Tag Archives: inforum

Weather photos always welcomed

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The hail that fell around Detroit Lakes and the intense flooding in Duluth, Minn., the past few days reminds us to remind you to send us your weather photos.

The Duluth News Tribune highlighted several photos Wednesday shot by residents. Those photos were also posted on Twitter, Facebook and various other web and social media sites.

We also extend the invitation for videos, too.

While inforum.com and areavoices.com can handle smaller file sizes, the larger the photo you send, the better the quality. That also increases the chance we’ll consider it for the print edition of The Forum.

As usual, we’ll give credit where credit is due. So please include your name and phone number if you send in images, as well as a description of the photo. You know, the time, date, place sort of thing. Once in a while, we’ll need to contact the photographer for additional information.

And remember, if you’re out during severe weather, please stay safe.

Unless otherwise directed on our website, you can send images to web@forumcomm.com.

Inside the web numbers: Hagerty’s Olive Garden review

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The Internet is a weird creature.

For a few years, the engagement announcement of two people with the last names of Wang and DeCock was inforum.com’s most-read story ever.

Now the Grand Forks Herald, our sister paper to the north, has Marilyn Hagerty.

Her simple, down-to-earth tone of her Olive Garden restaurant review immediately went viral, being picked up by dozens of other websites, including our own. At noon Friday, the column remained at the most-read story for the day at grandforksherald.com and by the power of social media sites, the article was posted to Facebook more than 21,000 times and tweeted 14,300 times.

These numbers had me thinking, so I did a little research.

Wang-DeCock had 81,607 views on inforum.com. So far, Hagerty’s column has had 323,000 hits on grandforksherald.com.

  • An average top story on inforum.com is 10,000 views
  • An average top story on grandforksherald.com is 4,000 views

This means Hagerty’s article has generated a 7,975 percent increase, while our engagement story garnered a (relative just) 716 percent increase over a typical most-read story.

More perspective

The top day for inforum.com was March 27, 2009, when it collected 392,836 hits, which was when Fargo was hanging on by a thread to save itself from the raging Red River flood.

Shortly after 2 p.m. Friday, 349,000 people had read Marilyn’s single article worldwide.

With more stories on Hagerty popping up, including one by the Star Tribune this afternoon and another by The Associated Press’ Dave Kolpack, which is now on the AP’s national wire, her celebrity status will continue to rise.

That’s going viral for sure, and the storm isn’t over yet.

 

Have a comment or a gripe? Write

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You’ll soon see on several stories that appear on inforum.com a link to write a letter to the editor to comment on a story.

The link will take you to directly to your email client. This system will operate the same way our current letters to the editor policy works. We want to give our readers easier access to comment on stories.

Per the norm, letters to the editor should include author’s name, address and phone number. Generally, letters should be no longer than 250 words. All letters are subject to editing and publication value.

While not all stories will carry the direct link, you are certainly welcome to comment on any story or circumstance.

To write a letter to the editor, you can use this link: Send a letter to the editor.

For questions about our policies, call our Opinion Page Editor Jack Zaleski at (701) 241-5521 or email Forum Online Editor Rob Beer at rbeer@forumcomm.com.

On this date …

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Here’s some of the top headlines on inforum.com on this date:

Firefighters responded to a 5-alarm fire at the Galleria On 42nd. Carrie Snyder / The Forum

ONE YEAR AGO: A massive blaze destroyed the Galleria on 42nd apartment building in Fargo, displacing 150 residents of the complex.

TWO YEARS AGO: Light snow created slippery driving conditions on bridges and overpasses in the Fargo-Moorhead area, catching motorists by surprise and leading to several accidents.
Eight accidents – three of them rollovers – were reported between 6 and 7:10 a.m. on interstates 29 and 94 in Fargo and West Fargo.

