September 2010 Archives

Five people were injured in a crash involving 2 freight trains Thursday near Two Harbors, authorities said.

Two trains, both belonging to CN, collided head-on about 13 miles north of Two Harbors, sending 5 crew members to the hospital. The extent of the injuries was unknown, according to the Star Tribune.

The Pioneer Press reported that each train had three locomotives, all of which derailed, but stayed upright. Fifteen cars filled with iron ore pellets derailed from one train, while the other train had two empty cars derailed.

A University of Minnesota professor received the "genius" grant Tuesday for her research and breeding of honeybees.

Marla Spivak, who was hired at the U in 1993, was given a $500,000 MacArthur "genius" grant for her development of "hygienic behavior".

Parasites, diseases and pesticides have been killing off an alarming amount of honeybees, according to the Pioneer Press. A third of the U.S. food supply is dependent on pollination from honeybees.

Spivak, along with 22 other researchers, artists and innovators will receive $100,000 a year for 5 years with no strings attached, the Star Tribune reported.

At least seven people are dead after a landslide early Tuesday in southern Mexico.

Heavy, early morning rains caused a landslide just above the town Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. According to the BBC Oaxaca's governor stated that between 100 and 300 hundred homes were buried.

It was difficult to reach the area because of blocked roads and unstable ground limited rescue efforts using heavy machinery, Reuters reported.

It has been the worst rainy season that many parts of Mexico have ever dealt with.

Gloria Stuart, known for her role as Rose in the blockbuster "Titanic", died late Sunday at the age of 100.

Stuart, who had her Hollywood prime in the 1930s, died in her Los Angeles home from respiratory failure, her daughter, Sylvia Thompson, said Monday.

According to Reuters, Stuart was a breast cancer survivor after being diagnosed with the disease five years ago. "She did not believe in illness. She paid no attention to it, and it served her well," Thompson said.

Born on July 4, 1910, Stuart was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild and rose to fame for a second time in James Cameron's 1997 film "Titanic" where she played old Rose Calvert, the Star Tribune reported.

At 87, Stuart was the oldest actor ever to be nominated for an Academy Award.

The article from Reuters about the Titanic steering mistake has only one source in it. Lousie Patten, the woman who revealed the secret of a steering error as the reason the ship hit an iceberg, is mentioned in almost every paragraph.

She is quoted directly once, while the rest of the interview was describe indirectly or paraphrased.

It is explained where she got her information, but the article is written in such a way that the what that she reveals isn't taken as the truth or a lie. It is written objectively to give the reader the means to think for themselves.

The attributions to Patten are very well laid out. It's easy to follow and effectively used.

A Shoreview man was found safe in Las Vegas last week after he was reported missing by his family.

Matthew Anderson, 29, "left Minnesota on his own volition and traveled to Nevada via Chicago," according to Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Holli Drinkwine reported in the Star Tribune.

Anderson called his wife Friday and said he'd been abducted and was somewhere in Iowa, and the call was later traced to the Wisconsin Dells area. He was also alone when he withdrew $1,000 from a back in Roseville a half-hour before he was last seen, the Pioneer Press reported.

A steering mistake caused the Titanic to strike an iceberg and sank quickly because it continued sailing, an author said Wednesday.

In Louise Patten's new book titled Good As Gold she claims the steersman, Robert Hitchins, panicked and turned the wheel the wrong way. She makes note about the two different steering systems used at the time, sail steering and steam steering, which were opposite one another.

Patten is the granddaughter of the Titanic's second officer Charles Lightoller, according to the NY Daily News. Lightoller never spoke about the information to anyone except his wife, who then told Patten, to protect the White Star Line and its employees, Patten said.

Lightoller wasn't present when the mistake was made, but was at the final officer's meeting before the ship sank, Patten said. At the meeting they also learned that the ship continued sailing, as persuaded by J. Bruce Ismay, chairman of Titanic's owner the White Star Line, after hitting the iceberg causing the ocean liner to sink faster.

"If Titanic had stood still, she would have survived at least until the rescue ship came and no one need have died," Patten said, reported by Reuters.

The Minnesota Twins became the American League Central Division champions Tuesday after beating the Cleveland Indians and Target Field.

It was a come from behind victory for the Twins and the 800th career win for manager Ron Gardenhire. The 3 millionth fan also passed through the gates of the new ballpark in this memorable night for the organization, as reported by the Pioneer Press.

In order to clinch the title the Twins had to win and the Chicago White Sox had to loose. According to the Star Tribune in the White Sox's late game against Oakland Tuesday they lost 7-2 sending the Twins into celebration.

