“Sheriff says Winona driver was texting before fatal crash”

http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=2&a=451110

This law went into effect on July 1, 2009, and you should evaluate your car seat and booster seat situation to make sure you have the proper safety measures in place for your children.

According to the Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety …

Minnesota’s new child passenger safety law requires a child who is both under age 8 and shorter than 4 feet 9 inches to be fastened in a child safety seat or booster. Under this law, a child cannot use a seat belt alone until they are age 8 or 4 feet 9 inches tall — whichever comes first. It is recommended to keep a child in a booster based on their height, rather than their age.

Boosters are seat lifts that help raise a child up so a seat belt fits properly.

Kids that are shorter than 4 feet 9 inches aren’t ready to use a seat belt alone. Poor belt fit can contribute to death or serious injury — including ejection, internal decapitation and serious abdominal damage. A sign a belt does not fit properly is if it rubs against a child’s neck, or the child tucks the belt behind their back.

For more information, you can visit the following resources:

• http://www.carseatsmadesimple.org/
• http://www.buckleupkids.state.mn.us/

You can read the article at http://blog.uwolmsted.org/2009/06/the-street/

That popularity sometimes comes with a price. As I watch the crime reports each day, I see as a more and more common occurrence “theft of ipod from car”. Now, the crime reports are just a subjective listing of specific issues that the Crime Prevention department of the RPD and OCSO decide to release to the public, but I wanted to do a little data mining, and see if I could see a trend in the number of iPod and iPhone thefts over the past few years.

I want to emphasize this is not a scientifically accurate measurement of thefts in Rochester, this is just a search on the published CopTalkLive crime summaries for the past few years. I’m sure many more thefts of iPods and iPhones don’t get specifically listed, or the devices themselves don’t get named on the report. But, this is just a quick and dirty way to see if there has been any trend increase of thefts, and it certainly looks like there has been.

Just remember one thing, even if you live in a great neighborhood — don’t leave your valuables in your car! Thieves just pick random streets to walk up and down, look for anything worth taking, and they’ll bust out a window, or find unlocked cars to prey on. Especially expensive devices with information on them that would be painful, or impossible to replace.

Now, that said … time to order my new iPhone from Apple.

According to a report by the Post Bulletin; a group of four or five boys, all of them white and likely younger than 18, have shouted obscenities at monks and temple members from the temple entrance at 29th Street Southeast over the last two weeks, said a monk from the temple.

They could be likely suspects in the recent rash of vandalism.

If you have any information about the recent vandalism at the Buddhist Support Society temple in Marion Township, call Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Scott Behrns at 328-6752.

• Buddhist Support Center Website
• Post Bulletin Article

Full notice:

Several people in the Rochester area have been the target of a phone scam that uses the Mayo Credit Union name in an attempt to collect credit card information.
Reports indicate the phone call is from an automated system telling the recipient the Mayo Credit Union is calling them to let them know their credit card has been compromised or is overdrawn. The call recipients are asked to enter their “16 digit number” to verify account information along with an expiration date for the card.

If you receive one of these phone calls, do not enter any information. This is an attempt to gather credit card information to be used for illegal purposes. Mayo Employees Federal Credit Union would not call members and ask for this type of information.

There has been no breach of Mayo Employees Federal Credit Union records. The calls are being made randomly to Rochester phone numbers regardless of whether or not the numbers are published. People have received these calls at both work and home locations.

Credit union staff are working with the Rochester Police Department and Mayo Security to try to end this scam. If you feel you may have inadvertently given someone your account information, contact the credit union’s Phone Center at 507-535-1460 or stop into a credit union branch for assistance.

New Byron Web Tools

• Byron MN Blog
• Byron Better Project: Make Suggestions to Improve Byron
• Byron City Council Live Video Cast
• Follow City Councilman Alan De Keyrel on Twitter

New Byron Blog

As a resident of Byron myself, and father to three kids under five, I have always had an interest in what is happening within my local government, but I’ve never had the time or energy to be able to attend and keep up with city council meetings. Then I found a new blog, http://byronmnblog.com, which has been giving updates in down to earth terms on the latest hot topics being addressed by the city council. From the firing of the city administrator, to the latest in road repair projects, Alan De Keyrel has provided a conduit for a busy, increasingly tech-savvy audience to learn the “behind the scenes” details and facts about these topics.

Soliciting Suggestions to Make Byron Better

De Keyrel has also leveraged some free web tools to help get community engagement and participation in Byron issues, such as creating a Byron page on a website called “The Better Project”. This tool allows anyone to submit ideas on how to improve Byron, and there have been suggestions ranging from new potential eateries to road topics.

City Council Web Video Stream

The third web tool that was tested out at the last Byron city council meeting was streaming the meeting as a web cast from the website Ustream.TV. Again, another free and creative use of technology to help foster a more transparent local government.

Summary

Sometimes it just takes the right mix of motivation, technical expertise, ability to leverage free tools, and the result is an impressive effort to use technology to inform citizens of the inner workings of local government. I applaud Councilman De Keyrel for his innovative ideas in this arena, and I look forward to seeing more communications in the future. My one suggestion to the Byron City Council would be to advertise these new communication portals to Byron residents more effectively. Many people I have talked to have not heard of these new tools, so it’s only spreading by word of mouth right now as far as I can tell.

Keep up the good work!

Loving is currently classified as a “high risk” sex offender, level 3, and has identified himself as currently homeless. This will require him to check in with law enforcement once a week to identify where he will be residing.

In 2003, Loving was convicted in Ramsey County of Criminal Sexual Conduct in the 2nd Degree (against persons between 13-15 years old). He was released at the end of 2008, but then got arrested for purchasing drugs shortly thereafter. Now he is being released again, but currently has no address at which he will be staying. You can find more information by attending this community notification meeting on Wednesday.

More information: Postbulletin.com Article

In the letter to the editor, written by Lyle Felsch, Deputy Fire Chief of the Rochester Fire Department, he gives a few key points to reinforce when developing a fire safety plan. Make sure:

• … everyone has an opportunity to hear and respond quickly to a smoke detector or alarm. Install a smoke detector on every level and inside each bedroom.
• … to have at least two ways out of every room that leads to an exit from the home as quickly and safely as possible. Each bedroom should have an escape window.
• … to have a common meeting place to determine that everyone is safely out and wait for the fire department. Use a wireless phone or cell phone to call 911.
• … children should never be assigned any other responsibility than their own escape. In the event of a fire, pets may be difficult to control. Should a child delay their own escape to look for a pet, it could cost them their life. Also, failure of a child to save a pet they were assigned responsibility for can leave lasting emotional scars.

Fire safety is something that can be easily overlooked, but invaluable in making sure your family can escape safely.

Full letter to the editor in the Post Bulletin Opinion section

The suspect was described as a male in is 50’s, medium height, and clean shaven. According to the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office, it is unclear whether this is related to a string of previous incidents of a male impersonating an officer in Goodhue County a few months back. The description of the suspect was similar, but the vehicle descriptions do not match.

Remember: if you are ever stopped by an unmarked police car and are approached by a person in plainclothes, ask them for their identification. If you have reason to believe that they are not a law enforcement officer, then call 911.