Tuesday, June 30, 2009

New Union

WMU's part-time instructors have voted to form a union.

Western Michigan University part-time instructors vote to start a union
PIO now a recognized union
WMU part-time faculty sets sights on a union

KALAMAZOO Part-time faculty members at Western Michigan University will now be represented by a union.

Instructors voted 207 to 29 in favor of collective bargaining according to a count of ballots Monday at the Michigan Employment Relations Commission in Lansing, said a news release by the newly certified Professional Instructors Organization.

The union will represent part-time WMU instructors who teach at least three credit hours in a semester.
This could mean higher costs for students, but it isn't clear how much they will be able to get during the down economy.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Kalamazoo Tea Party

Check out the Kalamazoo Tea Party website.

http://kzooteaparty.ning.com/

They are planning a rally in Bronson Park on July 4, 6-8 PM.

http://kzooteaparty.ning.com/events/july-4-rally-kalamazoo

Discrimination Again

UPDATE: As expected, the ordinance was passed unanimously.

Ken at Bible, Math, and Politics (which needs more math!) highlights the anti-Christian discrimination ordinance expected to be passed in Kalamazoo tonight.

--------------------

Kalamazoo Discrimination Ordinance to be Voted On Tonight!

The title above is my own, as the ordinance will discriminate against those who live or operate a business in the city of Kalamazoo by forcing them to accept homosexuals (or anyone in the "GLBT" group) in housing, employment, and "access to public accommodations."

According to the Kalamazoo Gazette and widely reported elsewhere, the ordinance is likely to pass, and in fact could be unanimously passed. A similar ordinance passed the City Commission unanimously in December, but was then rescinded in January after an unprecedented number of signatures were turned in for a ballot referendum on the matter. Some minor changes have since been made granting more "protections" to religious groups. Fines for violating the ordinance will be $500 a day plus expenses.

The American Family Association intends to begin circulating petitions Tuesday morning if the measure passes the commission, as most expect it will. Given the fact that no commission members have given any indication of a change of heart on the matter, we need to prepare for this. The previous petition drive was only granted 20 days to collect over a thousand signatures (over the Christmas holiday season, no less), and was successful by a comfortable margin. If you are a registered voter of Michigan and know registered voters in Kalamazoo, you can help in the petition drive. Pay attention to the AFA website and stayed tuned for further developments.

The homosexual movement wants to win as many of these local battles as they can before the inevitable day when their agenda will be placed before Congress. Do your part to promote what is right and godly in your area!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

MSU Allows Concealed Weapons

Michigan State approves exception to weapons ban

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan State University has approved an exception to its campus weapons ban allowing people with permits to carry concealed weapons to walk or drive through campus with a gun.

The Detroit Free Press reports the East Lansing university's governing board voted 7-1 Friday to make the exception and avoid a conflict with state law. Guns still are banned inside campus buildings and sports stadiums.

The issue was raised by campus police who had to issue citations to people with guns during traffic stops regardless whether they had a permit.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Crime Wave?

The Gazette has featured a number of stories in the past couple weeks about home invasions and related crimes. It isn't clear whether this is a coincidence or a trend.

Armed self-defence is more and more necessary.

POLITICAL UDPATE--News from Abroad

This update focuses on news from abroad. Protests continue in Iran. American foreign policy continues to be debated. There is other news from around the world.

Don Devine: War Advice
William Jasper: “Merchant of Death” Trial Still Looms
James Perloff: Iran and the Shah: What Really Happened
Don Devine: OBush Foreign Policy
Warren Mass: ANC Scores Big in South Africa's Elections
Ron Paul: Responses to Piracy

POLITICAL UPDATES are archived here.

Good Article

From Matt Labash at the Weekly Standard:

Down with Facebook!

No, the reason to hate Facebook is because of the stultifying mind-numbing inanity of it all, the sheer boredom. If Facebook helps put together streakers with voyeurs, the streakers, for the most part, after shedding their trench coats, seem to be running around not with taut and tanned hard-bodies, but in stained granny panties with dark socks. They have a reality-show star's unquenchable thirst for broadcasting all the details of their lives, no matter how unexceptional those details are. They do so in the steady, Chinese-water-torture drip of status updates. The very fact that they are on the air (or rather, on Facebook) has convinced them that every facet of their life must be inherently interesting enough to alert everyone to its importance.

Local News

Local news around Kalamazoo.

Michigan unemployment rate hits 14.1 percent in May

Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport is set to get $6.63 million in new federal funding

Sen. Tom George urges Republican-controlled Senate to vote on smoking ban bill

Downtown Kalamazoo arena plan to get close look by study group

Kalamazoo County finance director warns of budget deficit

Kalamazoo College to cut positions to erase 2009-10 budget deficit

Revised gay-rights ordinance draws little public opposition Monday

Western Michigan University looking at $5 million budget hole as officials consider tuition rate

WMU stretches outside the city limits

Saturday, June 13, 2009

POLITICAL UPDATE--The Culture War

This update focuses on the culture war. Congress is considering a 'hate crimes' bill to suppress free speech and religious freedom. Abortion and immigration continue to generate controversy.

Nicholas Stix: What The Heretical 2 Case Says About The Federal Hate Crimes Bill
Selwyn Duke: The Hoax That Is Hate-crime Laws
Selwyn Duke: Adding "Sexual Orientation" to Hate-crime Statutes
Gary Bauer: How Will New Hate Crimes Bill Affect Your Free Speech?

Ann Coulter: 49 Million to Five
Thomas Sowell: 'Empathy' Versus Law
Gary Bauer: Obama Erasing a Generation of Pro-Family Advances
Jasmes Edwards: Obama Embraces Amnesty
Ernest Istook: Quiet Amnesty -- Part II

POLITICAL UPDATES are archived here.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Arena of Conflict

There have been several recent developments concerning the proposed arena in downtown Kalamazoo.

Rep. Robert Jones' tax amendment tailored to arena in Kalamazoo
Taxes would be proposed arena's main funding source in downtown Kalamazoo
Sizing up potential arena: Many factors play into scale of proposed downtown facility
WMU, K-Wings consider moving teams to arena proposed for downtown Kalamazoo

First, it appears that State Rep. Robert Jones, always eager to raise taxes, helped to slip through an amendment that makes it possible for Kalamazoo to tax hospitalities, which it previously wasn't.
In late 2008, the former Kalamazoo mayor fast-tracked an amendment to a 1991 state law, making Kalamazoo County the smallest Michigan population center eligible to use hotel, rental car and restaurant surcharges to finance a public arena.

According to Michigan House records, Jones' amendment was specifically tailored to "affect only the city of Kalamazoo."
Second, County leaders have admitted that "Taxes would be proposed arena's main funding source in downtown Kalamazoo". It would not make money.

Third, attendance figures for the Wings and WMU teams make it clear that such a stadium is not necessary.
Kalamazoo Wings
• Average home-game attendance in 2008-09: 3,190
• Wings Stadium capacity: 5,113 seats.
• Sold out games last season: 1

WMU hockey
• Average home-game attendance in 2008-09: 2,112
• Lawson Ice Arena capacity: 3,667 seats.
• Sold out games last season: 2

WMU men's basketball
• Average home-game attendance in 2008-09: 2,960
• University Arena capacity: 5,421 seats
• Sold out games last season: 0
Fourth, commenter turbo25mi ties together some of the players behind this proposal.

Correct me if I am wrong, cause I may not have ALL the info exactly correct but I am pretty sure that these Ken Miller and Bill Johnston guys own Keystone Bank, Greenleaf Trust, a few other expensive restaurants downtown in the Millennium Restaurant Group; owns interests in the Radisson, Sits on a board called Downtown Tomorrow Incorporated which is a real estate development and fundraising arm of Kalamazoo or something of the sorts, sits on Western Michigan Universities board as a trustee AND most recently purchased or now has financial interest and ties to Wing’s Stadium as there are now new ownerships of either the team or the stadium itself (Burdick’s, Radisson owned, is already in the current stadium) and the list goes on and on. Seems to me there are too many people with too many hands in all of this to line their own pockets with more of our money.
Check out the comments on the Gazette articles. There is a lot of sentiment against the proposed arena.

Previous: Forum of Discontent

Open Carry Debate

The Open Carry Picnic took place on Sunday without incident but not without controversy.

Gun owners show support for open-carry law at picnic in Kalamazoo

The Gazette article on the event has garnered over 280 comments. (I don't recommend reading them all.)

Surprising to many people, open carry is legal in Michigan (and most states) without any permit required. Many states have interpreted their state Right to Keep and Bear Arms provision to protect open carry but not concealed carry.

Monday, June 08, 2009

A Conservative History of the American Left

A Conservative History of the American Left
By Dan Flynn

This is the third book by Dan Flynn, author of Why the Left Hates America and Intellectual Morons. It is probably the best of the three, and certainly the most important. This is no small complement, as the other two presented rafts of valuable information, though occasionally suffered from questionable analysis.

This book is exactly what the title says. The story of the American left has never been told like this before, as leftists either imagine themselves as without predecessors, or imagine that their predecessors as earlier images of themselves.

While the Pilgrims experimented with a communist system, they quickly abandoned it when it produced disastrous results. The first real leftist to make an impression on America was Robert Owen, a Welsh industrialist who came to America looking to create heaven on Earth.

Owen declared private property, religion, and marriage to be "a trinity of the most monstrous evils". Many leftists since have agreed. Owen was briefly popular in America, speaking to Congress and inspiring clubs of followers. He bought control of an agricultural commune at New Harmony, Indiana planning to create utopia. A number of people migrated to the socialist colony.

Not surprisingly, it was a disaster. Sloth reigned, and property decayed. The commune lasted less than two years.

Unlike many leftists, Owen was willing to spend his own money on his dream. Like many leftists, Owen seemed more concerned with feeding his own sense of moral self-righteousness than actually accomplishing his stated goals. As he wrote in his diary, "The enjoyment of a reformer, I should say, is much more in contemplation, than in reality."

The years before the civil war saw a number of similar utopian communes. There were the followers of Charles Fourier, Brook Farm, and the Oneida community. Most were similarly disastrous, as utopians found that it wasn't as easy to create heaven on Earth as they had thought.

The period between the Civil War and World War I saw an eclectic succession of leftist movements. Some were revolutionists and others were reformers, but all were interested in using force rather than persuasion to achieve their ends. There were the early followers of Karl Marx. There was the early labor movement, which seemingly spent as much time fighting the efforts of intellectuals and socialists to hijack it as it spent fighting or bargaining with management.

There were the 'single-taxers', inspired by Henry George's book Progress and Poverty. There were nationalists inspired by the utopian novel Looking Backwards. There was the populist movement of farmers in the 1870s-90s. There were 'social gospel' preachers such as Walter Rauschenbusch, who preached socialism rather than saving souls.

The progressive movement became increasingly influential at the beginning of the twentieth century. Unlike previous leftist movements, they achieved more than minor results. These included electing presidents Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, and FDR. Prominent progressives included Theodore Veblen, John Dewey, Charles Beard, and Upton Sinclair.

Progressives imposed government regulations on business and land use. The Federal Reserve, a banking cartel, was created. The income tax was created, along with state government representation in the Senate. Prohibition was passed. The movement was derailed by World War I, and the election of Warren Harding in 1920.

Meanwhile, socialists like J. A. Wayland, Eugene Debs, and Daniel DeLeon promoted their cause to little effect. Following World War I, they were displaced on the far left by the communist party of John Reed.

Following the stock market crash, FDR and the new dealers came to power. They created a raft of new government programs and regulations that prolonged the depression for a decade. The new deal created business cartels that punished the little guy for underselling big corporations.

Meanwhile, communists including Mike Gold influenced the art world, and the party also made an impact in Hollywood and the news media. The communist party of Earl Browder and William Foster purged suspected deviationists are infiltrated the government. A ring of spies gave the nuclear bomb secrets to Moscow.

The 1950s saw a left critical of the middle class. Alfred Kinsey promoted deviancy as he engaged in every deviant sexual practice himself. The beatnik counterculture briefly struck New York.

In the '60s, student radicals formed Students for a Democratic Society. Lyndon Johnson's liberals tried to create a Great Society, but created the Vietnam War and welfare dependence instead. SDS became increasingly radical, and gave way to the Weathermen, while the Black Panthers came on the scene.

In the 1970s, the 'gay rights', feminist, and environmental movements became forces on the left. While the public rejected the left at the ballot box in the '80s, leftists worked to control academia, the media, and the courts. Most recently, they attacked everything from the Iraq War, to the imagined threat of global warming, to Americans who wouldn't vote for them.

What can be learned from this long history of the left? There have been plenty of unusual characters on the left, and Flynn enjoys telling their stories. A surprising number were sexual perverts. Others destroyed their lives in other ways, from drugs to suicide to shootouts with police.

There are certainly plenty of specific differences amongst the many people and movements on the left. Flynn suggests that the common factor underlying them is an infatuation with a vision of perfection. This led more moderate leftists such as unionists and Bellomy's nationalists to support 'reform'. But it led more radical leftists to despise and seek to destroy the existing institutions of society such as Christianity, marriage, capitalism, and private property.

While Flynn doesn't mention it, perhaps the best slogan for this vision is 'Another World is Possible'. The most succinct statement of this vision may be John Lennon's song Imagine. Lennon's vision is thoroughly evil, as can be understood by examining its implications.

But this still does not explain why the leftist vision is what it is. True, there are lots of variations, but there is also too much in common for it to just be chance.

Another key factor in understanding the left is Robert Owen's condition. That is, many leftists are more concerned with maintaining their own vision of their own moral self-righteousness than achieving specific goals. This is one reason why they are so hostile to efforts to examine the effects of the policies that they advocate.

But this still does not explain why leftists advocate what they do. While Flynn provides a lot of valuable data, this question remains unanswered.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

"Anti-discrimination" Means Anti-Freedom

The Kalamazoo "anti-discrimination" ordinance continues to be debated.

New version of gay-rights ordinance likely headed back to Kalamazoo City Commission

KALAMAZOO -- Six months after Kalamazoo's first anti-discrimination ordinance was rescinded in the face of a petition challenge, supporters and opponents of gay-rights guarantees appear no closer to finding common ground.

A three-member Kalamazoo City Commission subcommittee is expected to introduce a new version of the employment, housing and public-accommodation ordinance at the commission's next meeting June 15.

But opponents -- many who object to gay-rights protections on religious grounds -- said Wednesday they're prepared to immediately launch another petition drive to let city voters have the final word on the issue.

Mayor Bobby Hopewell appointed Commissioners David Anderson, Don Cooney and Stephanie Moore in December to hear arguments on both side of the issue and try to craft a new anti-discrimination ordinance that addressed those concerns.

But following hours of public comment and opportunities to weigh in on the proposal via e-mail, letters and telephone, Wednesday's final subcommittee meeting ended with a widening gap.

The ordinance essentially would make it a city infraction to discriminate in employment, housing or public accommodations based on an individual's sexual orientation.

City Attorney Clyde Robinson presented a modified form of the 11-page ordinance draft Wednesday that included some concessions on issues raised by opponents. However, several of those accommodations were removed by the subcommittee after representatives from the gay, lesbian and transgender community objected and offered alternatives.

"Taken in totality, the proposed changes gut the intention of the amendment and would dramatically reduce the ability of the ordinance to remedy and prohibit discrimination in the city of Kalamazoo," said Amy Hunter, a transgender individual who spoke on behalf of the gay-rights Kalamazoo Alliance for Equality.
What concessions did the 'gay rights' lobby object to?

Specifically, Robinson had proposed applying the ordinance to businesses employing 15 or more persons. But Commissioner Don Cooney agreed with KAFE's position that the ban on employment discrimination should be applied to all businesses.

The subcommittee also deleted language that would have allowed youth organizations to "restrict membership on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity."
'Youth organizations' includes the Boy Scouts. The 'gay rights' lobby would ban their existence.

A provision that would have allowed restricting "use of lavatories, restrooms, changing rooms or locker rooms or shower facilities on the basis of sex" was also eliminated. The subcommittee will recommend that no one be required to provide unisex facilities, however.
Yes, they really do want to mandate that men pretending to be women can use women's bathrooms.

The final draft does include an exemption for religious organizations, including religious-based schools. Under that provision, religious organizations would be allowed to restrict housing, employment and access to services like homeless shelters to "members who conform to the moral tenets of that religious organization."

For example, the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission, a faith-based homeless shelter, would not be bound by the ordinance if housing gay, lesbian or transgender individuals meant violating its "religious tenets."
How generous.

"We know there are Biblical and philosophical differences," said Terry Kuseske, of KAFE. "We want to keep the Bible out of this and have separation of church and state."Jan Stowe and Lydia McGrew said Wednesday they're ready to begin collecting petition signatures if the current draft is adopted by the commission.

"There are legitimate moral objections and this has been an attempt to override those objections," McGrew said. "This ordinance, at its heart, doesn't seem to me to be all that different."

The subcommittee now is tentatively scheduled to introduce the new draft ordinance for first reading June 15. If it has the votes, it could be enacted as early as the commission's next session June 29 and go into effect 10 days later.

If a petition challenge is mounted, circulators will have 20 days from the date the ordinance becomes effective to collect and submit nearly 1,300 signatures to bring the measure back before the commission.

At that point, the commission would decide to either rescind the ordinance in its entirety or put its provisions on hold until city voters decide if it should continue. That election could come as early as November.
There you have it. The 'gay rights' movement attacks religious businesses, the Boy Scouts, and even separate bathrooms.

The 'gay rights' movement is truly hate-based. They hate Christians, conservatives, the Boy Scouts, the free market, and anyone who disagrees with them. No movement has been more vicious about attacking people who disagree with them, Miss California being a prominent example.

It's time to expose their lies.

Previous:
Speechless
The Effects of 'Sexual Orientation' and 'Gender Identity' Nondiscrimination Ordinances
Kalamazoo to Persecute Christians

POLITICAL UPDATE--Government

This update focuses on government. The government continues to take over American industries. It continues to threaten the Constitution as well.

Phyllis Schlafly: Beware of Attacks on the Constitution
Don Devine: Treasury Thugs
Don Devine: Love Big Brother
Thomas Eddlem: National Service: “Serving” Political Ends
Patrick Krey: Constitutionalism 101
Alex Newman: Cancerous Growth of Government
William Hoar: Foreign Aid: Give ’Til It Hurts, Repeat
Ron Paul: Secession: the Ultimate States' Right
Thomas Eddlem: Obama Signs Sweeping National Service Bill
Steve Sailer: Playing With Fire: The Obama Administration Backs Anti-White Discrimination in Ricci
Michelle Malkin: The Million Taxpayer March
Ron Paul: Fewer Taxes for Real Economic Stimulus

POLITICAL UPDATES are archived here.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Local News

Local news around Kalamazoo.

Rep. Robert Jones' tax amendment tailored to arena in Kalamazoo
Taxes would be proposed arena's main funding source in downtown Kalamazoo
Sizing up potential arena: Many factors play into scale of proposed downtown facility
WMU, K-Wings consider moving teams to arena proposed for downtown Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo Tea Party wants to make a difference in elections
Open house at Planned Parenthood: Clinic's $2.4 million renovation includes better security
New version of gay-rights ordinance likely headed back to Kalamazoo City Commission
Brown and gold goes green: WMU's Health and Human Services building wins environmental honor
Kalamazoo County approves designing jail expansion
Comstock Township wins judgment in former trustee's lawsuit
Western Herald reduces publication schedule
Suspect charged in Dalton Center ‘inside job’ larceny

Open Carry Picnic

Handgun-carrying advocates plan picnic

KALAMAZOO -- Food and firearms will go hand in hand Sunday at Bronson Park during an afternoon picnic hosted by the pro-Second Amendment group OpenCarry.org.

The Open Carry Picnic, from 1 to 4 p.m., is meant to teach residents and raise awareness about the legal right to openly carry a handgun in Michigan, said Josh Tishhouse, a member of the national group. The event also is in response to three incidents that, according to Tishhouse, have occurred locally in the last six weeks involving members of OpenCarry.org who were detained by either Kalamazoo or Portage police and later released.

"It's mostly to show we are a nonconfrontational group," he said. "We're just exercising a constitutional right."

The event will be similar to recent gatherings the group held previously in Ann Arbor and Hastings. The group also hosted a "meet-and-eat" event this year at Theo & Stacy's on South Westnedge Avenue.

Police don't plan to have officers at the event, but they do plan to monitor it as needed with on-duty personnel, said Capt. Brian Uridge of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety.

"From all the information that we have, we believe it is going to be a peaceful event," Uridge said.

It is legal to openly carry a loaded pistol in Michigan, but a permit is needed to carry a concealed weapon.

Tishhouse said between 17 and 19 members have confirmed they plan to attend the picnic, and some of them will be traveling from areas of the state that include Ann Arbor and Detroit.

The event is free and open to the general public and members of OpenCarry.org. Tishhouse said attendees are not required to openly carry a firearm to take part in the picnic.

Organizers are asking for anyone who comes to the picnic to bring a dish to pass, their own soft drinks and tableware.

Friday, June 05, 2009

Remembering Reagan

It has been five years since President Reagan passed away.

A Time for Choosing

Thursday, June 04, 2009

The City of Oshtemo?

The Oshtemo Township board is exploring making Oshtemo a city.

The stated motivation is being able to stop gravel trucks from driving on roads near a gravel pit on G avenue in Alamo Township. The trucks have to get to the pit somehow, which was opened despite the opposition of the Alamo Township Board. People understandably don't want these trucks on their roads, but there don't seem to be any good options in that regard. The Oshtemo board voted to prohibit trucks from some roads, but Alamo and Kalamazoo Township objected and the county road commission overruled Oshtemo's ban. Apparently they can't do that to cities.

