Just why our Bank Robber was in jail by nightfall, I can't say for sure but the reverse 911 call to everyone with a land line in the area may have inspired the tip police got as to where he was hiding out.
Meanwhile the hard core News-Press followers were bitching about why the 911 call description was not more specific. "Facial hair" didn't cut it with them. I don't know what they wanted: moustache, Van Dyke?
However, since I'm new to the alerts, I have to say that just receiving a call was amazing in itself.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Here's a creative touch in policing
At 5:30 p.m. Wednesday the 911 dispatch for the Lee Co. FL sheriff's department notifies us in a recorded telephone call that a B of A bank has just been robbed. Be on the lookout for a white male, glasses, facial hair, striped sweater, 30ish, ball cap, etc. Though it was unlikely any but an idiotic robber would turn down our street, which is a dead end several miles away, I rushed out and notified what neighbors I could find.
This a.m. I thumbed through the "paper" paper (yes, I still love newsprint) but the story isn't in today's version, I did find it on the News-Press website and I'm high on the sheriff's department for such an innovative move.
This a.m. I thumbed through the "paper" paper (yes, I still love newsprint) but the story isn't in today's version, I did find it on the News-Press website and I'm high on the sheriff's department for such an innovative move.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Uncle Sam Wants You, Mr. & Mrs. Rich
In a pragmatic move that has offended many in his own party, President Obama has agreed to hold his nose and approve a measure that would ensure that the Bush tax cuts are to be extended for everyone for another two years, even to the group earning a quarter million a year and up. One would think these people could afford to pay a few taxes, since it is a fact that 70 percent of the wealth of this nation is concentrated in the hands of a mere ten percent of the population, and those making $250,000 and up are closely aligned with the richest three percent of the population who collectively control about forty percent of total wealth.
With the exception of Switzerland, no other industrialized nation on earth has a greater concentration of wealth in the hands of so few, or so says Professor William Domhoff in his exhaustive study, Who Rules America: Wealth, Income and Power. Domhoff’s website offers an exhaustive accounting of the wealth of our nation as compared with the rest of the world.
The richest people in America do collectively pull their weight where income tax is concerned, however. The top ten percent of Americans, about 1.2 million people, pay close to sixty percent of all federal taxes, while the bottom 50 percent of Americans pay around four percent. In the last decade, the upper tiers of middle class taxpayers have edged up in tax burdens, while the burden on the poor has been lightened.
From a practical standpoint, however, if you pass along a tax cut for the individuals who have been paying a chunk, then you raise the federal deficit, and it’s amazing that the Republicans who came into this latest congress, voted in on a platform of cutting the deficit, have now succeeded in raising it.
Republicans insist, however, that taxing the ultra wealthy is wrong. Wealthy people are the engineers of job creation, they insist, even though the evidence we do have suggests otherwise. In 2004, for example, where the economy was rocking along, overall income increased by 27 percent, although 33 percent of the increase went to the top one percent of the population.
When the economy crashed, by July 2009, the median wealth of the nation dropped by an astounding 37 percent, while the top one percent of households took a much smaller hit, about 11 percent.
In the battle to keep the economy from further deteriorating , the government gets two dollars back for every dollar passed along to the jobless, who must spend every dime just to keep going. The wealthy may choose to put their tax cut in a savings account. This is the mantra of the US Congressional Budget Office, which is said to be non-partisan.
Obama went along with the Republicans this time around because the tax cuts for wealthy are tied to the extension of unemployment benefits to the hard core jobless, and other measures designed to stimulate the economy, or at least prop it up. Obama is wily enough to realize that Republicans couldn’t very well hand tax cuts to the Sag Harbor set, while leaving some fifteen million people jobless in the Great Recession without a dollar to buy a doughnut.
Let’s not forget people were thrown out of work by the fiduciary recklessness of the Wall Street traders, over-leveraged hedge funds, and the lame brains in government—including those in elected offices, not the least Mr. Oracle at the Fed--who were supposed to be minding the economic store. Cut benefits to the jobless now, it’s revolution time. Suppose a few million jobless people start a march on Washington? On TV this would definitely not look good.
