News release

The Guardian Angels have sent a new release, so we thought we’d post it. There is more on the incident on Bard’s blog that we mentioned in an earlier post.

IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE

At approximately 02:15 am Sunday June 29th two Guardian Angels
disarmed and arrested a man armed with a loaded handgun during a
physical altercation with 2 other men on the 300 block of west
3rd street in downtown Davenport . The Guardian Angels will be
holding a press conference at 1300 hours (1:00pm) Sunday June 29th
at the Guardian Angels headquarters located at 230 west 3rd street
#200C in downtown Davenport .

Teenage baby killer?

I’d been thinking that America has been in a moral
delcine for some time. I’ve said that we are
lowering our expectations. I was rethinking my
stand on the issue when I read the QC Times
today.

On page A7 was a story out of Baytown, Texas with
the headline “Teen charged with murder in baby’s
death”. Then I read the story. Seems the police
charged a 14-year-old girl with murdering her baby
in the school bathroom after she secretly gave birth.
And the school was a junior high school!
She’s being charged as a minor with capital murder.

She stuffed the baby boy’s mouth with toilet paper
and drown him in the toilet. Her attorney is saying
she didn’t know she was giving birth. Say what?
Wouldn’t the baby popping out be a good clue? And
with all the ‘Safe Havens’ in this Country where a
baby can be left with no questions asked; did she have
to kill the baby?

We’d also like to know where the father is. Is he
underage also? If not, can he be charged with a
crime? And if not, why not? Nothing about the
baby’s father was mentioned in the article.

Didn’t her parents, friends, classmates, or someone
notice she was pregnant? This is a story that should
cause an uproar, and we’ve barely heard a whisper.
We welcome your comments.

All over rant

It’s Thursday, which means the time has come to rant, whine,
complain, or be against everything. Once again we’ll say that
this post is our opinion. Our opinion and a buck and a half will
get you a cup of coffee. We state these opinions to see if
some agree with us, or for those who disagree to open a
discussion of the subject. There are no warranties expressed
or implied.

Several things have had us scratching our heads lately, so in
no particular order we’ll address some. The Supreme Court ruling
that the guy who raped his 8 year old daughter
didn’t deserve the death penalty is bull. If anyone deserves the
death penalty, it is animals like the this. We need to stop the
revolving door policy of the criminal justice system and get
tougher.

We assume that by the end of the week, LeClaire park will be
out of the water enough to assess the damage. It’s said if the
park has to be resodded, it can’t be used for about 40 days. With
that in mind, the riverfront will lose not only the Sturgis on
the River, but the Blues Fest and the Bix Fest. We regular folks
just love these musical chair events where we don’t know where
things are going to be held until a day or two before the event.
If we are truely prepared for floods, shouldn’t an alternative
site be part of the flood plans?

Senator Clinton has finally returned to her job. How nice that
she took eighteen months off, with pay, to run her campaign. We
Americans are so generous.

Word has come out that ethanol refiners recieved $3 billion in
subsidies last year. That’s a big chunk of change for a product
that isn’t doing what it was supposed to do. It doesn’t pollute
less, it doesn’t give us even equal fuel economy, and it cost
more and uses more energy than the gas it is supposed to
replace.

Ms. Pelosi and others are blocking legislation that would allow
oil companies to drill offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. So by not
letting our companies drill they are allowing other countires,
including Russia, China, and even Viet Nam to drill. This also
doesn’t make sense to us. The anti-oil, green-at-any-cost crowd
is once again costing us average Americans more money.

They have known of solutions since the 70s, and have set on
their butts doing nothing about our gas problems, while always
finding the time to get themselves a yearly pay increase. They
have to have the only job in the nation where bad performance,
or no performance is rewarded every year.

Something else in the news is Congress wanting to bail out the
people who have trouble paying their mortage. Why? We have the
largest number of homeowners ever, and a very small percentage
of people who can’t pay their mortage. Let them move out, move
on, and learn from their mistake. The country doesn’t have the
money in the first place, and there are much more important
issues that should be addressed.

