http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/Home.aspxBob Laytons Blogen-usCopyright 2012, CHED-AMThu, 17 May 2012 02:29:27 GMTWed, 16 May 2012 09:59:43 GMT1http://emmisinteractive.comHow many times have you heard, “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk,” or something like that?  Police are concerned that despite all of the reminders, we still have drunks on the road.  They ask you to report them.  At various functions I see the efforts companies make to keep their people safe.  Some ask the DJ to announce there are cab chits.  You decide if you want one and then you have to go find the person who has them.  Some hire a police officer to just watch people leave.  The best I’ve seen was at the annual retirement party CUPE Local 30 put on last week-end.  It was a big event.  There were city councilors and MLAs on the guest list.  They had a cash bar, which helps a lot, and the union had a woman standing at the door, all night, with a pad of taxi chits.  She ...http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10383102info@630CHED.com (Bob Layton)http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10383102Wed, 16 May 2012 09:59:43 GMTYou’ve likely heard about the Panamanian fisherman suing Princess Cruises.  He and two friends had drifted for 16 days in the ocean with a dead engine when they saw the ship.  He says they waved for help and people on the deck saw them but the ship did not stop.  His two friends later died as they drifted for another 12 days before rescue.   The Princess Captain says he was never informed of the people in distress, and, absent any proof to the contrary, I tend to believe him.  I was on a cruise ship in the Caribbean when something woke me up in the night.  I could see a lot of bright lights through the porthole curtains.  We were doing a rescue in the dark.  A sail boat had hit one of the many containers that float just under the surface in those sea lanes.  The operator had managed ...http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10383070info@630CHED.com (Bob Layton)http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10383070Tue, 15 May 2012 14:20:58 GMTI used to be a reporter at the courthouse.  When a certain lawyer was there, they’d joke about putting the jury on roller skates.  He’d object constantly and the jury would have to be sent out while we heard evidence the prosecution wanted to use.  Many times the evidence was deemed inadmissible.  It was said to be inflammatory or prejudicial, so the jury often did not get to hear it.  Look what happened in the trial of Michael Rafferty, convicted in the death of 8 year old Tori Stafford.  There was lots of child porn on the laptop police found in his car and evidence of what they called snuff films.  A woman he met online alleged he drugged and choked and raped her.  But the jury was not allowed to know any of this because the search warrant only covered the car, not the contents.  Police should have gotten a new one ...http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10382515info@630CHED.com (Bob Layton)http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10382515Mon, 14 May 2012 10:20:50 GMT  It’s Friday, let’s open the mailbag and the email and Twitter feeds.  About medical wait times: Julie’s 6 six year old son broke his leg and screamed his head off while they waited 3 hours to be seen.  After that, he was x-rayed and casted in 45 minutes.  Wendy emails that in her doctor’s office, they had four no-shows in one day.  Had they called to cancel, four other people could have been seen.  About the first Arab-American crowned Miss America being picked up for drunk driving, Clint tweets,“In America, that only means more stardom and publicity.  Back home it’s a lot more serious.”  About the student with the religious T-shirt and the atheist student who complained, Randy emails to say he was at an Oil Kings game and wondered if any atheists there felt judged by the singing of O Canada and the line about God keeping ...http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10382070info@630CHED.com (Bob Layton)http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10382070Fri, 11 May 2012 09:35:57 GMTOpera often ends in scripted tragedy, but for an opera company in Ottawa, it was real.  The Citizen newspaper reports with the economy hurting attendance the opera was refunding tickets.  That’s when a nimble number cruncher stole more than eleven thousand dollars.  Glenda O-Hara was a busy bad bookkeeper.  The Citizen says she got the opera gig while waiting to face the judge for skimming the Archives Council.  When the soprano sang about the opera fraud, she took a job with a towing company and lifted nearly six grand.  But wait – there’s more.  She also got 60 thousand from a produce agency and a Metis group.  I don’t understand why these thieves think they will never get caught.  At some point, an accountant is going to notice.  Prosecution wants two years jail, three years supervision, and a bookkeeping ban.  Defense thinks a year is enough.  Sentencing tomorrow.  So, five ...http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10381870info@630CHED.com (Bob Layton)http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10381870Thu, 10 May 2012 10:41:25 GMTStill people talking to me about the wait time in doctor’s offices and how they get charged if they miss an appointment and can’t give 24 hours notice.  