Category: News

The blood is running in the streets of Milwaukee: 4-homicide weekend pushes city to grim point:

Like a runaway freight train, this year’s homicide total in Milwaukee equaled the 88 recorded for all of last year as of early Sunday and gave no signs that religious, civic and governmental efforts to make this a safe summer were slowing the deadly increase.

Snark as follows:

• Good thing Governor Doyle vetoed concealed carry in Wisconsin, ensuring the safety of its citizens from homicidal predators.
• Sure, it’s another record, but what’s the count when adjusted to constant 1980 homicides?

Police chief sues maker of Taser gun:

A police chief in Boone County has filed suit against Taser International and two police equipment supply companies, saying he was severely injured when shocked with a Taser weapon during training.

The suit by Jacob “Pete” Herring joins more than 30 others from around the country that claim Tasers caused or contributed to injuries or deaths. More than 7,000 law enforcement agencies worldwide use the devices as a nonlethal alternative to firearms, according to company numbers.

The suit by Herring, chief of police in Hallsville, Mo., says he suffered at least two strokes, loss and impairment of his vision and hearing, neurological damage, a head injury and “significant cardiac damage” after being shocked by a Taser M26 during a class on April 20, 2004. He seeks unspecified financial damages.

Nonlethal, perhaps. But they’re overused in the field, resulting in a number of deaths that could be avoided.

And shocking each other in training, what the heck? Do cops hit each other with batons just so they know how it feels?

Work-zone safety blitz still limited: Drivers say that new laws haven’t reduced number of violations:

Motorists complain that speeding, tailgating and aggressive driving are still all the rage in Illinois construction zones, despite tough laws the state passed last year to reduce violations.

A camera-enforcement program to deploy Illinois State Police troopers in vans was supposed to have started this month, but officials are still finalizing contracts with equipment suppliers, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. The program may begin in September, officials said.

The plan for the pilot project involves taking photographs from inside just two roving vans to capture the faces and license plates of drivers, along with the speed of their vehicles, in work areas on hundreds of miles of Chicago-area expressways and on the Illinois Tollway system. Tickets carrying minimum fines of $375 will be mailed to vehicle owners.

An impersonal ticket arriving in infractors’ mail boxes a week in the future will not make the drivers slow down or behave. Nor will signs indicating that this might happen. Troopers pulling over drivers would make them slow down for a couple days and would make other drivers who see the troopers slow down.

Hidden cameras capturing drivers’ infractions but distancing the infraction from the sanction? Give me a break.

This is a revenue-enhancement program, not a safety program. And this is the reason why I’m going to fly to Milwaukee or travel through scenic Iowa on my way home in the future. Because I fear speeding through more than one of the Illinois “Construction Zones” (that is, the barrel storage technique that intersperses a couple barrels miles apart between construction zone signs) at a time and coming home to a mailbox full of budget-gap-closers from Rod Blagojevich.

An author insults one of his readers:

[Mark] Kurlansky said he was surprised to hear that Bush had taken his book to the ranch: “My first reaction was, ‘Oh, he reads books?’ “

The author said he was a “virulent Bush opponent” who had given speeches denouncing the war in Iraq.

“What I find fascinating, and it’s probably a positive thing about the White House, is they don’t seem to do any research about the writers when they pick the books,” Kurlansky said.

But now that you’re on record, sir; prepare for the firing squad.

What a humpwit. Not only has he insulted the president based on common, cliché groupthink from the virulent Bush opponents, but he’s risked angering whatever readers and potential book buyers exist in the majority that elected Bush.

A pretty poor marketing decision, but perhaps he’s just standing for his principles, which would seem to include not much beyond mauvais mots.

(Link seen on Ann Althouse.)

Insurer wants woman’s crash settlement:

Debbie Shank stocked shelves at a Wal-Mart store in Cape Girardeau, Mo., until five years ago, when her minivan was hit by a tractor-trailer. Her Wal-Mart health insurance paid the medical bills. Proceeds from a lawsuit helped finance her care in a nursing home.

Brain damage forces her to use a wheelchair and limits her upper body movement to one arm and two fingers. It stole her memory and her ability to talk to her husband and three sons.

“She’ll ask about the boys, she’ll ask about the cat,” said her husband, Jim Shank. “Whenever I’m there, she thinks it must be a mealtime. We don’t really hold a conversation.”

Now the Shanks face a new obstacle. Her Wal-Mart health insurance plan wants the lawsuit money to repay its costs.

Unfortunately, some insurance company functionaries lack the imagination for how the general public will perceive a lawsuit against a disabled woman, and how anti-Wal-Mart fanatics will use the incident against Wal-Mart. If those opponents could have their way, they’d make sure that Wal-Mart lived down to their rhetoric and did not provide insurance for its employees (the fact that Wal-Mart medical insurance exists and paid out half a million dollars for this catastrophe, but that Wal-Mart is evil because it doesn’t provide insurance for its employees–the paradox in their rhetoric will never surface).

