September 17, 1997 - The Twin Cities rock radio dial is shuffling again. In a week or so, X-105 will switch to something between the current hard rock format and the old alternative rock format of the former Rev-105. Meanwhile, 93-7 The Edge will get harder-edged, perhaps in a bid to compete with Rock-100, which starts with Howard Stern in the morning and plays hard rock the rest of the day. The Edge and 105 are owned by Cap Cities ABC, which also owns the giant KQRS. Chancellor Broadcasting recently bought Rock-100, which used to be BOB, the country station. Chancellor owns six other stations in the market. Robert Unmacht, editor of the M-Street Journal, a weekly broadcast trade newsletter, says while the reshuffling is possible because of the radio aglomeration in the Twin Cities, what's happening is the legacy of old FCC actions conflicting with the market's growth.
September 15, 1997 - Governor Arne Carlson today set a date for a special session of the Legislature to deal with a new stadium for the Minnesota Twins. The session will take place during the week of October 20th. In October, Twins officials could inform the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission of the team's intention to leave the Metrodome after the 1998 season. But lawmakers on a stadium task force say they don't expect to conclude their work any time soon. The stadium could cost up to half-a-billion dollars. The Metrodome is being cast as the albatross around the Minnesota Twins' neck, just sixteen seasons after it was built. The team wants to replace it with a stadium that resembles the old steel and concrete ballparks of the past ... like Met Stadium, where the Twins USED to play. Commentator Kevin Hennessy is not waiting until there's a new stadium -- or NO stadim -- to mourn the passing of the Metrodome and its unique attributes. | D-CART ITEM: 8326
September 15, 1997 - For almost twenty years, Leonard Maltin has been as important to the couch potato as a big bag of Fritos. As film critic for Entertainment Tonite and editor of the "Movie and Video Guide," Maltin may be one of the most influential critics around. He's out with the 1998 version of the "Movie and Video Guide," which concisely reviews more than 19,000 movies, and he was in town last week.
September 12, 1997 - Slavenka Drakulic, the Croatian journalist and commentator, is out with "Taste of a Man", a bizarre love story. Drakulic is well-known for her New York Times opinion pieces, and her post-Iron Curtain books "How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed" and "Cafe Europa: Life After Communism". "Taste of a Man" is not necessarily about the war in the Balkans. It involves a woman who has a torrid three-month affair, and when her lover is about to go back to his family, she kills him. And eats him. Then scours her apartment. She's heard all kinds of interpretations of "Taste of a Man"; the religious, the psychological, and the political. They may all be valid, but Drakulic herself thinks the cannibalistic Thereza may be a parallel with the amoral killer in Camus' "The Stranger".
September 9, 1997 - It may not seem like a news flash, but a study of thousands of U.S. adolescents found those who feel emotionally tied to family or school were less likely to engage in other risky behavior. The report says young people who feel connected to their parents or school were less likely to suffer emotional distress, think about suicide, be violent or smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, or smoke marijuana. They also tend to have their first sexual experiences later. Students who had to repeat a grade or appeared older or younger than their classmates were also found to be predisposed to depression, suicidal thoughts, violence, substance abuse, and an earlier age of sexual activity. University of Minnesota researcher Michael Resnick says the study not only points the way toward better health for kids, but eases one of the chief frustrations of raising teenagers.
September 9, 1997 - University of Minnesota researchers say they have found evidence that non-smokers absorb the carcinogen N-N-K if they live or work in smoke-filled rooms. The study found small amounts of the carcinogen in nine non-smoking hospital workers who cared for patients in a designated smoking area. Mayo Clinic Physician Tom Kottke says even though only eighteen people total were involved in the study -- nine exposed to second-hand smoke and nine who weren't -- it's of immense value.
August 27, 1997 - Two provisions in a major spending bill in the US Senate would deal a serious blow to the sovereignty of Native American tribes. The first would force tribes to waive their sovereign immunity from civil lawsuits or lose 767-million dollars in Federal funding. The second would deny tribes Federal money if tribal members' average income is above a certain level. Some say it's part of a strategy to eventually dismantle tribal protections. The proposals apparently face stiff opposition in the Senate and a Presidential veto threat. But if they were to pass, Federal Judge Jack Tunheim doesn't think they'd survive in the judiciary. The measures are riders on a 13-billion dollar bill paying for the National Endowment for the Arts and parklands acquisition, and are supported by a Senator who has an old axe to grind, according to Henry Buffalo.
August 27, 1997 - This weekend marks the real end of Hart's Record Store. Hart's was open in St. Paul until 1952, when owner Hart Callender closed the doors because of health problems. But he always planned to re-open it, and he held onto all his merchandise until he died last year, never letting that faint hope die. That merchandise, including 200,000 unopened records, but also some record players and radios, spent years in the Callendar basement and then in a warehouse, and no one knows how much it's worth to collectors. Pop music historian Arne Fogel got a sneak preview of the collection, which includes this old record of the music from the movie Pinnochio.
August 19, 1997 - The Minnesota Brewing Company is making what it describes as an unprecedented advertising effort by paying the University of Minnesota $75,000 a year for the next three years for promotional space. You'll see the Grain Belt Premium logo at all the Gophers' games, and in many bars and restaurants alongside the Gopher's logo. It may seem natural to pair a local product with a local team, but is it wise policy to advertise alcohol at events sure to be attended by thousands of underage students? Minnesota Brewing Company president Jack Lee shares his thoughts on the deal.
August 19, 1997 - At the University of Minnesota's Division of Epidemiology, Alex Wagenaar has been researching drinking on college campuses. The Grain Belt deal, he says, is nothing new.