Monday, July 5

Heavy rains have led the National Weather Service to declare a flash-flood warning for Hibbing. Authorities are advising no travel in the northern Minnesota city. Some streets have been closed. Winds reached 80-miles-per-hour during the storm, which dropped five inches of rain on some parts of the region. In addition, travel is not advised on Highway 61 north of Duluth. Darcy Diller is a 911 dispatcher based in Grand Marais.

An intersection on St. Paul's oldest street has grown quieter since this spring's closing of "Pilney's grocery." Lou Pilney closed the market on West Seventh and Randolph 95 years after his grandfather opened the store. Family-owned groceries have grown rare in this supermarket age, but some still find ways to remain viable. Minnesota Public Radio's William Wilcoxen reports.

There are lots more trumpeter swans in Minnesota than there used to be, and the Department of Natural Resources is asking people who see the birds to call the DNR. The swans disappeared completely from Minnesota in the early 1880s, but restoration efforts have brought the state population back to more than 500 birds. Steve Kittelson is Coordinator of the Trumpeter Swan Restoration Project at the DNR, and he talked to Minnesota Public Radio's Bob Potter about how to identify the birds.

There's a lot going on with the weather around the state. A severe thunderstorm warning is in effect for Northern St. Louis County until 9:30 this morning. In addition, a flash flood warning is in effect in Southern Cook County, Southern Lake County and Southeastern and Central St. Louis County until 9:30 a.m.. Dean Packingham is forecaster with the National Weather Service in Duluth.

In their annual battle against weeds, some Minnesota farmers are looking to the past. Organic farmers don't use chemical weed control, so they plow, plow and plow some more to hold back legions of unwanted plants. But there is another way, and it's spreading like wildfire. Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Steil reports.

Attorneys have long touted a code of ethics they say rises above other professions such as accounting or banking. That code includes a rule that bans them from entering into partnerships with other professions as a way to safeguard clients' interests. But now a commission of the American Bar Association wants to scrap that century-old rule; an action some critics say strikes at the very heart of the legal profession's independence. Minnesota Public Radio's Elizabeth Stawicki reports.

About 14 people have been evacuated from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness after strong winds knocked down many trees on Sunday. One camper is listed in critical condition. Joining us now with the latest information is Minnesota Public Radio Reporter Bob Kelleher.

Searchers found two more bodies on the St. Croix River yesterday, bringing the death total to five in one of the worst boating accidents in Minnesota history. Two powerboats collided over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, which historically has the most boating accidents of the year. Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum reports.

Residents of a Minneapolis neighborhood are waiting with cautious optimism for word that a buyer has sealed a deal to develop a polluted parcel of land - a brownfield in environmental parlance. Cleaning up the Gopher Oil site has been on the Prospect Park neighborhood agenda for ninety years. The pace of cleaning brownfields has quickened in Minneapolis as people seek scarce land for development. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reports.

Job training centers for developmentally disabled people typically focus on finding or even creating low-skill jobs. Workers can pocket their earnings while developing a sense of pride and accomplishment as well as doing valuable work. But an agency in northeastern Iowa has taken that idea a step further, helping four people with developmental disabilities run their own business. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes reports.

President Clinton will visit an Indian reservation today on day three of his tour highlighting poverty. Clinton hopes to encourage private-sector investment in economically distressed areas throughout the country. Senator Paul Wellstone has also visited several low-income areas and has been concerned with the poverty rate among children. He's on the line with us now.

The Ordway Music Theater and St. Paul's River Centre Authority are considering a plan to add more theater space downtown. It would involve converting the Roy Wilkins Auditorium, currently run by River Centre, into a space that could be used by both organizations to stage plays, teach classes or hold concerts. The auditorium seats 5,500, making it one of the larger performing spaces in the Twin Cities. Kevin McCallum is President and CEO of the Ordway.

Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, the man known as the "father of open heart surgery," has died of cancer. He was 80 years old. Lillehei created many innovative heart surgery techniques during the 1950s while a surgery professor at the University of Minnesota. He was the author of more than 700 clinical publications and trained more than 1,000 cardiac surgeons. Lillehei also collaborated with Earl Bakken, the co-founder of Medtronic, to develop the first wearable pacemaker for patients with chronic complete heart block. Victor Cohn covered science and medicine at the StarTribune for nearly 25 years. He is now a fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, and he's on the line with us now.

