HIGHLAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE WINTER WALK TO SCHOOL DAY ON TUESDAY

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The Highland Elementary School is participating in the Winter Walk to School Day this Tuesday, January 31, which will be celebrated nationwide on February 1.

Students will be encouraged to walk to school bundled in their winter gear, where they will be greeted at the front of their school by Safe Kids Grand Forks and community members. “The students are encouraged to get out and walk to school. They’re going to bundle up, wearing their gloves, mittens, and hats, and they’ll walk to school,” Safe Kids Grand Forks Community Resource Tina Sanders explained. “Then we’re going to have the opportunity to greet them in front of the school, where they’ll get some soft mittens, hot cocoa, snacks and be greeted by some of our community members and Safe Kids staff to celebrate the fact that they’re out there, getting some movement during the winter time, and making a difference in their community by helping to relieve the congestion of the traffic over there.” The road leading to Highland Elementary is usually very congested, and with the students walking to school rather than being driven by their parents, this can make it easier for other traffic to pass through quickly and easily and prevent any traffic jams.

While Safe Kids encourages students to be active during the winter weather with the walk, they also encourage the students to dress warmly and properly due to the upcoming forecast predicting temperatures potentially dropping below zero. They are also encouraging drivers to drive extra cautiously for the event and the rest of the winter with any pedestrians walking in the streets. “We want to encourage the kids to dress in layers. We want to make sure that you can regulate your body temperature. We’re asking those kids to make sure they’re wearing their warm socks and boots and keep their heads and hands covered to keep themselves warm. With the weather kind of dipping, and it gets really icy out there, so during the winter time, our drivers do have some added responsibilities with regards to driving and watching out for pedestrians,” Tina Sanders explained. “We have those huge piles of snow at the corners and edges of our streets, and sometimes pedestrians have a hard time seeing over the piles of snow, and the drivers have a hard time seeing them, so it’s important for us when we’re driving that we keep aware of that area. Also, note that the pedestrians will probably be moving a little slower. They might slip and fall because of that ice, so it’s really important that our drivers are paying attention when people are crossing are crosswalks.” Safe Kids will also provide the children with reflective gear when they arrive at the school for them to wear on their walk homes and in the future to make it easier for drivers to see at night and during the day.

To help remind the students about the walk to school on Tuesday, Safe Kids is enlisting the fourth-grade students to encourage their peers to participate in the event. “We are enlisting the fourth-grade students as our ambassadors for this event, so they will encourage their peers to participate,” Tina Sanders explained. “We’re going to have a day where the fourth-graders are going to be wearing a traffic cone costume. So they’ll be walking around, reminding their peers to walk to school by wearing that traffic cone. More information will also be available on the school’s social media, so we’re letting the families know and encouraging them to be a walking neighborhood that day.” The event is also being promoted by Safe Kids Grand Forks and is available to answer questions or give more information about the event by calling them at 701-780-1489, at safekids@altru.org on Safe Kids Grand Forks Facebook page.

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Suspect in NYC bike path terror attack found guilty of killing 8 people

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Jurors have reached a guilty verdict in the federal death penalty case of a 34-year-old man who killed eight people on a Manhattan bike path five years ago. Sayfullo Saipov, an Uzbek national living in New Jersey at the time of the 2017 Halloween attack, was convicted Thursday by a federal court jury of murder and attempted murder in order to gain entry to ISIS, making him eligible for the death penalty. He was also convicted of providing material support to ISIS. Jurors will decide next month whether Saipov should face the death penalty.

Saipov drove a Home Depot rental pickup truck at least 10 blocks down the Hudson River Greenway bike path, hitting nearly a dozen pedestrians and bicyclists before crashing into a school bus. In addition to the eight people killed, nearly a dozen others were hurt, some seriously. Authorities described the incident as a “cowardly act of terrorism,” and witnesses said at the time that school bus crash appeared deliberate. Prosecutors said in closing arguments that Saipov allegedly showed no remorse. saying he was proud of what he did and asking to hang the flag of the Islamic State group in his Manhattan hospital room.

Saipov had pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including murder in the aid of racketeering and providing and attempting to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization. The truck attack was the deadliest terror attack in New York since Sept. 11, 2001.

5 former Memphis police officers charged with murder and kidnapping of Tyre Nichols

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Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy announced Thursday that the five former Memphis police officers who were fired for their actions during the arrest earlier this month of Tyre Nichols – a 29-year-old Black man – were indicted on charges including murder and kidnapping.

