January 6, 1999 - Steven Smith, political science professor at University of Minnesota, discusses tomorrow's beginning of the impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate. The topic of what options the Senate has is addressed. Smith also answers listener questions. Program also includes commentary from Ron Meshbesher, attorney at Meshbesher & Spence, and Suzanna Sherry, constitutional law professor at University of Minnesota.
September 28, 1998 - The private company that recently began providing a portion of the health care at Minnesota prisons has a record of hiring doctors who were convicted criminals or had lost their medical licenses. An investigation by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper found that Correctional Medical Services is also criticized for providing sub-standard care to inmates in several states. The report detailed a number of cases in which prisoners died as a result of alleged neglect or improper care by the company's doctors.
June 11, 1998 - ** note back announce ** Some doctors in the U.S. are using procedures developed to treat infertility in an unexpected way: they're helping gay male couples have children of their own. In many parts of the country, it can be difficult or impossible for gay men to adopt newborns. But with the aid of a surrogate mother and in-vitro fertilization...a baby can be genetically related to at least one of the fathers. In some cases, both men share genetic traits with the child. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephen Smith prepared this report in our continuing series, "The Fertility Race." Some of the names in this story have been changed to protect individual privacy.
April 3, 1998 - Solyst's optimism doesn't obscure the fact that two lives were lost in the tornadoes. Again and again residents shake their heads at what might have happened had Gustavus Adolphus College been in session. Its 23-hundred students were on spring break. The college sits atop a hill overlooking St. Peter. It took a direct hit. Windows are shattered everywhere, most of the mature trees on campus were knocked flat. The buildings suffered damage, one was destroyed. Since the disaster struck, President Axel Steuer has been consumed with getting the campus ready for the students' return.--hopefully by mid-April. I walked across campus with him, and asked him what it was like to see his campus so heavily damaged: | D-CART ITEM: 1385 | TIME: 4:08 | OUTCUE: "...never went out."
April 3, 1998 - After Sunday's tornado battered the Gustavus Adolphus campus, it roared downhill toward St. Peter's main thoroughfare, Minnesota Avenue. Some of the businesses opened the very next morning even though their windows and roofs were blasted by the winds. As in many small towns St. Peter's merchants struggle to compete against larger stores in bigger cities, like nearby Mankato. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephen Smith took a walk along a few blocks of the main street to see how business is faring five days after the storm.
March 24, 1998 - With the announcement yesterday that Minnesota Public Radio is selling its for-profit catalog company, the Rivertown Trading Company, to the Dayton Hudson corporation, MPR's financial footings become substantially stronger. The 120 million dollar deal means that MPR's endowment fund will become the largest in all of public broadcasting. MPR officials say the event is good news for network and its listeners, but there may be a risk to its fundraising.
March 23, 1998 - The parent company of Minnesota Public Radio announced today it is selling it's for-profit catalog operations to Dayton Hudson Corporation for $120 million. Dayton-Hudson officials say buying the Rivertown Trading Company will give the retailing giant new sales expertise in the mail-order market and potentially on the internet. Most of the profits of the sale will go to MPR's permanent endowment fund...which becomes the largest in public broadcasting. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephen Smith reports: Sun 28-MAY 11:55:34 MPR NewsPro Archive - Wed 04/11/2001
March 20, 1998 - A Minneapolis lawyer says she will open the first program in Minnesota to recruit surrogate mothers. for surrogate motherhood. The Minnesota Surrogacy Center will match infertile couples with women willing to carry a baby for them...for a fee. Surrogacy arrangements have been conducted privately in Minnesota for more than a decade, but many infertile couples have to travel to other states to find surrogate mothers. Supporters of the plan say a surrogacy program is badly needed. But the center is already drawing opposition from at least one state lawmaker who wants to outlaw paid surrogacy. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephen Smith reports in the next installment of our series, "The Fertility Race."
March 19, 1998 - Surrogate motherhood has been a controversial practice in the United States ever since the widely-publicized "Baby M" case in 1986. That's when surrogate mother Mary Beth Whitehead fought an unsuccessful court battle for custody of a child she was paid to bear for another couple. Since then a quiet and fundamental change has swept through the business known as "commercial surrogacy." Most surrogate mothers today are not genetically related to the children they carry. That fact may increase both the number of babies born through surrogacy and the legal security of the arrangements. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephen Smith has more in the next part of our ongoing series, "The Fertility Race."
March 1, 1998 - On this MPR Special Report, the American RadioWorks documentary “The World Turned Upside Down: An End to Inflation?” looks at inflation, deflation, and how the U.S. Federal Reserve keeps a watchful eye for BOTH.