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NEWSNIGHT Minnesota is a production of Katy CA but the stations of Minnesota Public Television. Good evening thanks for joining us I'm Little Harben hometown hero Bob Dylan is holding his first concert in the loop the night we have a report. We'll take a look at modern medicine the fight against diabetes. All this week PBS has been airing Africans in America. Tonight NEWSNIGHT will take a look at Africans here in Minnesota. Plus satellite technology conference to a movie theater near you. It is not a lot of shows so let's get started. Welcome to NEWSNIGHT Minnesota. A statewide news and information program for thoughtful Minnesotans bringing context India to the region's most important stories. Minnesota is made possible in part with support from the Blanton Foundation creating a stronger Minnesota by bridging rural and urban communities for the night foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life for Minnesota families. Art's reporting on NEWSNIGHT is supported by a grant from the Dayton Hudson foundation on behalf of bourbons California.
And Target stores will start with the headlines with some political news today Jesse Ventura released a written statement attempting to clarify his position on legalizing prostitution. The Reform Party candidate for governor says he is not in favor of legalizing prostitution but he believes legalization should be explored in an attempt to get prostitution out of residential neighborhoods. And we have one other political note the Republican candidate Attorney General Charlie Weaver got the support from two prominent feller's Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and State Senator Jean Marion. Not a great day for 3M today third quarter sales figures came out. Sales were down by just over one and a half percent and that affected profits of course third quarter earnings dropped by over 9 percent. The news was hardly unexpected. The Asian economic crisis is responsible for most of the bad news. And two radically different proposals today for logging in Minnesota's national forests. The Minnesota Forest Industries Group called for a doubling of the
number of trees which are now cut in support of various national forests and a smaller increase for trees in the Chippewa National Forest. The group says it not only means jobs for northern Minnesota but will actually thin the forests the way natural fire is used to and make the forests healthier. Meanwhile the Sierra Club today called for just the opposite. No cutting at all in Superior and a reduction in the Chippewa National Forest. We see this is a major opportunity for getting a new perspective on the table in terms of how we manage our national forests. Over 70 percent of the people in this country and one recently polled said that they would like to see an end to commercial logging on our national forests. The U.S. Forest Service is in the middle of coming up with a new 10 year plan for the parks and have asked for public comment. And we have a couple of other stories tonight about students and technology at a trout stream in Afton State Park east of the Twin Cities U of M researcher was implanting a computer chip in fish.
It's an experiment to track their health and survival. Now they use this more than fifty thousand middle school students from across the country are able to watch live and we'll keep in touch with the searchers as the project for aggressiveness. Meanwhile a few miles away at high school there was an interactive broadcast seen by students across the state. It was a game show and even a political debate. It was part of net day celebrating technology in schools. And our final headline tonight comes from Fergus Falls where city employees are on strike. Last night the 79 employees who belong to the Teamsters Union overwhelmingly rejected the city's proposed contract. City hall the police department the library and garbage collection are all affected. Now our first big story tonight was prompted by Africans in America which is the four part documentary that's airing this week on public TV stations around the country. The documentary begins with the first slaves brought to America and wraps up with the Civil War and the end of slavery.
Producer Daniel Bergen decided to take a look at how slavery and the Civil War affected blacks here in Minnesota. Here is his report. The history of Africans in Minnesota goes back to centuries to the days of the voyagers and George bonga the son of a freed black man and his wife. George Bongo was a very interesting person. He was born in 1992. He was born in Duluth. He's considered our first citizen native to this state. He grew up with American Fur Company whose father was a fur trader and he went on to become an expert trader. He became very familiar with with some very important Minnesotans those who knew and respected by range from the native community to the state's first Governor Alexander Ramsay. These warm relations were due in part to a cold climate on the frontier one doesn't have the luxury. To be racist in the same way the whole concern is to survive.
