rare to have all of those factors together as part of the evidence in one case. It is clearly the strongest case I've ever tried as a prosecutor.

PAT FORD: And the defense has raised questions about two of the three eyewitnesses, but many of Jamal's supporters say their call for a stay of execution rests less on the facts of the case than on the facts of the trial. Jamal's attorney in the current appeals process is Leonard Weinglass.

LEONARD WEINGLASS: It was a death penalty case. The defendant didn't have an expert witness, didn't have a pathologist, didn't have an expert on ballistics, didn't have an investigator when he went to trial, had an attorney who didn't want to be involved in the case, asked to be relieved. He sought to defend himself, only to have that taken from him.

PAT FORD: Weinglass has raised these issues as grounds for a new trial, along with several others. Weinglass alleges that prosecutors excluded 11 African American candidates from the jury on the basis of their race, that police and prosecutors manufactured evidence against Jamal and suppressed evidence that would have helped him. And Weinglass argues that prosecutors unconstitutionally raised Jamal's membership in the Black Panthers in their arguments for imposing the death penalty.

Weinglass is in the midst of a hearing on the matter in front of Philadelphia Judge Albert Sabo, the original trial judge, who has a reputation as a prosecutor's judge. Weinglass holds out little hope that Sabo will grant a new trial. He's already planning his appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. If he loses there, he still has appeal rights at the federal level and ultimately in the US Supreme Court.

Though Jamal's execution date is currently set for August 17, Weinglass does expect the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to grant his request for a stay of execution. Exhausting appeals in this case could take years, and it is highly unlikely Jamal would be executed before the process is complete. For National Public Radio, I'm Pat Ford in Philadelphia.

PAULA SCHROEDER: And once again, we just got word that judge Albert Sabo did grant an indefinite stay of execution to Abu-Jamal-- Mumia Abu-Jamal, and his attorneys continue to work for a new trial for him. Time now is 22 minutes before 11 o'clock.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

MARTY MOSS-COANE: On the next Fresh Air, the proposed TV mergers. Disney has made an offer to buy ABC. Westinghouse may acquire CBS, and General Electric already owns NBC. Veteran journalist Ben Bagdikian looks at the implications that corporate influence could have on the news. I'm Martie Moss-Coane. Join us for the next Fresh Air.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Listen for Fresh Air at 3 o'clock this afternoon right here on the FM News Station. Right now, you're listening to Midmorning. As Major League Baseball works to try to bring fans back to the ballparks and the NBA attempts to settle its labor dispute, professional football teams have quietly opened their summer training camps around the country.

For many teams, that means a short trip up the road to a nearby college or practice facility. But for some teams, summer camp means moving the entire franchise to Wisconsin for a month. The FM News Station's Mitch Teich reports on the goings on of the Cheese League, a group of teams that choose to get ready for the season in America's Dairyland.

SPEAKER 2: Bring the team back! Back up! Back up!

MITCH TEICH: This is no spring training.

[SHOUTING]

La Crosse, Wisconsin, and New Orleans, Louisiana, don't have much in common besides the Mississippi River. But for a month every year, the two cities also share an NFL team. This is the eighth consecutive summer that the New Orleans Saints have held their summer training camp at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. And a recently signed contract will keep them there through 1999. Quarterback Jim Everett, who spends the offseason in California, says he doesn't mind the change of scenery.

JIM EVERETT: Well, it kind of goes with it because then I go down to New Orleans. So it's a traveling road show right now. The people up here take good care of us, and it's nice to be able to come up here and just concentrate just on football. And that's what it allows us to do.

MITCH TEICH: The Saints, Packers, Bears, Chiefs, and the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars make up the informal Cheese League. The teams take advantage of the generally cool summer weather and few distractions to run through passing drills, scrimmages, and two-a-days. But lest the casual fan mistake the Cheese League for baseball's Grapefruit Circuit, make no mistake. UW La Crosse is quite a bit different than Fort Myers, where the Minnesota Twins train. Wide receiver Lee DeRamus was the last player off the field after a grueling session. How tired are you right now?

