Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 17

MetroState THURSDAY, MARCH 12001 STAR TRIBUNE PAGE B5 ZIEBARTH from Bl His radio show, 'This I Believe' was broadcast in 6 languages .1 I KPOH Measure to allow drug testing in workplace goes to House floor DAILY ROUNDUP gery that the new valve in his heart made a noise when he got excited, alerting everyone at the table when he had a good hand. "I have very, very fond memories of him," Browne said. "He was a gentleman, and I don't use that word often. He was gentle and courtly and one of the most attentive listeners I've ever talked to." In the 1940s and 1950s, Ziebarth traveled to western Fu-rope, the Middle Fast and Japan as a foreign correspondent. Twice he went to the then-Soviet Union to study social and economic conditions, and in the 1960s served as a higher-education adviser to West Germany.

He was instrumental in the startup of KTCA-TV in studios on the university's St. Paul campus. For decades, Ziebarth reviewed books on politics, history, philosophy and poetry for newspapers. More than 50 years ago, he was one of the founding members of the Norwegian Explorers of Minnesota, the local Sherlock Holmes society, and one of the reasons the university has the world's largest collection of Holmes memorabilia. Longtime WCCO broadcaster Charlie Boone knew Ziebarth well.

After one of Ziebarth's four open-heart operations, the professor gave Boone his elegant old black-tie-and-tails outfit. Boone invited Ziebarth to a St. Paul Chamber Orchestra concert he was narrating and surprised his friend by wearing Ziebarth's suit. "He loved the good things in life music and books, and he was a great writer," Boone said. "He was a marvelous man and a joy." Ziebarth's wife of 60 years, Elizabeth, died in 1999.

Survivors include his son John, of Eden Prairie, and four grandchildren. Services will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, 2136 Carter St. Paul.

Mary Jane Smetanka can be contacted at smetanstartribune.com. He won two Peabody Awards for distinguished achievement in broadcasting, one in 1960 for analysis of international affairs, the second in 1972 for a story on his own open-heart surgery. He was a foreign correspondent for CBS and WCCO Radio and broadcast local programs on news and books. His radio program "This I Believe" was broadcast overseas in six languages by the Voice of America. Ziebarth, who grew up in Wisconsin and came to the University of Minnesota in 1937 to pursue his doctorate in speech communication, was noted on campus for his immaculate appearance, carefully trimmed mustache and air of calm.

Friends who knew him for decades said he never swore and rarely criticized anybody. "He was a dapper, handsome, slight man. He looked like David Niven," said Robert Scott, a speech communication professor who knew Ziebarth for more than 40 years. "He had been an intercollegiate boxer at Wisconsin, but nobody would suspect that, looking at him." After Moos' stormy tenure as university president, Ziebarth's calm provided a smooth transition to Magrath's administration. He was praised for using his time in the office to solve disputes over budgets and space on campus with "quiet dignity and real force," according to one letter in the newspaper.

Afterward he returned to his job teaching in the Speech Communication Department, retiring in the late 1970s. Ziebarth had a talent for what fellow dean and Regents Prof, emeritus Bryce Crawford called "Ziebarthian exaggeration." Once, during a broiling graduation ceremony in un-airconditioned Northrop Auditorium, he invited graduates to the stage to receive their "degrees, both Fahrenheit and academic." Speech communication Prof. Donald Browne remembers avid poker player Ziebarth complaining after cardiac sur TODAV AT THE CAPITOL The Senate meets in session at 9:30 a.m. Delayed telecast at 10 a.m. on KTCI, Ch.

17 The House meets at 3 p.m. Televised on KTCI, Ch. 17. Proposal to establish a state Board of Education. House Education Policy Committee, 8:15 a.m., Room 200, State Office Building.

Televised on KTCI, Ch. 17. Rural hospital grants. House Health and Human Services Policy Committee, 8:15 a.m., Room 10, State Office Building. Special license plates for retired veterans.

House Transportation Policy Committee, 8:15 a.m., Room 5, State Office Building. Modifications of animal cruelty prevention and dangerous dogs regulations. Senate Judiciary Committee, 10 a.m. or immediately after Senate floor session, Room 15, Capitol. Banning the sale of mercury thermometers; requiring that dlesel fuel sold In Minnesota contain at least 5 percent blodiesel fuel oil; penalties for gross violations of fish and game limits.

