SaveWCAL files Appeal Reply Brief

On June 24, 2009, SaveWCAL attorney Michael McNabb filed SaveWCAL's Reply Brief [PDF, 20 pages, 152 KB] in response to the respondent briefs filed by St. Olaf College and Minnesota Public Radio on June 15.

The Minnesota State Court of Appeals will now determine and set a date for oral arguments before the court.

SaveWCAL will post the date, time and location when we receive the court's notification.

The public is allowed to attend Court of Appeals hearings.

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Posted in appeals 2 Comments

June 15, 2009: Minnesota AG, MPR and St. Olaf file Appeal Briefs

This week, SaveWCAL received the briefs filed with the Minnesota Court of Appeals by the Minnesota Attorney General, Minnesota Public Radio and St. Olaf College.

The briefs were, in general, well written and held no surprises.

SaveWCAL now has the opportunity to file another 20-page brief in response to what has been received.

From the Minnesota Attorney General

From Minnesota Public Radio

From Saint Olaf College

Once all the documents have been submitted to the court, the court will set a date for the appeal hearing.

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Posted in apmg/mpr, appeals, minnesota ag, st olaf college, trust law 1 Comment

NW Texas Public Radio buys 100K watt license for $18 million

Yesterday, the Fort Worth Weekly reported North Texas Public Broadcasting, Inc. (operators of public radio station KERA FM) announcement that it has purchased the non-commercial radio license for 91.7 FM, a 100,000 watt full-market station with broadcast coverage in the greater Dallas, Fort Worth and Denton areas of Texas.

The announced purchase price is $18 million.

The frequency is currently used by KVTT radio ("The Truth"), a Christian broadcasting non-profit. KVTT's current operator, Covenant Educational Media, also owns and operates 98.5 KAAI in Palisade/Grand Junction, Colorado.

In 1996, KERA's format dropped music in favor of news and information programming. KERA press release said:

During two radio audience focus groups in 2008, the loss of the music programs was still remembered. Nothing similar has taken its place on free, non-commercial radio in the North Texas broadcast area.

KERA has a news and public information station at 90.1 FM and plans to use the additional fequency to broadcast Adult Album Alternative (AAA) material  iverse, with "adult-oriented playlists covering a broad spectrum of music such as folk, acoustic, world music, alternative and indie rock and country"  The new format is schedule to debut in Fall 2009.

The press release also said:

The opportunity to purchase the station was presented to KERA in 2007 by PRC (Public Radio Capital), a national nonprofit organization that works to strengthen public radio. “Rarely do non-commercial radio licenses become available,” according to Erik Langner, Director of Acquisitions at PRC. “The greater Dallas/Fort Worth/Denton area has only three full-market FM non-commercial FCC licenses: KERA 90.1 FM, 91.7 FM, and one other. The availability of 91.7 FM was an extremely rare opportunity and we immediately thought of KERA.

So almost five years since the sale of the WCAL assets (100,000wlicense and broadcasting tower), we see example after example that terrestrial non-commercial radio is still going strong and is becoming more and more valuable as an asset in all sorts of ways.

Who was giving the St. Olaf leadership and board of regents the information that they presented to others in Fall 2004, such as:

Satellite radio is starting, which is a threat to non-commercial radio, especially classical. The value of the station and value in 10 yrs will be less than value of $10.5 million in the endowment in 10 yrs.

Really??

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The Statement of Facts: The basis upon which the Appeals Court will make its decision

Below is the Statement of Facts from the Rice County District Court Order entered on February 26, 2009.

These findings made by Judge Bernard Borene are consistent with the information that SaveWCAL has presented to the court from the very beginning of the case.

These facts provide the foundation for the correct application of the law on charitable trusts and will provide the basis upon which the Minnesota Court of Appeals will make its decision.

