California somehow manages to keep even the most vital government records secret from public view. Requesting records to facilitate investigation of fraud and waste in state or local government is an exercise in futility. Bureaucrats and politicians can easily hide their misdeeds under California’s records laws. California’s records laws, offers nearly total privacy for criminals by hiding previous criminal convictions from public view. It makes it nearly impossible to determine the effectiveness of judicial and penal actions on criminals when the records are hidden from view. The so-called Megan’s Law that identifies dangerous sexual predators came very late to California where Liberals fought taking the steps to protect our children for years. Eventually they relented to public pressure and joined the rest of the country. One of the deterrents to a life of crime is having that ‘rap sheet” available for viewing by employers, media and neighbors. That enables thousands of small ...

I first became aware of this sacred monument when I was a teenager. It was located on the Randolph Street Bridge over the Kennedy expressway. In the days of the Yippies, Hippies and Weathermen (1968-1970) it became a bombing target and was blown up and rebuilt twice. Rather than continue with 24/7 guarding of this site, the statue was moved to headquarters and later to the new police academy at 1300 West Jackson Street. It’s been out of the public’s sight for decades. It was a horrible day May 4, 1886 when anarchists murdered eight Chicago police officers. The offenders shot at the officers and threw a bomb during a labor riot. Blood ran in the streets and before it was over 70 people were killed or wounded. The officers who were killed included Patrolman Mathias Degan, Patrolman John Barrett, Patrolman George Miller, Patrolman Timothy Flavin, Patrolman Thomas Redden, Patrolman Nels Hansen and Patrolman Michael Sheehan. Patrolman Timothy Sullivan succumbed to his wounds two ye...

Maywood, IL-Last night a 37 year-old patrol officer was shot to death while sitting in his marked K-9 vehicle. Officer Thomas Woods was pronounced dead at Loyola University Medical Center before midnight. Officer Woods, leaves his wife and five children. The K-9 was uninjured in the shooting. My long time friend and reporter Kristyn Hartman tells the story for WBBM-TV in Chicago.

Flying commercial aircraft these days is even far less fun then you thought. A little known fact is that should you bring your toothpaste or lip gloss in your carry on luggage and are discovered with that contraband the TSA can arbitrarily fine you for some really vague violations. Those fines are triggered if you act offended when the TSA trolls confiscate your property from you. The power of the TSA has gone way too far. In Phoenix, Arizona in 2005 the TSA levied $77,420 in fines against hapless passengers. Read more about this outrage here !

Chicago area private eye, Ernie Rizzo was a unique character. He began his career as a Franklin Park, Illinois cop. One day they fired him but he sued the village and won reinstatement with back pay. The department hated that and rather then let him work they assigned and paid him to stay at his home and actually checked to make sure he was there. That went on for a while until he opened his detective agency. Rizzo hung around another Chicago area PI, Tony Pellicano who is now awaiting trial for wiretapping and racketeering allegations after doing time for possession of a hand grenade and C-4 explosives in L.A. Rizzo and Pellicano pretended to be rivals at times when they were really collaborators. Rizzo is no stranger to wiretapping and took a fall for it a while back. Rizzo’s license was revoked but that did not even slow him down. Rizzo’s wife ran the agency and hired Rizzo as a consultant. The Illinois Department of Registration and Education soon learned that they had no...

If you think being a PI in Hollywood is glamorous, think again! It’s not, The same people are always wanting you to do the same crap they do everywhere. Here’s a better idea!

Reading this story you’d think it could have only come from the files of the Gestapo or KGB. It all began with the murder of Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Wales, a leader of the gun ban movement in Seattle, October 11, 2001. Wales was shot in the basement of his home in Seattle's Queen Anne Hill neighborhood on Oct. 11, 2001. Allegedly, ballistics tests revealed the murder weapon was to be a Makarov pistol outfitted with an after-market replacement barrel. The FBI went on a quest looking for every one of owners of the known 3,500 barrels ever made. That quest brought the FBI to Belleview, WA gun collector Albert Kwan’s home. The bureau agents wanted to borrow and test fire Kwan’s Makarov pistol they believed was outfitted with an after-market replacement barrel. Kwan refused the request because the gun was new and unfired. Kwan’s reasoning was that this would destroy the value of his property. The bureau agents really fixed Kwan for his refusal. They obtained a search warra...