Senate Environment and Natural Resources Policy Committee, 10 a.m., Room 107, Capitol. Televised on KTCI, Ch. 17. A bill to prohibit the sale of mercury thermometers also is on the agenda of the House Environment and Natural Resources Policy Committee, meeting at 10:15 a.m. in Room 10, State Office Building.

Proposal to require that crime victims be notified of expungement proceedings; modification of deadly force definition to exclude use of less lethal munitions by peace officers. House Crime Prevention Committee, 10:15 am, basement hearing room, State Office Building. Soccer field grants program; Ice arena grants program. Senate State and Local Government Operations Committee, 1 p.m., Room 107, Capitol. Department of Natural Resources budget overview.

Senate Environment and Agriculture Budget Division, 4 p.m., Room 118, Capitol. Lowering drunken driving threshold from 0.10 to 0.08 percent blood-alcohol concentration. Senate Transportation and Public Safety Budget Division, 4 p.m., Room 112, Capitol. Review of February budget forecast; extra unemployment benefits for workers laid off from LTV mining company. House Ways and Means Committee, 15 minutes after House floor session, Room 200, State Office Building.

A proposal to allow drug testing of employees in the workplace rather than at separate laboratories has been sent to the House floor on a party-line vote. At a meeting of the Commerce, Jobs and Economic Development Policy Committee on Tuesday, all 15 Republicans voted for the bill, sponsored by Rep. Bob Gunther, R-Fairmont, while all 1 1 DFLers voted against it. Representatives of four labor groups testified against the measure, saying it would erode worker privacy protections. Proponents, however, said new testing products give accurate results much faster and at less cost than laboratory methods.

A self-testing urine sample cup made by Roche Diagnostics the bill's chief backer, gives a reading in five minutes, compared with up to two weeks for the return of lab results. "This bill is here for one reason: A drug company wants to sell a product," said Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia. He branded the measure as "unreasonable search and seizure" and "extremely misguided." Minnesota is one of nine states that require employee drug testing to be conducted in separate laboratories, although samples may be collected at the workplace. Gunther said his bill wouldn't supersede labor contracts that require off-site testing.

No companion bill has been introduced in the DFL-controlled Senate. Conrad deFiebre House committee passes cell phone access bill Cell phone companies could barter or bargain with state officials for the right to place antennas on state towers, buildings or land. A bill that the House Governmental Operations and Veterans Affairs Policy Committee endorsed would allow department commissioners to sell the access outright or trade for wireless phone access or improvements to state equipment. The sponsor, Rep. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said he hopes the measure would slow the need for building towers.

Committee members cleared the bill despite questions about access. The measure doesn't establish procedures for how access to the towers would be chosen among com- petitors. "It seems to me the real question here is one of competitive advantage," said Rep. Bill Hilty, DFL-Finlayson. Associated Press Senate panel OKs bill that would allow people to sue HMOs Over the objections of health maintenance organizations and business groups, a Senate committee sent along a bill designed to give patients more power over their health insurance plans.

The Senate Health and Family Security Committee voted 6 to 2 to back a bill by Sen. Don Samuelson, DFL-Brainerd, that would allow patients to sue their insurers. It is patterned after one under consideration in Congress and a similar law in Texas that has withstood a challenge in federal court. Among other things, the plan would require health plans to hire medical specialists licensed in Minnesota for any reviews of decisions by state physicians. Backers say that under current practice, health plans can use out-of-state reviewers who aren't specialists.

Health plan officials said they are worried that it would drive up costs. The committee also cleared a less-expansive bill by Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minne-apolis. Both bills still must get through several committees in the Senate and a more difficult path through the House. Associated Press Ventura signs adult foster care bill Gov.

Jesse Ventura signed into law a bill that concerns holders of licenses for adult foster care who provide residential and adult day care services. The bill lowers the age threshold for adults being served from 60 to 55. It also gives the commissioner of human services flexibility regarding the age requirement and the number of people served by a single licenseholder with a recommendation from the county. Associated Press i jV7 LLJU i JLl Oalc Ridge Boys March 16 at 8pm March 1 7 at 6pm Tickets are $20 and $24. Free shuttles to view bald eagles along the Mississippi March 14 -17 hourly from 10am to 4pm.

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