Maybe the paraphrase got a little garbled.....

"Copley also said he’s instituted a policy requiring officers to report reasons for car searches and canine unit searches, even though by law, police officers don’t need a reason to search vehicles."

.....or else somebody repealed the Fourth Amendment while I wasn't looking. Probable cause? That ring a bell?

It was nice to see "temblor" spelled and used correctly, by the way.

But if you ask me, it's a little odd to see the astrology column under a "Police & Courts" header.

The Obama Story

Finally finished the New Yorker piece on Barack Obama's political roots in Chicago.....yes, the one with the scandalous (for 24 hours) cover. Despite the New Yorker's reputation for liberal editorializing, the article is meticulously reported, illuminating, and thoroughly objective. It's good reading.

You can find it here.

What's Not Said

The Whig helpfully informs us today that a local church is hosting a free sneak preview of "The Truth Project," the latest enterprise coming out of the Focus on the Family organization.

What it doesn't tell you is that if you actually want to attend a Truth Project session, rather than just the sneak preview, it will cost you $119 ($149 for a couple).

If you'd like to get an alternate perspective on the Truth Project, I suggest reading this article.

Why, Lord?

Did you see fit to punish Quincy? First with a terrible flood, and then with a 19-paragraph story about some kindergartner in Gurnee who is an advertising model?

Why?

Funny Money

Let's see now......

I loaned Frank $20 a while back and I doubt if he'll ever pay me back. Oh boy, that's $20 I have created in "community benefits"!

Seriously, I'm glad that Blessing Hospital is "not required by any regulatory agency" to come up with its "community benefits" numbers.....because those numbers are strictly PR. Since when is a bad debt a community benefit? And I have a sneaking suspicion that the unreimbursed difference on Medicaid and Medicare patients is made up in part by us full-paying slobs whose bills are padded mercilessly to help make up that difference.

The hospital's 2005 IRS Form 990, submitted in 2006, showed it making almost $202 million in total revenue and having $188 million in total expenses, thus adding almost $14 million to its asset base that year. (I don't have ready access to the 2006 form, and am not sure whether the 2007 form has been filed yet.) But $14 mil. in what would be called "profits" if Blessing wasn't a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charity isn't bad.

It was nice......

......to read a story about business and the minimum wage today that didn't quote Mike Nobis. I was beginning to think he was the only living businessperson in town, judging from the Whig's reflexive reliance on him as a quote source. Must have been away from his phone.