Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 1

Sports: Twins still Sports: Ex-Gopher Variety: American Girl j- r- i ytQ hopes to measure up I dolls provide relevance the NFL -CI -at a price El Weather Low: IT Sunrise 6:52 Sunset: 5:59 60th day; 306 until '01 look for hitting power CI Tyrone Carter Tuesday FEBRUARY 29, 2000 Metro Edition NEWSPAPER OF THE TWIN CITIES 3 v-5 PtPysrp rPr 9 expected IGtti straight urou State forecast today may bring more wrangling In billions i- I of dollars Ex-congressman cites the toll of a campaign on family in deciding not to seek the DFL nomination. Penny pulls himself from Senate race Surplus streak The state issues budget forecasts twice a year, rt February and November. Startrtg in November 1992, surpluses have been projected in 15 consecutive forecasts. Here are the upward projections for the 1997-99 budget period (July 1997 to June 1999) and the current 1999-2001 budget period (July 1999 to June 2001). and selected new spending on transportation and education.

REVENUE continues on A15 ALSO INSIDE WCCO Radio to offer the Legislature some program time to respond to Ventura. Bl lion to $500 million or more. Added to the $1.6 billion that was projected in November, the new budget forecast could nudge the total projected surplus to $2 billion at the end of the two-year budget period in June 2001. To the average Minnesotan, that most likely will mean lower taxes possibly in several areas By Patricia Lopez Baden Star Tribune Staff Writer Reaping the bounty of an economy that just won't quit, Minnesota can expect its 16th consecutive projected surplus today, when the Ventura administration announces what probably will be a projection of $100 mil- li ii I 1.3 i 4 Not Feb. No Feb.

Not Feb. iw im tm 2ovo Source: Minnesota Department of Finance A Minneapolis neighborhood was restoring Dania Hall, built more than a century ago by Scandinavians, as a center for newer immigrants. By Tom Hamburger and Dane Smith Star Tribune Staff Writers WASHINGTON, D.C. Former U.S. Rep.

Tim Penny abruptly withdrew from the Minnesota U.S. Senate race Monday, stunning supporters and competitors. Penny said he was pulling out because of concerns about the hardships on his family. "I could see the hurt in my 14-year-old's eyes about what a campaign would mean to our time TTPC HI. Tim Penny had planned to officially kick off his campaign today as the ninth DFler to seek the seat held by Rod Grams.

FIRE RAGES: About 100 firefighters fought the flames that destroyed Dania Hall and spread to an adjacent building early Monday. Photo by Ray Stiles Special to the Star Tribune THE RUBBLE: Minneapolis firefighter Bob Madaras walks past the building, where a $2.7 million renovation was to be finished this summer. Star Trfeune photo by Rita Reed to i ft together," he said Monday. The decision by Penny a moderate with the highest name recognition of any DFL candidate, who was described by DFL Chair Mike Erlandson as a "Tier One candidate" changes the complexion of the race for the seat held by Republican Rod Grams. It set off a scramble among other DFL candidates in the crowded field to capture Penny's supporters, and each candidate claimed to benefit from his departure.

PENNY continues on A13: A statewide tour had been in the works. 7 haven Fired Imams estroyi -'-T r6? AFTER THE WALLS FELL By afternoon, wind knocked the front wall onto Cedar Avenue. The fire also displaced SO residents of the adjacent building, destroyed a business and damaged five others. Star Trfeune photo by Bruce Bisping -vgC ri li A 1 Soy's benefit is questioned Mayo study says it isn't much help for hot flashes By Josephine Marcotty Star Tribune Staff Writer Open any woman's magazine, peruse the supplements shelf at the grocery store or search for "soy" on the Internet and you will come away with the impression that soy protein is the magic potion for reducing hot flashes of menopause. Well, according to a Mayo Clinic study of 177 women published today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, it just isn't so.

"And I am very disappointed," said study coauthor Susan Quella. "It would be better if we could solve this problem with natural products." Quella, a registered nurse, and her research partners at the clinic in Rochester, have been eager to find a cure for hot flashes. SOY PROTEIN continues on A15: Soy has been proven to reduce serum cholesterol and haiv other health benefits. INSIDE: Officials say they won't let fire destroy efforts to revitalize the area. A12 -ir t-' -r -ia-flr' nTriM tin tnm mf 1 i Hi.

ultima b-f Twin Cities Journal "We were supposed to celebrate in the next few months," he said. "Everyone was happy. Now, suddenly, it's nothing." But even as he grieves, Dao still hopes to hear Vietnamese music played soon from the corner where Bull evoked images of Scandinavia with his violin more than a century ago. FIRE continues on A12 ture, emigration and the sorry state of American cultural life. Those are old Scandinavian names.

But Dania Hall was to be a haven again for immigrants: for Somalis, Vietnamese, Russians. Dat Dao, a leader in the Vietnamese community, took pictures of the rubble that remained Monday after the early morning fire on Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis. By Chuck Haga Star Tribune Staff Writer It was just another old building, worn and faded, boarded up and dark since the last fire nearly a decade ago. But within its brick walls, Dania Hall once provided refuge and inspiration to immigrants, many of them poor. Paid for by Danes, designed by a Norwegian, it was a social center and banquet hall that often sounded and smelled like home.

Ole Bull, the great 19th century Norwegian violinist, played Dania Hall. In its auditorium, ringed by a graceful horseshoe balcony, a young Knut Hamsun lectured in the late 1880s on litera NEWS INSIDE With one poker club coming, some think more are on way A poker club scheduled to open in April at Canterbury Park may have created an opening for the first expansion of gambling on Minnesota Indian reservations in nearly a decade. Because at least two tribes are ready to offer poker without an agreement with the state, gambling authorities have urged the governor to take a position on what the tribes can do. Turn to Bl McCain lashes out at leaders of religious right Information Classifieds 612-673-7000 Circulation 612-673-4343 or 1-800-775-4344 Please read and recycle "Political intolerance by any political party Is neither a Judeo-Christian nor an American value," Sen. John McCain said In Virginia Beach.

He denounced Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell and sought to tie Bush to the Christian conservative movement. party. McCain singled out for criticism two of the Christian right's best-known leaders, Pat Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition, and the Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority. He compared Robertson to "union bosses who have subordinated the interests of working families to their own ambitions." MCCAIN continues on A14 New York Times Taking his presidential campaign to Virginia, a stronghold of Christian conservatism, Sen.

John McCain of Arizona delivered a harsh attack Monday on the "self-appointed leaders" of the religious right, fie depicted them as egotistical "agents of intolerance" who "have turned good causes into businesses" while attempting to exclude all but "card-carrying Republicans" from the Tuesday, Fetxuary 29. 2000 Copyright 2000 Star Tribune Volume XVHINo. 331 6 sections 1 02290.