This tax cut extension will last for another two years, which I believe is enough time for the wealthy to prove their mettle. Rather than handing money carte blanche to the Gucci bags, tax cuts for the wealthy should be done in the form of tax credits contingent on the creation of a new business or by putting someone to work.
Extending tax benefits in the form of credits to the rich would create a statistically valid paper trail. That way voters could make rational decisions about the trickle down theory of wealth, which has its vehement detractors.
Let the wealthy have their tax cuts, so long as they prove they are spending them. Hiring is hiring, whether it’s money spent on an additional trainer for the horse farm, a captain for the yacht that’s been put in mothballs, or a personal trainer to work off the anxiety created when one’s hedge fund collapsed. Uncle Sam Needs You, Mr. & Mrs. Rich, to get out on the front lines and put America back to work.
With the exception of Switzerland, no other industrialized nation on earth has a greater concentration of wealth in the hands of so few, or so says Professor William Domhoff in his exhaustive study, Who Rules America: Wealth, Income and Power. Domhoff’s website offers an exhaustive accounting of the wealth of our nation as compared with the rest of the world.
The richest people in America do collectively pull their weight where income tax is concerned, however. The top ten percent of Americans, about 1.2 million people, pay close to sixty percent of all federal taxes, while the bottom 50 percent of Americans pay around four percent. In the last decade, the upper tiers of middle class taxpayers have edged up in tax burdens, while the burden on the poor has been lightened.
From a practical standpoint, however, if you pass along a tax cut for the individuals who have been paying a chunk, then you raise the federal deficit, and it’s amazing that the Republicans who came into this latest congress, voted in on a platform of cutting the deficit, have now succeeded in raising it.
Republicans insist, however, that taxing the ultra wealthy is wrong. Wealthy people are the engineers of job creation, they insist, even though the evidence we do have suggests otherwise. In 2004, for example, where the economy was rocking along, overall income increased by 27 percent, although 33 percent of the increase went to the top one percent of the population.
When the economy crashed, by July 2009, the median wealth of the nation dropped by an astounding 37 percent, while the top one percent of households took a much smaller hit, about 11 percent.
In the battle to keep the economy from further deteriorating , the government gets two dollars back for every dollar passed along to the jobless, who must spend every dime just to keep going. The wealthy may choose to put their tax cut in a savings account. This is the mantra of the US Congressional Budget Office, which is said to be non-partisan.
Obama went along with the Republicans this time around because the tax cuts for wealthy are tied to the extension of unemployment benefits to the hard core jobless, and other measures designed to stimulate the economy, or at least prop it up. Obama is wily enough to realize that Republicans couldn’t very well hand tax cuts to the Sag Harbor set, while leaving some fifteen million people jobless in the Great Recession without a dollar to buy a doughnut.
Let’s not forget people were thrown out of work by the fiduciary recklessness of the Wall Street traders, over-leveraged hedge funds, and the lame brains in government—including those in elected offices, not the least Mr. Oracle at the Fed--who were supposed to be minding the economic store. Cut benefits to the jobless now, it’s revolution time. Suppose a few million jobless people start a march on Washington? On TV this would definitely not look good.
This tax cut extension will last for another two years, which I believe is enough time for the wealthy to prove their mettle. Rather than handing money carte blanche to the Gucci bags, tax cuts for the wealthy should be done in the form of tax credits contingent on the creation of a new business or by putting someone to work.
Extending tax benefits in the form of credits to the rich would create a statistically valid paper trail. That way voters could make rational decisions about the trickle down theory of wealth, which has its vehement detractors.
Let the wealthy have their tax cuts, so long as they prove they are spending them. Hiring is hiring, whether it’s money spent on an additional trainer for the horse farm, a captain for the yacht that’s been put in mothballs, or a personal trainer to work off the anxiety created when one’s hedge fund collapsed. Uncle Sam Needs You, Mr. & Mrs. Rich, to get out on the front lines and put America back to work.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
What's Next for the Barefoot Bandi? Jailhouse Flip-flops
From the San Juan Islands here in the Pacific Northwest to the Bahamas in the Caribbean is a stretch, but the Barefoot Bandit had made the trip big-time, sticking to form. Steal a plane, crash land it, break into houses, hide in plain sight, island hop in stolen boats...But this time the word was out, the police in the Bahamas had word from the FBI and the local islanders recalled seeing him bathing in the bay...lurking in the woods...buying a gal a drink in a bar...When a 40 foot boat went missing the authorities on an adjoining island had a watch out, nabbing Colton as he attempted to dock his stolen boat around 3 a.m.
