to anyone who may have received communique(CQ?) of any kind from me last night. Why I thought it was a good idea to down a pitcher of beer BY MYSELF probably correlates with the ugly, self-indulgent mood I’ve been in the past couple weeks, but I tell you what: My mood has improved dramatically since. And I wasn’t even as hungover as I was expecting!

Also, muy thanks to Paul for going to the meeting I was supposed to go to, because I very likely would’ve hemorrhaged had I been:

HIGHLAND—A Highland Police Commission member accused by Town Council members of violating his oath of office will not continue to serve on that board.

With Councilman Mark Herak absent from the meeting, the other four members unanimously voted to oust John Koval from his position on the Police Commission.

Following the vote, public comments were permitted. Former Councilman Joseph Wszolek of Highland read a prepared statement in opposition to the action taken against Koval.

Wszolek said Koval’s behavior was consistent with the recently adopted Code of Ethics for Highland officials in that he took the responsibility to expose corrupt behavior and took action to support the public’s right to know.

Attorney Joe Hero, who represents Koval, was not allowed to speak.

Koval’s reprimand stems from a letter to the editor he wrote before the November election countering information in Highland First Coalition literature.

The brochure said the previous Town Council trimmed $311,633 from the Police Department’s budget, which in turn would reduce police patroling capabilities by 19 percent.

The Police Department’s net operating budget for 2007 was cut, said Highland Clerk-Treasurer Michael Griffin. But most of that money was made up through two other funds on which the department relies.

In Koval’s letter, dated Oct. 31, 2007, he said former Republican and current Highland First Councilman Mark Herak “concocted a fairy tale.”

“I find it morally offensive for (Herak) to use scare tactics and prey upon our citizens’ fears regarding their safety for the sole purpose of trying to maintain power,” he wrote.

In January, the Police Commission’s four other members—James DeGraaf, Chairman James Turoci, Patty VanTil and Danny Stombaugh—sent a letter to the council requesting that Koval be removed from the commission because by identifying himself as a police commissioner he was allowing politics to influence the Police Department and Commission. The council turned to Town Attorney Rhett Tauber for an opinion.

In a letter dated Jan. 8, Tauber said Koval’s actions weren’t a violation.

Nutjob: Legitimate description, or term used to describe someone who either doesn’t see eye-to-eye with you or doesn’t let you have your way? Discuss.

[I do have a post swimming around in my head about this, but no time to write it this second since I now have the best of both worlds because I? will be sitting amongst my awesome peeps watching a world premiere while some other poor suckeranother correspondent will be at the meeting. And because I’m doing the background reporting, I’m sharing the byline. AND I came up with this solution all by myself. My genius knows no boundaries sometimes.]

However, allow me to point over there on my sidebar, where it says ”Pussy Ranch“ and has for, like, forEVER. That there means I’ve been reading Oscar ingenue Diablo Cody for at LEAST four years now, so don’t y’all be jumping on the bandwagon and saying you’re all huge fans. Because I was THERE, man, before y’all were.

Now that we’re talking about movies, here’s my dilemma for tomorrow: I’ve been invited to a movie world premiere and afterparty in a cool locale with good friends, and it’s been on Girlie’s and my social calendar for weeks, right? Did a story on it (of which I really liked the way it turned out) and everything. So Saturday I’m doing some work (read: screwing around on the Innerbunny), and I get an e-mail from one of my excellently reliable sources in a town I normally cover but haven’t since the latest election because the new councilmen are insane and there’s only so much insanity I’m willing to take when it comes to covering municipalities. In it, my source provides the context of the next meeting, and it’s the kind of story I LIVE for, with corruption and major players that are doing something really really WRONG. I fire off an e-mail to my one editor (who’s LEAVING and as such is one of the reasons I’m a sad panda right now) letting her know I SO want to cover this meeting.

Aaaaaaaand ... you know where this is going.

So, my choices are work and do a story that will really stick it to some deserving, corrupt dumbasses, or go to a cool movie premiere and drink expensive beer with friends who appreciate me. This is not as easy a decision as it seems.

And I totally have the recipe to make them Serbian stylee, too, so I should, because GoshDAMN they’re good. Y’all can have your mac n’ cheese as comfort food; give me them green beans and some sausage and kraut (or even better, stuffed cabbage), and I’m good to go. Of course, all I want right this very minute is a phospho cocktail, because I ate entirely too much today and kind of feel like I need to purge*, especially after preliminary dress shopping with Girlie earlier this afternoon. God, it’s already as big a suckfest as I imagined.