==========

St. Olaf, a liberal arts college located in Northfield, Minnesota, is a non-profit corporation organized under the laws of the State of Minnesota. It is also a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

In 1922 the federal government issued a broadcasting license to St. Olaf to operate WCAL Radio. When the Federal Radio Commission was created in 1927, one of the first 27 licenses was to St. Olaf to operate WCAL Radio on an AM broadcasting frequency. In 1968 the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") issued a license to St. Olaf to operate WCAL Radio at the 89.3 FM broadcasting frequency. In 1998 the FCC issued a license to St. Olaf to operate a translator station at the 88.7 broadcasting frequency to transmit the WCAL signal to southeastern Minnesota.

WCAL was the first listener supported radio station in the nation. WCAL was a public radio service that was designed to broadcast classical music, public affairs programs, and religious services to a large metropolitan community outside the academe in a manner that would reflect the intellectual, spiritual, and cultural traditions of St. Olaf.

The broadcasting studios and offices of WCAL Radio were located in Skifter Building on the campus of St. Olaf. The building was built in stages from 1931 through 1991. The costs of the construction of the building were paid with charitable contributions from WCAL donors.

In 1991 a new broadcasting tower to transmit the WCAL signal was constructed at a cost of more than $1 million on land leased from the University of Minnesota in Rosemount, Minnesota. The cost of the construction of the tower was paid by charitable contributions from WCAL donors. The contribution from St. Olaf was a loan for part of the cost of construction that was repaid with interest at the rate of 7% per annum by charitable contributions.

At periodic intervals St. Olaf renewed its broadcast licenses for WCAL Radio pursuant to the requirements of federal law. In order to renew its licenses St. Olaf had to demonstrate to the FCC that it was serving the public interest, convenience, and necessity.

Over more than 80 years, tens of thousands of individual WCAL donors contributed millions of dollars to support WCAL Radio. Their charitable contributions enabled St. Olaf College to serve the public interest, the prerequisite for the renewal of its licenses for WCAL Radio. The support of the individual donors financially supported the radio station, and financially enabled St. Olaf to continue possessing the licenses and other assets. The support of the individual donors also enabled the college to obtain donations and grants from additional sources.

St. Olaf solicited donations and grants to provide for the operating costs, the capital assets, and the WCAL endowment. The donors to WCAL included corporations, foundations, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, St. Olaf itself, and tens of thousands of individuals. St. Olaf solicited donations on the basis that charitable gifts would "help guarantee the future of Classical 89.3 for generations to come."

In 2004 WCAL had 8,000 listener-members and a weekly audience of 80,000 listeners. The broadcast signal reached the Twin Cities metropolitan area and southeastern Minnesota. More than three million listeners could access the WCAL programming with a radio. At the same time, St. Olaf considered the station's relevance to the college's educational mission had become increasingly tenuous. Evaluating WCAL against other programs more directly related to St. Olaf's educational mission, the Board of Regents questioned whether continued operation of the radio station was in the College's best interests. When the opportunity arose to sell St. Olaf's FCC license and associated equipment for a reasonable price and to use the proceeds to advance St. Olaf's mission of educating students, the Board of Regents determined that closing the radio station and selling the associated assets was in the best interests of St. Olaf and its students.

MPR is a non-profit corporation organized under the laws of the State of Minnesota. It is also a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Its principal place of business is in St. Paul, Minnesota.

In November 2003 MPR submitted a multi-million dollar offer to St. Olaf for the assignment of the broadcasting licenses for 89.3 FM and 88.7 FM, for the purchase of the Rosemount broadcasting tower, for the assignment of the lease on which the tower is located, for all other real property used in connection with the operation of WCAL Radio, for the purchase of personal property, including most of the music library, used in connection with the operation of the station, and for the good will and the going concern value of the station.

MPR communicated the offer to Christopher Thomforde, who was the president of St. Olaf at that time. In turn, Thomforde turned the offer over to Jan McDaniel and to Addison (Tad) Piper for evaluation. At that time McDaniel was a vice president of St. Olaf. Piper was a member of the Board of Regents of St. Olaf and the chair of its finance committee. At the same time Piper was a member of the Board of Trustees of MPR and a member of the Board of Directors of Piper Jaffray & Co.

