Alerts: Obama, Council rules, Mr. Kidd, Channel 19

Don’t ever believe President Obama isn’t giving the Newark Tea Party a serious read. Two days ago I wrote about Newark’s lack of jobs Newark Remains Unstimulated

Today’s Washington Post headline: “Obama to focus on job growth in Ohio.” Ta Da!

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Rules are for suckers - Right, City Council?
Ohio law requires three readings of proposed legislation, Newark by virtue of its “home rule” Charter requires but two. Many ordinances, however, are passed on the first reading because they are claimed to be “emergencies” though exactly what the “emergency” is normally remains murky at best. Never mind the Charter requires Council to “clearly specify the necessity of the emergency.”

Also, Council again played fast and loose with the public money entrusted to it when it awarded without competitive bidding a contract to Claggett & Sons to work on the company’s own property.

Competitive bidding for projects of $25,000 or more is required by the Charter, but this routinely is defined as unnecessary by the votes of six Council members. The Claggett project is estimated at $35,000-$50,000.

Claggett is a good landscaping contractor who has performed perfectly on a couple small jobs for me, and would be my choice for the next one. Likely the city won’t go wrong by awarding this job to Claggett. But we’ll never know because the rules don’t apply here.

This points to the need for tighter rules to ensure that expediency and convenience stop being overriding objectives of Council members and the Council president. Those tighter rules could be a project of a Charter Review if Council would provide for it.

Meantime, if any citizen should feel Council is abusing bidding requirements a complaint should be filed with Mary Taylor, Auditor of State.

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Keep your eye on Mr. Kidd
Ronnie Kidd, the Heath resident who led the charge against Reflex traffic cameras, hasn’t retired. For one thing, he was a key player in Mansfield’s decision to ignore Redflex’s pitch to install cameras in that city. Here’s how he described some of it in a note to me 1/20/10:

“Last night I drove to Mansfield for its Safety Committee meeting, Caucus and Council meeting. The 3rd reading of its camera ordinance was planned. Only one Mansfield resident was there to protest the cameras. The same Redflex rep that did the Zanesville presentation was there to give a slick and gruesome presentation. Including once when a Council member called me to the podium to ask me some questions, I managed to address the Council 4 times. Vote: 8-0 unanimous against the cameras.”

His group of citizens who helped with the traffic camera exile is still meeting. They hope to help citizens of Baytown TX and Arnold MO battle red light cameras. Also, they are expecting to influence decisions by local officials on the county dog pound, the Davis-Shai House and the Rt. 79 median in Heath.

I think this group isn’t far from announcing some sort of formal organization and picking up speed as a very influential force which politicians will rapidly come to respect.

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Webcasts & Channel 19
I was confused by the Advocate report on Council’s discussion of a camera for webcasting meetings on the city’s website. It was my sloppy reading, not the reporter’s fault. Maybe there were others too who didn’t get the difference between webcasting (something new being considered) and cablecasting (what’s already being done on Channel 19). The discussion involved, in part, the cost of a camera for webcasts. City officials were told the cost would be $2,800, but a resident brought an inexpensive digital video camera to demonstrate its adequacy and simplicity. Now let’s see if anyone listens to him.

Speaking of cablecasts on Channel 19, it seems to me that they are more professionally produced now than they have been for many years. Also, that Newark Schools’ Channel 19 has a lot more and a lot better programming in quality and subject matter.

Thing is, if you don’t know when Council meetings are to be shown, and if you don’t know when the other stuff is on, what good is it? Seems to me that the Advocate could easily list Channel 19 programming, if only on its web site.

Hebron Road: How much inconvenience is needed?

Some Heath council members and the mayor have been voted out of office, effective in January, for failing to heed the wishes of most Heath voters on the traffic cameras issue. Now a new and important question is before council: what to do about traffic safety on main street? They have a new chance to listen to citizens, but will they? Or might they do the honorable thing and leave this decision to the newly elected replacements?

