The Perlich Press

The governors of Minnesota and Wisconsin have begun an initiative to combine efforts in certain areas, cutting $10 million in expenses for each state.
The collaboration of the two states began Jan. 13 and could result in the combination of one hunting and one fishing license for the two states.
According to the Pioneer Press, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle outlined five broad areas in the cost-saving plan:
• Joint procurement, the states are attempting to cut costs on small package deliveries.
• Cross-border collaboration, the states are looking into combining research projects and other wildlife initiatives.
• Information technology, the states would share technology to collect income tax and reduce fraud.
• Reciprocity, the states would allow over-sized trucks to get one permit for both states.
• Shared resources, the states hope to share law enforcement communication towers.
According to a report from the Star Tribune, the governors released a 130-page report outlining the areas where they could combine their efforts and cut costs.

Posted by perli024 at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am analyzing an obituary written by the New York Times for Irving R. Levine, a former reporter for NBC News.

The obituary takes the common form of obituary writing, with the same lead and all. It is a very affective way for this particular obit, because not everyone knows who he is. You learn who he is and what he did.

The obit also goes into detail on his timeline, or the story of his life, after covering the more important moments of his life.

The one place where the story differs is that there is not a list of surviving family members at the bottom of the story.

The story also does no interview anybody from his life; it basically uses knowledge that is public to write the obituary.

It could have been better to use more people from his life, but it is not certain if they are alive, since the story did not mention any surviving family members.

Posted by perli024 at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A gunman shot and killed eight people and injured three more in a shooting Sunday at a North Carolina nursing home.

Police said that Robert Stewart killed eight people Sunday morning at Pinelake Health and Rehab nursing home in Carthage, N.C., including seven residents and one nurse. He is also accused of injuring three more people, including Justin Garner, the 25-year-old police office who first confronted him.

Police have indicated that no motive is initially known. They said that Stewart is not a resident or employee of the nursing home and it is not believed that he is related to any of the residents there, according to a report from Fox News.

Maureen Kruger, the country district attorney, said the victims were residents Tessie Garner, 88; Lillian Dunn, 89; Jessie Musser, 88; Bessie Hendrick, 78; John Goldston, 78; Margaret Johnson, 89; Louise Decker, 98; and nurse Jerry Avant Jr., 39.

Authorities believe that Avant was shot attempting to stop the gunman, his sister, Frances Green, told the New York Times.

“He just lay down his life to protect the residents and employees there,” Green told the New York Times, “Unfortunately he lost his life. But he was a hero.”

Authorities have scheduled a news conference for Monday morning, in which they will release any new information.

Posted by perli024 at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A large dam in Indonesia burst open following heavy rains Friday, flooding a highly urban area in minutes and killing at least 60 people, police said.

The dam broke around 2 a.m. in a largely urban neighborhood on the outskirts of the town of Jakarta, according to a report from the New York Times. Many were still asleep at the time, and woke to find their homes completely flooded with mud and water.

Rescue workers are now working through the mud and water to find any survivors. The death toll is currently 60, but police say it is rising. The Wall Street Journal reports that bodies from 47 of the victims have been identified.

The neighborhood, home to hundreds of residents, is a mostly middle-class university are of the city.

Residents described the event as almost like a tsunami, as a wall of water nearly 33-feet high rushed through their valley.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited the area Friday to speak with rescue workers and residents. Yudhoyono said that the government will do everything possible to continue the rescue effort and find places to live for those who have been displaced.

The dam protected a low-lying area of the city from the waters of Situ Gintung, a 50-acre lake. The dam was constructed while Indonesia was still under Dutch colonial rule. Authorities said that they have been concerned something like this could happen.

Yudhoyono said a new, more modern dam will be built.

Posted by perli024 at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A juror in the Craigslist murder trial was dismissed Friday, after a defense attorney inadvertently aimed a replica of the murder weapon at her.

Defense attorney Alan Margoles was questioning Minnesota Bureaue of Criminal Apprehension firearms expert Kurt Moline, when he pointed a gun similar to the one used in the murder in the general direction of the jury, according to the Star Tribune.

A female juror was upset by the action, that Judge Mary Theisen granted her request to be dismissed.

The defendant, Michael John Anderson, 20, is accused of luring Katherine Ann Olson to his Savage home and then shooting her after she responded to a fake baby-sitting job he posted on craigslist.org.

Anderson has admitted to holding the gun that killed Olson. Anderson’s attorneys maintain that he shot the gun shot accidentally and that he did not lure Olson to his house with the intention to kill her.

During a noon break for the jury, Theisen had a stern conversation with the attorneys about the actions earlier in the day, according to reports from the Pioneer Press.

“No one is ever going to have a replica firearm pointed at another person in this courtroom,” Theisen said, according to the Star Tribune. “If it does happen, I will chastise you infront of the jury.”

After her conversation with the jurors, Theisen spoke with the female juror, eventually leading to her granted dismissal.

Posted by perli024 at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am analyzing a story in the Star Tribune that is advancing local musicians that are playing music that has more to do with the Great Depression than being the Next Big Thing. The story uses sources that are the musicians that they are speaking about. They have gone to these musicians that they are writing about, and they interviewed them, and they got their perspective. They used the musicians to write the story.
The angle that they took had to do with how music is different in this economic climate. The article is talking about how these new age musicians are not like the pop acts that made it big in the late 1990s, but more like the acts of old like Bob Dylan and Brandy Snifters.

