Tiggers out, Timberwolves take over-

At the elementary school just on the other side of the block from Wasted Electons World Headquarters. I was pretty surprised this morning to see a front page- although localized story on Yahoo that I recognized about the re-opening of Taylor Elementary School all bright and shiny and sporting a new name- Taylor Canyon Elementary and a new mascot, a Timberwolf.

My kids are long out of elementary school but I think Taylor school is a neat place and I'm pleased to see it re-opened, fixed up and used for the local kids. It was disheartening to me and I suppose other neighbors when it was closed and boarded up and now that it is opening, I think it brings some energy and vibrancy to our little part of town. There's some heavy equipment operating over there right now that I can hear through the window and it pleases me to know that the old building is getting a fresh face for a new generation of kids.

We're Number 2!

Really? According to Forbes, Ogden is #2 in their listing of America's Most Liveable Cities. Really? No kidding!
UPDATE: For whatever reason, tonight the video isn't working. You can see the KSL story here. I'll leave the video embedded for now and perhaps it will get back into operation later.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

I can't seem to locate the entire list but what I noticed about those towns I can find is that they are mostly in flyover states and not perched on a coastline where those noisy movers and shakers that seem to make all the news and headlines we see every day congregate.

How cool is that?

A Utah icon succumbs to gravity

Surprisingly, I didn't hear about this at all from the local news here behind the Zion Curtain but from my dad this morning- Iconic stone arch collapses in southern Utah park.

I've been to Arches National Park and it is an amazing place to visit. The scenery is breath-taking and almost other worldly. So its a little bit sad to hear that one of the landmarks that makes Utah unique has succumbed to the natural forces that created it in the first place.

The Only Ones-

With apologies to David Codrea at The War on Guns who already included this story on his much better read blog but I couldn't pass up mentioning the story of a local police chief that
shot himself in the ankle while giving a briefing to his troops on how to clear a jam on a loaded pistol!

You know, Red Foreman and I have a name for people like this- Dumbass!

Earthquakes, not hurricanes or tornadoes

In case you've missed this on your local news, Wells, Nevada, a neighbor to the west, took a major hit yesterday with a 6.0 earthquake. There's some pretty dramatic photos of the effect on this historic, dusty old town.

I guess Ogden's big quake is still pending. I really need to build a bug-out box!

Why was getting on the internet so important last night?

Well, in case you haven't heard, Latter Day Saint prophet, Gordon B. Hinkley passed away yesterday evening. The news reporting of his passing interrupted all other programming on the major networks and disrupted the showing of The Russell Girl, a Hallmark Card chick-flick that the BSU was intent on watching.

Sadly, I was unable to bury myself in the interweb to avoid either this corny melodrama or the continual loop of the news reporters flapping their gums about the passing of a 97 year old church president. They all acted as if Hinkley's dieing was a huge surprise and a tragedy of unforeseen scope.

C'mon, he was 97 years old!

So, nothing else is going to happen in Utah this week. Nothing. Avalanches? Never mind. Mudslides in California? Who cares. Monsterous snowstorms bearing down on the state? You all be careful traveling to the multitude of memorial services this week.

Apparently, the decision as to who will replace President Hinkley does not require smoke from a chimney to alert the masses, just an announcement on KSL...

A believer in hypothetical criminals, bogeymen and "The Only Ones."

"If you've got a concealed weapon, don't try to protect me,"; he said. "I'll take my chances with the security forces." This quote from a guy interviewed for a story in today's Salt Lake Tribune and found via a post at The High Road.

That hypothetical criminal is a bogeyman to Steven Gunn of the Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah. He knows state law allows guns into the airport, but he wishes it didn't. "There are plenty of authorities with guns at the airport, he said."

That's a bright example of an otherwise intelligent citizen believing in the power of "The Only Ones" that David Codrea, is always highlighting in his valuable blog, The War on Guns. I wonder if Mr. Gunn believes that he could put on his seatbelt in time to reduce injury before an automobile accident. I seriously doubt it, yet he would no doubt, not see the connection between individual self protection and responsibility through proper use of a seat belt or a sidearm. I'm also pretty certain Mr. Gunn, (or his family) would be quick on the lawsuit trail should something happen to him in the firearms carry approved area of the airport or anywhere else where he depended on "The Only Ones" to protect him from a bogeyman.