On 11/17/09 Heath council heard about two options for building something down the middle of Ohio 79. One is a big planter for trees and bushes; the other is a six-inch-high hunk of concrete. For details, read the Advocate report here.

Calling it “a one-time opportunity, using someone else's money for the most part, to make it aesthetically pleasing," Zoning Chief John Groff wasn’t about to listen to some other alternatives being promoted by citizens, according to Ronnie Kidd, who led the Redflex-camera revolt.

Their idea is to at least try a much less expensive fix - using curb cuts along the highway, one that would allow left turns FROM THE HIGHWAY by shoppers and emergency personnel, while eliminating left turns FROM BUSINESSES ONTO THE HIGHWAY where lots of drivers meet sideways or rear-end-ways with other vehicles. They say just try it first and see if we couldn’t save money while allowing a more free and convenient flow of traffic.

Kidd says the city is “pressing for a vote Dec 7 to beat a ‘deadline’ that we are researching. From what I can find out, the deadline can be extended. With two new council members coming in, the vote on Jan 4 could be FAR different from the vote on Dec 7. I already know two council members would vote against the median and believe that the two incoming members could be swayed to get the 4-3 majority we need.”

Kidd backs up his statement about the deadline with a memo from the Federal Highway Administration that says time extensions may include cases “where the public involvement process has altered the State's plan for satisfying the project's purpose and need.”

So again, the eye of local citizens, perhaps Central Ohio, and particularly Heath businesses is focusing on the behavior of Heath officials. This time those officials go in knowing you can’t vote someone out of office twice. We’ll see whether they use that knowledge or do the honorable thing.

Lesson learned - Election Reflection #3

The lesson to be learned from the overthrow of the Heath regime is that it is indeed possible to rein in government. That is a lesson worth remembering, worth repeating, worth applying.

We are by habit and training cowed by the political thickness of government bureaucracies. Consequently, we sigh, grow more angry and frustrated - and give up, go along. That’s how we are contained by the system; it makes us simply give up.

Most of the time.

Except when along comes a leader like Ronnie Kidd who demonstrates how wrong it is to simply give up.

I suspect he was motivated by anger at the injustice of what was happening in the city where he lived. But he was smart enough to harness that anger in a constructive way, to summon self-control and strike at the problem with facts.

Astoundingly, Ronnie wielded these facts against the power of the entire community establishment, including the Advocate. The facts won, the knowledge of the injustices won.

Not that Ronnie worked alone. He would likely be the first to credit those few very dedicated and brave individuals who joined the battle, and also the businesses who offered quiet, behind-the-scenes support. But this is another lesson to be remembered: Once a leader steps forward, if that leader is believable and dedicated and has a righteous goal, others will join.

What Ronnie and his small band of Freedom Fighters won can also be won in Newark, in Licking County government, in the Statehouse, in the U.S. Capitol and White House.

That is the lesson Ronnie Kidd has taught us.

Dismantling of the Zoo - Election Reflection #2

A political scientist likely would find a great case study in how and by whom Heath voters were recently motivated. How did the great Waugh Zoo muster its support for the shakedown of motorists? And how was it shot out of the saddle by a few Freedom Fighters?

I don’t have the answers, particularly as regards the endorsement of the Waugh Zoo by the Chamber of Commerce when anyone with any sense knows Heath businesses were getting hurt by the lowered traffic flow and money spent on traffic tickets. All the Chamber had to do was to ask the right people instead of hiding behind a half-baked member “survey” to find out what was happening in Heath.

Several business owners, it turns out, were donating dollars and moral support to the Freedom Fighters, but precious few had the courage to openly buck the Good Ol’ Boys.

The business shake-out won’t be finalized until next year. After Christmas we’ll know the effect of removing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Heath economy and sending it to Waugh & Co. If it’s as bad as I think, there may be a lot of retail space for rent along Ohio 79.

