Some Fun

Martha and I visited family and friends in Gunnison, Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte, Colorado over Thanksgiving. It was great to be with my mom and friends. The skiing was good for opening day. It's a crapshoot so early in the season. Here are some pictures that capture the vacation.

Hand grenade taken from illegal at McDonalds

Here's another story showing that the illegals are not just here to work. When DPS pulled over this guy he pulled into a McDonald's parking lot and pulled out a hand grenade.

Read on from Fox in Phoenix. Grenade Scare at Wickenburg McDonalds

One or two words can make a difference

This morning while flipping channels I was watching an interview on the "Today Show" with Meredith Vieira interviewing the head of the Consumer Products Safety Commission. They were talking about a recall of a baby crib with a fold down side.

Vieira asked a question about banning the cribs altogether and said something like "It was perceived by the public that the Bush administration was soft and cozying up to the manufacturers. How can you assure the public that this is no longer true?"

Now what was that question all about? Would not it have been better (other than not asking the question at all) to say "How can you assure the public that this is not true?"

The media says that there is no liberal bias in their reporting. (or is this opinion, and not "real" news?) I guess it is a way to still get their digs on on George W.

McInnis Endorsed for Colorado Governor

I was pleased to see in the local media in Colorado that Scott McInnis is running for Governor and has picked up the endorsement of prominent Republicans.

Check him out on his website.

Very Thankful

In this week before Thanksgiving Martha and I have something to be very thankful for, our home and our safety. This morning we had a small fire in the house that I was quickly able to extinguish with our fire extinguisher (something no home should be without). After hearing Martha's loud screams from the bathroom, where she was showering, I saw the sparks and flames coming from the bathroom exhaust fan. It was a frightening experience.

The crew from Phoenix Engine 910, working out of Station 60, arrived in about five minutes or so (our friend Pat who is out of Station 20 is going to check the log tomorrow) and were great. They checked the attic and the rest of the house for extension of the fire, but luckily it had not gone anywhere except the bathroom, and was contained to the fan housing, except for a little blackening of a beam from the smoke. The firefighters removed the fan from the ceiling and secured the electrical connection so that we could restore power to the room.

We spent most of the day cleaning up the debris and mostly the fire extinguisher dust that put the fire out. A word to the wise... get a fire extinguisher and know how to use it.

Dangerous Duty

If you are a cop and hear that Joe Biden is coming to town, don't volunteer to be on his escort team!

New York City
Two NYPD officers assigned to Vice President Joe Biden's advance security team were hurt in a crash on Tuesday evening in Manhattan.

It happened at at about 5:30 p.m.

One other person was also hurt in the accident.

Three police cars were headed west bound on 49th street and crossing 10th Avenue.. The vehicles included a marked police vehicle, an unmarked car and a bomb squad vehicle.

In New Mexico:
A Bernalillo County (N.M.) Sheriff's deputy escorting the motorcade of Vice President Joe Biden was involved in a collision in Albuquerque Monday, police said.

In Maryland:

Vehicles used to transport U.S. Vice President Joe Biden were involved in a fatal accident Wednesday, a federal official said.

Two Secret Service employees were driving the armored sports utility vehicle and limousine in Temple Hill, Md., when they struck and killed a man at an intersection, Sgt. David Schlosser of the U.S. Park Police said.

Where does he need to go in such a hurry? Doesn't he know that he is not important?

Not Just from Mexico

Today Phoenix Police arrested a serial rapist, Jose Ephrain Gomez-Gomez ...

Gomez-Gomez was identified and arrested on Nov. 14. He admitted to both sexual assaults and the 2007 assault, which he admitted was sexually-motivated.

Police say he does not speak English and is a Honduran national. It appears that Gomez-Gomez has been in the country for about 4 years and he told the detectives he did not have any documents.

Original story from Fox Phoenix here.

One, is a "Honduran National" another way of saying ILLEGAL ALIEN? (Shame on Fox 10 for clouding the issue). And two, no, they are not just here to work.

New Archbishop for Milwaukee

The Most Reverend Jerome Edward Listecki has been named the 11th archbishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee by Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican announced today. Listecki, 60, succeeds the Most Reverend Timothy M. Dolan, who was named Archbishop of New York on February 23, 2009, and installed as Archbishop of New York April 15, 2009. Listecki currently serves as bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse, where he was installed as bishop on March 1, 2005, succeeding the Most Reverend Raymond L. Burke.

