Although the inspection is most likely being done to curb any future lawsuits, the parents of the small girl who fell look like they will be suing the Parks and Recreation Board.

Jones said the girl’s family has sent a tort claim to the city, a preliminary step to filing a lawsuit.

So what's the solution, put up barriers everywhere and make sure said barriers are padded?  Take down the bike trails, because it's too dangerous anyway?  Surely some of the responsibility should be laid squarely on the parents and people who ride the trails and enjoy the scenery.  We are a sue happy society and it's going to end up ruining Evansville for the rest of us.

My heart does go out to the little girl cited as getting hurt, it's a very scary thing to have a child injured.  But is the first step to always go after someone else in hopes of getting money?  Instead, lets look at ways that the community could help with medical bills or another means of generating funds, that won't require extreme measures like building walls.

Lastly, if assessment is necessary and actions are required, let's keep the work local.  I can already imagine the next headline, 'Evansville Hires Employees From Mexico To Install Safety Equipment On Greenway'.

Source: CourierPress.com

It's been a sad morning for families and friends of the two miners who were lost in the mine collapse in western Kentucky.  All day news has emerged that at least one miner had been pulled out of the mine alive, while others have reported that both have been killed.  As of this posting no official word on the status of the two miners have been released.

The two men have been identified as Justin Travis and Michael Carter.  At one point this morning rescue crews were reportedly able to get within 4 ft of one of the men, although it wasn't clear which one or if they were even alive.

Social network site Twitter has been alive with updates on the western Kentucky coal mine collapse, but seems after each update it must be retracted.  Up until the past 15-20 mins everything has been speculation or unverified information coming out of local news outlets.  It's obvious that instant news from a source like Twitter can be a double edged sword, spreading misinformation being good or bad.

My thoughts and prayers have gone out to the family, friends, and miners who may still be trapped inside.  I couldn't possibly imagine what they must be going through.

What this means for the city of Evansville are extremely steep fines.  According to the Courier and Press these fines can reach up to $37,500, per day!  Weinzapfel replied in a statement that this was bullying by the federal government to exert control.  Sounds familiar.

My opinion is that there have been way too many pet projects over the past 10 years, spending money that should have been put toward sewer and drainage upgrades.  The huge downpour in Evansville on Sept 5th, 2009 is cited as one example of how our sewers lack the volume to handle a lot of rain, thus dumping sewage into the Ohio.  I know the residents of the South Side of Evansville know a little something about down pours and no where for the water to go.

I really don't know if the money being spent on the stadium comes from the same purse as what's used for our Sewers, but it should.  There should be some way to dip into allotted budgets to take care of emergencies, like our sewer problems, to keep Evansville homes and businesses from flooding.

Again the masses are subjected to the out cry of a few hypocrites that can't seem to understand split second decisions.  A police officer choose to pursue a suspect and the suspect decided to try and out run the law.  Unfortunately it ended with the death of Kyle Parker, because of the suspect, Samuel Manley, not because of the actions of the officer.

Manley's vehicle ran into Parker's car at an intersection, a mere 30 seconds after EPD attempted to pull Manley over.  Kyle Parker was killed and Manley apprehended, but now a few Evansville residents are questioning the validity of pursuing suspects.  It's suggested that it's better to let a suspect get away and try to apprehend them later, rather than risk dangering others in a high speed chase.  I don't agree.

Oh sure, it's easy to criticize and make 'what if's' from the comfort and safety from the couch, but law enforcement have to make real split second decisions and live with them.  Would we be having a discussion on how the EPD did not act had the officer not pursued?  Say Samuel Manley simply drove off and had an accident with someone else or shot someone in another crime?

I may not always agree with the EPD, but in these types of situations, they should have our full support.  There should be no 'Questions Raised' simply because an officer was doing what his job dictates, to serve and protect.  Let's support those that deserve it and condemn those that break the law.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Kyle Parker.

Sign A Rama

Just a few ideas that Sign A Rama can do for your organization:

• Vehicle Decals or the full vehicle wraps. (These are especially eye catching, even just parked out fron. -ed.)
• Identification Signage
• Event Signage

The goal of the Signs of Support program is to ensure that those who need help the most, will get it.  It's obvious that Sign A Rama is dedicated to the city of Evansville and being a resident I appreciate their efforts.  It's not clear exactly how much grant money they have to offer, but I'll imagine demand will be high.

From the Sign-A-Rama website.

Please consider your level of need prior to applying. We have limited funding and hope we can provide help to those of the greatest need and most powerful impact. It is not our intent that organizations who already have funding for their signage needs apply for assistance.

An application can be downloaded from their website or by clicking here.  Remember, this opportunity for free or little to no cost signage provided by Sign A Rama is for the following only.

• Local Non-Profit
• Local Affiliates of Registered Charities
• Local Non-Government Civic Organizations
• Vanderburgh Co. Public Schools
• Warrick Co. Public Schools

This post was provided at no cost to Sign A Rama.

Wildebeest Water Coaster

Holiday World and Splashin Safari announced today their all new attraction for the 2010 season.  The Wildebeest will be worlds largest water-coaster and to date the most expensive attraction ever built by the theme park.

Check out Holiday World's offical website for detailed information on the Wildebeest.