The Chamber and it’s flock of sheep (including the Advocate) chose to ignore all this - and that, I think, is a tribute to Mayor Waugh.

Mr. Waugh is a man I never heard of before he teamed with the Redflex Aussies. So how did he merit such a noisy, if not wide, backing? Well, follow the money ...

Every single employee of the City of Heath stood to take a cut of the pie. Every vendor and every potential vendor for Heath stood to get fatter. Every person who dines at or uses or admires the Davis-Shai House could look forward to getting more public money poured into their little country club; all these individuals plus their relatives and friends, living in and out of Heath. Then there’s the most obvious of beneficiaries: Redflex employees.

Quite a web, just interested in the profits. Throw in political cronies interested in maintaining power, allow all these folks to comment anonymously from behind user names, without even identifying their personal associations, relationships, or profit motives, and you have created an unbridled, loud-mouthed, unreasonable cheering section for “traffic safety.”

In view of all that, isn’t it rather amazing that one pissed-off individual could muster a little group of Freedom Fighters that dismantled the Waugh Zoo?

Yes it is. More on that later.

I am uncomfortable in Heath - Election Reflection #1

For the first time since June or July, I shopped at Giant Eagle today because there is a deal on turkeys.

It was like a homecoming except there was no joy. Giant Eagle is just like it was, but so is Meijers and the north-end Walmart where Rosalie and I are now accustomed to shopping.

Heath’s comfort level has bottomed out.

The bloodied Ohio 79 - with its strip malls and billboards - stands as a monument to the city where people will scam people for money.

Heath is where representatives of the people have stolen election signs and have ordered election advertising towed from an empty parking lot, costing the owner $135 because he was using the First Amendment.

Heath is where councilmen have laughed at people who bring their concerns before council. Heath is not resident-friendly, not visitor-friendly, not even business-friendly.

Heath is Good-Ol’-Boy-Club-friendly. Heath is where Club members cluster and cling and write nasty newspaper comments to those with whom they disagree. It’s where the power structure has no notion of fairness, nor a willingness to listen to non-Club members.

It shouldn’t have taken a revolt of peasants to make corrections. It should have taken only a small measure of decency from little Good Ol’ Boys who fancied themselves as bigger than any possible consequences.

The cameras and some Club members are out because peasants won the election. But because peasants scarcely outnumber the Good Ol’ Boys, I am uncomfortable in Heath.

The Advocate’s kiss of death

“Don't just listen to those who want to break the law.”

With that editorial advice to Heath voters, the Advocate editorialist demonstrated her juvenile mentality and inherent Good-Ol’-Boy bias. No longer can anyone doubt that the Chamber of Commerce rules over the local newspaper: The foolish editorial of 10/25/09 urging voters to support the Heath Good Ol’ Boys and their red-light cameras proves it.

Throughout the months’-long controversy regarding the legality and the fairness of a foreign corporation issuing traffic tickets to local motorists - and doing so without oversight, and behind a cloud of allegations about entrapment, increased danger caused by the cameras, and cost to Heath businesses - the Advocate steadfastly failed to investigate.

Meanwhile, the information and facts dug out by Ronnie Kidd and a group of freedom fighters has been distributed in the Advocate’s print edition, blogs, comments, and on a well-publicized web site banthecameras.com

The Advocate’s response? Don't just listen to those who want to break the law; vote to keep the cameras.

What the editorialist can’t get through her head is that everyone - EVERYONE - knows why the Advocate supports the Heath Good Ol’ Boys. It’s because the Advocate wants to be in the Club, likely a considerable advantage in ad sales, probably juicy personal props as well.

But selling the Advocate’s editorial soul is exactly what she’s doing - and the Advocate’s kiss-of-death-by-endorsement grows stronger as years under Gannett ownership wear on.

Money out of the Waugh Zoo

Heath, renamed the “Waugh Zoo” by an unidentified wit, is trying to put on a happy face over its traffic-camera disaster.