St. Olaf and MPR did not give notice of the transaction to the Attorney of the State of Minnesota nor did either party obtain judicial approval for the sale.

On August 9, 2004, four days after St. Olaf accepted the MPR offer, the college informed the Board of Directors of WCAL Radio of the MPR offer for the first time. The WCAL Board of Directors had been established in 1979. The Board was intended to serve as the community advisory board required by federal law as a condition to the receipt of federal funds. The purpose of the community advisory board is to enable the public to participate in significant policy decisions.

Two of the WCAL directors were Jan McDaniel and Walter Ringer III, who was also a member of the Board of Regents of St. Olaf College. Neither director informed his or her fellow directors on the WCAL board of the MPR offer prior to August 9, 2004.

On August 30, 2004 St. Olaf and MPR submitted an application to the FCC for the assignment of the broadcast licenses for 89.3 FM and 88.7 FM.

SaveWCAL was organized on September 3, 2004 as a non-profit corporation under the laws of the State of Minnesota. It is also a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The purpose of the corporation, as expressed in its Articles of Incorporation, is to preserve WCAL Radio.

After St. Olaf announced the sale of WCAL to MPR on August 10, 2004, SaveWCAL posted an electronic petition to demonstrate to St. Olaf the support of the listeners in the community to preserve the radio station. More than 5,500 persons signed the petition by the end of 2004.

On October 5, 2004, the general counsel for SaveWCAL submitted a request to the Attorney General of the State of Minnesota to exercise the statutory responsibility for the supervision of charitable trusts to investigate the St. Olaf-MPR transaction. The request states, in part, that "the proceedings before the FCC and the CPB will not provide a forum for the determination of compliance with the provisions of state law on charitable trusts." In a written response on October 19, 2004, the Attorney General refused to commence an investigation.

On November 15, 2004, the FCC approved the assignment of the broadcast licenses for 89.3 FM and 88.7 FM to MPR.

On November 19, 2004, the closing on the St. Olaf–MPR transaction was held. St. Olaf received $10.5 million in cash from MPR plus promotional announcements for the college broadcast on MPR. The parties agreed that the promotional announcements had a value of $1.3 million.

In December 2004 St. Olaf announced that the $10.5 million in cash would be added to the general endowment for the college. The income from that additional investment would be used to repair the organ in the chapel and to endow four faculty chairs.

MPR has used the assets of WCAL for its own purposes, including broadcasting its own programming (alternative rock music) on 89.3 FM since January 24, 2005.

Over the years St. Olaf had established an endowment for WCAL with some of the charitable contributions from the WCAL donors. In March 2004 the value of the endowment was approximately $2.94 million. Between November 2004 and December 2006 St. Olaf withdrew approximately $1.6 million from the WCAL endowment, including a gift from Senior Regent Leonard Hoeft with a value of $1 million. The value of the charitable gifts in the WCAL endowment after the withdrawals was approximately $1.36 million.

In December 2006 St. Olaf filed a petition in Rice County District Court requesting approval to use the charitable gifts remaining in the WCAL endowment. St. Olaf designated three major categories of donations: (1) restricted endowment gifts listed in exhibit A of its petition with a value of approximately $401,600.00 as of April 2006; (2) restricted non-endowment gifts listed in exhibit B of its petition with a value of approximately $651,000.00 as of April 2006; and (3) "undocumented gifts" listed in exhibit C of its petition with a value of approximately $230,000.00 as of April 2006. St. Olaf requested the court to approve the use of the restricted endowment gifts for activities it defined as "core WCAL activities." The college requested the court to declare that there were no longer any restrictions on its use of the restricted non-endowment gifts and the "undocumented gifts."

The Attorney General responded to the petition in the form of a letter memorandum. SaveWCAL also responded to the petition in the form of a letter memorandum. Hearings on the petition were held in Rice County District Court before Gerald J. Wolf, Judge of District Court, in March, April and May 2007.

