November 2010 Archives

After many near misses, Ron Gardenhire, manager of the Minnesota Twins, was a first-time Manager of the Year.

According to Fanhouse, Gardenhire was the obvious choice after five times being the runner-up. He led the Minnesota Twins to its 6th American League Central title in nine seasons.

Gardenhire draw 16 first-place votes and was the only American League manager listed on all 28 ballots, according to ESPN.

Gardenhire became the first manager in baseball history to win six division titles in his first nine seasons, according to FanHouse.

Sources:
http://www.fanhouse.com/news/main/black-gardenhire-picked-as-managers-of/1406119
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5816512

Toxic gases after an explosion in a New Zealand coal mine on Friday leaves rescuers unable to enter the mine.

According to the Star Tribune, the explosion left 29 miners missing. Evidence of heat is concerning officials, because there could be another explosion.

A six-inch borehold was being drilled 490 feet into the mine, so that a camera and testing equipment could go through it to access air quality, according to the New York Times.

Officials told the Star Tribune that the gas was most likely a cause of coal gas igniting.

Sources:
http://www.startribune.com/business/109435324.html?elr=KArks:DCiUBcy7hUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/newzealand/8150283/New-Zealand-mine-rescue-teams-prepare-to-send-in-robot.html

Transportation Security Administration head said Sunday that there would be no change in policies pertaining to invasive passenger screening procedures.

TSA head John Pistole told the Star Tribune in a statement that the agency would work to make screening methods "as minimally invasive as possible."

According to USA Today, the TSA released the statement just hours after Pistole told The State of the Union on CNN that they were not changing their policies.

Sources:
http://www.startribune.com/business/109687429.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2010-11-21-tsa-screening-policy_N.htm

32-year-old Pamela Jean Beaulieu was stabbed to death at a St. Louis Park motel Thursday evening, one day after being release from the Hennepin County Workhouse.

According to the Star Tribune, an employee at the Lakeland Inn off Hwy. 7 found Beaulieu in a blood-spattered room.

Two of Beaulieu's acquaintances were arrested soon after, according to DailyMe.

According to the Star Tribune, police are continuing to look for one more suspect.

Sources:
http://www.startribune.com/local/west/109524739.html?elr=KArks:DCiUBDia_nDaycUiacyKUzyaP37D_ncyD_2yckUr
http://dailyme.com/story/2010112100000793/st-louis-park-stabbing-victim-left.html

Smoke alarms were credited in saving the lives of 10 people who were saved from an overnight fire Saturday, according to Wayzata's fire chief. A few people were victims of smoke inhallation, but are expected to recover.

According to the Grand Forks Herald, the fire was reported around 12:40 a.m. in the row of four townhomes that were connected.

The fire chief told the Star Tribune that people were in every single one of the townhomes-8 adults and 2 children.

All four units had fire damage, which were located east of Wayzata's downtown area, according to the Star Tribune.

This fire is under investigation, but it does not appear suspicious, according to the Grand Forks Herald.

Sources:
http://www.startribune.com/local/west/109492374.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUnDayc_MDCi_oO4aDk87EaDUr
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/184191/group/homepage/

The New York Times obituary of Theodore W. Kheel is an example of a classic structure for an obituary. Sources of this obituary include a family spokesman, an industrial relations expert, and other co-workers or famly members interviewed. The article begins with a standard obituary lead, although it ends with telling us that he lived in Manhatten as well. The obituary then goes into detail about how influential Kheel was, and then later enters a chronology of his life. The obituary lead worked, because it tells the reader just how important Kheel was as a peacemaker, arbitrator, and mediator. This obituary featured a lot of positive quotes from those who knew him, and also features quotes from Kheel himself.

President Barack Obama returned from Asia on Sunday with a warning to the American public, saying that America "is going to have to step up our game" to compete with the Asian economies he witnessed.

Obama wrapped up the two-day meeting with pledges to stabilize global economic imbalances and to move toward a regional free-trade zone, according to the Star Tribune.