Politicians have yet to admit publicly (to my knowledge) that the Redflex and Heath government milking of motorists is hurting businesses.

Count the brainiacs in the local chamber of commerce as also being in denial on this matter. Evidence: its endorsement of the Waugh Zoo’s Mayor Waugh for the coming election.

Many commenters to Advocate news reports say they’re avoiding the Waugh Zoo, echoing the buzz I get from Newark cashiers and others.

I have not driven through the Waugh Zoo for three months, except for three trips in the first days of July. This has cost businesses there $1,716.84, assuming I would have spent the same average per month ($572.28) as I spent there during April and May, 2009.

Something else. I have developed new shopping habits, most no less convenient than the Waugh Zoo offerings; many are more so. That’s a factor I don’t think Heath’s good ol’ boys considered. The effects of the Waugh Zoo era - like the George W. Bush era - will linger.

Heath businesses, get real

The thing that Heath businesses seem to be missing is this: While shoppers are avoiding them, they are at the same time developing new habits and routes for shopping.

Heath businesses will not automatically recover lost customers when this is over. Some, but not all, will come back just because the cameras are gone.

Count me among those who may never return to many/most of them. Likely I’ll keep shopping elsewhere because “elsewhere” is just as easy and just as good and that’s how I’m now - and will be in the future - accustomed to doing it.

When Heath businesses awaken to this, they will wish they had “taken sides” at the very beginning. Not taking sides against your Nazi mayor and council? Whining to customers “Please do not punish us. Support us."

Gonad-less business owners of Heath: grow a pair and defend yourselves.

Backfire: When “safety” equals “hog trough”

Two overlooked facts about Heath traffic cameras:

1 - Heath was a long stretch of agricultural land built to a hugely profitable enterprise because Rt. 79 passes through.

During the years since Heath was a corn field, ODOT, politicians, and business interests have ignored the obvious solution to “traffic safety,” which would be to build a bypass for SR 79 around Heath and Newark.

Rt. 79 traffic brought millions of dollars to Heath businesses; now greed has overtaken common sense, resulting in a traffic-ticket hog trough. It is fitting and gratifying that the scheme is back-firing. Rt. 79 has become the precise reason people are avoiding Heath businesses.

2 - Redflex of Australia has been lucky so far: Nobody has yet shot out (or otherwise disabled) these bottomless ATM troughs feeding Heath government hogs.

Lessons learned from Heath Deciders

When is 50 mph in a 65 mph zone too fast?
When it’s icy.

When is 40 mph in a 65 mph zone too fast?
When fog, rain, or snow cut visibility to three car-lengths.

When is 70 mph in a 65 mph zone too slow?
When the flow of traffic is moving at 75.

When is 15 mph in a 25 mph zone too fast?
When kids are playing at the curb.

Okay then, how should safe driving speeds be determined?

The fact is bureaucrats can’t pinpoint a safe speed for any street or highway because each short stretch of each highway has its own idiosyncrasies. These idiosyncrasies change with the season, with the weather, with the hour of the day or night. Government’s Great Deciders often cause highway problems by decreeing unrealistic speed limits, as is the case in Heath.

Some drivers will drive at posted limits, even when they are too slow for road conditions or too fast for road conditions, no matter how much of a problem it causes other drivers.

Gary Burbank, a radio-talk-show host in Cincinnati, proposed several years ago that speed limits be set by the majority of motorists on any given street or highway. He’s right. The majority of drivers drive at speeds they feel are safe, taking into consideration the road conditions, weather, and visibility. That’s how you tell where to set the speeds.

People who drive at a great variance from the flow of traffic should be ticketed, too fast or too slow. Do that, take away cell phones, and arrest tailgaters. That would increase safety many times over. Next, let the Great Deciders decide how to better engineer traffic warning devices, to warn motorists of real hazards, and quit hassling drivers by orange barrels and 45 mph limits when there are no hazards.