And the Supreme Court just struck down Washington, D.C.s ban
on handguns. We’re not ranting about this one, just figured when
a group uses common sense, it should also be noted. Now, if only
we get a concealed carry law passed.

That’s our take on some issues that have been in the news. You
can agree, disagree, call us crazy, or comment on something else.

Phishing

The following is from the CyberAngels June newsletter. The
CyberAngels are part of the Guardian Angels and are the
largest internet safety group in the world. If you don’t know
what phishing is, or how it works, here’s the article-

What is Phishing?

Phishing is a type of online fraud in which a scam artist uses
an e-mail or website to illicitly obtain confidential information.
Phishing scams frequently involve a copycat website designed to
mimic that of a reputable company, often a bank or other financial
institution, asking users to transmit sensitive data.

How to Identify a Phishing Scam

Phishing scams are often effective because scam artists are
skilled in replicating websites and can make it difficult to
differentiate from the original website. This can be achieved by
directly copying an existing website, and even linking to graphics
stored on the real company’s servers. However, keeping a few
things in mind can help you determine whether your information is
being kept safe.

If you received an e-mail reporting a problem with your account,
first check the address from which the e-mail was sent. If the
address does not match the company’s website, it is fraudulent.

Advanced scam artists can make their e-mails appear as though they
are from a legitimate company. If this is the case, make sure any
links or URLs point directly to the real website. Many phishing
scams will employ a different domain - e.g. www.ebay.net (note the
.net domain) or www.eebay.com (note the double E) instead of
www.ebay.com, the real website.

Legitimate companies do not ask for more information than they
need, so be wary of any website asking you to reveal your Social
Security number, bank account number, or other private information
you do not ordinarily share.

Never send personal information via e-mail. A legitimate website
will have a secure, encrypted form. An easy way to tell whether
a website is secure is to look at the HTTP in the address bar.
Secured sites will read https instead of http. For instance,
the sign in page for eBay is https://signin.ebay.com, which tells
you that your data is protected.

If you are still unsure, try to contact the company directly by
returning to the main page. Do not use the contact information
from the e-mail or the website linked in the e-mail, as these may
be spurious. Do not send private or financial information.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group maintains a list of known phishing
attacks. Their website can be found at
antiphishing.

Most current anti-virus and firewall programs will help keep you
safe from some attacks, but these should not be relied on as a
primary measure. Additionally, some browsers will warn you if you
are being redirected to a potentially malicious website.

What to Do if You Have Been the Victim of a Phishing Attack

If you think you have transmitted private information to a
malicious website, immediately notify the appropriate contacts
within the legitimate organization. They will help you recover
data if possible, and will watch for any suspicious activity.
The network administrator can also take steps to prevent a similar
attack in the future.

If you may have revealed compromising financial information,
contact the institution responsible for your account and tell
them what data may have been compromised. Close any accounts
that may be attacked, and watch for unusual activity, including
unusual charges.

You may also consider filing a report with the police and
reporting the attack with the Federal Trade Commission, whose
website can be found at their website.

Comments are welcome.

Carlin dies and some bad guys

 While we were down at the jobbers today we heard George Carlin had died. While the newscast mentioned his ’seven words you can say on TV” routine, we really liked his one on hair. We’ll have to hunt up his albums and dust them off. Nobody did it like he did, and he will be missed.

 Doing a dry-doughnut, we’re also going to post some bad guys. The first ones mentioned, with the FBI’s most wanted for crimes against children are the ones we’d really like to see get locked up.

  The FBI also has a ‘Most Wanted’ list concerning crimes against
children. To our way of thinking the people on this list are
the worst of the worst. To check out this list please go to
the list.

The former leader of the Latin Kings in Florida is Indicted on
drug trafficing and firearms charges. Michael A. Garcia faces charges
of cnspiracy to distribute Ecstasy and more than 5 kilograms of
cocaine between 2005-2008. If you want to read more about this go
here.

An International Arms dealer has been extradited from Spain to face
terrorism charges. Monzer Al Kassar is now in New York to face the
charge on conspiracy to sell millions of dollars worth of arms to
a terrorist group. Two co-defendants are also facing charges. Go to
the webpage.