SCOTTSDALE, AZ-Citizens doing business in Scottsdale’s City Hall will no longer have to submit to being frisked like criminals should they enter the property. In 2004, his city followed the lead of too many other cities throwing away Liberty and Privacy for a false sense of security. Woeful Mayor Mary Manross said she is, "Too afraid to allow citizens free access for anyone or everyone just being able to walk into the building." Perhaps Ms. Manross should try and remember just who owns that City Hall property. I wonder what this lady thinks of all the grocery stores, fast food restaurants and shopping malls that, allow citizens free access for anyone or everyone just being able to walk into those places. If it’s so risky perhaps this Mayor should never leave her home. The City council debated and then by a 5-2 vote ended the un-American frisking practice. The council then opted to hire three armed security officers replacing the unarmed metal detector guards. The two ca...

Boz Scaggs wrote and performed one of my favorite songs, WE’RE ALL ALONE several years ago. Nobody doe it better. Enjoy!

There was only one Frank Sinatra and thankfully he left lots of recordings and videos. Sinatra came to a Chicago Police Recognition Ceremony at McCormic Place. We all loved this guy. Long ago he sang this sondheim hit, Send In The Clowns. Enjoy.

There are more new tools than just Ghettocams. Of course all this stuff has to be operational as advertised. George Orwell’s clock was just running a little fast when he wrote, 1984. The first video can be found right here The second video can is below:

I was looking for videos on You Tube and I found a heartwarming one featuring little neighborhood filmmakers expressing themselves!

They used to be everywhere, but not anymore. Today people with cell phones rudely share their conversations with anyone within earshot. If we brought back the phone booth, I bet people would like them and use them. Its time for the restaurants, bars, hotels, and other businesses to bring these things back along with a little civilization and class. We need to give Superman a break while we’re at it. Watch the below video...

Let me first make no secret that I hate American juries. There are supposed to be comprised of our peers but they never are. The people ultimately seated are the factory and government workers who don’t have lives and don’t lose money for their duty. The others present are the fools who are just not smart enough to get out of serving. They don’t want to be there. The most frightening juror of all is the one that actually wants to be there. I call him or her the avenging angel that wants to help the cops and prosecutors put defendants away. During the selection process it’s impossible to guess which jurors will be fair or at least leave their biases outside. One thing I’ve learned is that jurors too often lie under oath when answering the questions from the lawyers during the Voir dire. Today the jury in the George Weller case convicted him for 10 counts of Vehicular Manslaughter With Gross Negligence. The 89 year-old man now is facing 18 years behind bars as a result of the conv...

I have some repeated requests for the Trunk Monkey videos. Here they are!

Click on picture to enlarge. Here are a couple of my favorites. On the left is a Sig-Sauer #P-245 .45 ACP. The pictured Sig has the short six shot magazine or you can used the extended eight shot version. This is a wonderful defensive handgun for your pocket or a suitable holster. On the right is that little Smith & Wesson, Model #340 PD, five shot .357 Magnum with a great pair of Eagle Grips , genuine buffalo horn grips. This is light as a feather to carry. Don’t expect a lot of performance from the .357 round out of this tiny barrel. That little thing is so light it’s easy to forget your carrying a gun. That’s not so cool if you are about enter a TSA checkpoint at the airport! All things being equal, I’d rather have the Sig in a tight spot any day. The Sig is equipped with fabulous night sights.

I was getting very concerned that this ABC announcement would never come. But my friend Bob Woodruff is returning to reporting and will soon have a book out dealing with his life and injuries. I wish Bob, Lee and their children the best as life gave a rare second chance to a talented lawyer turned gifted newsman.

With 700 NBC Universal employees being paroled to the streets of America during the next year. Big changes are coming. The truth is that every established media company in America will be dumping employees at an equally fast and furious rate. The broadcasting world as we knew it is changing even more rapidly than anyone could have imagined. I expect great Internet blogs, vlogs and video sites in Cyberspace. The quality of what we called mainstream news will be bottoming out soon. That, while the blogs and vlogs improve with more resources and talent. Operating a blog or vlog gives a journalist complete freedom to do whatever story’s desired. The days of pitching a story at morning or afternoon news meetings are over! The new bloggers will be independent business people responsible for promotion and selling advertising. It’s clear that America has reduced their attention span to watching mindless, three-minute, really lame videos on You Tube rather than read books, newspapers o...

This morning, the good Mayor’s driver was beaten and carjacked by a pair of fine New Jersey citizens. They dumped the Mayor’s car in New Jersey where it was recovered. Perhaps after the Billionaire Mayor gets a first hand account of personal violence from his own driver he may rethink his stand to strip law-abiding citizens of their Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Does Bloomberg really want the law-abiding people defenseless? It’s time for right to carry concealed weapons permits in New York too.