Tagging into the golden years

I guess you can never be too old to be a ne'er-do-well.

A police report shows officers arrested Richard Reta, 58, at N. Flores and Krempkau streets around 11 p.m. Saturday after seeing him spray painting an anti-corporate greed message on the ground.

He was charged with one count of graffiti, $1500-$20,000.

The report said Reta had a can of spray paint in his possession and paint on his clothing when he was arrested.

It also said he admitted to scrawling graffiti in several other locations, mostly along the route of the Rock 'N' Roll Marathon, which was slated to begin hours after his arrest. All together, the damage was said to be in excess of $2,000.

Police said Reta told officers he's part of Occupy San Antonio, a group of protestors who have been staging a sit-in in Hemisfair Park for weeks to show their displeasure with they call [sic] corporate greed.

(from KSAT-12)

To their credit, the Occupiers seem to be distancing themselves from this guy's actions. But KSAT also offers this:

[Occupier Joe] Ballard said Occupy does not condone any behavior that involves defacing city property.

If KSAT is accurately representing what this guy said, I find it noteworthy that the Occupiers do not condone defacing city property, but they make no mention of private property.

Noteworthy. But not surprising.

Dealing with animals

If you had an accident on the highway involving a big wild animal, you would think that your friends might help you out. Or you might think that they would not make the situation worse, at the very least.

But, if you were this guy, you would have another think coming.

SAN ANTONIO -- Police say a motorcyclist crashed into a deer and then had his bike stolen by his friends.

Investigators said the motorcyclist was riding with a group of people on motorcycles and a pickup truck when the man hit the deer and lost control of the motorcycle and fell onto the access road at Loop 410 and Ingram Road at around 2:30 a.m. Monday.

But instead of helping him, police said two women and a man picked up his motorcycle, put it in the back of the truck and left.

(from KSAT-12)

I think there's more to this story than is being reported by KSAT. A lot more.

Salad!

OK, maybe it's more properly called "coleslaw".

San Antonio--The scene is finally clear after an 18-wheeler overturned on I-10 downtown near the I-35 off ramp. The trailer was carrying produce including heads of cabbage and lettuce. The accident happened at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, but crews didn't finish getting all the debris until 7 p.m.

(from WOAI-TV)

Car crashes into house

The auto gets the house and the fence, too. And a couch.

A woman driving a Ford Mustang was traveling south on SW 34th Street when she attempted to turn on Motes Drive at a high rate of speed and lost control of her vehicle, traffic investigators said. The car went barreling through a fence and into a home at the 600 block of SW 34th Street.

A man who was sitting on a couch inside the home was apparently struck, and he was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.

(from MySA.com)

That's one ambitious auto.

Inheriting the mantle of solar leadership

Bill Sinkin has long been a proponent of solar power in the Alamo City. But he is nearly 100 years old now (literally), and his son has taken over the reins of Solar San Antonio, a local non-profit that tries to get people to convert to solar-powered systems.

Lanny Sinkin, however dedicated he may be to furthering his father's legacy, may still find time to devote to his other interests and pursuits. And you will have to be the judge of whether or not that ends up being a good thing for the local environmental movement.

A few years before Lanny Sinkin became the leader of a local nonprofit that advocates for solar power, he flew to Washington and knocked on the door of the White House with a document that would prove an even harder sell than investments in solar panels.

It was a declaration that the Kingdom of Hawaii had seceded from the United States.

...

The Kingdom of Hawaii, illegally overthrown by the United States more than a century ago, has been restored, he says, and a king, to whom Sinkin serves as chief advocate and spiritual adviser whenever he's not running Solar San Antonio, is in place.

The “king,” Edmund Keli'i Silva Jr., a fisherman and kung fu instructor on the island of Oahu, is also a convicted felon who served 13 years in prison for stealing more than half a million dollars.

...

A former environmental attorney, Sinkin once sued Bush on behalf of “the Cetacean Community” — whales — over the use of underwater sonar. An appeals court ruled that animals could not file lawsuits.

