Another installment of the South Metro News Roundup. Please note that until Thisweek pays my invoice in full for ignoring copyright I will not be linking to their material. No sense in giving them business when they steal from me:
1. From the Star Tribune we have an article about how District 191 plans to ease zero tolerance weapons policy for first time offenses.
I wasn’t a part of the Columbine generation and routinely had hicks in our school with full rifle racks in the parking lot during hunting season. So while I can definitely see the argument raised in the article, I would have to think that erring on the side of caution might be the best policy.
2. Couple of great photos from around the South Metro:
Waiting for the smoke to clear out, Untitled (a classic car at the Eagan Fun Fest), Untitled (great action shot of a player from Lakeville South Youth Baseball).
3. An interesting article over at Lifehacker about how to send back food at a restaurant.
I rarely send stuff back but when I do, it’s definitely because it was overcooked (steak ordered rare means cool center, not gray all the way through) or it wasn’t the right item at all. If it doesn’t match those requirements, I leave my bitching for the Internet where it belongs ;-)
4. The MNSun offers up two notices that there has been a rise in thefts in both Apple Valley and Rosemount.
5. From the Star Tribune: while looking to increase response times and avoid at least part of the Carriage Hills property from being developed, the City of Eagan wants to purchase a portion of the land to put up a replacement fire station.
6. The MNSun alerts us to UMore gravel mining approval has cleared another hurdle.
I was told by an unnamed party that there is over 4x as much gravel to be mined on the UMore property than has been mined from the Kraemer mine in Burnsville (2.5 million tons a year and the mine has been operational since 1959). I don’t know about you but I really wouldn’t want my future home to be anywhere near that gravel pit. I have enough problems with the trucks along CR-42 and CR-46.
7. The Star Tribune reports that businesses pleading with the County to keep their driveways open in the face of the pointless BRT project along Cedar are being ignored.
Way to go Dakota County. Keep pushing for your bullshit. Going to be hard for people to utilize the service when there won’t be any fucking businesses open because your stupid ideas closed them down.
8. The MNSun reports that during I Love Burnsville Week, Burnsville’s Savoy Pizza won top honors.
9. The Star Tribune reports that several counties have voided the lease agreement with the company handling the hydroelectric damn at Lake Byllesby in Cannon Falls.
I don’t know who to believe.
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Well that’s all for this roundup. I’d love to hear what you have to say about the possible change in District 191′s weapons policy and your thoughts about the threat of losing more businesses in the South Metro due to BRT. So go ahead and comment on and let’s hear what you have to say!
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July 10th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
The zero tolerance policy has been not just for weapons – it has been for everything that the district regards as potentially disagreeable. It is a ridiculous policy inasmuch as it does not consider that there are real people involved here who have different motives, goals, and histories. When you take people out of the equation and try to treat everyone exactly alike is when you stop being fair. A good kid who makes a misjudgement on a small but technically against-the-rules matter should not be treated the same way as a kid who is a trouble-maker and is intentionally breaking a rule with a bad motive in mind. My son grew up in the zero-tolerance era and even though he never encountered any difficulties, it was obvioiusly a silly policy.
A school needs to know its kids and work with them, not treat them like potentiaal criminals and distance itself from them. Kay Joyce, the previous BHS principle, appeared to have absolutely NO student contact. This is wrong. She should have made it a point to get to know every student that she possibly could. Her attitude trickled down – our son’s counselor had never heard of him until he/we made it a point to initiate a relationship.
You cannot remove people from the equation and achieve a good result, and zero tolerance policies do just that. This is why we have juries and judges rather than machines in our courts.
July 11th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Why does a policy need to be in place to allow consideration in district 191? Policy is just that, it’s policy, but shouldn’t the District Superintendent always have the ability to make adjustments as deemed appropriate by the superintendent? I’ve never quite understood why these people that are paid by us like to pretend like their hands are tied by the very rules they helped create.
I think the businesses along Cedar Ave had to see something was gonna come eventually. That has become a significant corridor ever since the old bridge was replaced and the road was paved further south. Access to that road was obviously always going to be modified at some point.