Star Tribune
Salvation Army puts out call for bell-ringers for holiday season
The Salvation Army kicked off its annual Red Kettle campaign over the weekend, but it does not have enough bell-ringers to staff its donation buckets.
The nonprofit is seeking to raise $2 million during its holiday campaign, and a good portion of that comes from coins and dollar bills dropped in red buckets placed outside store entrances and on street corners. To reach that goal, Salvation Army is looking for volunteers to ring bells near the kettles and draw attention to the campaign.
The organization providing struggling families with food, housing and financial assistance throughout the year needs bell ringers to fill 15,000 hours, but so far only 4,000 hours have been reserved.
“Volunteers are the foundation of our Red Kettle campaign, because a kettle with a bell ringer will raise between $80 and $100 an hour — enough to feed three families for a week,” said Salvation Army Northern Division Lieutenant Colonel Randall Polsley. “All the analysis we’ve done confirms that a kettle without a ringer collects no donations, so volunteering as a bell ringer makes all the difference.”
Last year, the Salvation Army tested a new system at select kettles to allow donors to use credit cards and smartphones to make digital contributions. This year Salvation Army will use its “Tap To Give” devices at more Twin Cities locations.
“Many people no longer carry cash with them, and with ‘Tap To Give,’ we’ve made it incredibly easy to quickly make a small donation at the red kettle,” Polsley said.
Revenue during the annual holiday campaign was up last year, but still has not returned to levels prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, officials said. But the need for help continues as families continue to face high prices for rent, food and utilities, they added.
“As more and more people come to the Salvation Army for help, we in turn rely on volunteer bell ringers for their help at this most important time of year,” said Sophie Crowell, volunteer relations director of the Salvation Army Northern Division.
Star Tribune
Nearly 3½-year term for teen who stole pricey dog while it was being walked in St. Paul
A 19-year-old man has received a prison term of nearly 3½ years for stealing a pricey dog from a woman in St. Paul and then trying to sell her pet for a quick buck.
Lonnie Ray Jenkins, 19, of St. Paul, was sentenced in Ramsey County District Court after pleading guilty to first-degree aggravated robbery in connection with the theft of the French bulldog-Boston terrier mix named Clementine on April 24 near the intersection of York Avenue and Arkwright Street.
With credit for time in jail after his arrest, Jenkins is expected to serve about 2¼ years of his term in prison and the balance on supervised release.
The criminal complaint referred to another male involved in the crime, but police have yet to announce an additional arrest.
According to the complaint:
The dog’s owner said she Clementine, also affectionately called Tiny, were on their way to get ice cream late in the afternoon when two males started following her. She crossed the street out of concern for her safety, and the two males did the same. Once she got to her front steps, one male pushed her to the ground while the other grabbed Tiny and ran off.
The woman told police that Tiny is worth thousands of dollars and is embedded with an electronic identification chip. She feared that if Tiny didn’t get her medication, the dog would fall ill, she said.
Surveillance video showed two males walking in the area and wearing masks. Moments later an SUV picked up the males with Tiny.
One of two reports of sexual assault since September in an Eagan park has turned out to have been made up by the woman, police said Tuesday.
Police said in a statement that after their extensive investigation into the reported sexual assault on a trail in Lebanon Hills Park around 11 a.m. on Nov. 7, “we’re able to report the assault never occurred.”
The woman “admitted that her claims were false, and the incident never took place,” the statement read. Charges will be pursued for filing a false police report, the statement continued. Police are declining to release the woman’s identity.
Police said they continue to investigate the report of a sexual assault in the park late in the afternoon of Sept. 7.
“In an effort to promote public safety, we continue to ask the public to be aware of your surroundings, watch out for each other, and report suspicious people or vehicles,” the statement said. “While this case was found to be false, we are continuing to follow up on the Sept. 7 incident, but unfortunately, we don’t have any new information to share at this time.”
ROCHESTER – For decades, residents here have tried to discourage thousands of crows from roosting downtown and leaving droppings everywhere. Now, the city is getting lethal.
Wildlife experts for the first time will cull the crow population using airsoft rifles, which shoot plastic pellets, in parts of downtown Rochester.
“We’re not trying to get crows out of one tree and they move into the next‚” said Paul Widman, Rochester’s parks and recreations director. “It’s to create a sense of danger so that they don’t want to be in the area.”
The Rochester City Council approved the escalation against the crows 6-1 Monday night, with only Council Member Molly Dennis dissenting.
Crows have been a problem in downtown Rochester since the 1980s as up to 20,000 birds flock to the warm lights at night each winter, gathering themselves in groups (appropriately for this story) called a murder. The birds themselves are largely harmless, coming in droves in the late afternoon and leaving their perches in the morning. But their droppings pile up, creating hazards wherever they stay.
Rochester has worked with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) since 2012 to haze the birds into leaving the downtown area, with mixed results.
Mike Schaber, parks and forestry operations manager, told the Rochester City Council on Monday night that city crews have started typically around November scaring the birds out of downtown with everything from laser pointers to starter guns filled with blanks, pots and pans, and even a shovel found at Mayo Clinic that made awful noises.
But the crows keep coming back, switching locations each year to congregate somewhere new. Some years it’s Central Park, where the crows have plenty of trees to roost in. Last year it was the Plummer building, where the lights made for a warm welcome crows can’t typically find in suburbs or other parts of
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