LEE DERAMUS: [CHUCKLES] I'm kind of tired. I stay after practice for about 45 minutes to an hour and work out with the coaches by myself. So no rest. You just got to go.

SPEAKER 3: 49?

MITCH TEICH: You're forgiven if you don't recognize the name Lee DeRamus He was the 184th selection in the 1995 draft.

LAURIE: He was number 25 last year, wasn't he?

MITCH TEICH: DeRamus is one of 80 players on the Saints Training Camp roster. Many of them are new faces. One week into camp, even veteran Saints observers, such as Laurie Falata of La Crosse are still trying to learn who's who.

LAURIE: We come down here as much as we can during summer camp, so get to know them. We really miss Samuels and Morton and Tommy Barnhart. So Quinn Early will probably be--

SPEAKER 3: Irv Smith.

LAURIE FALATA: Irv Smith.

MITCH TEICH: Falata's zeal is unusual for summer football camp. On a typical practice day, only about a hundred people turn out to watch the drills. And unlike those who travel to spring training in Florida or Arizona from Minneapolis, Milwaukee, or Chicago, most of these football fans are locals.

When the scrimmages begin, the stakes rise and so does fan interest. Two days later and 100 miles north, the crowd is larger at the Kansas City Chiefs training camp in River Falls. The Saints are in town for a 90 minute scrimmage, and 750 fans relax on the sun drenched bleachers at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls.

The Chiefs have brought a contingent of about 150 people, players, coaches, and staff to this small community a half hour from the Twin Cities. One of them is Kristen Nix, an assistant in the Chiefs scouting department. Her job done for the day, Nix is enjoying the sun and the scrimmage at her first training camp. She says she wasn't sure what to expect from a small town in Wisconsin.

KRISTEN NIX: I'll tell you, they really go all out to make-- to make us as comfortable as possible. And it is so much appreciated, and we are so grateful to everybody here for how nice they've been to us. At the dorms, where we're staying-- I was envisioned having to bring my own sheets and my own towels and everything. [CHUCKLES] But every day there, everything's clean and nice and well stocked.

MITCH TEICH: The team, plus the 10,000 fans that come through town pump more than $1.2 million into the local economy each year. Those numbers matter to Chuck Brixton, a fundraiser for UW River Falls and director of corporate sponsorship for the Chiefs summer camp. But he says there's more to it than just the money.

CHUCK BRIXTON: When I look out on the field on a day like today and realize that there are two national Football League teams in a city of 12,000 people on a university facility that houses 5,000 students during the year, it's still, after year four, hard for me to believe that that's really happening here in River falls, Wisconsin.

MITCH TEICH: At both the Chiefs and the Saints Training camps, patient fans are able to get a few words in with their favorite players. It's a friendly atmosphere, though the players and staff are on tight schedules. Nearly all of both teams are staying in college dorms.

The teams on the field are NFL teams, but they're not exactly playing the way people are used to seeing them on Monday Night Football. At a scrimmage, coaches decide what yard line play will start on. And one team may run 10 plays in a row from the goal line. But Chiefs head coach Marty Schottenheimer values the scrimmage as a tune up.

MARTY SCHOTTENHEIMER: In our business, the practice is-- is work. I mean, you've got to get out and get certain things done, and you're not always in the frame of mind to do that. But when you get a chance to compete with somebody else, that's why all of us are in the business. And so obviously, the adrenaline gets going, and things get cranked up, as it were.

MITCH TEICH: Back at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, seven-year-old Brian Walsworth and his grandfather watch the Saints go through passing drills. Although Walsworth is already watching his third Saints Training camp, he isn't quite ready to put on shoulder pads just yet. Do you play football?

BRIAN WALSWORTH: Yeah.

MITCH TEICH: What position do you play?

