2 Fast, 2 Foolish

By: Mr. T on March 31, 2007
image Things like this really burn me. I am not one to go negative on the street racing culture for the sake of going negative on the street racing culture. But this doesn’t have anything to do with culture. It has to do with being drunk and reckless. What on earth were these clowns thinking?

Guts

By: Mr. Wilson on March 30, 2007
I meant to catch this one the other day. I want to applaud Edward Conradt for sticking to his guns in the Kenneth Albers murder trial in Pawnee City. His stubbornness and refusal to vote for a guilty verdict forced a mistrial in the case which, although unfortunate, isn't the end of the world. The defendant, Patrick Schroeder, will be tried again. It takes a tremendous amount of guts to stand up to 11 fellow jurors, and even more to acknowledge to the public that you were the lone holdout in what appeared to most people to be an open-and-shut case. Mr. Conradt had doubt and he voted accordingly. Good for him. Not having participated in the deliberations, none of us know whether Mr. Conradt's doubt was "reasonable". Who knows, perhaps he just wanted to be a real life Mr. Davis. It sounds like he focused a lot on the issues surrounding the defendant's confessions, perhaps at the expense of other, less questionable evidence. Raising an eyebrow at the prospect of a coerced confession doesn't sound unreasonable to me. But again, I wasn't there to see and hear all the evidence. Generally speaking, I'm glad there are jurors out there who are willing to stand behind their reasonable doubt. I wish there were more of them, lots more. Not because I want to see potentially guilty people go free, but because I hate to see potentially innocent people go to prison. Ultimately such jurors force police and prosecutors to do a better job, from the crime scene to the trial, and that's a win for all of us.

Five Willows is Almost Finished!

By: Mr. Wilson on March 30, 2007
Wow, after about 16 years of construction, it looks like Five Willows at 48th and Pioneers might finally be nearing completion. I have heard all sorts of rumors about why construction was so glacial, but I don't know the real story. Regardless, the building looks much better than the white concrete block former Food-4-Less it replaced.

Friday Five

By: Mr. Wilson on March 30, 2007
I haven't written a restaurant review in a long time. Here are five places I want to review in the near future:
  1. Las Margaritas. The Missus and I ate there for the first time on Wednesday. Maybe it should be a group review along with El Toro, La Mexicana, and (the fourth location I'm forgetting about).
  2. Ramo's/Busters. We hit this one a few weeks ago.
  3. Stauffer's. I have lived within a couple blocks of this place for a few years now, and I still haven't written a review. Tsk tsk.
  4. Paul's BBQ. Now that Paul's has been open for a while, let's see how it's doing.
  5. Upchuck Cheese's. My sister, the evil fiend, is holding my niece's third birthday party at the rat hole in a couple weeks. I don't see how it could possibly be worse than the last time I was there, but I promise to keep an open mind.

Thr Ot 2 B A Law

By: Mr. Wilson on March 30, 2007
The Journal Star editors think texting should be banned while driving. But why a law specifically targeting texting? It is already illegal to be IWD (idiot while driving). Do we really need myriad individual laws for the huge list of ways one can be an idiot behind the wheel?

Fourteen Cents

By: Mr. Wilson on March 29, 2007
If you're up for a little good propaganda, go check out the City of Lincoln's Your 14 Cents Worth page. Learn about what you're getting for your $0.1419 per property tax dollar. To be clear, I don't have any problem with the City communicating to its residents what they're getting for their money, especially when they do it as frugally as Lincoln has done here. It would be nice if the page linked to some more detailed budget info, though.

