New allegations hit Minnesota's U.S. attorney at federal level

New complaints against Minnesota’s U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones have surfaced in Washington, D.C., alleging mismanagement, abuse of authority and reprisal against an assistant U.S. attorney for engaging in whistleblowing “or other protected” activity.

The charges are being investigated by the U.S. Special Counsel, an independent agency that examines whistleblower cases, according to documents obtained by the Star Tribune.

Jones, acting director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF), is President Obama’s choice to become permanent director, but has come under fire in recent months for his work with the ATF and his leadership of the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis.

The assistant U.S. attorney who alleges he was unfairly disciplined is Jeff Paulsen, sources with direct knowledge of the case have told the Star Tribune.

Paulsen, a well-regarded prosecutor, was among recipients of the St. Paul Police Chief’s Award in 2011 for the conviction of two men in a brutal 2007 triple homicide. He was the first assistant under former U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose.

Paulsen has been reassigned from prosecuting high-profile criminal cases to spending a large amount of time on cases under appeal. He declined to comment on the whistleblower case.

Jones declined to comment on the allegations Wednesday. “Todd is not making any public statements pending his confirmation hearings,” said Jeanne Cooney, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

Cooney declined to confirm that Paulsen was suspended or that he filed allegations with the Special Counsel. She said the office does not comment on personnel issues as a matter of policy.

Letter mentions allegations

The whistleblower allegations are mentioned in an April 12 letter to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which is weighing Jones’ nomination. Carolyn Lerner, who heads the office of the Special Counsel, wrote the letter in response to an inquiry by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. Grassley is the ranking Republican on the committee and a critic of Jones’ work with the ATF.

Lerner wrote that an assistant U.S. attorney, whom she does not name, alleged that a member of Jones’ staff was suspended and received a “lowered performance appraisal … in retaliation for protected whistle-blowing or other protected activity.”

The allegation was lodged March 12. After an initial review, the counsel decided on April 12 to conduct an investigation.

Lerner wrote that her office is also reviewing a second allegation by the same attorney, who “alleges gross mismanagement and abuses of authority in the Narcotics Violent Crime Section” of the Minneapolis office.

She said no decision had been made whether to refer the case for investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Her letter mentions Grassley’s inquiry about an anonymous letter critical of Jones dated July 20, 2012, and signed by “Employees of the U.S. attorney’s office, District of Minnesota.”

Lerner wrote that her office turned the letter over to an analyst, then closed the case on Aug. 30 because it “did not have enough information to initiate a substantive inquiry into the concerns raised by the letter.”

Cooney said, “We will not comment on the anonymous letter which may or may not have been written by anyone in this office.”

Nomination all but on hold

The latest disclosure deepens Jones’ problems in the Senate, where GOP resistance has all but put his nomination on hold.

An aide to Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he is “making an assessment of the merits of the claims” so the committee can move forward.

But three months after Obama nominated Jones to the ATF post, the committee has yet to schedule a hearing on the nomination.

Both Democratic senators from Minnesota who serve on the Judiciary Committee remained noncommittal Wednesday.

A spokesman for Al Franken said he “plans to review any information that comes from the Office of Special Counsel’s investigation, along with any additional information provided to the Committee about Mr. Jones.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s spokeswoman Brigit Helgen said, “While Senator Klobuchar is not aware of all the details of the investigation, she hopes it’s resolved soon and would like to see the nomination hearing move forward.”

Paulsen has been with the U.S. attorney’s office for 24 years. Over the past two years, he and his supervisor, Carol Kayser, have been at odds over the prosecution of narcotics and gang cases, sources said, and their working relationship deteriorated to the point where Paulsen felt he was being unfairly targeted.

The allegations being investigated by the Special Counsel were first reported Tuesday in Roll Call, a Washington, D.C., online news publication. It did not name Paulsen.

Cooney said the Minneapolis U.S. attorney’s office, like others around the country, has been ordered by the U.S. attorney general to tighten internal controls and heighten scrutiny after the heavy criticism the attorney general’s office received over the Operation Fast and Furious gun scandal in Arizona.