More details on the Archdiocese website.

New Bishop for Fort Wayne- South Bend

The Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades as the ninth Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, transferring him from the Diocese of Harrisburg (PA). He will be installed as Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend on January 13, 2010.

More details on the Fort Wayne- South Bend website and the Harrisburg website.

Get your groceries now!

It appears that UFCW workers will be going on strike tomorrow at the Safeway and Fry's Markets in Arizona. This could be similar to a strike in California a few years ago when this union went out on strike against Vons and Ralph's, which have the same parent company as our two stores.

I am hoping that this does not happen, but if it does it may help Basha's which is in financial hardship. It's a great time to go on strike; go figure.

UPDATE 11/13/09:
Strike Averted. Tentative agreement reached. No details released.

Thank you California

In the news today it is reported that the State of Arizona has the second worst budget problem in the country, second only to California. So thanks California for taking the lead. The Republic reports on it here.

Governor Brewer has called yet another Special Session of the Legislature to try to get a budget passed. She is at an impasse with her own party on the budget, and has been since she took over the state earlier this year. Unfortunately we have her for another year and she is really setting up Terry Goddard for a "grass is greener" campaign, contributing to the anti-incumbent attitude that his forming in America.

Get to work Governor! Stop fighting with your own party and pass a budget!

Vernon Parker for Governor

Martha and I attended a get together for Vernon Parker and his exploratory campaign for Governor of Arizona. Mr. Parker came across as the person that this state needs to take back the Statehouse for real Republicans.

Watch this video about Vernon Parker and stay tuned for more!

The Race for Governor heats up

Today was a sad day for the Arizona Republican Party. Jan Brewer announced that she will seek a full term as Governor in 2010. Brewer, who succeeded Janet Napolitano as Governor when Napolitano was selected to be the head of Homeland Security, has been a weak Governor and has advocated for tax increases to correct the Arizona budget deficit.

Many in Arizona had hoped that Brewer would decide against running for a full term due to the lack of support that she has within her own party. However, she filed the necessary paperwork to run, and now it is the job of the Conservatives in Arizona to defeat her, without letting a Democrat like Terry Goddard or Phil Gordon take the seat.

Martha and I will be attending a fund raiser on Saturday for Vernon Parker, the Mayor of Paradise Valley. Mr. Parker has formed an exploratory committee to see if there is enough interest in him running. While not a declared candidate yet, it seems that Parker will run for Governor in 2010. Arizona has a "resign to run" law, so he would have to step down as Mayor to run for Governor. Take a look at his website www.vernonparker.com and his election site at www.parker2010.com

Unfunded Mandate

In Maricopa County yesterday, the Board of Supervisors voted to add on a $20 fee to photo radar tickets that you decide to fight in court. The court system in Maricopa County has seen its caseload double since the inception of the freeway photo radar implemented by former governor Janet Napolitano. She envisioned the cameras fattening up the state coffers, but instead it has become a burden on the local court system.

Under the current system if you get a photo radar ticket on the freeway in Arizona, you are mailed the ticket and are expected to pay the $180 bill that comes with it. However, since there is no impact on your driver license in most cases (no points, no insurance reporting, unless you are going faster than 85 MPH) there is no incentive to pay the ticket, and most drivers are ignoring them. (The Department of Public Safety has 60 days from the original violation date to file a complaint in Justice Court. Once filed, the agency has 120 days to hand-deliver an Arizona traffic ticket and complaint to the driver. The complaint is dismissed if the DPS doesn't meet the deadline.)

When Napolitano set up the speed camera system she did not allocate any funds to go to the county courts to offset their costs. Although the ticket is issued by DPS (The AZ Highway Patrol) the matter is handled by the court in the county that the ticket was issued. Since the overwhelming number of tickets are issued in Maricopa County, our Justice Courts have had more than 400,000 cases go through the system this year. It's not a good situation for the courts. Maybe the State of Arizona should set up a photo radar court and have it be funded from the money coming in from the tickets. No, that wouldn't work, because then the state would have to look at the math and see that it is actually a money loser.

Not so glamorous

I just returned from a wonderful weekend with Martha in Las Vegas. Martha is still there attending a medical convention and I returned to go back to work.