BRIAN WALSWORTH: Well, I just play around. I'm not old enough to play yet.

MITCH TEICH: What do you-- what do you want to play?

BRIAN WALSWORTH: I want to play-- I don't really want to play football, because you get injured a lot. So I want to play baseball or something.

MITCH TEICH: The Cheese League season lasts for another two weeks. For the FM News Station, I'm Mitch Teich in La Crosse.

SPEAKER 4: Got to be right up to it. Turn your body--

PAULA SCHROEDER: By the way, the Minnesota Vikings opened their preseason-- or yeah, preseason exhibition season, I guess it would be tonight in San Diego. And of course, San Diego was in the Super Bowl last year, but it's not going to be quite the same team. Apparently, nine of their good starters are out due to injuries or some other contractual problems. So the Vikings are going to be playing probably not quite the same team that was in the Super Bowl. Also, Warren Moon will not be starting at quarterback for the Vikings tonight.

It's 14 minutes before 11 o'clock. And there is a new book out, which is about George Gershwin. Actually, it's not a very new book. It was compiled back in 1938 about the great composer, and it was reissued this year under the title George Gershwin. A compilation of remembrances and commentaries by Gershwin's contemporaries, this work includes contributions from friends and critics alike.

It's memorial to George Gershwin and the era in which he lived. We learn as much about the contributors and their unique perspectives, as we do Gershwin. Arne Fogel, the FM News Station's music commentator, shares his impressions of the "Anthology," George Gershwin.

[ANTHOLOGY, "GEORGE GERSHWIN"]

ARNE FOGEL: Few American composers have captured the world's fancy so securely and for so long as George Gershwin has. Even now, nearly 60 years after his death, his work is discussed and dissected, performed at every conceivable type of venue, from jazz bars to concert halls. And he has written about it. Dozens of books have appeared over the years, including at least a half-dozen major works in this last decade alone.

The newest Gershwin book, making its appearance is also one of the oldest. Da Capo press has reissued George Gershwin, an anthology originally edited and designed by Merle Armitage in 1938, the year after Gershwin's death. Merle Armitage was a civil engineer, theater impresario, and art educator, and was also regarded as one of the most innovative book designers of the century. He and Gershwin were contemporaries and friends.

And upon Gershwin's passing, Armitage spent a full year compiling this Memorial volume, persuading a group of contemporary celebrities and Gershwin friends to contribute essays. Other essays were chosen by Armitage from among those written before Gershwin's death. The book itself was designed to reflect Gershwin's and Armitage's interest in modern art, fashion, and design, and is still considered one of the most valuable and elegant books about Gershwin.

[JAZZ MELODY]

The essays range from simple but heartfelt expressions of loss from such colleagues as producer Sam Harris to touching memorial lyric poems by peers Oscar Hammerstein and Irving Berlin. Not to be missed as a warm, historical, and analytical commentary by Director Rouben Mamoulian, which is startlingly perceptive and ahead of its time.

This new edition could have used some sort of glossary identifying the various contributors, many of whose names have become obscured by the passage of time. Their contributions are no less valid than the others, however, and are in some cases more insightful than those of such time-honored luminaries as Paul Whiteman, Jerome Kern, Walter Damrosch, Ferde Grofé, J. Rosamond Johnson, and Arnold Schoenberg.

GEORGE GERSHWIN: I don't see any good reason why we should be concentrating on my tunes to the exclusion of all else. And on future programs, we're going to play some music of contemporary composers. For instance, on Friday, we'll play the prize winning composition of Rube Bloom, "Song of the Bayou."

But right now, I want to play for you a composition of mine that brings up the pleasantest memories. It's "I Got Rhythm" from a show called Girl Crazy. Maybe you saw it a few seasons ago. Again, I had the pleasure of working with my brother Ira, who supplied the lyrics. Anyway, let's try it.

