Luxe Jewelry blog

This is going to be a good Valentine’s Day at our place.

Normally, I don’t get too worked up over the day. Oh, we always exchange cards and some small candies or gifts. When you’ve spent the formative years of your life tearing perforated valentines from a little book and stuffing them in boxes for your fellow second-graders, it’s a hard habit to break.

But this one will be different.

We have nothing special planned for Saturday. We’ll get up when we feel like it. I’ll make some coffee, tiffany although I don’t drink it myself. And we’ll have breakfast. Our daughter and future son-in-law will be around, and that will be good, too.

Sometime during the day, we’ll probably take the dog on a long walk and have a good talk as we listen to the nuthatches and the ravens.

The simplest things. We might listen to “A Prairie Home Companion” come evening, and we’ll enjoy a meal that’s been dropped off for us by friends.

The reason this will be so good is that a few days ago, we weren’t so silver pendants sure Valentine’s Day would be so routine. My valentine suffered a “small to medium” stroke — even now the words seem crazy — last weekend. Her prognosis is excellent. I brought her home from the hospital on Thursday.

What you find, at times such as these, is that the depth and breadth of your friendships is truly remarkable. Lasagna on the doorstep. Heartfelt phone messages that lump up your throat and make your vision forecast partly cloudy. And people who show up to deliver hugs and to help you pass the hours of waiting and wondering.

Despite what any given 401(k) might declare at the moment, we are rich — all of us.

A grown daughter calls home and says, “Do you want me to come home?” And strong dad says, “Ah, silver money clips I don’t think you need to come. We’re doing OK here.” Ten minutes later the phone rings, and she says, “I’m coming.” Her mere presence softens all the edges and bolsters your courage.

So, this is how we move on. We summon whatever we must from inside and we accept, as graciously as we can, what comes wrapping around us from the outside. We are humbled. We are scared. We will be OK.

Faith, hope and love, the book says. And the greatest of these is — well, I think we’ve known that all along.

Here’s hoping you have a great Valentine’s Day.

SAM COOK is a Duluth News Tribune columnist and outdoors writer. Reach him at (218) 723-5332 or scook@ duluthnews.com.

The compassion of a Decatur family is leading the Decatur Police Department to tiffany implement a program that uses electronic tracking bracelets to give families more peace of mind in keeping tabs on family members with Alzheimer’s disease, Down syndrome, autism or other forms of dementia.

The 15 Care Trak bracelets available locally were purchased with money from a fund that sisters Jill Lorentz of Denver, Colo., and Sue Kinney of Decatur set up in the name of their mother, Delores P. Fleming, through the Community Foundation of Decatur and Macon County, said Deputy Police Chief Ed Smith.

During a telephone interview Tuesday, Lorentz said the Care Trak system is used throughout Colorado.

“I realized Decatur and Macon County had no way to find a person with memory loss who wanders off,” Lorentz said. She and her sister discussed the possibility of implementing the program with the Decatur Police Department and Macon County Sheriff’s Office in 2006.

“They agreed to implement it if we would raise the money,” Lorentz said. “We solicited silver cufflinks corporations and the general public, and we’re finally ready to go. Our goal was to make it free. We didn’t want it to be another financial burden on families.”

While she and her sister, Sue, have been the primary movers for the program locally, two other sisters and a brother also are supportive of the effort, Lorentz said.

The Care Trak system uses a wristwatch-size radio transmitter attached to the wrist or ankle to emit a steady signal that can be read with monitoring equipment for up to one mile on the ground or five miles in the air.

If a person is missing, police use a mobile receiver to tune in to the person’s unique radio signal. A hand-held directional antenna is used to determine the direction of the strongest radio signal so searchers can move in that direction until the missing person is located.

Each unit costs about $250 and must have its batteries replaced once a month, Smith said. Finding a silver money clips local group to take on the task of making the battery switches remains on his list of things that need to get done to make the program viable, he said.

