What we'll remember
Mariah Mills. Puppies whose angry
owner snapped their necks. An Easter Bunny flap at City Hall. Those
were the subjects of some of the stories that caught and kept our
attention in 2006. We felt curiosity, outrage, compassion and joy as
we delved into the lives and events in our world of local news.
Inside, we recall a few of the most memorable stories and emotions
of the year. To contribute your own ideas about what made you think,
laugh, cry or question, visit
www.twincities.com.
December 31, 2006
By Tad Vezner, Dave Orrick, and Bao Ong
Pioneer Press remembers Angie Arndt (click
here)
WHAT MADE US LAUGH
Local everyman Michael Hawes won
$47 million in Minnesota's Powerball lottery, after unwittingly
carrying the winning ticket in his wallet for five weeks. His
8-month-old son is aptly named Lucky. (December)
The Fort Worth Cats beat the St.
Paul Saints in a championship baseball game then bruised them that
evening in a North End bar. Two Cats players with healthy slugging
percentages were charged. (September)
A group of "zombies" shuffled
forward to deliver a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis,
alleging one police officer said he didn't care about the zombies'
constitutional rights and wanted to teach the undead a lesson. The
protesters in ghoulish makeup had been jailed for being
uncommunicative and uncooperative. (November)
Ramsey County sheriff candidates
Bill Finney and Bob Fletcher wanted to load the November ballot with
suggestive nicknames: "Chief" and "Sheriff," respectively. County
election officials opted to keep the names plain. (July)
The Easter Bunny got the boot
from City Hall after St. Paul human-rights director Tyrone Terrill
said its presence in an office worker's desk display would offend
non-Christians. In protest, a ring of marshmallow Peeps candies
congregated at City Hall's "Vision of Peace" statute where they
earned the temporary moniker "Vision of Peeps." (March)
WHAT INSPIRED US?
The biological daughter of Tom
Burnett who helped overpower the terrorists piloting United
Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001 had a premonition that very
day. Her father, a man she never knew who gave her up for adoption,
was dead. Somehow, Mariah Mills was certain. Years later, she found
answers, a new family and closure. (September)
Maria Inamagua Merchan, a
30-year-old illegal immigrant from Ecuador, fell gravely ill two
months after she was incarcerated at the Ramsey County Jail for
violating a deportation order. She clung to life while parasites
attacked her brain. Her plight became an inspiration and rallying
cry for immigration-rights advocates. (April)
Fargo, N.D., natives Abbigail and
Isabelle Carlsen twins conjoined at the abdomen were
successfully separated at Rochester's Mayo Clinic. (May) Their
parents had struggled for five months with fears and hopes about the
life-threatening procedure.
As a 2-year-old toddler, "Paulie"
Hynek, pictured above left, wandered out into the cold, rural
Wisconsin night and died. Doctors called it a perfect case of
hypothermia and revived him hours after his heart stopped beating
and his family had returned home to somberly milk the cows. He is
now 7. (February)
WHAT LEFT US COLD?
Blaine 10-year-old Jordan
Gonsioroski was scalded to death in bathwater in July; her father
and his girlfriend were charged. When 22-month-old Jeremiah Wofford
refused to lie down for a nap in a Maplewood shelter in May, his
mother suffocated him facedown on the bed, authorities say.
Angellika "Angie" Arndt, 7, died of a chokehold at a Rice Lake,
Wis., counseling center in May while being restrained for behavioral
problems.
The parents of Gordon Weaver
who killed his wife, set his home ablaze and fled to Oregon were
charged with felonies for aiding their son. The couple, in their
80s, face years in prison. (October)
"Head or chest?" That was the
question from convicted killer Joel Beckrich, who shot and killed
his friend's mom so the pair could get money for a move to
Amsterdam, open a coffee shop and sell marijuana. Beckrich will
spend at least 30 years in prison; his partner, Grant Everson, will
stay behind bars for life. (December)
WHAT CHANGED OUR LANDSCAPE?
Internet communities may be the
future, but for better or worse, they had their place in the present
in 2006. A St. Paul 14-year-old pleaded guilty to posting a hit list
on MySpace.com; politicians were virtually glad-handing folks for
votes on FaceBook; and an 18-year-old from White Bear Lake refused
to talk to police about her alcohol-related crash that killed two
friends but talked about it plenty on MySpace.
Minnesota's year-end elections
were largely a Democratic sweep, including Congress' first Muslim,
Keith Ellison. In the tightest race, Republican incumbent Gov. Tim
Pawlenty defied the trend and won re-election. (November)
Following hundreds of layoffs and
even more buyouts at St. Paul's Ford Ranger truck plant, the Ford
Motor Co. put a big piece of property on the chopping block: the
plant's power source. The plant is slated to close in 2008.
(November)
St. Paul's smoking ban went into
effect, spurring bars and restaurants to build and offer patio
seating for those who crave a drag. (March)
WHAT MADE US PROUD?
Minnesota ranked second
nationwide in number of Fortune 500 companies per capita, according
to census data and the 2006 Fortune 500 list. The state's students
had the highest average ACT test score (22.3) of states where
substantial numbers of students take the test, according to ACT Inc.