THREE YEARS AGO: Opening-day ticket sales for a Jan. 17 Fargodome concert by rock music giants AC/DC were “very brisk” Saturday, according to the dome’s general manager. Tickets, which are $69.50 or $89.50, went on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday.

FOUR YEARS AGO: Three people were arrested today when authorities seized a methamphetamine laboratory in south Fargo.
The Cass County Narcotics Task Force and the Fargo Police Department’s narcotics investigators served the warrant this morning at a residence in the 2200 block of Third Avenue South, according to a news release.

FIVE YEARS AGO: Fargo’s airport is giving its viewing park double duty as a cell phone park – a free place for drivers to wait for arriving passengers.
Hector International Airport is promoting the park as a way for motorists to pick up passengers without clogging the lanes in front of the passenger terminal.

Video views through the roof during cornfield manhunt

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The Forum strives to be very transparent when it comes to sharing our page views. Each Friday, our multimedia producer Ryan Babb collects and distributes a blog for public consumption showing our most- and least-read stories, as well as inforum.com’s and areavoices.com’s weekly numbers.

On Wednesday, more than 53,000 pageviews resulted from the developing story on the manhunt for Joseph Megna in a rural Tower City, N.D., cornfield. That number that was bolstered by our story-sharing ability with the Jamestown Sun and the Grand Forks Herald websites later in the day.

Our reporters and photographers are becoming increasingly better equipped to file photographs and video on location. It was on display Wednesday when photo chief Michael Vosburg and reporter Mike Nowatzki returned several video files and still photos that we began to post immediately.

Our raw video of the search, and later when Megna spoke from the back of a law enforcement SUV after his capture, collected more than 23,500 views, totaling more than 25,300 minutes. That’s 18 days worth of viewing.

 

 

What’s coming up on inforum

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We’re beginning our full transition to a new video player on our company sites. One of the major changes for the readers is that related video will appear on the top of an article in a wider format.

It’ll also be much easier to browse past videos and share content on social media platforms as well as email.

Speaking of video, we’ll be running 9/11 memorial video on Sunday on our site, beginning at 7:40 a.m. It’ll supply a loop of videos you can play when the live feed from the 9/11 memorial service is not being streamed.

Here’s the 9/11 schedule for Sunday:

7:40 AM         Program begins

Introduction of citywide moment of silence

7:46 AM         Moment of silence (observance of time first plane struck North Tower)

(Houses of worship will toll their bells throughout the City)

Introduction of the reading of the names

Family of victims of 2001 and 1993 attacks will begin reading the names in pairs

8:03 AM         Moment of silence (observance of time second plane struck South Tower)

Reading of names continues/music resumes

8:37 AM         Moment of silence (observance of time Flight 77 struck the Pentagon)

Reading of names continues/music resumes

8:59 AM         Moment of silence (observance of time of fall of the South Tower)

Reading of names continues/music resumes

9:03 AM       Moment of silence (observance of time Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania)

Reading of names continues/music resumes

9:28 AM       Moment of silence (observance of time of fall of the North Tower)

Reading of names continues/music resumes

Reading of names concludes

Taps performed by three trumpeters (NYPD, FDNY and PAPD)

Noon          Program concludes

 

A note to inforum readers about the email verification process

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Inforum readers will see a one-time email verification message this week when clicking on an article.

Users will be prompted to verify their account information on the screen before receiving an email confirmation message.

The account verification screen will look like this:

The process, happening across all Forum Communications Co. news websites, is necessary to keep our user database up to date.

For more information, click here for the FAQ.

Inforum support page: http://forumcomm.assistly.com/

On this date … and other notes

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Highlights on this date from the inforum.com archive:

Five years ago

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – The lawyer defending former Fargo resident Joseph Duncan III, accused of killing three people, has asked for details about Idaho’s method of execution in what could be a first step in challenging its constitutionality.

Public defender John Adams earlier this week requested the state’s protocol on the method of execution from prosecutors. He wants to know what drugs the state would use during lethal injection and how they would be administered.

