This is a good police story…

MIAMI (Reuters) – Police in a Florida city used the promise of economic stimulus checksto lure 76 people to their arrest on a variety of outstanding warrants.

The Fort Lauderdale Police Department set up “Operation Show Me the Money” to round up people wanted on charges ranging from second-degree murder to guns and drug charges to failure to pay child support.

Using the name of the fictitious “South Florida Stimulus Coalition,” police mailed letters asking the suspects to call an undercover phone line and make appointments to claim their money. When they showed up at an auditorium and presented their identification, they were led to an area where uniformed police were waiting to arrest them.

Police said such roundups are safer and more efficient than serving warrants at people’s homes.

“You totally control the environment whereas when you’re walking up to someone’s home there’s an unknown factor there,” Police Sergeant Frank Sousa said on Friday.

The operation ended on Thursday night and Sousa declined to say how much money the suspects were offered.

Kudos to whoever came up with this idea.

I wonder how many who did show up also enrolled in Donald Trump’s new plan to make everyone a millionaire?

Most  government websites are boring.

Then there is is the site of Ray the D.A.

Wouldn’t it be nice if other government sites were as interesting?

“A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.”             

 John Barrymore

I remember as a kid reading the ads for baseball umpire school. But, I have no regrets because I wouldn’t have been very good at it.

I’m still working on a few dreams.

Every Mayor has their own style.

How’s this for style?

The Manitowoc mayor’s skydive for charity ended with a rough landing and serious injuries to a spectator.

Mayor Justin Nickels was jumping in tandem with a veteran sky diver Andy Van Handel Sunday to raise money for Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.

Van Handel says they hit the ground at a fast speed without any wind to slow them down. They hit an 8-year-old boy and grabbed him as they slid along the ground. The boy was frightened, but not seriously injured.

Steve Scheuren was standing nearby with his family and saw the parachuters headed toward him. He pushed or pulled one of his kids out of the way, but the skydivers smashed into his leg, breaking it. Scheuren will need surgery to repair the injury.

The mayor had a bad headache, but was otherwise OK.

I did the dunk tank. I did the cow milking contest. But, I never jumped out of a plane.

Are there any other Mayors or former Mayors out there that jumped out of a plane for charity?

Yesterday I wrote about a worthwhile $3.5 million Stimulus grant.

Shortly after I wrote that post I read this from the New York Post …

The stimulus package is living up to its provocative name by funding a bacchanalia of behavioral sex research, a Post analysis reveals.

The next fiscal year is set to be one of the friskiest ever in the nation’s science labs, as researchers probe the ins and outs of sex patterns among humans and even some of our four-legged friends.

Among the most titillating grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health are studies that would:

* Examine “barriers to correct condom use” at Indiana University, at a cost of $221,000.

* Study “hookups” among adolescents at Syracuse University. Study’s cost: $219,000.

* Evaluate “drug use as a sex enhancer” in an analysis of “high-risk community sex networks” at the University of Illinois, Chicago. That study will cost $123,000.

 Is there anyone out there who wants to try to defend this as economic stimulus?

Just for the record, I was not opposed to the idea of hundreds of billions dollars being used for infrastructure improvements. Even if we were not in the worst recession since the 1980′s I would have supported borrowing and spending on infrastructure improvements.  Infrastructure is crumbling because of decades of neglect.

I was opposed to all the other non-infrastructure stuff in the stimulus bill.

It was announced last week that Rice Lake will receive $3.5 million in Stimulus funds to rebuild our Main Street.

I do not feel guilty a piece of the pie has been cut for us.

I would even take a second serving.

Caster Semenya is being forced to take a gender test.

A South African teenager will be forced to take a test to prove she is a woman after storming to victory Wednesday in the 800-meter sprint at the world championships.

Quite frankly I don’t care if Caster is a man or a woman. I will let those that give a damn about track worry about that.

What this story did get me to thinking … why isn’t there a test for politicians to determine what exactly they are?

How many times have you said … “I didn’t vote for that.”

Every politician owes their start to someone.

That “start” could come in many ways. My “start” happened in 1978. I was given the opportunity to do political cartoons by our local newspaper owner/publisher Warren Leary.

It was while doing those political cartoons that I really started to study local elected officials. Not just attend meetings but to really study each and every member of the governing body.

I learned who were the “good ones” and what made them good at their job. I learned who were the “bad ones” and what made them bad at their job.

I learned to put out my opinions and let the chips fall where they may. I learned how to accept criticism of my positions with the same humor I used to needle others.

When I was first elected as a Mayor my only political experience was doing those cartoons for the newspaper. For over thirty years local politics has been a huge part of my life.  I owe it all to Warren Leary for giving me the opportunity to do those cartoons.

Warren Leary passed away this week.

Thanks Warren for all you did for me. I won’t ever forget.

Governor Jim Doyle joined the ever growing list of Governors who are not running for re-election.

During Monday’s formal announcement, Doyle promised not to pull a Brett Favre and come back.

Who would have thunk it.

Brett Favre is an unflattering noun in the lexicon.

You know it’s bad when Forbes has an article “America’s Fastest Dying Cities”.

How does Forbes define a dying city?

 A dying city faces ” fleeing populations, painful waves of unemployment and barely growing economies.”

Where’s it worst? Ohio, according to our analysis, which racked up four of the 10 cities on our list: Youngstown, Canton, Dayton and Cleveland. The runner-up is Michigan, with two cities–Detroit and Flint–making the ranking.

The article continues …

So far this decade, 115,000 people have left Cleveland, for other climes. Smaller changes in other regions can be just as painful. Nearly 30,000 people have left Youngstown, Ohio, and they aren’t being replaced by either new babies or new immigrants.

The article does not say how these dying cities can be revived.

I am sure each of these cities has unique problems so there is no universal cure for their ailments. If there is no universal cure then solutions must come from within each individual city. Real local leadership is needed.

What I fear is these cities will wait for ”the cure” to come from Washington.

They will be waiting a long time if they do.