According to the Washington Post, the president said his priority is to make sure that "taxes don't go up for middle-class families" when the Bush tax cuts terminate at the end of the year.

Sources:
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/108053299.html?elr=KArks:DCiUBcy7hUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/14/AR2010111403911.html

A man who was declared dead 16 years ago in Mississippi was arrested on Sunday under the suspicion of a slain Las Vegas girl whose body was found in Louisiana, the FBI said.

FBI spokeswoman Sheila Thorne told KSLA News that Thomas Steven Sanders was arrested early Sunday in Gulfport, Miss.

According to the Star Tribune, the arrest ended a massive hunt in an odd case that spread across the nation.

Court documents attained by the Associated Press show that Sanders was declared dead by a Mississippi court in 1994, reported the Star Tribune.

Sanders, 53, was wanted in the kidnapping of 12-year-old Lexis Roberts, whose skeleton was found early last month by hunters in a wooded area, according to KSLA News.

Sources:
http://www.startribune.com/nation/108000664.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr
http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=13501587

A man was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after slamming his car into a group of motorcyclist riders celebrating their club's 10th anniversary, killing four motorcyclists, authorities said Sunday.

Carlos Ramirez Bobadilla, 36, was arrested, who was one of six injured in the collision on the highway, according to the Star Tribune.

Authorities are also looking for another driver who they say played a large role in the crash, according to the Star Tribune.

Police told told WKYC News that they smelled alcohol on the driver's breath several hours after the crash.

Sources:
http://www.startribune.com/nation/107951799.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr
http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=158571&catid=22

Nearly a foot of snow has fallen in some parts of the metro area, and more is likely on the way.

The first snowfall of the season entered Minnesota on Saturday morning, causing damage to powerlines and traffic, according to the Star Tribune.

According to the Minnesota Daily, Minneapolis has already declared a snow emergency. This could likely be the largest pre-Thanksgiving snowfall since 1991.

The storm stretched from Iowa to the North Shore of Lake Superior, with the storm centered on the Twin Cities.

Sources:
http://www.mndaily.com/2010/11/13/first-snowstorm-season-batters-minneapolis
http://www.startribune.com/local/107736298.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

A man jumped to his death from a Minneapolis freeway overpass while running from police after a fight outside a nightclub, police said.

Officers were called to the Epic Nightclub just after 2 a.m. on Saturday, according to the Star Tribune.

In an attempt to flee the police, the man jumped a concrete barrier and misjudged the difference to the ground, falling several stories to a parking lot, reported Kare 11 News.

The man was identified as Jason Yang, 29 of West St. Paul. He was pronounced dead at the scene, reported the Star Tribune.

Sources:
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=882076
http://www.startribune.com/local/east/107714793.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

Numbers were used in several different ways in the story on the Chilean miner on the Star Tribune website. In the opening, the miner was underground for 'two' months. The time was given as '3:24 p.m.' and the time that the miner ran was written as '5 hours, 41 minutes, and 51 seconds.' In the next paragraph the '34-year-old' completed the course through the 'five' boroughs in under 'six' hours. In the upcoming paragraphs, he was running '6 or 7' miles each day '2,300' feet underground for '69' days with '32' other men. He also ran with '45,000' other runners, and was runner No. '7127.' There are a very large amount of numbers in this story, and sometimes the amount of different numbers in one paragraph was overwhelming, because there were a lot of specifics to attain. The reporter could have made the information easier to grasp by separately the number sentences into different paragraphs, or by using different phrases. For example, instead of saying '69 days', the author could have written 'over 2 months' to make the information and the numbers easier to grasp. However, I like that the author often spelled out the numbers, because that made it easier to read for me. The reporter used math to crunch the numbers and tell the story effectively, because the reporter used miles in his stories to tell how long the marathon was, instead of feet or yards, for example. The sources of many of the numbers were given from an interview from Pena, and the rest from the Associated Press.

Sources:
http://www.startribune.com/nation/106848813.html?elr=KArks:DCiUBcy7hUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

A 17-year-old boy died Saturday after being pulled from the bottom of a pool at an indoor water park in Brooklyn Park, the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office reported.