Weekend Update-

What is this anyway, Saturday Night Live? It seems the only time I have for posting these days is on Sunday evenings. Some of my lack of posting is simple laziness but mostly I've benn busier than ever and when I'm not being busy, I've taken some time to just sit and relax and read a book or two.

First of all, I've not said anything about the crisis and tragedy of the mining accident down in Huntington. There's nothing I can add to everything that has already been said and if you've seen any new broadcasts over the past 2 weeks, you know the story; 6 miners trapped during a cave-in and 3 men killed while working on the rescue crew with 6 more suffering various levels of injuries. Now, after drilling 4 holes from the top of the mountain, down 1800 feet into the mine trying to locate the trapped mines, the officials are saying that the 6 trapped men may never be recovered. The mine is unstable and further digging to rescue or recover the men may just cause further collapse and injury or death of anyone trying to go into the mine shafts.

This is a terrible tragedy and the stories of the grieving families have been on our nightly news each night. My heart hurts for all of them and I wish there was some way for them to be relieved of their pain. As it is, they may not even get to bury the bodies of their loved ones.

Myself, I can't imagine working underground every day, digging coal oout of the rock. It scares the crap out of me to think of doing the work that these brave men do every day. I think its a shame that we still depend on coal for power production and I'd like to see every coal burning power plant replaced with a new, shiny nuclear powerplant so that miners like these wouldn't have to go underground.

My heart goes out to those families whose loved ones are trapped in that Huntington mine.

So what else have I been doing? I've taken the Para-Ordanance Warthog out for its first outing at the range and so far, I'm not ready to make this gun my carry gun. Like many chopped 45s, this gun has feeding problems... Grr! Its accurate and shoots where I point it and even pretty controllable for its shortened grip but it doesn't feed ammo reliably.

I shot 110 rounds through the gun. On nearly every magazine full, the last round out of the magazine fails to feed. The round comes out of the mag, gets the rim under the extractor but hangs up with the nose of the bullet against the top of the barrel hood. This hangup must have happened 8 or 9 of the 11 magazines I ran through it. Additionally, I had repeated failures to feed in the middle of the magazines where the round of ammo didn't even make it up to the bolt face but instead got hung up under the bolt as it returned to the closed position after recoiling.

There's a possibility that I was limpwristing my grip and that could be the cause of the misfeeds, but I'm not sure. I was making an effort to keep a firm grip on the gun to prevent this problem and I don't think that my grip explains why the last round in the magazine hung up so routinely. When I got home and cleaned the gun, I also discovered that the magazines had some kind of getting sticky coating on them. So I cleaned the magazines, inside and out with some solvent and applied some spray dri-film lube on the insides.

Now I've got to go back to the range and see if the sticky coating was holding up the magazine performance. I'm hopeful that the problem is solved but I'm not carrying this gun for protection until it shoots reliably.

The scooter's not working- again! Same problems as before, cutting out at high speed, not idling, dieing when the throttle is opened. I've left it sit most of the weekend because I'm mad at it. I'm either going to have to buy another carburetor for it or just keep struggling with it.

I did get the camper's awning repaired and reinstalled. The front crossbar got seriously bent when the water filled up the awning during our camping trip to Oregon. The aluminum extrusion was bent about 2 inches out of straight and by some careful bending using a couple sawhorses and the bottom of my workbench, I was able to get it nearly straight. I put new velcro on the front of the extrusion to hold the screenroom in place and I got everything put back into the storage bag and rehung on the camper.

I finished another pretty good thriller novel this morning after working on it most of this week. The book was Black Order and except for a few cheesy concepts, The SIGMA secret arm of DARPA is one of them, its a pretty good thriller. It has James Bond style thrills and secret agents and a evil bad guy with a plan to take over the world using secret technology. Its a worthy summer read and I enjoyed just sitting and reading in the shade of the carport.

I also got the overgrown weedbed in front of the house cleaned out and turned back into a flowerbed this morning. That flowerbed gets overgrown so fast its just remarkable.