In an upcoming movie actress Hayden Panettiere will play Amanda Knox, a college student convicted of murder for killing her housemate in 2007.

The movie is set to be release on Lifetime next year, according to CBC News.

Knox staged a break-in with her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito to make it seem like her housemate, Meredith Kercher, was killed by someone else. Both, along with a third party, were convicted in Italy in 2007 for murder and sexual violence.

The BBC reports that Kercher's body was found half-naked and surrounded by blood.

An arrest warrant was issued for actress Lindsey Lohan Monday after she admitted to failing a drug test.

She could go back to jail if it is found that she violated her probation, according to the Star Tribune. Early last August Lohan was released from jail after serving 12 days from being convicted on drug use and driving under the influence in 2007.

"Substance abuse is a disease, which unfortunately doesn't go away in overnight," Lohan said as reported by the BBC "I am working hard to overcome it."

A court hearing will be held Friday in Los Angeles, according to officials from Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The lead started off by saying that a van blew a tire before going onto the more important detail of how many people in the accident were killed. The Star Tribune created a lead sending me into the idea that the blown tire was the most interesting and important fact of the van crash when how the people were affected rated higher on my radar. The lead did include the who: people from the church, the what: the van flipping over and crashing, the where: the New York State Thruway, the when: on Saturday, and the how: the blown tire, which adds up to a wonderful lead, but the way it was constructed through me for a loop.

The reporter could have meant to do this. Creating a focus on the tire and how that caused the accident is a major part of the story and is entirely responsible for the need for a news story, but as a reader I like to know what happened first before the rest of it comes into play. Overall the lead was very successful, even though I would have liked it to be different.

Lady Gaga posted a video on YouTube Friday asking her fans to call their senators to ask them to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" in their vote next Tuesday.

"Ultimately the law is being enforced using gay profiling," Gaga said in her video, who has been a voice for the GLBT community for months, according to the LA Times, and even arrived at the MTV Video Music Awards with members of the military who were discharged on the suspicion of being gay.

Gaga called Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid and encouraged her little monsters, as she calls her fans, to do the same to help repeal the military's policy.

According to the Pioneer Press the vote is set to take place next Tuesday.

A man was charged Friday with second-degree assault after throwing battery acid in the face of his ex-girlfriend near the 3700 block of Louisiana Avenue.

Jarso Yohannes Adem told police that he was attempting to talk to her while she was on her way home from work when she refused. In response, Adem tossed a bottle of liquid battery acid in the woman's face causing "significant blistering" according to the Star Tribune.

The Pioneer Press reported that a jogger chased Adem before he was arrested by police after hearing the woman scream.

Five people sexually abused by priests met with Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday in London to discuss the sex abuse scandal occurring in the Roman Catholic Church.

The Pope prayed with the victims and reassured them that children's safely was a top priority within the church and that they would investigate all allegations. According to the Star Tribune four women and one man from Scotland, England and Wales met the Pope for 30-40- minutes.

Demonstrators and other abuse victims marched in protest to the pope's views on women, contraception and abortion, homosexuality and the child abuse crisis just across town, as reported by the New York Times, indicating thoughts that the pope is wrong as so is the church.

Six people were killed when a driver lost control of a passenger van and crashed on the New York State Thruway on Saturday, authorities said.

The van, carrying 14 members of a church, blew a tire on northbound Interstate 87 causing it to flip over around 3 p.m., according to the state police and the Thruway Authority.

Six were reported dead at the scene according to the Star Tribune, while 8 others were sent to 2 nearby hospitals for treatment.

The New York Times reported that the passengers of the the van were members of the Joy Fellowship Church in the Bronx and they were on their way to visit a sister church in Albany.

Three lesbian pastors were officially put onto the denomination's roster this Saturday in St. Paul for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

All three pastors, Anita C. Hill, Phyllis Zillhart and Ruth Frost, are in open and committed relationships according to the Pioneer Press, which before a vote last summer prevented them from being accepted into the ELCA roster because they had to be celibate.

"Acknowledging sexuality is not easy," Zillhart said according to WCCO. Challa Baro, associate pastor of Our Redeemer Oromo Evangelical Church, had mixed feelings over Saturday's events saying it was more about scripiture than sexuality, and that it takes the public away from the bible, Jesus Christ and the christian community.

Frost and Zillhart were expelled from a San Francisco church before coming to the Twin Cities, while Hill is a pastor at St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church.