Interesting discussion over here at our former sister paper (I think—no, wait, it was The Telegraph, says Wikipedia): Lookit. If you’re not going to clicky, it talks about how men and women experience music differently, and the basic conclusion is that men are more, ahem, intelLECtual and women are more emotional (of course we are ). Based on this, I don’t see how men could be classified as enjoying the music when really, they’re just kind of collecting stuff about the music in that nerd way they do, be it rare paraphernalia or discussing the relative merits of a Gibson over a Strat. What has that to do with the music itself? As for me, I’m the first to admit I have visceral responses to music. But then you know what happens next? I start listening for harmonies (or creating them in my head if there are none) and breaking down beat patterns and all manner of other deconstruction. And with a refresher course on scales, I could listen to a song and write out the music for it, too; used to do that quite a bit as a kid with my recorder. Don’t know about y’all, but that’s about as nerdy as it gets.

I wouldn’t call the article divisive, necessarily. I just think they’re talking about two different things.

Girlie and I were having a discussion about the dumbasses who have kids for which they can’t provide the other day, and she brought up the Duggars and how even though they might be batshit crazy, they at least provide for their 37 spawn. So what’s on TLC right now? “On the Road with 16 Children, all wearing red shirts and granny boots with stupid hair and insipid grins on their insipid faces.” (I made part of that last part up; they really ARE wearing red shirts and granny boots, at least the girls are. And while I can’t really speak to their insipidness, I didn’t know were so many names starting with ‘j.’ )

I’m thinking there’s got to be better things Girlie and I could be putting out in the universe.

I’m reading the further comments on the former beauty queen with the prosthetic issues post, and a commenter left this bit of nonsense on the board:

and this is the kind of stuff that you only hear about (at least I have, I don’t know about y’all), but don’t you wish you could actually see it in action: Lookit?

[via Jezebel, natch]

Barry Williams is on “Celebrity Rehab” giving Chyna (the former American Gladiator with the giant ladyflower part) the business for ruining his New Year’s Eve act in Las Vegas.

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrowr!

Why does my hair look like someone cut it with a bowl in pictures? I swear it doesn’t look like that IRL.

eat the whole pint of Ben & Jerry’s Strawberry Cheesecake last night, but I put the lid of it on the floor for the little guy so he wouldn’t be all up in my shizz while I was working, and by the time I’d had enough, the lid disappeared, and even I know that you can’t put ice cream back in the freezer without a protective covering or else it’ll taste like frozen ass.

(I did find the lid eventually; he snuck it under the desk. He’s a sneaky one.)

Feeling tons better about the whole Mother thing but still rather moody. And no, not because of V-D (huhuhuhuhuhuh). More like, I’ve been invited to the Wedding of the freakin’ Year at the end of March, so that means I’m going to have to get something killer to wear, but so far I’ve found nothing that either I love or that I can get the fashion committee to agree upon (i.e. “That green will wash you out,” and “Your boobs’ll bust out all over the place.").

Preliminary results from the colonoscopy: Two little baby polyps that the doctor said he would be surprised to find cancer in, a blood vessel that may or may not rupture but wouldn’t cause issues if it did and ...



a. whole. lot. of. nothing. else.



So what does Mother choose to focus on after he gives us the big news (and after I hug him for figuratively pulling me away from the shotgun)? “Now, what about this blood vessel!??” Of COURSE she does.

But no matter, because it seems like the Pimp is just about thawed out. If it’s not, at least I have my downstairs neighbor’s Camry in which to tool around, and I love me the Camry. As far as realistic dream cars go, that’s my car. Ima get me one one day.


[UPDATE: We have lift-off! After a few tries and few pumps of the gas pedal, the Pimp is back in action. The idle is a little kludgy, but I’m guessing that’s due to watery gas maybe. I have a bottle of Heet all ready to go—that is, if my gas door wasn’t frozen shut ...]

Tomorrow is Mother’s last test to determine what, if anything, is wrong with her (physically, anyway, since we already know the mental part). And except for an annoying call a little earlier, she’s been a million times better than she was a month ago, and like I said a few days ago, that’s been a fantastic turn of events—definitely easier on me, anyway. And she’s actually been pretty zen about the test itself, which is a miracle considering.

But now—and this just hit me in the last hour, so I’m not processing anything at the moment—I’m the one that’s freaked out about what it might find. Googling colon cancer just now didn’t help; turns out that some of the symptoms she’s been having are in fact indicative of colon cancer. Not going to tell HER that, of course, but ... then again, her doctor said her lower stomach didn’t feel lumpy or hard, and that was a good sign, and nobody’s talked about her being anemic. Still, I’ve spent so much time focusing on her mental health (which, make no mistake, I was absolutely correct to do so) that I haven’t really thought about what a cancer diagnosis would mean. Selective thinking at its finest, right? But here it is, and I don’t like it one bit, especially the part about how it would affect me. Yeah, no need to pile on about how shitty it is of me to think that way; the Catholic guilt and I already have that covered, thanks.

