Category: General

Wis. Police Chief Tickets Himself
Wis. Police Chief Tickets Himself

Wednesday, February 21, 2007
02-21 18:55 PST Kewaskum, Wis. AP —

A police chief drove past a stopped school bus with its lights flashing — then wrote himself a ticket for $235 and docked himself four points on his driving record.

“Police officers do good things everyday, and that doesnt get reported,” said Chief Dick Knoebel, whose story surfaced in the media recently after he ticketed himself in September. “All you hear about in the news is when a police officer is in trouble.”

People who read his story apparently agreed, with e-mails pouring in from as far as Thailand, New Zealand and Russia. Two people sent him $15 to help cover the cost of the ticket, but he said he wouldnt accept the money.

“If its brought about the fact people are going to pay more attention to school buses, then its worth it,” said Knoebel, who has been chief for 20 years in Kewaskum, northwest of Milwaukee.

Having spent time in both states, I am not surprised at all that Wisconsin police out-rank Georgia Police in regards to personal honor and integrity.

-Chris Knight

How the World Works – Salon.com
Live by the corn syrup, die by the corn syrup

Last week, Coca-Cola announced losses of $1.71 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006, and said the company plans to cut 3,500 workers from its payroll. One of the main reasons: rising prices for both the aluminum that goes into its cans and the high-fructose corn syrup that sweetens its soda.

Relief on the aluminum front may already be on the way. Although the cost of aluminum has been surging for years, largely owing to voracious Chinese consumption, since May 2006 prices have begun to drop, partly as a result of a huge ramp-up in domestic Chinese production.

But the corn syrup situation is a bit stickier. Corn syrup prices have spiked upward because of the diversion of corn into ethanol production. Given the Bush administration’s continued emphasis on boosting ethanol consumption, the days of dirt-cheap corn syrup may not soon return.

Add the woes of soda pop makers to the food vs. fuel debate. Coca-Cola joins the cattle industry, chicken and pig farmers, and Mexican tortilla consumers in a consortium that is giving ethanol the evil eye. But even if you don’t believe that consumption of high-fructose corn syrup is linked to obesity and diabetes and is the unnatural child of corn lobby Satanic forces, one has to wonder whether rising costs for the highly processed sweetener are such a bad thing. If it weren’t for the system of sugar subsidies and tariffs that prop up the price of sugar in the United States, there would be plenty of cheap sugar imports to replace all that corn syrup. And eliminating those artificial restrictions on the sugar market would be a boon to farmers of developing nations in the South who desperately need markets for their harvests, if not for the waistlines of those who continue to guzzle non-diet soda beverages.

In a perfect world, our biofuels would be coming from sustainably harvested switchgrass and we’d all be drinking organic fruit juice grown from trees in our backyards. We’ve got a ways to go on that front. But if the corn-based ethanol gold rush helps break down the agricultural subsidies that work against the interests of the world’s poorest farmers, maybe there’s a reason to cheer those ethanol prospectors on.

— Andrew Leonard

Whether you believe in evolution or creation, sugar is refined without making a chemical change to cane juice from which it is derived; and our bodies are therefore much more suited to that sugar than we are to a laboratory born concoction that our bodies /did not evolve/were not designed/ to use as food. While I would rather see high fructose corn syrup abandoned for its potential health risks, I do find it to be sweet irony that it may be dropped because it would be cheaper to use real sugar.

Chris Knight

The Daily Tribune News – Cartersville, Georgia
Magistrate judge to decide if couple will be prosecuted for stalking officer

Staff report

Published February 13, 2007 11:06 PM CST

A Bartow County couple will go before a magistrate judge today to see if they will be arrested for allegedly stalking a Kennesaw police officer by installing cameras to track neighborhood speeders.

Lee and Teresa Sipple spent $1,200 mounting three video cameras and a radar speed unit outside their home, which is at the bottom of a hill. They have said they did so in hopes of convincing neighbors to slow down to create a safe environment for their son.

The Sipples allegedly caught Kennesaw police officer Richard Perrone speeding up to 17 mph over the speed limit. Perrone alerted Bartow authorities, who in turn visited the Sipples home to tell them Perrone intended to press charges against them for stalking.

For the full story, please read The Daily Tribune News. Call 770-382-4545 to subscribe.

Now maybe in them back woods of Georgia the rules are different, but out here in the rest of the world ‘stalking’ generally requires a specific victim and a repetition of action. For instance, if I see Angelina Jolie on the street and I say ‘hi’ I’m not stalking; but if I start following her around saying ‘hi’ every fifteen feet then I am.

These folks, the Sipples, set up a radar gun and cameras to catch some speeders. Pleural, as in no specific targets in mind. Like walking down the street and saying ‘hi’ to everyone you meet. Where I live we call that a ‘neighborhood watch’. Just so happens one of the folks they encountered was breaking the law, who happened to be a cop, and who then falsely accuses them of breaking the law to hide his own guilt. You would think he would know the definition of ‘stalking’, but it just may be the word has too many syllables for him to know the meaning.

If the gods have any justice in them, the charges against the Sipples will be dismissed as unsupported by the evidence, Richard Perrone will avoid a speeding ticket because the radar gear isn’t calibrated, but he will lose his job for filing false charges. Karma is a bitch, and this cop desperately needs to be bitch-slapped.

Chris Knight