Four years ago

Donny Schatz says he isn’t focused solely on big-money races. But after winning a $150,000 race Saturday, the earnings are piling up.

The Fargo driver won the Knoxville Nationals in Knoxville, Iowa,  this weekend for the second straight year, collecting the most lucrative purse in sprint car racing.

“Last year it was kind of like we finally got over the hump after finishing second four times,” said Schatz, who won the World of Outlaws sprint car championship last season. “(Saturday), it was like, ‘Wow, we just won the Knoxville Nationals.’  ”

Three years ago

WAHPETON, N.D. – Residents were drying out here after more than 6 inches of rain fell on parts of the city Monday, flooding streets and infiltrating some basements.

“I know there’s some people with just some minor water in their basements, just a few of them, not a lot,” said Brett Lambrecht, Richland County emergency manager.

The National Weather Service in Grand Forks received an unofficial report of 6.7 inches of rain Monday at the North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton, meteorologist Vince Godon said.

Lambrecht said he emptied 7.25 inches from his rain gauge Monday in Wahpeton, and about 4.75 inches of that came between 6 and 9 p.m.
“It was coming down like cats and dogs,” he said.

Two years ago

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – A Grand Forks mother who pleaded guilty in a case of breast-feeding while drunk has been arrested on a warrant stemming from her previous arrest just hours after her sentencing on a child neglect charge.

County deputies arrested 26-year-old Stacey Anvarinia on Tuesday on a warrant that resulted from her run-in with city police Friday night, the same day she received a suspended sentence for breast-feeding her 6-week-old baby while drunk.

One year ago

Prosecutors have filed a murder charge against the man accused of shooting Mahnomen County Sheriff’s Deputy Chris Dewey.

Thomas Fairbanks now faces second-degree murder instead of attempted murder for the February 2009 shooting in Mahnomen, Minn., when Dewey was responding to a drunken driver call.

Other notes:

  • Inforum.com is beginning to use a new video player. The system will be better equipped to handle advertising during our videos and be more accessible on various media devices. Plus, it’s simply faster and more reliable. It can also handle live streaming, something we used during the Fargo Marathon.
  • We’re also increasing our content for the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks. You can find several articles and photos here.
  • Our Areavoices team met with several high school groups this week urging them to utilize our sports ticker and our blog sites. If you are with a school organization and would like to find our more information, email Shane Mercer, our community content coordinator.

On this date …

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Headlines from inforum.com on this date:

2006: A blood stain the size of a dot from a ball point pen came under fire by the defense for Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. during a special hearing. A judge’s ruling on the evidence, considered critical by prosecutors and the defense, could prove to be a turning point in a trial still mired down with jury selection. Rodriguez is the accused kidnapper and murderer of Dru Sjodin.

2007: MINOT, N.D. – Members of the North Dakota congressional delegation say a new law should help victims of the 2002 train derailment that killed one man and injured hundreds here.
A homeland security bill with provisions related to rail safety passed the U.S. Senate late Thursday night and the U.S. House on Friday. The bill says that the Federal Railroad Safety Act doesn’t prevent people from collecting in personal-injury lawsuits brought against railroads.
Sen. Kent Conrad and Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., said President Bush is expected to sign the bill.

Moorhead firefighters were on scene to help clean up debris on the 8th Street bridge over I-94 after a hydraulic lift from a Ken's Sanitation and Recycling truck crashed into it, Friday, July 25, 2008. Carrie Snyder / The Forum

2008: The driver of a truck that struck the Eighth Street South bridge over Interstate 94 on July 25 in Moorhead faces pending citations for careless driving and not having the proper driver’s license, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.

