The Chicago Way

An arbitrator has sustained the grievances of four Chicago firefighters fired for submitting false reimbursement reports:

Independent arbitrator Edwin H. Benn said there is “no real dispute” that all of the accused “knowingly submitted inaccurate mileage-reimbursement reports and obtained compensation for mileage — ranging in some cases into the thousands of dollars — that they did not actually incur.” 

But Benn pointed to city Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s conclusion that the alleged mileage padding was a “decades-long practice that was condoned and encouraged by supervisors.” Benn quoted Ferguson as saying that many of he inspectors were “assured by their supervisors that the accuracy of their mileage totals would not be challenged.”

Apparently it's okay as long as everybody does it.

One question: have the complicit supervisors been fired? I mean, the ones who encouraged these firefighters to steal taxpayer money?

Birthers have been around longer than we think.

In March, I pointed out that a lot of what we call politics is really a non-cartoon example of Mad Magazine's "Spy vs. Spy." As I noted then, this is not an original thought.  However, Reuters has another example of this phenomenom. Democrats used to be birthers. Of course, they were not questioning whether President Obama is a natural born citizen. Instead they were questioning whether George Romney, Mitt Romney's father, was eligible to become president of the United States.

Justice Stevens = Bob Dylan (or vice versa)?

Is it just me or does it seem strange to you that Bob Dylan and John Paul Stevens won the same award this week.  While both are widely respected in their field of endeavor, I cannot say I ever thought of them in the same sentence before.

R.I.P. Doug Dillard

Like many people born in the 60s or 70s, the first bluegrass music I heard was the theme song to "The Beverly Hillbillies."  I am not entirely certain, but I think that the time I saw anyone play bluegrass music was when I saw the Darlings appear on "The Andy Griffith Show."  

The Darlings, minus Denver Pyle, were actually a group called The Dillards.  On Sunday, the New York Times reported that Doug Dillard, the banjo player in the group, died at the age of 75.  The L.A. Times has a more detailed obituary here.  Other than that I enjoyed his music, I do not have much else to add beyond what those articles say about Mr. Dillard's skill.  Requiescat in pace Mr. Dillard.

Suggested Reading.

It is my youngest sister's birthday today.  Perhaps you should check out her blog. 

Why would you Facebook friend someone you had falsely accused of rape?

This story is incredible. 

Was the zebra or the parrot the designated driver?

Check out this tidbit from Dubuque, Iowa..  KCRG-TV reports

A Cascade man was arrested outside of a Dubuque bar on Sunday night with a pet zebra and a macaw parrot in the front seat of his truck.

Officers charged Jerald Reiter, 55, with OWI. Police reports say officers stopped him in the parking lot of the Dog House Lounge as he drove away in his truck. According to police, field sobriety tests showed Reiter had a blood alcohol level of .14. The legal limit in Iowa is .08.
. . .

Reiter disputes the charges and says he realized he was too drunk to drive and was about to let a passenger in the truck to take the wheel when he was arrested.

Sometimes the first thought is not the best thought.

If you ever find yourself accused of hitting, choking, and trying to gouge out the eyes of the child of your former law firm partner, you may wish to reconsider some of the decisions that got you to that point.  This is especially true when the best the lawyer defending you in the matter can say is that the encounter was a "huge misunderstanding." 

You know, because trying to gouge out a person's eyes is susceptible to more than one meaning.

Handcuffing your wife during an argument will get you fired if you are a police officer.

As the Green Bay Press Gazette reports, Thomas Benike, a police officer in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, has been fired by the Ashwaubenon Police and Fire Commission.

Officer Benike's troubles started when he got into a dispute with his soon-to-be ex-wife regarding the location of Officer Benike's wallet.  Officer Benike could not locate find the wallet.  When he couldn't locate the wallet, Officer Benike did something that I suspect 98% of married people do in similar circumstances:  he blamed his spouse for taking or moving the wallet.  The article is unclear on what evidence—other than the fact that the wallet was not where Officer Benike thought it should be—supported the conclusion that Mrs. Benike took or moved the wallet.

“Costs for lodging and air travel to attend the conference are comparative to those found at mainland venues.”

The quote is the Ninth Circuit's response to a letter the court received from Senators Charles Grassley and Jeff Sessions inquiring why the Ninth Circuit was hosting its annual judicial conference at a resort on Maui instead of, say, a hotel in Billings, Montana.  The Senators' letter notes that the cost of accommodations on Maui will exceed $700,000 assuming that the conference has as many attendees as the court's 2010 conference.  This matters because the travel and accommodations costs for the judges in the Ninth circuit are paid by the government (which gets its money from taxes).

I guess simply answering that Maui is nicer than Billings would have been undiplomatic.