Six Schools "Locked Down" Over Student Gun Sighting

Six schools in the Macalester-Groveland and Highland Park neighborhoods of St.Paul, Minnesota were locked down on the morning of October 30 when a student on his way to class at Cretin-Durham Hall notified school authorities that he had seen an individual getting out of a car with a gun in his hand, says Twin Cities.com. After 25 minutes of searching, police gave the all-clear and life returned to as normal as it gets in the capital city.

Just three days ago I noticed that a man searching through the used parts bins in a bicycle shop a short distance from Cretin-Durham Hall was openly wearing an automatic pistol in a holster on his hip. Others noticed as well. Nobody called the police or reported it to a school principal. Maybe the guy was a cop. On the other hand, he might well have been a serial killer. We probably should have called the police and let them determine the facts. Can't be too careful.

A few years back, University of Minnesota police were informed that an individual had carried a cased gun into Northrup Auditorium. The facility and those nearby were locked down while they were searched. The cops found an electrician with a cased high-dielectric tool. Can't be too careful.

Moose Races This Weekend!

The annual Alaskan moose racing season begins this year on Halloween weekend.

Wiggle Honda Cycling Team Makes Some Changes

Rochelle Gilmore's talented Wiggle Honda women's cycling team is undergoing a turnover in personnel now that the road season has come to an end. Youthful Aussie sprinter Chloe Hosking has moved south from the Norwegian Hi-Tec Products squad, along with team mate Elisa Longo Borghini. Climbing specialist and winner of the Giro Donne Mara Abbott, Belgian star Jolien D'Hoore and newly-wed Audrey Cordon-Ragot are also among the new members of the team, joining current stars Giorgia Bronzini and Emilia Fahlin and others.


Chloe Hosking

 
Elisa Longo Borghini

Mara Abbott

 

Belgian champion Joliene D'Hoore

French newlywed Audrey Cordon-Ragot

California Highway Patrol Steals Nude Pictures From Women's Cell Phones

Want to look at and share photos of naked ladies you meet on the highway? Get a job with the California Highway Patrol.

If a an attractive young lady is arrested in California, her cell phone is confiscated and the arresting officer searches it for nude photos. If he finds some he then sends them to fellow cops and buddies. According to this article in the Contra Costa Times this has been standard procedure for CHP personnel for years. Society supplies firearms and sophisticated electronic equipment to degenerates so they can indulge their perversions while operating in an official capacity, pretty much immune from repercussions. Except when one of them makes a mistake.

In this particular incident, even though the woman involved had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit, charges against her were dropped in the aftermath of the disclosure of the nude photo sharing. Why would such be the case?

Interstate Cigarette Smuggling

This piece from the Vice website gives us some fascinating insights into the dynamics of cigarettes and taxes. The moralistic, do-gooder, prohibitionist elements of post-Puritan American society have yet to subvert what remains of the Constitution to the extent of a tax structure that would make cigarette prices the same from one state to another. There is a federal tax of $1.0066 per pack of weeds but the state tax hit varies considerably. Missouri, the least predatory state in nicotine taxation, adds only .17 to the cost of 20 Marlboros. Those same coffin nails will cost an extra $4.35 if purchased in New York. Additionally, some cities slap on an extra charge for polluting the air as well.  Chicago ($1.18), Cook County ($3.00), Illinois ($1.98) adds $6.16 to a pack of cigarettes, the highest levy in the country.The Big Apple gets $1.50 and Anchorage $2.206.


Not surprisingly, entrepreneurial souls have taken advantage of the disparity in taxes to satisfy the wants of the less enterprising by selling imported cigarettes in packs or singly on the street. This article from the New York Times tells about "Lonnie Loosie", a felon that, in the day of the comprehensive background check, will never be able to get a "real" job. He makes ends meet by peddling single smokes for .75, each, two for a dollar, and a pack of the popular Newports for $8 on the streets of midtown Manhattan. Interestingly, some of his customers are women that work in nearby offices who arrange their purchases by cell phone.

OH, NO! California Law School Grads Can't Find Jobs!

In a tragedy of epic proportions graduates of Whittier Law School and other California legal diploma mills are having a problem finding employment in their chosen field. According to this almost funny OC Register article would-be prosecutors have ponied up $42K and more a year and still have to make espressos to pay their student loans off.  Tsk, Tsk.

