Suspect in Iowa store slayings to face 2 trials

A Minnesota teen is accused of killing two clerks at different stores in northern Iowa, and will face two separate trials.  17 year old, Michael Swanson, of St. Louis Park, MN has been charged with first degree murder and robbery in two different counties.  He walked into one gas station just after 9 p.m. and shot a woman, 47, who later died at a local hospital.  He then drove about 30 miles to another town and killed a 61 year old woman.  Swanson has been in trouble with the law a lot according to court and police records.  He was guilty of stealing a neighbor’s car and then later crashing it, lying about his name and birthday and vomited in the back of the squad car because of vodka in his system.    This just seems crazy to me how a kid can be so disobedient and just continue to do wrong things with the law.  Hopefully this will put him in jail for a while so maybe he gets his mind straight and learns his lesson.  What was the point of killing 2 innocent woman who did nothing wrong, just because he was breaking the law and robbing a gas station. 

            It also states in the article that he disobeys his household rules, which is probably why he has no fear breaking the law.  To me it is partly the parents fault for not putting their foot down and doing something to stop him from disobeying their rules at home.  I’m not saying that it is their fault that he shot 2 women but it has to have something to do with it.  Police have been called to his house 10 times since 2006, on reports of numerous things, threat, assaults, weapons violence and theft.  You would think the parents would be sick of it and not put up with it anymore and maybe do something about it like send him away and maybe learn a lesson or two.  He came home from a juvenile center and already had a warrant for his arrest because he took his mothers credit card and her vehicle, and then broke into the family’s cabin and took weapons.  I am glad that they found him right away after these two shootings and hopefully he will be locked up for a long time and maybe if he gets out he will learn his lesson. 

http://www.startribune.com/local/108652399.html?page=2&c=y

FDA to require graphic warnings on cigarette packages, ads

Warning labels will now be covering half of a package’s front and back and also the top 20 percent of all ads.  They will show either photos or drawings illustrating graphically the danger associated with smoking and will also state that smoking is addictive and kills. Regulators are hoping that by putting these on packs and ads of cigarettes that it will keep young people from beginning to smoke and to strengthen the will of those who are attempting to quit.  A quote in the article says, “we want to make sure every person who picks up a pack of cigarettes knows exactly what the risk is they are taking,”(par. 2) Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at a news conference.  To me I think it is a good thing in a way that they are making an effort to try and stop young people to start smoking and to get people to quit.  But in all reality I don’t think that it is going to help that much, because people should already know the risks that go along with smoking so they shouldn’t start anyway, they shouldn’t have to be buying a pack and then say o yeah this could kill me.  If a person is already smoking, I don’t think seeing a drawing or picture is going to make them stop I think it will take a little bit more than just that.  I hope that it will give them a hint to maybe do something else to stop smoking because smoking kills an estimated 450,000 Americans every year and nearly 8 million suffer from chronic diseases.  It is sad to see that so many people do smoke because it can cause deadly diseases and to me it is a waste of money that could be spent on something much more beneficial to a person. 

http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=49&a=477903

2010, Los Angeles Times.

State Championship-Final copy

Last game of my career, last free throw I would ever shoot , the other team had a chance now, the clock was running down, we blocked the shot and now got the ball back, the last thing I remember was throwing the ball as high as I could and going to hug my teammates.  I have been playing sports ever since I can remember, whether it would be playing with my cousins or going to camps.  I played three sports all through high school and which kept me pretty busy.  While playing sports, my dream had always been to win a state championship.  The girls basketball team, my senior year, had a good chance at doing that.  Even though people from other towns doubted our team, we would still work hard.

 It seemed that every year nobody believed that Caledonia was ever the better team in games; well we would prove people wrong each game.  People would always say “well they don’t have very tall players or they aren’t the better team.”  We had been to state 2 years in a row before my senior year, and we lost the first game each year.  We used this as motivation, our coach asked us 5 seniors at the beginning of the year “what is your goal for this season?”  We all agreed that our goal was to make it to state and to focus on winning the first game.  After that, we wanted to win the state championship.  It just so happens that we had the chance to succeed our goal, we had won the section championship, and we also won our first game at state.  After our first game we decided to make the trip from Minneapolis back to Caledonia to go to school and have a regular practice the next day because we had a day to wait before the semi-final game, which was against Jordan the team we had lost to the year before.