Hassling motorists is the temporary pleasure of Heath’s Great Deciders. Not just the joy of hassling, but the profit for doing so likely doubles their pleasure. It also doubles the resentment and resistance and anger of people trying to use a state highway.

My number of visits to businesses in Heath since the cameras went active is exactly three. My last visit was when I learned that I can’t get to the mall without exposing myself to the Australian profiteers. My next visit will be whenever they deactivate the traffic cameras - maybe. By then I will have formed new shopping habits in places other than Heath. Likely by then many thousands of others shoppers will have broken the Heath habit.

Heath’s Great Deciders are teaching motorists a lesson. Indeed they are.

The clash of Heath war drums and Aussie cameras

Likely the cameras along Ohio 79 are going to get a one-way ticket back to Redflex headquarters Australia, perhaps to the beat of angry citizens’ war drums.

That Heath’s traffic-“safety”-for-profit isn’t making any friends for the mayor or city council has been obvious for several days. Now city fathers okayed the mailing of 8,483 traffic tickets for a chunk of pain valued at $848,300 for driving in Heath, according to Ronnie Michael Kidd, who’s leading citizens’ battle against the invading Aussies.

Warm feelings toward Heath government were already fading before two councilmen were observed smirking while being addressed by a citizen about the traffic cameras: Tim Kelley, who works for the City of Newark in the Engineering Department, and Councilman Ron Krueger, a dentist doing business at 1102 Hebron Rd. The sound and the pace of the war drums intensified.

(Other Heath Council members with business interests on the Gotcha Strip are Council President Jeff Crabill who works at Fairfield Mortgage, 1357 Hebron Rd., Christopher May, associated with Honeybaked Ham, 1006 Hebron Rd. and with Dairy Queen, 720 Hebron Rd.)

It pleases me that Ronnie is proving how a pissed-off citizen can change the course of history. (This is also being demonstrated in Newark affairs by Rhonda Loomis and Lesa Best who are single-handedly kicking government butt, taking names and bringing improvements. Meanwhile, more and more citizens seem less afraid to talk back to bureaucrats.)

The beat goes on angrily in the Advocate comments, with Ronnie patiently and politely and factually responding to a gaggle of what are likely Heath government employees hiding behind screen names.

At least some of that commenting energy might better be spent writing to State Representative Hottinger and State Senator Tim Schaffer, who should have already outlawed the Aussie invaders and others of their ilk. In fact, they should have been on it when Mayor Diebold first tried to slip the cameras into Newark.

Other links and more background to this outsourcing of “justice” are at this link.

A law to prevent this type of highway robbery was introduced about four years ago and co-sponsored by then-State Representative Dave Evans. Then-State Senator Jay Hottinger voted for the senate version. This bill, which mandated that a police officer operate each traffic camera, or at least be nearby, passed both houses but was vetoed by consistently-anti-citizen then-Governor Taft so this travesty of justice from Australia is still legal in Ohio.

There is one bright spot to all this. At last folks in and out of Heath have heard of Richard J. Waugh, and know who he is. Retired from the insurance business, he is now the mayor of Heath, unaffectionately called “10-Watt” by some angry constituents.

I would love to know the names of all the politicians who are benefactors of traffic-ticketing company lobbyists. There’s a good research project for any and all citizen-soldiers who don’t like aboriginal music.

Thanks for nothing, Big Brother

For all the posturing governments large and small do over their role in keeping you safe, their aim couldn’t be worse.

Consider, for instance, the newest annoyance to motorists in the name of traffic safety: Ohio legislators recently decreed that you must turn on your headlights whenever you use windshield wipers.

Now you don’t have to determine that you’re not safe, even though there may be plenty of daylight. Columbus rulers have made that decision for you.

There, Bunky. Feel better, now that Big Brother has given lawmen yet one more excuse to arrest you?