It occurred at the Grand Rios Ramada Hotel and Indoor Water Park at around 5 p.m., according to WCCO News.

Lisa Kiava of the Sheriff's Office told the Star Tribune that the boy had been pulled from the bottom of a water slide feature.

CPR was used on the victim, and he was taken to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, where he died later, reported the Star Tribune.

The Sheriff's Office has an investigation on the incident, according to WCCO News.

Sources:
http://www.startribune.com/local/north/106834828.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUoD3aPc:_2yc:a_ncyD_MDCiU
http://wcco.com/local/brooklyn.park.drowning.2.1999687.html

Chilean miner Edison Pena crossed the finished line at Central Park at 3:24 p.m. on Sunday, with a time of 5 hours, 40 minutes, 51 seconds.

The 34-year-old survivor had beat his own goal of completing the marathon through the city's boroughs in 6 hours, according to the Star Tribune.

Pena walked in pain during the second half of the marathon, but gathered strength to run the final stretch along Central Park West, reported the Star Tribune.

According to CBS News, Pena ran six or seven miles every day in the black underground of the mine.

Pena told CBS News that he does does not consider himself a hero, but that the struggle was part of his destiny.

Pena was one of 45,000 runners in the marathon, according to the Star Tribune.

Sources:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/07/eveningnews/main7032819.shtml
http://www.startribune.com/nation/106848813.html?elr=KArks:DCiUBcy7hUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is encouraging Congress to repeal the ban on gays serving openly in the military before the year has ended. His view is also shared by the president, Barack Obama.

However, Gates was not optimistic about that the current Congress would act to get rid of the law known as "don't ask, don't tell," according to Yahoo News.

Gates told Yahoo News that he would like to see the repeal of "dont ask, don't tell" but is not sure what the chances are of this occurring.

Hopes for ending the 17-year-old law have lowered after Tuesday's elections resulting in Republicans getting control of the House, according to the Star Tribune.

The Star Tribune reported that the House of Representatives has passed legislation on "don't ask, don't tell", but it has not seen a vote in the full Senate yet.

Sources:
http://www.startribune.com/nation/106856638.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=121553

The bodies of Sierra Bravo Corp. CEO Luke Bucklin and his three sons, all killed in a plane crash, have been recovered from the wreckage in the Wyoming mountains, authorities said Wednesday morning.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal reported that Bucklin's plane was lost from radar about an hour after taking off in a snowstorm from Jackson Hole's airport on Oct. 25. The remains were found after an extensive week-long air and land search.

The victims in the crash were Bucklin, 40, his twin 14-year-old sons Nick and Nate, and his 12-year-old son Noah, according to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal reported that Bucklin and his three sons were returning back to Minnesota from a family vacation. His wife and son were travelling back separately.

Mike Derheim is the new CEO at Sierra Bravo Corp., accepting the post reluctantly, according to the Star Tribune.

Sources:
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2010/11/03/bucklin-family-remains-recovered-from.html
http://www.startribune.com/business/106805383.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUgOy9cP3DieyckcUsI

Minnesota Democratic-Farm-Labor party candidate Mark Dayton unofficially lead Republican candidate Tom Emmer by a tiny margin early Wednesday.

Dayton leads Emmer by 8,856 votes, which is a margin so small that it could require hand-ballot recount, according to the Star Tribune.

This is the second election cycle in a row that a recount has been required. In 2008 Democrat Al Franken's victory over Republican Norm Coleman triggered a long, tedious recount that went to court and left the Senator's seat empty for eight months, according to Politics Daily.

Officials have already begun the boring, stressful task of locking up ballots, which may be guarded around the clock by both parties, according to the Star Tribune.

Emmer said in a statement to the Star Tribune that this race is still too close to call.

Sources:
http://www.startribune.com/politics/local/106619478.html?elr=KArks:DCiUec7PaP3E77K_0c::D3aDhUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUvca_bPiL_ec7PaP3iU
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/03/mark-dayton-narrowly-leads-minnesota-governors-race-recount-li/