I have been going to Las Vegas since the late 80's and have seen a lot of changes on the strip. We stayed at the Mandalay Bay which opened in 2000 and is the most southern hotel on the strip. At nearly 10 years of age, even this hotel is showing its age. We noticed that the hallway carpets are in need of replacement in areas and that there were some maintenance issues that needed to be dealt with. But all in all, we had a good experience inside the hotels.

Now, outside the hotels there is a continuing, lingering problem that detracts from the Las Vegas experience, handbill distribution. Specific to this point is the distribution of the adult oriented escort service material handed out by the illegal aliens hired by these services. Outside of the issue that these "escort services" and other types of business advertised in these handbills is just a front for prostitution, I have an issue with the way that the material is distributed and the way it litters the streets. I can't really imagine that there is a lot of business directly generated from these handouts (but I could be wrong).

(OK, time for class participation here.) I did some brief research on this and found that Clark County has twice tried to regulate the distribution of these materials. In 1997 Clark County passed an ordinance making it a misdemeanor to distribute the handbills in the Las Vegas Resort District. (For those of you who are wondering why Clark County would be addressing this instead of the City of Las Vegas, you may not know that most of what is considered "The Strip," from The Mandalay Bay to the Sahara is not actually in the City of Las Vegas, but in unincorporated Clark County.) This ordinance was ruled to violate the First Amendment and upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1998. (S.O.C., Inc. v. County of Clark, 152 F.3d 1136 (9th Cir. 1998))

Again in 2007 the same court ruled on a revised ordinance with the same result. The issue here comes down to the County's ability to regulate activity on public sidewalks. Many of the resorts on the strip have constructed private sidewalks and have alleviated this issue (however, they still have to allow certain other activities such as union picketing). So, given this ruling by the Ninth Circuit, and the denial by the Supreme Court to hear the cases, does this mean that I can hand out whatever I want (if what I am handing out is legal) on any public street or area with a public easement?

I have one solution... bring Sheriff Joe there to do an immigration sweep on the Strip. Are those really "jobs that Americans won't do?"

East Valley Tribune, RIP

It was announced yesterday that the East Valley Tribune, unless a buyer can be found, will cease operations on December 31, 2009. Earlier in 2009 the Tribune laid off half of its employees and went to free distribution and concentrated on their online edition.

This brings to an end 118 years of publishing the paper, which has operated under different names through the years. The Tribune cites many reasons for closing, but the reality is that they have not made money and that is essential to staying in business.

The parent company of the East Valley Tribune is Freedom Communications. Freedom itself is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and owns newspapers in several markets including The Orange County Register in my old stomping grounds in California.

Make it Stop

I agree with the headline of this story MAKE IT STOP.

In Touch magazine is reporting that money hungry Jon Gosselin has agreed to star in a reality show in which he'll date Octomom Nadya Suleman.
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The pilot, to be called "Jon - Kate = Jon + Octomom" and produced by Goldstein and a former producer of "The Jerry Springer Show," will follow Jon "as he contemplates what hooking up with Octomom could really be like," according to In Touch.

For his part, Jon is horrified by the idea that if they got married, they'd have 22 kids.

Who is thinking of the kids in this scenario? I sure hope that this stupid idea gets killed before the pilot is made.

Fall is here!

A cold front moved through Phoenix yesterday and today. When was the last time you saw this in Phoenix? I know that it is no big deal for anyone else, but for us that's pretty chilly.

Goodbye Vista

I took the plunge today and upgraded my computer to Windows 7 from Vista. So far, no issues. The upgrade took 3 hours, 45 minutes.

More HOA Blues

My apologies to the reader, I'm venting a little here...

I have a lot of respect for people that volunteer to serve on their homeowner association (HOA) board of directors. It's a volunteer job that usually no one wants to do. There's no glory in it and people tend to blame you for things when they have a problem, even when the HOA had nothing to do with it. Being a board member requires you to have interest in your neighborhood and a desire to serve. There should be lots of people wanting to be on the board in every HOA.

With that being said, the last couple weeks have shown the apathy that people have about their HOA's and how others just see themselves as victims. My current portfolio of properties assigned to me has 8 HOA's with about 2,500 homes when they are all completed. (The decline in the construction industry has slowed new home building.) Of my 8 HOA's, 5 of them have turned over from the builder to the homeowner, that is, the builder is either totally done building homes or they have reached a trigger level in their governing documents that turns control of the Board of Directors over to the homeowners. Sounds simple enough, right? Homeowners that own property in the HOA serve as board members and they have a vested interest in the neighborhood because they live there.

