Saturday, December 29, 2007

Criminal identification...
The scene:

You've just moved to a new town and although you know you are innocent... you find yourself lined up against a brick wall by a cop and having your picture taken.
Could be kind of scary.


Or, it could be that with visions of actor Robert Redford in your head and a potential Oscar award winning performance in your heart, you have agreed to be part of an act to help teach folks how to be a good eye witness at a crime scene!

Jim Lauridsen moved to Cannon Falls about eight months ago. His wife’s family lives here. (Although in some of the cold weather lately, he questioned as to why they couldn’t be living in Florida?)

Cannon Falls Assistant Police Chief, Rich Wisniewski, was teaching, How to be a Good Witness, to the Cannon Falls Area Citizens and Law Enforcement Partnership – TRIAD.
Wisniewski thought it would be good to have someone the group did not know sit in the meeting for a few minutes and then leave. He wanted the group to make eye contact with the “guest” and then later on they would try to identify him.
During the time the “guest” was there, Wisniewski led the discussion about what to look for in identifying a criminal. He emphasized that it was important to keep it simple.
If you are calling 911, give your location first – the street and town. Wisniewski warned, “Don’t try to get involved with the crime. Just be a good witness,” and you can remain anonymous.

Things to look for as a witness: the direction the criminal is going. And even a partial license plate can help. If weight is hard to gauge use slim, medium build, or heavy. For age use teenager, young adult, middle aged, etc. If you don’t know the exact color of his clothes just describe them as light or dark.
The discussion continued.

All of sudden, a cell phone rang. The “guest”, Jim, took his phone out and explained to the group that his wife’s car had broken down and he had to leave. The group went back to the study at hand.
It was a few minutes later that Wisniewski explained that the “guest” had been a “set-up”. Now he wanted the group to identify him.


They came up with details like his well-used baseball cap. Ray Kimmes wryly kidded, “The kind I’d wear to the barn!” The group continued, he had a tan or yellow shirt, dark pants, glasses, was tall and slim, had a receding hairline and was in his middle to late 30’s. Agnes Ward commented, “Nice looking.”
Glenn Schulz thought he was right handed. The group eyed him questioningly but were impressed when he explained, well, he held his coffee cup in his right hand and answered his cell phone with it.
Paul Schluter suggested he had boots on.

Wisniewski then had the group work on making a composite sketch of the man’s face with the computer program that was projected onto a large screen. They worked diligently on individual characteristics like the correct chin, nose, eyebrows, glasses, etc.
Wisniewski explained that a regular composite could take many hours to finish.
At the end of this limited session, the “guest”, Jim, was phoned to come back and they got to see how close they had come to identifying him. Jim felt complimented on their guessing his age as in his 30’s because he is actually 44.

The TRIAD group was encouraged and enthused as to their potential as good eye witnesses. A trait they might keep on practicing… just to keep a person aware and just for fun.

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Wednesday, December 26, 2007

A moment of peace...
.

but even in the calm...
one of them stays alert.
Thanks to those who are working for peace...
by staying alert.
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Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas!


And peace to all with good will.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

"Hi, world!"


Cannon Falls has made it onto the world stage with a new webcam that can be viewed from all over the planet!

After several months of research and negotiations and contracts and all that good stuff… a twin cities television station in connection with the Cannon Falls Beacon has put up a webcam on the roof of Park Street Apartments on downtown’s Fourth Street... to show the weather in our area.

The apartment complex was well suited for this role because it is on a higher site in the downtown area. Having researched many other buildings, I decided to access their roof and send my pictures to KSTP –TV’s Eyewitness News operations manager, Chris Meltvedt. I explained that I was too scared to get really close to the edge of the building but I hoped the pictures would show the information they needed.

The station was interested in the skyline to show the weather on their news programs. But I was also interested in showing the world the beautiful scenic area of Cannon Falls.

During normal operation the camera can change its angle so you might see any of the views at a given time. The station can also control which way it is aimed so they can focus on inclement weather that might be coming from a certain direction.
The view is updated every 15 minutes. You can also get an animated view of all the pictures taken during an hour, day or month.
To see the view from the webcam you can click onto the Beacon’s home page, http://www.cannonfalls.com/ and then click on the “button” on the right side.

There have been many frustrations involved in this project. We still have some glitches to work out. If you have a problem accessing the webcam, please try some other time and/or e-mail the Beacon.

But the world can’t wait!

So when you want to see if it’s sunny, raining or snowing in this northland country... or just enjoy looking at the street lights shining in our historic downtown…no matter where you are in the whole world - just click on in.

And if I happen to be drivin' down main street in my old black an' silver diesel pick-up truck... I'll wave at you!







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Monday, December 17, 2007

Look who we met in Cannon Falls!
We didn't keep him for very long... he's pretty busy!

Friday, December 14, 2007

The right gift…


Are you looking for the right gift?
Maybe for others… or maybe for yourself.

One dark night I picked up a book by Max Lucado. The pages fell open to one story. It was about an old man who was telling a younger man about the perils of looking for love. As I remember it explained that in his own youth, the old man had been searching for a beautiful woman. And he missed his true love.

Lucado’s touching philosophy stated it this way:

Seek beauty and miss love…
But seek love and find both.

What an interesting concept.
How could this affect our lives? Could we actually hinder our hopes from coming true because we were searching in the wrong way?

To test this idea, I reflected as to whether the saying could be adapted to other wishes. As I was recuperating from a bout with a virus I pondered this thought…

Seek health and miss peace...
But seek peace and find both.

I remember the efforts in my past that I have made to get healthy. Sometimes I was needlessly concerned and other times my search included medical procedures. But the “needless concern”, or worry, or struggle, did not benefit me. I was obviously missing “peace”.

Now, what about finances? This has been a concern for me ever since I asked for an allowance as a kid.
So for enlightenment on this topic, I rewrote the above concept to:

Seek money and miss opportunities
Seek opportunities and get both.

This way I can broaden my view. Trying out different opportunities could lead to money but they could also lead to blessings I had never thought of finding.

The value of looking into these concepts appears to be to help me focus on issues or ideas I might have been overlooking.

To insure that I didn’t miss even more of them I came across this comprehensive thought:

Seek first the kingdom of God…
And all these things will be given you. Matthew 6:33

Just a reminder, that what we focus on may lead to just the “right gift”.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

A Christmas Party...

at a weekly newspaper

in our Small Town, U.S.A.
.

Some of the staff is talented enough to sing their version of a Christmas carol...

telling about all the pressures of getting out a newspaper!

***
And look who thought he was getting a gift
of "wonnerful, wonnerful Lutefisk"!
.
It looks more like left-over carp!
***
We all enjoyed the friendship and the dinner.
(Neither Lutefisk nor carp!)

And the cookies for dessert!

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!




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Thursday, December 6, 2007

Leaving a light on for you...

Drive down the main street of Cannon Falls and enjoy the lights on the homes and stores.
It's the holiday season... and the lights brighten up a cold dark winter's night.
We'll leave the light on for you...

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

The morning star and the winter moon...



Where was it in your world?

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

It's snowing... again

and again
and again
...

Sleeping in your clothes...



When you've got a sick horse you might as well just sleep in your clothes... or so I figure.
At least you're not so cold when you get out of bed and pull on the snowmobile suit and boots and head out to check on him in the dead of night.
(Why do they refer to it as "dead"?)

Don't know why our old horse is doing as well as he is.
Got a blanket for him that seems to keep him warm.
The medicine hasn't arrived yet... I thought it would be here four days ago.
Can't get hold of the company.
The vet is away for a few days.

Gets lonely out here.

I'll check on him in a while again.

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