4-29-2011 5pm. I left the Heights Library and followed the sent of smoke to a small fire a few blocks away. It looks like the home of the family that runs the Ecuadorian Cab Company is going to be lost to fire, smoke, and water damage. It was sad to see the kids sitting across the street from their family home, crying as it burned. Corner of 39th and Van Buren.
Following last years Collapse of the Metrodome, (the 4th such collapse in it's history) workers have been installing new light brown diamond shaped panels. Tours are allowing an early look.
In an operation designed to stop people from texting and driving, which is illegal in Minnesota and defined as "Distracted Driving", the Department of Defence partnered with Minneapolis police set up a check point and began stopping people who "looked distracted" and asking to search their cell phones!
I heard about it on KTLK this morning, but now I can't find any news about where the check point was precisely. Please leave a comment if you know.
Man, what the heck. The weather machines are really not being cool. I was going about, having a wonderful day, and then this news! 4 inches of snow in the city!? It better melt fast. dang-nabbit!
Here is continuing evidence of the weather modifications being done tecnologicaly.
Prediction based on weather modification signals in imagery data. NORTHERN MINNESOTA -- Tornados within 24-48 hours, based upon the appearing of the "rings" in conjunction with the "squares" or actually rectangles. These are ionic heater and scalar waveform technologies being used. BEWARE!
Notice, the current NOAA "Weather Story", does not indicate the potential for severe weather. We'll have to wait and see if this prediction is correct.
UPDATE 4/13/2011 Interestingly, Minnesota will hold a statewide "DRILL" for Tornado awareness, Thursday. Schools and businesses are encouraged to participate in the drill, which will happen at 1:45 p.m. and again at 6:55 p.m. Perhaps this is when severe conditions will further be triggered.
UPDATE 4/17/11 Well, there were not tornadoes in Minnesota but it did get unseasonably cold while all hell broke loose in the south. SOo. I was kind of an accurate prediction... kinda
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Tuan Pham says he was just looking for a peaceful place to put his catholic-based prayer garden. He had a 7 foot Jesus statue custom made in his native Vietnam. He put it in his backyard, overlooking the Mississippi River and the St. Paul skyline.
Pham says he woke up Sunday morning to a wall of flames around his statue. "Right now I'm thinking and praying very hard," he said a few hours later. Family members say someone took wood from Pham's pile and placed it at the base of the statue before lighting it on fire. "You can see evidence on the ground, there's an aerosol can, and a mousepad" Pham's son-in-law Dao Phan said.
It may have burned for awhile; Pham's daughter took pictures of her father trying to knock down the flames. Fire investigators were going over the garden a few hours later. If they find evidence of arson, they are expected pass the case on to police.
"It pains me, it's very upsetting. This means a lot to him. This is where he finds joy and where he spends a lot of his time, and money" Phan said about his retired father-in-law.
The statue took months to ship. It is a replica of a massive one Pham helped build more than 40 years ago in his hometown of Vunh Tang Klahn, Vietnam. Pham says he was jailed for his catholic beliefs before he fled the country for Minnesota.
The statue was put in place last October and a month later, Phan says, the city received a complaint about it. The family requested a variance after officials found it was not the required 40 feet from the bluff line, but that request was denied by the city council a few days before the fire.
The family wonders if the fire was racially or religiously motivated, wondering why someone would try to burn marble; guessing it was merely meant to send a message. "Why does somebody need to go this far?" Phan wondered.
A St. Paul police spokesperson says the department's officers were not dispatched and did not respond to the fire. St. Paul Fire Marshall Steve Zaccard said before tending to the fire he was waiting on his investigators report.
Having a nice bike around today, I stopped in the Hawthorn neighborhood to sit atop FarView Parks hill for a while. A kind older gentleman showed up and engaged me in a little chat. He informed me the Blue Angels were going to fly over the city for the Minnesota Twins first home game of the season. It was a great place to wait and watch, but I opted to continue on. I didn't catch the Blue Angels, but I did snap some shots of the street life outside the ballpark.
It seems spring is finally here! For REAL this time. So I've been out pleasure riding in that past few days. I've notice some recent additions to the Nice Ride bike network. I took photos of 3 shiny new solar powered Nice Ride bike rack stations. There may be more. Get out and find them! It's beautiful outside.
Here are my discoveries.
Nicollet Mall & Grant Street Good location, in front of the Hyatt at the south gateway to Nicollet Mall.
Franklin & Nicollet Another convenient location a short walk south from the previous one.
University & Bank Street Across from the Lunds by the Ard Godfrey House.
These 3 location await the bikes. Have a nice ride!
Knowing the bright future of North Minneapolis (see the Mississippi Riverfront Development plan and TLS/KVAs RIVERFIRST Project) , it was inspiring to see the gathering of leadership, and active participants in the North Minneapolis business community, come together for an Economic Summit. Governor Mark Dayton was there to listen to the entrepreneurial and innovative solutions being offered and implemented by the community. The true future of North Minneapolis. Speakers and those present seemed symbolically aware that the challenges currently faced, are soon to be meet with justice. Both MplsMirror, and IBBN did good work covering the speakers.
