Jessica Donner

According to MyFox democrats plan to pass a tax bill Saturday that would give Minnesota the highest-in-the-nation top rate. They will be adding a fourth tier to Minnesota's current three-tier system. Minnesota will have new rate at 9.7 percent. This will allow more money for education and even out the income taxes that people pay.
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=12F3DDEF897BBB857794FDFF1EAFF574?contentId=2808965&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1

According to WCCO the top-earning Minnesotans currently pay less than one-tenth of their personal income in taxes while middle-class earners pay about 12 percent in all varieties of taxes.
http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_089190049.html

According Kare11 the proposal to raise just shy of $1 billion in taxes over the next two years would be achieved by adding a fourth tier to Minnesota's current three-tier system. http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=249421

Posted by Jessica Donner at 7:13 AM | Permalink

According to CBS4 two teenage boys age 16 and 17, told admitted to police authorities that they started the fire that burned 150 acres close to Universal City, California. The teens are in custody in a juvenile detentions center.
http://cbs4.com/topstories/topstories_story_089213850.html

According to WCCO the teens were reportedly visiting here from Illinois.
http://wcco.com/national/topstories_story_089213850.html

According to CBS2 the fire began by Oakwood Toluca Hills which is a corporate housing complex. The fire then spread up the north side of the hills. It was said that there were around 150 firefighters and five helicopters combating the fire.
http://cbs2.com/local/local_story_089173021.html

Posted by Jessica Donner at 4:37 AM | Permalink

According to Kare11 a Ukrainian swim coach has been banned from having any contact with his daughter after he was captured by TV cameras assaulting the swimmer at the World Championships in Australia. The footage shows Mikhail Zubkov 38, repetitively punching and pushing his daughter Kateryna Zubkova after she did not qualify for finals in her event.
http://www.kare11.com/sports/sports_article.aspx?storyid=249336

According to The Sydney Morning Herald the International swimming federation (FINA) withdrew the coach's accreditation and by withdrawing the accreditation means the coach cannot come into any swimming venue anymore. http://www.smh.com.au/news/Sport/Ukrainian-swim-coach-detained/2007/03/28/1174761516986.html

According to ABCsport Police were called in to examine the vision and they identified the pair and called them in for questioning. Kateryna Zubkova required no medical treatment. There will be a hearing meanwhile the Victoria Police are conducting a full investigation.
http://www.abc.net.au/sport/content/200703/s1883205.htm

Posted by Jessica Donner at 3:07 AM | Permalink

According to WCCO 17 million people are expected this year to apply for passports. Over the next year it is said that about 74 million Americans have valid passports. Since the recent change, by the government, requiring U.S. airline passengers to have passports the State department has been working overtime.
http://wcco.com/national/topstories_story_075200404.html
According to Kare11 All across the U.S. people are waiting weeks longer to get there passports because off the rush of passport applications. It was said that applications are pouring in at more than 1 million per month. http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=247304
According to New York Times Because of the crush of applicants instead of the usual 6 weeks to process applications it could possibly take up to ten. Also, having applications expedited, which cost an extra $60 on top of the normal $97 fee, could take four weeks instead of two. It was stated by New York Times that the State Department is working overtime to handle the load and hopes to have an additional 400 passport adjudicators by the end of next year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/us/17passport.html

Posted by Jessica Donner at 12:27 AM | Permalink

According to MyFox9 on St. Patrick's Day in Dublin there was Lithuanian musicians, drum-beating Punjabis and West African dancers used in the parade on Saturday to celebrate the booming Ireland that has become a land the diverse. It was said that there was even a float that featured "Miss Panty," Dublin's premier drag queen. According to MyFox9 Dublin's freewheeling parade drew a half-million spectators. http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=2700484&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.4.1

According to Spokesmanreview Christine Quinn, the first openly gay leader of the New York City Council was even takeing part in the festivites in Dublin. It was said that Quinn boycotted the New York parade because the organizers refuse to let gay and lesbian groups march. According to SPOKESMANREVIEW Quin said
"The fact I'm here in Dublin and able to march and participate in inclusive events should send a message of how backwards the New York parade is." http://www.spokesmanreview.com/ap/story.asp?AP_ID=D8NU1SVG0

According to ABCnews more than 1,000 police were on duty to deal with the anticipated alcohol-fueled trouble in the evening. It was said that in past years such as in 2005 there were 700 arrests. http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2959774

Posted by Jessica Donner at 7:49 PM | Permalink

According to WCCO Eight teenagers on the YWCA Otters Youth Relay team will head to England in July to try to swim the English Channel. The water they will be swimming in will not be like anything they have swam in before. According to Wcco the English Channel is unpredictable because the waters are choppy and there is no way to know which way the current will be flowing. Completeing a challenging goal is not all the Otters are tryng to accomplish. According to WCCO they are also raising money to open up access to swimming lessons and aquatics to a part of the community that often has never jumped into a pool.
http://wcco.com/seenon/local_story_074091028.html

According to the StarTribune the team consists of seven girls and one boy all between the ages of 13 to 16 years of age. The team has been training in 60 degree water in hourlong shifts, with the actual distance depending of the English Channel. http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1027381.html

According to the YWCA website the swimmers plan to raise awareness about health disparities in communities of color. The swimmers are raising funds to support the work of the YWCA of Minneapolis with girls and boys, women, men and families in making healthy changes in their lives and communities.
http://www.ywcampls.org/donate/channel-swim.asp

Posted by Jessica Donner at 6:38 PM | Permalink

According to Kare11 a girl received her dogs head wrapped in a box. Crystal Brown's 4-year-old Australian shepherd mix wandered away last month, she put up posters in her neighborhood and went door to door looking for him. She never found her dog Chevy until she open a box that was left at her house.