And anybody who can help you through the cold night. Help you bring in the crop. Help you repair something that needs to be repaired is going to be a friend of yours in this setting. Bongo emerged as an effective communicator who is fluent in French English and he appended my kind of feeling of being able to mingle and get in and meet with all kinds of people and everyone seems to accept people just as they were and was considered an outstanding citizen. Bongo was at Fort Snelling serving as the translator for the treaty of 1837 another African American was present at the fort in the 1830s Dred Scott used his presence in the free territory to demand his freedom. His case would eventually be denied by the US Supreme Court in a decision that rejected the citizenship of African-Americans once Dred Scott was decided.
That is once it was determined that that Southern slaveholders need not worry about losing the slaves it gave them all kinds of possibilities as to where they could go with their slaves. You couple that with the fact that the economy in St. Anthony Minnesota what was insane at what is now Minneapolis along the riverfront really relied more and more on tourism in Minnesota merchants. In St. Anthony and in St. Paul and in other river towns. Basically invited the southern plantation slave holder to come up because we needed to circulate the economic infusion of their trade. Minnesota joined the union in 1858 part of the new state's identity would be forged in this struggle between character and commerce. By the time we get to 1860 interesting things are happening in both sayn and in St. Paul and in Stillwater and in surrounding places where you have some other news coming in. Abolitionists are forming on the docks and harassing slave
masters and Southerners as they get off the boat with their in their silken finery. All of this culminates. In the fall of 1860. Southern slave holder by the name of Richard Christmas. Brings his family to Saint Anthony to vacation. And they bring with film a favored slave. Her name is Eliza Winston. And it is insane Anthony where he lies a Winston asks help from the local community to be freed. She approaches an African-American woman. Emily Gray. She asked a woman for help. Mrs. Gray provides her with help by connecting her with the abolitionist community led by a pioneer citizen WB Babbitt. The Abolitionists enlisted sheriff's deputies took Winston from Colonel Christmas and brought her to the courthouse where liberal judge Vandenberg quickly granted her freedom. Fearing trouble Winston was brought to Babbitts home.
Later that night a mob storms the abolitionists homes of the Great of the emigre and of William Abbot. The pro-slavery crowd swore to return Winston to her master. But the abolitionists resisted the violent mob. The battle continued to play out in the pages of local newspapers. The August 22nd 1860 issue of the conservative St. Paul Pioneer Democrat stated that when people come up here from the south and bring along with them their servants we do not think it looks well to folks off these servants. Republican papers like the state Atlas use the event to their political advantage strongly stating we can assure the negro chasing wretches that there is a law in Minnesota and they will be made to answer for their villainy. Abolitionists successfully seized on what began with a black Minnesotan Emily gray helping a slave named Eliza Winston an event that helped push Minnesota down its historic path. It destroys the tourism trade. For weeks people are angry at each other. And within months. We first hear of Southern guns being opened up
against Fort Sumter. The attention that had been focused on this the sea lies a Winston incident gets turned to the south and Minnesotans began to line up on the side of the Union. Minnesota becomes the first state to create a voluntary volunteer regiment that goes into war. And it was the Civil War that brought the next wave of African-Americans to Minnesota. Some came up to Mississippi during the war and filled the pleated Labor ranks among these wartime refugees with Robert Hickman. He came out of Boone County Missouri and he was a beneficiary of a round up that was going on in 1863 and there were some union soldiers rounding up contraband and he had a group of adherents and he was he was he was a preacher. They went up started their trek up north.
Eventually he and his fellow settled in St. Paul and founded a Baptist church because of their journey up the Mississippi. Hickman referred to the group as pilgrims. This is the origin of the name of the first black church in Minnesota. Pilgrim Baptist. I do believe you have to reflect on your history to get some sense before you can go in the future. Today the elders overseen Pilgrim make sure the church lives up to its fabled origin. This church helps. A lot more than really churches because it has legs right after its inception in 1963. Pilgrim would become the center of the black community a place where the many challenges of the 20th century were met. We have upland sheep you and your family started here. Pilgrim Pilgrim Where is the gathering place take community place more or less over the decades.