In the single family, owner occupied world of HOA management (as opposed to the condominium or single family vacation property world) meetings for the board of directors are generally held in the evening so that everyone has time to get from work to the meeting. In Arizona these meetings have to be open to all homeowners and all of the homeowners have to be noticed of the meeting. The standard way of notifying them is with a postcard that goes out a couple weeks before the meeting. Almost all issues have to be discussed in the public meeting, there are four types of issues that can be discussed in the closed part of the meeting, and those would have to be related to specific accounts, legal issues and personnel and other private, sensitive matters. The rules in your state may vary, but you get the general idea, it's kind of like a city council meeting. Depending on the size of the HOA and how much they have going on meetings can be monthly, every other month or quarterly, with one of my HOA's that actually has only 2 board meetings a year. When you add in the yearly annual meeting that all of the HOA's are required to have, this means for me that I can sometimes have two night time meetings a week. I usually have 5 or 6 meetings a month that I have to prepare for and take time out of my life to be there.

As many HOA managers can tell you, getting quorum at a meeting can be a challenge. Most of my boards have 5 members, so I need 3 of them to show up for a meeting so we can conduct business. As I said before, these meetings are noticed well in advance, and in the case of most boards, are on a regular schedule, meeting the same time each month (i.e. the third Wednesday of the month). In the last four weeks I have had 7 HOA meetings, including last night. Of those 7 meetings only 3 have reached quorum. That's four times that the people that do show up for meetings and their manager (me) have wasted their time by showing up for a meeting that no one cared to have the common courtesy to say that they could not make it. On three of those four occasions there have been non board member homeowners that showed up to participate in the meeting and were discouraged that their board did not show up.

So how do we solve the disease of apathy? Should I go through the neighborhoods and write needless violations about things that don't exist so that I can get homeowner interest in their board? No, I don't think so. Even when I write a legitimate violation, like I did a couple weeks ago to a homeowner, they run to their lawyer, or in this case to the NAACP and claim discrimination. But I digress...

In many communities that have been established for a while, interest in being a board member is not high. The average homeowner does not want to get involved and do not see any problems. There are the few that are eternal complainers and are a royal pain in the neck, but that is part of the job. But the crux of the matter is that homeowners that have served on boards are burnt out and there is no new blood to replace them. We in the HOA management field are always looking for ways to motivate people to serve on their boards and to get involved. I'd love to hear of ways that your HOA has done this.

If you live in an HOA, get involved. Don't sit on the sidelines. Don't just complain and want others to fix the problems, contribute to the solution.

Ok, end rant...

New Bishop for Cheyenne

From the Diocese Website:

The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, today announced the appointment of the Most Reverend Paul D. Etienne as the Eighth Bishop of the Diocese of Cheyenne.

Bishop-elect Etienne will take possession of this Diocese at a special ceremony in early December.

Welcome Back Summer

I know that you on the East Coast and in Colorado just had snow and really did not have summer, but here in Phoenix we were happy to see fall come around. Temps over the last few weeks have been great. So, at 2pm on a Saturday... what's up with this?

New Bishop for Pueblo

The Pope has accepted the retirement of Bishop Arthur Tafoya, the Bishop of Pueblo, Colorado. I have had the pleasure of meeting Bishop Tafoya several times, in Pueblo and on his visits to my former parishes in Gunnison County.

The Diocese is a very large geographical area, more than 48,000 square miles, covering the state from the western border with Utah all the way to the eastern border of Kansas, and from the southern borders with New Mexico and Oklahoma and going to the north, cutting into the Archdiocese of Denver and Colorado Springs Diocese.

The Catholic Review has posted this article on the recent appointment of Fr. Fernando Istern of Miami as the new Bishop of Pueblo.

Bishop-designate Isern was born Sept. 22, 1958, in Havana. He was ordained a priest for the Miami Archdiocese in 1993. He has a bachelor’s degree from Florida International University, Miami. He attended St. John Vianney College Seminary there and St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Fla. Since his ordination he has had several parish assignments. Since 2003 he has been pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes in Miami.

In Pueblo he succeeds Bishop Tafoya, who has headed the diocese since 1980. Bishop Tafoya was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, N.M., in 1962. On the national level, Bishop Tafoya has served on several bishops’ committees, including the Administrative Committee and what is now called the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations. He has been a member of the National Advisory Council and been on the board of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. The Pueblo Diocese covers 48,155 square miles. The total population of the area is estimated at 621,000; Catholics number 96,904, or 16 percent.

