NewsNight Minnesota; 5059; NewsNight Minnesota Episode from 12/10/1997; SD-Base

NEWSNIGHT Minnesota is a production of Katy CA with the stations of Minnesota Public Television. Tonight on NEWSNIGHT all they want for Christmas. A preview of what lawmakers will ask for in the new legislative year. Then Catholic Charities dares the public to put them out of business and end poverty as we know it. Plus the plan to avoid floods in Grand Forks to address sticky too costly. It's NEWSNIGHT for Wednesday December 10. Tonight's broadcast of NEWSNIGHT Minnesota is presented in part by Norwest banks contributing to the growth of the Twin Cities through support and community service and by General Mills a manufacturer of healthy foods and snacks. Good evening and welcome to NEWSNIGHT. I'm Kathy words there a lot's Just ahead the first Ken Stone with a summary of today's news from around the state. Thanks Kathleen yesterday in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks for the first time officials got a look at what would have to be demolished and what would be saved if the Army Corps of Engineers has its way with a new diking plan. The

idea is to provide protection against floods like this one this past spring by radically altering the city scapes. But while the flood was devastating enough some local officials are wondering if this medicine is more painful than the problem it seeks to cure. Hundreds of buildings would have to be abandoned or destroyed to make way for the dikes and today only the plans for the dike that will run on the north side of the city's was released and next month the South Side plan will be made public. A final decision where the dikes will go slated to be made in February. Up river in Fargo North Dakota a new business could be moving to town a car business. Local investor Lloyd Steinmetz wants to move the global electric motor cars manufacturing plant from its current home in Columbia Missouri to Fargo. The plant would produce about 3000 electric cars each year and employ about 40 workers. Price tag for one of the smallest autos is about 60 $400 on the Iron Range the taconite industry is booming for the fourth year in a row. Production at seven area plants has topped 40 million

tons. Projections are that 1997 will be the most productive year for taconite on the range since 1981. Numbers like these could make the 1990s the most productive decade for the taconite industry ever. Just south of the range in Duluth about 50 people gathered today at the government services building to rally against recent cuts in welfare. A coalition of labor leaders advocates for low income people and others protested the lack of living wage jobs available especially for those people who are being forced off welfare then to work. A study they presented today showed that for every 70 workers in Minnesota there's only one job available which pays a livable wage. Now they define a livable wage as $26000 a year for a family of three. OK now let's move diagonally Southwest almost 200 miles to Vesta Minnesota. That is the site of a controversial one room school for members of a conservative Christian sect. And today a federal appeals court refused to reconsider a decision made in August that upheld the constitutionality of that school and that means the school will continue teaching kids

without the aid of technology like computers. Sect members refused to use many kinds of technology. Critics had argued that public dollars were being used for essentially a religious school. Now we have news from all over the Midwest today. You might save big money there but the owner of Menards is about to pay big money. John Menard owner of the chain of home improvement stores based in Auclair Wisconsin has been fined almost two million dollars for improperly handling and dumping wood ash which contained hazardous by products. Menard pleaded no contest to 21 charges of violating pollution laws. Some of the money will go to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in St. Paul a fight is brewing between a developer and historic preservationist. The owner of the 93 year old crane building in Lower Town says he's been losing money on the building which has been mostly empty for 20 years. He wants permission to tear it down and put in a parking lot. Preservation to say the idea is a terrible one and not every old building can or should be said but it's very clear that there are buildings equally old if not older

around here that have been said have been brought back. So the so that that could happen here too. I have absolutely no doubt that. Mo is a Minnesota native who is currently president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation of the city of St. Paul has a historic preservation commission that will consider the issue at a meeting tomorrow. Now for the final headlight headline rather last night we showed you this video and reported that the Grinch had stolen Christmas bells from the side of the 56 foot tall Salvation Army kettle of hope in downtown St. Paul. The Grinch if you could call them that actually were St. Paul city workers who had removed the bells without telling the Salvation Army which then reported him missing. Seems someone had vandalized the six foot high bells so the workers took them off to restore them but then decided they were too far gone to repair. A story does have a happy ending sentry college which is offered to build new bells. Hey there you go. Thank You can appreciate it. Well go ahead.