The test’s at 9 a.m. Don’t know how much we’ll know immediately after.

who would help a out a sister who’s STILL waiting for her fuel line to thaw by bringing over chips and salsa, among other things.

Girlie, you RULE!

Because if someone at the paper would’ve told me about this little gem:

Phony ballot gets man probation

Post-Tribune staff report

Suspended Lake County police officer Ponciano Herrera admitted he submitted a phony ballot in the May 2003 East Chicago primary election.

Herrera, 42, of East Chicago, pleaded guilty to procuring or submitting a false, fictitious or fraudulent ballot, a felony charge.

Lake Superior Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr., placed Herrera on probation for 90 days and entered the conviction as a misdemeanor, as called for in the plea agreement negotiated on behalf of Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter’s office and Herrera’s lawyers.

The misdemeanor conviction would allow Herrera to return to the police force.

Four counts of perjury and four counts of vote fraud were dismissed in exchange for Herrera’s admission of guilt.

Herrera, an East Chicago native who served in the U.S. Air Force and returned to his hometown and joined the Lake County police 15 years ago, became emotional when addressing the judge. “I have always tried to be a servant to the community,” Herrera said, “but I am only human.’’ After being suspended without pay, Herrera said he took a job with the Gary street department.

Stefaniak heard from Antonio Barreda, an officer in the Union Benefica Mexicana, a civic and social organization in East Chicago, who said Herrera not only has been a committed and involved member of the group but also pitched in to help in the hurricane recovery efforts in New Orleans.

Family members of Nick Idalski, a soldier killed in Iraq in 2005, said Herrera arranged for a police escort for Idalski’s body and handled many details for the family.

Herrera was one of dozens of people charged with vote fraud in the 2003 East Chicago primary election, which was set aside by the Indiana Supreme Court.

Charges of domestic battery during a May incident have been dropped against a Lake County Sheriff’s officer.

Officer Ponciano Herrera of East Chicago, was named in a complaint filed by the Lake County Sheriff’s Police on behalf of Darcel Espinoza of Merrillville. But according to an investigation conducted by the county police, the claims were baseless, according to Lake County Police Chief Gary Martin.

“We conducted a thorough investigation and the complaint was found to be unsubstantiated,” Martin said.

According to an incident report obtained by the Post-Tribune, Herrera, who is the father of Espinoza’s child, showed up at Espinoza’s home, let himself in and asked to see their daughter. Espinoza said she declined because Herrera smelled strongly of alcoholic beverages.

“(The) complainant stated that she then told her daughter to lock herself in the bedroom,” the report states. “Complainant advised that Mr. Herrera then threw a plastic water bottle at her which struck her in the head.”

The report said Herrera then opened the door as if to leave, at which time Espinoza tried to shut the door and lock it behind him. But Herrera pushed the door back forcefully, slamming Espinoza between it and the wall. Afterward, he dragged Espinoza by her wrists into the dining room area, causing rug burns on her knees, and dug his fingers into her neck.

Sgt. William Paterson and Officer Brian Marsh, who responded to the call, observed abrasions on Espinoza’s back and knees, swelling on her forehead above the right eye and a bruise on her left wrist and thumb. They took pictures of these injuries along with damage done to the wall where Espinoza got caught by the door and a typewriter that Herrera allegedly threw off the balcony, the report states.

The report also says that Cmdr. Dale Bock advised Paterson and Marsh to file the domestic battery charges.

But when Espinoza was interviewed by police shortly after, her stories were different, Martin said.

“She had explanations for her injuries,” he said, adding that he felt confident Espinoza didn’t recant her report out of fear of Herrera. “(Paterson and Marsh) did exactly what they were supposed to do, but once the investigators took her statement, it was found that the incident didn’t happen.”

Espinoza didn’t return several calls for comment.

Herrera, who ran for an East Chicago council seat, said he’s relieved Espinoza changed her story. “I’m a law enforcement officer and this is a delicate situation,” Herrera said. “I’m fortunate that she told the truth to the investigator.”

Law enforcement officers may file charges in a domestic battery case based on observations at the scene or outside witness testimony, regardless of whether the victim presses charges, said Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter. But Carter added that unless the police give the prosecutor charges, his office can’t investigate.