Bad mommies from Willmar and MOA moving seats

If you love something, set it free

If you love something, set it free

Willmar police say a drunk mom took such a sharp turn in a cul-de-sac at a trailer park that the back car door swung open and her four-month-old child, whose seat wasn't strapped in, fell out into the street. To top off the classy move, the mom sped off, leaving the crying infant in the street.

Tuck and roll, baby.

Elaine Velasquez, 22, was arrested last week and charged with a long list of crimes: drunken driving, child endangerment, reckless driving, and driving with a suspended license. A breathalyzer test showed that she had a blood alcohol content of 0.125 percent.

Luckily, the baby survived with minimal injury. The infant had a forehead scrape and was kept in the hospital overnight for observation.

When police found mommy dearest, she apologized and asked if her baby was okay. How sweet of her.

Chaska Crips

Think gangs won't invade your perfect outer-ring suburb because they're too busy causing problems in the scary urban hellholes of the state? Wrong. Your ideal shelter from that out-of-control mayhem in the cities will soon come crumbling apart, too.

Gangbangers are said to be representing in the unlikely hoods of Chaska, Eden Prairie, Shakopee, and Northfield. Last year, police in Scott, Dakota, Carver, Washington, Anoka, and Rice counties dealt with gang members at least 4,200 times. Hennepin and Ramsey counties had at least 12,700 contacts.

It's a pretty simple concept: Minneapolis and St. Paul don't want them, and gangs find an easier breeding ground in suburbs that least expect their presence. Lock your doors, put that cap on straight, and don't wear your hilariously ironic Fubu getup out in public. It's time to live in fear again.

Observe and report

In 2003, Michael Sveum was suspected of stalking a woman in Madison, Wisconsin. Police got a warrant and put a GPS tracking device on Sveum's car while it was sitting in his driveway. Police recorded his car's movements for five weeks. The data suggested he was indeed stalking the woman, so police got another warrant to search his car and home, where they found incriminating evidence to arrest him. He was eventually convicted of stalking.

Sveum claimed the GPS tracking was a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

Not true, says the Madison-based District 4 Court of Appeals. They ruled that police can attach GPS devices to cars to track movement as long as it's done in public.

If police use GPS to track people in ways they already could legally, such as following them along public streets, then this new method is also legal, the judges said.

Does this ruling take away one's right to privacy? What if you were being tracked just because your spouse also used the vehicle and was a suspect in a crime?

Goldie Lite

If you want to drink booze at the new University of Minnesota football stadium on campus, you'll have to be privileged, says University President Robert Bruininks.

There is a bill in the Minnesota House that would allow the sale of alcohol anywhere in the 50,000-seat stadium, but Bruininks is sticking to his position of only serving in the premium seats and private suites of the stadium when it opens in September.

"I will not bring a recommendation to the board to serve alcohol in the bowl of the stadium," he said. "It's a part of the stadium that will include 20 percent, that is, 20 percent of the fans will be students of the University of Minnesota. So that is not a recommendation you can expect to hear from me."

Just another reason to invest in a beer bong for your crappy Dinkytown apartment, right?

Moving pictures

Hold on to your popcorn and make sure you've downed that soda before the action scene in the next upcoming flick. The Theatres at Mall of America just announced they will be adding motion-activated seats. It sounds pretty puke-worthy, but definitely worth a try.

The MOA theater will be the first in the state and third in the nation to install the D-BOX technology. There will be 30 seats that move along with the high-intensity scenes to make movies more interactive.

MOA spokeswoman Bridget Jewell said the seats will debut May 21. The movie will be announced next week. There will be one theater featuring 30 moving seats, which will cost $7 in addition to the movie ticket price.