What is out of business. That was the challenge issued late this afternoon by Catholic Charities. Now during the holidays and this year's season in particular when the economy is going gangbusters and unemployment is at record lows it's easy to overlook the need all around but it's there. Here are some of the figures Catholic Charities released today. More than one hundred five thousand needed the group's help in 1906 the latest figures available. More than 360000 people needed a bed at least for a night here in Minnesota. More than 26 million dollars were spent by this one agency alone. Well Monsignor Jerome Boxleitner is director of Catholic Charities for Minnesota. We're glad you're on the program tonight. Boy that was an interesting statement help put us out of business. Isn't that though what might happen under welfare reform. Everything works ok. Not really. I prefer to call welfare change than reform. I think what we've done is taken away entitlements from people people are no longer entitle to aid in spite of the fact that they still need it. I think your

news commentary was very significant tonight. There are all kinds of jobs out there but very few pay a living wage. So what we're seeing is an enormous increase of women and mothers and children coming to our food shelves coming to our meals programs and so forth. And this is bothersome nationally 11 percent increase in food services this past year and we're experiencing about the same here in the Twin Cities. What is the role Monsignor of Catholic Charities in moving folks from welfare to work. Well we help with job placement and getting people job ready but we also recognize that there are some folks who are not going to be job ready. These are folks who you see institutionalized but we've closed a lot of those and frankly they're on the streets. I just left a place in Minneapolis where 250 men will be sleeping on mats every night and they can't get out of the mess they're in. They can earn a little money but not enough to get a room anywhere and they

can't work all the time. And if they go in remission OK but otherwise it's very tough. When you hear government officials say they want more private sector help Catholic Charities how strapped are you. Well we're strapped in the middle of our fund right now and I don't really know how it's going to go but we hope it certainly goes very well because we're going to need additional funding this coming year as more food stamp cuts go into effect and more of the welfare thing kicks in. How are how do we stack up in Minnesota versus nationally and when it comes to some of the problems that you have already outlined for us. We do very well in Minnesota. We're the 11th best state for welfare benefits. But still there are all kinds of folks who are going to be in need. Mainly it's the housing issue. Affordable housing is really. Very low bail ability.

We run what we call the exits hotel in Minneapolis with heads 90 rooms. This is where people are working and they pay forty two dollars a week in advance. And we will turn away five hundred fifty people this year. Who cannot afford anything else and we don't have room for them. That shows the desperation of the housing situation. This credit card across all lines in terms of do you see more women with children versus more families versus We're seeing more families but we're seeing an awful lot of single men because General Assistance is pretty well the eliminated for most single men and they're really struggling a lot of those are the folks who are sleeping on the floors. Final question for you. You mentioned that you're in the middle of your fund drive right now. Where do you get the best majority of your money from the archdiocese. Well we get some from the archdiocese but from the general public we will raise about four and a half million we hope before this is over. Well good luck to you. Thank you very much. Happy Holidays and you.

All right. Oh. Have you done your holiday shopping yet. And No. It's not a good thing you know. OK. We have even started yet. Not to. Start. Let's start. So what your payments start. Maybe next week. But I'd be bored thinking about it and not actually. Buying. Anything yet. So what is one thing that you've been thinking about. When I'm going to get my family and one thing in my mind that night and I gotta. Make my big gift that I'm giving this year is the. Sufferer. I'm taking my aunt my mother on the sofa for Christmas. So I'm

excited about that too because it's more for certain. If you're like most people you haven't gotten to the bottom of your Christmas shopping list yet or even started like me but you've been pretty good at figuring out what it is you want for the holidays. Lawmakers are no different except that for them Christmas comes in one month and about nine days. January 20th at noon to be exact that's when the legislature convenes for its regular session. So on tonight's panel a preview of what's to come. Bill Whero is a Capitol reporter for The Associated Press Gary Miller is here she's the political reporter for Kay arre TV channel 11. And this guy you know him he's Michael Kay He's our political reporter for NEWSNIGHT and Almanack here on Channel 2. I'm sorry. First the revenue forecast. Big budget surplus. Senator Linda runback out today saying in big income tax cut she kind of follows along the lines of Steves would have said the same thing and some other folks might. What's

likely to happen really. Income tax cuts business tax you know again said the day after the big surplus came out that. He thought they could come in and pass a bonding bill find a way to spend that money and go home. And that may be what happens. There'll be some arguments about how to spend the money but that may be what the sum total session. I think that this question is whether you think Minnesotans are overtaxed or whether you think the economy is just really revved up right now and that's kind of the philosophical debate. If you think that it's the economy then they'll do sort of the one time tax cut such as the governor is suggesting another property tax rebate. If you think that that we're over taxed then you go for one of these permanent income tax cuts and then the question then becomes how do you pay for a permanent tax cut after this by an absolutely. Well Bill where I mean where the politics of what we have going on here when it comes to what to do with this money it's an election year so they're going to be climbing all over themselves trying to figure out. How they can give it back and how much of it they can give back I don't think there's any question that

you know tax cutting is in the air. And with the house up for election next year they're going to be very eager to be handing out money. Now do you think let me just add to that Kathy I one of the things I think also that voters out there better prepare for is when the house is out there campaigning knocking on the door Hey remember us we're the ones who gave you back that money I mean this is not going to be something that they don't hear about a lot. Yes it will be interesting to see to how the Republicans and the Democrats play this because the speaker of the house Phil Carruthers a Democrat he has talked about doing something with education you know the state taking over a bigger share of the cost of education and take some of the pressure off the property taxpayers where as Steve says let's do it on the income tax let's make it a permanent tax cut let's keep government at the size it's at now and so that'll be sort of the campaign themes too as the session goes I don't hear anyone whispering about using maybe some money for a stadium but no way out of this.