The former officers, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin, and Desmond Mills Jr., have each been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, two charges of aggravated kidnapping, two charges of official misconduct and one charge of official oppression, Mulroy said, adding, ‘while each of the five individuals played a different role in the incident in question, the actions of all of them resulted in the death of Tyre Nichols, and they are all responsible.’ All five officers are in custody, Mulroy added. They were booked into the Shelby County Jail, and bond was set at $350,000 for Haley, 30, and Martin, 30, and $250,000 for Bean, 24, Mills, 32, and Smith, 28, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

The criminal charges come about three weeks after Nichols was hospitalized after a traffic stop and “confrontation” with Memphis police that family attorneys have called a savage beating. Nichols died from his injuries on January 10, three days after the arrest.

President Joe Biden said in a statement that Nichols’ family “deserves a swift, full, and transparent investigation” into his death and and that the killing is a “painful reminder that we must do more to ensure that our criminal justice system lives up to the promise of fair and impartial justice, equal treatment, and dignity for all.”

Penélope Cruz, Dua Lipa, Michaela Coel and Roger Federer to co-chair 2023 Met Gala

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Michaela Coel, Penélope Cruz, Roger Federer, Dua Lipa and Anna Wintour will co-chair the 2023 Met Gala, which benefits the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Honorary chairs of the gala include Tom Ford and head of Instagram Adam Mosseri.

This year’s exhibition will celebrate the opening of “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” featuring about 150 pieces spanning Lagerfeld’s start in the business in the 1950s to his final collection in 2019.  According to an announcement, “guests will be invited to pay homage to Lagerfeld’s affinity for aesthetics and theory of art by embodying the ‘line of beauty’ through the appreciation and execution of the ‘straight line’ and the ‘serpentine line,’ which delineate, respectively, Lagerfeld’s modernist and historicist tendencies .. Along with the straight and serpentine lines, the exhibition will conclude with the ‘satirical line,’ in effort to highlight Lagerfeld’s ‘ironic, playful, and whimsical predilections expressed through visual puns that reflect the designer’s razor-sharp wit.’

The 2023 Met Gala will resume its annual tradition of taking place on the first Monday in May (this year on May 1, 2023). Date changes had been made for the last two years due to the pandemic.

Editorial credit: Oleg Nikishin / Shutterstock.com

Take a look at Zachary Levi and Helen Mirren in new ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ trailer

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Warner Bros. Pictures has shared the trailer for the DC superhero film ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods,’ featuring Zachary Levi, Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu. The film is a sequel to the 2019 film ‘Shazam!’ which follows Billy Batson (aka Shazam), a teenager who transforms into an adult superhero (Levi) after saying the name “Shazam.”

According to a film synopsis from Warner Bros. Discovery, ‘when the Daughters of Atlas, a vengeful trio of ancient gods, arrive on Earth, the kids are thrust into a battle for their superpowers, their lives and the fate of their world.’  The trailer shows Shazam (Levi) taking on Hespera (Mirren) and Kalypso (Liu), daughters of Atlas. Adam Brody, Rachel Zegler, Ian Chen, Faithe Herman and Djimon Hounsou also star.

Shazm! Fury of the Gods, written by Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan and directed by David F. Sandberg, opens in theaters March 17. Take a look at the trailer – here.

Editorial credit: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com

CROOKSTON ONE-ACT ADVANCES TO SECTIONS AFTER 1ST PLACE FINISH

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The Crookston High School One-Act Play performed in the Minnesota State High School League Sub-Section 30 One Act competition in Ada on Thursday evening, where they took first place out of six teams to advance to the Sections competition in Lake of the Woods on Saturday, February 4.

“We’re very happy, we’re one of six plays, and we got first place, and East Grand Forks got second place,” One-Act Play Director Beth Carlson explained. “We will be moving on to Lake of the Woods on Saturday, where we will compete against the two winners of each subsection, where there will be eight shows in total.” The club does not know who their opponents in the competition will be yet, but will learn them after the rest of the subsection competitions finish over the weekend.

With the opportunity to return to the Section competition once again, the club is returning to the High School Auditorium for a few more practices to implement some feedback they received from the competition. “We got some really good comments, I haven’t had a chance to look at all of them yet, but it feels really good. The kids were thrilled, and it’s always nice when you get that reward at the end,” Carlson explained. “We will be rehearsing next week, maybe not for quite as many days, but we will be rehearsing for sure to get ourselves ready.”

A picture of the One-Act Play cast can be seen below-

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CROOKSTON FIRE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES SECOND HYDRANT HERO WINNER

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The Crookston Fire Department would like to congratulate Tyler Hviding on being the second Hydrant Hero of the season. To show their appreciation, the department presented him with $25 in Chamber Bucks to be used at a local business in town.

If there is a hydrant on your block and you would like to adopt it and keep it clear, you could be a Hydrant Hero and be in their next drawing. Please call the Fire Dept. at 218-281-4584, or you can email CFD@crookston.mn.us if you have any questions.