Comments are always welcome.

Build an Ark rant

While the flood returning isn’t a man-made problem, it’s going to be
interesting.

The reflood is going to cause some problems. Not the least of which is
the Sturgis on the River weekend. Will it be renamed Sturgis at the
Fairgrounds? The ballpark is in danger of losing its parking lot.

Because of closing the river to barge traffic, Alter Co. is predicting
it will cost them $10,000 a day. If the flood last much over a week,
that could add up to a big chuck of change.

Also flood related; the cleanup cost for the last flood has climebd to
three quarters of a million dollars. It isn’t a total cost because
cleanup wasn’t finished, and we believe Credit Island wasn’t started.
And it makes us wonder how this is changing development plans in
Centenial Park. The rains haven’t helped, but it’s pretty hard to ignore
a flood. For a true total flood cost, shouldn’t the money lost by
businesses in the area also be counted?

Then we have the shootings in Waleetka, Oklahoma. It now turns out
there could be two sickos because the two little girls were shot with
2 different guns. It takes a real sick freak to shoot two little girls
in the head and chest. We’re relieved that Oklahoma is a death penalty
state, we just wish it would be by hanging. Our condolences to the
families. We hope those who did this are caught, and dealt with in a
timely manor.

Threee Florida brothers have been charged in a $110 million health care
scam. Our only question would be; why wasn’t it stopped sooner? These
guys take the term scumbag to new levels. Scamming HIV patients?
Go here.
How many more schemes like this one go undetected?

This isn’t really a rant, but just some news from the FBI that we
thought was interesting. We’d like to see more news like this.
MS-13 leader gets life in prison on firearms and murder charges.
Go here.

That’s a little of what’s going on; if you agree, disagree, have a
rant of your own, comments are welcome.

Preliminary Uniform Crime Report

The preliminary Uniform Crime Report 2007, was released today, and it
looks like crime is down. In the midwest; violent crime is down 1.7%,
murder is down 3.8%, forcible rapes are down 7.1%. robbery is down 3%,
aggravated assaults are down .2%, property crimes are down 3.6%, burglary
is down 1.8%, larceny theft is down 3%, motor vehicle theft is down 10.6%,
and arson is down 6.2%. These figures are from the FBI, not ours. To
look at the chart go here.

Nationwide a reported 1.4% decrease in crime is noted over 2006. If you
would like more information, or just want to see the different tables,
go here.

Today’s press release gives an overview of the UCR findings. As we
have said this year, even with all the news coverage lately, we feel
crime IS down. So if you want to read the release and learn more go
here.

There’s how the crime rate is looking. We don’t feel it’s too bad,
with 3 of the 4 regions reporting drops in violent crimes, and the
increase of .7% in the South, it’s bearable. You can form your own
opinion, but remember, this is a preliminary report.

Comments on this or any other subject are welcome.

Bonus local rant

We’ve been quiet about local politics lately, so we thought we’d do
a post on the subject. We are sad to announce that the zoo is dead. It
has joined our good friend, Common Sense, who died of neglect here
several years ago.

The zoo is gone, to be replaced with a handicapped-accessable Ecopark
at a future date. Funny how when Credit Island first opened, it was a
nature park with walking trails and wildlife running all over. Then
came the needed amenities; the roads, the golf course, the clubhouse,
the tennis courts and restrooms. And the wildlife all but disappeared.

Then at Fejervary Park we had Monkey Island and a zoo. The monkeys
left first, we think they’re in a bar in Panama trying to figure out
Midwesterners. And now the zoo is going to close, and the wildlife is
going to disappear.

Since it passed our City Council, and the Mayor was all for it, we
have a question or two. The most obvious is; how much is it going to
cost us? Since the city claims it doesn’t have the couple-hundred-
thousand dollars to restore the zoo; is the Ecopark going to be less
money? We notice nobody was willing to put a price tag on this
wonderful destination of the future. Or do we wait until an exploritory
committee is formed and comes up with a total.