“We hope to have this in place before the end of the year,” Smith said. “I’ve got a list of five to seven families who have expressed an interest in participating. I’ll be calling them this week to tell them they can apply.”

Applications for the program are available in the lobby of the Law Enforcement Center, 333 S. Franklin St., and must be returned to the police department by Dec. 8.

If the department receives more requests than there are bracelets available, a lottery will be used to determine which applicants receive them, Smith said. Once recipients have been determined, a meeting will be scheduled with the families involved and the bracelets will be issued at that time, he said.

Lorentz said the irony is that her mother is in a Piatt County nursing home and not eligible to apply for a silver pendants bracelet.

“We’d like to have local mental health agencies take on this project long term,” Lorentz said. “We’re working on that.”

ringram@herald-review.com|421-7973

A Garden City High School class ring that was lost more than 30 years ago is now in the hands of the tiffany ring owner’s son, who lives in Garden City.

The ring will return to Don Birkholz, who lives in Iowa, when he sees his son, Tyson Birkholz, around Christmas.

In 1971, Don graduated from GCHS. He gave the ring to an acquaintance in a neighboring town, who then lost the ring, Tyson said.

When a woman contacted USD 457, saying she had found a GCHS class silver money clips ring and wanted to return it to its owner, employees at the school district began to search for the ring’s owner.

The search took a matter of hours, said Janet Reed, GCHS associate principal.

Reed’s sister graduated in 1971, so Reed looked at the yearbook and at the graduation program from that year and determined there were two names that matched the initials on the ring — DGB.

Reed called a few businesses in Garden City and asked if they employed a person named Birkholz. Those businesses said they did not, but suggested a call to a few other businesses. About three hours after the first phone call, Reed contacted Tyson, who said Don was his dad.

While on the phone with Reed, Tyson called his dad on another phone and asked him to describe the ring.

“He described it perfectly,” Reed said.

The ring is white gold with a blueish gray stone.

Tyson said his dad didn’t want the ring mailed to Iowa because he didn’t silver pendants want the ring to get lost again. Tyson said his dad did not want to be interviewed because of his hectic schedule, but said Don was happy and surprised to learn that his ring had been found.

Reed said the fact that the woman gave the ring back is a testament to the people who live in southwest Kansas and that it might not have happened in another part of the country.

The woman who found the ring, Barbara Straight, lives in Dodge City and said she doesn’t remember exactly when she found the ring. She said it was probably in the early 1980s when her kids were playing in a paved alley behind their house.

She tried to locate the ring’s owner then but was not successful. She put the ring in her jewelry box and forgot about it, she said.

Now a retired teacher, Straight said she thought technology might be able to aid in finding the ring’s owner. She contacted Roy Cessna, USD 457 coordinator of public information. He put Straight in touch with Reed.

Reed received the class ring from Straight in the mail on Aug. 19. The next day, she got in contact with Tyson, who said he was out of town and couldn’t pick up the ring until the next day.

On Aug. 21, Tyson picked up the ring from James Mireles, principal of GCHS, in the morning before school started.

Straight said she talked to Don on the phone and the two tried to determine how the silver earrings ring got into the alley behind her house in Dodge City. They never figured it out, Straight said, but she was happy she got a chance to speak with Don.

“I’m just tickled he got it back,” Straight said.

On the Web:

What does your class ring mean to you? Talk about it at SWKTalk.com.

Federal police have briefed United States authorities after identifying a Californian connection in Tiffany and co an alleged cocaine importation racket using Sydney airport.

Six Sydney men have been charged in connection with the drug syndicate, five of whom have been refused bail on charges including importing a marketable quantity of cocaine.

An Australian Federal Police (AFP) source alleged “a de facto couple” in California had links to the importation scheme and that the relevant US authorities had been informed of their suspected involvement.

It is unknown if the pair has been questioned by authorities.

Police documents detailing the allegations against the Australian men show money transfers out of Sydney totalling more than $320,000, made between July and November 2007, to model and actress Brandi Brandt and her de facto husband Rusty Setser, The Daily Telegraph has reported.

