NewsNight Minnesota; 2189; SD-Base

Hello everyone and Carol and rock star Here's what's coming up tonight on NEWSNIGHT. Minnesota mega merger of three national unions is making news nationwide. We'll talk about if that will happen and what it might mean in our big discussion. Also tonight we meet farmers who think they have seen the future and it is being moved. We'll also get inside some characters at the illusion theaters blues in the night. Plus of course all the headlines of the day. That's NEWSNIGHT coming up in just a moment. Tonight on NEWSNIGHT. Labor unions unite and improve their plight.

It might or might not. We'll talk about it. Also tonight e-meter meet maybe in your future. Tastes like. Beef. We also talked to ilusion theater performers about where their blues come from. And in our commentary Esther Nagano celebrates international leaders bill today. That's all coming up on NEWSNIGHT. Good evening everyone. Glad you could join us sitting in for cancer. And once again tonight is James Lilac's. Thanks. We'll get to all of those stories we promised in just a few minutes. But we start with a look at some of the stories making news today with Dave McCalla up in the NEWSROOM Dave what's up today. Well James his case went to the state legislature and Senate into special session and now the state is going to send Dennis Linnehan back to St. Peter. Here's a quick history for you. Linnehan is a convicted rapist and murderer. He was just about to be released from jail back in 1992 when the state used a 1939 law to commit

Linnehan to the security hospital at St. Peter. But the state Supreme Court threw out that commitment and that's when the legislature went into special session to create a new law for committing psychopathic personalities. Lenehan has spent nearly a year under 24 hours surveillance at a house on the grounds of Stillwater Prison. Attorneys had this to say after the decision and I'm very relieved that the judge agreed with us that Dennis Linnehan poses a very significant threat to the public safety. The order is very well-reasoned very well written very carefully thought out. And I think we'll test very well if there are subsequent appeals that this is very very obviously preventive detention. That person is being locked up not for a crime is committed but because someone is guessing that he might commit a crime in the future and we think that's contrary to American law. Second of all even if you accept the premise that you can lock

people up for future crimes our judgment is that the evidence did not support such a prediction of a future crime. Now Linehan's attorneys say they are going to appeal this case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if they have to and that's a process that could take at least two or three years. And if you have a newer car you probably jump for joy when the legislature exempted new models later than 1991 from emissions testing. The folks over at the American Lung Association those say that's maybe not such a hot idea. They're pointing to a new study which indicates that even though fewer new cars do fail the emissions test the ones that do fail fail in a big way. Those are called super emitters and the lung association study says that just a few of those can spew just as much pollution as a whole bunch of junkers. The legislature by the way change those rules on the basis of a U of M study which indicated that the first two years of emissions testing didn't make a significant impact on the Twin Cities air quality. Now in case you've been hiding under a rock and missed all the TV commercials the metro area got a new chain of department

stores today. It's called Mervyn's California and more stores may follow if the test is successful chain isn't exactly the brightest star in the Dayton Hudson sky. But as News Notes Betsy Weinberger reports the corporation is hoping that stores will take off in the Twin Cities. Mervyn's California hosted a carnival of capitalism today by opening its doors in the Twin Cities celebrity clowns politicians and beach balls were out in force shoppers who were out in force which is the whole reason behind this hoopla. My daughter called and said get over there and I had read the thing in the paper and I'm like I said moving tomorrow so I'm packing but I had my body get in there and check it out right away. That's better than cleaning the house. Don't you think. So. How much money we spent so far. Don't ask for bargains.

Mervyn's California is using Minnesota to springboard back into financial health. The store is owned by Dayton Hudson Corp. and has been a drag on the company's bottom line for years. The company also owns target and Dayton's and some Wall Streeters predict Dayton Hudson can handle a successful Mervyn's and want it sold off the Dooling king of Mervyn's from the rest of the operations. A positive move. I basically think that management being as good as it is and it's a it's a very good one. Suply has too much to deal with Yari says the company doesn't have the financial muscle to expand both target and Mervyn's. The chance of the separation of assets if Mervyn does well is greater. And that could propel the stock to a price that will exceed 100 dollars a share. So Wall Street wouldn't mind if Mervyn's wipes out.