No in fact you know I've asked a lot of people about that lately and nobody wants to take surplus money. Yet at least and put it into a stadium it would be hard to imagine who could come out and make a good case for that. I can't picture how that would go can you. No because that is the one thing that people said loud and clear. No tax money no general fund money and that's what the surplus is general fund tax money. Speaking of stadiums and the twins do you think anyone. How did what difference would it make if Kirby Puckett actually decides to get involved in this in terms of some sort of an ownership deal. I mean you think lawmakers would look favorably on something like this. We're talking about that before we came in. I just can't see how it makes a big difference. Yes it's emotional and he's Mr. Baseball but does it really make a difference to the bottom line it's hard to see how it would add some goodwill goodwill to the equation which is important to get people focused on Kirby pocket maybe instead of Carl Pohlad who was just about out of goodwill at the Capitol. But.

At the Capitol lawmakers are really looking for a deal that will work if they're looking for anything. Right now this seems like a the full employment bill for you political reporters down there I mean this is like an issue that's never going to die unless I know you're left with well you know and I would I would be willing to bet that this issue will be around during the 98 session. But I kind of a I kind of agree with Kerry on it though that even if Kirby Puckett is involved with with 10 million dollars as he was quoted in the paper this morning is saying that's not much money when you look at the cost of the stadium overall and I don't see that the fundamentals have changed much. But who knows I mean there might be something that come out even though it seems like a long shot at this point. Well how about Attorney General Skip Humphrey vs. Governor Ernie Carlson this tobacco lawsuits spat between the two of them. Obviously we have politics I'm shocked running through this little fight between the two of them. What do you think.

Well don't all speak at once. I mean you know you have to supposed to go to trial on the same day the legislative session starts. And this is the big case that Minnesota is arguing against all the tobacco companies accusing him of fraud and violating some of the consumer protection laws. The governor came out last week sent a very strongly worded letter to every legislator saying that Humphrey is not sharing enough information with him that the thousands of hours of state staffers time have gone into helping Humphrey waged this case. Humphrey of course is running for governor on the DFI side. I don't know what's going to happen. I mean the My thought is that the way this has happened in other states is they've gone right up to the trial date and settled on a settlement. I don't know how it seemed to but I just I I had a difficult time pulling out exactly what it was that the governor was mad about. I know what's underneath it. But the news conference exactly what was it.

I don't I'm not going to find other nations the governor feeling. No it isn't that right there but your question or one right I think he may have very legitimate policy interest in settling but right next to that and the governor almost said as much last week. There are politics involved here he admitted that there are politics in everything that go on in the Capitol and of course he isn't running running again. But as Mike mentioned Skip Humphrey is running for governor and Republicans just can't let skip have too big a victory next year. And the little consultant that we talked to yesterday the day before said this could be a huge windfall for Skip Humphrey if they win. It's huge national news of course the risk is that they could also lose. But he could ride the tailwind of a huge court victory that will make national news into a pretty good issue and campaign and we're talking billions of dollars. Right and the other thing is that you know there's this private law firm in volved Robbins Kaplan's Miller and Cerise. And that's the governor in the Republican chair

have been upset about that saying that that's too sweet of a deal for them. Of course they don't get anything if the state doesn't win the case. Say another issue that came up which I thought was kind of interesting in a speech a backing off of asking for more casks in one thousand ninety eight I thought that was very interesting that the utility would do something like that. And the question we posed an almanac on Friday to the A.P. officials was well you know obviously do you feel that you were going to get pounded in 1900 and they said no. But you really do believe that nowhere. Oh I think there's a good chance they would have gotten pounded I talked to a reseller with a clean water action in the day that that was announced and I think her words were it was going to get really really ugly because A.P. had made this promise or at least what was perceived as a promise a couple of years ago and it would have looked bad for them to come back to the legislature and ask for more storage space. I get that I get the sense that the speaker of the house Phil Carruthers didn't want to deal with the issue right before the election. Again that is since they did the only story about that is Lauren Jennings was so involved in the twins and all through the stadium debate and also with A.P.