Searchers will continue to look for stranded campers in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness today. Fifty-eight people have been treated at the Arrowhead Hospital for injuries sustained in the BWCAW after 80-mile-an-hour straight line winds blew down millions of trees on Sunday. Charles Kowan is back in his home in Tennessee, but he was in the BWCAW when the storm hit.

Northwest Airlines flight attendants will soon vote on a contract offer. Union leaders have been holding informational meetings around the country, explaining to the rank and file details of the agreement they reached with Northwest last month. Yesterday evening several hundred flight attendants gathered at a Bloomington hotel. Many were there to criticize the contract. Another session is planned for later this morning in the Twin Cities. Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Zdechlik reports.

A Carlton County Judge is expected to decide soon whether to restrict public access to information from the Kati Poirier case. Earlier this week, the attorney for Donald Blom, the suspect charged with kidnapping Poirier, argued the intense publicity surrounding the investigation could make it impossible for his client to get a fair trial. Attorneys representing the news media argued the public has a right to know information contained in records such as search warrants. Don Gillmore is former director of the Silha Center of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota. He believes so far, media coverage of the Poirier case has been prejudiced against the suspect.

This spring, researchers at Cornell University announced pollen from genetically engineered corn could be killing monarch butterflies. That news was a setback in the fight to win popular acceptance for bioengineered crops. But speakers at a University of Minnesota agriculture summit yesterday dismissed such problems and insisted the risks of genetically engineered agriculture are minor compared to the benefits. Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Losure reports.

People are still going into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area despite a weekend storm that downed millions of trees and left many portages impassable. Nineteen people were airlifted out of the wilderness with storm-related injuries Sunday and Monday. More than 50 were treated in area hospitals. Bill Hansen owns and operates Sawbill Canoe Outfitters in Tofte. He says he's been getting lots of calls from people who are planning trips into the BWCAW.

After officials are sure no more campers need to be rescued they will begin to assess the damages to campsites, canoe portages and wilderness trails. Minnesota Public Radio's Bob Kelleher reports.

This weekend the members of Park Avenue Methodist Church in Minneapolis will be taking "gospel to the blacktop" as they launch "Soul-Lib 26". The annual festival of gospel music features both national and local singers and speakers. Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr talked to Pastor Mark Horst and Park Avenue Foundation Executive Director Bill Copman about Soul Lib. Pastor Horst says the festival is aimed primarily at the neighborhood, but he hopes to reach out further too.

Nature photographer James Brandenburg lives near Ely on the edge of the Boundary Waters. His pictures of the BWCA have been featured in National Geographic and published in a recent book Chased by the Light. He says it's been hard to deal with the scope of the damage to the wilderness.

The U.S. Justice department has approved Cargill's purchase of arch rival Continental Grain Company's grain business. To win that approval Cargill agreed to sell grain handling facilities in nine cities. The Justice department says the requirements are designed to prevent the combined companies from artificially lowering prices paid to farmers. Critics have said the acquisition would give Cargill too much power in the market. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Catlin reports.

Agriculture experts from around the world gathered in St. Paul this week to talk about the future of farming. The University of Minnesota conference comes at a time when farmers are facing unprecedented pressures resulting from plunging prices, rapidly changing technologies, and increasingly stiff competition in world grain markets. The challenge For U.S. policy makers is equally tough: taking care of farmers at home, while encouraging foreign countries to open their markets. Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Zdechlik reports.

Residents say that a tornado ripped through the southeastern Minnesota town of Lewiston last night. No one was seriously injured, but the twister terrorized residents as it smashed more than two dozen homes and other downtown buildings. It also churned up cars, trees and power lines in its path. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes reports.

Meteorologist Mark Seeley says there have been other fourth of July storms like the one that tore through the BWCAW on Sunday.

Trapped in the repressive air of small-town America in the mid-1950s, a young woman challenges her family and follows her heart in Picnic, opening tonight at the Jungle Theatre in Minneapolis. The play reveals the frailties and sorrows that lie behind the all-American white picket fence.

Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Comfort Tiffany are among the artists featured in an exhibit opening today at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in Minneapolis. "Milestones of Modernism" includes over 200 objects created between 1880 and 1940, objects that together represent all the major movements of the period. The art was donated to the museum by Norwest.

And if you're up in Duluth this weekend, you can catch the Minnesota Repertory Theatre performing the musical comedy A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. It runs tonight and tomorrow night at the Marshall Performing Arts Center at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.