Meanwhile, this wily and capable bandit enjoyed his erstwhile fame as his victims found themselves basking in a perverse sort of glory. For instance, the a.p.photo flashed around the world this morning is from the Whole Foods Market in Eastsound WA, here on Orcas Island. Whole Foods baked the blueberry cheesecake Colton loved so much he robbed the market not once but three times.
Meanwhile, this wily and capable bandit enjoyed his erstwhile fame as his victims found themselves basking in a perverse sort of glory. For instance, the a.p.photo flashed around the world this morning is from the Whole Foods Market in Eastsound WA, here on Orcas Island. Whole Foods baked the blueberry cheesecake Colton loved so much he robbed the market not once but three times.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Our Town Mayor Could Prove to Be a Real Dog
Orcas Island, WA—A hairy political battle for Mayor of Eastsound is being fought tooth and claw here in the San Juan Islands as candidates get in their final purrs and moos. Official voting wraps up tomorrow, following the Fourth of July Parade.
The ballot boxes around town are filling up. At the rate of $1 per vote, this is one political race where money talks. There are no bothersome residency restrictions to contend with and you may stuff the ballot box with as much cash as you want. Not one of these incorruptible candidates will ever make hay with the funds. One hundred percent of the proceeds go to a most worthy cause, the Children’s House School. Vote online at www.oich.org
From a political standpoint, the burning question is: will Eastsound go to the dogs once again? Retiring mayor Dakota, a gentle giant of a yellow lab, has put out a woof on it. The sleek black lab Clara, has a big campaign budget judging from her artful signage out on the streets. However, political pundits around the hamlet are saying that the ticket might be split among dog lovers due to the entry of the popular and well mannered border collie Lucky Lu, whose distinguished countenance and calm demeanor has graced many a previous Fourth of July Parade. Lu has it in her genes to round up the votes.
The cat people are behind Tractor. Insiders say Tractor is not nearly as ferocious as she looks; Tractor can be cute and playful, although, being a cat, she’s sure to run the town with an iron paw. Tractor is the true middle of the road candidate, her backers say, appealing to both Democats and Republifelines.
Not to be overlooked is the woolliest candidate in the race, Bossy, who is not nearly as sheepish as she appears. Bossy will give you the coat off her back and that is a fact say her defenders. Bossy’s generosity may well be what Eastsound needs. She’s the true candidate for these hard times and she’ll never pull the wool over her constituents’ eyes.
Then there’s April, a perennial favorite and also the most mature candidate in the race. For close to twenty years, April has been queen of a huge field overlooking Eastsound. April deserves the Mayor’s title because she’s the only contender who actually lives inside the city limits say the traditional voters. April is not only udderly incorruptible, but also will never milk the public. Vote April and the bull stops with her.
My feeling is, this race will remain an extremely close call unless it goes national, whereupon that huge political network might throw the race to April on the strength of her natural ability to process methane gas, which could be more cheaply turned into bio fuel than ethanol.. You know the organization I’m talking about: Mooove on.org. Haven’t decided whom to vote for? Neither have I. However, I’m not above trading favors and voting for critter in the race, so if you’d care to pick up one of my hot mystery novels at Booth 24 at the Orcas Historical Museum fair tomorrow between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on the Eastsound Green, I’m not above trading favors.
The ballot boxes around town are filling up. At the rate of $1 per vote, this is one political race where money talks. There are no bothersome residency restrictions to contend with and you may stuff the ballot box with as much cash as you want. Not one of these incorruptible candidates will ever make hay with the funds. One hundred percent of the proceeds go to a most worthy cause, the Children’s House School. Vote online at www.oich.org
From a political standpoint, the burning question is: will Eastsound go to the dogs once again? Retiring mayor Dakota, a gentle giant of a yellow lab, has put out a woof on it. The sleek black lab Clara, has a big campaign budget judging from her artful signage out on the streets. However, political pundits around the hamlet are saying that the ticket might be split among dog lovers due to the entry of the popular and well mannered border collie Lucky Lu, whose distinguished countenance and calm demeanor has graced many a previous Fourth of July Parade. Lu has it in her genes to round up the votes.