Never mind that Ohio still doesn't outlaw cellphones in the hands of drivers, and lawmen refuse to seriously patrol for tailgating - surely the two most dangerous and stupid of driver addictions.

The lights-on law is every bit as worthless to traffic safety as the ticketing machines in Heath - a city I’ve visited only three times since Reflex cameras began making Australians richer.

There are stores similar to Heath’s in many other nearby places and I’m using them. Heath, I’ve learned, is an easy habit to break.

Government greed, intrusion, and profiteering at drivers’ expense operate behind a smoke screen sold as “safety.” So far it’s worked in Heath and Columbus, but that may change. Big Brother, I hope, has misjudged the degree to which drivers want to be “protected.”

Robo-cop ticketing demands citizen scrutiny and oversight

At issue in the Heath robo-cop traffic-ticket caper is far more than who’s going to get caught running red lights and how. No. At issue is who is making government’s decisions about guilt or innocence and about whether those decisions could be based on profitability.

At the center is Redflex, a company headquartered in Australia, a company with revenue of $88.2 million and a net profit in 2007 of $15.3 million. How it operates has been best described in a USA Today article of 7/5/06. The article should have inspired more media attention and citizen concern. Now, three years later, Redflex has its own little money factory right here in Heath Ohio and local citizens will begin making contributions to the corporate net worth and the Heath treasury will take a percentage as reward for being the facilitator.

Yesterday (6/16/09) I published an essay in Observations from Newark Ohio based on an Advocate blog post of 6/13/09 by RonnieMicheal - “Questions for the Heath Mayor and City Council,” the recent Heath City Council meeting, and the resulting Advocate report, which elicited many reader comments.

The questions raised by Ronnie will affect more than just the Heath community because if citizens of, and visitors to, that city give permission for a company headquartered in Australia to oversee or even participate in local traffic enforcement, then all of Licking County won’t be far behind. Heath is where that battle will be played out.

This is about accountable, open government - and justice guaranteed to be just. It is about the principle of criminal justice for the sake of corporate profit, foreign corporate profit at that.

The issues are not easily understood and my essay yesterday didn’t help much. Today, I attempt to boil it down a bit by paraphrasing Ronnie’s original questions and explaining why they are important. They are:

1, 14, 15 - How was the study made and by whom?

(How the study was made and by whom and for what reasons is directly connected to the validity of these studies. Also, since the studies were made on an Ohio state highway, it seems that ODOT should have been a participant and should verify any such studies and also give its approval for installation of cameras, being as they must be, placed on a public highway right-of-way. Maybe ODOT was a part of it, maybe not.)

5 - Was the contract for the red light/speed cameras put up for competitive bid?

(State laws in many/most cases require competitive biding for purchases over a certain amount. Are those laws applicable to this agreement, and if so, were the followed?)

6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 18, 24, 60 - Content of the Redflex contract.

(This contract should be published on the Internet.)

17, 33, 35, 38 - Will the amount collected in fines become public record? Who maintains authority over timing of lights and how and by whom is that timing determined?

(How much, if any, oversight to this program will citizens be allowed? How much control will be maintained by local officials over Redflex?)

19, 27, 28 - Will citations be issued from Heath or Arizona?

(According to USA Today, “Redflex checks images for quality and turns them over to the city's traffic law enforcement agency, which reviews it for a violation and mails a ticket to the vehicle owner.” This implies the possibility of loopholes by which the tickets could be passed along to drivers without a thorough or meaningful review by police. So how are we guaranteed this will not happen? Must we simply accept the word of the Heath mayor and police chief both of whom will eventually be replaced by their successors? How are limitations on personal information gathered by Redflex guaranteed, if at all?)

This is the last trench, a final battleground where the power of the electorate will be heard - or not. Those who care must offer input and demand answers.

Issues with robo-cop tickets have not been laid to rest

Potential problems and injustices connected with installation of red light cameras by the City of Heath have not been laid to rest, notwithstanding an Advocate report that would seem to make it so.