While schools like Stanford and UC Bezerkley still seem to place their ambulance chasers in legal occupations, those exiting lower tier schools like Whittier aren't being pursued. Isn't this what supply and demand is really all about? We would hope that a surplus of attorneys would mean lower legal fees but that won't be the case. These legal geniuses, a quarter of whom can't pass the state bar exam, all want to work for high-profile legal firms or, better yet, as prosecutors and public defenders on the guaranteed government payroll with fabulous health and retirement benefits. It'll be  pleasant day when the number leaving the legal profession exceeds those entering it.

Lionfish Taking Over The Oceans!

As part of our never-ending mission to alert the populace to the dangers from the animal kingdom, we present the latest horror story of alien invasion. Joining the coyotes in California's Orange County and the raccoons in Toronto, Ontario, are lionfish in the waters surrounding Florida. Since their spectacular appearance immediately attracts attention, these piscine carnivores can't sneak up on the locals, they're instantly noticeable.

VG-10 3 1/2" Blade Folding Knife

A description, and a picture of what could be the knife carried by veteran sniper Omar Gonzalez when he leaped over the fence surrounding the White House on September 20th and dashed as far as the East Room of the Holiest of Holys. If indeed that is the knife he was carrying and he bought it himself, then he spent over $140 for this simple tool, a relatively expensive model.

" The affidavit contradicts initial reports by the agency that the man was unarmed," it says here. Ergo, anyone carrying a pocket knife is considered armed, whatever results that might lead to.

Knives are used for all kinds of common chores, sharpening pencils, peeling apples and potatoes, opening envelopes, slicing steaks, etc. They're not generally regarded as weapons, though certainly they could be used as such and have been. The daughter of screen goddess Lana Turner extinguished her mother's gangster boyfriend Johnny Stompinato with a kitchen knife.

Other common tools also make effective weapons.  An ice pick is a particularly dangerous item, even if not used as a weapon. Hat pins, when women wore hats, were used by ladies in danger to repel unwanted attention. It wouldn't be particularly difficult to cause serious injury or worse with a knitting needle. Many other tools made of hard materials, hammers, wrenches, pliers, bars, could also be used to injure an innocent politician. Isn't it time that all hard and dangerous implements be banned from our nation's capitol?

 Now, get this: a one-time prison guard that currently represents Lackawanna County in the Pennsylvania state legislature exchanged gunfire with an assailant in Harrisburg not far from the state capital complex, as we learn here. The Democrat is licensed to carry a firearm, as you might expect, since he has been a member of the state coercion complex at a lower level than he occupies presently. But is he authorized to fire it at someone else? We have, after all, only his and his legislator pal's testimony about this incident. If an unelected pleb fires a gun near the capital grounds in even an inconsequential state like South Dakota or West Virginia they're liable to spend some time in an office explaining it all. How much different is this affair than the George Zimmerman one, except for the lack of a body?

Coyotes Threaten Seal Beach, California, Raccoons Go After Toronto

The city of Seal Beach, California has implemented a program to trap and "euthanize" coyotes that have invaded the seaside municipality on the western edge of Orange County. These aliens have made their unauthorized presence known by allegedly attacking a dozen pets, presumably dogs, and have been seen at least 99 times so far this year as we learn in this article from the Orange County Register.

So far, three of the blood thirsty canines have been captured and put to death by a private contractor hired by the city. An extremely intelligent animal, as animals go, successfully trapping the wily wild dog is no easy task. They've been on the list for local extinction all over the country for years but continue to maintain their range in the wild and have extended it to the suburbs and even in heavily populated areas. Can't have that. Can't have Fluffy become a sandwich for one of these uncivilized varmints.

A few years back an incident that involved the death of a small dog in a Milwaukee suburb wasn't witnessed but was attributed to a coyote attack nonetheless. The Journal-Sentinel said the response to its coverage generated more mail than any previous story ever. Today, cheeseheads are being advised to get used to urban predators.

A Chicago study has found that coyotes are everywhere in one of America's largest cities and have positive aspects, controlling the exploding population of another urban invader, the Canada goose, and rodents that have been a problem since cities came into being. City dwellers will probably have to get used to the usually invisible canines.

Across the continent, sophisticated Toronto, Ontario has problems with intelligent raccoons that seem to be able to force their way into almost any garbage container, per this story.  People just prefer that wild animals stay in their normal environment on the Discovery Channel.

 

From One Who Knows, Conrad Black Has This To Say

Conrad Black, himself railroaded by enthusiastic and dishonest prosecutors, has written a piece about the same warped American non-justice system regularly mentioned here. Black has led an interesting life, as presented in this Wikipedia post.

