Minnesota plays a unique role in the arena of health, with impactful political/cultural moments, and important contributions from institutions such as Mayo Clinic, Hazelden, UCare, among others. Over the decades, MPR News and American RadioWorks have produced a breadth of reports and programming specifically dedicated to the subject of health. This collection includes interviews, debates, speeches, and documentaries that provide greater detail to the many facets of healthcare, from both a local and national perspective.
February 19, 1998 - Jurors in Minnesota's tobacco trial today heard starkly differing views on whether smoking causes disease. A former tobacco company president testified the Surgeon General was "dead wrong" when he said smoking causes lung cancer, then the head of an industry-funded research group reluctantly agreed with the Surgeon General. The link between cigarettes and disease is key to the state's case that smoking leads to higher health care costs. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports...
February 24, 1998 - Next Tuesday night, Republicans and Democrats hold precinct caucuses to elect delegates to this summer's party conventions. This week, Minnesota Public Radio is profiling the candidates vying for their endorsement for Governor. Political reporter Eric Jansen prepared this profile of DFL candidate Ted Mondale: BackAnnounce: Our series of candidate profiles continues tomorrow morning on Morning Edition when Karen Boothe follows the Mike Freeman campaign. And at this time tomorrow evening, we'll hear about Republican Alan Quist.
February 25, 1998 - A fumigation company already under investigation for pesticide spraying which officials believe killed one man and injured three others in Minneapolis has agreed to move chemicals it was storing out of Minneapolis. Industrial Fumigants Company took the action at the urging of officials who recently discovered what they say were unsafe storage condictions. Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Zdechlik reports.
February 26, 1998 - The central figure in Minnesota's high-profile tobacco trial is Ramsey County District Judge Kenneth Fitzpatrick, who determines the trial's pace and the evidence jurors will see. Observers now have a good sense of what effect his judicial style is having on the trial. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports...
February 27, 1998 - Next Tuesday night, Republicans and Democrats hold precinct caucuses to elect delegates to this summer's party conventions. This week, Minnesota Public Radio is profiling the candidates vying for their endorsement for Governor. State politics reporter Eric Jansen interviewed DFL candidate John Marty, a fourth-term state senator who lost a bid for governor four years ago. John Marty says a key difference between him and most (other) politicians is his refusal to take money from lobbyists and political action committees. He says that's why he can, as he puts it, fight the tough fights, like defeating plans to publicly finance a new ball park for the Mi
February 27, 1998 - The state has wrapped up a week of explaining to jurors how it came up with the 1-point-77 billion dollars it's seeking from tobacco companies in the Minnesota tobacco trial. Defense attorneys say it's seriously flawed. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports... The bulk of this week's testimony could easily be called the LEAST riveting of the trial - it included no intriguing industry documents, no discussion of what tobacco companies knew about health risks and when they knew it. But the minutia of statistical calculations is a vital com
March 2, 1998 - The chief executive of the nation's number one cigarette maker testified today in Minnesota's tobacco trial he doesn't believe his company's products kill people. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports... Philip Morris is the tobacco industry leader, with about half the nation's cigarette market share - maker of number one Marlboro, Benson and Hedges and Virgina Slims, among others. Its CEO, Geoffrey Bible is easily the most influencial tobacco executive to testify in Minnesota's trial. His testimony as a hostile witness comes less than a week after Bi
March 3, 1998 - Minneapolis will spend millions of dollars over the next few years to upgrade its water treatment system, and St. Paul may have to follow suit. The expenditure is in response to proposed federal regulations which are largely the result of the 1993 cryptosporidium outbreak in Milwaukee. 100 people died and 400,000 got sick from a parasite in the water. Minnesota Public Radio's Perry Finelli reports.
March 4, 1998 - The boys' hockey tournament, Minnesota's biggest high school sporting event, opens this week in St. Paul. The tournament comes two weeks after the (first) girls' hockey tournament, and the constrast could not be more striking. No body checking is allowed in the girls' tournament. Boys, on the other hand can use their body anywhere on the rink to slam into whomever has the puck. Rink-wide checking has been the rule in boys' hockey for 25 years. Checking is popular with fans, but critics say it should be banned because of the rising rate of injury. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reports. Nineteen year old Ben Peyton from Edina remembers seeing his teammate pass the puck to him. tape . . . and as i was looking back, i to
March 4, 1998 - Republican Party officials in Rochester- one of the party's strongholds in the state- were disappointed that turn out was light for party caucuses last night. They said people probably stayed home because there was no straw poll for Republican gubernatorial candidates and those candidates don't have differing views on divisive issues like abortion. Minnesota Public Radio's Brent Wolfe reports on the caucus meeting of Rochester's largest Republican precinct.