For the past 2 weeks...

...this is what I've been up to:


Two from Fridley Eco firm convicted

Two top officials at Eco Finishing Co. were convicted in federal court of violating the Clean Water Act.

Last update: March 28, 2008 - 12:08 AM

Two top officials at Eco Finishing Co. in Fridley were convicted in federal court Thursday of violating the Clean Water Act.

After a nine-day trial, the jury deliberated a day and a half before convicting 41-year-old Keith Rosenblum, the company's chief executive officer and president, of one count of felony conspiracy to defraud the United States, two counts of felony violations of the Clean Water Act and 10 counts of negligent violations of the federal act.

The jury also convicted 39-year-old Martin Meister, the company's plant manager, of eight counts of negligent violations of the Clean Water Act.

Last month, the company agreed to pay a $125,000 fine to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

Eco Finishing was charged with violating its discharge limits for three metals, including on one occasion releasing about 33 times more cyanide than allowed; did not submit regular required reports of its discharges, and tampered with monitoring equipment to falsify readings.

According to court documents, the company typically discharges about 60,163 gallons of industrial wastewater a day.

U.S. District Court Judge John Tunheim will sentence Rosenblum and Meister at a future date.

In May 2006, the company's former lab chemist, Ted Gibbons of White Bear Lake, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for violating the Clean Water Act, which included tampering with the monitoring equipment. He testified about the company's practices during Rosenblum's and Meister's trial.

MARY LYNN SMITH

News article found at http://www.startribune.com/local/north/17068876.html

Kilometers are shorter than miles. Save gas, take your next trip in kilometers.

-George Carlin

Question: What kind of car do you drive (VW, Mazda, Honda, etc.) and which side of the car is the fuel door on?

The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail;

if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.

-H.L. Mencken

I got selected for jury duty. Juror selections start tomorrow. I go to the federal courthouse downtown at 8 am. I'm actually excited in a nerdy way. I'm getting paid from work, plus I get $40 a day and 48.5 cents a mile. As rough as my 9.5 hour days at work have been this week, I'm hoping to be selected and hear a trial for a few days. It'll be a good break.

The whole point of this post is to point out that if I lived 60 or more miles away, the hotel at the top of the list of reccomendations was:

Best Western - Normandy Inn

I'm sorry if you don't understand why that's funny.

We can go back!!!

TGI March

You know what happens in March?? Think really hard...

No I'm not talking about endless hours of college basketball (even though that happens too)...

That's right, the off season ends! Baseball will be back in less than a month. And not a moment too soon...it's been a long winter.

29 days!