Some initial concerns about the water coaster are it's location.  Already Splashin Safari has grown to enormous proportions, it's simply a huge park.  This sounds good, but for families that means doing a lot of wakling to get somewhere, just to wait in line.  Myself and others feel money would have been well spent on integrating the ride into the existing attraction locations.  Much like the Congo River winds through the water park, the water coaster Wildebeest could have wound through the water park over head.

All said, it looks to be the first attraction I'm going to get excited about in years.  Not to mention, such a rare attraction will bring traverlers from all over and give the Travel Channel another excuse to come visit Holiday World and Splashin Safari.

I'm becoming increasingly infuriated every time I see news that Weinzapfel is blaiming the homestead exemption credit reinstatement on why he must slash all these jobs and issue cuts in other places.  It's a cop out, a justification for him stealing from the residents of Vanderburgh County, salt in the wound.  It's especially frustrating considering that of the $217 million budget the loss of funds from the homestead exemption was only $5 million, less than 2% of the total budget.

My thoughts are that if the jobs and items being funded relied on 2% of the budget, that never before existed, they didn't need to be there in the first place.  Why should I be guilted on a daily basis for wanting my homestead exemption?  No one will have pity on me for losing my job due to cut backs in the recession, why should a government employees job be protected?

I'd be real interested in finding out all the items listed on the 2010 budget.  I refuse to believe that hot words like Ambulance would need to be cut first.  But I digress, whatever it takes to help you sleep at night Mr. Weinzapfel.

A sample of comments:

The problem with the census is that Obama has illegally taken over the census. Plus our public funding is going to ACORN/COI to perform the counts. Tis was the group that registered Mickey Mouse

Never fear,C&P. MJR Inc. has been hired to get all the illegals in Evansville to fill out census forms. The population count will surely go up.

The only thing the government needs to know is the number of people living in my house. That is the all the law requires and that is all that they are getting.

And then of course there are comments firing back claiming all doom and gloom for not filling out the extra personal information.  Apologists, just wanting to give this administration anything they want, of course just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you.

From what I found there are fines associated with not completing a Census form, however I could not find where jail time was involved.  In the 2000 Census an individual could be fined up to $100 for not completing the form or up to $500 for providing false information.  However, I've seen reports from bloggers on the web that claim the maximum fine has been raised to $5,000 for not completing the form.  I've not found any proof or official documents verifying this.

As far as the US Constitution is involved it was only a way to keep a head count for legal residents within the United States.  The Census was not developed and written into the Constitution to keep track of any Social, Economic, or Housing Characteristics, which is exactly what the 2010 Census is designed to do.  According to the official Census website, 1 in 6 households will randomly be given a 2010 Census long form, which will contain a lot more specific and personal questions.

The 2010 Census Long Form is really what has people up in arms, at least those who value their privacy.  Questions pertaining to age of your home, amount of vehicles owned, type of kitchen facilities, and even fertility status are hardly any of the governments business.

So, will you be completing the long form if you are one of the lucky 1 in 6 choose?  Remember, the law requires you to fill out the Census as pertains to number of people living in your house, nothing more.

As of this posting there are no posting comments allowed in the original breaking article or on the updated court appearance article.  So what reasons would explain CourierPress.com shutting down feedback?

• Flood of comments overloading the websites server?
• CourierPress.com is playing favorites with the officer and/or family involved?
• Direct request from the Evansville Police Department, expecting special treatment for a police officer?

It just seems peculiar, with so many controversial stories on the Courier Press website, why block this one?  Please discuss or chime in here with your responses, guesses, or inside scoop.

*Update 9:26 am

Received an explanation from Ryan Reynolds via email, which states that CourierPress.com has a standing policy that news articles containing any sort of sexual crime will not have comments enabled.  In the case that they are enabled by default, once it is brought to their attention all comments will be removed and then closed.  Below is a short excerpt from the email.

For generations, the journalism community has sought to try to keep a delicate and difficult situation from becoming worse for victims of sex crimes. The Courier and Press has had a standing, long-term policy not to name the victims of a sex crime in news accounts to help protect that individual, be they child or adult, from the ugly stain of the public embarrassment that is associated with a rape, molestation, etc.

Because we cannot guarantee that someone in the community could undo that policy, whether deliberately or unintentionally, by naming the victim in comments, we have decided comments will not be allowed on sex crime stories.

Seems like a completely acceptable policy to me, but they should indicate their intent somewhere in the footer of the article.  Or instead of just having people guess as to why comments are closed, have a footer that explains exactly what is said in this email.  It's a decision I can respect.

According to quotes on the WFIE 14 source page the rest of the crew will be glad to have Jackie on board.  Ann Komis will be one of a few which will be shifting their schedules around to make room for the new anchor come August 3rd.

"Ann Komis will shift her schedule to days and continue to anchor the 5 & 6 with David, allowing her to be home with her husband in the evenings." Komis says she is excited about the addition to the staff.   "Jackie has been a friend for a long time.  It will be a delight to be sitting next to her!"

I've been looking around for Jackie's Twitter account but can't seem to locate it.  We'll have to see if Debbie Bush or CJHoyt make any kind of social bookmarking announcement for the new news lady.