[GEORGE GERSHWIN, "I GOT RHYTHM"]

ARNE FOGEL: Hindsight has also imbued some of the contributors commentaries with unintentional humor, notably multi-millionaire Otto Kahn's 1929 suggestion that Gershwin was not suffering enough for his art to achieve true greatness. And critic Gilbert Seldes' 1934 observation that Gershwin's songs were getting too complex rhythmically to be sung by the common man.

But the most meaningful moment provided by this memorable vintage collection might well be Isaac Goldberg's remembrance of Gershwin's often-asked question, Do you think anything of mine will live? This and other contemporary observations and recollections help us to put this elusive genius and remarkable cultural icon of the 20th century into charming human perspective.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

ARNE FOGEL: Arne Fogel is a local musician and singer who produces Arne Fogel presents for Minnesota Public Radio. George Gershwin, the book is published by Da Capo Press and can be purchased at your local bookstore. It's 8 and 1/2 minutes before 11:00.

[JAZZ MUSIC]

JOHN RABE: I'm John Rabe. And on Monday's All Things Considered, a cynical run of postcards is confounding the Ellia Park neighborhood in Minneapolis. Someone apparently angry about drug dealing there sent out postcards inviting drug dealers to move in because conditions are supposedly so favorable for the illegal trade. We'll check in with the neighborhood association. It's All Things Considered every day at 4:00 on the FM News Station, KNOW FM 91.1 in the Twin Cities.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Well, there were some parts of Minnesota that got 5 inches of rain yesterday, mostly in the central part of the state. And also, there's just been issued a flash flood watch for people in Burnett County. That's in northwestern Wisconsin, just near Duluth. So be aware of that if you're out driving around, not to drive through those flooded areas.

The weather forecast for today calls for scattered thunderstorms in eastern Minnesota, and some could produce some locally heavy rains. Highs today from the 70s in the northeast to around 90 in the west. In the Twin Cities, look for a high today around 82 degrees.

GARY EICHTEN: This week, 50 years ago, US bombers dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Actor and activist Martin Sheen says it's time we formally apologize. Gary Eichten here inviting you to join us for Midday on the FM News Station.

Martin Sheen is taking some time off from his Pentagon protest to speak at the National Press Club. Hear what he has to say live at noon. Midday begins this morning at 11:00 with a rebroadcast at 9:00 this evening on the FM News Station, KNOW FM 91.1 in the Twin Cities.

PAULA SCHROEDER: And during the 11 o'clock hour of Midday, we'll have the latest on the outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the community of Mankato. Also, get details on the massive Croatian Army offensive against the Bosnian Serbs in the former Yugoslavia. Some 200,000 refugees are resulting from that move. All that, plus the latest local, regional, and international news with Gary Eichten. That's at 11 o'clock this morning. First, here's Garrison Keillor with The Writer's Almanac.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

GARY EICHTEN: And here is The Writer's Almanac for Monday. It's the 7th of August, 1995. It's Independence Day in Jamaica, which has been independent since 1962. It's a public holiday in Antigua and Barbados, and it's Picnic Day in Australia. It's a holiday.

It's the opening day of the Sturgis South Dakota Motorcycle Rally and Races in its 55th year. And the PGA golf tournament opens today in Pacific Palisades, California. It was on this day in 1840, the British Parliament passed a law forbidding indentured chimney sweeps, the boys who were sold to masters who often underfed them so they'd be able to get into smaller chimneys.

It's the birthday in 1885 in Washington of Billie Burke, the daughter of a clown in the Barnum and Bailey Circus. She was a great ingenue actress in her youth. Mark Twain came to admire her. Products were named for her, pajamas and soap and perfume and cigars. But we know her for a later role. She played Glinda, the good fairy in The Wizard of Oz.

It's the birthday of Mata Hari in Holland in 1917, the exotic dancer in Paris who spied for the Germans in World War I. And according to her, she also spied for the French against the Germans. She was a double agent. But the French arrested her, and she went before a firing squad.

