Furst Draft

Wabasha County's severance policy

Interesting news release from the Wabasha County attorney:

 

For immediate release
On  Jan. 22nd, the Wabasha County Board eliminated the position of County Coordinator. That resolution, in effect, terminated the employment of the existing Coordinator, Bridget Hoffman.  Several news media sources have reported that Ms. Hoffman will not receive severance pay. 
Wabasha County has a written severance pay policy.  It is based upon length of service and accrued sick leave. An employee hired after May 27, 2008, the date the policy was adopted, cannot receive severance upon termination of employment until he or she has worked for the County for three years.  Ms. Hoffman does not qualify for any severance based upon county policy because she had not worked for the County for three years prior to her termination.  She is qualified to receive pay equivalent to the dollar value of accrued vacation however, and that will be paid in accordance with County policy and State law.
Commissioner Roschen alluded to the fact that Dave Johnson, former County Administrator, had received four months of severance pay when he was terminated from employment. That is correct.  However, he had a written employment contract that provided for four months severance upon termination and he had worked for the county for more than four years.  Ms. Hoffman worked for the County for five months and did not have an employment contract.
James Nordstrom, Wabasha County Attorney

Accuweather says: Cold air to linger into weekend, more coming

News release from our weather service AccuWeather:

AccuWeather reports cold weather will stick around through the weekend from the Upper Midwest to the mid-Atlantic and New England.

The bitterly cold air will slosh out by the end of the week and will not dip into the Deep South. Moderate cold (lower-than-average temperatures) will remain in place into Sunday in most areas farther north.

According to Expert Senior Meteorologist Henry Margusity, "The coldest air mass in North America was sitting just north of the Great Lakes over central and northern Ontario and western and central Quebec Tuesday morning."
 
Temperatures reached the 40-below-zero mark in these areas and dipped below zero from northern New England to much of Michigan and areas near and north of Chicago.

"The air just north of the Great Lakes is colder than that over the North Pole," Margusity said.
The arctic outbreak is the end result of the stratospheric warming discussed a couple of weeks ago on AccuWeather.com. The cold pattern delivered by this stratospheric event generally lasts a couple of weeks to a couple of months.

Temperatures have already or will approach levels not reached in the past two to four years in a number of locations by the middle of the week from the Upper Midwest into the Northeast. In some cases, these levels are represented by daytime highs, and in others they are represented by overnight lows.

It's Not Storm-Free Cold
The southward plunge in steering-level winds high in the atmosphere, known as the jet stream, is guiding a series of storms from western Canada and across the northeastern third of the nation. These storms, known as Alberta Clippers, can bring anything from spotty flurries to a heavy snowfall.

A weak Alberta Clipper may bring spotty flurries to perhaps a coating of snow across part of southern Ohio to northern Virginia, Maryland, part of the Delmarva Peninsula, southern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey late Wednesday night into Thursday morning.

A stronger clipper that may merge with a more southern storm has the potential to bring a swath of moderate to heavy snow from portions of the Ohio Valley to part of the mid-Atlantic coast Friday and possibly part of New England Friday night into Saturday. This storm is trending colder and farther south with its all-snow area.

Next Week and Beyond
The cold is forecast to relax next week. However, the extent of this relaxation is questionable. The latest indications are that a storm riding the crest of the warmth during the middle of the week may track farther east, rather than north. If this happens, lingering cold air near the surface could set up a large zone of a wintry mix or ice in the Midwest and Northeast.

Regardless of that major storm track next week, AccuWeather.com's Long Range Team of meteorologists expects arctic air to return in the wake of the storm during early February.

The cold air could have more staying power and as much punch as this week's event.

Today's plan, for the 6:40 a.m. KTTC spot:

The Pine Island City Council voted last night to eliminate the position of city administrator and terminate the contract of Abraham Algadi, who has been on the job there since 2006 and has led the city's push for the Elk Run biobusiness development -- the council has three new members and they certainly indicated a new direction for the city last night -- this item wasn't on the city agenda last night, so it caught a lot of people by surprise -- we were there and we'll have the story

On Jan. 22, Stewartville City Council members will decide whether to go to voters in March and ask for $1.8 milion in general obligation bonds for a new fire hall. We'll have details on that.

And in the Life/Family section, we have the latest in a series of closeups on area ski resorts, which despite the January thaw do have snow and people on the slopes -- today it's Afton Alps, near Hastings -- also in the Family section is a look-ahead to a conference coming up in Rochester on autism -- elsewhere in the paper we have a look-ahead to the Lyle Area Cancer Auction on Friday and Saturday, and lots more

PostBulletin.com gets a makeover today

At long last, we have a new website.

Beginning about 11 a.m. today, the new PostBulletin.com is scheduled to go live. If you're reading this in the print edition, hopefully you can go to the website right now and find the lights on and everything ready to go.

We've been working on this for months and hoping for it (in the newsroom) for years. We're overdue for a remake of the site -- half the battle with new media is to keep the look and functionality constantly fresh -- and with a ton of work by Small Newspaper Group's DIG unit and a lot of people here, we're ready to go.

This isn't just a redesign of the website -- it's a new site from the ground up. From the back end to the front, we've rebuilt it with TownNews.com to create a fresh and improved experience for Post-Bulletin customers.

Here's what you'll find:

A bright, updated look, patterned after metro news websites: The new PostBulletin.com looks somewhat like websites for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Voice of San Diego, the Iowa State Daily and many other news websites around the web, also designed by TownNews.

