Friday, July 26, 2002

The LA Times has a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-carona26jul26.story"
target="_blank">feature
on the terrific job done by OC Sheriff Mike
Carona in the Samantha Runnion case.



Although everyone would have prefered a happier ending, Carona did a great
job of managing the investigation. Throughout last week, I was amazed at
how well he conducted the case. What struck me was how differently the case
would have been handled had it ocurred in L.A.. I'm afraid that had it all
been centered a little further to the north, PR spin would have overwhelmed
the primary job of getting Samantha back safely. Spin would have also dominated
the subsequent murder investigation. But that wasn't the case with Sheriff
Carona.



Carona did a brilliant job of keeping the case the top story of every local
news outlet. This was important because it is what got literally millions
of eyes looking for Samantha and then her killer. Were Carona to have sent
out a flak to produce a few lines of happy talk, as I'm sure that the L.A.
authorities would have, then the case would have slipped from view and perhaps
never have been solved. Instead, Carona kept everyone focused on the case;
even at the risk of frightening people. A little fright is something that
we'll all get over. An unsolved case is not.

Wednesday, July 24, 2002

Now that John Magaw's out at the Transportation Safety Administration, things
are looking up. They are now going to " href="http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28383"
target="_blank">study
" the idea of arming pilots. This is opposed to
the former policy of launching into a hoplophobic tizzy at the thought of
pilots with guns.


face="Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times">"It is under
discussion in terms of should we take another approach," Mineta told the
House Transportation Committee's aviation subcommittee during testimony on
Tuesday. "I have asked [TSA Administrator James Loy] to take a look at this
to see whether or not there is some alternative, even if it is lethal weapons."



A definite improvement. As FReeper FR_addict notes, href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/721402/posts?page=3#3"
target="_blank">Barbara Boxer's defection
to the pro-gun side on this
issue is probably the straw that broke the camel's back. "I think the politicians,
both Democrats and Republicans, finally figured out the public wants their
pilots armed."