What else? No movies this weekend. I did go visit Darren's 3rd scooter and ATV store, down in Bountiful on Saturday, tried to find a new face shield for my helmet as mine got damaged the other day and I'm still looking to purchase a fishing pole before this next weekend so I can go fishing with Kenny.

The job has been very hectic lately and shows no sign of relaxing in the near future. Last week I gave 4 briefings on 2 different programs and prepared charts to brief a 3rd program next week. So blogging from the job has become almost impossible as I try to keep all my programs moving forward and getting accomplished.

And now, its 10PM and time for me to get my shower- except I still have clothes to fold nd put away so I can find them when I need to get dressed for work, starting tomorrow morning.

Adam clinches financing to complete A700 certification

Cool! This is more good news for my adopted hometown. I wrote some months ago about Adams and even wrote a term paper about the company and its efforts to bring their high-tech jet into production. Its encouraging to see that they are continuing to press forward to bring aircraft production to the city's growing list of firms producing and hiring in Ogden.

Adam Aircraft has secured $105 million of financing that paves the way for the US developer to complete certification and accelerate production of the A700 very light jet and ramp up its A500 piston-powered sibling to full-scale production.

This capital, offered by new and existing investors, marks the third and probably final round of funding for Adam. "It allows us to aggressively pursue our product development and production growth plans," says company founder and chief executive Rick Adam.

The company has secured around 400 orders to date with the A700 accounting for the bulk of these sales. "We are transitioning from a research and development company into a production company and are working towards an automotive production process that will allow us to mass produce our aircraft," says the company.

Assembly lines could be established across its bases in Ogden, Utah, as well as Denver and Pueblo in Colorado.

It should be pretty interesting once they get production underway. Their jet engine supplier, Richards Manufacturing is just across the parking lot of the industrial park, so the engines supply shouldn't be a problem.

[NOTE: Posting this via email so linkage and formatting might be wonky. I can't edit or fix it from the cubicle any longer so if its busted, bear with me until I can fix it from home.UPDATE: Apologies, I tanked the link to the article. I can't find it right now. I'll keep looking.]

Corrections Officer killed in line of duty

And this disgusting piece of human garbage, Curtis Allgier is the culprit. Already in jail and formerly Utah's Public Enemy Number One, this jackass hopefully has sealed his doom by killing this officer, Stephen Anderson, a 22-year-veteran today.

Sadly, Curtis was taken back into custody today still alive and now will, I suppose, be tried in court and hopefully be given a death sentence poste haste. But in the mean time, this jackass is still breathing instead of Officer Anderson.

Seems that Officer Anderson was the first corrections offer killed on duty in twenty years!

Why insurance adjusters drink after work

I suppose, as in every industry, that there are stories and legends and "There I was" tales that unfold over drinks and burgers at weekend cookouts with coworkers or in the bar during the annual conference and seminar gathering. I suspect that this tale of resolving the damage caused by having a crane fall on a house might be one of those career building stories that gets retold time after time.

As for the homeowner, that's really got to suck, having a crane cave your roof. Check out the videos and photos of the recovery of the crane.

Boy Killed by Bear

Here is a real tragedy making today's state news- Boy Killed by Bear in American Fork Canyon. It appears that he was minding his own, 11 year old business in the family tent camping over the weekend when a black bear decided he smelled like dinner. The bear tore through the tent, attacked the boy and carried him 400 yards off before dropping his body in the forest.

Its a tragedy, it really is and my heart goes out to the family. I can't remember the park regulations about firearms in campgrounds but I'm a pretty firm believer in being prepared to protect oneself in spite of paper signs on a park bulletin board. Its apparent that the Dad in this case wasn't prepared to defend his family, and that's a shame. According to the Ranger quoted in this story, there's been no bear attacks in 28 years- that's small solace to this grieving family that lost their son.

We don't get hurricanes in Utah

Nor do we get tornados like the ones that devastate the Midwest. We could have an earthquake, someday, and that will most likely be a problem at my house, if it ever occurs. What we do have, too often are hillside fires just like the one that is burning right now, just 1/4 mile up the hill from my house. The BSU and I saw it at about 6:15 this morning when we left out for the dentist's office, it was much bigger and further up the hill upon our return about 9:30.

