A Massachusetts legislator has introduced a bill requiring machete owners to register and lisence their machetes. I’ll update this as soon as I find more info.

Update: Here is the text of the bill.

Introducing the Lone Star Times Pseudo-Machete!

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), who was the subject of a recent Cybercast News Service investigation of his military and political record, will receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for his stance against the Iraq war.

The award is presented each year by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation to public servants who have withstood strong opposition to follow what they believe is the right course of action.

Shame.  Considering the political climate in the Democratic Party concerning the War in Iraq, I think Senator Joe Lieberman should have won for his stance FOR the Iraq war. Oh wait Lieberman did not have to withstand strong opposition from anyone.  The Democrats simply declared him persona non grata.

Courtesy the Dallas Morning News:

A Frisco man allegedly tied up police dispatchers by making nearly 200 non-emergency phone calls to 911 in just over a month.

Frisco police spokesperson Gina McFarlin said Regulo Rodriguez is accused of continually asking operators for "kisses."

In once such recorded call, when asked what his emergency is the caller said, "Give me one kiss for you."

"He just wants to talk and say, ‘Can I have a kiss?’" said dispatcher Lisa Clausen.

Normally, or course, I’d consider Rodriguez’s actions purely frivolous– but take a look at this dude.

I’m not convinced a clever lawyer couldn’t get this guy off in the course of a jury trial; I’d be open to the argument that trying to get someone to kiss him constituted a genuine crisis.

Readers will recall that Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt recently expressed a rather Orwellian desire to install cameras around the city, including private homes. An enterprising observer responded to the Chief’s plan by offering the “Hurtt Prize,” which pays a cash award for video or photo evidence of Houston’s Top Cop committing even the slightest of criminal offenses. Now comes news that Chief Hurtt may need to install those cameras inside police headquarters. It seems Hurtt’s chief of staff has been suspended and an investigation launched due to allegations of sexual harassment of a female employee. Says the Chief of the suspended officer:

Chief Harold Hurtt says he has great relationship with him both professionally and personally and he stresses these are only allegations, but serious enough to lead to an investigation.

"One of the things I do when I select people for a special position within the organization is to look at their past, their performance, as well as their ID file and his file was clean," said Chief Hurtt.

Looks like high time we had surveillance cameras inside police headquarters, city hall, the mayor pro tem’s office and other government buildings. The video feed could be run straight to the internet so the public can keep an eye on its elected officials and employees. After all, if they’re not doing anything wrong, why should they worry about it?

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BENZION ADDS– And don’t forget the City Hall Snack Room!

Damage to a locked cabinet containing documents from the Office of Mayor Pro Tem, which is at the center of a payroll-padding probe, has prompted officials to notify police investigators about possible tampering.

The black, 5-foot-tall filing cabinet, which sat in an unlocked City Council break room adjacent to the pro tem office, contains a visible dent just above a drawer handle. The cabinet was accessible to at least 80 council employees.

"It appears — appears, I want to emphasize — that the cabinet was damaged last week," said Issa Dadoush, the city’s Building Services director. "We don’t know. It could have been damaged before."

It was not clear Thursday whether any documents are missing.

[snip]

The damage was discovered when an employee asked the City Hall Annex building manager to unlock the cabinet so documents could be retrieved. The records had been requested under the Texas Public Information Act, [Mayoral Spokesman Frank] Michel said.

Michel, who said he didn’t know what was in the cabinet, cautioned that it’s not clear whether someone jimmied open the locked drawer — and, if so, whether that act was related to the bonus scandal.

Sources with knowledge of the cabinet’s contents said the drawer contained files with administrative documents from the pro tem office, including some containing one-time office manager Rosita Hernandez’s name.

[Hat-tip: Houston Chronicle]

Had cameras already been installed and functioning, we’d know exactly who the Mystery Cabinet-Jimmier was!

Instead, we’re going to have to divert Houston’s newest (and most lethal) law enforcement tool away from his other duties to tackle the case.

UPDATED– Bauer Bits (Part V)

Given the mounting violent crime combined with the massive shortfall in HPD manpower, we should all remember that self defense is our FIRST line of defense, not our last. Self defense training is vitally important. With the recent abduction attempts of children, even children must learn basic self defense. Therefore I bring you this and this.

(hat tip: Tom Bazan and Xavier Thoughts)

On the extremely slim chance he regularly reads LST and wants to become our Sugar Daddy, LoneStarTimes.com would like to extend an enthusiastic "CONGRATULATIONS" to Tracy Krohn for joining six fellow Houstonians on Forbes’ magazine’s annual list of the world’s wealthiest people.

The Chronicle decided to demonstrate his wealth this way:

If he spent all $1.5 billion of his net worth, Krohn could buy more than 10,000 homes in the Houston area, where the median home price is $142,000.

Fascinating.

But if you really want to understand just how rich Krohn is, consider this– $1.5 billion would allow him to remain in his current home and pay all the property tax appraisal increases for 7 whole more years!

mysanantonio.com is reporting that the IRS has chosen an Austin collection agency to go after deadbeat taxpayers. Wait a minute I thought Haliburton was the swiss army knife of civilian agencies to perform contracted government work.

Austin-based Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, along with Iowa-based CBE Group Inc. and New York-based Pioneer Credit Recovery Inc., beat out 30 other companies to win contracts for collecting delinquent federal taxes starting in July.

There is $50.7 billion in uncollected taxes from last year so I suppose the IRS needs some help. However there are two points made in the story that I find disturbing.

After undergoing training, the contractors will attempt to collect undisputed debts. But their powers will be limited: They won’t be able to attach liens or seize property.

(and)

A similar project failed in the late 1990s, costing the federal government more money than it generated.

Here we have a government agency that has failed to collect delinquent taxes.  They hire firms that specialize in collecting unpaid debts and the government is going to give them training?  And in typical federal government fashion they are going to re-try a project that has failed in the past.  Be afraid, be very afraid.