On June 20, 2007, the Attorney General filed a memorandum of law in the proceeding. In the memorandum the Attorney General expressed her official position to the court. In July 2007 Judge Wolf appointed Senior District Court Judge Gary J. Meyer as a special master.

St. Olaf represented to the court that it had obtained the consent of living donors to withdraw the $1.6 million from the WCAL endowment between November 2004 and December 2006 and that therefore there were no longer any restrictions on the use of those donations. Senior Regent Leonard Hoeft denied this representation in a letter submitted to the court in which he declared that St. Olaf had never contacted him about the withdrawal of his gift, nor obtained his consent.

In March 2008 Judge Meyer submitted his report as special master. On June 10, 2008, Judge Wolf issued his order regarding the petition of St. Olaf. The Order grants the request of the college to use the restricted endowment gifts for "core WCAL activities." The Order restricts the use of the Hoeft gift to the same purpose. The Order denies the petition with respect to the restricted non-endowment gifts and the 'undocumented gifts."

On September 24, 2008, Petitioner SaveWCAL filed a Petition pursuant to Minn. Stat. §§ 501B.16 subd. 19 and 501B.31 "to redress a breach of a charitable trust" by St. Olaf College ("St. Olaf") concerning its sale of WCAL Radio to Minnesota Public Radio ("MPR") on August 5, 2004.

On October 20, 2008 St. Olaf filed a motion pursuant to Minn. R. Civ. P. 12 for dismissal for failure to state a claim or, in the alternative, a motion pursuant to Minn. R. Civ. P. 56 for summary judgment. On October 21, 2008, MPR filed a similar motion for dismissal or, in the alternative, for summary judgment.

==========

From an article titled "Judging Without Lawyers: Not Knowing Makes For Nightmares" by Hennepin County District Court Judge Jay Quam in the current issue of Bench & Bar, the monthly magazine of the Minnesota State Bar Association:

"Every judge wants to do the right thing. Every once in a while the law dictates what the "right thing" is (such as an otherwise meritorious claim being barred by a statute of limitations), but usually the law is permissive enough for the judge to rule for either party depending on what the facts are. So, in the very large majority of cases, the facts are what the judge needs to guide him or her to the right decision."

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Posted in apmg/mpr, appeals, minnesota ag, regents, savewcal petition, st olaf college, trust law 1 Comment

Summary Judgment Motion Filed in Newcomb College Case

We received the following from the Save Newcomb College folks today:

Motion Declares that University Must “Acknowledge, Honor and Implement Mrs. Newcomb’s Donor Intent”

NEW ORLEANS, May 27 – Susan Henderson Montgomery, a successor of Josephine Louise Newcomb, who endowed Tulane University’s H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College through a bequest and earlier series of gifts, petitioned the Civil District Court for Orleans Parish today to grant summary judgment on key issues in the case and order Tulane to reopen the college, which it closed after nearly 120 years of operation.

The court filing states that Mrs. Newcomb’s bequest to the Tulane Board of Administrators was subject to a charge, or a performance obligation, which the Tulane Board acknowledged, assumed and executed for 119 years. That obligation was to develop and maintain in perpetuity a coordinate women’s college at Tulane.

“As the motion points out, the fact that Tulane accepted and honored this obligation for more than a century clearly establishes the fact that such an obligation exists,” said Renee Seblatnigg, President of The Future of Newcomb College (TFoNC), an organization of donors and supporters dedicated to preserving the popular school.

The district court already acknowledged as much in an earlier lawsuit, Howard v. Tulane, in which the court found that: “A clear reading of Mrs. Newcomb’s will shows that she intended for Tulane, as universal legatee, to use the balance of her estate to maintain a women’s higher education college.”

