Monday, July 17

MPR's Senior Business Correspondent Chris Farrell gives his Monday morning report about Wall Street.

General Mills has agreed to buy Pillsbury from British foods company Diageo. Minnesota Public Radio's Andrew Haeg reports.

Its been called the scourge of the plains by farmers and ranchers. Leafy spurge is an aggressive noxious weed that can take over entire fields. The weed squeezes out other plants by gobbling up the nutrients and water available leaving little or nothing for other plants. Researchers at North Dakota State University are testing a new series of herbicides that may prove beneficial not only to farmers and ranchers, but to the Western Prairie Fringed Orchid a flower on the Federal threatened species list. Minnesota Public Radios Bob Reha reports.

The fate of Northwest Airlines may not be known for weeks or months. But a number of observers say Northwest holds considerable leverage over American Airlines in merger negotiations.

The two airlines began talks days after United Airlines stunning announcement in May that the nation's biggest air carrier had reached an agreement to buy US Airways. That deal has shaken up the airline industry, and may yet be rejected by federal regulators.

Any sale of Northwest would probably mean a huge payday for the company's two most prominent investors, Al Checchi and Chairman Gary Wilson. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Catlin reports.

Golden Valley-based General Mills Inc. is buying control of Minneapolis-based Pillsbury in a $10.5 billion stock-for-stock deal that would create one of the world's largest food companies. General Mills will issue 141 million new shares of common stock to Diageo, Pillsbury's London-based parent company, in exchange for control of Pillsbury. The combination would nearly double the size of General Mills to about $13 billion in annual sales. Daniel Peris is an analyst with Argus Research.

The Twin Cities are about to see a $1.5 billion public transportation building boom due to three projects in their early stages. Construction on one, the new runway at Twin Cities International Airport, is already underway. Activity on another, the light rail line from Minneapolis to Bloomington, may start next spring. And the third, building a third lane along 18 miles of interstate 494, is stretched out over the next twelve years. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson has a snapshot of the projects.

Minnesotans could see higher fares and fewer flights from the Twin Cities if Northwest is acquired by American Airlines. That's according to a report published this week by a Metropolitan Airports Commission consultant. The fate of Northwest may not be known for weeks or months. But some analysts say other possible mergers in the airline industry could have an impact on any negotiations. Darryl Jenkins is executive director of the Aviation Institute at George Washington University. He's on the line now.

The Minnesota Twins have the lowest payroll in Major League Baseball, and are mired in last place in their division. The connection between payroll and victories on the field is expected to be a topic of discussion when baseball commissioner Bud Selig comes to Minneapolis later today, just a few days after a report about the economics of baseball recommended several steps to make small market teams more competitive. Joining us on the line is Bob Starkey of Starkey Sports Consulting. He's been a financial advisor to major league baseball, and to the Twins.

Mike Ciresi filed a complaint with the Anoka County attorney's office yesterday over four mystery e-mails he said diminished his U.S. Senate candidacy. Ciresi says he believes Republican Senator Rod Grams' campaign staff was involved in the e-mails which were sent to DFL delegates around the time of the state convention. Ciresi says electronic fingerprints attached to the e-mails pointed to three of Grams' campaign aides as authors of the documents. Senator Grams says the complaint is a ploy by the Ciresi campaign to get media attention.

Yesterday's announcement that General Mills will acquire Pillsbury threw the spotlight on mergers in the food industry. It's not just food companies feeling the heat. Supermarkets are also being pressured by competition from formidable new rivals. Minnesota Public Radio's Brandt Williams reports.

General Mills has made it official. It's acquiring hometown rival Pillsbury from British food and drinks firm Diageo for $10.5 billion. It's not the first time British and American interests have swapped Twin Cities food companies. Minnesota Public Radio's Andrew Haeg reports.

Minnesota's DFL candidates for U.S. Senate faced some of the toughest questions of the campaign Monday when they met with activists and retired politicians in their own party at a Minneapolis drug store. A group known as "Tom's Salon" for Schneider Drug owner Tom SenGupta has been meeting at the drug store for the past twelve years to argue thorny policy issues. About 45 people crowded into the drug store's awkward spaces between greeting cards and figurines to put the candidates through their paces. Minnesota Public Radio's Amy Radil has this report.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig visited the Twin Cities Tuesday in the wake of a report calling for baseball's "haves" to give more to the "have-nots." Appearing before the Twins-sponsored group "Minnesotans for Major League Baseball," Selig promised changes will be implemented to ease the disparities between rich and poor teams and to make the game more competitive. But Selig mostly repeated his familiar message that the Minnesota Twins must have a publicly funded ballpark to survive-- a message the newly formed committee says it's not yet ready to consider. Minnesota Public Radio's Amy Radil reports.

