Monday, March 15

The University of Minnesota athletics department found itself in the midst of a major scandal last week when the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported allegations of widespread academic cheating in the men's basketball program. A former university employee admitted to doing course work for at least 20 players over the course of five years. The University is hiring an outside law firm to investigate the allegations. Results are expected in two months. Speaking Friday before a Senate committee, University President Mark Yudof said cheating is a problem not only in the athletics department but university-wide. Don McCabe is an Associate Provost at Rutgers University in New Jersey and founder of the Center for Academic Integrity.

This morning a committee in the Minnesota House takes up Governor Ventura's tobacco endowment proposal. This afternoon a Senate committee will discuss planned changes to the Profile of Learning. Any bill that does not pass out of a policy committee by the end of the week is dead. Lobbyist John Knapp keeps close tabs on the status of legislation. He represents the Minnesota Partnership and other business groups at the Capitol. He is also an attorney at the St. Paul firm Winthrop and Weinstine.

Two of the nation's largest farmer owned cooperatives, Minnesota-based Cenex Harvest States and Missouri-based Farmland Industries, say they're considering merging their grain businesses. They think consolidating could help them better market their member farmers' products. The move is part of a broader trend of agri- business consolidation that's creating a handful of enormous conglomerates. Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Zdechlik reports.

Maybe this is the week the Dow Industrials will break through the 10,000 level. Here's how Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Farrell assesses the importance of Dow 10,000.

Pressure is building on Minnesota lawmakers to find a way to fund mass transit. Projected Twin Cities population growth and the rising costs of road building are fueling the interest. The problem, as usual, is finding the money. This morning the Minnesota House Transportation Finance committee considers a proposal to create a constitutionally-dedicated fund to pay for transit projects. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reports.

A new play opened Saturday at the Great American History Theatre in Saint Paul. Hmong! The CIA's Secret Army is based on a screenplay written by a Hmong-American in Minnesota. The production tells the story of the "secret war" in Laos through a real-life love story. Minnesota Public Radio's Lynette Nyman reports.

A State Senate Committee this morning will consider whether doctors should be allowed to recommend marijuana to patients suffering from terminal or chronic illness. The Minnesota legislature defeated a medical marijuana proposal in 1995, but this time the idea has the support of Governor Jesse Ventura. And a new poll shows 65 percent of all Minnesotans think doctors and patients shouldn't face penalties for using marijuana to treat a debilitating illness. DFL State Senator Pat Piper is sponsoring the bill.

The Metropolitan Airports Commission is warning people who fly in and out of the Twin Cities international airport that this summer could be a difficult one. Large scale construction on roadways and parking ramps will likely cause major delays for travelers. It's all part of a two billion dollar project that will unfold over the next few years to ensure the airport will be big enough and modern enough to serve Minnesota for the next twenty years. Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Zdechlik reports.

Several parents plan to complain to the St. Paul school board tonight about 25 seats that are being left empty in the district's most popular magnet school. Fifty children are on the waiting list to get into Capitol Hill elementary school for gifted and talented students. In January, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported the school wasn't admitting students off the waiting list because all of them were white and the school wanted to maintain a racial balance. But the district says the school needs the extra space to accommodate new students who will begin entering the program next year as third graders. Rita Warner is a parent who will speak at tonight's school board meeting. She says it isn't fair to keep spaces open with so many children on the waiting list.

Minnesota lawmakers are considering comprehensive campaign finance reform for the first time in five years. Legislation headed to the House floor is designed to plug loopholes in Minnesota law, but critics say it will allow more corporate money to influence politics. And some legislators say it's time to stop tweaking the system, and move to publicly-funded campaigns as other states have done. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports.

A bill toughening Minnesota's drunk-driving law has been moving through the Minnesota House. 1998 saw an increase in alcohol-related highway deaths, and the bills proponents say lowering the blood-alcohol limit from 0.10 to 0.08 would save lives. State highway patrol officers, meanwhile, say drunk drivers are one of their most persistent challenges. The patrol spent last week training new recruits in the art and craft of detecting drunks. Mainstreet Radios Leif Enger reports.

Minneapolis officials have given Dayton Hudson Corporation a green light to build an office tower on Nicollet Mall. Last night's city council approval came after the corporation agreed to include neighbors in designing its Target headquarters building to fit in with the pedestrian mall. Minnesota Public Radio's Eric Jansen reports.

Today is St. Patrick's Day and parades are planned in many cities. The Minneapolis parade starts at 6:30 tonight. The 33rd annual St. Patrick's Day parade in St. Paul gets underway at noon. The celebrity Grand Marshall this year is longtime DFL political insider D.J. Leary. Leary's great grandfather Matthew Ryan emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1848 and eventually ended up in Minnesota. D.J. Leary joins us now.