Then there's also speculation that the reason Mervyn's moved into the old Carson Perry Scott stores was to prevent Nordstrom from competing one on one with Dayton's. Maybe. Only. One way Marvin may discover sweet success is by bringing here a little bite of California See's candy. He's already making waves here. And I do really really like See's Candy. That's very good. What do you think of the candy. It's delicious. It really is. I got my daughter in Seattle Sunday to tell her guess what. We don't have to ship it anymore. We've got it. You're. Great. OK. I'll admit it. My heart skipped a beat when I saw Candy was sold here. Having lived in California for eight years. I've had my share of the stuff. Maybe this is going to be the bad policies versus Frangos So I guess it's really not much of a battle because the stores that are selling both those candies are owned by the same company. By the way if Mervyn's

makes it PVC's will have a little to do with that. NEWSNIGHT Minnesota. Betsy Weinberger. Now the Mervyn's chain accounts for only about 17 percent of the Dayton Hudson corporation's total operating profits. On the other hand Target for example brings in 61 percent of that company's earnings. And finally tonight James friendly Fridley gets downright grumpy when it comes to cold cash. Minneapolis suburb is build the governor's office 50 400 bucks for the cost of a special election the election which was to replace representative of Wayne Simoneau who resigned to take a job at the Carlson administration officials figure since they didn't call the election. They shouldn't have to pay for it. But the governor's office says the city is responsible for picking up the tab and James back to you. I dare you to say finally friendly friendly finally friendly friendly all right now the last time you sang Old McDonald Had a Farm Well you probably never got to the verses about the llama or the bison. But there are a lot of farms that raise those animals today.

Now starting on today the University of Minnesota is sponsoring an alternative livestock conference for the pros and cons of raising elk reindeer ostriches and other animals will be discussed at the conference. Reporter Jim Bickle recently visited a farmer who's in the business of raising emus. We've been on the auto body repair business in years and going by the insurance companies are direct were two very very large shops that have got 50 to 100 employees and the little body shops are going to be out of business just because you know it's the same thing that the drugstores and other industries have gone through and I recognize that I decided not to pursue that and to go in a different direction. Talk about your different direction because that's E-Mu ranch in MT is one of 50 in Minnesota the flightless birds are about half the size of their cousin the ostrich and Cossette expects they'll be more profitable than raising conventional livestock pigs aren't

profitable. I understand the chicken market is controlled by one huge company here in the United States. I am not very familiar with the turkey industry. B that's all I've heard is that especially in Texas and that's why the Texas market is so big and Austria just an emu because. They're lucky to pay their taxes on their land and get their costs out of the B. After three years in the business Cossette hasn't made his fortune yet but he expects that to change soon. The legs are used to make purses. Oil is being tested as a treatment for burns and the meat is low in fat and cholesterol. Taco Bell went to a marketing company in January and asked them if they could order to hire them to go find out if there is 140000 emu available for them to buy at 11 months of age in 1995 and the marketing company had to go back and tell them that they simply the population wasn't there and they want to use it as a new taco. I have no idea.

I don't know if it's going to be company B. They're going to do something else or if they're going to have the new meat in their tacos I just know that the parent corporation has done research and development their real interest in it. There are 800000 emos in the United States right now and their ranks have been tripling every year. That said it's primarily a breeder for the time being during the winter. This incubator is filled with awakes after the egg is in the incubator for it's 50 or so days it comes out and is putting. Into this Hatcher. And God willing the pig will have. Several days and then when the egg when the chicken is hatched it's brought over into this room will start reproducing at the age of two. Most farmers put breeding pairs in separate pens but Cossette has a different approach. He's trying to save costs by creating E-Mu colonies with 20 birds per pen.

What happens in the wild is that the birds will mate and the female will cut your bags the male will stay there and sit on them and Hachem and raise the chicks and the female will go out and get hooked up with another male and do the same thing. So what we find is that these females in the beginning of the season are bedding down at night and sleeping with one male and by the end of the season she's probably kind of hanging around two or three different males. They don't really stay together. Efficient breeding is only half the battle though like any new product emu's need marketing casette has a dream that someday every American will know the wonder of the e-Moo the younger people are so health conscious with all the jogging and running and you know if they have a choice you know once they've tasted the ostrich emu meat realize that it tastes like beef they're going to be standing at the counter saying well we're not going to buy.

People are going to buy the sausage dreaming of meat. Reporting from Brown for NEWSNIGHT. I'm Jim Bekele. Well IMO taco meat isn't available in Minnesota supermarkets yet. Drat the luck. But in Texas the stakes for emos sell for 11 dollars a pound. This merger is being put together to build a new union because we have a commonality of interest in all of these areas and we we believe that we're going to be much stronger as a result of this. One of the day's biggest stories was out of Washington with three national unions announced they plan to merge leaders from the United Auto Workers the United Steel Workers and the International Association of Machinists have reached an agreement to join forces creating a union of more than two million workers. David Foster sat in on the merger negotiations he is district director of the United Steelworkers of America. Peter Radcliffe also joins us. He is a labor historian at McCalister college. Thank you both for joining us. I'm going to start with you David. Why the merger. Is this

really a move to try to destabilize two unions have other things not really come together for unions. Well more than stabilize Carol and I think that's a recognition on the part of these three major industrial unions that we've really entered a new phase in labor history and an economic history of our country and that we need a new kind of union to perform new tasks especially when it comes to politics in America organizing and collective bargaining in a global economy. Do you need it also just to have numbers. Well numbers certainly provide you with a critical mass and a certain kind of strength in the discussion we had on our executive board. I think one of the more profound things that was said is that numbers give the labor movement an opportunity to be a social movement again in America something that we haven't been for some years. When you combine three large organizations you're going to get duplicative bureaucracies. Are you going to be downsizing the administrations just like corporations have been downsizing theirs.

