Monday, July 27

Each week, from now until the September primary, Minnesota Public Radio is examining one of the issues in this year's governor's race. This week, our focus is education... and we're presenting in-depth interviews with candidates on the issue. In this segment, Minnesota Public Radio's Karen-Louise Boothe reports on the Education Platform of DFL party endorsed Gubernatorial candidate Mike Freeman.

Followers of the Reverend Fred Phelps - a Kansas-based minister known for his virulent anti-gay activities - picketed several Twin Cities churches yesterday. At a Minneapolis church with a predominently gay and lesbian congregation, the picketers were met by hundreds of gay rights supporters, including four of the D-F-L gubernatorial candidates. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports.

Education is one of the hot-button issues in this election campaign, a bigger concern than even crime or the economy according to public opinion polls. Gene Merriam is a former DFL state senator who now works as chief financial officer for ECM publishers in Coon Rapids. He says it's not surprising that candidates are spending so much time outlining their positions on education.

Last year, when floods and fire devastated downtown Grand Forks, the city's only daily newspaper was among the victims. The Grand Forks Herald lost all its files and its photo archive. Yet the Herald never missed an issue - in fact it won a Pulitzer Prize for its continuing coverage of the flood. Today, the Herald will finally move back to its home in the downtown business district. Mike Jacobs, editor of the Grand Forks Herald took time out from the move to join us by phone.

Mix together a bunch of ho-hum earnings reports and some pessimistic comments and stock by the Federal Reserve chief and the result is a 400 point loss for the week by the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Here's what Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Farrell thinks about the market's poor performance.

The Asian financial crisis was responsible for an 8 percent dip in second-quarter earnings at 3M according to company officials. 3M last week announced plans to eliminate 4,000 jobs, or about 5 percent of its work force, by the end of next year. Richard Bohr is a professor of Asian history at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University. He has also written about 3M. I asked him whether 3M should have seen trouble coming:

President Clinton recently said progress is being made on fixing a software glitch that could hobble computers worldwide in the year 2000... but that "gaping holes" remain in preparations to handle the so-called "millennium bug." When 2000 arrives, computers could misread the date and malfunction - causing power outages, transportation foul-ups and telecommunications failures. It's hard to tell how big the problem will be... but a mad scramble is already underway to seek protection from millennium bug fallout. Jerry Podkopacz leads a team at the Minneapolis firm Leonard, Street and Deinard that cousels clients on the risks associated with the year 2000.

On Future Tense: If you write a computer program, are you using a language? Some say you are - computer language. And if you're writing something using a language, are you protected by the Constitutions guarantees of freedom of speech. That's the central issue in what otherwise often sounds like a mundane case that has the federal government pitted against software developers. The government doesn't want anyone to publish encryption programs unless it knows how to crack them. Otherwise, secret messages and material can escape the eye of the government and that's a national security issue. You can't export those programs and you can't even post them on a web site because someone outside the United States can download it. Professor Peter Junger at Case Western Reserve wrote one such program. And in early July, a federal judge ruled that program was not protected speech.

Jurors will likely begin deliberations this week in the federal racketeering case against Twin Cities gang members accused of drug trafficking, arson, and murder. The prosecution's closing argument yesterday portrayed Robert "Buster" Jefferson as the gang leader responsible for the arson deaths of five Saint Paul children. But Jefferson's attorney says the case is based on unreliable testimony that seeks to make Jefferson a scapegoat for crimes he never committed. Minnesota Public Radio's William Wilcoxen reports.

Thousands of old homes in Minnesota face the wrecking ball every year. But a Twin Cities non-profit organization has found ways to re-use many of the materials in order to save landfill space and trees. Minnesota Public Radio's Eric Jansen reports.

Each week, from now until the September primary, Minnesota Public Radio is presenting in-depth interviews with candidates on the issues. This week we're focusing on education. In this segment, Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste talks with DFLer and former state senator Ted Mondale.

One of the world's richest deposits of dinosaur bones lies in the Western Dakotas and Eastern Wyoming. 65-million years ago, the region was home to four-legged horned animals with an average weight of two tons. It's prime land now for amateur fossil collectors. And one of them recently unearthed the most complete skeleton of a triceratops ever found. Minnesota Public Radio's Cara Hetland reports.

The Minneapolis Urban League has chosen a new President and CEO. Clarence Hightower will take the job in August. Hightower is currently president of The City, Inc., an alternative education program in Minneapolis. The Urban League is one of the city's most prominent African-American organizations, dealing with issues including education, housing, health and unemployment. Clarence Hightower will join us.