although the stadium debate he kept saying to me this is bad this is bad but it is not as bad as NSP. He said I went for days on end without getting any sleep I broke out in rashes So it's interesting that. They just get out of the stadium thing they might have been looking forward to this A.P. stuff and now that's kind of settle down. Representative Jennings was ready to get back into the NAACP debate right away and in fact he thinks that more storage is probably still needed out there eventually so. So he's still ready to take that on. Well if this one issue you all won't be covering I don't think in 1998 anyway. I think the big one is going to be bonding no. You have a good time with bonding. Do you think rationally because there's that 67 million dollars that St. Paul wants for the new hockey arena and of course the Norm Coleman change from a Democrat to a Republican his name is being mentioned as a possible gubernatorial candidate. So that one should be a little interesting isn't there talk of the Senator Mo might end up

actually chairing. There was talk that he said he what happens with it. I don't think you know he he was asked about that but he has been the one that he's been the one who said that if you're not going to vote for a stadium I don't see how you can turn around and vote for the money for the hockey arena too so he's definitely link those. Always interesting. You have great jobs. Thank you so much we'll talk to you all later. Well I tell you what I want you. Why have more people on the street here reveal what got you so far on their Christmas shopping lists. You're anything special that you would like to wish for during this holiday. I cry. I really mean I cry. World peace and no more money. Yeah. And here I am really wish for anything just whatever I did for it to get better. Probably. For my dad to come visit. You know I really don't think about that whole lot as far as what I'm going to get. I spend more time thinking about what I'm getting my kids and what they might enjoy. And. You know just watching them enjoy Christmas so. For me it doesn't really matter.

It's all for the kids and yeah it's for the kids. Well if you want an excuse to avoid shopping it will not come in the form of weather tomorrow in fact forecast right on for December. Mostly cloudy across the state but a partial clearing in the northwest and whether you live in Humboldt that's in the northwestern part of the state or Caledonia in the far southeast. Highs in the 20s tomorrow on NEWSNIGHT will be tuning in local author wrote the companion to the major motion picture on the stud opening this weekend. And Kirby Puckett takes a swing at ownership maybe. Until then good night. Tonight Minnesota is made possible by the contributors to the power of two campaigns program

fund with major grants from the London Foundation and the McKnight foundation. Tonight's broadcast of NEWSNIGHT Minnesota is presented in part by Norwest banks contributing to the growth of the Twin Cities through support and community service. And by General Mills a manufacturer of healthy food and snacks. How do you know I am the president here and get to see a welcome we are taking a break before we get to our wonderful celebration of programs and see the celebrating public television and the support and partnership we have with the community. Now I am particularly pleased to come to a station that has made the kind of commitment that this station had has to bring you NEWSNIGHT Minnesota. It really is a commitment to the community that is unparalleled within the public television system so I am very anxious to hear the phones ring this evening. It's a major commitment in terms of human resources and it's a major commitment in terms of financial

resources. You saw the credit at the end that a couple of major foundations McKnight and bland and some other donors launched this program a few years ago by infusing the station with the working capital to begin it but we are now in a phase of moving NEWSNIGHT Minnesota into our core operational budget which means that we need to count on you the people who rely on NEWSNIGHT Minnesota throughout the week for in-depth information for stories that go beyond violence to stories of interest to a greater Minnesota not just the Twin Cities to express your support very tangibly by pledging So if you are a NEWS NIGHT Minnesota fan if you enjoy if you enjoy the local productions here produced by Twin Cities public television. There's no better time than the present to pick up the phone and walk through the process of becoming a member of AA. It is a very simple process and we have some great incentives for you if you choose to make that call this evening which I hope you do. Thanks Jim I hope you do too two to nine fifteen hundred eighty two to nine fifteen hundred for your greater Minnesota that calls important enough we will pay for that call it's toll free. Those incentive start with

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Thank God I have in my hand the actual certificates I'm being mobbed as were. But at the $100 level you receive one certificate which is transferable and I say that for a reason we're going to illustrate momentarily here in at the $200 level you receive two 1000 mile certificates and 1 500 mile certificate for Tola 3 so that's twenty five hundred miles and you can give one like to the paper boy writes it and then sue CAN I can give Sue one and then I'll keep one for myself so you can make this gift go a lot farther. Tell me where some of the places we can go are having this conversation in just a little earlier. Yeah for around 20000 or 25000 miles you'd fly anywhere Northwest flies in North America Canada Florida. You can go to Europe for about 40000 miles. You can go to Africa Have you ever been to Africa I have never been to Africa. What about Alaska's heart Aska. That's not that's not us you know not to take us that's about 30000 miles. You could go to the Great Wall. Have you been. China I have never been to China. Have never been to Spain but I kind of like it. I kind of like the music that's going somewhere else to

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