In requesting “summary judgment” in Montgomery v. Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund – meaning that no contested facts exist, and Mrs. Montgomery is entitled to judgment as a matter of law — Mrs. Montgomery asks the court to:

1) reaffirm “its determination of Mrs. Newcomb’s testamentary intent in the Howard case;” [p. 20]

2) find that Tulane assumed a “charge,” or performance obligation, when it accepted Mrs. Newcomb’s designated gifts; [p. 21]

3) find that Tulane “understood and accepted” that Mrs. Newcomb’s donations were subject to “the specific charge that the Tulane Board establish and maintain Newcomb College; [p. 27] and

4) find that Tulane “acknowledged, assumed and executed” this obligation for 119 years. [p. 25]

“It is an undisputed fact of this case … that for 119 years the Tulane Board developed, operated and maintained Newcomb College as a separate coordinate college for women within Tulane University. Plaintiff maintains that the fact of the Tulane Board’s lengthy performance clearly gives rise to a presumption that Mrs. Newcomb’s donations were, in fact, subject to a charge … and that the Tulane Board acknowledged, assumed and executed” this obligation. [p. 26]

The plaintiff’s attorneys told the court that Mrs. Montgomery “is clearly entitled to judgment against the Tulane Board to enforce the conditions which accompanied Mrs. Newcomb’s donations and bequest.” They reminded the court that Mrs. Montgomery is seeking no money or property, but “only to have the Tulane Board acknowledge, honor and implement Mrs. Newcomb’s donor intent.”

Accordingly, they ask the court to “order the Tulane Board to reopen Newcomb College and maintain it as Tulane University’s separate coordinate college for women.”

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A question of St. Olaf College's credibility

Let's review St. Olaf College's credibility in light of its recent actions with the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

December 18, 2008: The hearing was held in Rice County District Court regarding SaveWCAL's Petition to Redress Breach of Trust. The hearing was limited to oral arguments by the attorneys on legal issues, no evidentiary hearings were held — which would be the only reason a transcript would be necessary in an appeal.

December 2008: St. Olaf College attorney Michael Cunningham personally orders a transcript of the proceeding from the Court Reporter.

December 30, 2008: A copy of the completed transcript  is mailed to St. Olaf College attorney Michael Cunningham, according to the Certificate filed by the Rice County District Court reporter with the Minnesota Court of Appeals on May 12.

January 15, 2009: The complete transcript is filed with the Rice County Court Administrator, according to the Certificate filed by the Rice County District Court reporter with the Minnesota Court of Appeals on May 12.

April 20, 2009: SaveWCAL files a Notice of Appeal with the Minnesota Court of Appeals and serves the same on St. Olaf College, MPR and the Minnesota Attorney General. The Notice of Appeal also includes the Statement of the Case and a Notice re Transcript. The Notice re Transcript declares that a) a transcript is not needed for the appeal and, in any case, b) one is already on file with the Rice County District Court. SaveWCAL now has 30 days to file an Appeal Brief.

April 23, 2009: SaveWCAL files the Appeal Brief just three days later and hand-delivers copies to the attorneys for St. Olaf College, MPR and the Minnesota Attorney General. The other parties now have 30 days to file their responding briefs.

April 28, 2009: This is the date that the MPR attorneys claim, per its May 5 Certificate of Transcript, that a copy of the transcript was requested.

April 30, 2009: The St. Olaf College attorneys file St. Olaf's Statement of the Case in which St. Olaf attorney Michael Cunningham declares to the court that a transcript has not been delivered to the parties or filed with the Rice County District Court Administrator. He also declares that a transcript will be ordered by MPR.

May 4, 2009: The Minnesota Attorney General's attorney files a Statement of the Case in which the AG declares that no transcript is needed for the appeal.

May 5, 2009: The MPR attorneys file a Certificate of Transcript with the court stating that a transcript was ordered on April 28, 2009, and has an estimated completion date of May 11, 2009.

May 6, 2009: SaveWCAL attorney Mike McNabb files a Motion re Briefs and Affidavit re Transcript asking the Appeals Court to require St. Olaf College and MPR to file their response briefs within 30 days of the service of the SaveWCAL brief on April 23, 2009.

May 8, 2009: The St. Olaf College attorneys complete a Response re SaveWCAL's Motion in which St. Olaf College attorney Michael Cunningham admits to having the transcript in his possession — but claims that it is not an "official" transcript.