Earlier this month, President Clinton invited Minneapolis to apply for 5 million dollars in federal money to combat the spread of the drug methamphetamine. While drug use in general has been declining for a decade, the administration is still funding several high-profile anti-drug projects. Barry McCaffrey, Director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, is in Minnesota today to make his first visit to the Hazelden Foundation today. He will join us by phone.

Some 16-hundred bicyclists are in Detroit Lakes this morning, stretching out their hamstrings and steeling themselves for the 2nd day of The Ride Across Minnesota. The 5-day, 315-mile ride is a fundraiser for the Minnesota Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. But of all the well-toned, lycra-clad bikers participating in the ride, only one has meteorological instruments strapped to his spokes. Yes, Morning Edition weather commentator Mark Seeley is taking part in the ride for the first time.

Future Tense: Future Tense profiles Amazon City,an internet site that focuses on issues of interest to women.

Members of Northwest Airlines' largest union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers, vote today on a contract proposal that affects 27 thousand ground workers. The vote is likely to affect the contentious negotiations with another key union at the company, the Airline Pilots Association, which represents more than 6 thousand pilots. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Catlin reports.

Minnesota Public Radio's "Campaign 98." From now to the primary in September, we're presenting in-depth interviews with candidates on the issues. This week we're focusing on education. In this segment, Minnesota Public Radio's Amy Radil talks with DFL gubernatorial candidate Doug Johnson.

Today 27 thousand Northwest Airlines ground workers will vote on a tentative contract agreement. Union leaders reached the agreement with the airline in June after more than a year and a half of negotiations. They say the deal is the best they could get and they're urging ratification. Some of the rank and file however, complain the offer falls far short of what they deserve. Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Zdechlik reports.

On Future Tense: Coming soon to a highway near you, the virtual co-pilot. In Minneapolis-St. Paul, the Minnesota Department of Transportation has just put into use what's believed to be the nation's first real-time traffic notification system. When there's a traffic problem on your route, drivers are individually notified by email and pager. Gary Lenz of Streamline Data Solutions designed the system.

Last night, residents of Spencer, South Dakota went to a high school auditorium in Salem to recover personal belongings they lost in a tornado last May. The tornado levelled most of the town, but thousands of volunteers were called in to comb the wreckage and salvage what they could before the rest was bulldozed. South Dakota Governor Bill Janklow and his office directed the effort.

No information available for today.

Farmers in the Upper Midwest are facing their toughest challenge in decades this year -- and many may not make it. Wheat prices have dropped due to a worldwide glut. Big buyers in Asia are tightening their belts in response to the finacial crisis there. Scab disease is killing off crops, and some areas have not recovered from past years' floods. All this just two years after national farming policy was radically changed. Politicians in Washington are debating emergency aid for American farmers. But there are also calls, the loudest since the 1996 Farm Bill passed, for a few reforms to that landmark law. From Washington, Emily Harris has more.

All seven of the major candidates for governor took their campaigns on the road yesterday in an effort to win support in "greater Minnesota." Many local officials in outstate areas have complained that this year's governor's race has been almost exclusively focused on the Twin Cities, to the detriment of rural issues. Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste has more.

A low income housing initiative in Minneapolis is in jeopardy because city officials can't agree on how much housing the city should commit to building, and how much the suburbs should do to help out. The city council is scheduled to vote on the matter today. Minnesota Public Radio's Eric Jansen reports.

Bicyclists on the Ride Across Minnesota are entering the home stretch. Today's 49 mile ride from Milaca to Pine city is the last leg of a 315-mile journey across the state that began Monday morning. The ride is a fundraiser for the Minnesota chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Jim Christofferson of Stillwater joins me. This is his seventh year on the TRAM.

For the past three years, many public schools in Minnesota have given 8th graders a standardized basic skills test to determine whether they have the minimum skills necessary to graduate. The tests are one part of the state's strategy to make sure all students get an adequate education and to make sure all schools provide one. But the tests have also provoked much debate. Gene Pelowski is a DFL state representative and high school teacher from Winona. Kate Trewick is assistant commissioner in the Department of Children, Families and Learning.

Pilots at Northwest Airlines are counting down to a strike deadline. The National Mediation Board yesterday declared contract talks at an impasse. That means the earliest the pilots could strike would be August 29th. If Northwest and its pilots DON'T reach a contract settlement within that time, President Clinton could intervene and halt the strike for 60 more days by setting up a Presidential Emergency Board to solve the dispute. Minnesota's eighth district Congressman Jim Oberstar joins me now.

On Future Tense: Why are computer owners all of a sudden living on the edge of digital disaster? We talked with Russ Cooper who tracks bugs and operates the site NT-BUGTRAQ.