We’re not even sure what an Ecopark is, or why we need one to bring
people here. We figured we’d help the city out and give them a starting
figure. We’d guess the total to rehab will run $1.4 million.
we believe this to be an accurate, low end, figure. Depending on the
number, and quality of amenities, it could go higher.

We would suggest our City Leaders take care of other things first-

1. Look into how to bring our population back up to what it was 25
years ago. For those who wear rose-colored-glasses; population growth
measured in tenths of a percent is not growth, it is stagnation. We
would like to see Davenport with a bigger population than Cedar Rapids.
We did years ago.

2. Do damage control on the perception that crime is rampant in our
city. Just stating we have a ‘zero tolerance on crime’ is not enough.
We’d like to know what has been implimented to make it happen. Doesn’t
zero tolerance imply that if you commit a crime you will get some sort
of consequence for you actions?

3. Get busy and repair the potholes. It should be budgeted for some
streets to be repaved completely as opposed to patched. The streets
aren’t going to get better on their own.

4. Tighten up, or at least clarify some of your actions. Contract sales
of houses comes to mind. Are there people slipping through the cracks
and renting? When is a rent to own, a contract sale? And do we have
anyone who looks for fraud?

That’s our little extra rant of the day. Comments on our opinion, or
anything else are welcome.

Interesting day

There were some things going on over the weekend, not the least of which was a meeting to start another neighborhood watch group. We attended as Guardian Angels to answer any questions about our group. Around 25 people showed up along with our Police Chief, Alderman Lynn, our son and myself. As with some areas there was concern about drug houses, and rental properties. We thought it was a good fist meeting.

At the meeting, someone asked the Chief about this seat belt stop deal going on. Some of us, myself included, had forgot about what all the brainstorming had come up with. At some point during all the talks about crime, making criminals uncomfortable came out. Ticket them for anything and everything. According to the Chief, that’s what this program is about. This way it allows the police to stop known felons and drug dealers, and gives them cause to search the vehicle. They’ve arrested several people on warrants, one was even out of Kansas! It has even gotten some guns off the street. So even though we know of people who were ticketed along with the bad guys, we like the idea. If it’s working, we should just make for sure our plates are up-to-date, and grin and bear it. Everyone has noticed the increased police presence in our area.

Rental properties were discussed, and again, not being in the business we learned a few things. The first is that not all landlords look at the law the same way. Some don’t do background checks at all, and some just turn everything over to professional property managers. Some of these managers are also well known for not doing background checks. The other thing we learned about was evictions. We always assumed it someone was selling drugs out of your rental property they could be evicted. Boy did we feel stupid. As long as they’re paying rent the judge won’t evict them.

And finally, the big fight at 14th and Gaines Streets. This was at the same property that has been causing that area of our town problems for years. Maybe that would be a good place to do a nuisence abatement on. That’s our thoughts on a couple of things, and what we learned over the weekend. Comments on this or any subject are welcome.

Local perception rant

We had the scanner on yesterday and heard a call to West 1st. Street about a big fight with pipes, chains, baseball bats, and golf clubs. First we chuckled that at least some sports were involved. But that got us thinking how other folks must see our town. The QC Times is running an online poll about crime. As of yesterday 51% said our crime rate is high in the Quad Cities. 38% said they believe crime is on the rise, and only 6% said it has stayed steady. What’s that going to do for tourism?

Our City Leaders had better get on this before it becomes a real problem. Why are some people afraid to go downtown? We know people are leery of coming to our house because of shootings within a block of our place, but we don’t feel crime is that bad right now.

Any action on the zoo was tabled at the last meeting. We still say leave it alone. Don’t make any more “destinations” until the perception of our crime rate is changed. You won’t get too many tourist if they think there’s a shooting every day. If our city is percieved as a rowdy wild west setting, most people will go elsewhere.

Speaking of making our city a destination, have all the street sweepers broken down? In some places there is so much muck people couldn’t walk if they wanted to.

And grafitti. Nothing says “destination” more than seeing grafitti sprayed on signs, overpasses, vacant houses, and walls throughout the city. That’s our rant for today, comments on this or any other subject are welcome.