VanStrand-Third Place

http://www.vanstrand.com/
The community that I have recently visited was my Hair Salon, Van Strand. Last week I went to the salon to get my hair cut and dyed. Van Strand is part of the same strip mall that the Target store I work at is part of, so this location is definitely part of the same community where I work. At the salon I was able to take part of the community conversation. When entering the salon, I was greeted by the front desk receptionist, and told to sit in one of the comfy leather chairs, where I was able to listen to the general mood and access the atmosphere of the salon. The salon is one room with five different stations lined up on each side. My stylist Katie, escorted me to the back of the salon to start cutting and styling my hair. Once I was in the chair, the conversation began. Katie and I began talking about how cold the weather was, and since both our work places are part of the same parking lot we began talking about the conditions of the pavement in the lot. We, and other clients at the salon began talking about how the roads in the community were in very poor condition, and we were curious about whether the township was waiting (till spring) to fill in the potholes in the lot, or if they did not have enough money to fill them in. Katie and I talked about the economic status of our work place and then moved our discussion to the economy. It seems that both of the businesses where we work are experiencing shortage of hours due to the lack of incoming revenue. Katie and I are both engaged to be wed in the year 2011, we talked about our lack of money due to the damaged economy, one of the things we were discussing were different ways to save money when planning a wedding. Katie gave me great tips about how the date of the wedding can reduce the cost of a reception exponentially. Her advice actually helped me to set a date later in the fall instead of during the summer. While talking about our weddings, other clients chimed into our conversation, giving us great ideas on how to save cash during the wedding, and for our honeymoon. Overall, this location could be classified as a third place, the best part of the conversations in this community was knowing that there are other people in my community who share the same concerns as I do when it comes to earning and saving money. It was great to receive advice from people who have already had weddings and know creative ways to save money, especially in hard times like these.

Story 3: North Point Robbery

A robbery occurred at the North Point Inn yesterday morning around 9 AM that resulted in the death of lead chef of the Inn, Kevin Blohm. Nina Cortez, Bookkeeper at the Inn arrived for her daily shift ten minutes before 9 a.m. yesterday morning. Soon after her arrival to work, Cortez recalls seeing and talking to Blohm. After Cortez requested a cup of coffee from Blohm, she stated that she and Blohm walked out to the corridor of the Inn together. “That was the last I saw him.” She said.
After seeing Blohm, Cortez began her morning checklist by going through the previous day’s revenue. Cortez remembered taking the$6000 and receipts out of the safe in order to count it on her desk. A couple minutes after Cortez began her count she was confronted by what she believes to be the robber and his accomplice. Cortez began screaming when she saw that one of the robbers was carrying a knife. The suspect then reached across Cortez’s desk and grabbed $130 in five dollar bills off of her desk. After the robbers left, Cortez locked her office door and stayed inside until the police arrived four minutes later.
The police escorted Cortez out of her office, which is when she first saw Blohm’s body. “It was awful. There was blood on the walls and floor. Kevin was lying on the floor, dead.” She recalled. Kevin suffered from a large knife wound to the chest and hand.
Although Cortez claims that she didn’t recognize the robber because the lower half of his face was covered with a flower scarf, she remembers that he was around five to six feet tall, and that he was in his twenties with a medium build.

Brawl at Rosedale Mall

Two teenagers were wounded in a brawl that broke out at the Rosedale Shopping center late Saturday evening. One of the teens was stabbed multiple times in the back, while the other suffered facial lacerations. The 16-year-old suspect was taken to Ramsey County Juvenile center where he faces charges of 2nd degree assault.
http://www.startribune.com/local/south/84912457.html?page=1&c=y