Easier navigation: From the drop-down menus at the top of the page to the tools at the bottom of the screen, the site is intended to be easy to use, with less clutter and more intuitive design.

Improved security: TownNews.com's BLOX content management system is cloud-based and used by several hundred publications around the country. It's robust and secure because the infrastructure is hosted in multiple locations and uses the latest Internet security.

Improved search and archives: OK, the proof is in the searching, but the search engine and the new processing for archives should make the content you're looking for easier to find.

New reader comment system: Until today, users had to register to comment on stories, and then we previewed comments, which often resulted in delays. Now, you'll log into the comment system through Facebook, your identity will be authenticated, and you can comment without delay. This process may require some fine-tuning in the weeks ahead, but many news websites, including the Los Angeles Times website, use Facebook authentication. We think it'll result in better, faster comments online.

Fresh look on mobile and tablets: If you're accustomed to looking at PB.com on your smartphone or tablet, the new website should load easily and quickly. Again, it will have a new look with improved functionality.

We're eager to hear what you think, and to get your suggestions on how to improve. Send them to whatmatters@postbulletin.com. If you have any problems using the site, call customer service at 285-7676.

Thanks in advance for your patience with any features that aren't quite ready to go. We had a brief beta period last week, and issues always come up when you take the training wheels off. But we're confident that you'll find the new Post-Bulletin.com an even better place for local and regional news, multimedia, opinions, news-to-use, obituaries and decades of archived content.

There are a million websites out there, but no site on earth has the vast amount of Rochester and Southeast Minnesota content that we have — and as of today, it's more attractive and accessible than ever.

Today on A1

Here's the lineup, though we have a Rochester business story we're chasing down and may have before the press starts:

Coverage from the annual gun show in Rochester over the weekend. What were people saying about plans to curb gun violence?

State representative from Red Wing will push for more extensive environmental reviews of silica sand mining proposals.

Human trafficking event Saturday at Assisi Heights.

Today in Answer Man

Today's questions: Dear Answer Man, what's with the doll in the attic window of a house in Janesville, Minn.? Why was it up there? Is it still there? I hear the owner of the house died last fall.

If the Answer Man doesn't know the answer, you don't need to know, either.

The new memorial at Reconciliation Park

Here's a column item I filed for Monday, with a pic of Martin and Linda Bernard and the monument.

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A few Saturdays ago, we published stories on the execution of 38 Dakota warriors 150 years ago in Mankato. That was a few days before the anniversary, on Dec. 26, and a new memorial was being installed in Reconciliation Park, which marks the site in Mankato where the Dakota men were hanged.

When the memorial was unveiled on the 26th, we didn't get a photo of it and several readers since have asked, what's it look like? So I called the artists, Martin and Linda Bernard, of Winona, and they sent a pic. The distinctive, Dakota-styled monument lists the names of all the men who were hanged, in the largest mass execution in the nation's history.

Bud Lawrence, the 81-year-old dynamo who was involved in establishing the park and raising the money for the new monument, said it was "a necessary thing to do for the Dakota people," to have the names of the executed at the site. "They've been waiting for it for a long time. Since the park was created in 1997, they have wanted the names inscribed there, and it was appropriate to do that."

The dedication and ceremony to mark the moment when the Dakota men, who were accused, justly or not, of involvement in the Dakota War in 1862, was a powerful moment, he said. Several hundred people attended on that cold morning, and the commemorative events have "certainly created a lot of interest for people who may not have been interested in the past."

If you haven't been to Mankato to visit the park, you now have a new reason to go. As much as Split Rock Lighthouse, Duluth's Aerial Bridge and Mall of America, it should be one of Minnesota's most visited sites. You'll learn more about the culture of our state in one visit to that memorial than any number of trips to the lighthouse or MOA.

Stow your horns -- cheeseheads are people, too

We don't do this very often, but here's a preview of Saturday's Answer Man, with tips on where to enjoy the big GB win:

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Dear Answer Man, are there any Packers-friendly bars in the Rochester area where one can enjoy tonight's big Green Bay victory?

No.

Seriously, you're going to have to make a run for the border if you want to truly enjoy a beer and the game tonight at 7:30 p.m. One option is the Top Hat bar in Nelson, your basic hole in the wall just a few minutes over the bridge from Wabasha, where everybody knows your name even when they've never seen you before, and even fans in Vikings jerseys are treated well. My wife and I stopped there last weekend and purple-clad fans -- not us! -- were treated with respect and dignity. They just covered up their Vikings jerseys at appropriate moments.

If you must stick around Rochester, I've always found the crowd at Dooley's more interested in fun than Packers hate; Buffalo Wild Wings has enough kids in the room to ensure a higher standard of behavior; Tilly's Tavern in Oronoco is intense but good-humored on game days; Whistle Binkies draws a more catholic crowd, not so "homer"; and Beetle's, my neighborhood bar, will be quite purple-oriented but tolerable, with really good popcorn.

But wait! I asked for help on Twitter and a fan passed along an app called Packers Everywhere, which identifies Packers-friendly bars, and it lists Glynner's Pub and Brothers Bar & Grill in Roch.

Have some other last-minute tips on where to enjoy the game? Go on Twitter with the secret handshake #rochmnpackers and let's network.

But Vikings fans, please, stow your horns. Cheeseheads are people, too.