Brian writes to say, look, Bob if a doctor is dealing with a patient who has a life altering disease he cannot just whisk them out of the office when their time is up – so, you might have to wait.  He says when you really need a doctor, you will be happy to get more than the allotted 15 minutes.  In a related item, Bruce Angus in Selkirk, Manitoba, is filing a complaint with that province’s health minister about his family doctor.  Two weeks before his 60 year old wife, Samantha, died of a heart attack, she went to the doctor, complaining of back pain.  The doctor checked that out and then she mentioned what might be a heart problem.  He ...http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10381386info@630CHED.com (Bob Layton)http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10381386Wed, 09 May 2012 10:03:13 GMTWhen you see the not-smarts rioting and breaking windows and setting fire to vehicles and jumping on the roofs of cars, don’t you just wish you could reach right into the TV and arrest them?  What has always bothered me is that these goofballs like to cover their faces.  They’re making mayhem with arms held high as if to be conquering heroes, except with their faces hidden they look more cowardly than courageous.  Now, standing on the edge of the outrage is Member of Parliament Blake Richards, from Airdrie.  He’s offering a private member’s bill called the Concealment of Identity Act.  It would make it an offence under the Criminal Code to wear a mask or disguise while taking part in a riot, with up to five years in prison or a five thousand dollar fine.  Richards highlights something most people are concerned about, for once, not putting the rights of ...http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10380859info@630CHED.com (Bob Layton)http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10380859Tue, 08 May 2012 09:29:43 GMTIt was 1960, I was in High School, and some girls were sent home for wearing jeans to class.  Not appropriate.  Go home and put on a skirt.  Then, just a few years later those skirts were minis.  Today, unless there is a school uniform, regulating what students wear to school can be pretty subjective.  Look what happened to William Swinimer in Nova Scotia.  Suspended for wearing a T-shirt that proclaimed “Life is Wasted Without Jesus.”  The school board first defended that decision and then in the face of growing public disdain , maybe fuelled in part by social media, the school board changed its own shirt and said he could come back and wear it this week, and it would be part of a discussion on how to accommodate  freedom of expression and other student’s rights.  Of course, other students were reportedly planning to wear the same T-shirt today, ...http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10380389info@630CHED.com (Bob Layton)http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10380389Mon, 07 May 2012 11:10:41 GMTIt’s Friday, let’s open the mailbag and the email and Twitter feed.  About highway 63, Chipper tweets thousands drive it every day. If the road was at fault, there would be a lot more accidents.  Chasemdown tweets a lack of police on 63 is a problem. Clint tweets impatient drivers equal fatal mistakes.  Brad tweets get the whole thing twinned and it’ll just be a super racetrack.  Carnwood says a few more passing lanes would be adequate.  He says twinning is just pandering to bad drivers.  Murray says maybe people don’t realize there is a second highway to Fort McMurray.  He encourages you to take the scenic route through Conklin.  About Henry Kozak’s fence, damaged when vandals tore down his Thomas Lukaszuk sign, he says a big thank you to MLA Lakaszuk who’s going to get him some help fixing it and paying for it.  About regressive women’s rights in ...http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10379783info@630CHED.com (Bob Layton)http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10379783Fri, 04 May 2012 10:11:39 GMTOne of the lines that stuck with me after the provincial election debate was Danielle Smith telling Premier Redford, “I don’t need a judge to tell me the right thing to do.”  This was over the issue of MLA’s compensation.  Smith had challenged the Premier to promise a pay cut on the spot; Redford preferred to wait for the report from retired Supreme Court Justice John Major.  While the ruling from the justice is in, the jury is still out on what will finally happen with MLA pay.  In its simplest terms, if I’m reading this right, while the Major report suggests no extra money for sitting on committees, his recommendation to raise the base pay from 78 thousand to 134 thousand covers some of the money they would have made on committees anyway.  The biggest problem for many is the notion that already highly paid politicians still could be getting a ...http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10379377info@630CHED.com (Bob Layton)http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/BobLaytonsBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10379377Thu, 03 May 2012 13:08:05 GMT