Brandt, 40, was once married to Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx and has appeared silver cufflinks on the cover of Playboy magazine.

She is believed to have travelled to Sydney in December 2007 on a United Airlines flight.

A customs team searched the aircraft on its arrival in Sydney from Los Angeles on December 2, 2007, and allegedly found 12 blocks of shrink-wrapped cocaine, weighing about 5.7kg, located in a garbage bin inside one of the rear toilets.

The discovery followed correspondence between Sydney-based Wayne Dennis John Cleveland and Setser in October 2007.

Police are alleging Cleveland is the Australian head of the drug syndicate.

“Cleveland is closely associated with the Bra Boys, a well-known surf-crime group based silver money clips in the eastern suburbs of Sydney,” police facts said.

The 38-year-old was refused bail in connection with the matter after facing Sydney’s Central Local Court.

Four others – Matthew Robert Hay, 43, and Jose Alquillera, 47, both catering staff at the airport, along with Wayne Charles Williams, 55, and Craig Tira Nicholson, 48 – have each been refused bail by the same court.

Williams, a former airport employee turned garbage truck driver of Mascot, was at the wheel of a council rubbish truck on April 10 this year when it struck and killed a 23-year-old man lying on High Street at Randwick.

He was not charged over the fatal accident.

Williams is expected to apply for bail on October 1.

A 20-year-old man, also with links to the Bra Boys, has been granted bail to face court in connection with silver pendants the drug importation ring on October 27.

Participants in an oxycodone silver jewellery that was run from the car repair shop of a man dubbed “The King of Hudson” are going to federal prison.

Arde Harry Olsen, the ringleader and organizer, was sentenced today to 20 years behind bars. U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington also ordered him to sign a forfeiture order in which he agrees to pay the federal government $1.1 million, the amount of proceeds he received from the ring.

Olsen, 51, ran the ring from his mechanic’s shop at 11923 Pine Forest Drive and his former residence on Denton Avenue, both in Hudson. His wife, Shannon, 45, and son, Jason, 23, have also been sentenced to prison for their involvement in the ring.

Jason Olsen was sentenced to 10 years; Shannon Star Olsen was sentenced to four years. All three also must serve three years of probation.

Fifteen other people have admitted their involvement in the silver bracelets and received prison sentences ranging from two years to more than 11 years. All must also serve three years of probation.

One remaining defendant, William Joseph Califano, 29, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.

Arde Olsen admitted paying “doctor shoppers” to visit physicians and obtain prescriptions of oxycodone, an addictive pain reliever, which was then distributed to dealers across Florida and beyond.

Olsen paid for the doctor visits and paid to fill the prescriptions at area pharmacies, according to court documents. In some cases, he provided false documents, such as MRI reports, to use at the doctors’ offices to obtain the prescriptions.

Olsen kept firearms in his home and business to “protect and enforce his oxycodone trafficking activities,” according to his plea agreement. He also paid others to take large quantities of the drug to Tennessee, Kentucky and elsewhere weekly or biweekly.

The other defendants and their prison sentences are:

Dannie James Mariedth, 50, who received 11 years, eight months

Anthony Keith Christian, 27, got 11 years, silver cufflinks three months

Debra A Collins, 48, received 11 years, eight months

Earle Monroe Silcox, 30, received eight years, one month

Sarah Lynn Maynard, 25, received seven years, three months

Joshua McTavish Brown, 24, got 10 years, one month

Anthony Robert Upton, 28, got nine years

Dennis Ashley Miller, 35, got five years, 10 months

Donna Jean Bynum, 31, got five years, 10 months

Billy Ray Hardin, 27, received five years, 10 months

Jessie Krumm, 21, got five years, 10 months

Jerald John Gilio Jr., 33, got seven years,silver money clips three months

Jereme Lee Gould, 24, received three years, eight months

Soni Jo Cheesbrough, 27, received three years, eight months

Amber Marie Morreale, 19, received two years.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837.