February 16, 1998 - Honeywell production and maintenance workers are back on the job today after approving a contract and ending a two week strike yesterday. The company backed down on a plan to pass along some of the costs of health care benefits to the workers, but the union swallowed the plan for lower pay and pensions for new employees. John Remington is a professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Minnesota. He says the union vote didn't really decide the issue, and expects it to pop up again during the next round of negotiations: John Remington is a professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Minnesota. Sun 28-MAY 12:21:30 MPR NewsPro Archive - Wed 04/11/2001
February 13, 1998 - If you had to pick some of the greatest places on earth where would you begin? For the Science Museum of Minnesota the challenge was considerable and nearly limitless, but eventually they whittled down their list to seven dramatic locations in Africa, Tibet, Greenland and the Amazon. The museum then set out to film them for an IMAX movie called "Greatest Places on Earth." Many of the places are remote, stark, and dangerous. For the African segment of the film, the museum hired wildlife guide Mike Myers to take the photographers into the Okavango Delta and Namib Desert where some of the highest sand dunes in the world are found. Myers told Minnesota Public Radio's Lorna Benson the region was extremely rugged, but also incredibly scenic.
February 13, 1998 - State Representative Tim Pawlenty (pah-LEHN-tee) bowed out of the Governor's race today. The Republican Representative from Eagan says he's giving up in the face of the momentum of Lieutenant Governor Joanne Benson's campaign, combined with St Paul Mayor Norm Coleman's likely entry into the race. Coleman says he'll announce this Sunday whether he'll run for Governor. Political commentators Bob Meek, a Democrat, and Tom Horner, a Republican, say it's very likely he'll run. Horner says Coleman would join an already strong field of Republican candidates: Republican political commentator Tom Horner, and Democrat Bob Meek.
February 12, 1998 - Back in the mid-1980's, Minnesota saw its first tobacco lawsuit. The widow of a man named John Forster sued R.J. Reynolds, the maker of Camel cigarettes. She said smoking caused her husband's cancer. But after two dismissals and two re-instatements by appeals courts, the case was dropped due to the enormous expense of fighting the tobacco industry. The family's attorney, Mike Weiner , has been watching the state's tobacco case. He says this time, the industry might have finally met its match.
February 9, 1998 - The desire to make internal documents public is a major shift in tobacco companys' strategy. Peter Pringle, author of "Cornered: Big Tobacco at the Bar of Justice" talks about what would motivate such a move.
February 9, 1998 - The biggest news out of Nagano today seems to be the continuing snowfall. Jay Weiner is covering the Olympics for the Star Tribune. He says organizers are beginning to worry.
February 6, 1998 - Lou Bellamy, Penumbra's artistic director, says his theater has outgrown its current home in the Hallie Q. Brown/Martin Luther King Center and is looking to be a part of African American arts complex in St. Paul.
February 6, 1998 - If you watched Saturday morning cartoons during the seventies and early eighties you probably saw the "Schoolhouse Rock" cartoons. They featured catchy little songs which skillfully obscured the fact they were teaching useful lessons along the lines of "how a Bill becomes a law" or "A Noun is a person, place or thing." The original TV series of some forty little ditties won four Emmy Awards. The series evidently struck a chord with many young viewers, because the it has since spawned a CD with covers of the songs done by Gen-X bands and a stageshow extremely popular with, you guessed it, twenty-somethings. The touring show in Minneapolis tonight at the Music Box Theatre. Lorna Benson asked George Newall, the creative director of the original cartoon series, how Schoolhouse Rock came about.
February 4, 1998 - playlist!! A Federal Mediator has called talks tomorrow between striking Teamsters and Honeywell. The strike involves twenty-five hundred maintenance and production workers and is in its third day. Honeywell spokewoman Melissa Young: The striking Teamsters will hold their monthly meeting this evening, and it's likely to be better-attended than usual. The strike caught many of the workers and the company off-guard. Gillian First is a union activist with the Teamsters Local 11-45. S
February 3, 1998 - Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson gives his state of the state address tomorrow at noon. He's among the last governors in the nation to deliver his message; some forty governors have already done so. With the national economy in such good shape, most governors have delighted in giving good news: jobs are plentiful, inflation is low, and violent crime is down. Arne Carlson will be giving his last state of the state tomorrow, and is expected to leave his mark on education, the environment and other areas. Raymond Scheppach is the executive director of the National Governors Association. He says governors all around the country are both reviewing similar accomplishments, and outlining a vision for their state's future.