It was also the nation's "hardest working" state, with the highest
labor force participation rate (75 percent) of working-age people,
according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
WHAT MADE US CRY?
Thirteen Minnesota and 15
Wisconsin members of the armed forces were killed in Iraq through
Wednesday. That brings the death toll to 42 from Minnesota and 65
from Wisconsin since 2003. "It just hits you hard because you don't
think it's going to be somebody you know," said a friend of
Maplewood's Sgt. Bryan McDonough, one of the latest to die.
A 12-year-old Ukrainian boy
adopted by a Washington County couple was later returned and left in
his home country. He has since been retrieved and is in Minnesota,
where he hopes to be placed with another family. A local judge will
decide his fate. (December)
Gordon Parks, who moved to
Minnesota when he was a teen, was the first black staff photographer
at Life magazine and creator of the private-eye crime thriller
"Shaft." He died at the age of 93. (March)
The most popular athlete in
Minnesota history, Kirby Puckett died at age 45 from a brain
aneurysm. The Hall of Fame outfielder led the Minnesota Twins to two
World Series titles and was equally known for his on-field heroics
and charismatic smile. (March)
The Minnesota Zoo's 7-month-old
Atlantic bottlenose dolphin calf, Harley, died in January after
hitting his head on a concrete deck during a training exercise. Six
weeks later, Harley's mother, Rio, 35, also died. Ayla, a
14-year-old dolphin who battled severe scoliosis her entire life,
became ill over the summer and died this month.
WHAT MADE US MAD?
Teri Lee and boyfriend Tim
Hawkinson Sr. were shot and killed in Lee's Washington County home,
and prosecutors have charged Lee's ex-boyfriend with the deaths.
Months before, Steven Van Keuren allegedly had broken into Lee's
home and attacked her; he was out on bail when Lee and Hawkinson
were killed. (September)
Four convicted sex offenders
escaped from the St. Peter, Minn., state hospital, including rapist
Michael Benson, who was on the loose for weeks. Hospital officials
were later lambasted for lackadaisical security standards, including
failing to notice weeks of the prisoners' work prying open metal
window bars. (April)
A Roseville Area High School girl
accused a male classmate of blackmailing her for sex by threatening
to show others a videotape of her performing a sex act. Months
later, the mother of a different girl filed a lawsuit against the
school for failing to immediately report her daughter's sexual
assault at the school. (March and November)
A meerkat mother, father and
three offspring were put down after one bit a 9-year-old girl who
reached over a glass barrier and into their exhibit at the Minnesota
Zoo. The child's parents refused to allow a series of a rabies
shots, so the meerkats were killed and tested for the disease. They
tested negative. (August)
Ten pit-bull-mix puppies died
when a St. Paul man snapped their necks and slammed them against the
pavement. The suspect was arrested in Wisconsin on an unrelated
matter several months later. (August)
WHAT PUZZLED US?
The 81-year-old father of U.S.
Sen. Norm Coleman was caught having sex in the parking lot of Red's
Savoy Pizza on East Seventh Street in St. Paul, causing "anger,
resentment or disturbance of other people who observed it," police
said. He was fined and ordered to perform community service and
was barred from the pizzeria for a year. (October)
Minnesota Senate Majority Leader
Dean Johnson claimed in a January ministerial meeting that state
Supreme Court justices told him they would uphold a law defining
marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Chief Justice Russell
Anderson said the conversation simply didn't happen. Johnson later
apologized, said he didn't "lie" he "embellished" and then
called Anderson's denial an "outright fabrication." (March through
November)
During the final week of his
gubernatorial campaign, Democratic Attorney General Mike Hatch
allegedly called a reporter a "Republican whore" for questioning him
about his running mate's apparent (and videotaped) lack of knowledge
about E-85, an ethanol-based fuel well known by many Minnesotans.
Hatch lost by less than 1 percent of the vote. (November)
Anoka County and Vikings owner
Zygi Wilf spent months romancing the idea of a stadium in Blaine and
then let the deal fall apart. County officials felt jilted when the
team's eye wandered particularly in the direction of Minneapolis.
(November)
Criticism of Mounds Park's most
controversial sculpture, "The Wave," peaked at the tip of a vandal's
red marker: "Got Art?" (December)
A potential new student showed up
at Stillwater Area High School insisting he was the royal Caspian
James Crichton-Stuart IV, the Fifth Duke of Cleveland. But student
journalists found him to be the less-than-noble Joshua Gardner, a
22-year-old convicted sex offender. (January)
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman
tried his hand at police work by flashing the emergency lights of an
unmarked car after being clipped by another vehicle, believing the
culprit was making a getaway. Minnesota State Patrol officials said
the mayor may have technically violated the law but cleared him of
any wrongdoing. (April)
AND OF COURSE, THE WEATHER:
Summer brought heat. Winter has
seen a snow drought. In between, a deadly tornado struck Rogers,
killing a 10-year-old girl.
|
