I’m trying to move myself out of the election euphoria stage, but it’s tough. Every time I start to move on, I see a new stage of liberal pain and suffering and it warms my heart a little. The most recent take on the liberal losses have them taking on the “victim” status. The election mandate of the people is now somehow some way that conservatives have made the left victims. The very same group that nearly beat us into submission over the last few years with gender confusion, pronoun nonsense, DEI and climate change policies are now the victims if you’re keeping track at home.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol has made the decision to no longer include names of people involved in crashes in their online reports, effective Nov. 1, 2024.
Here is the quote from the patrol press release, “The patrol was recently notified of scam incidents across the state targeting motor vehicle crash victims and/or individuals associated with someone who was involved in a crash. These suspects may have used information obtained via public databases, including the patrol’s online reports, to sound credible.”
I’m not saying I don’t believe them, but I don’t believe them. How about show me your work, Highway Patrol? Show me the “incidents” that created this situation that required you to withhold public information from the public. I believe that scams may occur that use the information, but I suspect the patrol has overblown the impact and has just taken one more step to operate behind as many layers of secrecy as possible, with no apparent reason, other than strong handed government.
The entire human population is on Facebook, X or TikTok, sharing personal information, I doubt there is a fraud explosion as a result of crash reports, but I’m a generally skeptical person. You do you, follow the science.
Don’t even get me started on MoDOT and their lack of candor and sound engineering reasons for closing lanes of traffic, bridges and what not in the name of “safety.” Every time they close a bridge or some lanes of the interstate, the press release sounds like a Kamala Harris press conference, just a large word salad.
If they did not have legal liability caps that protect them from legal harm, MoDOT would be paying out lawsuit after lawsuit for creating dangerous driving conditions in the name of “safety.” Their solution to nearly any traffic impact or maintenance need has become “close the road” or “close some lanes of traffic” and it often fails to pass the commonsense test and instead makes conditions less safe.
Speaking of MoDOT, look for that organization to have an interesting ride once the legislative session convenes in January. The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission announced Wednesday that Ed Hassinger will be the new director of the department. If you think shakeup is needed, don’t count on it. Ed’s been with MoDOT for 40 years. That’s a lot of coffee and mind-numbing meetings.
There are rumblings among some elected officials that “more of the same” is not the direction the senate and legislature were pulling for. The Missouri Senate will be led in 2024 by Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin, the first woman ever to hold that leadership position and hopefully she can steward the senate to a productive session, considering the abyss it has often been in past years.
Your homeboy, Parkville’s Tony Luetkemeyer is the new second in charge of the senate behind O’Laughlin, so he gets to be in the mix for what should be an interesting session.
(Guy Speckman can be reached closing roads and omitting names from reports in the name of safety)
