March 26, 1998 - Minnesota Opera Artistic Director Dale Johnson discusses Un bel di Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" as one of four operas selected as part of the 1999 Minnesota Opera season. The company will also perform Gounod's "Faust", Verdi's "Otello," and Britten's "Turn of the Screw."
March 25, 1998 - Saint Paul Mayor Norm Coleman is facing the critics of the proposed new hockey arena this afternoon. A House-and-Senate panel is grilling him and his staff on the financial details of the arena deal, which many state legislators don't like. Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste is at the Capitol.
March 20, 1998 - Like a church recipe book that weaves together parishioners' favorite banana breads, cobblers and bean dips....Eleanor Ostman's first cookbook, "Always on Sunday" samples some of her favorite recipes collected during her 30 years as Food Columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Ostman's newspaper column called "Tested Recipes", generated thousands of reader contributions over the years... including a submission by former Minnesota first Lady Lola Perpich, who started a lengthy controversy when she submitted a pie crust recipe which readers couldn't seem to make work. Ostman says she eventually learned how to eyeball a recipe to figure out if it had potential.
March 16, 1998 - Part of the push for after-school programs is fueled by the realization that juvenile crime peaks at 3:00 on schooldays-- a time when many young people are unsupervised. Dr. Howard Snyder is Director of Systems Research at the National Center for Juvenile Justice, Pittsburg. He was in St. Paul today to speak at a bar association conference on youth and crime. He encouraged policy makers to focus on why MORE kids are committing crimes, and not fall to prey to what he calls "the Myth of the Superpredator" -- the idea that a few really bad kids are committing all the crimes:
March 6, 1998 - The death of a parent is one of the most frightening experiences most children can imagine. In her first novel, "Rainlight", author Alison McGhee chronicles one family's struggle to go on following the death of Starr Williams. He left behind his elderly father, a wife and two young children. McGhee says she decided to focus how children face death, largely because it's been her own obsession since childhood. Alison McGhee is a creative writing instructor at Metropolitan State University.
March 2, 1998 - Congress is battling over a proposed national settlement with the tobacco industry. North Dakota Democratic Senator Kent Conrad's settlement plan, which enjoys the support of the Clinton administration, would allow states to sue. But Northeastern University Law Professor Richard Daynard says if Congress approves the original national settlement that 40 attorneys general agreed to last June, Minnesota's case will be rendered moot, even if a jury verdict is reached.
February 26, 1998 - Candida albicans is a yeast found in all humans. It's in our skin, intestines and urinary tract. The yeast is usually harmless although it does flare up frequently in women who take antibiotics, causing uncomfortable vaginal infections. But in people who have weak immune systems candida albicans can be deadly. If the yeast penetrates the blood steam of someone with HIV, diabetes, or cancer, the infection quickly spreads forming colonies that attack the brain, eyes, kidneys and heart. Treatment is difficult and up to 30% of patients die. Researchers at the University of Minnesota say they've discovered a chink in the yeast's armor. Associate professor of plant biology, Judith Berman, and her colleagues, have isolated a gene that makes the yeast especially virulent. Berman says when U of M scientists removed that gene the yeast had a hard time taking hold in laboratory mice.
February 26, 1998 - Minnesota fire officials are gearing up for what they think could be an especially severe fire season. Jean Bergerson, spokeswoman for the Northern Fire Center in Grand Rapids says it is so dry this spring, officials are ordering field equipment and supplies early and the forestry service is already installing pumps on its trucks: Bergerson says if the fire season lasts into May or June her agency could have problems finding enough firefighters.
February 25, 1998 - A House committee has revived a proposal to ban new large feedlots in Minnesota. The plan's supporters withdrew the moratorium two weeks ago in the face of stiff opposition from agricultural interests, but today the chairman of the Environment finance committee, DFLer Tom Osthoff, brought the moratorium back. Martin Kaste reports.
February 25, 1998 - The first political advertisement in the governor's race aired today on Twin Cities television and radio stations. The thirty second spot by candidate Ted Mondale focuses on education.