Climate change, industry, parks, air and water quality are issues that are debated in congress, compete for funding and enpassion many Minnesotans.
April 9, 1998 - Tom Gravelin, a cafe owner in St. Peter, shares his experience during and after a tornado hit the Minnesota town.
April 13, 1998 - Farmers around Comfrey and LeCenter are asking for volunteers to help clear their fields of tornado debris so they can begin their spring planting. Bill Free-DELL of Lutheran Social Service says the weather delayed an immediate clean-up: Bill Fredell is with Lutheran Social Services. There are buses providing round-trips from the Twin Cities. Sun 28-MAY 11:37:29 MPR NewsPro Archive - Wed 04/11/2001
April 13, 1998 - It will be another week before students at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter return to classes on their tornado-ravaged campus. Officials had hoped to reopen the college today, but delays in debris cleanup and restoring power pushed that back a week. The small Lutheran college faces a long and expensive rebuilding process. But the money's pouring in and administrators are confident they'll emerge from the debris even better than before. Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Pugmire reports... (Sound of bobcat) In a parking lot at Gustavus Adolphus College, workers take a break from hauling debris to unload a semi-trailer full of donated trees. The tornado stripped the campus almost bare of its large mature trees. Campus Gardener Bil
April 14, 1998 - Hundreds of volunteers are picking up tornado debris from southern Minnesota farm fields this week as a new phase of the cleanup from the March 29th tornadoes begins. Its estimated more than 400 farms were damaged by the storms. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil went along as volunteers cleaned fields near New Ulm yesterday: :04 (Okay if I could have everybody's attention!) Duane Laffrenzen stands in the front of a school bus parked at the New Ulm High School. The seats are filled by 50 volunteers from New Ulm, Fairmont, Minneapolis, Mapleton, and Renville.
April 15, 1998 - As part of the series Remembering and Rebuilding - The Great Flood of 1997, a special Mainstreet Radio program from East Grand Forks, one year after the flood. Host Rachel Reabe interviews Pat Owens, Grand Forks mayor; Lynn Stauss, East Grand Forks mayor; Cliff Barth, Breckenridge mayor; and Morris Lanning of the Red River Basin Coalition about how people of the Red River Valley are putting their lives and their communities back together.
April 15, 1998 - As part of the series Remembering and Rebuilding - The Great Flood of 1997, a special Mainstreet Radio program from East Grand Forks, one year after the flood. Host Rachel Reabe interviews several business people and families who were affected by the flood…some who rebuilt, and some who moved away.
April 15, 1998 - A special Mainstreet Radio report from East Grand Forks, a year after the severe spring 1997 flood. MPR’s Laura McCallum interviews current and former residents of Lincoln Drive about their experience in the aftermath of disaster. Some have rebuilt; others have moved away.
April 16, 1998 - The first FEMA trailer was delivered Wednesday to a rural homestead in southern minnesota. Around one hundred trailers are expected to become homes for tornado victims while they rebuild. Many of the trailers were temporary housing for people displaced by the Red River Floods. Minnesota Public Radio's Lynette Nyman reports. The trailer sitting behind the two-story farm house of Rita and Tom Anderson looks almost new. It was cleaned up before being towed from Grand Forks. 16:46 sfx entering the trailer
April 20, 1998 - Hundreds of students and faculty members at St. Olaf College are putting pressure on administrators to fully explain recently-announced cuts in academic programs and sports. A group of faculty at the four-year liberal arts college in Northfield says the changes will ensure St. Olaf's long-term success. But some students say they feel betrayed. Minnesota Public Radio's Todd Moe visited the campus and filed this report... St. Olaf Colleges' expenses are growing faster than it's revenues. The private school's tuition is 21-thousand dollars a year while it spends more than 30-thousand dollars annually per student. To reduce costs, a Dean's Council, composed of seven long-time
April 22, 1998 - Formerly-secret tobacco company documents that have started trickling out in Minnesota's trial are now flooding onto the internet. A congressional committee today posted nearly 39-thousand internal documents on its web site, two weeks after tobacco companies were forced to turn them over to attorneys for the state and Blue Cross Blue Shield. It's a move that has upset both the judge, and attorneys for the state in the Minnesota trial. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports... Tobacco companies went all the way to the U-S Supreme Court to keep the documents secret, claiming attorney-client privilege, and are still seeking a protective order from the judge in Minnesota's tobacco tria