Posted by perli024 at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nine stores have been damaged after a fire caused by a Dumpster early Sunday morning.

According to the Star Tribune, nearly 45 firefighters arrived on the scene at Cliff Lake Center around 2 a.m., after a fire alarm sounded at 1:15 a.m., Fire Chief Mike Scott said.

Scott said that the fire spread from a Dumpster garage and has caused damage to nine stores from smoke and water damage. The Star Tribune reported three small businesses: a nail salon, day care center, and GNC Nutrition shop, have been the most severely damaged.

According to a report from the Pioneer Press, the flame started in the Dumpster garage and into the ceiling area, spreading the fire.

The mall is attached to a Cub Foods and Target.

Scott said that the cause of the fire in the Dumpster garage is unknown, but that he did not think there was any foul play in the case. “It doesn’t appear suspicious at this point,” Scott told the Star Tribune.

Scott said that the most common causes of Dumpster fires are smoldering cigarette butts or hot material put in them.

According to the Star Tribune, the total financial loss was not known as of Sunday.

Posted by perli024 at 9:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A 26-year-old Apple Valley woman hit by a vehicle last week remains in critical condition Sunday.

Joan LaVasseur, a deaf woman who is engaged to be married, was walking near the intersection of Cedar Avenue and 153rd Street in Apple Valley around 9:15 p.m. Friday, when police said she was struck by a large vehicle traveling in the northbound lane.

The vehicle did not stop. Police are still searching for the driver of the vehicle.

She was sent to Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville and was then transferred to the Hennepin County Medical Center.

Lori LaVasseur, the victim’s sister-in-law, told the Pioneer Press that she suffered a severe brain injury along with multiple fractures to both legs, a fractured pelvis, a broken right hand and lacerations to her face from the accident.

Family members told the Star Tribune that LaVasseur was walking to Cub Foods when the accident occurred.

Apple Valley Sgt. Joe Shaw said that police have not arrested anyone for the hit-and-run, but that police are still receiving tips.

Anyone with information on the hit-and-run is asked to call the Apple Valley police at 952-953-2700, or the Dakota County Communication Center at 651-322-2323.

Posted by perli024 at 8:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A suicide bomber driving near a police academy Sunday in Baghdad blew himself up, killing 28 people.

According to the Iraqi interior minister the attack killed five police officers and injured 57 other people. Witnesses described a chaotic scene full or carnage and police gunfire after the attack occurred, The New York Times reported.

This is not the first time suicide bombers have targeted the police academy in Baghdad. On Dec. 1, a suicide bomber blew himself up at nearly the say exact spot, killing 15 people on that occasion.

The attack comes on the same day that the American military announced its intentions to have 12,000 U.S. troops leave Iraq by September, as part of President Barack Obama’s plan to have the military out of Iraq by August 2010.

The city of Baghdad is still heavily protected with many checkpoints and security officers remaining in the area, according to The New York Times report.

Violence across Iraq has dropped to its lowest level since the American invasion in March 2004, however, in recent weeks, there have been several high-profile attacks, including a bombing at a cattle market in the city of Hilla.

According to a report from CBS News, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. David Perkins said that security in Iraq is improving, and that it is the best it has been since the summer of 2003.

Perkins said the U.S. military would evacuate 12,000 troops by September, and that the British would take 4,000 over their troops out of Iraq by September.

Posted by perli024 at 8:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An Illinois pastor was killed at the beginning of service Sunday when a gunman walked in and shot him.

An unnamed gunman walked into First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill., around 8 a.m. Sunday and shot and killed Fred Winters, the pastor. He then pulled out a knife and a group of parishioners tackled him, according to police.

The New York Times reports that the gunman entered the Church at the beginning of service and confronted the pastor. After a brief conversation between the two men, the gunman pulled out his .45-caliber gun and shot the pastor four times, first hitting the pastor’s bible.

After he shot the pastor, his gun jammed and he then pulled out the knife. After he and a group of parishioners struggled over the knife, the gunman was severely injured. Two parishioners were injured, although their injuries were not serious.

St. Louis University Hospital spokeswoman Laura Keller told CNN that the hospital received three patients. One was dead on arrival, another was in the operating room, and the third was the suspect. The suspect’s condition was not known at the time.

The suspect is a 27-year-old resident of Troy, Ill. Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent told CNN that it was not clear if the pastor knew the suspect.

None of the parishioners knew who the suspect was, according to The New York Times report.

Posted by perli024 at 5:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two National Football League players are among four people reported missing on a fishing boat Sunday off of Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Corey Smith, an NFL free agent, and Marquis Cooper of the Oakland Raiders left the coast early Saturday morning on a 21-foot fishing boat. When the boat did not return to shore Sunday as expected, they were declared missing and United States Coast Guard crews began to search for them, according to a report from the USA Today.

The boat left Saturday morning at 6:30 a.m. ET. The Coast Guard began its search early Sunday morning around 2 a.m. ET when the boat did not return when expected. The search area is around 750 square miles.

Smith, 30, is a seven-year NFL veteran that has spent his last three seasons in Detroit. Cooper is a five-year veteran. The two played together with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Smith’s agent, Ron Del Duca confirmed to the Associated Press that Smith and Cooper were among the missing boaters, according to the USA Today article.

The other two men have been identified as Nick Schuyler and Will Bleakley.

The truck that the men drove to the boat ramp is reported still at the ramp. The truck belongs to Cooper.

Posted by perli024 at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)