Geinosky, Angelina

21 year old, Angelina Geinosky died in a car accident yesterday morning. She was on her way to work her 4 a.m. shift at Target, when she fell asleep at the wheel, and her '98 Oldsmobile veered into oncoming traffic. Angelina was born and raised in Warrenville Il. As a teen she attended Wheaton Warrenville South High school, where she met and was inspired by choir director, Gordon Krauspe. Although her entire life Angelina loved to sing, under the mentor ship of Krauspe, Angelina realized that her real passion was choir music. She was involved in several school choirs, as well as the Midwest Young artists, which was also directed by Krauspe. In 2006, Angelina graduated Highschool, and met her fiance, RJ Heaser, at an anime convention in Iowa. Angelina moved to Plymouth, Minn. in 2007, to be with RJ, and they were planning to be wed in the fall of 2011.
Angelina didn't care much for friends, however, she loved her family very much. She was known as being the best hugger in the family. She leaves behind her parents Ray and Joan, 19 year old sister and best friend Michelle, as well as her older brother and sister Danny and Lia. Angelina also had a small family in Minnesota which consisted of her fiance, RJ as well as her beloved cat, Doctor.
Memorial services will be held at 1:30 p.m -6 p.m. Saturday afternoon at the Gill Brothers funeral home in New Hope, Minn.

News Article #5

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/world/middleeast/16diplo.html?ref=politics
Clinton Raises U.S. Concerns of Military Power in Iran

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speculates that groups like the Islamic Revolutionary Guards could lead to military dictatorship in Iran. Clinton announced this Monday afternoon at the University of Doah in Qatar. To prevent this from happening she strongly urges Iranian political figures to express more authority over these groups.

Anoka County has no money in this year’s budget to spare for new police equipment. In a meeting held Thursday afternoon between Sheriff Gus Dicesari and Anoka County commissioners, Dicesari requested a budget increase that would allow him to buy eight new police cruisers as well as additional funding to hire five new sheriff deputies. The request was quickly denied by Commission President Anne Chen. Chen explained that Anoka County did not have the $580,000 to support these purchases.

The Debate over county spending grew when commission members had split opinions on the matter. Commissioners Vallerie Dawkins, Faith Ellis, Jose Gardos and Roland Grauman all agreed with Chen, while Anita Shenuski and Raymond Laybourne supported Dicesari.

Dicesari thought that the county was “shortchanging” the sheriff’s department while Shenuski and Laybourne believed that additional funding was being wasted on programs for migrant workers. “We never had problems until we began letting migrants come to the Anoka to work. They are a problem for our law enforcement, our schools and our healthcare system” Spouted Shenuski. Chen dismissed the notion that immigrants were the problem. Anoka county commissioners estimate that there are 5,000 migrant families in the county working in agriculture, construction and industry jobs.

Gardez pointed out that many of these immigrants become permanent members of the community and help boost its economy by opening businesses, paying taxes and eventually earning their citizenship.

Regardless of the dispute over immigrant workers, Dicesari redirected the meeting back to the counties budget crisis claiming “This is the first time in my 27 years as a sheriff that Anoka County hasn’t allocated money to the sheriff’s department to buy equipment.”

Anoka County’s budget for this year was $127 million; Chen reassured that this year’s shortcomings had nothing to do with migrant workers. Instead the budget was affected by the rising costs of fuel and healthcare, as well as the $30 million used to build the new prison.

The meeting ended with a final vote that was 5-2 against Dicesari’s request for additional funding. President Chen stated that for the remainder of the year the sheriff’s department would have to make due with the resources they already had.

News Summary #4

Home Aide Steals from Elderly
www.startribune.com/local83916677.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDayscUiacyKUniciaec807EyUr

An elderly Hopkins Women living in the Augasta Chapel Veiw apartments was robbed by her own home aide. The aide stole around $2500 dollars, using checks from the women's apartment as well as charging the woman's credit card. The aide was fired a short time later due to similar accusations against her from a different client.

