Nice work, guys!

Slow down and learn when not to brake.  Yeah, that’s pretty much it.

A good portion of our winter crashes could be avoided if the driver got his (hey Rebecca, notice I didn’t write “her”) foot off the brake and steered around the obstacle.  Unfortunately, this goes completely against human nature.  When faced with a sudden need to stop, most of us panic-stomp the brakes while yanking upward on the steering wheel for added measure.  But since steering requires wheels that turn, we’ve just turned our car into a toboggan.

If you start skidding, pry your foot off the brake and turn in the direction of the skid.  In other words, if your rear end is trying to catch you on the right, turn toward the right.  If you’re lucky enough to get some control back, steer gently toward a safe target – and brake gently if you can control yourself.  Sometimes that means taking a curb instead of an on-coming truck.

To see this principle in action watch this amazing YouTube video of a series of slow-motion crashes that occurred last week in Bountiful Utah.  It starts slow, but Wow!

There are honest debates on whether to legalize drugs, but calling it medical marijuana isn’t one of them.  Setting aside the damaging effects of marijuana or arguing that it isn’t any worse than alcohol misses the point.

Marijuana is not medicine.  It’s federally classified as a schedule-1 drug.  This is the highest classification which means two things: It has no medicinal use and it has a high potential for abuse.

So, might the Feds have it wrong?  Here are some organizations that think they got it right: The American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, National Institutes of Health, Institute of Medicine, American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and very tellingly when it comes to the glaucoma pain argument - the American Glaucoma Society and American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Conflicting state and federal laws become an enforcement nightmare, but there are more reasons not to pretend that smoking marijuana is taking medicine and here’s a fact sheet that describes them.

In my view, if we want to legalize drugs, we should have a thoughtful debate rather than try to slide it through on a bogus medical argument.

Father and son?  Not exactly.  Keith Hammon (left) is taking over as the Rigby police chief for Larry Anderson (right).

Keith is a 17-year veteran of the Rigby Police Department and now gets to compete with Larry's record-breaking tenure as a 34-year chief.

From the photo I just took, it looks like Larry is a little taller.  Relax Keith, you've got 34 more years to pick up the extra inches.  Oh, and is that a goatee I see?

A cruise through the daily press release this morning shows:
·        I.F. Man arrested for Felony Eluding
·        I.F. Man Gets Caught Using Stolen Credit Card
·        Police Make Multiple Attempted Strangulation Arrests
·        I.F. Man Arrested for Providing Alcohol to a Minor

[Not all RVs are created equal]

It’s now illegal to park an RV on the street more than 24 consecutive hours in Idaho Falls twice in one week.  The city council decided to pass the ordinance following complaints from citizens.  To see the ordinance, click here.

For the most part, the enforcement of this ordinance will be complaint driven – meaning we’ll take action when someone calls about a violation, but as a practical matter we won’t spend too much time looking for it.