The cat people are behind Tractor. Insiders say Tractor is not nearly as ferocious as she looks; Tractor can be cute and playful, although, being a cat, she’s sure to run the town with an iron paw. Tractor is the true middle of the road candidate, her backers say, appealing to both Democats and Republifelines.
Not to be overlooked is the woolliest candidate in the race, Bossy, who is not nearly as sheepish as she appears. Bossy will give you the coat off her back and that is a fact say her defenders. Bossy’s generosity may well be what Eastsound needs. She’s the true candidate for these hard times and she’ll never pull the wool over her constituents’ eyes.
Then there’s April, a perennial favorite and also the most mature candidate in the race. For close to twenty years, April has been queen of a huge field overlooking Eastsound. April deserves the Mayor’s title because she’s the only contender who actually lives inside the city limits say the traditional voters. April is not only udderly incorruptible, but also will never milk the public. Vote April and the bull stops with her.
My feeling is, this race will remain an extremely close call unless it goes national, whereupon that huge political network might throw the race to April on the strength of her natural ability to process methane gas, which could be more cheaply turned into bio fuel than ethanol.. You know the organization I’m talking about: Mooove on.org. Haven’t decided whom to vote for? Neither have I. However, I’m not above trading favors and voting for critter in the race, so if you’d care to pick up one of my hot mystery novels at Booth 24 at the Orcas Historical Museum fair tomorrow between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on the Eastsound Green, I’m not above trading favors.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
The Barefoot Bandit Leaves Black Footprint Over Orcas
Meet me at the Orcas Book Exchange, 274 A Street, Eastsound, WA from noon to whenever today, where, among other things, I’ll be signing my mystery novels and trying to solve a real mystery.
We’re taking tips as to the whereabouts of our local teen rebel outlaw, Colton Harris Moore, aka The Barefoot Bandit. This lanky 6’5” kid’s been stealing everything from eggs out from under hens to Cirrus airplanes, and leaving outsized footprints around as calling cards, so that I for one woke up the other morning viewing a very large black blot in the shadow on my ceiling, which organized itself into a footprint. This brat is invading my subconscious. This is ridiculous!
I recently arrived on island to find that my own neighborhood had been buzzed by a chopper, searched by tracking dogs and police, in a midnight raid for Moore. He made the mistake of breaking into a rental house right on Cayou Valley Road, whose owner lives across the street, and who happened to notice odd light coming from the residence. This mini shock and awe campaign yielded nothing but signs that Colton Moore had been in the house reading newspapers and eating popcorn by candlelight.
Shades of Vietnam, said the war vet in a letter to The Island’s Sounder. He’s now president of our owners’ association. While the flashing lights and barking dogs were entertaining, maybe it is overkill when we’re talking about an 18-year-old thief, and not some ax murderer, my neighbor said. What was needed, he said, was more comprehensive police work. This is not likely to happen however, since the recession has left the sheriff’s department seriously under-manned and under-funded.
Mostly the stories I’ve picked up since are in the LOL category: two kids who were trying to claim a reward for the bandit were said to have made a citizen’s arrest on two suspicious characters walking down North Beach Road in the wee hours of the night. These youngsters performed a citizen’s arrest on two armed federal agents. Could it really be true that the escaping bandit sprayed the deputy chasing him with bear spray? Is it possible that he was camping in the woods right behind the sheriff’s substation?
All we do know is that The Barefoot Bandit has a Face Book fan group some 30,000 strong, and various publications such as Outside and Rolling Stone have written up his exploits. The movie option has been sold. The Colton Moore tee shirt is available for sale online. ABC TV has interviewed the owner of The Homegrown market, who has been robbed by Colton not once but three times.