Previously, assistant U.S. attorneys had more autonomy, Cooney said. “Whenever there is change, there is some resistance,” she said. “It’s common.”

In an interview in December, Jones had characterized complaints about his office as a reaction to his decision to shift priorities away from street-level crimes to more complex crimes involving drug cartels and to time-consuming white-collar crimes and terrorism cases.

In January, the Judiciary Committee received a letter from Donald Oswald, former director of the Minneapolis office of the FBI, who said Jones was “a significant impediment for federal law enforcement to effectively protect the citizens of Minnesota from violent gang, drug and gun activities.”

Source: startribune.com

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How to Gain and Maintain Customer Loyalty for Your Business

Today, it is almost guaranteed that every business has competition, whether it's from someone working out of their garage, home, or in a traditional storefront business. The Internet has made it extremely easy to find and compare businesses online, and this means it's very important to work hard to continue to improve both your promotional methods and your customer service approaches, to gain and maintain stronger customer loyalty for your business.

While it is important to generate new customers, it is even more important to maintain strong relationships with the ones you already have, especially in today's competitive market. In fact, it often costs much less to keep a current customer than it does to gain a new one, or, in the worst case, to try to win back a customer from a competitor. In this article, I will provide tips on how you can optimize your promotional and customer service approaches to convert both of your new and current customers, into loyal ones. Let's get started.

First, when a new customer comes to you, politely ask them how they found out about your business and keep a list of their responses. Review this list often to identify the common channels that generate majority of new customers for you, and try to promote your business more on those channels; whether it is through word-of-mouth, websites, social media referrals, etc. Depending on your type of business, you'll get new customers through different lead-generating channels. Knowing where your target customers usually go to find your type of business will allow you to position yourself in front of them effectively. This is a smart way to make a good impression, and without a good first impression, you may never get a chance to gain their trust. Always remember that trust plays a big part in gaining customer loyalty.

Today, many customers use the Internet to find and learn about business providers before making the phone call or driving to the store. This is reasonable enough for you to consider establishing a professional website to let potential customers learn about your business 24-7, at their convenience.

Second, always make very clear to your customers what you provide, and what it will do for them. Work hard to try to avoid negative comments about your business or brand. As you know, bad words often travel farther and faster than good ones. And since social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, etc.) are THE customers' social spaces, bad comments and stories will spread fast and are very hard for you to resolve. Being clear, honest, and sincere are the best ways to avoid having your reputation harmed, so that you can continue to work to gain your customers' trust.

Third, try to exceed your customers' expectations, repeatedly. In today's competitive market, meeting your customer's expectations may no longer be enough. In fact, it might create opportunities for competitors to take away your customers. So go the extra mile to delight your customers. It will help build customer loyalty while costing you much less than trying to win back customers you've lost to competitors.

Fourth, while your customers are delighted, if possible, ask them to write up a couple paragraphs of feedback on your customer service. The process of writing you feedback allows customers to reflect on the good experience they had with you, which naturally makes your service more memorable. Better yet, you can post customers' testimonials on your website to help you continue to build a good reputation for your business over time.

Fifth, keep a close pulse on your competitor's promotions and provide offers that would interest your current customers to visit your business, or buy your products and services. If you can't compete directly with a competitor on a particular promotion or deal, put together a different offer or bundle that would attract your customers. The offer doesn't have to be so good that you take a loss, but it should help differentiate you and keep the attention of your current customers on you. Reminding customers of your new business offers will also help maintain their loyalty to your brand.

Sixth, a few weeks before the New Year approaches, send out a greeting/thank you letter to each of your current customers. Hand-written letters are often the most effective and personal. While sending out a thank you letter may not be feasible for all businesses, it is an important step for many. This task may be a time consuming, but it's worth it to remind your current customers how much you appreciate the fact that they chose you, and your business. This is one of the keys to customer relationship management which will help you convert your current customers into loyal ones.

