On December 19, at St. Louis County District Court, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson announced the charges related to a shooting at the Cook County courthouse on Thursday, December 15. Daniel Sidney Schlienz, 42, of Grand Marais has been charged with two counts of premeditated attempted first-degree murder. Additional charges filed were one count of assault in the fourth degree, […]
Jurors feared for their lives
The victims of the shooting at the Cook County courthouse will bear the scars of the incident forever. But so will the people who feared for their lives—the emergency responders, the courthouse staff—and members of the jury. The Cook County News-Herald spoke with two jurors who shared the details of their frightening ordeal. The shooting took place just after the […]
The defendant’s family speaks out
The day after the shooting at the Cook County courthouse, the Cook County News-Herald sat down with the family of the man ultimately charged with the crime. On Friday, December 16, Daniel Schlienz’s mother, father, aunts, sister and nieces shared their heartbreak over the event. On December 19, Schlienz was charged with two counts of premeditated attempted murder, but the […]
Jury duty continues to be a privilege
Serving on a jury is a privilege. On December 15, 2011, eleven other members of our community and I rendered a verdict in a sad case. Thinking our service was complete, we were ready to depart for home. We were having a final discussion in the courtroom with Judge Munger. Suddenly everything changed. Shots rang out. I wish to sincerely […]
Community Center can be done right
I believe a community center done right will not bankrupt Cook County nor will it exclude any community member. By definition a community center is the gathering place for community members to come together in support of one another. It will not drive young families from the county, but rather serve as a reason that young families want to remain […]
The government is us
Bob LaMettry’s October 29 letter should serve as a good reminder to all of us to occasionally check our home libraries for outof date reference books. With the Internet, it is all too easy to simply rely on a Google search to get up-to-date answers. Bob’s own library is a case in point. He failed to find a definition of […]
Wishing for peace
I left the News-Herald office a little early last Thursday. We weren’t completely finished packaging pages and transmitting them via the Internet to our printer. But that’s okay. I occasionally duck out before the paper is finished “sending.” Our ad designer, Laurie, handles that aspect of the paper quite well without me peering over her shoulder. I left early to […]
A thousand points of Christmas lights on Gunflint Trail
Although his neighbors questioned his sanity, Tom Leddy of Birch Lake has done something that will surely bring smiles to weary Gunflint Trail travelers this Christmas. According to Daryl Popkes of Birch Lake, Leddy “made a personal connection” with a large pine tree growing near the cluster of Birch Lake mailboxes on the Trail. Leddy asked Popkes, “Isn’t that the […]
