Minnesota Public Radio Stories

• Toxic dust cleaned from Cass Lake homes
  About 30 homes in the contaminated St. Regis Superfund site in Cass Lake got a thorough cleaning over the past few weeks. The Environmental Protection Agency ordered the house cleanings after tests showed some household dust contained dangerous levels of dioxin and arsenic.4:48 p.m.
• Red River flood fight moves north
  Hundreds of volunteers were sandbagging in Fargo-Moorhead Monday as the Red River continues to rise. In Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, officials say they are well prepared for a river crest expected this weekend.5:19 p.m.
• Senate approves dedicated state money for outdoors, arts
  The Minnesota Senate has approved legislation that lets voters decide whether to raise sales taxes to benefit environmental programs and the arts.5:23 p.m.
• Amid increasing violence, fear that people will avoid Minneapolis
  As spring weather coaxes more people out of their homes, Minneapolis business owners worry another high-profile killing may cause people to avoid the city if it gets a reputation for violence in high-profile areas. All Things Considered host Tom Crann talked with Mayor R.T. Rybak.5:45 p.m.

National Public Radio Stories

• Supreme Court Won't Hear Padilla Detainee Case
  The Supreme Court declines to review the case of Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen arrested in Chicago and held without charges for more than three years. The government initially declared Padilla an enemy combatant. The justices warned that if Padilla's status changed again, they would return to the case.
• U.S., Britain Exhort Iraqi Leaders to Compromise
  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her British counterpart, Jack Straw, push to end a political impasse in Baghdad as they wrap up a two-day trip to Iraq. The Shiite Alliance's nominee to head the new government, interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al Jaafari, has been asked by some to step down.
• Powerful Storms Kill Dozens in Tennessee, Midwest
  Authorities struggle to cope with destruction caused by a series of tornadoes and storms that swept the South and Midwest. At least 27 people died as a result of the storms, most of them in the western portion of Tennessee. The storms hit five other states, downing power lines and damaging homes.
• Chevy's Make-Your-Own SUV Ads Go Off Message
  Chevrolet has run into problems with its innovative Internet ad campaign for the Chevy Tahoe, which gives site visitors wide latitude in creating their own Tahoe ads. But the campaign, tied in with a contest for The Apprentice TV show, has created a somewhat of a backlash.
• New Bifocals Activated with Flip of a Switch
  Bifocal glasses haven't changed much since the days of Benjamin Franklin. The wearer must change their sight angle to switch from one lens to another. But now a researcher has developed a way for liquid crystal material to instantly switch from seeing near to far across the eyeglasses' entire field of view.
• Moussaoui Eligible for Execution
  Federal jury returns its decision that confessed terror conspirator Zacaria Moussaoui should face the possibility of the death penalty.
• New Orleans Mayor: No More FEMA Trailers in City
  New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says he will no longer allow FEMA to put trailers in his city as temporary housing for residents displaced by hurricanes. He says he made the decision after some people from the federal agency mistreated residents of the Algiers neighborhood.
• Baseball: Opening Day, Steroid Night
  With Major League Baseball entering the first full day of games, Satirist Harry Shearer offers his take on Opening Day.
• Remembering a Soldier: Carlos Gonzalez
  Army Communications Spec. Carlos Gonzalez of Middletown, N.Y., was killed in Tikrit. Gonzalez lived with his wife and daughter near Ft. Campbell, Ky., where he was based. He was buried in Fairview, N.J., this past weekend.
• Taylor Faces War Crimes Hearing
  Charles Taylor is set to make his initial appearance before the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The hearing will be before Justice Richard Lussick, the presiding judge. Taylor faces an 11-count amended indictment on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law.
• U.S. Slow to Change Internet Gaming Laws
  A dispute over Internet gambling between the United States and the tiny Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda threatens to be renewed, as the deadline for U.S. legal changes has arrived. After Antigua won its World Trade Organization case, forcing the United States to regulate, not merely outlaw, Internet gambling, the issue seemed settled. But American law hasn't changed in accordance with the ruling. Antigua is contemplating its options.
• Iraq: Civil War By Any Other Name
  NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says that Iraq is not "on the edge" of civil war: It is already enmeshed in one.
• 'High Lonesome' From Joyce Carol Oates
  Alan Cheuse reviews High Lonesome, a volume of stories new and old from Joyce Carol Oates.
• Chinese Cab Drivers Protest Squeeze at Pump
  China's government has warned taxi companies around the country to prevent possible strikes by cabbies upset at a rise in gas prices this week. Taxi drivers from several provinces have converged on Beijing in recent days to petition the government. They complain that government monopolies and a lack of independent unions mean cabbies and consumers -- but not the taxi companies -- are bearing the brunt of the price hike. NPR's Anthony Kuhn rides with and talks to taxi drivers whose efforts to organize unions and protests have been thwarted.
• Tornado's Wrath Demolishes Half a Town
  A tornado has destroyed nearly half the town of Marmaduke, Arkansas. Melissa Block talks with Chief Tommy Baker of the Rector, Ark., police.

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