Roy Cooper goes after car warranty scammers

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper won a temporary restraining order has been obtained against a car warranty telemarketer. Superior Court Judge Ripley Rand ordered New Jersey-based Automotive Protection to stop illegally telemarketing to North Carolinians and to stop taking their money. Below is the press release from the NCDOJ [pdf]:

Telemarketer forced to park auto warranty scam, says AG
Cooper wins order against telemarketer that targeted seniors, took money without permission

Raleigh: A telemarketer pitching car warranties to seniors must stop making illegal calls and taking money from North Carolina consumers, Attorney General Roy Cooper announced today.
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These Days

These Days (YouTube)
R.E.M.

Now I’m not feeding off you, I will rearrange your scales
If I can, and I can
March into the ocean, march into the sea

I had a hat I put it down and it sunk, reached down,
yanked it up, slapped it on my head
All the people gather
Fly to carry each his burden
We are young despite the years we are concern
We are hope despite the times
All of the sudden, these days
Happy throngs, take this joy wherever, wherever….
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Awesome road crews

I take my hat off to the incredible street crews who labored throughout the night to keep our roads open. Thanks to their Herculean efforts there wasn’t one bit of snow or ice on our city streets.

I’d especially like to thank them for going the extra mile by clearing the snow and ice from my neighborhood, yard, house, and all visible surfaces – and doing so before the sun came up. Fantastic job, guys!

Obama: “I screwed up”

What refreshing words to hear our President say: “I screwed up.” In the past eight years full of colossal screwups, I never heard that other guy ever admit he made a mistake. I am happy to hear President Obama taking responsibility for his actions. The buck finally stops at the White House desk again.

I am also happy to help Obama see the error of his ways, such as his apparently continuing the policy of kidnapping … er, rendition as my buddy Scott pointed out (fortunately it looks like the L.A. Times “got punked” in the words of Harper’s Scott Horton. Salon pointed me to some analysis of these claims by Harper’s and the Washington Monthly).

Weather closings

There are a few inches of snow in the overnight forecast and it brought up an amusing memory for Kelly tonight. She remarked at how simple it is nowadays to find out about weather closings.

It’s true. When we were kids and it snowed we were glued to the TV, waiting for an eternity for the name of our school system to flash on the screen. Now, it’s just a few simple clicks on the Web.

Of course, putting weather closings on the web raises some concerns, too. You know how we do.

Grow a Frog

Travis got a tadpole for Christmas, in a package called Grow a Frog. The tadpole arrived a week or two ago. We’ve kept it on our kitchen counter in its square plastic aquarium. “Tad” now has legs visible and almost ready to pop out of his body.

I swear I’ve enjoyed watching that tadpole as much as kids have. It’s fascinating to watch the astonishing transformation that takes place from a tadpole to a frog. I will never fully understand how and why a creature can go through such a phenomenal change.

“Reverse” Carfax

During our recent car-shopping, we bought a 10-pack of Carfax reports so we could learn the history of the cars we were evaluating. We only used a few of the reports (and they expire soon), so I thought I’d use them in a novel way. I decided to plug in the VIN of our totaled van to see where it wound up.

Turns out the van was issued a salvage title on Friday. I’m not sure who got the title, though. I was thinking maybe someone is trying to repair it but I suppose a junkyard would need a title to keep it, too.

Another interesting thing is that the accident report is listed, but Carfax wanted to charge me $7 to read it. That same accident report can be viewed for free on the Raleigh Police Department website.