Dim Bulb: Technology cannot replace common sense
Police dogs are an asset. They’re expensive to train and maintain, and are pets to those who work with them, so it’s a tragedy when they die of preventable causes — like heat exhaustion inside an overheated car. But a $1,200 system that would notify police officers when dogs are overheating and cool their cars that the Annapolis Police Department plans to buy for its five dogs is a waste of money. Common sense says that when it is warm out, you do not leave your dog in the car. Period.
OUTRAGE: Examining the medical examiner
WHO: The state medical examiner’s office
WHat: The medical examiner is refusing to release records about hundreds of deaths with “undetermined” causes.
WHY it’s a bad idea: The office has released partial names, dates of death and causes of death in the past — but for some reason it is balking at including full names of dead women and the location of their deaths. According to interviews with The Examiner, neither the police nor the attorney general requested the records be kept secret, so what gives? There’s no specific exemption in the Maryland Public Information Act that omits these records from available records, so the medical examiner should have no qualms about making them public.
WHERE to vent: Call Chief Medical Examiner David Fowler at 410-333-3225.
Quote of the day
“I never thought I’d see the day when you could say ‘$25 billion’ with a straight face.”
– Former congresswoman and Port of Baltimore namesake Helen Delich Bentley, speaking at a Chrysler rally for a government bailout of automakers at the port Tuesday.