Bill Gates Could Be Proving That He's Now Rich

Articles in the Wall Street Journal and Blood Horse say that Microsoft co-founder and one of the world's wealthiest men, Bill Gates, has purchased the southern California property Rancho Paseana from diet maven Jenny Craig for $18 million. Craig and her late husband Sid were major players in California thoroughbred racing for some years and the property was used as a training and lay-up facility for their racing stable, which included stars like Dr. Devious, Sidney's Candy, Paseana and Candy Ride.

Of course, the true indicator of wealth, admission to the company of the world's richest, is the incredibly expensive hobby of thoroughbred racing. Bill Gates, while being constantly portrayed in the media as one of the world's richest men, has yet to start setting fire to money by indulging in the sport of kings. Hopefully he'll begin to do so from his new base near the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. Trainers, jockeys, grooms, and bettors would all welcome a Gates money infusion in a sport that's been in a downward spiral for thirty years.

Anchorage Cops Want More Part-Time Work

This story from ADN tells us about the problem of 80 "nuisance calls" to Anchorage police this year in the area of the Walmart  in mid-town Anchorage. It doesn't say who makes these calls or if the calls are generally made by the same person. Once the number reaches 100 calls in a year, the business is subject to a $500 fine for each such call and responsible for a program to alleviate the problem.

Two things. First of all, city code aside, is Walmart, or any other business, responsible for the behavior of people that are on or near its property? Is a bank responsible if someone sticks it up? What type of program is a business expected to initiate to solve this problem? The fact is that any private business is very much limited in what they can do to legally influence public behavior. Just about all that they can do is refuse to admit individuals to their premises. That leads to the second thing, which we're seeing in other localities as well. Local police agencies want businesses to hire security to discourage antisocial or illegal behavior. Law enforcement doesn't seem to have the resources to carry out this mission, which is, in fact, their reason for being. What they want businesses to do is hire off-duty cops to provide security. This gives the overworked cops a well-paid respite at a desk inside the Walmart door so they don't have to respond to calls during their actual duty hours.

 
In further news from the land of the midnite sun, the city of Anchorage is taking Uber, the ride-sharing company, to court for making life tough for the cab companies. It seems the free-wheeling days of happy Anchorage are now a thing of the past.

 A similar situation exists in the Dinkytown neighborhood adjoining the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. Rambunctious collegians occasionally overstep the bounds of civilized behavior in the aftermath of Gopher athletic victories or defeats. The obvious remedy for this is a continuing presence of paid off-duty cops.

US Men Win Track Gold In Team Pursuit At Master's Worlds

Twin Cities track Methuselahs Dan Casper, James Tainter and Tim Mulrooney, together with 1988 Olympian David Brinton, have won the gold medal in the 45-54 age bracket of the team pursuit competition at the World's Masters Track Championships at the Manchester Velodrome in Manchester, UK. Congratulations to these dedicated athletes.





Local track star and Doctor of Physical Therapy Linsey Hamilton takes her talent to the international stage for the first time and hooks two bronze medals.
Minnesota all-around competitor Tim Mulrooney.

 
Minneapolis firefighter and defending individual pursuit gold medalist Dan Casper wins a silver this time.
 


Reliable regular at the National Sports Center Velodrome Pat Whelan collects a silver in his age group on day three of the competition.

Evelyn Stevens Goes to Boels-Dolmans

American cycling queen Evelyn Stevens has moved on from the US Specialized-Lululemon team to Netherlands-based Boels-Dolmans Cycling. A three-time member of the world champion team time trial squad, Stevens adds yet another dimension to a group that already includes World Cup Champion Lizzie Armitstead; New Yorker Megan Guarnier; Polish two-time world scratch race champion Katarzyna Pawłowska and Ellen van Dijk, four time world individual time trial champion.

Alligators An "Invasive Species" in Minnesota

What should a Gopher Stater do when they see a 3 foot + alligator lurking in the weeds near their mailbox? In this particular case it seems as though the right thing to do was done by Helen Zumbaum, who called the Anoka County Sheriff's Dept. to report the sighting. A cursory attempt was made to capture the dangerous creature but finally there was only one option left, kill it with two shots to its reptile head with a Glock. As an invasive species, it's obvious that alligators can't be allowed to establish a presence north of the 45th parallel. Allowed to reproduce in that area it's entirely likely that in a short period of time, geologically speaking, these carnivores would, through Darwinian natural selection, eventually grow fur to protect themselves from the un-Floridian climate. It's terrifying to think about them laying in wait behind a snowbank to capture some innocent third grader hopping off the school bus. Thank goodness we don't have to worry about it for now, at least in northern Anoka County.