From UPI last Friday, some good news, though hardly a reason to break out the champagne:

U.S. identity theft fell 12 percent in 2006, saving $6.4 billion, a major identity-theft report said Thursday.

Still, identity fraud cost the U.S. economy $49.3 billion, the Javelin Strategy & Research report said, with more fraud occurring in traditional, physical businesses than online.

About 500,000 fewer U.S. adults fell victim to identity fraud in 2006 than in 2005. Of the total U.S. adult population, 3.7 percent were victims, compared with 4 percent in 2005.

The growing use of online banking and financial sites that let people frequently monitor their accounts contributed to the decline, the report said.

Carlo at Techdirt is not impressed (para break added by me):

t’s probably worth noting that the study was paid for by Visa, Wells Fargo bank, and a check-processing company. Visa and Wells Fargo are no strangers to data leaks and identity theft, so you’d be forgiven for thinking they have just the slightest vested interest in downplaying the threat.

To be fair, the company that did the survey isn’t saying that identity theft is no longer a problem, but it’s hard to see this as much more than an effort by the companies that paid for it to try and say the problem’s not so bad. Perhaps the public has grown paranoid, but they should try telling that to victims, particularly those who spend lots of time dealing with identity theft’s lingering effects.

The point in the last paragraph of the first excerpt is a good one. Even if you don’t want to actually transact business over the Internet, it’s a good idea to register online at your financial institution(s) so you can check your account balances, review account activity, and detect problems more quickly. You can of course do all of this through the automated phone-inquiry systems that are usually available, but it’s much more tedious and cumbersome, and usually less complete.

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UPDATE: From Techdirt –

Now, the Federal Trade Commission has released its own stats on identity theft, and they paint a different picture. While the number of identity theft complaints made to the FTC has plateaued, losses reported to it have more than doubled since 2004 — contrasting the previous study’s claim that losses had fallen. It should be pointed out that the FTC figures aren’t comprehensive, either, since they only cover complaints made to the FTC, and it’s likely that a small proportion of identity theft victims ever bother to make such a complaint.

Newshound’s 60th on Ohio Politics is here.

Boring Made Dull’s 31st on Econ and Social Policy is here.

Here’s an unsolicited e-mail I received Thursday (extra hyphens and characters inserted; see Update for why):

Re: Your Glo-bal War-ming/ Political Site

I’ve been reading your website for a little while now and I love all the insight that you have!

The Glo-bal Warm-ing Aware-ness Org-ani-zation is looking to spread the word about global warming and its consequences. I was hoping that you and your readers might like to help.

Would you let me know if you would be willing to display our small logo on your website/blog?
We are also looking for contributors of content on our organization’s site: www.Glob-alW-arming.org.in - if you’re interested in contributing a story, we would love it if you could!

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you soon,

Scott
Spread Awa-reness About Gl-ob-al War-ming
Join us at: www dot GlobalWar-ming dot org dot in

Here’s the logo you will see when you visit the organization’s web site:

Far be it from me to turn down a cry for help, especially from someone who “love(s) all the insight” that I have(!). So of course I am displaying The Gl-ob-al Warmi-ng Awar-eness Organiz-ation’s cute green ribbon on my web site, and I have incorporated it into the following design, which I dutifully sent to them for their consideration, along with an offer to create relevant content:

I’ll let you know if I get a reply. :–>

_____________________________________

UPDATE: Yes, I know that the site is, from all appearances, a hybrid version of a splog, which is why I didn’t provide a direct link, and which is why I added the hyphens, in hopes of cutting down their search engine recognition.

UPDATE 2: Well, I got a reply…… (oh, you want me to tell you what it was? Sorry) ….. here:

I must say, I got a kick out of your blog post. =)
We’re simply providing another platform for debate.

If you would like, I’d be more than willing to post a counter argument on
our site, written by you, I think that people should see all sides of an
argument.

I’ll even give you a link to your site on ours.

So maybe it’s a splog, or maybe it isn’t. I replied: “I don’t think you are a serious site, or you would not have sent a form e-mail presuming I buy into globaloney. Stick around six months, prove you’re not a splog, and maybe some form of exchange makes sense.”

