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Today in Minneapolis news - Vitamin E - 10-18-2006
The douche who killed Malik Sealy has got himself a new DWI. UNWAR the People's Rebuplic of Minnesota for protecting the rights of drunk drivers.
A MetroTransit Bus has right to not operate busses that disagree with his personal beliefs. UNWAR the People's Republic of Minnesota for protecting the rights of biggots.
Fucking leftwingers.
Today in Minneapolis news - Vitamin E - 10-18-2006
Driver in Sealy's death faces new DWI
He served 4 years for drunken crash that killed Wolves player
BY TAD VEZNER
Pioneer Press
Two years after finishing a four-year prison term for killing Minnesota Timberwolves guard Malik Sealy while driving drunk in 2000, the perpetrator was back in the same court this week on another drunken driving charge.
Souksangou-ane Phengsene, 50, was charged with two counts of felony DWI in Hennepin County District Court on Tuesday.
Phengsene was pulled over early Sunday morning by police in Crystal. His blood-alcohol content, taken by a Breathalyzer at the scene, registered 0.21 percent, according to officials with the Hennepin County attorney's office. The legal limit for drivers in Minnesota is 0.08 percent.
In 2000, Phengsene was traveling the wrong way on Minnesota 100 in St. Louis Park when his vehicle slammed head-on into Sealy's vehicle. He pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular homicide and was sentenced in October of that year to four years in prison.
His defense attorney had argued for a lighter sentence, citing studies that show prison time has less effect on curbing drunken driving than other types of crimes. But Sealy's family argued strongly for a stiff sentence.
"I feel he should be responsible for his actions and accept his punishment. Only then will I accept that he's remorseful," Sealy's widow, Lisa Sealy, told Hennepin County District Judge Andrew Danielson at the time. She then turned to Phengsene: "No matter what happens today, God is going to give you his punishment."
Phengsene also was convicted of drunken driving in 1997 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Tuesday's charge was a felony, rather than a misdemeanor, because of Phengsene's prior convictions, officials with the Hennepin County attorney's office said.
If Phengsene is convicted, state guidelines suggest he receive another four-year sentence because of his prior felony conviction, officials with the Hennepin County attorney's office said. The maximum possible sentence is seven years in prison.
Phengsene was held Tuesday evening in Hennepin County Jail in lieu of a $35,000 bond. He is scheduled to return to court today.
Today in Minneapolis news - BIRD33 - 10-18-2006
I forgot sealy was dead.
Today in Minneapolis news - Vitamin E - 10-18-2006
Bus driver gets OK to avoid gay-themed ads
The Metro Transit dispute raises questions about the point at which accommodating one group's beliefs infringes on the rights of others.
H.J. Cummins, Star Tribune
Last update: October 18, 2006 – 12:08 AM
![[Image: 1bus1018.standalone.jpg]](http://www.startribune.com/media/2006/10/17/22/1bus1018.standalone.jpg)
A city bus driver who complained about a gay-themed ad got official permission not to drive any bus that carries that ad, according to an internal memo confirmed Tuesday by Metro Transit.
Transit authorities call it a reasonable accommodation to the driver's religious beliefs.
Amalgamated Transit Unit Local 1005 officials at the bus company say it condones intolerance; besides, drivers never have been excused from other buses carrying ads they found objectionable -- from political candidates to pink bras.
Requests for religion-based considerations are increasingly in the news, as workplace observers say more Americans bring their faiths to their jobs. A bank in Otsego declares itself to be a Christian bank, for example. Some pharmacists want the right to refuse to fill contraceptive prescriptions.
Also, many Muslim taxi drivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport refuse to accept passengers who are carrying alcohol.
The ad at the center of the Metro Transit flap is for Lavender, a local magazine for a GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered) audience. It runs periodically on 50 city buses and carries a photo of a young man with the slogan, "Unleash Your Inner Gay."
The memo to dispatchers at the Nicollet garage in Minneapolis was dated Oct. 12. It listed 25 buses at that garage that carry the Lavender ad, and said not to give them "under any circumstances" to the complaining driver, identified only by employee number.
"Our diversity office determined that we could make a simple, reasonable accommodation on religious ground by not assigning her [the driver] to one of the 25 buses -- out of 150 -- at the Nicollet garage," Metro Transit spokesman Bob Gibbons said.
"The decision has nothing to do with the content of the advertisement," he said. "It has everything to do with the employee's religious beliefs."
Lavender CEO Stephen Rocheford was poised "to examine all our options" if Metro Transit did try to pull the ad, he said.
Rocheford also believed the fuss is unfair because he chose an innocuous image.
"To us it's just a branding campaign," he said. "I wasn't trying to stick anything in people's faces."
Gibbons has no slippery-slope worries. Future requests will follow the same civil-rights law applied in this case, which says employers must accommodate an employee's religious beliefs unless it brings "undue business hardship," he said.
But Michelle Sommers, Local 1005 president, isn't so sure.
"Our union tries to represent all diversity -- whether it be religion, cultural, race, sexual orientation, any of that," she said. "And if you start saying this or that ad is inappropriate, you're offending other people, and that can create a difficult environment for people to work in.
"We have Muslim employees," she said. "Now if there's an ad for alcohol on the side of a bus, should Muslim employees be allowed to not drive that bus? And is the next step that mechanics don't have to work on the bus?"
The controversy echoes a still-unresolved issue at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, where many Muslim taxi drivers are refusing to drive passengers who are carrying alcohol.
Driving a bus doesn't mean you endorse the ads that cover it, Sommers said.
"The company sells ads to make money, and we need that," she said. "But the union does not agree with the decision to allow drivers to pick which bus they drive based on an advertisement."
Today in Minneapolis news - Vitamin E - 10-18-2006
BIRD33 Wrote:I forgot sealy was dead.
I forgot we still had an NBA team.
Today in Minneapolis news - Dr. Lecter - 10-18-2006
The problem is not with the driver, it's with the alcohol. It also causes tax evasion and gay IM's with underage boys by govt officials.
Seriously, I believe the allegation that a prison sentence does nothing to rehabilitate drunken drivers. It's a sickness that the only cure for is COMPLETE abstinence.
Today in Minneapolis news - snarg - 10-18-2006
Dr. Lecter Wrote:The problem is not with the driver, it's with the alcohol. It also causes tax evasion and gay IM's with underage boys by govt officials.
Seriously, I believe the allegation that a prison sentence does nothing to rehabilitate drunken drivers. It's a sickness that the only cure for is COMPLETE abstinence.
please listen to the voice of experience
thanks
Today in Minneapolis news - cLaY - 10-19-2006
Malik Sealy is dead?
Today in Minneapolis news - snarg - 10-19-2006
is that bird's real name??