The market today is much more competitive and businesses that have yet optimize their promotion and customer services approaches to gain and retain customer loyalty will soon realize that this can have a negative impact on their bottom line. Above are six important tips to help you build a strong relationship with your current customers and convert those relationships into customer loyalty.

ProWeb365 is a Minneapolis web design firm in Minnesota offering affordable website design to businesses and organizations. We list our web design prices right on the website for customers to see and compare online. For further assistance, please contact us at info@ProWeb365.com or (612) 590-8080.

Ex-Minneapolis Chief Bouza is often a witness in lawsuits against cops

For eight years in the 1980s, Chief Tony Bouza presided over the Minneapolis Police Department, a quotable, in-your-face police official with strong opinions who was brought here as a reformer by Mayor Don Fraser.

A former assistant chief in the New York Police Department, Bouza frequently butted heads with members of the Minneapolis force.

Since his retirement he has become even more irascible. For most of the past quarter century, he has been a witness for the defense across the country, testifying in lawsuits, some of them major cases, on behalf of people who have alleged wrongdoing by police officers.

Bouza, now in his 80s and still living in Minneapolis, has published a new book entitled “Expert Witness: Breaking the Policemen’s Blue Code of Silence,” which tells story after story of alleged deceit, misconduct and corruption by police.

A prolific writer of nine previous books, he said in an interview that his new tome is “my most important book,” describing it as “my continuing and futile attempt to reform the police.”

He calls police departments “secret institutions very much like the Vatican” who have “a great time exercising power.” He says that while departments do a lot of good things, they are institutionally assigned “to control the underclass,” most vividly reflected in their relationship to blacks, who he says are targets of stop-and-frisk and other abuses.

He said in most of the cases where he testified, it was on behalf of abused blacks “who screwed up their courage and sued.”

In an epilogue, Bouza writes that he owes an apology to most cops because 98 percent of them are doing — or trying to do — their job, work ranging from mediocre to heroic and brilliant.

“But then there are the 2-percenters,” he writes. “I could actually prepare a list of these misfits in every agency I have worked. The thumpers, grafters, malingerers, psychos, alcoholics, women beaters and bullies are the objects of my reform efforts.”

He is, say most attorneys who sue police, a rare bird, since there are hardly any big city police chiefs who have so consistently testified against police.

Fred Goetz, a Minneapolis attorney, says he can count on one hand “the individuals with Mr. Bouza’s level of experience who objectively review cases of alleged police misconduct and call it as they see it. ...

“Chief Bouza is unique in that he only does cases he believes in. He is not a hired gun. If he does not believe in a case, if he does not believe there is a serious civil rights violation, he won’t take it.”

Bouza can say things that will get him in hot water. During his tenure as Minneapolis chief, he was ridiculed for saying there was no gang problem in the city, even as gangs began to materialize — a comment he later said was a mistake.

Still, Bouza has intense admirers. “With all due respect to Minneapolis, he should have ended up heading the police departments of one of the giant cities, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, to show what he could do,” says Thomas Repetto, former president of the Citizens Crime Commission in New York City. “I like to say he is the greatest police commissioner New York City never had.”

Among the cases Bouza worked on was a 2003 rally in Chicago against U.S. intervention in Iraq, which led to 543 arrests. Bouza calls it a “a police-inspired debacle.” The city of Chicago agreed to pay $6.2 million in a settlement.

Bouza wrote that “the most important case I worked on” involved the indictment of two “tree-huggers,” environmental activists who were campaigning against the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest. Bouza testified after they were arrested in 1990 on eco-terrorism charges, which Bouza said was wrongheaded. They won $2.9 million from a jury.

You might think Bouza is a softy who cuddles up to protesters — after all, he became a national story in the 1980s when his wife, Erica Bouza, was arrested several times by Bouza’s own police force when she participated in peaceful civil disobedience demonstrations against Honeywell and its military contracts. But Bouza’s values are not simplistic and can be rather startling.

“I am an unapologetic supporter of the use of police violence, even lethal force,” he writes in a preface, “but it has to be guided by the law, the standards of reasonableness and the U.S. Constitution.

