I’m over at GazetteOnline now, just a cog in the big news machine.
You can get to my blog by either following this link: http://gazetteonline.com/blogs/the-hot-beat, or by going to www.gazetteonline.com and clicking on the blogs tab near the top of the page. The Hot Beat is one of several blogs listed in the pull-down menu.
Archive for July, 2009
This blog has moved
Posted in Uncategorized on July 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Police might leave stone age on pawnshop tracking
Posted in Cedar Rapids City Council, Public Safety on July 24, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Cedar Rapids police are looking into paying for an online database that will make it easier to track items at pawn shops.
Before the flood, the Cedar Rapids Police Department was looking at using LeadsOnline, an Internet service that collects information from pawn shops and allows police to search a database for stolen items or evidence [...]
About those Chicago billboards
Posted in Cedar Rapids City Council, Iowa City, Public Safety on July 22, 2009 | 7 Comments »
The Iowa Department of Economic Development has been advertising Iowa, as a place to live, in Chicago since the 1980s.
The department ran an ad on billboards along I-294, I-90, I-290 and I-94 in May, June and July of 2007. Those are all, of course, major interstates that can have apoplexy-inducing traffic.
Here’s the ad:
The Iowa Department [...]
Reality and the Chicago connection
Posted in Cedar Rapids Library, Public Safety, tagged Cedar Rapids, Chicago, crime, CRPD, Eastern Iowa, housing, HUD, Iowa, Linn County, public housing, Section 8, Urban on July 21, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Eastern Iowa fears of the Chicago migration are nothing new, and they’re beginning to become cyclical. This is the lead of a big Sunday story in The Gazette on Aug. 18, 2003:
Christina McGowan remembers well those days when she lived on Chicago’s south side. She was called First Lady. She was respected and feared. She [...]
Crime way down across the nation (and in C.R.)
Posted in Cedar Rapids City Council, Public Safety, tagged Cedar Rapids, crime, CRPD, Iowa, Linn County, Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C. on July 21, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The Washington Post is reporting huge declines in violent crime this year across the country: “The District, New York and Los Angeles are on track for fewer killings this year than in any other year in at least four decades.”
While homicide is so rare in Cedar Rapids that it’s difficult to draw statistical conclusions about [...]
“Sideways” director working on new film called “Cedar Rapids”
Posted in Cedar Rapids City Council, Other, tagged Alexander Payne, Cedar Rapids, Ed Helms, Iowa, The Office on July 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Alexander Payne, director of “Sideways,” the 2004 movie about two middle-aged guys touring California wine country, is directing a new movie called “Cedar Rapids.”
No word yet on why the name was chosen, or if it has anything to do with our fair city, but hey, news is news, right!
Shooting will begin in October. Variety [...]
Section 8 myths/facts
Posted in Cedar Rapids City Council, Public Safety on July 14, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Myth: Most Section 8 vouchers in Cedar Rapids are held by people from Chicago.
Fact: 93 percent of vouchers in Cedar Rapids were issued locally, and the program requires one year of residency, and has a three to five year waiting list. 4.8 percent of vouchers come from Illinois, representing about 50 households.
Myth: Most Section 8 [...]
Paraplegic accused in domestic is breaking the jail’s bank
Posted in Public Safety, tagged Cedar Rapids, Linn, Linn County Board of Supervisors, Linn County Jail, Oakdale, Shawn Kruse, Sheriff Brian Gardner on July 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Correction: This blog post was badly incorrect until 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, when I changed it.
Kruse’s insurance company covered his medical expenses during his time at University Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, not county taxpayers.
Also, the cost of Kruse’s care provided at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Oakdale is about $900 a day, [...]
911 tapes released in Ed Thomas shooting
Posted in Public Safety, tagged 911, Ed Thomas, Iowa, Parkersburg, Public Safety, tornado on July 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Dispatcher: “Butler County 911.”
Daryl Myers: “This is Daryl Myers. I work for the school. We, uh, had, a, I think a shooting right now in the bus barn down at the high school.”
Dispatcher: “Where at?”
Myers: “At Parkersburg.”
Dispatcher: “Yeah, at the high school where?”
Myers: “Uh, in the bus barn.”
Dispatcher: “In the bus barn? Do you know [...]