Community: Broderick

The only community that I am part of is my work community. I work at Target, in the last week I have learned that this community would be considered Quasi-Official. To me our store is my community and it has all four different types of community leaders, Official leaders of our community would have to be our ETL's (executive team leads) they must graduate from Target Business School before acquiring this role. This helps them to be more in-tune with the business aspect of the store, and less knowledgeable of how the store actually runs, which in turn reflects the notion that official leaders may seem disconnected with the daily lives of the actual community members. ETLS could also be considered the connectors of our community because ETLS are only allotted 2 years at each store, before they are transferred to another location, this helps them to bring new ideas to different stores. ETLS are also very in-tune with other stores in our district which allow us to know how these communities are solving similar problems/obstacles that we may be facing. The next leader is a civic leader, at our store this would be our team leads, the team leads work directly under the ETLS and directly above the team members, this helps them to know the interests and views of the team, but also what the official leaders expect of them, team leads also could be considered the catalysts of the community because they are most knowledgeable about how the store runs.
The aspirations of the Target community is to run our store in the most efficient and cost effective way as possible, while some of the members of the community may not have such strong passion or loyalty for the business, overall as a store, I think every one is really trying to do their best work to help themselves in the future (by having to do less work later) or to help the store succeed.
There are several civic places in our community, the two best examples would have to be at our huddles, and our chat sessions. Huddle is once a day for each team in the store, at huddle any member of the community has the opportunity to update the rest of the team on projects they may be working on, or they can also recognize other team members for something that they did. Chat sessions are once a month, at chat sessions team members have the opportunity to talk to the STO (store team lead) and the HR rep about issues they are having with the way the store is being run.
Most of the concerns that are talked about within the community are about how to keep our store running effectively, a lot of times people raise concerns about working conditions, (like temperature, lack of water fountains, cleanliness, and work-load) people also raise many concerns about how target may be effecting their personal lives and how these problems could be fixed.
The people in our community are kind of cliquey, each team in store sticks to themselves and they hold their specific team as most important, each team is like a family. The people who work on the same teams talk to each other with high regard and respect, but treat the people on other teams of the store as outsiders.
A lot of the people in the Target community have worked there since it opened, which in a right makes the way things have been done in the past directly effect how it will be done in the future, the fact that there are so many people that were part of the history of the store help shape it into something better. In our store we have just received a new STO, so it is defiantly helpful to have new and old ideas working with each other to improve the quality of the lives of people who are part of the community.

First Day at ARCC: Christensen

My first day at ARCC was in Fall '08, so please bear with me. Before moving to Minnesota I attended another School, College of Dupage, (in my hometown of Wheaton IL.) In my community COD, bragged of being one of the best community colleges of the nation but every one in nearby towns took the school for granted referring to it as "College of Dreams." My first day at Anoka Ramsey made me realize the pros and cons of that school, which in-turn made me see the pros and cons of ARCC. Upon first walking up to the ARCC I was intrigued by the fresh smell of Mississippi behind the School as well as the vines that seemed to swallow the building whole. However, once inside I began to realize that this school was going to be alot different then COD. My first day of Classes I was attending Concert Choir, History of Rock and Roll, and International Literature, (I was also enrolled in history of Britain during the Middle Ages, but that class was only on Tuesday and Thursday.) I was a very active participant in the music department at our high school and choir is one of my passions. The first impression I got from the concert choir was outstanding, our director reminded me of one of my best friends (who coincidentally is majoring in music/teaching) and the most of the class had very impressive sight-reading skills, which is a huge obstacle that can slow down many a good choir. We were singing Vivaldi, it was awesome. I will never forget the next class, which happened to be in the same room (something I would have to get used to) History of Rock and Roll, this class was available at my high school, but I never got a chance to take it, so I jumped at the opportunity when seeing it was offered at ARCC. The best thing about this class was how much I learned in one day, I remember on the first day, one of the students in the class asked the professor what he thought the best rock and roll song of all time was, he simply turned to the massive stereo system and turned on "Sherry" by Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons. Since that day I have not only loved the Frankie, but I've been dying to see Jersey Boys. After that class I had a couple hours to explore the school, and like I said earlier I soon appreciated each different Community College. I don't know for sure how many people attended COD, but I know that the massiveness of it made it seem more like a business then a school. ARCC is much smaller then my old school, which at times can be very frustrating, (like waiting in line for the book store, or trying to find classes that fit my schedule) but the fact that it's small is what makes it great. This school is much more of a Community then a business and it is much easier to become personable with the students and faculty that work here then at a bigger school. Knowing familiar faces at the book store, financial aid offices, business offices ect., helped me to feel comfortable and welcome, and every time I walk into the school, I know that every one is on my side.

Christensen: News Summary #3

Iditarod funding has been reduced this year due to Cabella's and Chevron announcing that they will not be renewing their sponsorship for the 2010 season, their contributions added up to roughly 35 percent of the event's annual revenue. Since the event will not be televised this year either the race's only source of income is donations and auction items.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/sports/02iditarod.html