“I have presided over clubbings, shootings, gassings and other assaults by the police. I see violence as a key weapon in the police arsenal and trained cops in the full range of possibilities available to us.

“My only caveat is that the use of force has to be legally justified, measured and appropriate, and that the weapons have to be in conformance with the law.”

SWAT officer is a big winner

A Minneapolis police SWAT officer has won $10,000 for himself and $100,000 of equipment for the Minneapolis Police Department’s SWAT unit, beating 13 other SWAT officers in a televised competition on the Outdoor Channel cable television network.

Tony Caspers, a 24-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department, was declared the winner last week of a reality television series called ETU, which stands for Elite Tactical Unit. The episodes will re-air on the Outdoor Channel next month.

Caspers, 45, of Blaine, and the other officers from around the United States battled drug kingpins and returned pretend gunfire in a series of make-believe scenarios that included raiding houses and rescuing hostages. The officers used laser guns rather than live ammunition. The episodes were filmed in Arkansas, Missouri and New Hampshire.

Caspers was a last-minute replacement in the competition. In the final, he competed against a SWAT officer from Dallas. Mitch Petrie, an assistant producer, said he hosted a large party recently at a New Hope firearm training facility, Sealed Mindset, where Casper’s friends, family, other officers and sponsors watched.

Source: startribune.com
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6 Mistakes People Often Make When Choosing a Web Designer

Many web design service providers have popped up in the last five years. In some ways, this has made it tougher for people to find high-quality, experienced web designers. You’ll find many different styles, skills, prices, and abilities among web designers. In order to get a professional website developed and designed for your organization, you should seek one with a solid, proven track record to take on your project. Here are 6 things you should avoid when selecting a web design firm for your project:

  1. Choosing a web designer who is still using old HTML code to build websites: Today, in order for your website show up uniformly on newer versions of internet browsers, computer operating systems, and mobile devices; your website needs to be built with the most up-to-date coding; HTML5 or newer. It would be a major pain in the neck (and wallet) to have to re-design your website after you’ve worked hard to develop a new site with a designer who uses outdated code.
  2. Choosing a web designer who suggests using a lot of flash content on your site: Since Apple computers and mobile devices do not support Flash, your Flash website will not display fully when Apple users pull up your website on their devices. It is un-wise for any web designers to suggest using significant amounts of Flash on client’s websites.
  3. Using a template for your website: Most of us have tried our best to come up with a unique name for our organization to differentiate ourselves from our competitors. So it makes sense to do the same, and create a unique website to establish your online web presence. It is not a wise move to choose a website template, which has been duplicated and re-sold thousands of times online, as your organization’s online identity.
  4. Use your cousin’s friend, or your friend’s cousin, to design your site: I have encountered a number of clients who started out their web design project with someone they knew personally or through family. Usually the idea is that working with someone you know will save you money. This situation often ends up with a half-baked website that doesn’t meet the client’s expectations, or the project drags on for way too long. I am a big believer in the power of referrals, but you should research carefully to make sure you hire a web designer who can handle your project. Research includes viewing the designer’s work portfolio, reading their past clients’ testimonials, and reviewing their web design prices. Referrals are great, but you need to do your homework to pick out a qualified website designer.
  5. Choose the cheapest web designer to design your site: If you are looking for website designers that can meet your expectations, do not let price be the only criteria in your selection process, no matter how tight your budget is. It’d be better for you to work out some kind of re-payment plan with a qualified web designer or wait until you can save up enough money to design your site. Paying money for a poorly designed and developed site will cost you more time, and money, in the long run. When a designer says that s/he will take on your project for 1/5 the price of other web design quotes from other web design companies, you should question whether that designer really knows what kind of project s/he is getting into.
  6. Choose a web designer who does not have a service agreement contract in place: Quite often new clients come to me frustrated because their previous designer told them that they do not own the domain and/or the website which they had paid for a number of years ago when they hired their previous web designer to set everything up for them. When that designer built the website and registered the domain for the client in the beginning, there was no service agreement contract in place that stated that the client owns these properties. Now, when the client decides to leave, the designer claims that the client merely rented everything from the designer, and that client does not own anything. You can avoid this by always asking whether your prospective web designer has a service agreement contract in place for you, as a client. Most importantly, ask him/her if anywhere in the contract states that you own a copyright of your website design and your selected website domain name. Only when you have a copy of the signed contract in your hands should you go forward with the project.