RELATED: A great column by Jeff Jacoby today — “Chicken Little and global warming”

In a column primarily about the City of Chicago’s sale (oops — “99-year lease”) of its Skyway, the 7.8-mile toll road on the city’s southeast side, and similar arrangements for its parking garages, columnist George Will happened onto an education idea that might even make a died-in-the-wool educrat sit up and take notice:

The state government is hoping to lease the state lottery for at least $10 billion. The purchaser would get most of the lottery’s revenues and profits for up to 75 years. Last year, the lottery made $630 million on revenues of $2 billion.

Daley stresses that the assets sold are not “core competencies” of the city government, such as public safety and education. Actually, what competencies are really “core” is debatable. Leasing — privatizing — some cities’ school systems probably would make the systems more competent. Perhaps the moral of Chicago’s story is that what government can shed, it should shed.

Why NOT lease a failing school system to someone who can run it with an orientation towards accountability and not caretaking? In combination with a freeze on related property taxes and state aid for a few years, and a cap on future increases tied to inflation, enrollment, and results, I’m not seeing a downside. Lots of logistical and political obstacles, of course, but no downside.

Credit card payment rates are falling — No, not the interest rates, but the percentage of total outstanding balances being paid off by consumers each month. Not a big drop, but not a good piece of news.
_________________________________

Talk about Inconvenient Truths (HT Conservative UAW Guy) — Two books debunking the global warming “globaloney” that it (if it is even for-sure happening) is caused by human activity are coming out soon:

Two powerful new books say today?s global warming is due not to human activity but primarily to a long, moderate solar-linked cycle. Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years, by physicist Fred Singer and economist Dennis Avery was released just before Christmas. The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change, by Danish physicist Henrik Svensmark and former BBC science writer Nigel Calder (Icon Books), is due out in March.

________________________________

Home-schooler harassment in Germany appears to have escalated (HT One Oar in the Water). UPDATE: NixGuy has more.
________________________________

It was two years (too long) since I had seen this Super Bowl ad; it probably is for you too. Definitely the best ever. Go there.

I noted the existence of the outrageous Christine Hicks situation in December of 2005.

There’s a follow-up of the “Can you top this?” persuasion:

Worker’s parting gift: $25,662
She got $350K from city while not working
Last Updated: 12:53 am | Thursday, February 1, 2007

Public employees often get big payouts when they retire, cashing in unused sick days, vacation and other time off that they saved up over the years.

But one city of Cincinnati employee received a $25,662 payout last year - for days off she earned despite not showing up to work for almost a decade, city documents show.

Christine M. Hicks was able to keep her $40,000-a-year job as a cleaning supervisor for nine years, until a whistleblower alerted the city manager’s office to the ghost job in late 2005.

City Council held hearings, the city manager demoted the Public Services director, and Hicks retired with a disability pension in April 2005. Case closed - until she received the $25,662 cash-out in June.

All told, Hicks received nearly $350,000 from city taxpayers for not working.

Hicks’ unusual severance might not have come to light at all - except that she’s now complaining to City Council that her payment wasn’t big enough. She named seven male employees who she said received more credits from the city when they retired than she did.

….. How Hicks was able to receive a city paycheck without working for so long is still unclear.

She took time off after an auto accident in 1996, but the city stopped her paycheck when her sick time ran out because the accident wasn’t work-related. She sued claiming gender discrimination, and city lawyers agreed to a settlement in which she would come back to work - but wouldn’t be forced to do any job she said was too strenuous.

City officials said she kept vetoing job assignments, and apparently her managers gave up trying.

Here’s a repeat of my point from that previous post — Opponents of privatizing city services should be asked this question: “When’s the last time you heard about someone at a private company getting away with being paid for not coming to work for nine years?” (Triticale’s answer last time was pretty good, but a more relevant example would be welcome. :–>)

Oh, and do you think the City is as slow to respond to a situation involving someone who owes $25,000 in taxes?

From Techdirt:

Reports are starting to show up of people with perfectly legitimate videos getting caught in the crossfire. One person found that his 30 second home video of some friends at dinner was yanked offline at Viacom’s request. Not even the name of the video would confuse people into associating it with a Viacom property — but, thanks to the DMCA, YouTube immediately took the video down. While the guy can now reply and show that the takedown was a mistake, but it still seems a bit unfair that Viacom can just yank anyone’s video offline that quickly.

It did seem a little unrealistic to expect that this would be done perfectly.