There's lots of smoke and you can see the flames from the house and there is a fierce wind blowing today but hopefully the guys that get paid to tackle blazes like this will get it under control shortly. There shouldn't be any concern for my house as the fire is burning up the hill right now but its disturbing to see just the same.

Envision Ogden!

So, there's a billboard that I pass on my daily commute and on are the words EnvisionOgden.org. Of course I never remember to check it out when I sit down, until today.

Check out my adopted hometown through this newly implemented site. Its obviously aimed at the growing industry of outdoor activities and recreation that is so popular and prevalent here. And that's a good thing because Ogden deserves recognition for the opportunities, both industrial and recreational that it has to offer the world.

Does it make you want to come for a visit? Or a job? Either way, Ogden can show you some real possibilities.

I've added a permanent link over there on the right, below the "Not A Blog" header and as soon as I can get a response from the editorial staff at Envision Ogden, I'm going to ask for a properly sized button photo to replace the text. Right now I can't contact them through the network filters in place here...

Another brainiac comes to grief-

Man Arrested for Printing Kiddie Porn at Kinko's

When police approached Chandler after being called by two other customers he told them he didn't have a computer at home and so was forced to use the computers and printers at Kinko's.

Two hundred and thirtyfour counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, huh? Say hello to the cellblock hotel. Have a nice stay!

The only ones important enough-

With regards to David Codrea from his blog, The War on Guns, I couldn't help but steal his signature header for this post.

Salt Lake City Employees Banned From Using Cell Phones While Driving

The mayor would like everyone to think about the families who have lost loved ones in car crashes caused by drivers on cell phones. He encourages drivers to pull over when the cell phone rings. He would like this order to apply to everyone; however state law prohibits cities from making those restrictions. Therefore Mayor Anderson is making this a rule for all city employees, except city council members. [emphasis added] He hopes this will set an example. "It's about raising people's consciousness. Visualizing what can happen when you take your eyes off the road for two or three seconds," Anderson says.

Now, Rocky has already proven himself loonier than almost everyone except Dennis Kucinich and has made a (ugly) name for himself by speaking out against our administration and the war in Iraq. He's even due to debate Sean Hannity sometime in the very near future.

But I love his edict directing all city employees to not use their cell phones while driving- except for the special ones- the city council members. I suppose the reasons of distraction from task of driving Salt Lake's busy streets don't apply to those important folks!

Chase in Ogden results in Arrest

Here's a bit of local news that captured prime time interest yesterday since it occurred during the afternoon drive time. Police, acting on a tip, chased and caught an attempted homicide and bomb threat suspect on I-15, between Riverdale and Ogden.

Seems the bad guy was waistband carrying his firearm and when he reached for it coming out of his car, a quick responding officer hit him with a Taser to take the urge out of him.

One bad guy in custody and traffic is back to normal for the evening commute. Good deal.

Do ya think?

Man Being Held Without Bail After Fourth DUI Arrest in Less Than a Month

Somebody's a slow learner, and a dumbass!

Adventures in headline writing

I'm trying to get back in the game, really I am! Let me start with a favorite Possumblog technique- what's wrong with this headline?

High Speed Chase Ends in Fatal Shooting

Maybe this will help-

The driver and passenger ran in different directions. After running about a half mile, Murray confronted officers from a distance of 100 yards or so. Jensen continued, "The subject raised a handgun and fired twice at my officer. And the officer returned fire with two rounds. At that point the individual took his own life with his handgun."

"After that we didn't hear anything from him," said Sgt. Jeff Nigbur. "We went down into the ravine and apparently found the subject. It looks like a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head."

So, yeah, shots were fired and somebody died. Not exactly what you think of when you hear, "fatal shooting" is it?

Man Killed While Trying Stunts on Motorcycle

I expect to see this guy nominated for a Darwin Award for 2007.

Police say 20-year-old Ty Griffiths was in the parking lot of an apartment complex when he tried to do a wheelie. However, officers say he instead lost control of his motorcycle, went flying through a window of one of the apartments and was thrown into the brick building.

Remember, life is hard. Its harder when you're stupid.

And to prove that stupid doesn't have to be lethal, just painful, check out this gem from the comments section:

This proves national section can be a harsh master.