There are other “red flags” you should watch out for when choosing a web designer, but above are 6 major and common mistakes to avoid. For more information on what makes a website a “professional grade” website, please go to http://www.proweb365.com/10-tips-professional-grade-website.

How to Customize and Manage Your E-commerce Website for Maximum Results

Since your E-commerce website is the first way customers will learn about your business, you should customize it intelligently to capture viewers’ attention, and persuade them to buy or refer your products to their family and friends (either through email or social media). When “potential customers” land on your website, within 60 seconds they should know what you sell, and why they should buy it from you. To achieve this, you’ll definitely want a professional web design firm to custom build your E-commerce website based on both your products and services, and your business’ needs, at every level. From the look of your site to how it functions, your website should provide a positive, user-friendly experience. No one likes websites that are unattractive or are hard to use, and not only that; people’s attention spans and patience are short as they browse websites.

Besides people, search engine spiders are also a key audience for you online. In order to crawl and index your website (periodically), search engine spiders need to be able to read your website easily. This is one more reason why it’s very important that you have a professional web designer custom build your website, with clean code that allows spiders to crawl your site thoroughly. A poorly designed and coded website can be a revenue killer for an E-commerce business.

Even if “potential customers” are impressed with your website the first time they visit, your job does not end there. You have to create a smart navigation structure, (especially on your HOME page) to entice customers to delve deeply into your product’s detail pages. This means your product’s detail pages should be set up to both showcase your products attractively, and to position related or complementary products nearby as well. This allows you to easily up-sell your products. It’s important to make your potential sales pages both very easy to navigate, and information-rich, so they provide any information customers might want to know about your products, quickly.

Today, many E-commerce businesses often mistake “leads” for “sales” which leads to lost potential revenue. Your site should be designed to take your “potential leads” all the way to your product-detail-pages and keep them there. Smart marketing messages and promotions can entice your “potential leads” to purchase, and prominent “call-to-action” buttons (“buy now” buttons) can help you convert sales more quickly. Most importantly, make it as simple and painless as possible for potential customers to pay you online. Your end goal is, of course, to turn as many leads, into direct sales, and these details are all important to reach that goal.

To provide a better experience on your E-Commerce website and to increase revenue, you should learn as much as you can about your customers. From their demographics, to where they were just prior to landing on your site, to how they behave on your site. This information will provide insightful feedback to help you tailor your website layout, functions and products to your customers’ needs. Here are two tools you can use to gain insightful knowledge about your customers:

1) Google Analytics:  This is a powerful tool that not only allows you to measure your site’s traffic, it also lets you know where each of your visitors came from. This will help you to better market your business to customers based on their location, culture, or even language. Google Analytics is a free tool and provides many insightful reports.

2) CrazyEgg. This tool allows you to see how customers behave on your website. CrazyEgg’s “Heat-Map” reports show which page or section of a page customers visited and where they clicked on your site. It also shows which sites your visitors came from such as Facebook, Twitter, Google.com, Bing.com, Yahoo.com, etc. These reports can help inform your decisions on how to layout your webpages to best meet your customers’ needs. It also helps you decide which websites you may want to invest more in, based on who brings the most referral traffic to your site. CrazyEgg is a paid tool, but for only about $9 per month, it is well worth all the feedback you’ll get on how customers behave on your site.

To effectively market your business to customers online, and to successfully convert new leads to sales, these are critical steps to take while developing and establishing your E-commerce website. If you need professional assistance to get started or want to learn more about our E-commerce web design prices, contact our Minneapolis web design firm at: (612) 590-8080.

