local
The Whistleblower blog was started in 2008. Look for posts by these contributors: James Eli Shiffer, Jane Friedmann and Maria Elena Baca. | Check out the Whistleblower archive.
Find us on Facebook and Twitter. Find our watchdog and investigative work at The Investigators.
The Star Tribune's journalists need your help blowing the whistle in Minnesota. Contact us here.
resize text 
find us on Facebook
follow on Twitter
subscribe via RSS
Posts about Civil liberties
Photographer hassled at Minneapolis Fed
Posted by: James Eli Shiffer Updated: May 9, 2011 - 12:17 PM
T.S. Bye's offending photo
If you point a camera at a building where millions of dollars are stored, prepare for questions.
On Thursday, T.S. Bye used his camera phone to take a picture of the big seal on the Federal Reserve in downtown Minneapolis. He was confronted by a security guard who questioned him and asked him to delete his photos. He did so, although his phone backed up the photo instantly.
Bye estimated he had stopped for 15-20 seconds before he was approached, and it was five minutes before he was allowed to leave.
Bye felt he was treated like a “suspected terrorist.”
"Courts have ruled over and over again that taking pictures of buildings from public spaces is perfectly legal, even federal buildings," Bye said.
Fed spokeswoman Patti Lorenzen said the photographer aroused suspicion by stopping his car in the street, getting out and taking photos. According to Lorenzen:
Our Law Enforcement staff asked what he was doing. He informed us he was taking photos of the Bank seal. Initially, our Law Enforcement officer told him that he was in a secure area and that we would prefer that he delete the photos. When the second Law Enforcement officer arrived on the scene, he informed this individual that he did not have to delete the photos and all we really needed him to do was move his vehicle to an appropriate parking space. The individual then drove away.
“It is not against our policy to take photos of the exterior of our building,” Lorenzen said.
When have you been hassled for taking pictures?
Discrimination complaints lead to Delta fine
Posted by: Updated: February 18, 2011 - 10:17 AM
Photo by Glen Stubbe
Two weeks after Whistleblower wrote about a White Bear Lake woman who was kicked off a Delta flight because of her medical equipment, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced a record fine of $2 million against the airline for widespread problems with its treatment of disabled passengers. The federal agency said thousands of people had complained over a two-year period and a substantial number of the violations were "egregious".
Without admitting to the violations, Delta agreed to the fine - the largest ever assessed against an airline in a case not involving safety violations. Most of the money will be redirected to improvements meant to improve the experience of passengers with disabilities, including an automated wheelchair tracking system, a customer satisfaction survey and better compliance auditing.
Library doesn't police what kids borrow
Posted by: James Eli Shiffer Updated: January 4, 2011 - 9:48 AM
Caryn Goldberg, a teacher who lives in Plymouth, wondered whether librarians do anything to prevent children from checking out R-rated videos.
Hennepin County Library spokeswoman Carla Biermaier said the answer is no, and issued the following statement:
Hennepin County Library serves a diverse community with many different interests. We select materials that we hope our customers will find helpful or enjoyable and that will appeal to varied tastes and interests. We recommend that customers carefully select materials, depending on their individual needs and values. Only individuals can determine what is most appropriate for their needs and can define what material or information is consistent with their personal or family values. We encourage parents and caregivers to work with children in the selection of materials. Library staff is available in all of our libraries to assist in their selection of materials.
Goldberg thinks libraries should limit children’s access to movies they couldn’t see on their own. "Sex and the City," "A Clockwork Orange" and "Last Tango in Paris" are just some of the titles she's seen available in the library. "I think there should be some kind of check system," she says. Do you agree?
Passport photo too racy for this office
Posted by: James Eli Shiffer Updated: August 31, 2010 - 9:52 AM
Photo rejected by the Dakota County passport office (courtesy of Kim Bruzek)
Kim Bruzek, a 27-year-old cosmetologist who lives in Montgomery, needed a passport for an upcoming trip to Mexico, so she got her photo taken at a Dakota County passport office. She didn’t think about what she was wearing — a blue tanktop — until a worker at the office told her that the photo showed too much skin and might cause problems for her in some countries.