Minneapolis police plan to screen pedestrians on the south end of Nicollet Mall while a controversial animal genetics conference is in town. The six day conference will begin on Friday at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Inspector Sharon Lubinski of the Minneapolis Police Department is Head of the Downtown Command, and she's on the line now.

Chuck Samuelson is the executive director of the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union. He says it is wrong to stop pedestrians without reason.

Seven people in Eagan will receive the first Small Business Administration loans to recover from flooding in their homes. Intense thunderstorm about 2 weeks ago dumped up to 12 inches of rain on Eagan, which President Clinton later declared a disaster area. With that declaration, the SBA was sent into the city to provide loans to the many homeowners who were uninsured or underinsured for flooding. Joining us on the line is Kerry Fundaun, whose home was flooded during the storm.

Businesses in downtown Minneapolis have been talking for weeks about how to prepare for protesters at the International Society of Animal Genetics Conference taking place at the Hyatt Regency hotel. The conference begins Friday, and continues for six days. Some businesses say they will board up windows and cancel events because environment and animal-rights groups have targeted the conference for protests. Police say they estimate the crowd could range from several hundred to several thousand. Joining us on the line is Sam Grabarski, president of the Downtown Business Council of Minneapolis.

Voters in Washington county, home to Woodbury, Cottage Grove and other fast growing cities, vote this fall on a proposal to tax themselves to preserve open space. If approved, the money would be used to pay owners not to develop their land. Buying development rights to preserve land for environmental or esthetic reasons has been tried elsewhere but is only now getting started in Minnesota. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reports.

An expert in forensic dentistry says the single tooth and parts of a jawbone found in Donald Blom's fire pit are those of Katie Poirier. Blom is charged with abducting and killing Poirier last May. The prosecution is trying to build its case against Blom hampered by the fact it has very little physical evidence. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephanie Hemphill reports.

The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners voted yesterday to forbid anyone from smoking within 15 yards of any county building. The board's original intent was to stop smoking on all county grounds. Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Scheck reports.

Residents of Manvel, North Dakota think they are about to get dumped on. Neighboring Grand Forks, which is running out of garbage dump space, recently bought 800 acres just outside Manvel for a new dump, and now the township is gearing up for a fight. Minnesota Public Radio's Bob Reha reports.

At least 700 hundred animal geneticists from around the world are gathering for a conference in Minneapolis this weekend. Police are bracing for protests. Biotechnology opponents say scientists are pushing too far into the controversial territory of genetic engineering. Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Losure reports.

Before the arrival of Europeans to North America, there were an estimated 75 million buffalo roaming the continent. But by the late 1800's, the animals had been systematically slaughtered to near extinction. The loss of the buffalo was devastating to many Indian cultures, who not only relied on them for food, but also had spiritual ties to the animals. Now a group of Red Lake Ojibwe band members are reintroducing buffalo to their homeland. As Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Robertson reports, they believe the buffalo will bring spiritual renewal and physical healing.

Federal, state and county officials, mining companies, and environmental groups are wrestling with a question: what's more important- rare native prairie, or the rich gravel deposits that lie beneath. Less than one half of 1% of native prairie remains in Minnesota, and some of the best is in Clay county. Growing demand for gravel used in the booming construction industry poses an unprecedented threat to the prairie. Minnesota Public Radios Dan Gunderson reports.

The Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco has issued its first grants to fight the tobacco industry. The money comes from the state's 1998 tobacco settlement. Of the $2.3 million in grants, over half will go to community projects to eliminate secondhand smoke. The Minnesota Smoke-Free Coalition received one of those grants. Jeremy Hanson will oversee the organization's efforts, and he's on the line now.

The rapid advancements in biotechnology are raising concerns among many different groups of people. Mark Ritchie is the president of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a non-profit organization based in Minneapolis. His group has no plans to be among the protesters at the International Animal Genetics Conference. He's on the line now.