Monday, May 25

Marching Bands, floats, and antique cars will make their way through West Duluth today for the annual Memorial Day Parade. The Duluth-Based Northwind Drum and Bugle Corps will be there. Once common; community-based Drum and Bugle Corps are few and far between. Members of the Northwind Drum and Bugle Corps are getting on in years, and worry whether they can muster enough healthy musicians to continue another season. Minnesota Public Radio's Bob Kelleher Reports.

The Chippewa National Forest in northern Minnesota is celebrating its 90th anniversary this weekend. Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Robertson takes a look at the history of the forest, and why thousands of visitors come back year after year.

On Future Tense: A September 7th trial date is much earlier than Microsoft would have liked. Still, the company will be able to sell plenty of copies of Windows 98 before defending itself from anti-trust charges levelled by the Justice Department and twenty states. A key element of the lawsuits is whether Windows 98 will be able to include Microsoft's built-in web browser. Analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies, Inc. says don't look for Microsoft's legal troubles to affect its bottom line in the short run.

Today is Memorial Day and many special observances are planned around the state. At Lakewood Cemetary in Minneapolis there will be a ceremony this morning and carriage ride tours. In addition you can tour the newly renovated Lakewood Memorial Chapel featuring one of the finest examples of Byzantine mosaic art in the United States. Minnesota Public Radio's Jim Bickal got a tour of the spiffed up chapel from Lakewood's President Ron Jerdy.

On Saturday, about 45 volunteer bird watchers fanned out along the banks of the Mississippi River near downtown St. Paul for the first bird count ever conducted in the area. The survey was sponsored in part by the "Greening the Great River Park Project" which is trying to restore the canopy of native trees that once stretched along the Mississippi throughout the Twin Cities. The information will help biologists track whether more migratory birds return as the trees grow. Dorothy and Fred Waltz are veteran birdwatchers active in the St. Paul and Minnesota Audobon Societies. They helped organize the count.

Tuesday, May 26

Crime was the subject of The fourth Citizen's Forum on the Governor's Race recently held in four locations around the state. People from across the state gathered in Duluth, Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and Mankato to discuss and develop questions for the candidates running for Governor of Minnesota. The forum is sponsored by Minnesota Public Radio, the Star Tribune Newspaper and KTCA Twin Cities Public Television. Minnesota Public Radio's Lynette Nyman has this report.

The Minnesota Vikings are for sale again, after novelist Tom Clancy failed in his bid for the team. The co-owners of the Minnesota Vikings are accepting bids for the team starting at 200 million dollars...the amount of Clancy's offer. The owners are considering only cash offers and hope to complete a sale by late July. Vikings President Roger Headrick says he's submitting another bid for the team. But co-owner Jaye Dyer says he believes the sale will attract new bidders.

It's the last day of final exams at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. 511 seniors will graduate Sunday after completing what was probably the most tumultuous semester of their college career. The tornado that ripped through St. Peter on March 29th caused about 65 million dollars of damage at Gustavus...wrecking dorms and classrooms, uprooting almost every tree on campus, and even toppling the chapel spire. The tornado struck at the beginning of spring break...and students didn't return until three weeks later. Nevertheless, graduation is going on as scheduled, according to president Axel Steuer.

Future Tense: The judge overseeing anti-trust lawsuits against Microsoft has set a September 8th trial date. That's much earlier than Microsoft hoped, but the company will have about three months to sell its contested Windows 98 operating system upgrade to consumers and computer makers. Computer makers such as Dell and Compaq are in a funny position when it comes to Microsoft. Many of them have felt the sting of Bill Gates's bullying tactics...tactics which have landed Microsoft in court with the government. But PC makers sales are closely tied with Microsoft products. Tim Bajarin is a computer industry analyst. He says PC makers are concerned about the hazy picture for Windows 98.

Wednesday, May 27

Negotiations between Northwest Airlnes and its two most powerful unions are resuming this week under the direction of two of the three members of the presidential appointed National Mediation Board. Pilots returned to negotiations on Sunday in Washington State. The Machinsits are to be back at the table this morning in Washington D.C. Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Zdechlik reports.

The federal government has awarded more than $21 million dollars to the city of Minneapolis for housing and community development. Federal officials cite Minneapolis as an example of what they want cities to do to get federal housing money. Minnesota Public Radio's Eric Jansen reports.

The University of Minnesota today will be accepted as a designated cancer center by the National Cancer Institute. There are only 55 N-C-I cancer centers in the country. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester is the only other one in Minnesota. The designation will bring with it at least five-point-four million dollars in additional federal grants for the university during the next five years. We talk with Dr. John Kersey who directs the University of Minnesota Cancer Center, which opened in 1991.

