13 JUL 05: A G.R.E.A.T. SAVE

Columbus Police Chief Rick Boren announced Tuesday -- wait, hold on a second. Is he calling himself Rick these days or Ricky? I hear both names on the evening news. We can assume which name wife Nancy uses for him....

But anyway: Chief Boren announced Tuesday he's figured out a way to continue several crime prevention programs in Columbus. He probably could write a book about how he rescued one of those programs - but I think "DARE to be Different" already is taken.

You may recall there was concern Columbus city budget cuts would bring the end of police drug and gang resistance programs. But Chief Boren did some staff maneuvering to keep both of them going. We'd like to thank Atlanta baseball manager Bobby Cox for inspiring this....

Chief Boren explained at Tuesday's Columbus Council meeting he'll develop a "pool' of police officers, who will rotate into open positions with the anti-drug and anti-gang programs. It was either that, or find the extra money selling that cool-looking DARE car on eBay.

A chart shown by WRBL indicates the anti-drug program DARE will drop from five officers to two. But the Muscogee County School Board talked the other night about providing funding of its own - so we could wind up with Super Double DARE.

The anti-gang program GREAT still will have two officers, but their duties will expand to include time with a police gang task force. I guess that means it will be GREAT-er, instead of lesser....

Chief Boren also reconfigured his staff to save two other crime prevention programs. One of them is called "conditional discharge" - which I thought referred to the rules for when police fired at a suspect.

The other program rescued by Rick(y) Boren is called "juvenile diversion." I fear too many teenagers are involved with this now. You know: they pretend to point to a celebrity standing right behind you - and when you turn around, they take your food or your money.

In another cost-cutting move, Chief Boren announced the Public Safety Center will be closed on weekends beginning this weekend - and will close to the public on weeknights at 7:00 p.m. So if you want to make a citizen's arrest on Friday night, you'll need to lock the suspect in your basement until Monday morning.

The Public Safety Center joins a variety of places in Columbus with earlier closing times. We mentioned Tuesday the Public Library Café is closing at 7:00 p.m. now. And a lot of fast-food places lock their doors at 10:00 p.m. on weekends now -- but sadly, the sports bars close their grills early anyway.

On another issue, Columbus Mayor Bob Poydasheff tried to offer words of assurance to residents Tuesday. He says the city will NOT grab anyone's property under "eminent domain" rules for now. So all of you spelling it "imminent domain" like it might happen tonight can knock it off....

Mayor Poydasheff says an upcoming Columbus Council work session will study the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing local governments to take over private property for business development. A lot of bloggers are nervous about this - but some people living near Victory Drive wish this session would start sometime today.

Mayor Poydasheff says Columbus might apply eminent domain rules only to "blighted sections" of town with "absentee landlords." This gives me a great idea - I'll demand my landlord come to my door every month to pick up the rent check.

E-MAIL UPDATE: Oh dear - you attempt to mention someone else's blog and what happens? This happens:

Hey Burkard,

While you were slapping me on the backside with the wet towel you used to sop up the remnants of Dennis from your blogsite, you must have splattered your glasses. Go back and read my post again and you will see that I made no suggestion that the newscasters should be forbidden from posting blogs. I clearly said that if they wanted to do so that they should do it on a website dedicated as their personal blog. The problem I have is with Fox News hosting their blogs directly into their news website. "In my view", this muddies the water of reporting the facts.

Of course since I wrote that post I have had my face held into the obvious facts that I at first failed to see. I guess you missed this too or you would have pointed it out as well. To my knowledge, 'most' newspapers contain an editorial page where the editor and other employees of the newspaper can vent their personal views.I stand corrected in 'this' area.

Now can you dry off your glasses and see that I did not say that professional newscasters should stay out of the 'blogosphere' as you put it. I clearly pointed out that Tony Snow, a newscaster for Fox News, has his 'own personal' web space where he posts his comments, and I find that perfectly acceptable because this does not 'muddy the water' of news reporting "in my view".