His father, the bow-tied, 98-year-old Bill Sinkin, is a civic hero who founded Solar San Antonio in 1999.

...

Sinkin's quest to regain a lost civilization began with plutonium in deep space.

As an attorney at the Christic Institute, a now-defunct public interest law firm in Washington, Sinkin fought a 1980s bid by NASA to launch a plutonium-powered probe to Jupiter.

...

“He sat down with me,” [jail-bound self-styled "king"] Silva said. “He looked like a person who lived out of a suitcase, his clothes all wrinkled. But he was full of light and full of energy.”

Sinkin helped Silva win parole in 2005, and the “king” returned to his “kingdom.”

“His Chinese animal's a horse,” Sinkin said. “He just galloped into it.”

...

The kingdom embraces natural laws and ecological principles. It shuns war, promotes love and seeks an age of transformation in which all human beings gain consciousness — “the 5th age,” Sinkin says.

...

Told of Lanny's aim to “create the 5th age, one solar panel at a time,” [Bill] Flannery [from the board of directors of Solar San Antonio] was nonplussed.

“That's kind of fascinating,” he said. “That never came up.”

(from the Express-News)

Is this the future of the "green" movement in San Antonio? Or has it always been the unvarnished present?

You decide.

Failing at Occupying

The "Occupy" movement seems to be flagging in San Antonio. After all, when a very like-minded, liberal organization like MoveOn.org starts looking at you askance, you've probably lost a bit of focus.

Occupy San Antonio's familiar rally cry, “Banks got bailed out; we got sold out!” sounded with particular relevance Saturday afternoon as protesters marched in solidarity with national Bank Transfer Day.

...

While they took a stand together against what they perceive as corporate greed, some MoveOn.org members such as Celeste Douglas, 55, were “a little disenchanted” by the occupiers' masks and costumes.

“They say it's a zombie movement because most Americans are acting like zombies moving along, but the thing about it is, who wants to be part of a movement of zombies?” asked Douglas, who said she opened a credit union account earlier that day while closing the one she has with Bank of America.

(from the Express-News)

Who, indeed, Ms. Douglas. Who, indeed.

Calling B.S. on "sonic drugs"

Geez, is it sweeps month again?

SAN ANTONIO -- Teenagers are using websites to get high, and it's completely legal.

It's called "i-dosing." It sounds like music, but it's not.

Sounds like a load of bullshit to me.

The sites play different frequencies that promises [sic] to deliver an effect much like opium, cocaine, or marijuana. Doctors say the danger is teens may want to end up trying the real thing after trying the websites.

How do they know this? Have any studies been done yet?

Since i-dosing is so new, there haven't been any real studies on its effects. But brain imaging experts say sonic drugs do change the brain. They're just not sure how much.

Nope. No real studies. And so many unknowns that haven't been explored yet. Why, it's as if we know almost nothing at all about this new trend. Nothing!

So, quick, WOAI! Run a story on it! And scare the pants off of parents!

"Vets Fix Tiny Tooth During Monkey Root Canal"

Monkey, mango, coke, and a broken tooth. Not so much a human interest story as a primate interest story.

SAN ANTONIO -- Mango the monkey has been suffering from a broken, infected tooth, just like humans sometimes get.

"People do it all the time (by) biting down on hard candy (such as) jaw breakers," Dr. Rob Coke, staff vet at the San Antonio Zoo, said.

But fixing Mango's mouth isn't as simple as fixing a human's, due to his tiny stature.

"It's a 2-pound monkey, so we obviously had magnification loops [sic] as well as ... tiny instruments to go in there to try to repair that," Coke said.

(from KSAT-12)

I'm picturing that ellipsis in Coke's second quote as hiding a well-placed curse word. It is monkey dentistry, after all.

Confusing the airmen

Seen at the 2011 Air Show at Randolph AFB:




You can expect compliance, once you've explained exactly what "fod" is and why it shouldn't go in the urinal.