As background to a Heath council meeting last night, there has been a continuing show of dissatisfaction in blogs and comments to news items about robocop traffic tickets ever since the idea was announced.

Two blog entries in particular should have drawn followup by the media. The first was a reproduction of an article that appeared in thenewspaper.com “A journal of the politics of driving.”

The article, entitled “Red Light Camera Studies Roundup” was reproduced by Advocate blogger “nekekami’s page,” 6/2/09. It listed nine legitimate and important studies that cast doubt on the value and trustworthiness of robocop traffic enforcement.

Full reports by University of South Florida, the Virginia DOT, the Washington Post, and others of that stature are available for download. Findings, in part, were: "Comprehensive studies conclude cameras actually increase crashes and injuries, providing a safety argument not to install them;” “The cameras were associated with an increase in total crashes;” “No change in angle accidents and large increases in rear-end crashes and many other types of crashes relative to other intersections;” and “The cameras are correlated with an increase in total crashes of 8% to 17%.”

That much pertains only to the studies on one page. There are many other noteworthy articles at that web site regarding worrisome topics such as improper enforcement by governments seeking maximum revenue from these cameras.

The second blogger who should have earned some respectful attention from media is “RonnieMichael's page,” when on 6/13/09 he presented a list of 61 questions that concerned him about Heath’s robo-cop cameras - for instance: how the contract was negotiated, what the contract with Redflex says, and what opportunities, if any, will the public have for oversight.

Though his blog entry “Questions for the Heath Mayor and City Council” contains questions - such as the timing of the yellow light signals - already spelled out in Ohio law, there are many that are legitimate concerns not just of motorists, but of citizens interested in good government. Making Ronnie’s case considerably weaker is the fact that he failed to provide links to factual information which inspired his questions.

The Advocate article said the Heath Mayor answered many of Ronnie’s questions, and maybe Ronnie is satisfied with that; if not, likely we’ll hear about it in another blog entry. But whatever went on between the Heath Mayor and Ronnie, the fact remains that many of Ronnie’s important questions have not been publicly answered, at least not in the reports I’ve read.

For instance, Question 1: “What safety studies were used to justify installing the cameras? Who conducted the traffic study completed March 9, 2009? Was Redflex involved in any way with this study?”

Also, Questions 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19* (see below), 24, 27, 33, 35, 38, 60.

Question 19: If citations are issued from issued from Arizona, then also germane are questions 21, 22, 26, 30, and 50.

The dialog needs to continue.

Money is the badge of innocence in Heath

Several months ago, a man came out of a bar in Southgate, got into his car and started driving to his home in Newark. Before he got out of the Heath city limits, a police cruiser which had been waiting in the parking lot watching for potential drunks, stopped him for ... no light over his license plate.

Unfortunately for this man, who was not drunk, he was not a part of the much-celebrated Mopar Super Cruise event held recently in Heath during which drivers take over Ohio 79 to parade their cars, rev their engines and do burn-outs, according to an Advocate report.

"Some people help the burnouts along by pouring a bit of water in the road. Soon after, the trademark white cloud appears behind the car and, like nitro in a drag racer, the adrenaline pumps up drivers and spectators alike."

Also, according the the same report, spectators pelted Heath police cruisers with plastic bottles and trash.

How do they manage to get away with this, you ask?

It's called money and it's for the enrichment of Heath merchants. So this is okay.

Wink wink, says the Advocate. Check it out:

"The event also signals that even in our sometimes overly legalized world we have not fully retreated into a cocoon trying to shield ourselves from every possible pitfall.

"Of course, this isn't a license for a free-for-all. But as long as everyone cooperates with an eye toward safety and respect for law enforcement, this slice of American life and spirit should have a long road ahead of it."

Quite different treatment to drivers than Heath police hiding in the bushes to capture some quiet, sober patsy without a bulb over his license plate.