December 1, 1998 - Craig Edwards, meteorologist in charge of the Chanhassen office of the National Weather Service, talks about mild winter weather and record breaking temperatures. It reached 68 degrees at the Twin Cities airport this afternoon, breaking the old high of 57 set in 1962.
December 1, 1998 - The U-S Supreme Court has handed Minnesota prosecutors a major victory today... reinstating the convictions of two men who were arrested for trafficking cocaine in 1994. The police officer involved in the case was peeping through cracks in the window blinds of an Eagan apartment when he saw the two men and a woman packing white powder into plastic bags. He arrested all three but the search was considered unreasonable for the woman, who cited her fourth amendment right to privacy in her own home. Her two male guests were convicted though, a decision that was later reversed by the Minnesota Supreme Court. The high court's decision to overturn the Minnesota ruling means short-term guests at someone's home generally are not constitutionally protected against unreasonable police searches. Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom argued the winning side. He says the victory will make it easier for police officers to arrest drug offenders:
November 24, 1998 - St. Paul writer Patricia Hampl has received another big honor--She's won a Pushcart Prize for one of her short stories. Hampl is better known for her memoirs A Romantic Education and Virgin Time and her two volumes of poetry. In 1990 she received a McArthur Genius grant. The prize-winning story called "The Bill Collector's Vacation" originally appeared in the literary journal Ploughshares last fall. The Pushcart anthologies pull together the best stories, poems and essays published by small presses in a given year. Hampl says winning a Pushcart means a lot more people may actually read her story.
November 24, 1998 - St. Paul writer Patricia Hampl has received another big honor--She's won a Pushcart Prize for one of her short stories. Hampl is better known for her memoirs A Romantic Education and Virgin Time and her two volumes of poetry. In 1990 she received a McArthur Genius grant. The prize-winning story called "The Bill Collector's Vacation" originally appeared in the literary journal Ploughshares last fall. The Pushcart anthologies pull together the best stories, poems and essays published by small presses in a given year. Hampl says winning a Pushcart means a lot more people may actually read her story: Patricia Hampl's story "The Bill Collector's Vacation."
November 20, 1998 - performs at the Quest Club. Minnesota Public Radio's John Rabe reports: Sun 28-MAY 07:52:58 MPR NewsPro Archive - Wed 04/11/2001
November 12, 1998 - Governor-Elect Ventura's victory shocked Minnesota's political establishment, but not Joram Manka , a Ventura supporter in Duluth. Manka, a student at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, won a contest on a political website by correctly guessing the outcome on nearly every race on the Minnesota ballot: University of Minnesota Duluth student Joram Manka won the checks and balances-dot com website contest by correctly guessing the outcome of the governor's race and many other contests last Tuesday. He'll be presented with the John Spanish Prognosticator Award December 3rd in St. Paul. Governor-elect Ventura has been invited as the keynote speaker. (find music)
November 9, 1998 - Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe says he's confident the DFL-controlled Senate can work with Reform Party Governor Elect Jesse Ventura. Speaking today on Minnesota Public Radio's Midday program, Moe said he thinks the two biggest issues in the next legislative session will be passing a tax cut, and deciding how to spend money from the tobacco settlement: Moe, who ran as DFL candidate Skip Humphrey's running mate in the governor's race, says he's still recovering from the DFL's bruising loss. But in looking over who voted for Ventura, Moe notes almost half the Reform Party supporters said they were not better off than they were two years ago. Moe says Ventura has tapped people who haven't shared in the nation's boom economy:
November 9, 1998 - The first blizzard of the season gives drivers their first taste of winter driving in many months. This winter the state patrol has a new law on its side to crack down on drivers who insist on driving on highways that have been closed. Now violators who drive around highway gates during blizzards will have to pay their own rescue costs. Lieutenant Dan Vickmark with the State Patrol in Detroit Lakes says driving on closed highways is dangerous, and costly: Lieutenant Dan Vickmark is with the State Patrol in Detroit Lak
October 30, 1998 - Jeff Harrison, associate editor at Llewelyn Publishing, describes his prize winning costume in a company contest…Fate Magazine's alien abduction autopsy, with Harrison as one of the alien abductors. Employees at the downtown St. Paul publishing house take their contest very seriously.
October 15, 1998 - Ten years ago, a young Harvard medical student published a book of short stories that became a national bestseller-it was Ethan Canin, whose collection Emperor of the Air earned him comparisons with writers Philip Roth and Robert Penn Warren. Since then, Canin has taken a leave from his medical career and turned to writing full time. He's now out with his second novel, For Kings and Planets, about two friends attending Columbia University in the seventies. The two are unlikely friends, one is an earnest Midwesterner, the other, a worldly, cynical risk-taker from the East Coast. Canin told Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Crann he's writing novels now instead of short stories because they're better for exploring complicated subjects.