Inflicing self-injury

I've read this a couple of times, but I still don't get what happened.

Witnesses told authorities the man was seen arguing with a 24-year-old man just before 3 p.m. at a Citgo gas station in the 11800 block of Starcrest Drive on the North Side.

The two drove to the corner of Jones Maltsberger Drive and Burning Trail Street, but police did not describe their progress there as a chase. At the intersection, witnesses said they saw the younger man get out of his Dodge Ram pickup and start waving his hands to warn drivers behind him to back away, said Police Chief William McManus.

Police said the man in the other vehicle, a Nissan pickup, had stopped in front of the Dodge.

He fired a shot at the Dodge's windshield while sitting in his Nissan and then somehow turned the gun on himself and fired again, police said.

“It appears to be self-inflicted or accidentally self-inflicted,” McManus said.

(from KENS-5)

He turned the gun on himself, accidentally inflicting a fatal wound to himself after firing at another man's car.

What?

I'm sure there are more details to come, and I'm just curious enough to wonder what they are.

Talking about the weather

WTF?




(from WOAI-TV)

I know it has been quite some time since we've had real cool weather here in San Antonio, but really? 822 freakin' comments about how cold it is?!

I don't think I have ever seen that many comments on any news story or blog post I've ever read. 400, 450 maybe. But never over 800, and never when the topic is as commonplace as the weather!

All I can say is: puro san antonio.

Car crashes into house

Apartment, actually, but it is an abode. And that car really, really had something against beds as well.

Witnesses told police that around 9 a.m.an elderly woman driver suddenly accelerated in the parking lot of the Bethel Place Apartments in the 500 block of Acme. That acceleration launched her vehicle over the curb and into an apartment bedroom.

Fortunately, the woman who lives in the damaged apartment was not home. She and her 1-year-old son were at a doctor's appointment when the accident occurred.

But the car did send the apartment bed flying.

(from KENS-5)

Choosing a bad graphic

This was a strange way for KSAT to illustrate the story of a soldier (one soldier) who got sick and died far from any combat zone.

FORT HOOD, Texas -- The Department of Defense says a soldier from North Carolina has died from a non-combat illness.

Military officials said Tuesday that 40-year-old Capt. Shawn P.T. Charles of Hickory died Oct. 23 in San Antonio, Texas. No further details were provided.

(from KSAT-12)

Shaking San Antonio

Yeah, I know you've probably heard about it already, but we had ourselves a little shaker here in South Texas, which is definitely rare enough to qualify as strange in San Antonio.

The 4.8 magnitude quake happened early Thursday morning about 50 miles southeast of San Antonio in the small town of Pawnee. That's between Karnes City and Beeville.

In Atascosa County some say they were actually woken up by the tremors that lasted about 5 to 6 minutes.

In the quiet town of Campbellton, Texas people were talking all day Thursday about the earthquake that rattled South Texas.

(from KENS-5)

I felt it this morning. Did you?

Some visitors who should have thought a little more

If you're from an Arab nation, and you decide to visit the United States on a temporary visa from a different nation, and you decide to drive across the country in an RV visiting different cities, wouldn't you try to avoid drawing attention to yourself?

Wouldn't you?

Wouldn't you at least refrain from pulling drunk hi-jinks inside the county courthouse that sits smack-dab in the middle of the seventh-largest city in the nation?

You would, probably, but these guys didn't.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said surveillance video from inside the courthouse early Wednesday shows the men wearing sombreros and waving around a gavel. He says they appear to "just be some guys on a prank."

Had the two men who broke into the courthouse been from San Antonio, Wolff said the investigation would have been ruled a prank long ago.

“But when it’s people from another country, who have only been here a short while, it raises a lot of concerns,” he said.

Around 1:00 a.m. Wednesday two men were caught inside the Bexar County Courthouse.

Investigators said the courthouse’s security cameras show the men climbing a fire escape and entering the courthouse through a fourth floor window.

