Candace Boerema tweets lesson plans and writing prompts.

​Candace Boerema is using Twitter to teach her English classes about symbolism and personal narratives.

The ten-year veteran teacher at Litchfield High School started using Twitter to extend her lessons this September. Boerema uses her account, @MrsB_N103, to remind students of homework assignments before class and post prompts that will keep their minds sharp after.

"Who are you in Elizabethan England? Do you know Shakespeare?" reads one tweet. "Too much talkie talkie today, I think. More of that tomorrow and your preface may stink?" reads another.

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Frontier Communications allegedly collected taxes it shouldn't have.

​A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that Frontier Communications illegally collected sales tax on Internet bills.

The suit also alleges that Frontier "improperly applied" a number of fees to its customers, including a "911 fee" and "universal service fees."

The lawsuit, filed by Nichols Kaster on behalf of three Minnesota customers and a New Yorker, claims that Frontier Communications violated the Internet Tax Freedom Act as well as the Federal Communications Act by including Internet charges on its sales tax charges.

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Bob Kaner is not dead.

​Robert L. Kaner and Robert M. Kaner had a lot in common. Both men were Minnesota lawyers in their 60s, and both studied at the University of Minnesota Law School. They were bachelors, and they went to synagogues with the same name.

There's only one rather large difference between the two men. Robert L. Kaner, a Minneapolis lawyer, died recently, and Robert M. Kaner -- a distant relative of his deceased namesake -- is alive, well, and still trying to practice law.

Robert M. Kaner, or "Bob," of Duluth, woke up to a phone call at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday. A friend had read an obituary in the Duluth News Tribune, and was calling to find out if Kaner was really dead. He's not, and he took out an ad in the Tribune to prove it.

"I'm getting these calls all day long asking me if I'm dead," Kaner told City Pages. "It occurs to me that if the word gets out on the street that I'm dead, then my law office is dead.

"'Cuz who's going to hire a dead guy?"
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Not your average executive canine companion.

​This whole Seal Team 6 dog crush has jumped the shark.

Did you know there's a company that sells "executive protection dogs" that can cost more than what most folks pay for a home in the Twin Cities? The New York Times just profiled a guy named John Johnson on his "15-acre estate outside Minneapolis," who bought one.

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John C. Calhoun. Can we find a better name for his namesake lake?

​Lake Calhoun is named after John C. Calhoun, once a U.S. senator, vice president of the United States, secretary of war under President James Monroe, and the force behind the construction of Fort Snelling. That's why the lake bears his name.

Calhoun was also a racist, a man who believed that slavery was "a positive good," and now there's a movement to persuade the Park Board to find a better name for the lake.

We have a few ideas. Check them out below, then vote for your favorite or make write-in nominations in the comments.

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mtungate/flickr

What's wrong with a little fun on the golf course?

​Just to prove that no good deed goes unpunished, Coon Rapids High School senior Andrew Vold scored a hole in one on the course at Majestic Oaks in Ham Lake during a fundraising event, took home a $5,000 prize--and lost his place on his golf team.

Instead of just blowing off the hole-in-one prize as the moral equivalent of winning the lottery, the Minnesota State High School League put its foot down. And not because he pocketed the cash.

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sabianmaggy

The study involved 71 reported cases of abuse.

​There's no delicate way to get around a new report from the Minnesota Department of Health. Babies in Minnesota who are shaken or beaten to death or near death are most often the victims of men.

And the Minnesota Child Mortality Review Report, covering the years 2005-2009, makes it pretty clear who these men are.

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ishane

Most of our apartments completely suck, according to a new study.

​Minnesotans who can't afford their rent outnumber those who can, according to a new study released today, landing us dead last in a ranking of affordable housing markets in the Midwest.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition released numbers today showing that Minnesotans need to be making, on average, $15.79 an hour in order to afford a decent two-bedroom apartment. Most of us are not.

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A little bit of shaking going on.

​Granted, the 2.5 magnitude earthquake that rattled Alexandria in the middle of last night might not have raised an eyebrow along the San Andreas Fault, or next to the Fukushima nuclear power plant, but here up north the temblor rates as a bona fide geologic event.

The United States Geologic Survey reported that the quake was centered about 39 miles southeast of Fergus Falls and 55 miles north of Willmar.

It did not tear the Earth asunder.

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Will Staehle

​Spiros Zorbalas, South Minneapolis's most notorious landlord and the subject of a City Pages expose three years ago, is facing the possible loss of the rental license for three properties today.

Despite documentation that his properties are rat- and roach-infested, filled with lead paint, and lacking adequate heat, Zorbalas has continued to rent out his properties for years. But if his licenses are revoked, he could be banned from being a landlord in Minneapolis.

"Ultimately, if these three get revoked then there's a process to not have him be able to hold license for a period of five years," says Matt Lindstrom, City spokesman.

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