May 12, 2003 - For decades, river banks were used as dump sites. Most of the dumping has stopped, but the old garbage remains and there's a lot of it. State officials believe there are thousands of dump sites along Minnesota rivers. And they're not stationary. Like a glacier, the garbage is moving. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports.
May 12, 2003 - It's the middle of May, but it's still hockey season here in Minnesota. Fans are gathering in downtown Saint Paul, where the Minnesota Wild are preparing to face the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in game two of the National Hockey League's western conference finals. The Wild will be trying to even the series, after dropping the opening game one to nothing in double overtime. Minnesota Public Radio's William Wilcoxen is following the playoffs. 1) How does this series look?
April 30, 2003 - Today we're live from Preston's Jailhouse Inn, in southeastern Minnesota. There are wonderful storytellers all around this part of the state. But some of the best are in small towns. Whether it's over the afternoon card game at Chic's Pizza or a walleye dinner at the Branding Iron, someone's always got a tale to tell. But very few people in Preston ever considered committing their words to paper -- at least not until now. This past winter, the Fillmore County Journal started requesting stories from area residents. Contributors didn't need any prior writing experience. They only had to follow two rules -- the stories had to be true, and they had to be short. The newspaper plans to publish a book that includes about a hundred of the submissions. Many of them are from first-time writers.
March 24, 2003 - A world leader in wildlife conservation was buried today in Bloomington. Ulie Seal died of cancer last week. He was 73. Seal was chairman and founder of the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group based at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley. The group has helped save dozens of animals around the world, including the black footed ferret in the Dakotas, the scotts tree kangaroo in Papua New Guinea and merganzers in Brazil. I talked to Seal about his conservation work in January, 2001:
January 24, 2003 - Governor Tim Pawlenty and his commissioner of Trade and Economic Development presented their proposal for Tax free zones in Hibbing today. The proposal is designed to encourage new business and job growth in outstate Minnesota. Earlier in the day, the Governor visited Keewatin where he talked with representatives of National Steel Pellet and its labor union. Another steel company has bid on National Steel Pellet's parent company--- but the Minnesota taconite producer is not included. Local union officials are worried about the plants future as a result. Minnesota Public Radio's Bob Kelleher is in Hibbing and joins us on the line
January 14, 2003 - What makes someone a legend? Is it a person's skill, personality or charisma? In northwest Minnesota, people of all ages still recall Odis "Oats" LeGrand. He has been an athlete, teacher and a sportscaster. And someone "Sports Illustrated" crowned, "The Voice of Small-Town America." Mainstreet Radio's Bob Reha reports.
December 11, 2002 - Eight Minnesota Somalis came within a few hours of being deported earlier this week before a federal judge in Seattle granted them a temporary reprieve. The judge ordered the Immigration and Naturalization Service to halt all deportations of Somalis while a class-action lawsuit is resolved. The Seattle judge relied heavily on an order issued by a federal judge in Minneapolis last March that stopped the deportation of Somali Keyse Jama. That ruling stated that the United States cannot deport anyone to a country, including Somalia, that has no functioning government capable of receiving them. Kevin Magnuson was an attorney on the earlier deportation case. He says that before his litigation, the U.S. government deported 14 Somalis to their war-torn homeland, which has not had a unified government since 1991.
December 3, 2002 - For the first time in its 24 year history, the Sundance Film Festival will screen a Minnesota-made movie.
November 26, 2002 - The history of the Ojibwe in the Upper Great Lakes region is chronicled in a new documentary series airing on public television. The project took three and a half years to create and examines 500 years of history. It showcases over 100 interviews, 3000 historical photos, and the insight of 19 bands of Ojibwe.
November 21, 2002 - A University of Minnesota study shows older adults who exercise can significantly reduce their medical bills. Medicare patients 65 and older who exercised regularly spent almost five thousand dollars less on healthcare over a five year period than their healthy but sedentary peers. The people who exercised were hospitalized less and made fewer trips to the doctor. Study author Dr. Russel Luepker says it doesn't take much exercise to reduce costs: