The search for the Yellow Hummer H3

On Thursday morning, February 16th, a female Northwestern senior, Archana Sriram, was riding her bike from her apartment in Rogers Park to Northwestern. A yellow Hummer H3 ran the intersection of Lake and Sherman and hit her. The impact threw her 10 to 15 feet and causing facial fractures, a broken jaw, a hip fracture and a broken leg.

This was an unfortunate accident due to driver carelessness. But it’s what follows next that makes this accident more than ordinary.

Hit and run

The driver did not stop. "(The witness) said that after (the driver) hit me, he just slammed the gas pedal and fled," Sriram told the Daily Northwestern. It is appropriate that the Hummer was yellow. Yellow is the color of cowardice, and there are few things more cowardly than leaving an injured person by the side of the road and driving away.

The Daily Northwestern reported on February 21st that Sriram and her family were frustrated with EPD’s handling of the investigation, saying it is too passive. Sriram said her father went out and talked to witnesses on his own Monday.

"EPD says they can’t look up registered yellow Hummers in the area, only license plates," Sriram said. "Hopefully people can keep their eyes out."

On Tuesday, February 22, the Evanston Police Department issued a statement Tuesday asking the public to help them find the driver of a yellow Hummer H2. The EPD said they could not give an estimate of when the list of yellow Hummers would arrive from the Secretary of State’s office because the office fields many requests from police departments statewide.

By Friday morning, February 24th, 8 days after the accident, the Illinois Secretary of State’s office had still not responded to EPD’s request for yellow Hummers. It has been a bad few decades at the Secretary of State’s office, between Paul Powell’s shoeboxes, license selling at several offices in the late 1970’s, George Ryan’s licenses for bribes scandal in the 1990’s, the recent Sun-Times reports that people whose licenses are suspended are continuing to drive with impunity -- even in and out of the Secretary of State’s parking lots -- and evidently a somewhat lackadaisical attitude toward modern computer database capabilities.

Press conference

Friday morning, February 24th, there was a press conference at the accident site. Randy Neufield of the CBF talked about safe streets initiatives and the need for drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians to share. Neal Nye, EBC president, echoed these concerns and noted the importance of good design and good community attitudes. EPD police chief Frank Kaminski repeated the plea for information about suspicious yellow Hummers, thanked those who had given earlier tips, and fielded the expected questions about the slow pace of the Secretary of State’s office in providing information.

In addition to the media, there were a number of EBC members. Ben Schapiro took this picture. I'm in the green jacket just to the right of the police chief. Neal Nye is fashionably attired in leather and sunglasses, the Budde's are in the background to Neal's left and right. Randy Neufield is in the green fleece on the right.

The Frozen Snot Century riders, headed from Chicago to Milwaukee, ran late but showed up in a large group just before the end of the conference.

I checked channel 7 news later in the day, because their crew was the first to arrive, but didn’t see the story. Searches of the web sites for the Tribune, and channels 5, 7, and 9 showed nothing. Perhaps Neal should have set his hair on fire.

The press conference did show up on Fox (channel 32) and the video is at http://www.blip.tv/posts/?search=archana 

Updates

March 3: The Daily Northwestern reports that the EPD received the list from the Secretary of State's office this week and “We’re looking at that information and trying to put it into usable form,” said Deputy Chief Joe Bellino of EPD. “It’s quite extensive.”  This conjures up a vision of information mailed from the Secretary of State's office in dead-tree form, perhaps sorted by the middle initial of the owner's name.

 

 

Junk Stats: Top 1% of have 58% of wealth

Another entry in our Junk Stats series. You may have heard the sound bite: "Top 1% of Americans have 58% of the corporate wealth, up from 39% in 1991.

In 15 years these people have gathered another 20% of the wealth of this huge country? Let's look a little closer.

NY Times Jan 28, 2006 -"New U.S. government figures indicate that the concentration of corporate wealth among the highest-income Americans grew significantly in 2003, as a trend that began in 1991 accelerated in the first year that President Bush and Congress cut taxes on capital.    

"In 2003, the top 1 percent of households owned 57.5 percent of corporate wealth, up from 53.4 percent the year before, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the latest income tax data. The top group's share of corporate wealth has grown by half since 1991, when it was 38.7 percent. In 2003, incomes in the top 1 percent of households ranged from $237,000 to several billion dollars.  

Farther down in the article, we see the likely junk stats culprit: changing methodology. In this case, it's not the methodology itself, but the tax policy upon which that methodology is based.  

“The analysis did not measure wealth directly. It looked at taxes on capital gains, dividends, interest and rents. Income from securities owned by retirement plans and endowments was excluded, as were gains from noncorporate assets, such as personal residences. This technique for measuring wealth has long been used in standard economic studies, though critics have challenged that tradition. Among them is Stephen Entin, president of the Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation.... Lower tax rates on long-term capital gains, Entin said, may have prompted wealthy investors to sell profitable investments. That would show up in tax data as increased wealth that year, even though the increase may have built up over decades. Long-term capital gains were taxed at 28% until 1997 and at 20% until 2003, when rates were cut to 15%. The top rate on dividends was cut to 15% from 35% in the same year.”  

The underlying trend toward wealth concentration is probably true. But the fact that we believe the underlying trend is true is the reason why we are willing to believe extreme statistics like these.  If we saw similar statistics that disagreed with our beliefs, we would be more skeptical.  

I'm not picking on the NY Times. To their credit, the article contained ALL of the facts above. But then the Times has room to print the long version. Other media outlets either don't have the space, or don't want to bother with all that boring detail when there's better ratings in the sound bite.

Paternal Instinct?

Is there such a thing as paternal instinct? If there is, how does it differ from maternal instinct? Perhaps this story will illuminate.

This morning I'm biking east on Glenview Road about 8:30 a.m. in the cold (5F). As I go over the Edens Expressway, I see a black garbage bag in the middle of the opposite lane. Immediately, my thoughts turn to those stories about babies found in garbage bags in dumpsters. This seems to be a silly thought and I continue down the hill, but the thought won't go away. I turn around, ride back up the overpass, and stop.  At the very least, I will at least get this bag out of the traffic lane and make the world a slightly better place.

It's apparent when I pick it up that there's no baby inside, but I can't resist looking. Much to my surprise the bag is filled with -- used baby diapers! 

Was is the smell of the diapers that made me think of babies? This is unlikely. The bag was downwind, and sealed. In the extreme cold, the diapers didn't really smell much even after I opened up the bag.

I saw two other black garbage bags farther off the road, as if they had blown off. One was partly open and contained plastic bottles. So, these people were good people who separated their recyclables. The fact that they were either careless or intentionally dumped them on the side of the road notwithstanding, they did sort their trash so they aren't completely irresponsible. At least, not irresponsible enough to leave their baby by the side of the road. 

I didn't open the third bag, but it definitely didn't have a baby in it. I think it was tin cans.  I stacked the bags together where they weren't likely to get into more mischief and got back on the bike.

Paternal instinct? Maybe. But mine needs improvement if all it's finding is soiled diapers.

Dick Cheney, hunter

Republicans have suggested Dick Cheney invite Hillary Clinton on his next hunting trip.

Hillary plans to send Bill in her place.

Thretz

My daughter, the English teacher, issues this reminder on the importance of spelling in communicating clearly:

This is from http://www.foundmagazine.com/index.php?fuseaction=finds.view&fid=50

It WAS a romantic weekend

Deb wants me to acknowledge to the world that she was ready AHEAD of time and we left when I got back from giving a lecture at Northwestern University at 3:25 p.m.

It was a nice weekend. Earthrider in Brodhead, Wisconsin was a great place to stay (see link below). We watched the Olympics in the evening, and the funny romantic comedy "Fever Pitch", which is about an obsessed Boston Red Sox fan.  I indulged my own obsession by biking up the Sugar River Trail to Swiss-themed New Glarus, where Deb and I ate sauerbraten at the New Glarus Hotel and walked around most of the town. I biked back, the the path wasn't frozen over any more and it was soft; I spent a few miles on the roads. This was good because I got a chance to get some hills in and see more territory.

Sunday we went back up to New Glarus to walk around again. We bought some local rhubarab wine, then headed home. I'm working on laundry and bills now and heading to the grocery in a bit, so I won't start the week behind on chores.

Biker Valentine Weekend Getaway

I was the high bidder at the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation auction for a weekend at Earth Rider Hotel and Bicycle Shop, in Brodhead, Wisconsin.  It's a small hotel, with all the suites named after multiple winners of the Tour de France. I'm staying in the Bernard Hinault suite, although it possible that Greg Lemond will want the room before I'm done with it (there's a cycling joke hidden in there).

The hotel is right at the start of the Sugar River Trail, which runs to Swiss-themed New Glarus. http://www.earthridercycling.com/

My wife doesn't cycle, so this is more likely to involve walking around sightseeing. Luckily it is off-season for the antique shops, since we have enough junk. Perhaps I can get a few miles in if I let her sleep in during the morning.

It will be good to get out of the routine a bit and get out of the city together.

Equal Opportunity Blasphemy

"Muslim protesters infuriated by cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad raised the diplomatic stakes last night as Iran's best-selling newspaper announced it would retaliate by running images satirising the Holocaust.

The decision by the rightwing Hamshari daily to launch an international competition to find the most suitable caricatures came as demonstrators hurled firebombs and stones at the Danish embassy in Tehran and the Iranian government imposed a formal trade ban on Danish imports. Last night mobs were attempting to storm the Danish compound."

From The Guardian Feb 7, 2005 http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoonprotests/story/0,,1703925,00.html?gusrc=rss

Perhaps this is a good idea. Some tasteless cartoons from the other side might eventually trivialize the "free speech" part of the idea from the western side and provide a nonviolent outlet from the Muslim side.  A few salvos of cartoons and we'll be thinking cable TV farting contests will look dignified by comparison, but maybe there will be no fatalities. 

Fallujah: Glad I'm not there

I got little perspective lesson this week.

Periodically, my knee hurts. It hurts now. This problem originated in a pick-up football game in high school, when Dan gave me a cheap block in retaliation for something he thought I'd done earlier.

I haven't seen Dan for decades, but I think of him more often than I do most of my classmates. I don't think of him in a hostile way -- after all, we co-edited the school newspaper during and after this incident -- but I can't forget him.

He didn't make our reunion because he was preparing to go to Iraq at the START of the war. Now, I see from a posting he made on another alumni's obituary, he's STILL in Fallujah. Either he's on his second stint, or he's been there a long time.

Either way, I felt silly feeling sorry for myself with minor knee pain when he's in a combat zone.

Come back safe, Dan.

An Iconic Dispute

This week there is a huge furor over a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoon images of the prophet Mohammed. The editor of France-Soir has been fired for reprinting these. 

The story is all over the place, but I can't find the actual cartoons. They are probably somewhere out there on the web, but there are too many places to look.

I tried a Google image search of the term Mohammed, and got 75,000 hits. Most, not surprisingly, are photographs of men named Mohammed. There's this woman, whose last name is Mohammed and is in somewhat non-Islamic attire, although there's certainly a hint of "Arabian Nights"..

But there are a good number of drawings of the prophet himself. 

Does this mean there will be a holy image war? Is this just a case of these particular drawings generating an unusual response because of current tensions in the Muslim world? (Iraq, Hamas, Iran, Afghanistan -- just to name four trouble spots)  Will there be pressure on libraries in the west to purge themselves of images?

This is a particularly tough call because there are no images in Islam (which is clear from the average mosque) and western religions make heavy use of images/icons (clear from the average cathedral). So, culturally, we westerners are not even remotely attuned to the issue.

By following enough links, I did finally find the drawings, which are best described as editorial cartoons, including one "St. Peter at the Pearly Gates" type.  Suicide bombers arrive in heaven, only to be told "Stop! Stop! We're out of virgins!"  By western standards, nothing unusual. But then fundamentalist Muslims don't want to be westernized.

Running through my head as I write this, and oddly appropriate, is:

     I don't care if it rains or freezes,

     'long as I got my plastic Jesus

     Ridin' on the dashboard of my car.

 

     Goin' 90 I ain't scary

     'Cause I got the Virgin Mary

     Assuring me that I ain't goin' ta Hell.

 

8th grade Zen poetry

I am an 8th grade student

I have a very happy teacher

She teaches us poetry

BORING  

 

There is a principal i hate

he thinks every body is his frien

but nobodie likes him

he is very strict  

 

(courtesy of the teacher, my daughter Beth)