The newspapers are dying, and everyone old enough to venerate ink is crying. But… come on! Can we really claim we didn’t see this coming? Isn’t it rather obvious that headline news is better distributed by a medium that can update itself more often than every 24 hours, not to mention deliver itself to you by means less time-consuming, tree-killing and altogether un-green than newsprint motored around by internal combustion engine? Yeah, what a difference a data stream makes. And a high speed Internet connection. And words like “wiki,” but I’m getting ahead of myself. Because OMG! There’s the wail again. It reminds me not a ... (more...)

Last night I had the great privilege and pleasure of getting to “ride along” with a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer. I joined her for the “swing shift,” which began with a briefing at the command headquarters. After that, we headed out onto the streets in a black-and-white cruiser. By the time I headed home at midnight, I had witnessed a nonstop blur of police work. I’d seen shoplifting averted at a Wal-Mart Superstore, and I’d watched a trespassing drug dealer get checked in at the city jail. A teen-aged girl who had threatened suicide before running away was apprehended in a grocery store parking lot and taken into protective custody. I observed ... (more...)