September 29, 2000 - Southwest Minnesota has plenty of wind available for energy production, but as the interest in wind power has grown it turns out there aren't enough power lines to transmit the electricity to urban areas. Xcel Energy, formerly NSP, is building a new line to help address the problem but it's drawing criticism. A group of business owners in Pipestone want to force Xcel to take a different route throught the city. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports.
September 26, 2000 - The use of antibiotics in farm animals is coming under increasing criticism by those who believe the patients farmers are really treating are themselves and their fellow humans. Research has found using the drugs causes some dangerous animal-borne bacteria to become resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics, creating untreatable "super bugs' which can infect humans. Farmers say antibiotics are a longstanding tool they need to raise livestock and poultry efficiently. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports.
September 19, 2000 - For most people, the only election that matters is the one in November. But for farmers, there is an important vote this week which may serve as a referendum on the wrenching changes taking place in agriculture. The ballot question is a simple one: should hog producers continue to pay a mandatory fee to fund various pork promotion efforts, a fee known as a "checkoff". Behind this vote are issues which some say will determine the future of small, independent hog farms. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports: Southwest Minnesota farmer Paul Sobocinski says pork production has ben hi-jacked from its rightful place on the family farm by corporations, like the nation's largest hog producer Smithfield Foods, but also well known Minnesota companies such as Cargill and Land 'O Lakes. Besides raising hogs, Sobocinski also works for the Land Stewardship Project, which favors ending the checkoff fee. It's collected on every hog sold and raises about 45 million dollars a year. Most of the money goes to the National Pork Producers Council, a group Sobocinski says has lost its way:
August 28, 2000 - Minnesota farmers are getting ready to harvest what looks like another huge crop of corn and soybeans, something which seemed unlikely a few months ago. Drought concerns have disappeared and so have farmers hopes that dry weather and a poor harvest would boost rock bottom grain prices. That means many Minnesota farmers who gambled on drought have lost out. If predictions for a record harvest come true, grain prices will remain at the same depressed levels where they've been for the past three years. Tonight in the first of two stories looking toward harvest season, Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports:
August 15, 2000 - One of the great unanswerable questions of U.S. geography is: exactly where does "the west" begin? On the South Dakota border there's a lake that could be used to make a case for Minnesota as the gateway to the west. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil profiles Salt Lake, which has more in common with the land of cowboys and cattle than any of Minnesota's 10,000+ other lakes.
August 2, 2000 - Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt will be in Granite Falls today to survey last week's tornado damage. The mayor of Granite Falls now says in addition to those homes destroyed by the winds, as many as 70 more damaged houses may have to be razed. Granite Falls and neighboring parts of Yellow Medicine county have been declared a disaster area. The damage estimate from the F-4 tornado is put at about $15-million dollars. The Granite Falls tornado forever complicated the lives of everyone who lived through it, including a group of people who were in the struggle of their lives even before the storm arrived. The residents of "Project Turnabout" are fighting to beat gambling or chemical addictions, but the tornado threatened their new found stability. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports.
July 26, 2000 - Mainstreet Radio’s Mark Steil reports on tornado that struck Granite Falls, Minnesota. Steil gets firsthand accounts of the storm. The tornado is the latest disaster for a city which has seen floods and job losses in the last few years.
December 29, 1999 - There are signs that the crisis in agriculture eased a bit the past year but farmers anticipate more tough times in the year 2000. Despite a pledge to end farm subsidies, federal government props in the form of emergency aid appear to be the only thing keeping many Minnesota farmers in business. In the third of our series looking at the past year and on to the next, Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Steil reports the political arena will be a major focus for farmers, but they'll also be keeping an eye on the weather.
December 21, 1999 - The days of the independent country veterinarian are nearly at an end. The lone doctor has been replaced by large clinics, or "animal hospitals", businesses that do everything from treating sick animals to managing farms. As livestock operations become larger, the types of medical assistance they need have changed, leaving little room for a solitary doctor with an easy farm yard manner.
November 30, 1999 - A century old weather record is likely to fall today as our warm November temperatures continue. It looks like this month will go into the books as the warmest November in Minnesota since record keeping began more than one hundred years ago. It's also been very dry and that has some city officials in the southwest part of the state concerned.