2009: Luis Gonzalez has won a World Series and now the former major leaguer gets a chance to call one in Fargo.
Gonzalez, who helped the Arizona Diamondbacks win a World Series crown in 2001, will offer color commentary for some of the Web casts at the American Legion World Series, which starts Aug. 14 at Newman Outdoor Field.
Former major leaguer Jeff Kent will also help in the coverage. Kent is slated to work the tournament on Aug. 15-16, while Gonzalez will cover Aug. 17-18.

2010: A reportedly stolen car crashed into a gas pump and started on fire early today in south Fargo, forcing authorities to close a major thoroughfare as firefighters battled the blaze.
An officer noticed the car traveling at a high rate of speed on 13th Avenue South at about 1:55 a.m. and tried to make a traffic stop, but the car fled south, according to Fargo Police  Sgt. Joe Anderson.
The driver tried to turn left onto 20th Avenue South but was going too fast and crashed into the gas pumps at the Stop-N-Go at 2002 25th St. S.
The vehicle and some gas that spilled onto the ground started on fire, WDAY-TV reported. The car was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived, and 25th Street was blocked off because of the danger.

On this date

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Occasionally, I plan to browse the inforum’s archives and highlight some of the stories that appeared on this date in recent years.

Here’s parts of stories that appeared on inforum July 15:

Five years ago

HASTINGS, Minn. — A man convicted of sabotaging telephone cables in Fargo, a decade ago is back in jail, charged with stealing more than $10,000 in trailer parts.
Before leaving prison last year, Wade Duane Arvidson, 42, also known as Michael Damron, threatened to commit one “evil act” a month against the public. Arvidson’s most infamous crime was Jan. 21, 1995, when he cut 19 thick underground phone cables so he could disable a Fargo electronics store’s alarm system and rob it of $80,000 in equipment.
His actions left 20,000 people in North Dakota and northern Minnesota without phone service, and caused an estimated $1 million in damage.

Four years ago

BISMARCK – North Dakota gasoline prices are reported among the highest in the country, and retailers say they have no idea how long the surge will last.
“We don’t have an answer,” said Perry Palm, an operator at the Magellan Pipeline Terminal in West Fargo, which is facing its second shortage of supplies in a month. “At this point, I can’t really tell anything.”
Three refineries in the region are either shut down or running at limited capacity due to bad weather.
On Friday, North Dakota gasoline prices were ranked the sixth highest among the states at an average of $3.266 a gallon for regular unleaded, AAA’s Fuel Guage Report said. Michigan was the highest at $3.345 per gallon.

Three years ago

NEW YORK – Josh Hamilton dreamed it. Now he’s done it.
With a dazzling display of power Monday night, the Texas Rangers slugger hit a record 28 homers in the first round of the All-Star Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium before he was beaten out by Minnesota’s Justin Morneau in the finals.
Morneau topped a tired Hamilton 5-3 in the last round, giving him the derby title.

Two years ago

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – A 23-year-old Grand Forks resident finished 26th in the World Series of Poker’s main event Wednesday in Las Vegas.
Jesse Haabak, who grew up in McVille, N.D., and graduated from Dakota Prairie High School, earned $352,832 for his placing in the field of 6,494 players.
He was among the 27 players who started the day, filling three tables. But he lasted less than an hour, largely because he had one of the smaller chip stacks.

One year ago

Severe thunderstorms early Wednesday pounded the Red River Valley, causing power outages but no reported injuries and little property damage.
Storms sweeping the region brought heavy rain, strong winds and hail, but there was no tornado damage, despite reports of some funnel clouds, the National Weather Service said.
Meteorologist Geoff Grochocinski with the NWS in Grand Forks said damage caused by the storm came from straight-line winds.
At least 7,500 homes in the area lost electricity in the wake of the potent storms, according to power companies in the region.
About 4,100 Xcel customers in Fargo along the Red River between Main Avenue and Interstate 94 lost power from 4:40 to 6:50 a.m., and 1,070 lost power in north West Fargo at 4:50 a.m. before it was restored by 8:20 a.m., Xcel spokeswoman Bonnie Lund said.