Oshtemo explores pros, cons of city status

OSHTEMO TOWNSHIP -- "The city of Oshtemo."

That has a nice ring to residents who see incorporating as a city as the way to prevent Oshtemo Township roads from being used as truck routes.

But even some who oppose use of Ninth and 10th streets as truck routes for gravel-mine operator Aggregate Industries say potential benefits of becoming a city need to be weighed against potential disadvantages.

"You have to think about how much the city would have to spend on maintenance of the roads, on our own police department. ... The county handles those costs now," said John Gesink, who has lived for 28 years on Litchfield Street, about 300 yards from 10th Street.

"If you want to become a city to improve the system or the way we do business, that's one thing. But to do it simply to keep trucks from using the roads doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

Residents' talk of becoming a city was spurred by the Oshtemo Township Board of Trustees' decision Tuesday to explore the ramifications of incorporating as a city. The move would give Oshtemo control of its roads and the power to prevent gravel trucks from using them. Township officials have been trying to keep trucks from the gravel-mining operation off certain major streets. Aggregate Industries opened the operation last year near 10th Street and G Avenue, in adjacent Alamo Township.

"It would be selfish to say just because I live on 10th Street that we should do whatever we need to do to keep the trucks away no matter what the cost," said Peg Cancro, 54, who has lived along the proposed truck route for 23 years. "I'm 100 percent against 10th being used as a truck route, but I'm not sure incorporating is the answer.

"I think it's a good idea to explore, but you have to look at the whole picture."
The Gazette article points out the big downside to becoming a city.

Taxes could increase

Gaining more authority and developing its own charter are among advantages that would come with incorporating as a city, said Mary Charles, information analyst for the Michigan Municipal League.

But Larry Merrill, executive director of the Michigan Townships Association, said taxes would increase if Oshtemo made the move.

"Taxation is the single impediment in why no townships have become cities in the past 30 to 40 years," he said.

Cities have the power to levy income taxes, whereas townships can levy only property taxes.

Charles said a city would have the authority to levy up to 20 mills, whereas Oshtemo currently can only levy 10 mills. If or how much taxes would go up would depend on how services like police protection would change and on what is laid out in a city charter. Oshtemo Township attorney Jim Porter said the township would seek residents' input regarding certain services such as police protection and whether it could be done on a contract basis, as is now done with the county sheriff's office.

"We're paying a fairly large portion of that expense already," Porter said of the cost of contracting for sheriff's deputies assigned to Oshtemo Township. "We'll look at what the citizens want and what form of government will serve them best."
The process for becoming a city is complex, but would require a public vote.

So what would becoming a city mean to Oshtemo? Probably more speed traps.

Coincidentally, or not, the Oshtemo board recently went from all Republicans to three democrats, four Republicans.

Oshtemo doesn't need more government.

Great Moments in Crime

Suspect charged in Dalton Center ‘inside job’ larceny

Twenty-five musical instruments are still unaccounted for after the arrest of a Western Michigan University student involved in an alleged “inside job” at the Dalton Center.

On May 27, Police arrested Thomas Pascale, a 19-year-old freshman and student employee in the Dalton Center musical instrument inventory control room.

...

“When we did our investigation, we asked students about who they thought may have done it and [Pascale]’s name kept coming up,” Kalafut said. “Students told us that [Pascale] would say things like, ‘Well, if you need to get an instrument you could do so and so.’”

Police eventually found an eBay account directly related to Pascale. Five instruments were recovered from across the nation, including Las Vegas, Georgia and Indiana.
Western is not exactly training the great criminals of tomorrow.

Previous Great Moments in Crime:

Police charge three female students for sign stealing

Kalafut said the stealing began July 24, when the women attended a party and stole several letters from the sign that corresponded to the letters of their first and last names. The police were able to configure the women's names from the letters that were stolen. They were then tracked on Myspace.com, where pictures were found of the girls holding the stolen letters.

Less of the Herald

The Western Herald is the latest newspaper to reduce publication due to the declining economy.

Western Herald reduces publication schedule

Starting this fall semester the Western Herald will be changing its publication schedule.

The Herald will be cutting its Tuesday and Wednesday issues, switching focus to a 24/7-Web entity, while continuing to produce a Monday and Thursday issue, along with the Weekend Scene.

The purpose of this change is to switch the Herald from a four-day publication to a 24/7-online news source.
Hopefully they will maintain their archives and not trash them in a couple years, as they have in the past.