New Bishop for Duluth

From the Diocese Website:

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI today named Father Paul Sirba, 49, the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Duluth.

Another Vacancy?

Judging by what I have read about Justice Ruth Ginsburg, she may be the next Supreme Court Justice to retire. This will give President Obama another appointment to the high court, and maybe not his last. Justice Stevens will be 90 years old in 2010.

This is the real legacy that the Obama presidency will have. Since this is a lifetime appointment, a Supreme Court appointment can mean more to a President's legacy than a bill or piece of legislation that he signs. Obama will not come close to appointing the number of Justices that modern Presidents have appointed (Nixon had 4, Reagan 3, Eisenhower 5, Truman 4 and FDR had 9 from 1937 to 1943) , and really his appointments, in my opinion, will not change the basic makeup of the Court if Ginsburg and Stevens retire.

But, look at the ages of the remaining Justices. In 2010 Scalia and Kennedy will be 74 and Breyer will be 72. Depending on how Obama does with the American people in his current (an hopefully only) term, Breyer, a Clinton appointee, may think of retiring to help out the Obama legacy. And, if for some awful reason Obama gets a second term, both Scalia, (Reagan) and Kennedy (Bush Sr.) would be very near or above 80 years old. Then, all of a sudden, Obama could leave mark on the Court for a generation, going from 2 appointments to 5.

All I can hope for is that the Republican Party takes back the Senate in 2010 and 2012 and that Obama is out on January 20, 2013. If not, then be prepared to tell your grandchildren about how things used to be, when we had freedom.

Sanity Returns

I am glad to see that two incidents regarding children in this week's news have been resolved in the favor of the innocent children. The scout in Delaware returned to school today and the "obese" baby in Grand Junction, CO has insurance.

Thank God for some reasonable people, and, at least this time, for the media.

Photo Radar One Year Later

Today marks the one year anniversary of photo radar on the freeways in Arizona. Touted by former governor Janet Napolitano as a way to raise an estimated $90 million in the first year, the revenue from those pesky tickets fell about $75 million short of that mark. That's the some of the bad news about the cameras. There was a mobile photo radar van operator who was shot and killed on the 101 freeway while sitting in the van just doing his job. Since that killing, the furor over the cameras, both fixed and mobile, has seemed to die down.

There are groups like camerafraud.com who are trying to get rid of the cameras, but the real pressure will come from the legislature. The contract with Redflex expires in July of next year, and there is pressure from people like Sam Crump (R-Anthem) to not renew the contract.

Personally, I have noticed that the speeds on the freeways that have the fixed photo radar cameras have slowed. I think that they have made a difference on our roads. We'll see what happens in the year to come.

On a related note, the red light camera contract that the City of Phoenix had with Redflex's competitor, American Traffic Systems, expired and the cameras in Phoenix have come down. I'm sure that they will be back. Enjoy it while you can.

Peace Prize?

I woke up this morning to go to my Friday morning prayer group, checked the internet for news and was amazed and embarrassed to find out that President Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize. FOR WHAT???? No one that I can remember has done less and has been rewarded more than Obama has in his first nine months in office.

Let's see, what has he done to help the peace process?
1. Caved in to the Saudis and bowed to the King.
2. Destabilized our relationship with Israel by taking both sides in the Middle East debate.
3. Considering a troop INCREASE in Afghanistan, which seems like a peaceful move to me.

This prize is a joke. But Al Gore and Jimmy Carter have also won it, so that just reinforces the point.

It's October, Do you know where your team is?

After the first day of the post season it is looking good for the Dodgers. They started off shaky against the Cardinals, but improved as the game went along. The Dodgers, who have the second most post season appearances of any team in the majors, beat the Cardinals (the third most appearances) 5-3 in a game with a lot of missed opportunities by both teams.

Only 10 more wins until the Dodgers take the World Series crown.

New Bishop for Gaylord (MI)

From the Diocese Website:

The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has named the Reverend Monsignor Bernard A. Hebda, Undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts at the Vatican, as the new Bishop for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gaylord. Bishop-elect Hebda, 50, of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, will become the fourth bishop of Gaylord succeeding Bishop Patrick R. Cooney who has led the diocese for the past 20 years.