The members have found inspiration in the perseverance of their predecessors. If you really wish to do something. It can be done. And certainly in the Times there during Hickman landed on the shores of the Mississippi in Minnesota it was not easy. And starting the church even in the downtown area of St. Paul was not easy. And Reverend with his five children members strived to do their job. Knowing that I'm sure within his heart knowing that he was playing a very important role. In the development of blacks in St. Paul. Pilgrim Baptist remained strong through leadership that is linked to the church's creation at the twilight of slavery a time of challenge of alliances and opportunity for African-Americans in Minnesota. We're going to turn our attention for the next couple of minutes to a health problem that is plaguing modern day African
Americans diabetes. Of course the disease affects people of all races but blacks Hispanics and Native Americans are all at increased risk of developing the disease. Now health diary a show that appears on public TV around the country and which is produced right here at Katy CA recently took a look at several Minnesotans who are waging their own personal battle against diabetes. Here's a bit of Siobhan Cleary's report. The underground is busy cooking for her children and grandchildren following her father's old recipe for tacos. When you want to go. They go. The 48 year old from St. Paul Minnesota is also following in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother in developing diabetes. From what I know when I was younger you get diabetes you catch Freida. So when I had a Beanies I didn't want to accept it because my feet are going to go.
You're sure after her diagnosis eight years ago. No no I sank into a depression. She believed it would be impossible to control her disease and that she would meet a premature death like most women with diabetes in her American Indian Hispanic community. Most Indian women they don't last. Much beyond 60. You know and that's pretty pretty a young age. She had an American Indian mother and a Hispanic father. Her children's father is an African American. This pains her children have inherited genes from the three highest risk groups for developing diabetes. The odds are stacked against them. My children will develop it they will. I have it everyone in my fit family had it in the female side. On my sons their dad have it. So it's covered. It's going to come down and. Now she's determined to watch for signs of diabetes in her children and grandchildren. Once a week alone or lures them all home with a promise of good home cooking.
We got everything we got our dairy we got our vegetables got the corn tortillas we got way too with the Beav was always good. And we just keep the grease down. Yeah very nutritious. And they love it. Two hours after dinner she tests her children's blood sugar levels. OK mister. Get it. He would be good but Iran had it right and if so killed that. Girl. 1:13 good jab there. Back back back. You can see the full story on health diary this Sunday afternoon at 12:30 and Katie see a channel to the greater Minnesota please check your local listings. Now this weekend a movie is going to be playing in Minneapolis that is truly going to make history.
The movie is called The last broadcast this part I'm not too crazy about it. Murder mystery about the killing of two popular public TV personalities Where's Kim stone anyway and what makes this movie historic is not the plot but the technology and here to talk about that is this the Robinson a former Katie C a staffer who is now moved up in the world and now works out of New York. Thanks for coming on down and good if you've got a channel to know but it's nice to know your career is moving along and thrilled to be back. This is new technology what are we talking about here this is going to be shown via satellite right. Well originally the movie was it's a digital video. It was made for under a thousand dollars it's a feature film for under a thousand dollars using mostly digital technology. It was edited on a home PC so the making of the movie was quite revolutionary. And when I saw this film I thought this is a movie that people should see it's great it's smart it's funny. It also represents a new wave of filmmaking which involves digital video.
