Minnesota Public Radio Stories

• New health commissioner inherits troubled department
  Sanne Magnan will be inheriting a Health Department that has some current and past employees demoralized and distressed.4:50 p.m.
• Magnan named new health commissioner
  Minnesota's next top health official will be Dr. Sanne Magnan, the head of an organization that aims to improve the quality of health care.5:20 p.m.
• Not all favor restoring Clean Water Act
  Clean water legislation sponsored by 8th District U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar is stirring opposition from county officials and property rights groups. At the first of four public hearings, there were angry county commissioners from about a half-dozen counties.5:24 p.m.
• A refugee camp springs up in Minneapolis
  International humanitarian organization, Medicins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, has set up a mock refugee camp in Loring Park in Minneapolis. Its aim is to raise awareness of the 33 million people uprooted by war.5:50 p.m.
• A Capitol photographer
  The Minnesota State Capitol building has been around for 102 years. For almost a third of that time, Tom Olmscheid has been taking pictures of it.5:54 p.m.
• Per Petterson rides 'Horses' to the literary forefront
  Per Petterson's book "Out Stealing Horses" catapulted the Norwegian author into the forefront of European literature.6:20 p.m.

National Public Radio Stories

• Troops Fire on Protesters in Myanmar
  Myanmar's military rulers have accelerated a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators, including the Buddhist monks who have spearheaded the daily protests. Security forces conducted overnight raids on several monasteries. As a result, far fewer monks participated in Thursday's march, giving security forces more latitude to crack down on the ordinary citizens who did show up.
• New Myanmar Protests Are Rooted in 1988 Uprising
  Min Myo, also known as Zaw Zaw, is a computer network engineer who volunteers with the U.S. Campaign for Burma and Amnesty International. Zaw Zaw says he and his colleagues from the 1988 student uprising in Burma — for which he was imprisoned for four months — use the Web to stay in touch. The government controls most access to the Internet, but some people have access via satellite to an Internet Service Provider in Thailand, and the government has not been able to completely shut this down. Zaw Zaw tells NPR's Melissa Block that while he still gets e-mails from Burma, but they come to him anonymously, and the e-mails don't name the people who have been killed or arrested.
• U.S. Punishes Myanmar's Leadership; Will It Help?
  The Bush administration says it is imposing economic sanctions against 14 senior officials of Myanmar's government. Robert Siegel talks with David Cortright, author of Sanctions Decade and scholar at the University of Notre Dame, about the impact of sanctions on the regime in Myanmar.
• Strong Extragalactic Radio Burst Poses a Mystery
  Astronomers have a mystery on their hands, after a radio telescope in Australia detected an extremely brief, but extremely strong, pulse of radio waves. There was just one pulse, but based on its strength and the way the signal arrived at Earth, astronomers estimate it came from something 1 billion light years away. There is only speculation about what the "something" was.
• The Buzz on the New Fall '08 TV Season
  Robert Siegel talks with Alan Sepinwall, a TV reviewer for The Newark Star Ledger, about the shows that have critics excited about the fall TV line up — and which ones just have them disappointed.
• TV on the Internet: Networks Spread Strategy
  The big networks are rolling out their new seasons this week — and not just on TV. They are also presenting their new shows, and some old favorites, on the Internet. NBC is allowing free downloads, with restrictions, of its shows — it streamed the first episode of the new season of Friday Night Lights on Yahoo before it was broadcast.
• Senate Could Override Bush SCHIP Veto
  The Senate has approved a bill to renew and expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program, a bill President Bush has promised to veto. With the support of 18 Republicans, Senate Democrats have more than enough votes for a veto override, but the House does not.
• Tobacco Tax Would Fund SCHIP Boost
  Congress plans to use a hike in the federal tobacco tax to pay for an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. Public health advocates say the move to a $1-per-pack excise tax on cigarettes will bring down smoking rates. But President Bush says the plan raises taxes for working people, and promises a veto.
• National Guard Works to Ease Soldiers' Return
  Minnesota's National Guard has launched a series of reintegration workshops for soldiers returning from extended tours in Iraq. The workshops focus on helping combat-weary soldiers and their families deal with domestic problems that sometimes befall them.
• Letters: 10th Mountain Division, Iran and Yawns
  This week's listener letters range in topics from the Army's Tenth Mountain, to the Iranian president, to the art of the yawn.

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