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CROOKSTON HIGH SCHOOL RELEASES REVIEW AND COMMENT ON UPCOMING PUBLIC REFERENDUM

A review and comment must be provided on a school district construction project proposal before the district conducts a referendum, solicits bids, or issues bonds for the project. A project proposal has been submitted for review and comment according to requirements set forth in Minnesota Statutes, section 123B.71, subdivisions 9 and 10, and Minnesota Statutes, section 123B.72. The district provides the following information:

1. The geographic area and population to be served:
a. preschool through grade 12 student enrollment for the past five years, and
b. student enrollment projections for the next five years.
2. A list of existing school facilities:
a. by year constructed,
b. their uses, and
C. an assessment of the extent to which alternate facilities are available within school district boundaries and in adjacent school districts.
3. A list of specific deficiencies of the facility:
a. demonstrating the need for a new or renovated facility to be provided,
b. the process used to determine the deficiencies,
c. a list of those deficiencies that will and will not be addressed by the proposed projects,
d. a list of specific benefits that the new or renovated facility will provide to students, teachers, and community users served by the facility.
4. A description of the project, including:
a. specifications of site and outdoor space acreage,
b. square footage allocations for classrooms, laboratories and support spaces,
c. estimated expenditures for major portions of the project,
d. estimated changes in facility operating costs, and
e. dates the project will begin and be completed.
5. A specification of the source of project financing, including:
a. applicable statutory citations,
b. the scheduled date for a bond issue or school board action,
c. a schedule of payments, including debt service equalization aid, and
d. the effect of a bond issue on local property taxes by property class and valuation.
6. Documentation obligating the school district and contractors to comply with the following items:
a. Minnesota Statutes, section 471.345 governing municipal contracts,
b. sustainable design,
C. school facility commissioning under Minnesota Statutes, section 123B.72, certifying the plans and designs for heating, ventilating, air conditioning, and air filtration for an extensively renovated or new facility meet or exceed current code standards, including ASHRAE air filtration Standard 52.1,
d. American National Standards Institute (ANSI) acoustical performance criteria, design requirements and guidelines for schools on maximum background noise levels and reverberation times,
e. state fire code,
f. chapter 326B governing building codes, and
g. consultation with affected government units about the impact of the project on utilities, roads, sewers, sidewalks, retention ponds, school bus and automobile traffic, access to mass transit and safe access for pedestrians and cyclists. 

Description of Proposed School Construction Project 

Crookston Public School District, ISD #0593-01, is proposing a single question bond referendum on February 14, 2023, that would authorize $4.965 million in bonding authority to finance a new athletic complex and associated site improvements. The proposed facility would include: an artificial turf field surrounded by an 8-lane track, stadium seating for 750, a press box, and a concessions/restroom building. The proposed projects would be scheduled for completion in calendar year 2023. Cost estimates by project component are as follows: 

Project Cost Estimates 

Artificial Turf Field 
$1,182,000 

8 Lane Track
$837,100 

Grandstand/Pressbox 
$387,000 

Lighting/Electrical 
$715,000 

Site Improvements 
$924,000 

Concessions / Bathrooms
$178,000 

Fees/Permits/Services
$242,700 

Contingency
$202,200

Capitalized Interest
$176,878 

Bond Issuance
$119,793

$4,964,671

The district has gone to the voters twice, once in April of 2017 and again in August of 2022, with a plan to build a new athletic complex. Both referendums failed to pass, though the August 2022 referendum failed by only 9 votes. The school district does not have its own athletic complex and has been leasing the University of Minnesota, Crookston’s facilities. Since the failed, April 2017 referendum, the University of Minnesota, Crookston discontinued their athletic programming and no longer utilizes their athletic facilities for competitive purposes. The district has approached University of Minnesota officials about purchasing their existing athletic facilities but the University is unwilling to sell their facility to the school district. 

The district is aware there is a long-term cost increase associated with operating and maintaining an artificial turf field. However, given the space restrictions of the existing high school site and the fact that the University is also unwilling to sell the unimproved property east of it to the school district to accommodate a natural grass stadium, an artificial turf field on the existing high school site appears to be in the best interest of the school district. 

If the bond referendum is successful and bonds are sold, the debt service on the bonds will be eligible for debt service equalization under Minnesota Statutes, section 123B.53, subdivision 3, if the bond schedule is approved. The amount of debt service equalization aid, if any, the district receives is determined annually and dependent upon property wealth, student population, and other statutory requirements. 

Review and Comment Statement 

Based on the department’s analysis of the school district’s required documentation and other pertinent information from sources of the Minnesota Department of Education, the Commissioner of Education provides a positive review and comment. 

Additional Information is Available 

Persons desiring additional information regarding this proposal should contact the school district superintendent’s office. 

NM 

Willie L. Jett II 

Commissioner 

January 10, 2023 

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