U.S. and Canadian wildlife officials are preparing to significantly reduce the population of snow geese. The estimated six million geese are destroying their nesting habitat in northern Canada. Hunters are being called on to shoot more geese in an extended spring season. Mainstreet Radio's Cara Hetland reports.

The Minnesota House of Representatives is moving ahead with legislation to ban so-called partial birth abortions and to require a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking an abortion of any type. Both bills were approved last night by the House Health and Human Services Policy committee. Minnesota Public Radio's Michael Khoo reports.

Large and lush color photographs of disheveled Havana, abandoned Beirut, polished Versailles... this is the work of photographer Robert Polidori currently on display at the Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis. Polidori says his pictures are attempts to capture contradictions in human living around the world. Minnesota Public Radio's Lynette Nyman met with Polidori to discuss his work.

Professor Jack Friedenthal is a member of the NCAA Infractions Committee and also former dean of the George Washington University Law School and he joins us now to discuss the investigation at the University of Minnesota.

The House of Representatives has voted to limit steel imports to the United States in an effort to protect a struggling industry. The Asian economic crisis reduced demand for steel abroad and has forced foreign producers to try to sell their goods for a lower price in the United States. The bill passed yesterday would reduce shipments of foreign steel by 25 percent. GOP leaders oppose the bill and President Clinton has threatened to veto it.

Republican House Speaker Steve Sviggum has a new report to bolster his contention lawmakers have no place making spending decisions on the Iron Range Resource and Rehabilitation Board. Today Sviggum's bill to restructure the economic development agency goes before a House Committee. Minnesota Public Radio's Bob Kelleher Reports.

The University of Minnesota could announce this week its plans for hiring an outside firm to investigate academic fraud allegations in the men's basketball program. Evidence of wrongdoing could bring pressure for changes in the university's academic support system, which includes the tutoring for student athletes. But internal investigations have pointed out problems in that system before. University officials made some changes, but ignored other recommendations. Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Pugmire reports.

The U.S. Coast Guard's Mackinaw is busy this week liberating Great Lakes ports from winter ice. The 55-year-old ship is the biggest icebreaker on the Great Lakes, and is always greeted enthusiastically by commercial shippers and idle boat watchers alike. Yesterday the U.S. House approved spending $130 million to replace the Mackinaw. The federal government has been trying to retire the aging ship for years. But its fans are nothing if not loyal, and are trying to keep it around. Minnesota Public Radio's Amy Radil has this Mainstreet report.

State Senator Carol Flynn discusses a bill that would lower tab fees and tie the gas tx to the Consumer Price Index.

Minnesota lawmakers have been putting in long hours this week to try to meet the first bill deadline today. Several controversial proposals are probably dead this session, while a couple of others made their first appearance this week. Laura McCallum covers the Capitol for Minnesota Public Radio, and joins me now.

University of Minnesota officials plan to name an outside investigator today to look into allegations that a staff member wrote hundreds of papers and assignments turned in by twenty or more members of the men's basketball team from 1993 through last year. Men's basketball coach Clem Haskins has denied any wrongdoing and says he won't let the furor over academic fraud allegations keep him from coaching the team again next season. Some of the roots of the current controversy may lie in the environment in which Haskins came to Minnesota. The university turned to him in the spring of 1986 to rebuild the basketball program after a different scandal forced his predecessor, Jim Dutcher, to resign. Minnesota Public Radio's William Wilcoxen has this look at the circumstances surrounding Haskins' hiring.

A North Dakota man today receives the highest Award given by the French government. France is making a special effort to recognize U.S. veterans who served in World War One by naming them Chevalier of the National Order of Legion of Honor. Three Minnesota veterans will also be given the award. Minnesota Public Radios Dan Gunderson listened recently as one hundred three year old Otto Ihringer recalled his World War One experience.

Congressional Republicans made fun of Al Gore after the Vice President claimed in a television interview that he took the lead in creating the Internet. The Internet, of course, dates back to the late 1960's, before Gore was even in Congress. But some Internet pioneers are coming to Gore's aid, saying the sharp criticism is unfair. University of Pennsylvania professor Dan Farber is one of the key figures in the creation of the 'Net. He says Gore got himself into trouble when he used the word "create."

Meteorologist Mark Seeley talks about the wind on St. Patrick's Day and a hot March in 1910.

Classical Music Announcer Tom Crann talks about some of the hot events on the classical music calendar.