September 12, 1997 - When we report on a labor shortage in outstate Minnesota, we're usually not talking about Rabbis. But for eighteen months, Temple Israel in Duluth had no rabbi. After Rabbi Sue Levy resigned for medical reasons, the synagogue depended on rabbinical aides to help with funerals and bar and bat mitzvahs, and flew in a rabbinical student from Philadelphia twice a month to help with services. Now, that student, Amy Berstein , has completed her degree, and has accepted a full-time permanent job in Duluth. That means she's one of two rabbis in outstate Minnesota. Berstein's formal installation ceremony will be held this evening:
September 12, 1997 - Yesterday, we learned the city of Shakopee is being considered about as a possible site for a new stadium for the Minnesota Twins. So far it's only an idea, but we wondered whether it could work in Shakopee. The Twins have been talking about a new stadium designed to fit into downtown Minneapolis and its urban landscape of warehouses, old mills, and the river ... like the very successful new ballparks in Cleveland and Baltimore. The landscape in suburban Shakopee is very different. Ellerbee Beckett is the company the Twins have been using to develop their ballpark plans, so we called vice president and designer Bill Johnson and asked whether the current plan still holds. Bill Johnson, vice president and design principal for Ellerbee Be
September 10, 1997 - In an editorial today, the New England Journal of Medicine urges mandatory reporting of HIV infections to state health departments so more people will get early treatment. More than half of all states now require that the names of infected people be reported to confidential registries. But New York and California, the two with the most cases by far, do not. Minnesota was second in the nation to require mandatory reporting. It did so in early 1986, and Doctor Keith Henry, an AIDS specialist at Saint Paul Ramsey Medical Center, says we've been reaping the benefits.
September 1, 1997 - Legal non-citizens who are on public assistance lose their food stamps today, as part of federal welfare reform. Those families with children will qualify for cash equal to sixty-percent of what they used to get in food stamps. Those without children will qualify for a new program through the Department of Agriculture. It will provide people with $40 a month in vouchers to buy certain foods bearing the "Minnesota Grown" logo. Carol Milligan is a management analyst with the Department of Agriculture and coordinator of the new "Minnesota Grown Supplemental Food Program." She says about 3,000 people in 17 counties are expected to benefit from the program.
August 29, 1997 - Longtime University of Minnesota band director and music professor Frank Bencriscutto died yesterday of lung cancer. He was 68. HJohn Zdechlik worked as Bencriscutto's assistant ('64 to '70) and considered him a good friend and mentor. He says Bencriscutto changed the face of band music.
August 29, 1997 - For Lynn Rosetto Kasper, host of "The Splendid Table", the question is not whether the food is still cooking inside you, but how does it taste, and why do Americans love their microwaves.
August 29, 1997 - At the U.S. Attorney General's instructions, U.S. Attorney David Lillehaug has been meeting with Minnesota tribes to come up with ideas for improving law enforcement. He says Buckanaga's not alone in his frustration.
August 26, 1997 - Eddie Lyback is the president of the Mille Lacs Lake Advisory Association, a group of eighty fishing-related businesses. He says people he's talked with are extremely disappointed by the ruling.
July 17, 1997 - There's a yo-yo craze going on up on the Iron Range. Today kids from all over the range competed in the Iron Range Yo Yo Tournament, braving adverse weather conditions to do their Loop-De-Loops and Around-the-Worlds. It's fun now, but it started as a science project in Hibbing. Washington Elementary science teacher Mike Misbauer began using the yo-yo to teach. He helped the kids start a yo-yo club.
July 3, 1997 - One of the stops on today's hockey tour was the United States Hockey Hall of Fame, in Eveleth, Minnesota. It was founded in the '70's as a shrine to America's best Hockey players, like John Mariucci and Neal Broten. But the Hall of Fame fell on hard times in recent years when the state didn't have a professional hockey team. The Hall of Fame's director, Ted Brill, says he expects a big boost when pro-hockey returns.