Bruzek felt she had no choice but to put on a fleecy black sweater that a passport worker gave her for the photo retake. She said it made her look like the "Unabomber." Then when she did some research, here's what she found out about the State Department's guidelines for what you can wear in a passport photo:
Taken in normal street attire:
• Uniforms should not be worn in photographs except religious attire that is worn daily
• Do not wear a hat or headgear that obscures the hair or hairline
• If you normally wear prescription glasses, a hearing device, wig or similar articles, they should be worn for your picture
• Dark glasses or nonprescription glasses with tinted lenses are not acceptable unless you need them for medical reasons (a medical certificate may be required)
Whistleblower emailed a copy of Bruzek's photo to the State Department. Here's the response I got:
The passport photo guidelines provided to acceptance facilities indicate that the customer should appear in normal street attire. Although this requirement is subjective and dependent on the judgment of the agent reviewing the passport photo, the attached images do not appear to violate any guidelines set forth by the Department.
Dakota County has apologized to Bruzek for a “miscommunication” by workers merely trying to help her avoid trouble abroad. A tube top or a spaghetti strap top might violate the State Department's guidelines, but not what Bruzek was wearing, admitted Kathy Jensen, the county's director of service and license centers. The passport office may now display a list of countries in which they recommend American travelers avoid bare shoulders in their passport photos.
"I think the main reason why I was so taken aback by it is that I read through what we were supposed to be dressed like," Bruzek wrote to Jensen. "I guess I feel as an AMERICAN and a MINNESOTAN I should be able to be comfortable according to the weather and not some other countries' beliefs."
The State Department plans to contact Dakota County to ensure its guidelines are being followed. What do you think of Bruzek's run-in with the passport office?
Aging ex-con is stuck in Minnesota
Posted by: Updated: August 17, 2010 - 12:13 PMFrom my colleague James Eli Shiffer:
Guillermo Gonzalez had better make himself at home in Minnesota, because it looks like the 67-year-old convict on supervised release will be here until 2012.
In May, the Star Tribune described how Gonzalez would welcome being deported to his native Dominican Republic to serve the last part of his federal sentence for a 1986 prison escape, but the court says he must stay in Minnesota, where he knows no one.
He asked the U.S. probation office to send him to Georgia, where his brother lives, and where he lived in a halfway house until March. That request was denied last month, Gonzalez said. So he’s settling in for a long stay. He said he is close to getting an apartment and leaving the Drake Hotel in Minneapolis.
Click here to read the original story about Gonzalez.
ADVERTISEMENT
recent posts
- Company fined for too much sewage
- State: Tobacco buyer evaded taxes
- 'Get rich slow’ broker is facing discipline
- Area nursing homes cited for violations
- Caregiver had sex with client
- Arbitrator upholds deputy’s dismissal
- Garage is eyesore no more
- FTC goes after FTC impersonator
- Salon fined for lax sanitation practices
- Man put on stand, though lawyer was absent
- Fines accrue, but north Minneapolis garage remains an eyesore
- Did the gas pump rip her off?
- Closed bar owes large sales-tax bill
- Cigarette taxes take her breath away
- Insurer now willing to pay flood claim, homeowner says
- Frustration at long waits in a Minneapolis precinct
- 'Vote No' van parked too close to poll
- Election judge instructions go too far
- Some voters may be asked for ID
Post By Category
ADVERTISEMENT
inside the StarTribune
-
425 Portland Av. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55488
(612) 673-4000
- Company
- Subscriber Services
- Website
- Buy Ads
- Store
- Connect with Us
© 2013 StarTribune. All rights reserved.
StarTribune.com is powered by Limelight Networks
Newspaper Subscriptions
eEdition
RSS
Newsletters