Spending the night away from home

My earliest memory was of me sleeping in a drawer from a chest placed on the floor. Blankets lined the wooden box for warmth and comfort. I was staying in a room at an older motel with my parents.
My mom finds this unbelievable because I was so young. Yet, I remember standing up in the drawer that seemed big at the time.

Sheriff DiCesari accuses commissioners of shortchanging his department to save money

“You’re putting the lives of the people of the county in jeopardy,” sheriff Gus DiCesari said Thursday after the Hennepin County commissioners voted 5-2 against his request for new vehicles and personnel.
DiCesari accused the commissioners of “shortchanging” his department to save money.
”You commissioners eliminated the equipment budgets for my department this year and now I can’t buy anything,” DiCesari said. “This is the first time in my 27 years as sheriff that the county hasn’t allocated money to the sheriff’s department to buy equipment.”
The county does not have the $580,000 needed to supply eight new cruisers and hire five more deputies for the sheriff’s department, according to commission president Anne Chenn. Commissioners Valerie Dawkins, Faith Ellis, Jose Gardez and Roland Gauman supported Chenn.
The county’s budget was $127 million this year. But, the county ran short because of higher fuel costs and increased costs for employees’ health care. Also, $30 million was spent to build a new prison to alleviate overcrowding.
Because the cars spend too much time in the repair shop, DiCesari said he needs the new cruisers to replace older vehicles that have more than 150,000 miles on them.
Chenn said the sheriff’s department would have to make do this year. She also suggested that deputies not drive their cruisers home each day as they do now. This would make more cars available and save mileage.
DiCesari said letting the deputies drive their cruiser home and parking them in their neighborhoods is a deterrent to crime.
In support of the sheriff, commissioners Anita Shenuski and Raymond Laybourne said the county should spend more money on the sheriff’s department and law enforcement than on programs for migrant workers.
“We never had problems until we began letting migrants come to this county to work,” Shenuski said. “They take away jobs from decent people and work for next to nothing.”
But, Chenn said the immigrants are not the problem because they are willing to do the jobs that the local residents don’t want to. “They add a great deal to the local economy and they pay taxes,” Chenn said. “You are being a hypocrite when you try to blame those people for everything.”
“Many of the migrant workers become permanent members of the community, opening businesses and eventually earning citizenship,” Gardez said.
According to the commissioner’s estimates, there are around 5,000 migrant families in the county working in agricultural, construction and service industry jobs.

Ark. player ends game with noble gesture

During the final seconds of the game Sept. 18, Thamail Morgan headed for a touchdown. But, the Cave City teammate stopped short to kneel at the 5-yard line instead.
This was a way the Arkansas all-state football player could pay respect to Yellville-Summit. The losing high school team's No. 72, Kymbal Duffey, was killed and four players injured in a truck wreck Sept. 11. ArkansasVarsity.com

My first day at Anoka Ramsey Community College

Even though fall semester had started, it was a relief to find the online "Media Writing" course at ARCC. I had to register for the single course as if I were a brand new college student. This came as a surprise because I’ve been at Normandale Community College (NCC) two years. Still, I got a nice welcome when I drove up to the quiet Coon Rapids campus to purchase a used textbook, quite the find at the time.

Blue is the new black

In the 70s, women felt happier leaving their mothers’ domestic roles behind. But, as women have taken on male-dominated roles, they have put more stress on themselves.
Now men feel happier about their lives while women take far more antidepressants and feel less happy no matter what they achieve. – The New York Times, Sept. 20, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/opinion/20dowd.html?em

Chain reaction causes war zone at crash scene

Two people were killed and 20 injured Wednesday in an accident on Interstate 790 W. Two tractor-trailers colliding apparently started the chain reaction at 6:45 a.m. that involved four tractor-trailers and fourteen cars, according to Eden Prairie Police Sgt. Albert Wei.
The crash scene looked like something from a war zone unlike anything he had seen in his 18 and one-half years with the fire department, Eden Prairie Fire Chief Tony Sullivan said.
The drivers and passengers trapped inside three cars were freed when his firefighters cut the roofs off, Sullivan said. Two of the four worst injured were airlifted to the trauma center in Statesville from Memorial Hospital in Eden Prairie.
The accident in the northbound lanes closed the entire highway, north and south, according to Wei. Rush hour traffic was also backed up for three hours as commuters had to use Interstate 690 E.
As of 10 a.m. Wednesday, the interstate was still closed and it was unknown when it would open again, Wei said.

Clues point to inside job in Yale killing

On Sunday, the same day her wedding was scheduled, police found the Yale graduate student dead inside the campus lab where she worked. Annie Le, 24, had disappeared five days before. Due to the evidence from the hidden crime scene, police tell the Ivy League community this is not a random act. - www.msn.com

The Sonic in Bloomington

The new Sonic in Bloomington was a fitting way to wrap up the first week of fall semester.
While dining curbside, I ordered a tasty burger with a milk shake special for $2.99 and a side of French fries for $1. Even though food server, Ashlee, didn’t wear roller skates, her service was great.

Lessons learned about leads

There was a lot of good stuff about leads in Chapter 7. No matter how much I learn, I can always use reminders about leads, such as AVOID:
- stating the obvious or negative, which helps eliminate wordiness.
- adjectives/adverbs that often state opinions instead of facts.
- using yesterday/today/tomorrow for times.
Plus, I need to work hard to keep my leads specific without useless details, concise and to the point in shorter sentences and appealing to readers.