A committee searching for a city to host the 2000 Democratic National Convention will be eyeing the Twin Cities today. Various tourist organizations are planning the visit that will showcase restaurants, hotels, museums and other attractions in order to prove that the Twin Cities is the best site for the DNC. Peter Hedlund is the Vice President of Sales for the Greater Minneapolis Convention and Visitors Association, one of the groups that organized the tour.

President Clinton today plans to mark the first anniversary of the Welfare-to-Work Partnership, an organization formed to encourage privatebusinesses to hire welfare recipients. The partnership says companies have hired 135 thousand people on welfare in the past year. New federal law imposes a five-year limit on welfare and requires recipients to get a job after two years. Numerous companies in Minnesota have been participating in welfare-to-work programs. We speak with Dawn Rennick, staffing and development manager for Xerox Business Services' Upper Midwest office.

On Future Tense: For less than a hundred dollars, you can outfit your new computer with software that will recognize your voice, typing the words as you say them. Mike Landberg, computing editor at The San Jose Mercury news, says the exciting world of speech recognitio is just around the corner. In a recent column, Langberg says there are a couple of reasons why speech recognition isn't quite ready for the mass market.

Thursday, May 28

Former U-S Attorney David Lillehaug and state Senator Ember Reichgott Junge formally entered the campaign for Minnesota Attorney General yesterday. They join former state Commerce Commissioner Michael Hatch in the D-F-L race. The leading Republican candidate, state Representative Charlie Weaver, says he's content to watch the Democrats battle it out before the September primary. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports.

"Boreal" means northern, as in "aurora borealis." The terms is also used to describe the forests of northern Minnesota, full of pine and spruce, and the birds that live there. Today the Gunflint Trail in Cook County kicks off its first annual boreal birding festival, celebrating the variety of birds to be found in the northwoods. Minnesota Public Radio's Amy Radil reports.

Minnesota is one of the few places without complaints against El Nino. The mysterious change in the weather has brought us a mild, sunny spring and staved off the humidity of summer. Commentator Wendy Knox says that the fabulous weather makes her think of cows.

She's a reporter on K-A-R-E television, the co-chair of the Minnesota Alliance with Youth, on the board of directors of the National Youth Leadership Council AND she's an honor student. 16-year old Becky Jarvis is no slacker. She will be speaking today at the statewide summit of the Minnesota Alliance with Youth in Minneapolis...sharing the stage with Colin Powell and Vice President Al Gore. She says young people want to work for social change, but need help from adults to find out how to do it.

In the past two weeks, several Minnesota schools have expelled students for threatening to kill teachers or classmates. Recent school shootings in Oregon, Arkansas and Kentucky are prompting school officials across the country to take such threats more seriously. Dr. David Walsh is President of the National Institute on Media and the Family, based in Minneapolis. He says there's a need to change the norms of how people speak and act towards each other.

Wolves are thriving in the northwoods of Minnesota. Their population is estimated to be over 2-thousand and they soon may be pulled from the endangered species list. But Minnesota doesn't have the largest population of wolves in the United States. Doctor David Mech is a renowned biologist who has studied wolves in Minnesota since 1966. But he's in town today to speak about the wolves of Denali National Park in Alaska, the subject of his new book.

On Future Tense: It's frustrating when you can't dial into the Internet - you get a busy signal, or the line rings but you get no answer. Sometimes you get in, but get rudely disconnected. A new study says things are getting better. Bobbi Murphy is a vice president at Inverse Network Technology, which conducted the survey in Internet reliability.

Friday, May 29

Vice President Al Gore and Retired General Colin Powell say Minnesota is at the forefront of an effort to improve the lives of at-risk young people. The two spoke to about fourteen-hundred Minnesota teens and adults at a statewide summit in Minneapolis yesterday. The event was part of the Minnesota Alliance With Youth - the state's follow-up to last year's Presidents' summit in Philadelphia. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports.

Senator Paul Wellstone is definitely campaigning for health care reform and possibly for President. Wellstone has introduced a bill in the Senate that would provide health coverage for all Americans. He has been traveling around the country talking about his proposal. Minnesota Public Radio's Amy Radil reports from Duluth.

If you're new to the Twin Cities and are looking for a way to get around, a map might be helpful, or maybe a guidebook which tells you where all the notable landmarks are. If you're interested in a publication that goes quite a bit deeper, you may consider picking up "A Definitive Guide to the Twin Cities, in Poetry and Prose." It's publishers describe it as the only guide to the Twin Cities that focuses on the experiences of its inhabitants. Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Roberts reports.

Yes, you're right, that isn't a polka band. But then, music in Minnesota has always included a lot of variety, and never more than now. Musicians from all over the world have settled here. A new quartet blends musical traditions from four different cultures. "Speaking In Tongues" performs Sunday night in Minneapolis. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reports.

Mark Seeley says this May ranks among the top 10 Mays in history. But June will start off cool.

On Future Tense: The premier computer gaming conference, E3, is underway in Atlanta. Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle is there. He says new 3-D computer hardware is making possible some very artistic games.

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