Why We Should Hire Professional Web Design Firm

You need to build up a new website for your business. Therefore, you have to looking for web designers or web design firm. Most of the time, web design cost is one of important factors that effect to your decision directly. You have great idea and have narrowed it down to some web design companies. Now what? Give web designers what you want to do. However, which web designer can handle your tasks effectively? Let me share with you why we should hire professional web design firm.

In my point of view, web designing is an art. Every form of art has its own target audience. Therefore, the artists are very creative; they blend their creativity and imagination beautifully to come up with unique artifacts that will surely catch the imagination of the audience; same goes with professional web designer they need to understand their client's needs and objective, using their experience innovative ideas and imagination they come out with a unique concept that does wonders to the client business, and that is eventually what the client is looking for.

When you are starting a business, you put very much effort and capital into achieves goal eventually that is profit. In this competitive business scenario, having a very strong online presence is must for the success of the business. People today don't have time to go visit shops, but they do have technology at their hand in the form of tablets, laptops, mobiles phones that help them to visit any online store at any time of the day to get things they want. The customers have certain expectations when it comes to online site. It should be quick to load, attractive, give all value information about the product/service. If they don't get all these at once place within a fraction of second, they will navigate to the related website. Designing a website requires lots of things to be taken care of, and this is the only web designer can do. Therefore, choosing a professional designing company is a better option than going for individual designers because in companies, there is a pool of designers and other professionals.

When you approach a professional web designing company first they will understand what exactly you want - you just have to give them complete information about your business it includes the nature of business, product, goals, target audience, age group. Based on the information the work is allotted to a specific project manager who has a team of web designers. They do extensive research & brainstorming to come up with a unique design.

A professional web designing company gladly would provide you all the necessary information and related documents to make sure you are left with no doubts. These companies hire certified web designer who are not only skilled and expert in web designing but also have innovative ideas that help them to come up with effective and unique ways to make a quick impact on the customer. The professional companies have project managers who constantly keep in contact with the client and update them about the status. Further they also find out if any addition that has to be done from the client’s point of view; this continuous process goes till the website is uploaded and live. Besides, professional companies have standard packages that will suit your business needs. They may list their web design price on the website, so you can do the price comparisons online. Depending on what you opt these packages encompasses of website designing services, email design services, or social networking page customization, the company might or might not offer such package. So you need to do a research regarding packages.

In conclusion, with the majority of consumers using the Internet for information they need, position your business online with a website is the most cost-effective promotion you will ever invest in. For affordable web design cost, you should look for web design companies that are willing to list their web design prices right on the websites. These companies often price fairly and it also allows you to compare prices among different web design companies without filling out a request form and have to wait for days (if not weeks) for a web design quote to come. Keep in mind that professional web design firm should be the best choice for your website.

Man shot dead in S. Minneapolis apartment; no arrest made

A man was found shot to death before dawn Monday in a south Minneapolis home, and police said they are looking for the killer.

The shooting occurred shortly before 4:30 a.m. in an apartment in the 2800 block of Cedar Avenue South, police said.

Emergency medical personnel called to the scene took the man to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died, said police Sgt. William Palmer. The man’s identity has yet to be released.

No arrests have been made. Police are asking that anyone with information in the case call investigators at 612-642-TIPS (6477).

 

Paul Walsh

Minnesota Quick News for Feb 18, 2013

Pickup-car crash south of Granite Falls kills one

A pickup truck crossed into the opposite lane on an icy western Minnesota highway Monday morning, colliding with a car and killing the motorist heading the other way, authorities said.

The crash occurred about 7:30 a.m. on Hwy. 23 just south of Granite Falls and killed a 35-year-old woman from Marshall, Minn., according to the State Patrol. The woman’s identity has yet to be released.

Jennifer A. Henslin, 50, of Granite Falls, was heading south on Hwy. 23, south of County Rd. 17, when her pickup slid sideways and collided with a car in the northbound lane, the patrol said. Henslin was slightly hurt.

There is no evidence that alcohol use played a role in the crash.