From the Associated Press — Joey Vento is learning that an opponent with a politically-correct point to make and, for all practical purposes, unlimited resources, is a difficult one to put away:

Agency moves ahead with complaint against Philly cheesesteak shop
Posted on Wed, Feb. 07, 2007

PHILADELPHIA - The battle over an English-only ordering policy at one of the city’s signature cheesesteak joints is apparently far from over.

The city’s human relations commission found evidence that the owner of Geno’s Steaks may have discriminated against immigrants by posting a sign telling customers, “This is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING ‘PLEASE SPEAK ENGLISH,’” according to a letter sent to owner Joe Vento last week.

Vento’s attorneys had hoped the matter would be dropped, but the commission said in the Jan. 31 letter that it found probable cause that discrimination occurred and was moving forward with the case. The commission also suggested that the matter could be resolved through mediation.

Vento’s legal team would not rule out some sort of mediation, but they said Vento, the fiery grandson of Italian immigrants, would not take the sign down.

“Any effort to save the resources of taxpayer-funded government is a good idea, but not at the cost of free speech,” said Todd Young, policy director for Atlanta-based Southeastern Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm that has joined the case.

After extensive publicity over the sign in June, the commission began investigating whether Vento was violating the city’s Fair Practices Ordinance. That law prohibits discrimination in employment, public accommodation and housing on the basis of race, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

Vento and his attorneys maintain that no one has ever been turned away at the South Philadelphia shop
….. Albert Weiss, Vento’s Philadelphia attorney, said he was shocked that the city was not dropping the case because he hadn’t heard from anyone in weeks.

“I felt they were just letting it die a quiet death,” Weiss said.

Because of the outside help and the larger size of his business, Vento may be in a better position to prevail than Tom Ullum, the owner of Mason, Ohio’s Pleasure Inn, who faced similar harassment from the Ohio Civil Rights Commission (OCRC) over the “For Service Speak English” sign at his establishment. Ullum ultimately settled with the OCRC and agreed to take down the sign, but replaced it with a similar one that apparently passed the OCRC’s twisted version of legal muster.

Nonetheless, the latest news above from Philly shows that hell hath no fury like a PC-police bureaucrat defied.

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Related Previous Posts:
- Dec. 6, 2006 — Your Tax Dollars at Waste: The Pleasure Inn, HOME, and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission
- Nov. 17 — Pleasure Inn Settles “For Service Speak English” Sign Dispute
- Oct. 26 — Ohio Civil Rights Commission Found Guilty of Bias
- Sept. 30 — Positivity: Geno’s Raises Money for Scholarship Fund
- Sept. 25 — The Pleasure Inn Is As Feisty As Ever
- June 27 — Geno’s Mini-Update: Business Is Apparently Good
- June 19 — Geno’s Update: The Mayor, The Profile, and The Letter
- June 12 — Welcome to the Club, Joey Vento — Philly Human Relations Commission Has Filed a “Discrimination” Complaint
- June 10 — As in Greater Cincy, “For Service Speak English” Place in Philly Is Catching Flak
- May 31 — The Pleasure Inn Has “For Service Speak English” Company
- May 13, 2006 — Why Won’t the Ohio Civil Rights Commission Get Off Tom Ullum’s Back?
- Dec. 19, 2005 — Update: Thought Police 1, Bar Owner 0; Bar Owners Showing Solidarity–1
- Dec. 16 — Thought Police 1, Bar Owner 0
- Oct. 9 — Questions for the Thought Police at the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and The Cincinnati Enquirer

In Columbus, Ohio:

Monday January 29, 2007 8:16 PM

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Parishioners tackled a gunman suspected of snatching purses from church pews during Mass, the pastor and police said.

One man suffered lacerations to his head and face during the struggle at Christ the King Catholic Church on Sunday morning, police said.

Wendell K. Hollingsworth, 43, Celeste M. Smith, 51, were arrested and each charged with aggravated robbery at the church, police said. They were being held in the Franklin County jail Monday, awaiting bond.

The pair walked into the service and grabbed purses as Hollingsworth displayed a handgun and said, “This is a robbery,” police said.

Hollingsworth was tackled as parishioners called police on cell phones. Smith was arrested outside the church, police said.

“Our parishioners are not about to let anyone defile their church,” said the Rev. Michael Lumpe.