The paper throws in an obligatory response from a spokesperson:

A Wal-Mart spokesman said the health plan has made no decision on whether to pursue this case; the suit puts a legal foot in the door before the deadline to file it passes. “This is kind of a standard procedure, and it just preserves our options,” Marty Hires said.

The SOPs of the byzantine and, let’s face it, often-suspect insurance and legal industry don’t improve the image of insurance, lawyers, or their clients. I’m sure someone with Wal-Mart could have come up with a better response, but who knows if the papers would publish them, because the current storyline casts Wal-Mart as the villain.

Now that the broken story’s broken, any doing-of-the-right-thing by Wal-Mart–such as not actually pursuing the suit or apologizing, will be reported as cynical damage control. If the papers follow up at all.

Yeah, I’m so cynical, I sometimes don’t even trust my own blog.

When the free market cannot profitably develop a site, the governments step in:

1. Government 1: The City
   

   Plans to turn a troubled site in Overland into a shopping center have been revived after failing for the second time earlier this year.

   Two local developers – Sansone Group and G.J. Grewe Inc. – at separate times tried to build major retail centers on the Page Avenue property. Working with the city, they hoped to draw retailers such as Target Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. But both developers pulled the plug when they failed to recruit tenants.

   Two businesses who are in designed to make money couldn’t, even with the city’s help.

   Time to call in reinforcements.

2. Government 2: The County
   

   Now, St. Louis County is taking up the effort. The site, county officials say, is more desirable with the addition of a nearby Home Depot store and other recent construction.

   “That area’s gotten a real boost recently and it’s becoming a premier location,” said Denny Coleman, president of the St. Louis County Economic Council. “We know several developers who’ve said they’d bid on it.”

   “they’d” being the operative tense. They would bid on the land if the government would make the conditions right. That is, the deal itself will not be profitable in and of itself in a free market economy, but if the county would sweeten the deal, its preferred developers would happily bid on it. Once the taxpayers guaranteed a profit.

   But that’s contingent upon….

3. Government 3: The Federal Government
   

   The county also is coupling the retail project with a plan to prevent the closing of a nearby military facility. The county hopes the retail center will help persuade the military to stay. Or, if the military leaves, its property could be redeveloped, possibly into office space.

   Because the federal government should make its decisions based upon convenient shopping for its employees and visiting dignitaries? WTF? The county is swinging for the fences on this one. Why not couple it with curing schnucking cancer while you’re at it?

It’s a trifecta of government intervention into the free market at the expense of some:

The 40-acre retail project would rise on land that’s now a hodgepodge of houses, small businesses and vacant factories. In 2001, Overland – without county help – launched redevelopment efforts there.

Friends, that means eminent domain. Remember that nasty thing which the Supreme Court just okayed? Greenlit governments to seize livelihoods from citizens to the benefit of developers and, of course, the agnostic and disinterested governments:

“It’s a depressed area that was blighted years ago,” said Robert Dody, Overland’s mayor. “It’s an ideal area to redevelop. … The city and the county would both like to get more tax revenue from it.”

I know the area they’re talking about. It’s five minutes up I-170, a short spur of the Interstate system, from Clayton, one of the hottest areas in the county. Left to the free market, this area would redevelop on its own as its relatively cheap land would grow into suburbs of Clayton. But that’s not good enough for our elected officials, who could not take immediate credit for future growth based on their hands off governance today.

Instead, they spend tax money and tax-salaried time playing businessmen. Meanwhile, look at the land for sale listings on Hilliker Corporation’s Web site. See all of those properties on Woodson Road? Those are about 1/2 mile from the area in question (Google map; note the pin related to the intersection of Page and Woodson, the redevelopment site in question). The land prices and parcels are ripe for an entry-level developer wanna-be to get in and buy one or more for redevelopment or investment. I’ve had my eyes on the area since I lived nearby, for the reasons I’ve listed above. As I reach a time where I have some money for extraneous business ventures, I hoped to invest properties in this area, to help organically elevate Overland.

But forget it. Bob Dody, Mayor, via signage, welcomes me to Overland every time I pass through. But his eagerness to team the government of Overland with large developers certainly doesn’t welcome smaller outside concerns to invest in real estate (that he might later have to reallocate to THF, so sorry, here’s a couple bucks) in his community nor does he welcome small businesses nor certain home owners to remain in their property in his community (although they’re welcome to spend their just compensation on other property elsewhere in Overland, natch, until he or Sansone needs that, too).

I’d like to wrap this up with a snappy, pithy conclusion, but I’m too disgusted.

Carl Icahn, in 1985, takes over Trans World Airlines….

Carl Icahn, in 2005, makes his move on AOL Time Warner….

Query: What does this fellow have against the letters A, T, and W?

(Story seen on Professor Bainbridge.)

