Minnesota Public Radio Stories

• University hires Brewster as football coach
  The University of Minnesota has hired Denver Broncos tight ends coach Tim Brewster to be its new head football coach.5:20 p.m.
• What the students think
  It's a period of big changes for the Gopher football team. In addition to its new head coach, the university will soon start construction of a $288 million open-air football stadium. Tom Crann stoppped by Coffman Union on the university's East Bank. He heard what some of the school's 50,000 students think about the U's football program and its new head coach.5:23 p.m.
• St. Paul cracks down on rental housing
  St. Paul City Council members say too many landlords are neglecting their properties. They say it's unsafe for tenants and creating blight in the city's neighborhoods.5:44 p.m.
• Minnesotans rescue lost woman in New Mexico
  Carolyn Dorn had been lost in the New Mexico wildnerness for five weeks. Search-and-rescue teams gave up looking for her after three. Last week two brothers from Minnesota did what the rescuers couldn't: they found Dorn alive and got her to safety. Peter and Albert Kottke of Rochester were hiking near New Mexico's Gila River when they found her. They hiked 20 miles out of the wilderness and alerted authorities late on Saturday. The next day, a National Guard helicopter picked up Carolyn Dorn based on the Kottke's description. Tom Crann reached Peter Kottke today in Madison, Wisc., and asked him to describe the landscape where this story played out.5:50 p.m.

National Public Radio Stories

• Hitler's Youth: 'Castle in the Forest'
  Norman Mailer has just published his first novel in 10 years. The book, called The Castle in the Forest, tells the story of Adolf Hitler's childhood.
• California Weighs Solutions to a Shrinking Sea
  In the lower corner of eastern California, you'll find the Salton Sea. It's not really a sea, but it is the Golden State's largest lake and a prime resting spot for thousands of migrating birds. But the sea is getting too salty to sustain wildlife. So the state is proposing ten different ways to save the habitat, with each option costing millions of dollars.
• Katrina Insurance Punishment Tops $2 Million
  State Farm Insurance has been ordered to pay $2.5 million in punitive damages for denying a claim on a house destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The judge in the case ruled earlier that the company had failed to prove that damage to the house in question was caused by water and not wind. Wind damage is covered under a regular homeowners' insurance policy, but damage from water is not.
• Locked Up and Forgotten: Flaws in New Orleans
  What if you were locked in jail, and nobody knew you were there? That's happened to at least a handful of prisoners in New Orleans. Lawyers and volunteers have found people lost in the prisons and brought them to the attention of the city's courts.
• U.S. Faces a Drop in Ability to Monitor Climate
  The U.S. capability to monitor the Earth's weather and climate is "at great risk," according to a new report by the National Academy of Sciences. The report says that budget cuts and other problems will mean fewer observation instruments in orbit over the coming years.
• British Prosecutors Show Video of Attack Attempt
  A British court has been shown dramatic film footage that prosecutors say shows a would-be suicide bomber trying to detonate a bomb in a London underground train on July 21, 2005. The footage was shown on the second day of the trial of six men accused of failed attacks on the London transport system.
• Challenge: Getting Kids to Eat, and Think, Right
  It's natural for a mother to want her daughters to have a healthy self-image. And at the same time, they could actually be healthy. A recent article piece in The New York Times highlighted a school in Pennsylvania that sends kids home with their Body Mass Index scores — even as it serves funnel cakes for breakfast.
• In Afghanistan, Gates Hears of Rise in Violence
  Violence in Afghanistan is at a six-year high, according to top U.S. commanders there. The officers spoke to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who also met with NATO commanders and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Gates is on the latest stop on a whirlwind tour through Europe and the Middle East.
• Lewis Libby Trial Moves Ahead with Jury Process
  Jury selection begins in the trial of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame CIA leak case. Libby is charged with repeatedly lying under oath.
• Military Personnel Present Iraq Petition at Capitol
  Active-duty members of the U.S. armed forces visit Capitol Hill to present more than 1,000 signatures demanding that lawmakers cut off funding for the Iraq war. They say that most of the people who signed the Appeal for Redress have served in Iraq, while others expect to be sent there.
• Bombings Underscore U.N. Report on Iraqi Deaths
  A double bomb attack at Al-Mustansiriya University in east Baghdad has killed 60 students, faculty and employees. The university, near the infamous slum of Sadr City, has been frequently attacked by car bombs and IEDs since Saddam's fall. The United Nations says that more than 34,000 civilians were killed in Iraq in 2006.
• Panhandlers: America's Vanishing Street Artists?
  Commentator Andrei Codrescu gets corrected by a panhandler friend after Codrescu says in a public comment that "panhandlers are vanishing." This provides an opportunity for Codrescu to reflect on the art and meaning of asking for coins on the street.
• Frost Strikes California's Citrus, Avocado Crops
  An unusually harsh winter frost has wiped out as much as three-quarters of California's citrus crop, and is killing off avocados and flowers as well. The financial impact on growers could be significant.
• An Album from an 'Idol'
  Taylor Hicks won last year's season of American Idol, the Fox television show where the audience chooses the singer they like best. The Birmingham, Ala., native got more than 63 million votes. But it's one thing to win a nationwide talent contest. It's quite another to launch a singing career, which Hicks has done on his self-titled debut.
• Rice Pushes New U.S. Troop Buildup to Arab Leaders
  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is meeting with Arab leaders to promote President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq. But Arab leaders mistrust Iraq's government and are dubious about the new proposal. In urging acceptance of the plan, Rice told her Saudi counterpart that positive change only comes out of challenging times.

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