The men allegedly took a judges gavel from one courtroom and two sombreros from an office.

“It is very likely that these individuals were just intoxicated,” said Bexar County Sheriff Amadeo Ortiz. “ They might not of even known what this building was.”

Three additional men were found outside the courthouse inside a parked RV. Also in the RV were 90-day visas, maps, cell phones and computers.

All five men, Adil Ajiad, Camile Huet, Hicham Ajjaid,, Mehdi Ajjaid, and Meissa Mithra, are in the United States on visas from France and are of Moroccan decent, according to the sheriff’s office.

(from KENS-5)

They should have waited until Fiesta. No one would have batted an eye then.

With "wrestling" buddies like these ...

... you'd better disarm them before rolling around with them.

Four men in their early 20's were at the victim's apartment in the 800 block of Flame Circle, when police say he and one of the other men started "play wrestling." The other man, for some reason, then pulled out a knife and stabbed the victim several times in the arm and once in the hip.

T[h]e victim was taken to University Hospital in stable condition.

Police said he was not being cooperative, so they have little information on the suspect.

(from WOAI-TV)

Play wrestling? Sounds like it got serious real quick.

With friends like these ...

... you'd better make sure you have good health insurance.

Police were called out to the 800 block of Overhill just after 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

They say three men were hanging out in the front yard when they got into an argument over money.

Police say one man then stabbed his friend in the back six times, piercing his kidney.

Michael Tease, 27, was taken to University Hospital in critical condition.

Police say Tease was able to give them a detailed description of what happened and also gave them the name of the man who stabbed him. Police say Tease and the suspect were good friends and grew up together.

(from KSAT-12)

We don't know what really happened late last night, but I wonder if there was any teasing going on. That might prompt someone to get a little stabby.

Someone who should have dressed a little more

If you start using mind-altering substances, you should probably put some pants on first. Or at least leave on the ones you have.

A man was struck by a car after police say he ran into traffic on the West Side early Saturday.

Investigators say the 27-year-old man, who was wearing only his underwear, appeared to be under the influence of some type of narcotic when he ran into the street at Guadalupe Street and Chupaderas around 12:20 a.m. A driver in a Toyota Camry tried to avoid hitting the man by swerving into another lane, but the man continued running and ended up in the path of the car.

(from WOAI-TV)

Oh, and stay out of the street, too.


Bonus strangeness: The existence of a street in San Antonio called "Chupaderas"!

¡Puro!

Occupying San Antonio

It came to occupy Travis Park!



¡Puro San Antonio!

A coach who should have planned a little better

There's a bit of a scandal brewing here in the realm of Catholic high school football, and not everyone seems to be thinking their deeds completely through.

Two Central Catholic High School Football coaches have been disciplined in connection with a complaint filed by Antonian High School.

...

Central Catholic High School received notice of the decision from the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) District 2 Executive Committee Tuesday. Assistant Coach John Jennings was asked to leave an Antonian football game after Antonian coaches caught him standing on their sidelines, taking notes.

The decision comes after a complaint was filed by Antonian College Preparatory High School.

“Ethically, you do scout kids. You get videos from each school, so you get to watch the whole game anyway,” explained [Antonian coach Van] Fuschak. “I don’t know the purpose of it. It would be only to be sure you hear what somebody else does, getting a bird’s eye view. When you’re on the other team’s sideline right with them, it’s probably a little advantage for you.” [emphases added]

(from WOAI-TV)

First, how does a coach from another team manage to sneak onto a rival's sidelines? Was he wearing a disguise? Is Antonian big enough that random people are just expected to be wandering around the football field? Who recognized him, and why didn't they peg him before he had a chance to begin taking notes?

Second, what the heck was that coach thinking? Who at Central had the bright idea to send one of their own right to their rival's sidelines to take notes? And who would actually have the stones to try to pull off a stunt like that? And why isn't he doing real spy work for the CIA?

I am genuinely curious.