It's the birthday in Kansas city, Missouri, in 1903 of Rudolph C. Ising, a writer and producer who was the co-creator with Hugh Harman of Looney Tunes, starring Porky Pig, and Merrie Melodies. It's the birthday in 1886 of Alan Hazeltine, an electrical engineer who, in 1922, invented the neutrodyne circuit that eliminated the squeals and the howls that were heard on early radio receivers and thus opened the door for broadcasting and for civilization as we know it.

Ralph Bunche was born on this day in Detroit in 1904, the son of a barber. He was orphaned at the age of 13, grew up with his grandmother in Los Angeles, who drove him academically, told him he was going to go to college. And he did and eventually went to work for the United nations, where he became Undersecretary.

It's the birthday in 1926 of novelist Sue Kaufman, author of Diary of a Mad Housewife. Bix Beiderbecke, the brilliant jazz clarinetist and composer still admired, died on this day in 1931 of pneumonia, complicated by alcoholism at the age of 28. And in 1990, on this day, five days after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, President George Bush ordered the military buildup in Saudi Arabia that was known as Desert Storm. Almost a quarter million American troops were there by November.

Here's a poem for today by Wendell Berry, entitled "Touch-Me-Not."

"There is a flower called touch-me-not, which means, of course, touch me,

For it depends upon touch for propagation, as humans do,

The blossom may be two tones of orange, the darker, exquisitely freckling the lighter,

Or a clear, lovely, yellow, an elegant aperture inviting entry by winged emissaries of imagination actuated by love,

The seed pods are made of coil springs laid straight in the pod's shape,

Ripe, the seeds are restrained in suspension of tension,

Touched they fly."

A poem by Wendell Berry, Touch-Me-Not from his collection Entries, used here by permission from Pantheon Books. And that's The Writer's Almanac for Monday, August the 7th, made possible by Cowels Magazines, publishers of practical horseman, and other magazines. Be well. Do good work. And keep in touch.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Well, one person that Garrison neglected to mention whose birthday it is today is his own, Garrison Keillor, birthday on August 7. So happy birthday, Garrison. Coming up tomorrow on Midmorning, you think that you can be a political conservative and an environmentalist? While some people might say no. But our guest tomorrow says, yes, indeed, you can. Charles Durnil will talk about his book, The Making of a Conservative Environmentalist. Join us tomorrow at 9:00 here on the FM News Station. I'm Paula Schroeder.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

GARY EICHTEN: On Mondays, All Things Considered, a cynical postcard about drug dealing confounds the Ellia Park neighborhood of Minneapolis. It's all things considered every day at 4:00 on the FM News Station, KNOW FM 91.1.

PAULA SCHROEDER: You're listening to Minnesota Public Radio. 72 degrees under cloudy skies at the FM News Station. KNOW FM 91.1, Minneapolis, St. Paul. Twin Cities weather forecast for this afternoon calls for a high right around 82 degrees. There's a 40% chance of thunderstorms, and our skies will be partly sunny.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

GARY EICHTEN: Good morning. It's 11 o'clock, and this is Midday on the FM News Station. I'm Gary Eichten. In the news today, Croatian government forces have resumed their offensive against rebel Serbs in Croatia. An agreement to end the fighting apparently has broken down. Croatia is claiming a major victory over the Serbs. Tens of thousands of Serb civilians have reportedly fled the fighting.

Meanwhile, the White House says today the Croat offensive could lead to peace negotiations. Health officials say there is no further danger to Mankato residents or people visiting the city. An outbreak of Legionnaires' disease has killed one city resident and sent six more to the hospital. Senate Republicans are targeting Minnesota Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone in a series of new ads criticizing Wellstone's position on welfare reform.

Those are some of the stories in the news today. Coming up over the noon hour, we'll hear from actor and activist Martin Sheen, who says it's past time that the US apologized for dropping atomic bombs on Japan.