Meddling

It would’ve worked, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids!

There are 617 posts filed in Meddling (this is page 58 of 62).

Feds claim fire melted WTC7. Yeah, right

The N&O editor cheerfully set science aside with today’s headline Feds debunk 9/11 conspiracy theories. The story is about NIST’s report claiming the 47-story WTC7 building’s structural failure was due to fire.

Like hell it was. At least the Associated Press’s headline (“Feds: Fire took down building next to twin towers”)was not so judgmental against those who can plainly see NIST’s theory is bullshit.

In light of the Bush administration’s blatant politicization of science at every possible turn, wouldn’t you think that announcements like these deserve a more critical eye? Wouldn’t a healthy grain of salt be prudent? At the very least, perhaps not be so dismissive of those skeptical to the “official” story?
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Dog-cloning lady: fact or fiction?

Does anyone else get the idea that Joyce McKinney, the dog-cloning lady, is playing the press? This just has to be some kind of publicity stunt.

McKinney gets worldwide press when she allegedly clones her dog, but provides reporters with a bogus address. Then word gets out that in the 1970s she allegedly kidnapped a Morman man to be her sex slave. Oh, and she’s wanted in Tennessee for allegedly talking a teenager into breaking into homes so she could use the loot to buy a leg for her three-legged horse.

Come on, this lady is a walking punchline! She can’t be for real. Somebody’s being played here, I tell you.

SWAT team busts into MD mayor’s home, kills dogs

I found a disturbing story today about a drug raid gone wrong. Police tracked a package of marijuana addressed to the wife of Berwyn Heights, Maryland mayor Cheye Calvo. When Calvo brought the package inside, deputies and county narcotics officers burst in unannounced, shot the mayor’s two Labradors dead, and handcuffed him and his mother-in-law for two hours while his dogs bled to death. Cheye’s wife Trinity Tomsic was apparently the innocent victim of identity theft in a drug-delivery scam.

“He was an aggressive licker,” Tomsic said of one dog.

Oh, and contrary to the sheriff spokesman’s statements, the warrant was not a no-knock warrant, nor was it delivered to the mayor upon their entering his premisesas required by law but days later, according to Calvo’s lawyer. Prince George’s County sheriff Michael Jackson denied this raid was a “failed operation,” yet his officers apparently didn’t even know they had just kicked in the door of the mayor.

The sheriff’s office has yet to apologize or exonerate Calvo and Tomsic.

I can’t count all the ways the Prince George’s County sheriff’s department screwed up on this raid, but I’m thinking their apology will come with quite a few zeros in it. I generally support law enforcement but when there are guns involved there is just no excuse for not doing your homework.

Ivins and anthrax, continued

I’ve still been following the unfolding of the FBI’s claims that Dr. Bruce Ivans was responsible for the anthrax attacks. So far I’m not seeing the compelling evidence I’d hoped. Fortunately, the blogosphere includes an anthrax expert. In her Anthrax Vaccine blog, Meryl Nass, M.D. takes apart the FBI’s weak case piece by piece.

This one item on Dr. Nass’s is pretty convincing:

10. Mental health. If Ivins was so out of control, so scary, why was he allowed to keep working in a high containment lab with access to some of the world’s deadliest pathogens for so long?

I can’t help but think Ivins is the fall guy, pressured to the point where he couldn’t take it anymore. I think its shameful how these press leaks are framing the man – one who will not get his day in court.

Dead or alive, the man is still innocent until proven guilty. If Dr. Ivins is the anthrax killer, show us evidence worthy of a conviction. Put up or shut up, because right now it looks like the FBI is desperately grabbing at straws.

Anthrax suspect Bruce Ivans dies

Anthrax scientist Bruce Ivans, believed by authorities to be behind the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, was found dead Tuesday from an apparent suicide. He was 62. The papers are all trying to convict him, which is unfortunate since he will never get a trial and a chance to defend himself.

Among the many questions still lurking about the anthrax attacks, this ending raises two more:

  • Why did it take this long for authorities to zero in on this guy, given the limited number of people with access to anthrax?
  • Why would a guy with easy access to the world’s deadliest poisons end his life using common acetaminophen?

Though Ivins is dead and the case will probably be closed, I would still like to see the evidence. Now we may never know.

Update: Glenn Greenwald writes of even more troubling unanswered questions in yesterday’s Salon. particularly about the role ABC News played in spreading false information linking the attacks to Iraq.

ABC’s got some ‘splaining to do.

Raleigh 911!, part II

Here’s the second part of my Raleigh 911! post. When we left our intrepid hero, he was on the way to bust a murder suspect.

We approached the area and the two officers discussed their capture strategy.

Chris then turns to me. “If I get out to run or have to leave in a hurry, ” he said, “just sit tight in the car with the doors locked. No one will mess with you.”

Gulp. Ok, we’re not playing around anymore. I nodded and felt my pulse double in an instant.
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More mall musings

I was reading this article about other cities’ battles with teens loitering around malls and it got me thinking: do we want to discourage teens from going to malls – a place where they can be better supervised? Do we really want to disperse them elsewhere? That sounds like a bad idea.

I mean, while the mall melee was scary, no one was seriously hurt (a credit to our police agencies). And as far as I know, before the fight broke out these kids weren’t committing any serious crimes. Perhaps an occasional shoplifting, but not drug-dealing or shootings.

At the mall, the ways kids can get into trouble are limited. Perhaps the answer is simply to beef up mall security.

Might minimizing multiple Mountain Dews mitigate mall melees?

A friend suggests the easiest way to keep teens from loitering in mall food courts is to eliminate the food court’s free drink refills. While it wouldn’t be the only solution I think it would be a step in the right direction.

There’s also the “mosquito” method as well. It would need to be used where teens are and not kids, however, so that rules out a food court. Might be good for the open-air drug markets around town, though.

Raleigh 911!, part I

I don’t care what you may think you know about your neighborhood, you don’t know it as well as your local beat cop does. Period. The best way to learn about your neighborhood, then, is to have a cop be you tour guide. This is what I did Friday night when I rode along with my local police officer. As you’ll read below, the night didn’t disappoint.

I showed up at the district substation at 7:30 PM, called the cellphone of the sargent on duty, and was invited inside to wait while an officer came to pick me up. After handing in my waiver, I accompanied Chris, my officer, to our first call: a domestic disturbance.
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Gang fight at Triangle Town Center?

So, uh, North Raleigh needs to deal with its gang problem. Three hundred gang members fighting at the normally-quiet (and sometimes dull) Triangle Town Center mall? Whodathunkit?

On the way back from our balloon adventure we passed two police cars screaming north up Capital Boulevard. The fact that multiple agencies were responding made me guess the call was a big one. Still, I never would’ve guessed it was a gang fight at that mall.

I think this incident might open people’s eyes to the fact that no one is immune to the problem of gangs.