According to Kare 11 the Humane Society of the United States is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
http://www.kare11.com/news/ts_article.aspx?storyid=247283

According to The Plain Dealer homicide investigators were looking into the case because of the implied threat.
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/117404278673390.xml&coll=2

Posted by Jessica Donner at 5:07 AM | Permalink

According to Kare11 an Indianapolis man stabbed his 11-month-old son in the back with a kitchen knife and threw him out the window and drove off. Police think 31-year-old Kevin Chandler and the boy's mother, Angela Limbrock, were arguing as they prepared to leave Limbrock's apartment on the west side of Indianapolis. Limbrock handed 11-month-old Devin to Chandler so she could retrieve his car seat inside the home. As she left the car, she heard Chandler swear at the boy and turned around to see him throw Devin out of the car window, according to a police report. When Limbrock picked up her son, she saw a knife in his back, the report said. http://www.kare11.com/news/ts_article.aspx?storyid=247286

According to 6news the knife was still in Devon's back when he arrived at a hospital and he is in stable condition according to police detective Jim Thiele the Knife was knife was buried all the way to the handle. http://www.theindychannel.com/news/11257658/detail.html

According to CBS11 TV the baby underwent surgery at Riley Hospital for Children and was recovering in good condition.

Posted by Jessica Donner at 3:51 AM | Permalink

Teen arrested in St. Paul rape
According to the Star Tribune, a St. Paul teen was arrested in Wisconsin in connection to raping a 57-year-old woman on January 1st. He was arrested in Racine, Wisconsin and is being held there until moved back to Minnesota to be charged for the rape case. The Ramsey County Attorney's Office will be filling a petition against the teen in juvenile court.

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1032066.html

Police say DNA links boy, 16, to Payne-Phalen rape
According to The St. Paul Pioneer Press, the teen was arrested after calling the Racine Police Office to report being assaulted by his grandfather. Once getting to the police station it was found that he was a runaway from St. Paul and wanted in connection with a St. Paul crime.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/16819466.htm?source=rss&channel=twincities_local

Arrest in St. Paul Sexual Assault
According to Fox 9 News, St. Paul police are encouraged by the arrest and say that it could lead to an arrest from another assault that occurred in January. Reward money is being offered for any information regarding either of the assaults.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=2550009&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1

Posted by Jessica Donner at 11:06 PM | Permalink

Twenty-two days after her fatal collapse in a Florida hotel, icon Anna Nicole Smith was finally buried Friday.
Her body was escorted by police to a private jet at the Miami International Airport, where she was flown to the Bahamas for the service. Smith was later buried next to her 20-year-old son, Daniel, who died in September of an apparent drug overdose.
http://entertainment.bodogbeat.com/anna-nicole-smith-funeral-three-weeks-after-her-death-59786.html

Now that her body was laid to rest it is one battle done. But according to SFGate the fight over Smiths’ baby remains very much alive. Her companion Howard K. Stern, her mother Virgie Arthur and her former boyfriend Larry Birkhead are still battling for custody of 5-month-old Dannielynn.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/02/entertainment/e120459S34.DTL

Posted by Jessica Donner at 11:03 PM | Permalink

Three tons of hash was burned Friday by Dutch authorities.
According to WCCO a van carrying the illegal cargo crashed and scattered it across the road. The Driver and the passenger fled the scene leaving the damaged vehicle and the $20 million cargo of hash.
http://wcco.com/worldwire/Netherlands-HashCrash_a_i_-----/resources_news_html

The hash was said to be scattered around the area and hundreds more were found stacked on wooden pallets inside the van. http://www.localnewsleader.com/olberlin/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=70614

According to ABC7 NEWS Detectives are hunting for the van's driver and a passenger after they fled the scene of the crash. The police are trying to tracing the owner of the van it is a possibility it may be stolen or leased.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0307/402154.html

Posted by Jessica Donner at 10:35 PM | Permalink

Six people were killed in an Atlanta bus crash.
A bus taking the Bluffton (Ohio) University baseball team to Florida fell 20-feet from a ramp onto I-75 near Atlanta.According to police says the driver apparently mistook the exit lane for part of the carpool lane and continued over the side of the overpass. The bus then hit a concrete barrier and plunged about 20 feet onto I-75.
According to United press international the driver, his wife and four players were killed in the crash Friday morning.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/six_killed_in_atlanta_bus_crash/20070302-071712-2497r/

The bus carrying the Bluffton (Ohio) University baseball team was one of 193 teams scheduled to compete in the month-long Gene Cusic Classic according to The New- Press.
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070302/SPORTS/303020026/1075

Accoding to Fox19 there are only about 1,100 students enrolled at the university where the boys were from and it is a close knit campus. The school held a memorial gathering for those who were lost in the crash in the auditorium and every seat was filled with students, faculty, community members, alumni, area pastors, and area counselors.
http://www.fox19.com/Global/story.asp?S=6166665&nav=menu63_2

Posted by Jessica Donner at 9:57 PM | Permalink

Two teenage girls were killed in a car accident after being let out of school early from the snow storm. On Thursday Ashley Severson, 16, and Nicole Peterson, 16, were killed in a two-car accident in Black Brook Township around 12 noon. The girls were released early from school due to the bad weather. According to WCCO Severson was driving southbound on state highway 46 and lost control over her car and collided with a car going northbound. Severson was pronounced dead on the scene and Peterson was transpoted to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, where she died from her injuries. According to police the accident appears to be weather related. http://wcco.com/local/local_story_061121715.html

According to Kstp the driver and the passenger of the other vehicle were taken to Amery Regional Medical Center with serious injuries. At this point there hasn’t been any recent updates about there condition.
http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/S34498.shtml?cat=1

Posted by Jessica Donner at 9:55 PM | Permalink