Where media attention goes, commerce follows. The blueberry cheesecake Colton ate at The Homegrown during the course of one of his robberies is now said to be the most popular cheesecake on the island. The family whose chicken coop Moore raided made a cast of the bandit’s footprint and sold it on E-Bay for a tidy sum, or so I have heard. Enterprising teens at Orcas High organized a high school business class project to sell tee shirts to raise money for victims of the Bandit’s crime. I’m sorry to say this venture raised an outcry on the island and was shut down.
The Outside article quotes Colton’s mom. She’s one proud lady, proud that Colton managed to fly expensive airplanes with no lessons but computer simulation and reading stolen flight manuals. Not to mention that said planes were crash landed, violated closed airspace, caused upwards of a half million dollars damage in at least one case, that sort of thing. Is it possible that Colton is acting out mama’s own delusions?
Moore’s the quintessential impoverished kid who fell through the cracks of the justice system, or at least slipped through the window of a halfway house where he was serving out a sentence for scores of petty crimes he committed on his home island, Comano, before moving on to Orcas, where he’s knocked over a bank ATM, repeatedly robbed a popular tavern of thousands of dollars, eluding police with a C.U. signature scrawled in his barefoot prints. Why the bare feet? I haven’t a clue, except Colton likes to get into buildings from the roof and maybe he climbs better in bare feet.
Mama Moore claims to be in touch with her son. In long conversations they share a fantasy that he’ll make it big and they’ll go off to the Bahamas or somewhere and live in the grand style. Yes, she might have been poor but she made sure Colton had all the right toys, she said. Right toys, wrong attitude. Where’s the mother’s plea to her son to turn himself in before he gets seriously hurt, if not killed?
Meanwhile, The Orcas Book Exchange is also overshadowed with a signature Barefoot Bandit footprint. Owner Don Yerly had no idea that Moore was scrambling over the top of the Main Street building Yerly was moving out of. The Bandit was a getaway run as Yearly worked below packing books prior to moving to his new location.
So what is the appeal of the Barefoot Bandit? I asked Don. Colton Harris Moore is no Robin Hood after all, he’s an outright thief, and an outsized one, enjoying his own self-aggrandizing pranks.
“The Barefoot Bandit opens up the possibility that a lower class guy with few opportunities can pull off large scale mischief and get away with it,” Yerly said. “It’s usually rich people with a lot of resources who pull off this sort of stuff,” Don said, and I believe Don has a point.
I believe The Barefoot Bandit is a Pacific Northwest homegrown version of the California celebrity wannabes who hung around with Paris Hilton and her jet set pals, followed their movements and then begin breaking into their homes and robbing them.
If you can’t be one of them, then you get even by taking their stuff and selling it so that you can live as well as they do. You are not then simply a wannabe, you’ve become an ought-to-be. Until you get caught, that is, and are retired to a jail cell, no longer a wannabe or an ought-to-be but simply forgotten, and has-been, which no doubt will be the fate of the Barefoot Bandit. Unfortunately, this is not likely to happen soon enough.
We’re taking tips as to the whereabouts of our local teen rebel outlaw, Colton Harris Moore, aka The Barefoot Bandit. This lanky 6’5” kid’s been stealing everything from eggs out from under hens to Cirrus airplanes, and leaving outsized footprints around as calling cards, so that I for one woke up the other morning viewing a very large black blot in the shadow on my ceiling, which organized itself into a footprint. This brat is invading my subconscious. This is ridiculous!
I recently arrived on island to find that my own neighborhood had been buzzed by a chopper, searched by tracking dogs and police, in a midnight raid for Moore. He made the mistake of breaking into a rental house right on Cayou Valley Road, whose owner lives across the street, and who happened to notice odd light coming from the residence. This mini shock and awe campaign yielded nothing but signs that Colton Moore had been in the house reading newspapers and eating popcorn by candlelight.
Shades of Vietnam, said the war vet in a letter to The Island’s Sounder. He’s now president of our owners’ association. While the flashing lights and barking dogs were entertaining, maybe it is overkill when we’re talking about an 18-year-old thief, and not some ax murderer, my neighbor said. What was needed, he said, was more comprehensive police work. This is not likely to happen however, since the recession has left the sheriff’s department seriously under-manned and under-funded.
