This is an email from my father. He actually is a doctor {PhD}, whereas I just play one on the 'net.
For me, this should not happen, it should not be allowed, nor should it be tolerated.
Dr. S.
Metro man killed in Wisconsin plane crash
UPDATE: I just got off the phone with my dad. My Aunt Joyce is doing ok for the time & situation. He told me that Jim was heading up to see a friend that was a bit under the weather & that the reason that Joyce didn't go with him was that she wanted to stay home to watch the Bears / Vikings game. Being from Hammond, IN. as I & almost all of my paternal side of my family, but living in the twin cities for so long..... I don't know who she was rooting for.
Like all good reporters, the News Tribune's Janna Goerdt has learned to keep her ears and eyes open for whatever might be encountered on an assignment.
Goerdt accompanied law enforcement officials Saturday as they searched for people illegally using all-terrain vehicles in Duluth. She wrote a story about the enforcement campaign for Sunday's newspaper.
Goerdt also uncovered a dozen marijuana plants growing in western Duluth.
The pot wasn't growing off an ATV trail. And she didn't find it in the woods.
Goerdt found the marijuana growing in a planter near the front door of the West Duluth police substation.
You might say she was paying attention.
During law enforcement's briefing on how they were going to conduct the ATV sting Saturday, Goerdt heard two members of a rival news team talking about "something interesting" in front of the police station at 5315 Grand Ave.
Eavesdropping like a good reporter, Goerdt filed the comment away in her memory bank and accompanied law enforcement on the ATV crackdown.
When that assignment was over, Goerdt returned to the police station and took a walk around the building. She found the marijuana plants. Although she said she didn't know that they were marijuana plants.
She plucked one of the leaves and brought it back to the newspaper. "I needed some evidence," she said. "I didn't know if anyone would believe me. I didn't think it was a big deal. I just thought it was rather amusing."
Duluth City Gardner Tom Kasper was given the leaf for inspection Monday and confirmed that it came from a marijuana plant.
Kasper immediately traveled to the West Duluth police substation to inform neighborhood supervising police Lt. John Beyer of the pot growing in the front-yard planter.
Beyer pointed out that he, his police officers and the public use the backdoor entrance to the police station. The front door just off busy Grand Avenue is usually locked and not used.
"The only thing I can say is somebody has a sense of humor," Beyer said. "Now they'll read about it in the paper and say, 'Yeah, that was me.' "
Goerdt provided the scoop and Kasper did the scooping.
The gardener dug out the 12 marijuana plants by their roots and presented them to Beyer. They were 4 to 6 inches high and Kasper estimated they had been growing about three weeks.
Beyer said the plants will be placed in a paper bag and destroyed when the next batch of police-confiscated drugs are gotten rid of.
Kasper said this is the first marijuana found growing in Duluth that has been reported to him in 10 years.
But this isn't the first time marijuana has been discovered growing in a public place in Duluth. In 1990, a citizen pointed out to police that a 3-foot marijuana plant was growing in the northern corner of the Civic Center courtyard near City Hall.
For a day at least, Goerdt is known around here as "Janna The Snitch." She said she can live with it.
The deposed leader on trial in Iraq was featured in the movie spin-off as the lover of the devil. South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut featured Hussein and Satan attempting to take over the world together.
Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said US Marines guarding the former dictator during his trial for genocide were making him watch the movie "repeatedly".
"I have it on pretty good information from the Marines on detail in Iraq that they showed him the movie last year. That's really adding insult to injury. I bet that made him really happy," Stone said.
By: Gregory P. Smith, author of Here Today Here Tomorrow: Transforming Your Workforce from High-Turnover to High-Retention
There are many reasons why good employees quit, most are preventable. From my years of experience as a consultant, I’ve identified a “Top Ten” list of reasons why people leave jobs:
1. Management demands that one person do the jobs of two or more people, resulting in longer days and weekend work.
2. Management cuts back on administrative help, forcing professional workers to use their time copying, stapling, collating, filing and other clerical duties.
3. Management puts a freeze on raises and promotions, when an employee can easily find a job earning 20-30 percent more somewhere else.
4. Management doesn’t allow the rank and file to make decisions or allow them pride of ownership. A visitor to my website E-mailed me a message that said, “Forget about the “professional” decisions—how about when you can’t even select the company’s holiday card without the President rejecting it for one of his own taste?”
5. Management constantly reorganizes, shuffles people around, and changes direction constantly.
6. Management doesn’t have or take the time to clarify goals and decisions. Therefore, it rejects work after it was completed, damaging the morale and esteem of those who prepared it.
7. Management shows favoritism and gives some workers better offices, trips to conferences, etc.
8. Management relocates the offices to another location, forcing employees to quit or double their commute.
9. Management promotes someone who lacks training and/or necessary experience to supervisor, alienating staff and driving away good employees.
10. Management creates a rigid structure and then allows departments to compete against each other while at the same time preaching teamwork and cooperation.
Interesting, isn’t it — that all ten factors begin with the phrase “Management….” Interesting, too, just how many of these high-turnover factors are preventable? My retention survey confirmed the truth of the saying, “Employees don’t quit their companies, they quit their bosses.” Thirty five percent of the respondents answered yes to the question, Was the attitude of your direct supervisor/manager the primary factor in your quitting a previous job?
Soft management skills—people skills—are the critical element in battling high turnover and creating a high-retention workforce or what I call, “retentionship.”
About the Author
Greg Smith is the “Retention Expert.” He shows executives and business owners how to attract and keep customers and build organizations that retain and motivate its workforce. He is the author of the book, Here Today Here Tomorrow: Transforming Your Workforce from High-Turnover to High-Retention.
- Melanie Brandert, Argus Leader
Sometimes we pay for a service which we no longer use simply because we haven’t had the time, or energy to cancel it. Here is a recording of a phone call made by an AOL user trying to cancel his AOL account, which he was no longer using.
Listening to this recording will actually make you angry. It’s so ridiculous that I am doubting the authenticity of this call.
I think the people in Jaffrey, NH have been lighting up the product more than they should.
A German man has taken legal action against the Easter Bunny for grievous bodily harm.
Karl-Friedrich Lentze, from Berlin, has filed a complaint with prosecutors, accusing it of causing addiction to chocolate which leads to heart attacks, obesity and strokes.
Lentze said: "The Easter Bunny is a sadistic and unscrupulous offender who preys on people's sweet tooth.
"Find this evil bunny, handcuff his paws and remove him from shops in time for Easter."
Public prosecutor spokesman Christian Avenarius said: "We will act upon the complaint with speed and diligence."
Staring James, 