Three killed, plows withdrawn as blizzard grips western Minnesota

Three people were killed on Minnesota highways Monday and the state Transportation Department pulled some plows off the road as a blizzard roared across western Minnesota, blinding drivers and coating pavement with snow and ice.

Two people were killed in a four-vehicle accident at midday on Interstate 94 near Barnesville, between Fergus Falls and Moorhead, and one died in a head-on collision on Hwy. 23 south of Granite Falls just after 7:30 a.m.

Winds of up to 30 miles per hour, with gusts pushing 40, were actually drilling under a crust atop a deep snow pack and lifting that snow into the air, reducing visibility, National Weather Service meteorologist Tony Zaleski said. More snow was falling as well. The state Transportation Department started ordering plows off the highways about 4 p.m. in the Willmar area. By 6 p.m. plows had been withdrawn from roads in six west-central Minnesota counties. Willmar school officials also ordered buses on out-of-town routes to return to the school because of the poor conditions and asked parents to make arrangements to pick their kids up.

Plows were expected to be back on the job before Tuesday morning’s commute under clearing skies, although winds were expected to remain strong through the day.

According to the State Patrol, the wreck on I-94 was caused when a car tried to slip past a semitrailer truck in the left lane and a MnDOT plow on the shoulder, hitting both, stalling and then being struck by a pickup truck. Names of the dead, who were apparently in the car, were not available. The pickup driver suffered a minor injury; the plow and semi drivers were uninjured.

The westbound lanes were closed for several hours Monday afternoon.

In the accident near Granite Falls, 35-year-old Terrie McCoss of Marshall was killed when her northbound sedan was hit when Jennifer Heslin, 50, of Granite Falls, lost control of her SUV and crossed the center line.

The cold front that brought the high winds Monday sent temperatures plummeting across the state. In the Twin Cities, the temperature dropped from a high of 34 just before noon to 16 at 7 p.m., with a windchill reading of 2 degrees. Fergus Falls at that hour was experiencing an air temperature of 0 and windchill of minus-24.

The Weather Service warned of windchills of 20 below to 30 below for the metro area Tuesday night; a blizzard warning was to remain posted for west-central Minnesota until midnight.

The Twin Cities temperature was expected to drop to 2 below by Tuesday morning, rise to only 5 Tuesday, then fall to 8 below by Wednesday morning.

The snow and following cold are part of a long parade of storm systems from the Canadian Arctic in recent weeks. But a jet stream shift later this week is expected to bring a storm originating in the southern Rockies to the Twin Cities, one that could dump 6 to 7 inches of snow on the metro area from Thursday into Friday, Zaleski said.

Temperatures should rise into the upper 20s with that storm later in the week, but the replenished snow cover “should extend the winter,” Zaleski said.

For Minnesota web design, please contact our web design firm at 612.590.8080.

How Web Design Can Be Important for Your Business

Some people still do not realize that having a website for any kind  of business is immense significance looking the competitive nature of  the markets globally. People tend to spend more time online when it  comes to carrying out many different activities such as researching,  shopping, relaxing, or even booking of tickets. Just imagine you have a  business offering numerous services or products. What would you do to  get them promoted? In my point of view, the first thing you should love  to do is getting them promoted online which is very easy and cost  effective. Besides, it is the best way to expose your services to larger  community or audience to around the world. This is the reason web  design services have become part and parcel of all business today.

As you may see, the increasing importance of E-commerce website has  given a new industrial shape and direction to website designing services  as there are numerous companies with such designing services that are  scattered in all over the world.  Web design process is accompanied by  many other things that are forming of company logo, page setup, layout,  CSS, graphics and most importantly the contents uploaded. Content is  still the most important factors for all website. Content will ensure  potential clients or visitor want to go back and explore your services.  Besides, a website usually identifies the kind of company, services, or  product available and it turns into a business portal where the clients  from around the world can contact with company.

