July 8, 1999 - Fifty years ago the University of Minnesota began hosting foreign students in a special agriculture exchange program. This week in St. Paul, current students and aluMinnesotai from 68 countries met for a global summit on agriculture. We invited two of the participants to our studios. Damian Murphy is a sheep farmer in Australia. He's studying at the University this year, and farming in Eden Prairie this summer. Frederick Frederickson participated in the U program three decades ago, and now runs a dairy farm in Denmark. He says farmers worldwide are all in the same predicament.
July 2, 1999 - While Mayor Coleman has gotten most of the attention for his petition drive to bring the Twins to St. Paul, there's another group trying to get a referendum on the November ballot: Scenic Minnesota. The group filed a petition today to ban billboards in the capitol city. Downtown businessman John Mannillo chairs Scenic Minnesota. He says St. Paul has more billboards than any other city in the state but getting politicians to pay attention to the issue has been difficult.
June 30, 1999 - Star Wars is coming to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The museum is one of six sites chosen to host a Smithsonian traveling exhibition of costumes, props, production artwork and models from the archives of Lucasfilm. The museum hopes the exhibit "Star Wars: The Magic of Myth" will draw a quarter of a million people, which would set a museum record. And if the crowds admire a few paintings and the jade mountain while they're there, all the better. To those who wonder if "Star Wars" belongs in the museum, MIA curator Lotus Stack says the movie is an important artistic statement.
June 29, 1999 - The defeat of gun control legislation in the U-S House recently came as no suprise to gun policy expert Tom Diaz. In his new book Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America, Diaz says a better strategy would be to challenge gun manufacturers on their marketing of increasingly deadlier products. Diaz comes to gun policy from the perspective of someone who loved guns. From his boyhood scouting experience in Mississippi, to his military service, to collecting guns as an adult, Diaz says there were always guns in his life. Then his law degree landed him a job with the House Crime subcommittee.
June 28, 1999 - University of Minnesota athletic director Mark Dienhart met with members of the mens basketball team to reaffirm their role in finding a successor to coach Clem Haskins. Haskins resigned under pressure last Friday with a one-point-five-million dollar settlement. U President Mark Yudof said an investigation into academic fraud in the basketball program found no direct links to Haskins. But Yudof said a change in leadership is necesssary to restore confidence in the program. Players voted over the weekend and came to the unanimous decision that they want former Washington Wizards coach Bernie Bickerstaff to replace Haskins. Dienhart says the players don't understand the process but will be part of the decision... a decision that's expected to come in the next few weeks.
June 24, 1999 - Noel Kjesbo is a grain farmer in west central Minnesota who's been following Governor Ventura's trip to Washington with interest.
June 24, 1999 - University of Minnesota men's basketball coach Clem Haskins may soon end his 13 year tenture at the school. A copyright report published in today's Star Tribune newspaper quotes two sources close to the university who say they expect Haskins to resign or be dismissed within three days. Haskins is at the center of a university investigation into allegations of academic fraud and mishandling of sexual harassment complaints against players. Dave Mona is president of the University's AluMinnesotai Association. He says reaction to the allegations has grown more intense in recent days.
June 22, 1999 - Nick O'Hara is superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is working on both the Moose Lake and the Waseca cases. I asked him about the links between the two crimes.
June 22, 1999 - Prosecutors have until 2:30 tomorrow afternoon to charge a 50-year-old man in the abduction of Katie Poirier. The Moose Lake convenience store clerk was kidnapped in late may and hasn't been found. Authorities are also investigating whether the suspect may be linked with the death of a twelve-year old Waseca girl. Cally Jo Larson was raped and killed in April. Dr. Michael Farnsworth is the medical director of the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center and the Minnesota Security Hospital. He works with sex offenders, and sometimes helps law enforcement develop profiles of suspects.
June 21, 1999 - Mike Yost recently testified before Congress on the trade embargo issue. Yost is the president of the American Soybean Association and farms near Murdoch, Minnesota. He says Congress should consider the potential gains for struggling American farmers.