Well certainly one of the goals of trying to bring together a union of this size is to try to have economies certainly an administrative functions. Our union recently went through a restructuring itself where we eliminated half the districts that we had in the United States not simply because we wanted to save money but really because we wanted to concentrate and focus our energies on the critical tasks ahead. And I think that's very much the spirit of this merger that it's not about trying to economize or save money and the bureaucracy is a little that will certainly happen. It's really to try to streamline and create a new kind of labor union that will very much serve the 21st century the way the CIO was organized 50 years ago to serve the United States of the period of time of my mother and father Peter Radcliffe is this the right way to go the right approach. Well I think it's an exciting development. I think it has to be looked at in the context of what else is going on in the labor movement there is open discussion for the first time about what kind of leadership is appropriate at the top of the AFL CIO. There is a much greater

commitment to get out and organize the unorganized. This is an opportunity for these three unions to come together and I think I'm eager to see more of sort of this strategic blueprint for what they're going to do together besides figure out how to merge. But how are we going to get out there and organize the jobs they can't be moved. They can't run away. The service sector jobs the retail jobs. All of these low wage jobs low wage jobs that have been created in the last decade decade and a half. How are we going to get those people organized and turn those into good jobs. I think Peter's absolutely right that the measure of success of this merger is not going to be on how well we mesh bureaucracies together. Measure of success is going to be spelled out in terms of labor forging a new political action in America. Labor being able to pose the kind of vitality and organizing that brings new members and at a much larger scale than has been done in the last 20 years. And I think the spirit of this merger clearly spells out that that's its intent. Because any time

people who are administering the bureaucracy of a labor movement get together and say our goal is to eliminate many of our own jobs in order to accomplish a task then I think it's inevitable that that's going to happen. How are union members feeling about this. They're going to really go for this. Well of course the initiation of these merger talks happened in great secrecy. It was unveiled this morning I guess led out of the bag a little early last night but I anticipate that all the other executive board members of all three unions anticipate that there's going to be an extremely enthusiastic response for this that our members largely feel this was long overdue the kind of move of creating one large North American industrial union with a goal toward representing American workers in an international economy and something that they believe they need in order to experience more power in their own lives. Mr. Reich the steelworkers don't just represent the steel workers union don't just represent steel workers. I mean recently they made an overture to Canadian taxi drivers to get them into the

fold. Historically have unions that encompassed a wide variety of professions been able to really you know do that serve those individual professions well or did they get lost in a larger organization. Well I think looking back as a labor historian one of the great periods in American labor history was about a century ago when there was a labor organization called the Knights of Labor and the Knights of Labor organized everybody. They even had a short list of who they wouldn't accept they wouldn't accept politicians lawyers and liquor dealers. Everybody else was welcome to join. And in the research that I did on the Knights of Labor I found that there were locals that were organized around neighborhoods that people lived in or around fraternal organizations that people belonged to churches that they belong to all the different logics of their lives as working people came woven into this organization. And I think now as we look at the kind of economy and workforce that we have today where people change jobs frequently where there's high turnover where employers come and go that it may make more sense to try to organize people on a more regional geographic

class kind of basis rather than narrowly organizing people by the employer or even by the industry that they work in. Because the interdependency we're talking about seem to require a community. And for any bargain that can get it right. And I think it's said this issue of political power and I think it's pretty clear that the labor movement has lost a tremendous amount of political power in the last 20 years. Maybe this kind of organization is going to lend itself to a better ability to mobilize people on the political front. I think one thing that all three of the Union shares a view of American politics that so much has been lost in the last 15 years that we really need to participate in the political process in a different fashion that we intend to be the kind of organization that brings our members out in protest that is able to confront the powers that be in Washington in a much different fashion than we've done simply lobbying in the halls of Congress over the last 15 years. We see where that's gotten us. It's gotten a succession of bad judicial appointments

