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by Tad Johnson
Dakota County Tribune
Thisweek Newspapers’ coverage area includes several changes as a result of a specially appointed court panel’s redistricting plan released today.
The changes leave a state House district for the taking by creating a vacancy in House District 58A, which will represent a large portion of Lakeville.
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A specially-appointed court panel will release its redistricting plan today at 1 p.m. on the Minnesota Judicial Branch website. After each Census, states are required to reapportion legislative and Congressional districts based on new population numbers. The Republican-led Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton did not agree on a proposed map last year, so the decision went to a courts commission.
-Aaron Vehling, Thisweek Newspapers
About 50-60 members of an ironworkers union picketed this morning on the construction grounds of Walmart at County Road 70 and I-35 in Lakeville.
Local 512 of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers are protesting what they say is subcontractor AME’s use of untrained, under-paid labor for erecting the steel frame of the retail store.
“It’s time to stand up for our brothers and sisters who are the best at what they do but are being left on the sidelines,” said Charlie Roberts, business manager for Local 512.
In the Star Tribune, Scott Vickerman, owner of AME of Wayzata, denied Roberts’ claims.
“AME has been in business for 20 years and I have very little turnover of my employees. And I pay them fairly and give them full benefits. The (complaint) is only about the fact that I don’t hire their union workers. That is the whole issue.” He told the Star Tribune that AME salaries range from $40,000 to $65,000 a year.
—Aaron Vehling, Thisweek Newspapers
Two free weekly newspapers that have competed with and complemented one another for more than 30 years are merging into a single paper.
The first edition of the new Sun Thisweek will be delivered on Friday, March 30, to residents of Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eagan, Farmington, Lakeville and Rosemount. The name combines two familiar and respected names in Twin Cities community journalism: Sun-Current Newspapers and Thisweek Newspapers.
The merged news product follows the Dec. 30 acquisition by ECM Publishers Inc., which publishes Thisweek, of Minnesota Sun Newspapers from American Community Newspapers.
“For many years, residents and businesses in Dakota County have been served by two excellent weekly newspapers – Thisweek and the Sun Current,” said Larry Werner, general manager and editor of Thisweek Newspapers and the Dakota County Tribune. “Both papers have covered the interesting and important events and people in our communities and have provided a way for businesses to reach their customers through advertising. The combined Sun Thisweek will retain the strong commitment to excellent journalism and local advertising that readers have come to expect. The staff of Sun Thisweek will be larger than either newspaper before this merger, and the amount of news will increase. Our new, larger, redesigned paper will attempt to provide the best of the Sun Current and the best of Thisweek in Sun Thisweek.”
Among the enhancements planned for the new community newspaper are expanded sports and arts coverage.
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by Aaron Vehling
Thisweek Newspapers
Five-year-old Jack Postlewaite and his brother, Charlie, 10, are teeming with energy, as most kids are.
A particular passion of theirs is playing with their elaborate K’nex structures – taller than they are – that they have constructed in the foyer of the Lakeville home they share with their parents, Phil and Kathy.
The Postlewaites are participating in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Walk to Cure Diabetes at the Mall of America on Feb. 25. Both children (Charlie, left, and Jack, second from right) live with Type 1 diabetes. Their parents, Kathy and Phil, have rearranged their lives to help their children thrive despite the disease. Photo by Aaron Vehling.
From various pieces they have scored engineering feats of complexity and locomotion that would make famed inventor Rube Goldberg proud.
Add to these toys a trampoline and playground set and it seems these children are leading lives similar to others in Lakeville. But that is not the case.
Both Jack and Charlie have Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that requires them to wear insulin pumps and their parents to be available to test their blood sugar more than a dozen times every 24 hours. Unlike Type 2, which typically results from lifestyle choices, Type 1 has been linked to genetic and environmental factors, according to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Jack was first diagnosed in 2007 at barely 16 months; Charlie in 2010. In his short life, Jack has endured more than 18,000 finger pricks to test his blood sugar levels.
Thisweek visited the Postlewaite home as the family was planning for its fifth year participating in the Feb. 25 JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes at the Mall of America.
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