The three of us got together back in second use a satellite now it will be shown. I'll get to that. OK so the three of us got together we formed a company and decided we were going to take this to the people and that we didn't want to transfer to film which that technology is available but very expensive. And that was how you would normally see it in a movie theater. And we partnered with a number of technology companies company called cyber star which is a division of L'Oreal digital projection Incorporated which makes these really amazing digital projectors and Texas Instruments which makes these really cool chips that live in these projectors. And we created a system where. In conjunction with cyber start where the movie is MPEG encoded it sent to a network operation center in Mountain View California. It then gets beamed about twenty two thousand three hundred miles into the sky for those who weren't sure is like right now you go to the movies and say if you see Star Trek or Titanic or anything. Each theater has its own projector and they're running that film and it was shot until metal meaning wore it out and it's getting ragged if you see all the garbage that comes on the screen in the film and it's all messy. This
technology you don't have any of that is fed from one location and it can be shown to theaters all an infinite number of theaters. We've outfitted five different theaters nationally one in Providence one in Portland Orlando Minneapolis and Philadelphia. You talked about the cost. That is a major changing revelation for independent filmmakers to have to not spend so much money on film and having those copies made. You know and it's a major expense saver even in general in terms of the industry because imagine you know how many theaters to get you know Saving Private Ryan. Eventually those movie theaters will get instead of a huge canister of 35 millimeter film. They're going to get a satellite beam that's going to go out to thousands and thousands of theaters internationally. The folks in Hollywood are kind of watching us right now it is definitely them for us. Yeah no I mean it's been a very heady few few months. And the experimental is this is this ready to move into reality like all the big
you know I mean one of the things that struck us when we were devising this this system was that the projection systems are finally cinematic. You can think back to when you've gone to a sports bar and you've seen that sort of murky football game and that's not something you'd want to pay money to go see in the cinema. Texas Instruments develop these chips is one of them there's three in each camera. That's just that's not the whole movie. No no this is just the thing that's inside the projector. OK there's five hundred and eight thousand micro mirrors in this chip and there's three of these chips and they reconstruct the image so the image that you see that's fed from the cyber star goes from the dock to the satellite satellite to a PC server and nine gig Windows Server that is cabled. Projector which has these chips in it from digital projection incorporated. And then it gets shown on the screen and that image is incredibly data rich and it's a beautiful image and that's what allowed us to do the release ever Those want to see this movie about the PBS or the public television personalities being murdered. When is this and where were the U Film Society on Friday
Saturday and Sunday at 7:15 and 9:15 and again 5:15 on Saturday and Sunday. All right great technology I hope it goes well for you. I think really is ahead of this time. And if you're at home watching me right now while that me you didn't get tickets for the Dylan concert in the Louvre. Well we have the next best thing coming right up. Even though Bob Dylan spent much of his childhood in the loop can you imagine he never played a concert there. So just think about the anticipation a lot of people felt about tonight's show our northern correspondent Jim Newman talk to a few of them this past week and here's his report. The concert was officially announced Dylan's most faithful fans flock to the deck the day before tickets went on sale. Dozens of people were already in line. You guys you know he's a legend in his own time. Now he's coming home. And we're here to see the thing about Dylan is that he's capable of doing a show you'll remember for a lifetime. And hopefully it'll be the kind of show any place or another it's somewhere special. He's playing in his hometown
but it's just great coming back and giving us the privilege of I guess the question is What's it going to be like here. I mean it'll be a great party you know tremendous spirit. I was really excited. I mean it's just I mean for a lot of reasons Number one it's been a challenge to get him here. So from that point of view it was great that you finally were able to do this and number two it's you know I'm not sure how he feels about Duluth what his sentiments are but I know the community is pretty proud of him. It's not I think I think Don is one of those acts that in the history of the grand scheme of music and rock and all he's had a very significant impact and I think the community at large is very Ury really recognizes that and is proud to say yeah he's from Duluth the premier Dylan fan in Duluth is probably John bushy. He hosts a weekly public radio program devoted to obscure Dylan performances and he's an avid collector of Dylan memorabilia was a photo of Bob
Dylan and Joan Baez performing together from the Rolling Thunder Review sure. It's a photo that was for the book by Sam Shepard called Rolling Thunder logbook. When Joan Baez performed in Minneapolis I met her and and I had her autograph it horsefly optimist one of my ultimate goals is Dreams of you to have a photo as well. So anybody has any answer let me know that I don't care if I get it done and someone else says you know I say a monograph on two. Minutes. Robert Zimmerman was born in Duluth in 1941. He lived in this house in the central hillside neighborhood before moving north to the Iron Range when he was six. He graduated from Hibbing High School in 1959 left town and didn't look back. As Bob Dylan. He continuously reinvented himself going from folk troubadour to rock rebel to rock star.
