CSI is less depressing...

I watched the local news tonight and the top 3 stories are all just crazy. The top story was about a 9 year-old kid that allegedly touched young girls in his class inappropriately for 3 years. It's pretty serious stuff he's been accused of. The uproar's over the fact that he's likely to be let back into the school next September. He's gotten some therapy...but that's really scary.

Next up was a postal worker in a nearby suburb accused of being caught in a police sting-- he thought he was talking to a minor on the net when he said things like, "you want to have sex with me?" He denies it, and said that he knew it was an adult the whole time.

After that theres a story from the city I used to work in. Neglectful city planning has caused debris left in a vacant lot to slide slowly down the hill behind a citizen's home and has caused it to be unlivable. The mayor (a complete moron, I've seen him in action) promised them help in housing, but he dragged his feet for 2 weeks and the family had to go to the town council. They did the reporting from a place I used to walk by everyday when I got off my bus.

Oh wait, make that 4 awesome upbeat news stories-- there were 2 unrelated shootings nearby. A teenage boy was killed in the first one-- he was "having words" with an unidentified person in a car when they shot him multiple times. No one was hurt in the second. A couple months ago there was a home invasion just a mile or two from here. Crazy. It's enough to make me almost miss that boring hellhole that I left when I graduated. At least there the biggest issues and dangers are drunken people on snowmobiles and dirtbikes, or the huge drug problem in the high school.

I guess on the upside, Lil Kim got sentenced to a year and a day for perjury and whatever else she did to piss off the court. And in really good news, I'm finally proud of something to come from so close to my hometown-- a local church chose to endorse same-sex marriages. The good news helps to not be so cranky about all the negative news that piles up in that "if it bleeds, it leads" kind of way. I think Don Henley had it right when he wrote Dirty Laundry...

"I make my living off the evening news

Just give me something-something I can use

People love it when you lose,

They love dirty laundry

Well, I coulda been an actor,

but I wound up here

I just have to look good,

I don’t have to be clear

Come and whisper in my ear

Give us dirty laundry"