Sources: CIA finds Iranian president likely not hostage-taker:

A CIA report has determined with “relative certainty” that Iran’s new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was not involved in the taking of U.S. hostages 26 years ago, three government officials told CNN on Friday.

The officials insisted on anonymity, saying they did not want to speak for the CIA about its report.

Another U.S. official said the tone of the report is that there is no evidence to date that the new Iranian president was among those who held U.S. diplomats hostage.

The officials cautioned that the analysis is not final.

Meanwhile, the officials also report that the Soviet Union’s industrial output will increase again this year and that its current premier has secured a grip on his position and has met with other Warsaw Pact leaders secretly to get their fealty and promise the support of the mighty Red Army in quelling internal dissent.

Also, the next paragraph of the CNN report:

Two former hostages told CNN they remain certain Ahmadinejad was involved in plotting the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, in which 52 hostages were held for 444 days.

The two also said they saw the man they identify as Ahmadinejad many times while they were held, and that he appeared to be in a supervisory role.

Loosely translated, that’s the or your damn lying eyes part of the punchline.

Compare and Contrast:

Mr. Green: “We’ve Got To Stop Killing People, Matt.”

Iraqi war protestor: Mother begs for end to killing.

(Second link seen courtesy McGehee.)

Overthrow of the Flyovers:

Next up on NPR was a discussion about how all the congressional districts have been gerrymandered so they are either Democrat or Republican. Thus neither party ever makes any real headway. These districts need to be redrawn so they are even. Yeah, like THAT’s ever gonna happen. But, I do have a way that the Democrats can outsmart the Repubs on this one. Ready? Here it is….

Move. Yup, that’s right. Determine how many folks you need to keep on the coasts & in Illinois to maintain a majority. Hold a lottery or something, and the winners get to invade the Heartland and swing the balance of power. Now some states would be easy to overthrow, due to their small population, Wyoming & Montana come to mind. Others, that voted more heavily for Bush, Utah & Oklahoma, would require a larger concentration of the coastal experts to move in, register, vote & move out.

After all, it’s worked for the Libertarians.

(Link seen on Dustbury.)

Police: Teacher, student had sex:

She met her 16-year-old student for sex in cars and at his summer job during a four-week affair that ended when a family pastor turned her in, police and prosecutors say.

Kristen A. Margrif, a 27-year-old English teacher at Kingston High School, faces 15 years in prison on eight counts of sexual contact with the eighth-grader, Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark Reene said.

…The victim was planning to continue attending school in Kingston. It was not clear whether he was entering eighth or ninth grade this fall, Reene said.

Couldn’t she have waited until he reached the age of consent sometime as a freshman in high school?

Although they’ve often annoyed me, I’ve never considered this method of turning off someone else’s car alarm when it goes off after reasonable hours:

A man annoyed by a noisy car alarm fired at least three bullets into a Toyota Camry, silencing the alarm and bringing out police who hauled him away in handcuffs, authorities said.

David Owen Rye, 48, was arrested and booked for investigation of reckless discharge of a firearm and felony vandalism, Sgt. John Adamczyk said. Rye allegedly told officers he grabbed his handgun and went out to put a stop to the car alarm.

However, this mechanism is not recommended, particularly as on of the Nogghicles has a flaky security system that sometimes starts yowling for odd reasons, including some odd sequence/combination of door openings and key placement. I don’t want to die with my car. Thank you.

Cases of West Nile disease in Missouri this year:	3
Cases of Campylobacteriosis in St. Louis City in June:	2
Cases of Giardiasis in St. Louis City in June:	7
Cases of Salmonellosis in St. Louis City in June:	8
Cases of Hepatitus B in St. Louis City in June:	3
Cases of Hepatitus C in St. Louis City in June:	52
Cases of Tuberculosis Infection in St. Louis City in June:	30

Man, I don’t know what some of those things are, but how come they don’t get the column inches?

Chavez: U.S. will ‘bite the dust’ if it invades:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told thousands of visiting students that if U.S. forces were to invade the South American country, they would be soundly defeated.

That cinches it. We must invade Valenzuela just to prove that our country is more manly than Hugo Chavez.

I also want to laud CNN for putting this story in perspective:

The U.S. government has strongly denied Chavez’s claims that it is considering military action against Cuba’s closest ally in the Americas.

That’s right, it’s not absurd on it’s face. No, it has been strongly denied by the warmongering American government.

Baldilocks captures a thought I had as well. When the Russians are in trouble with another one of their submarine-anchor conversion projects, who do they call?

In light of the planned war games between Russia and China, it is interesting that President Putin asked the US and the UK to assist in the rescue effort rather than the Chinese.

Well, yeah.

Hopefully, they called us in time for us to help out this time.

Extinct means the same as living in Italy? (Source.)

Bears have been extinct in Switzerland for more than 100 years until one was spotted last week that is believed to have migrated into the country from neighbouring Italy.