It clearly that build up a new website will be a good choice for  those who do not own any website. However, this way will cost you much.  Along with the new web designing, nowadays, people are also more  inclined into getting their websites re-designed. There are certain  reasons why most of the people used to get their websites re-designed.  Re-designing is much more cost effective as compared with fully new  designing. Besides, website re-design has nothing to do with losing of  regular clients who may always be little confused about the structure of  the designs. Re-design will also make your website look fresh and  interesting. Most of the people simply like to change their designing of  website from either PSD as well as XHTML to something difference. There  are some of benefits associated with such transformation of websites. Major such benefits include easy designing and getting them navigable as well as SEO friendly.

With the majority of consumers using the Internet for information  they need, position your business online with a website is the most  cost-effective promotion you will ever invest in. For affordable web design price,  you should look for web design companies that are willing to list their  web design prices right on the websites. These companies often price  fairly and it also allows you to compare prices among different web  design companies without filling out a request form and have to wait for  days (if not weeks) for a web design quote to come.

Important Steps to process Email-Marketing

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As you know, marketing via email is a tricky matter. Whether you sell products or services, email is a fast, efficient and inexpensive way to keep in contact with your clients and prospects, make sales, get traffic to your website and boost your profitability. However, deciding how to approach and manage the process of email marketing can still be a challenge for most of online marketers. Therefore, I would like to share quick review of the most important points to keep in mind while building up an email marketing campaign.

Firstly, we must have good plan for all tasks. A direct e-mail campaign, like any other promotional effort, should have a detailed plan and come from your business's overall marketing plan. You should ask yourself some questions and then answer them before setting up the plan.

- What is your service for? (What does it do and who is it for?)

- Who are your potential clients?

- What is your competitive position?

- What target do you want to achieve with this campaign?

Besides, keep in mind that an e-mail campaign affects things such as fulfillment, delivery, customer service, etc. You also must let your customer know what you tend to offer. Basically, any offer should have a peculiarity, something that makes it unique, interesting or promising.  As a rule the offer is a straight sale: you give your clients the product with its associated benefits, and they give you money. It is useful for a business to structure more compelling offers or offers that sound like an exceptional value. Perhaps you could offer a discount price for those who order during a certain predefined timeframe during a special campaign. Or maybe you can offer a free pre­mium, something like: buy one and get one free. Whatever the offer, you should emphasize that in your ad template.

Secondly, after you getting a good plan, you have to pick up mailing list. If you don't have your own mailing list (collected from your visitors) then you will have to use a mailing service. The list or lists you mail to will be determined mostly by your budget and marketing plans. Some list providers offer many e-mail lists with varying demographics or interest areas. Some providers own only one list, but they should be able to tell you what the characteristics or interests of their recipients are.

After you've selected your lists, created the mes­sage, and arranged all back-end processes, it's time to test. Now you have several lists that match your purposes. Each list may have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of email addresses. Test a future e-mail campaign on smaller samples, a few hundred per list would be alright. Then examine the response to see which lists have the best "pull." Code your tests to determine where responses are coming from. Also test various offers and creative approaches to find out what generates the highest response rate.  

Finally, you have to keep track the result. Tracking the results is a very important activity because you can adjust landing pages as well. Landing pages take an active part in the visitors to customers’ conversion process. Landing pages are critical to organic search engine marketing, press releases and just about all Internet marketing efforts. Online marketers can have numerous purposes and several calls to action here. You can get the most mileage out of e-mail marketing efforts by tracking everything you can and then improving those results. To achieve the best working process and greater success each campaign and marketing technique you use should be checked for results and improved.

All in all, email marketing is a fantastic way to keep constant contact with various prospects or past clients as a way of staying top of mind when it comes time for your subscribers to act. One of the biggest advantages in measuring online direct marketing response is that replies to transmitting a message to an e-mail list are almost instant. Be sure to track the campaign and measure response.

Justin Version: providing custom website design at reasonable prices and is always up-front about our affordable web design services. We list our web design price right on our website, so you can do price comparisons Online. Our Minnesota web design firm custom builds professional websites including Ecommerce, Blog, and Mobile Websites - that are easy to self-update and manage, with integrated content management systems (CMS) such as Drupal, Joomla, Magento, and WordPress. For web design quote service, please call 612.590.8080.