Mostly the stories I’ve picked up since are in the LOL category: two kids who were trying to claim a reward for the bandit were said to have made a citizen’s arrest on two suspicious characters walking down North Beach Road in the wee hours of the night. These youngsters performed a citizen’s arrest on two armed federal agents. Could it really be true that the escaping bandit sprayed the deputy chasing him with bear spray? Is it possible that he was camping in the woods right behind the sheriff’s substation?
All we do know is that The Barefoot Bandit has a Face Book fan group some 30,000 strong, and various publications such as Outside and Rolling Stone have written up his exploits. The movie option has been sold. The Colton Moore tee shirt is available for sale online. ABC TV has interviewed the owner of The Homegrown market, who has been robbed by Colton not once but three times.
Where media attention goes, commerce follows. The blueberry cheesecake Colton ate at The Homegrown during the course of one of his robberies is now said to be the most popular cheesecake on the island. The family whose chicken coop Moore raided made a cast of the bandit’s footprint and sold it on E-Bay for a tidy sum, or so I have heard. Enterprising teens at Orcas High organized a high school business class project to sell tee shirts to raise money for victims of the Bandit’s crime. I’m sorry to say this venture raised an outcry on the island and was shut down.
The Outside article quotes Colton’s mom. She’s one proud lady, proud that Colton managed to fly expensive airplanes with no lessons but computer simulation and reading stolen flight manuals. Not to mention that said planes were crash landed, violated closed airspace, caused upwards of a half million dollars damage in at least one case, that sort of thing. Is it possible that Colton is acting out mama’s own delusions?
Moore’s the quintessential impoverished kid who fell through the cracks of the justice system, or at least slipped through the window of a halfway house where he was serving out a sentence for scores of petty crimes he committed on his home island, Comano, before moving on to Orcas, where he’s knocked over a bank ATM, repeatedly robbed a popular tavern of thousands of dollars, eluding police with a C.U. signature scrawled in his barefoot prints. Why the bare feet? I haven’t a clue, except Colton likes to get into buildings from the roof and maybe he climbs better in bare feet.
Mama Moore claims to be in touch with her son. In long conversations they share a fantasy that he’ll make it big and they’ll go off to the Bahamas or somewhere and live in the grand style. Yes, she might have been poor but she made sure Colton had all the right toys, she said. Right toys, wrong attitude. Where’s the mother’s plea to her son to turn himself in before he gets seriously hurt, if not killed?
Meanwhile, The Orcas Book Exchange is also overshadowed with a signature Barefoot Bandit footprint. Owner Don Yerly had no idea that Moore was scrambling over the top of the Main Street building Yerly was moving out of. The Bandit was a getaway run as Yearly worked below packing books prior to moving to his new location.
So what is the appeal of the Barefoot Bandit? I asked Don. Colton Harris Moore is no Robin Hood after all, he’s an outright thief, and an outsized one, enjoying his own self-aggrandizing pranks.
“The Barefoot Bandit opens up the possibility that a lower class guy with few opportunities can pull off large scale mischief and get away with it,” Yerly said. “It’s usually rich people with a lot of resources who pull off this sort of stuff,” Don said, and I believe Don has a point.
I believe The Barefoot Bandit is a Pacific Northwest homegrown version of the California celebrity wannabes who hung around with Paris Hilton and her jet set pals, followed their movements and then begin breaking into their homes and robbing them.
If you can’t be one of them, then you get even by taking their stuff and selling it so that you can live as well as they do. You are not then simply a wannabe, you’ve become an ought-to-be. Until you get caught, that is, and are retired to a jail cell, no longer a wannabe or an ought-to-be but simply forgotten, and has-been, which no doubt will be the fate of the Barefoot Bandit. Unfortunately, this is not likely to happen soon enough.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Prof Who Knows His Heat is Big on One Big Itch
This is a very well written and entertaining murder mystery about a Hawaiian P.I. The “flavor” is spiced-up by the inclusion of the “Honolulu locals” perspective in the story line, colloquial language, and descriptions. You will feel like you live there – and not a tourist. Highly recommended!
Ralph L. Webb
Professor Emeritus, Penn State University
Website http://mne.psu.edu/webb
Ralph L. Webb
Professor Emeritus, Penn State University
Website http://mne.psu.edu/webb
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