May 11, 2009: In a memorandum to the court, SaveWCAL attorney Michael McNabb points out that neither St. Olaf nor MPR attempts to explain why a transcript is necessary. He points out that St. Olaf has had a copy of the offical transcript for months and that St. Olaf's response does not explain Cunningham's original declaration to the court that the transcript had not been delivered and filed with the court.

May 12, 2009: The court reporter for the Rice County District Court files a Certificate with the Minnesota Court of Appeals that says:

"The original transcript, having been previously ordered by Michael R. Cunningham, counsel for St. Olaf College, was hand-delivered and filed with the Rice County Court Administrator on January 15, 2009. A copy was sent via U.S. Mail to Attorney Cunningham on December 30, 2008.

Contrary to the information presented by St. Olaf College attorney Cunningham to the Minnesota Court of Appeals, the Rice County District Court reporter had prepared the original transcript of the hearing, filed it in the District Court file and had delivered copy to Cunningham by mid-January!!!

May 14, 2009: MPR attorneys file a Response re Briefs where they erroneously refer to the transcript as "unofficial" and claim that it is not part of the appellate record. Transcripts that are filed automatically become part of the record for an appeal.

May 15, 2009: SaveWCAL attorney Michael McNabb files SaveWCAL's Response re Briefs that, once again, points outs that the St. Olaf attorneys' statements to the court regarding the filing and delivery of the transcript are not accurate and the MPR attorney's claim that the transcript is not already part of the appelate record is erroneous.

May 19, 2009: SaveWCAL receives the decision from the Minnesota Court of Appeals — apparently made without reviewing some of the filings made in the case –  to allow St. Olaf College and MPR to delay filing their briefs until June 15 2009. The Court focused on the technical requirement of the rule rather than looking at the underlying reason that caused St. Olaf and MPR to make the claims they did to the court.

So what has been going on here?

It appears that St. Olaf College and MPR have been using the transcript issue to create time to prepare their briefs. They may have expected that SaveWCAL would wait the full 30 days to file the Appeal Brief. However, SaveWCAL filed the appellants brief just three days later. Copies of the brief were then hand-delivered that same day to the attorneys for St. Olaf College, MPR and the Minnesota Attorney General.

Instead of honestly and forthrightly requesting more time — a request to which SaveWCAL would have had no objection — both St. Olaf and MPR have engaged in unnecessary maneuvers.

You may remember that this is not the first time that St. Olaf has attempted to use procedural maneuvers to avoid and/or delay a court hearing regarding the WCAL charitable trust. St. Olaf and MPR worked in tandem in an attempt to avoid the initial Petition To Redress Breach Of Trust hearing in October 2008 using another procedural tactic.

But facts are fact. There is no need for a transcript and, in any case, it is already included in the appellate record.

SaveWCAL has a very strong case in this appeal. The facts are not in dispute by any of the parties, only the application of the law.

So it doesn't matter how much time St. Olaf College and MPR have — or take.

Time may be running out.

SaveWCAL Petition To Redress Breach Of Trust Series
Minnesota Court of Appeals rules on SaveWCAL Motion >>

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Posted in apmg/mpr, appeals, minnesota ag, savewcal petition, st olaf college, trust law 2 Comments

Minnesota Court of Appeals rules on SaveWCAL Motion

On May 5, 2009, SaveWCAL attorney Michael McNabb filed a Motion re Briefs and Affidavit re Transcript [PDF, 4 pages, 224 KB] with the Minnesota Court of Appeals in the matter of SaveWCAL's Petition to Redress Breach of Trust.The Motion requests the court to require St. Olaf College and Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) to file their responding briefs in the case within the 30 days of the service of SaveWCAL's brief on April 23, 2009.

Why?

Because in it's Statement of Case, St. Olaf failed to inform the court that it had been in possession of the transcript of the hearing in district court for months and that the same transcript was automatically part of the record on appeal because the court reporter had filed the original transcript in the district court file in January 2009.

The Court of Appeals denied SaveWCAL's motion [PDF, 2 pages, 155 KB] because MPR had not received a copy of the transcript — a transcript that is completely unnecessary.