succession of bad laws. One thing after another and now finally a extremely antagonistic Republican Congress we don't intend to simply participate in the old fashion anymore I think all of us have learned that bitter lesson and we will be a different kind of political force than America and Canada. OK. Thank you both for joining us. We appreciate it. Today as you may or may not know is international Leonard Peltier day now Pilcher was a member of the American Indian Movement and he's currently serving two life terms in prison. He was convicted of killing two FBI agents at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1975. He has long maintained his innocence. Many supporters around the world say that his trial was unfair and they see him as a political prisoner. Esther Nagan of sees him as much more as a member of one of the continent's first nations. I understand why Leonard Pelletier can not go free. It would take a nation of great leaders to release him. Leonard's voice is strong however it moves like a dry desert wind

through his shackles made of stone. His captors the faceless ones do not know that stones can talk if they knew they would hear rage over the treatment of the earth. The stones hold together. They refuse to hear the loud protests rumbling deep within her bowels. This rumbling is the truest form of communication. When a human cannot use his senses he come and do not make good decisions these faceless ones ignore the filth that shrouds their mother earth. They hide in their offices breathing filtered air and drinking dead water unable to hear her cries through their hard shoes. They Mouth the semantics that will allow them to control her last living treasure her blood our water allow Leonard to go free Leonard cannot be free any more than the faceless ones can allow the rivers to be free.

The way the Creator dictated the Creator loves you Leonard. He has gifted you with the burden of being representative of all the harm that they have done and for this alone I am sorry Esther Nagano is a member of the fondo like band of Chippewa Indians. When I first read the it was like oh I can do this because I knew she was feisty and full of life and fun and she would sing raunchy kind of body song and I can dig my teeth into that. And in my nightclub there. Well Thursday night is usually when we catch up with some of what's happening around town. Tonight we look at the illusion theater's latest effort blues in the night it takes place in a rundown hotel on the South Side of Chicago back in the 1930s. It's a musical review and its characters offer up some of the great blues tunes that have become standards ever since Jerilyn still battle met some of the cast members at the fine line to talk about making that music come alive for audiences today.

People often ask me Jerilyn How do you prepare for a character that is so vastly different from yourself. I mean here I am an actress and a singer what do I do to bring that person out. Well I brought three of my friends today to tell you how we reached down inside of us. But that character and every one of those. Branches green lawns. OK. One of my favorite songs from the show. You do that you sang it you sang it from your heart and you convinced me that you knew what you were talking about. That comes from wanting to be in a relationship wanting a man so much and then finding out that he's not what you really want or he doesn't have the same beliefs the same morals the same anything that you have. You know and that the disappointment for me. When I get ready

but. For me this song was a cleansing song because it's like Willow weep for me. You know I'm trying to find this person out there and I know he's out there but the ones that I catch up with end up not being being him. I walk down the street to everyone and be. Happy. So. I guess. So. For me I would pass it really very clearly. Some of the things that guy is I mean really all year. I'm a recovering addict and I'm a whole bunch of other things I came from a whole system of things that made me able to kind of go oh I remember when I kind of had a moment like they come from Texas. I'm an Army brat.

Everybody back days. When you came into acting he wanted to be a singer. I didn't have the guts I had to get up there and same as Michael Rambo So it was kind of nice that I had an opportunity to sing in the role of an actor being a character was that thing in disguise there. I'm still trying to overcome some of that. Man. You be. Nice. Is. You saying some of the most popular songs like Lover Man. No. I thought OK she's going to sing this and she's going to make everybody feel so sorry for her. You sang it with such defiance as if to say where are you.

I've been looking all over this of you to get. Why did you choose that direction to go with that song were part of her neighbors or the lady on the road. When I first read the cover off like oh I can do this because I knew she was feisty and full of life and fun and she would sing while she kind of bodies. And I can dig my teeth into that. And in my nightclub act I do those kinds of songs and that's what attracted me to her because I can be like that that's part of me making her really come to life. I had to kind of step out of grenade too and look at how that lady felt at the age that she's. Still. Having that youthful vim and vigor but not having to go along with it. You can hear more blues in the night in its limited run at the illusion theater in the Hennepin Center

for the Arts. Also a reminder to join Eric Escala and Cathy words for Almanac tomorrow night at 7:00. We're not quite sure what they're going to be talking about or what's going to be on. But hey it's live TV so you can believe anything can happen. That's tomorrow at 7:00 right here. You could also turn into the sap channel. We're be talking about all sorts of things and if I get desperate I'll be talking about the weather. I like this sort of stuff the most whether it's just plain swell. Partly sunny. You know it's sunny skies to the south. Highs in the 70s in the 80s. More of the same throughout the weekend. By the way if you don't know what the channel is you'll just have to tune in tomorrow to I can find out. I think we'll just have to do that promise first of all thank you for joining us and sitting in for Capstone. And thank you out there for being here. We'll be back on Monday. Good night everyone. News Night Minnesota is made possible by the contributors to the power of two campaigns program but with major grant the Blanding Foundation and the McKnight's

foundation