September 10, 1999 - Mainstreet Radio's Cara Hetland reports on teacher raiding, which is becoming a common practice as the nation faces a teacher shortage. In Minnesota, competition between districts means the best staff is often going to the highest bidder.
August 16, 1999 - Children in Sioux Falls are designing a playground that anyone can use. A Sioux Falls school that works primariliy with disabled children is expanding and needs to re-design its playground. Right now, There are swings designed for wheelchairs but organizers say that's not enough.
August 10, 1999 - Sioux Falls' newest performing arts center is already in need of repair. The building's 560-seat mezzanine is showing stress cracks because it bounces up and down when people stand and dance. This happened during a Collective Soul Concert in June. Minnesota Public Radio's Cara Hetland reports a structural engineer's report says as long as people sit still the multi-use facility is in no danger of structural damage.
July 30, 1999 - An independent structural engineer says the 90 year old high school in Pipestone is deteriorating and will only get worse. But he says for now, the school is not in danger of immediate collapse.
June 28, 1999 - Mainstreet Radio's Cara Hetland reports on a product using processed cow blood as a blood substitute. It is in final trial stages and already in use in veterinarian clinics.
June 1, 1999 - Mainstreet Radio's Cara Hetland reports that creating a performance hall is not just design and construction...acoustical engineering has become a science all its own. With the opening of the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science in Sioux Falls, the city's oldest high school is the shell of the country's newest and only multi-use center. It houses a children's science and discovery center, a visual arts center, and a performing arts center.
May 3, 1999 - Midday presents a Mainstreet Radio special report "Hidden Rainbow: The Changing Face of Minnesota." Program presents a series of reports on the state's growing minority population in outstate Minnesota.
April 12, 1999 - Voters in the Pipestone-Jasper School District in far southwestern Minnesota, decide tomorrow if they'll replace an 82 year old high school. The building violates the state fire code and is beginning to crumble from the ground up. Opponents don't want to spend 22 million dollars on a new school but would prefer to renovate the old. Pipestone is not alone in this decision. Many communities with aging schools will hold similar bond referendums in the next several years as turn-of-the-century schools need updating. The state isn't staying neutral - holding out financial assistance as an incentive to force new construction.
March 30, 1999 - This week some farmers will start preparing the fields for spring planting. Commodity prices, usually volatile, have been more so lately making the financial outlook for farmers shakier than it's been in years. This weekend thousands of high school and college students gathered in Brookings, South Dakota, for an agricultural exposition. As Minnesota Public Radio's Cara hetland reports the 'future farmers' have watched their parents deal with a volatile industry and seem to have learned some important lessons.
March 17, 1999 - US and Canadian wildlife officials are preparing to significantly reduce the population of snow geese. The estimated six million geese are destroying their nesting habitat in northern Canada. Hunters are being called on to shoot more geese in an extended spring season.