Changes to Star Tran are Ruffling Feathers

By: Mr. Wilson on March 29, 2007
I haven't had time to give the Transit Development Plan a close look, but clearly it is ruffling feathers among some riders. In particular, many people don't like the new routes. I haven't studied all of the routes in detail -- I especially want to compare them to current routes -- but I do like a few things that I see. For example, I like that most routes are "double-sided", in the sense that they hit both the north and south sides of town. I also like that there are a couple "neighborhood routes" that don't use the hub-and-spoke model Lincoln has relied on for so many years. (That's not to say I like the chosen routes, just that I like the idea.) I especially get a kick out of the fact that there is finally the possibility that Star Tran will revise the Downtown Star Shuttle route, and that they propose to add a Haymarket Shuttle on Thursday thru Saturday evenings. That idea was proposed years ago and quickly shot down by the folks at Star Tran. I even worked on a graduate class project back in 2002 or so in which we submitted similar proposals to the city. Our ideas were quickly brushed aside. In fact, many of the ideas we wanted to present in our final report were shot down by the city very early in the process, so we left them out. Oddly enough, some of those ideas show up in the current proposals. I'm not taking credit for that, mind you. It's just interesting to see ideas that were once verboten become acceptable. I'm sure once I dig in more deeply I'll uncover more of the factors that are getting folks' goats. But a lot of the buzz I have heard on the bus is relatively petty. Stuff like: "The bus won't go right in front of my house any more, so now I'm going to have to walk two extra blocks!" and "I won't be on the same route as you any more, so maybe I just won't ride." Still, there are lots of valid concerns out there. It will be interesting to watch this process unfold.

Uncovered

By: Mr. Wilson on March 28, 2007
I was pretty bummed to see almost no coverage of high school sports in this morning's Journal Star. In particular, it's really a shame that the LJS's readers will never know about the Lincoln Southeast boys soccer team's impressive comeback over North Platte last night. I was the center referee on the match so it would be improper for me to editorialize too much about the game. But surely a team coming back from a 2-0 deficit in the second half to win 5-3 -- there were seven second half goals! -- is worth a story, and probably even a photograph. The Journal Star can't afford to send reporters to every event, of course, so I'm not faulting them for missing this particular game. There are days when I think the Journal Star does a good job covering high school athletics, and there are days like today when they really drop the ball. I wish more days were like the former and fewer like the latter. Perhaps they could work with journalism students in the local high schools and colleges to expand the reach of their coverage?

What is Ken’s Role at Ray’s?

By: Mr. Wilson on March 28, 2007
I know that Ken Svoboda (partially?) owns Ray's Lawn Care. What I don't know is the extent of his participation in the business. Without knowing that, it makes it difficult to determine what I should think about Ray's crappy median maintenance record. In articles about Svoboda and Ray's, the Journal Star sometimes implies that Ken Svoboda = Ray's Lawn Care, which makes me think he plays a pretty direct role in the company's day-to-day operations. Other times the Journal Star makes it seem like Svoboda's day-to-day influence isn't so great. Can anybody tell me more about Svoboda's involvement with Ray's? Just how much does poppy-gate reflect on Svoboda personally, as opposed to on his company?

Art Over the Road

By: Mr. Wilson on March 27, 2007
In the biggest over-the-road news since The Archway, the City Council has approved a giant mural on the skywalk over 12th Street in Downtown. The mural will feature "10 people of various ages and ethnicities walking, some of them standing, with a brick wall in the background. It will cover the whole skywalk, which is 86 feet long." Sounds a tad hokey to me, especially for the Downtown art corridor, where one might expect something a bit more daring. Oh well, assuming the mural ages well it certainly won't hurt anything. The mural will be installed by mid-June.

A New Second-Run Theater

By: Mr. Wilson on March 27, 2007
Now that Star Ship 9 is little more than a pink memory, many Lincolnites are bummed that there isn't a second-run theater option in Downtown. That will change soon, with the renovation of the State Theater on O Street. The theater is being converted into a sort of "theater pub" that, in addition to second-run movies, will also offer appetizers and drinks. Patrons will sit in loveseats or at tables. I figured something was going on at The State because it seemed as though there had been an uptick in activity lately. This is much better news than I expected. It will be fun to see how Lincolnites take to the concept. I know I'm in.

Please tell me somebody took a photo

By: Mr. Wilson on March 27, 2007
Please tell me one of you took a photograph of tonight's beautiful sunset. I wanted to, but I drained my camera's batteries a couple hours ago filming Robbie eating his supper.

Make Your Mark

By: Mr. Wilson on March 26, 2007
I noticed late last week that Kopeli and Wasabi were both tagged in an overnight graffiti spree. I wonder if Wasabi gets to ignore the graffiti ordinance since the building won't be around much longer anyway. Speaking of Wasabi, it's still open, but not for long. Go soon if you're going to go.
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