Now he's on the endless tour. Traveling from town to town as America's unofficial songwriter emeritus. By all accounts he's left far behind. But folks in Hibbing say he still comes home from time to time. I don't know I don't know my neighbor across the alley before Snyder. Says he. Wants to drive around. I've never seen him. She just said I'll tell you if I see a boat the only sign of building you're giving now is this restaurant which boasts a modest collection of Dylan artifacts and then a jersey was a big booster. Well for us it's just a wonderful event. We're having Bob Dylan for the next week until we get to the Dead concert. People have been calling us like crazy I mean it's something really special because he's never performed in the area locally. You know we've always heard about the Dylan concert somewhere else whether it be in the Twin Cities or other states and you know we've been hearing rumors
for six or seven years that the deck but they can't quite get it in. So this is really just perfect for us to finally have them in the area just down Howard Street at range sports custom art. Another deal in Die Hard has put together a unique gift. He hopes to give to Bob. I'm going to see what this is a. Leather jacket from 1959 that we like to present to Bob Dylan from the community of having to show him how much we appreciate their costume accomplishments he's had in the music business. And they were very proud that he was a former resident of Hibbing and hopefully that he will get this at the concert in Duluth and that he'll be very proud to wear it. Mike may not get to see Bob where the letter jacket but he'll for sure be at the concert just in case something wonderful happens. That's also true for Frank Nichols first in line to buy a ticket. Number one. Frank doesn't have a lot to say but he's been practicing his harmonica. And
hey. If Dylan asks him to come on stage and jam. He's ready. And thanks to Jim for that report and also the folks at our sister station WDSU in the movie where Jim is based. And guess what there is not much more of me to say except get out and enjoy the weather tomorrow it's going to be sunny all across the state high temperatures from the mid 60s up north the low 70s in the south. And of course don't forget all mean act tomorrow night Senator Rod Grams will be on. And remember to join Ken St. this Saturday night. It's going to be a special gubernatorial debates. Norm and Jesse will be there that is six o clock Saturday evening. I do want to say thanks for watching frikken stone and everybody here I'm going to harvest next week. NEWSNIGHT Minnesota is made possible in part with support from the London Foundation
creating a stronger Minnesota by bridging rural and urban communities. The McKnight foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life for Minnesota families arts reporting on NEWSNIGHT is supported by a grant from the Dayton Hudson foundation on behalf of Dayton's Bourbons California and Target stores.
Series
NewsNight Minnesota
Episode Number
6031
Episode
NewsNight Minnesota Episode from 10/22/1998
Title
SD-Base
Contributing Organization
Twin Cities Public Television (St. Paul, Minnesota)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/77-17crkb76
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Description
Series Description
Minnesota's statewide news program which aired from 1994 to 2001. Hosted by Lou Harvin, Ken Stone, Mary Lahammer and Jim Neumann.
Broadcast Date
1998-10-22
Genres
News
News Report
Topics
News
News
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:28:10
Embed Code
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Credits
Producer: Steve Spencer
AAPB Contributor Holdings
Twin Cities Public Television (KTCA-TV)
Identifier: SP-20395-2 (tpt Protrack Database)
Format: Betacam: SP
Generation: Dub
Duration: 00:26:46?
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Citations
Chicago: “NewsNight Minnesota; 6031; NewsNight Minnesota Episode from 10/22/1998; SD-Base,” 1998-10-22, Twin Cities Public Television, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 29, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-77-17crkb76.
MLA: “NewsNight Minnesota; 6031; NewsNight Minnesota Episode from 10/22/1998; SD-Base.” 1998-10-22. Twin Cities Public Television, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 29, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-77-17crkb76>.
APA: NewsNight Minnesota; 6031; NewsNight Minnesota Episode from 10/22/1998; SD-Base. Boston, MA: Twin Cities Public Television, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-77-17crkb76