The day of our semi-final game we rode the bus up for our 6:00 p.m. game against Jordan.  Again, everyone thought they were the better team since they had the “dynamic duo”.  Well it turns out that we proved everyone wrong because we were the team who was moving onto the final game.  Our team worked hard and showed everyone that we could win, and would win even though they were supposedly the better team.  We were going to be playing at 2:00 p.m. the next day for the championship.  After the game, the team went back to the hotel while the coaches stayed to watch the game after ours which was the team we would be playing in the finals.

Today was the day that we would be able to make our dream come true.  Walking into the Target Center that day was one of the most exciting feelings.  We were so ready to prove ourselves that we could win and that all the hours and hard work we put in during the season, and pre-season were going to pay off.  We wanted to win for ourselves, the coaches, and also for our supportive community.  Running out onto the court was something that I will never forget, it was an amazing feeling to run out to a crowd that was so loud, but everything felt silent and in slow motion.  Warming up felt like it took forever because we just wanted to get the game started and for our nerves to be gone.  When the game finally started we started off with a pretty good lead going into halftime.  After halftime the other team started cutting our lead down, and after a while we started getting flustered and frustrated.  During one of our TV timeouts coach said, “forget about everything that’s happened so far, and go out and show them we are the better team.”  Well, we did that to an extent but we ended up letting them get within 2 points.  Right there is when we started to get nervous and we got in a huddle and said, “we are going to win this for the team and for the community, whatever it takes, leave it all on the floor.”  It came down to free throws at the end of the game for us to win, we made them and had a 54-50 lead.  That would end up being the final score, we had just won the schools first state championship for the girls basketball program, and also finished the season perfect with a 31-0 record!  We went crazy and so did the crowd, it was a great feeling to have them behind us and cheering for us the whole game, having that many people cheering for you just makes it that much more memorable.  As soon as the buzzer sounded all of us just ran to each other and gave hugs, there were tears, sweat, smiles, screams all kinds of emotions going through.  One of the comments my mom said to me after the game was “why did you have to make it so close?”  I just kind of laughed when she said that and said, “sorry, it’s not like we tried.”  Cutting down the net was also one of the best feelings I have had and experienced. We all stood in a line and took turns, when it was my turn I just felt numb, walking up the ladder seeing the flashes of cameras going off, it was truly a great feeling to be cutting down the net at the Target Center.  After we got done with all of that and with pictures we went back to the locker room.  While I was taking my shoes off I just thought to myself, working hard towards something really does pay off in the end.  One of my teammates and I were the last two out of the locker room because we had been interviewed, so it took us longer.  Walking through the doors to where all our family and teammates were was awesome! Everyone just started screaming and we started crying because we were so happy we accomplished our goal that no one else thought we could.  The final part of all the celebrating that day was when we got escorted into town with fire trucks, ambulances, and cop cars.  They took us around town, and finally to the high school where all the fans were waiting for us, once we got there everyone was cheering again!

Having a goal and working very hard towards it to come true is something that a person should never forget.  I know that when I see my classmates and teammates, winning the championship game always seems to come to mind.  We put in many hours of hard work over the summer, and season, and also spent many hours in the weight room and getting up early to practice.  When our town had a ceremony for us the next day in the gym, it then sank in that we would never get to play on that floor together again.   It is a very good feeling to accomplish such a big goal, and I believe that if you work hard enough towards something that anything is possible.

Minnesota man pleads guilty to killing his wife.

A man who lives in Minneapolis is guilty of stabbing his wife in an argument over money; they had been married for 24 years.  To me I think that is just crazy to handle an argument that way, I understand that it may have been frustrating, or that we may not know all the background details but it is still crazy to me.  It seems that they had had some problems earlier, since 10 days before a judge had given them a no-contact order.  To me if you are having problems such as money, maybe seek some help, have someone help you work it out.  Instead he “took care of it” on his own by stabbing his wife over 70 times!  It was wrong that they were still living together since they had been given an order from a judge not to be, and who knows if they would have listened if this would have happened or not.  I really hope the husband gets a good punishment, and has to spend time locked up because that is just wrong to kill your wife over an argument.  How can you be married to someone for over 20 years and one day stab your spouse to death, I just don’t understand.