As for Matt Drudge, I have been reading his website for years, and what I see there is basically a clearing house for headlines from other news sources. While he does 'scoop' some news stories such as the Monica Lewinski story his website remains a collage of other peoples efforts. He is not offering to validate the stories, only present them to us, much along the same lines as a blogger does I suppose.

Otherwise you do a fair job blogging and I read your site often.

Bubba....

Thank you for clarifying, Bubba - and I appreciate the Southern charm with which you do it. It's a lot gentler than some of the other messages we've received here lately.

But I never used the word "forbidden" Tuesday, in describing what Bubba wrote. I even cleaned the water spots off my glasses and checked....

Newscasters offered "comments" on stories within their newscasts long before anyone thought of blogs. Paul Harvey offers "news and comment" to this day on his radio program -- and Wal-Mart seems rather happy with his comments which sound a lot like commercials.

For the record: I have intentionally avoided the Drudge Report for more than a year. It started when he posted Janet Jackson's Super Bowl exposure on his home page with no warning. Then he falsely claimed John Kerry had an affair with an intern. Yet some people still contend he's more trustworthy and reliable than Newsweek magazine.

We have one more e-mail today - and again, if you think I'M the one obsessed with News 3....

Richard,

I noticed Roslyn's name is no longer on WRBL's website. What happened to her?

MM

This refers to longtime reporter and anchor Roslyn Giles - the one who's made news on WRBL simply by giving birth. Certainly they wouldn't fire her for refusing to have a baby during a ratings month....

Don't worry -- I don't think Roslyn Giles was fired at all. People in a position to know told me Tuesday Giles has left television news, and now is selling real estate. Apparently she didn't do any reporting this year on the so-called "housing bubble."

Roslyn Giles is married to a Columbus police officer, so I was a bit concerned when this e-mail came. Did the officer finally move to an Atlanta-area police force, for higher pay? Then again, Giles might find the same thing at Atlanta TV stations. How else could Monica Kaufman afford her changing hairstyles?

Now for other brief bites from a sticky Tuesday:

+ Which big local Internet hosting company lost all its web service to Hurricane Dennis, and had to restore everything manually? What should the managers buy first -- zip-file backup disks for the data, or Thompson's Water Seal for the basement?

+ Scattered flooding remained on the Columbus and Phenix City Riverwalks from Hurricane Dennis. But there's an even larger area under water at Six Flags Over Georgia. You know it's bad when that old man in the commercials is dancing aboard a rowboat.

(NBC-38 is giving away a vacation package to Atlanta, which includes "Six Flags" and "White Water." You'd think those parks would merge - except the Six Flags water is awfully brown right now.)

+ The Russell County Commission met, but did NOT address the latest controversy about Probate Judge Al Howard. He opposes having his office moved, in a dispute over whether it's a political vendetta or a requirement for security reasons. Maybe they should offer him that vacant old building at Dillingham and Broad....

+ Canterbury Manor resident Ruby Crow marked her 100^th birthday. Imagine the changes this woman has seen! When she was born in 1905, there was only one "red state" - and technically Oklahoma was still "Indian Territory."

+ The Talbot County School Board discussed whether to build a new school on a hunting range. Now there's a unique way to promote exercise - have children run inside every time they hear a gunshot.

+ The Alabama Board of Education voted to ban carbonated soft drinks in all grade schools. If you can't drink an R.C. Cola until you're 11 or 12, shouldn't Moon Pies be banned as well -- or at least require proof of age?

+ Brookstone High School tennis player Elizabeth White advanced in the Southern regional 16-year-old tournament at Cooper Creek Park. How White could do this after reporting on a new Lee County helicopter for the evening news is simply amazing....

+ Instant Message to the "Americans for Fair Trade": So according to your radio ad, I should oppose the Central American Free Trade Agreement because "CAFTA rhymes with NAFTA"?! Should I also oppose Columbus Councilor Nathan Suber, because his last name rhymes with goober?

BIG PREDICTION: I dare to predict President Bush will NOT nominate Roy Moore to the U.S. Supreme Court. After all, the former Alabama Chief Justice wasn't nominated for Attorney General a few weeks ago -- succeeding fellow straight-laced Christian John Ashcroft.

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