It appears that the judge who issued the decision did so before he had received the SaveWCAL Reply to MPR's Response.

The Court focused on the technical requirement of the rule rather than looking at the underlying reason for the MPR order for a transcript — to obtain more time to draft its brief.

The reason that MPR gave in its response for ordering the transcript — to have a transcript as part of the record on appeal — is nonsense because the transcript is not needed and, in any case, has been in the Rice County District Court file (and thus part of the record) since January 15, 2009!!

Had St. Olaf College and MPR been forthright and honest with the court and simply requested more time to prepare their briefs, SaveWCAL would have had absolutely no objection.

Instead, they have chosen a very different path to accomplish that goal.

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May 15, 2009: SaveWCAL files Response re Briefs

On May 15, 2009, SaveWCAL attorney Michael McNabb filed SaveWCAL's Memorandum re Briefs [PDF, 4 pages, 236 KB] in response to the MPR's attorneys' Response to SaveWCAL's Motion re Briefs and Affidavit re Transcript in the matter of SaveWCAL's Petition to Redress Breach of Trust.

SaveWCAL's Motion requests the court to require St. Olaf College and Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) to file their responding briefs in the case within the 30 days of the service of SaveWCAL's brief on April 23, 2009.

St. Olaf College attorneys intentionally omitted the fact that they had requested and obtained an official transcript of the December 18, 2008 Rice County District Court hearing re SaveWCAL's Petition To Redress Breach Of Trust.

That same transcript was filed with the court in January 2009, becoming a part of the official court record at that time and automatically becoming a part of the appeal record when the appeal was filed.

MPR has now erroneously claimed that the transcript is "unofficial" and that it is not a part of the court record.

Why would St. Olaf College and Minnesota Public Radio be engaging in this behavior?

Stay tuned.

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Posted in apmg/mpr, appeals, documents, savewcal petition, st olaf college, trust law No Comments

Article in Decorah Newspapers: MPR news on new radio frequency

A May 16, 2009 article in The Decorah Newspapers, titled "MPR news on new radio frequency", reports that MPR has added a third frequency in the area of Decorah, Iowa.

Minnesota Public Radio recently announced that MPR News has added a new radio frequency in the Decorah area and is broadcasting it at 96.3 FM. The new frequency, which joins MPR's classical music station at 89.5 FM and MPR news station at 88.7 FM, will provide extended service to listeners in the region.

Residents of Decorah will hear the best of regional MPR News -programs like Morning Edition, Midmorning and Midday-as well as national programming such as Car Talk,® This American Life,® The Splendid Table,® Speaking of Faith,® and everyone's favorite, A Prairie Home Companion.®

"We are proud to improve service to listeners in Decorah," said Chris Cross, manager, Regional Networks. "Minnesota Public Radio believes in an informed citizenry, seeking to bring the best news and information to all residents in Minnesota."

It sounds like MPR's Steve Cross doesn't understand that Decorah is in Iowa, not Minnesota. This is local radio?

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May 14, 2009: MPR files Response re Briefs

On May 14, 2009, the attorneys for Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) file MPR's Response [PDF, 6 pages, 386 KB] to SaveWCAL's Motion re Briefs and Affidavit re Transcript in the matter of SaveWCAL's Petition to Redress Breach of Trust.

SaveWCAL's Motion requests the court to require St. Olaf College and Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) to file their responding briefs in the case within the 30 days of the service of SaveWCAL's brief on April 23, 2009.

In the Response, the MPR attorneys refer to the transcript of the December 18, 2009 hearing as an "unofficial transcript" and claimed that it is not part of the appellate record.

There is no such thing as an "unofficial" transcript. A transcript is official when it has been completed by a court reporter and filed with the court. The transcript of the hearing requested by the St. Olaf attorneys, completed by the court reporter and filed with the Rice County District Court is an official transcript.

In addition, transcripts that are filed automatically part of the record for an appeal.

Why would Minnesota Public Radio be doing this?

Stay tuned.

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