July 22, 2002 - (to follow andrew) Fred Zimmerman is a professor of Manufacturing at the University of St. Thomas. He says 3m's latest earnings report doesn't suprise him:
July 12, 2002 - The Independence Party holds its state convention tomorrow in St. Cloud. Delegates are expected to endorse Tim Penny for governor and chose a candidate to challenge incumbent DFL Senator Paul Wellstone. Earlier in the week, party officials announced a slate of about a dozen legislative candidates who left other political parties to join the IP. And state Senators Sheila Kiscaden and Martha Robertson announced they were leaving the Republican Party for the IP. Kiscaden, of Rochester, is seeking re-election to the Senate, while Robertson is Penny's running mate. University of Minnesota political science professor Larry Jacobs says the Independence party needs to try to build an organization beyond Governor Jesse Ventura:
July 9, 2002 - The Senate is expected to vote within the hour on a plan to create a permanent storage facility for high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel in Nevada. If the Senate votes to approve the plan, as expected, it will end a decades-long congressional debate over hazardous waste disposal. The plan calls for nuclear waste shipments to travel through at least 43 states, including Minnesota, on their way to Nevada. Senator Paul Wellstone says he is planning to vote against the resolution because it doesn't include a plan to safely transport the waste:
June 17, 2002 - (to follow laura) Steven Schier is chair of the Political Science Department at Carleton College. He says Tim Pawlenty's pledge NOT to raise taxes could be a big issue on the campaign trail:
June 14, 2002 - Tomorrow marks the grand opening of a Frank Lloyd Wright inspired bridge in South Minneapolis. The bridge with tall vertical points and a rounded railing crosses Interstate 94 at Third Avenue, just south of downtown. The project was funded by Marshall Field's department stores to give an artistic feel to a standard highway overpass. A few blocks south of the bridge on Third Avenue, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is featuring an exhibit of Frank Lloyd Wright bridge designs. Curator Jane Hession (Heshen) says the new Marshall Field's Frank Lloyd Wright Bridge is not an actual Frank Lloyd Wright design, but rather a concept based on various bridge designs made by the famous architect.
June 4, 2002 - St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly is a more than a few dollars closer to creating a world-class performing arts high school in his city. The Gates Foundation announced today it's giving 30-thousand dollars to the project immediately for planning. And pledged an additional 250 thousand dollars over the next three years for implimentation. The Perpich Center for Arts Education in Golden Valley is a residential school for grades 11 and 12. And Kelly says the East Metro needs something similar:
June 3, 2002 - A new study says the state's alternative school programs need better monitoring. The study by the Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota finds thirty percent of the state's high school students are participating in alternative school programs. The two-year study tracks the success of four state public school choices. They include: alternative and charter schools, open enrollment and postsecondary education. Joe Nathan, the Director of the Center for School Change says it's no surprise alternative education is growing more popular:
May 29, 2002 - A memo from an F-B-I agent in the Minneapolis bureau contributed to F-B-I Director Robert Mueller's announcement today that his agency will be re-organized and it's mission will be re-focused. The F-B-I will hire about 900 new agents around the country, establish a new office of intelligence and will make protecting the country against terrorism its top priority. Mueller also says F-B-I headquarters will have to do a much better job of coordinating and analyzing information from its field offices. A lack of coordination between headquarters and the field is one of the main complaints Minneapolis agent Coleen Rowley laid out last week in a memo addressed to Mueller. She has not spoken publicly about her missive. Nick O'Hara spent 30 years with the F-B-I and was Rowley's boss at the Minneapolis office in the mid 1990's. He says Rowley's memo raises excellent points:
May 29, 2002 - University of Minnesota President Mark Yudof says he's doesn't know if he would accept an offer to be chancellor for the University of Texas. Yudof says Texas officials will decide on Friday whether they want him or not and he'll have to decide whether or not to go. Yudof spent 25 years at the University of Texas in Austin as a professor, dean of the Law School and provost. Texas officials asked him to accept the chancellor position two years ago, but he turned them down. University of Minnesota regents are working hard to keep Yudof. Chairwoman Maureen Reed says they've got tough competition with Texas officials, who are pulling out all the stops:
May 24, 2002 - The chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence committees said today they would examine allegations that the F-B-I missed warning signs of an imminent terrorist attack in the weeks prior to September 11th. The committees will also investigate the climates at the FBI, CIA and other agencies to determine why they didn't put the pieces together. Minneapolis Agent Coleen Rowley, at the FBI's field office in Minneapolis has made the latest allegation. Rowley has written a memo describing how agents were held back when they attempted to aggressively investigate the arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui. Moussaoui was taken into custody in August, weeks before the attacks. Congressman Colin Peterson, is a member of a new joint congressional intelligence committee that's looking into the 911 attacks. He says he's known about the Rowley memo for months and is concerned that it was leaked to the press. But he has praise for local F-B-I officials: