Minnesota Public Radio Stories

• Cabin owners surprised by big increase in taxes
  St. Louis County is asking the state to reconsider a big tax increase for people who lease public property for hunting or lake cabins. For some, the hike could put the family lake cabin at risk.5:20 p.m.
• BMI could join MCA in Minnesota schools
  Two measures working their way through the Legislature would add put more emphasis on matters of students' weight and physical activity.5:24 p.m.
• Petition drive to ban most abortions in South Dakota
  South Dakota voters could once again, decide if abortions should be banned in the state. A group is circulating petitions for a ballot measure in November.5:50 p.m.
• Study finds STDs in a quarter of U.S. teen girls
  A first-of-its-kind government study found that a quarter of teenage girls in the U.S. has a sexually transmitted disease. By far the most common is human papillomavirus, an infection that can lead to cervical cancer.5:54 p.m.

National Public Radio Stories

• Computer Science Course Enrollment Dips in U.S.
  The number of students enrolled in computer science programs is at its lowest in at least a decade. "Comp Sci" was one of the hottest majors during the dot-com boom of the late '90s. Now, despite a strong market for IT professionals and a resurgence in Web millionaires, college students just aren't interested in studying computing.
• Candidates Should Quit Making Campaign Promises
  NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr calls for a moratorium on campaign policy promises from the presidential candidates. He says history — and recent statements by campaign advisers for Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — suggest that the positions candidates take during an election actually say little about what they'll do in office.
• Grace Settles $250 Million Asbestos Suit in Montana
  The Environmental Protection Agency announced a record settlement with W.R. Grace and Co. for the cleanup of asbestos materials in the town of Libby, Mont. The company will pay $250 million toward the massive cleanup effort. Hundreds of residents in the town have been sickened and killed by asbestos-related diseases.
• Study Finds No Link Between Saddam, bin Laden
  A Pentagon-sponsored study of 600,000 Iraqi documents captured after the 2003 invasion shows that no direct operation link existed between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. The Bush administration claimed such a relationship to support its arguments for invading Iraq.
• Massachusetts Makes Strides in Math Curriculum
  The "fuzzy" math lessons that kids come home with drive parents crazy and confuse even teachers. Two years ago, the Bush administration asked a panel of experts to bring more coherence and depth to the math curriculum. But only one state has even come close to doing what the panel envisions: Massachusetts.
• Cassini to Capture Clues from Saturn's Icy Moon
  The Cassini spacecraft is on track Wednesday to skim past Saturn's moon, Enceladus, right through the plume of an "ice geyser" that is throwing material out into space and may be fed by an underground ocean. Scientists say Enceladus is the sort of place that theoretically could support some form of life.
• Remembering Roosevelt's First 'Fireside Chat'
  Melissa Block remembers Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first "fireside chat" as president, which he delivered on March 12, 1933 — 75 years ago Wednesday. Roosevelt had been in office just eight days and had little time to waste, as the country needed reassuring.
• Spitzer to Step Down; Paterson to Step In
  New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has announced that he is resigning. Spitzer will step down on Monday and hand over the reins of power to Lt. Governor David Paterson. Spitzer had been under intense pressure to resign after federal law enforcement alleged that he had paid large sums of cash to a high-class call girl agency.
• Tribe Views Whale Hunters as Heroes, Nuisances
  Five Makah Indians are facing charges of illegally killing a gray whale in the waters off Washington state. The tribe has been waiting years for a government permit to hunt. The tribal government has expressed disapproval, but some see the move as civil disobedience.
• Ferraro Quits Clinton Job After Obama Comments
  Throughout the Democratic race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, issues of race and gender have arisen in controversial ways. The latest: Geraldine Ferraro's comment to a California newspaper that "(i)f Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position." She subsequently quit her position with the Clinton campaign.
• Is 'First Lady' a Foreign Policy Credential?
  Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton talks a lot about the importance of her experience as first lady. She says it's an important foreign policy credential, but her opponent Barack Obama takes issue with that.
• Austin Arts Festival Adds Technology Component
  One of the country's most popular arts festivals, "South by Southwest" in Austin, Texas, hosted a mind-bending series of technology conversations this week, ranging from global political activists using mobile technology in novel ways to fighting the paucity of American women in the tech sector.
• Bill Gates Targets Visa Rules for Tech Workers
  Microsoft's Bill Gates testifies before Congress about the need to make it easier to hire foreign-born workers. He says the U.S. is losing its position as the global innovation leader due to limits on H1-B visas for these employees.
• Microsoft Worker in Beijing: Focus Is Collaboration
  Tieyan Liu of Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing says that as a researcher, he isn't focused on the competition, but rather on his own projects — and on how best to collaborate with his colleagues in the U.S. He reflects on what his facility has meant for Chinese-educated researchers and for the country's universities.
• Spitzer, a Clinton Fan, Loses Superdelegate Status
  New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was a superdelegate to the Democratic nominating convention, but only because he was governor. A Democratic National Committee official confirmed that when Spitzer resigned, he lost his superdelegate status, along with his pledged vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton.

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