Fox 7 comes through with a news story and on-site video from this morning’s arrest of the I-69 protesters. After watching the video, I’ve got a few thoughts:

• Why were the two main protesters from out of state? It’s an Indiana project, so it seems hard for me to sympathize when the two main people involves are out of state hippies.
• The girl outside of the police station came off poorly. She sounded like the typical we were oppressed by the man type person.
• I still think it’s ridiculous that there were so many cops to remove 5 people.
• Chad Dick looks like he could be on the Colts offensive line. He’s a big boy.

Give it a watch and let me know what you think. I’m all for saving the environment in most cases, but I am not losing sleep over the whole I-69 thing. If it makes it easier for me to get from here to Indianapolis, I’m all for it.

thanks to TriStateNews for the tip

Apparently there were protesters hanging out in trees for nearly a month trying to stop the construction of I-69 near the Warrick County border. It was a rather peaceful protest it seems since I have never heard about it, but that all came to a halt this morning when police arrested two of the protesters this morning after police came to evict them from their tree fort via a cherry picker.

Police were dispatched to the protest site at the request of INDOT who claimed the protesters were trespassing on their property. The police hopped into a cherry picker to retrieve the protesters.

I don’t know much more other than a few things I’ve read on twitter, so if you want to share it in the comments, please do.

Viva la revolution!

hat tip to C&P

Updated: One of the people behind the Stop I69 blog has checked into the comments with their side of the story.

Courier & Press has the details:

The proposed bikeways will include a north-south route along Oak Hill Road from Lynch Road to U.S. 41, an east-Downtown route along Lincoln and Bellemeade avenues from the county line to Downtown and a West Side-cross town route from Howell Park to Franklin Street and along Michigan and Virginia streets to U.S. 41.

As I wrote here a few weeks ago, biking around Evansville is a frightening and nearly impossible task. With bike routes through many major parts of the east side, it’s becoming a bit more of a reality. Let’s just hope this is only the beginning of getting nearly every road in the city to have a dedicated bike lane. Only then will it be completely feasible to replace that $4 gas with foot power!

I’m still in San Francisco, but I’ll be back in Evansville tomorrow night. WWDC was a great week of learning about the latest Mac and iPhone development stuff so I can hopefully take Second Gear to the next level. The event was capped last night with a performance by the Barenaked Ladies at the WWDC Beer Bash.

I like coming out here two weeks out of the year, but I’m always happy to get back to Evansville. San Francisco has some benefits over our little city, but I don’t think the benefits outweigh the negatives. I wanted to get caught up on what happened in Evansville over the past week and here’s what I learned:

• It rained a lot.
• The Obama’s House lady and McCain’s house guy won’t be indicted
• 1123 wanted to get a liquor license, but was rejected.
• A teenage girl stabbed her sister. She’s quite the looker.
• If you’re looking for a place to hide your pot, the baby stroller won’t work.
• Tim Russert, the host of Meet the Press, died this afternoon.

photo courtesy of aarontait

The Indiana State Police has picked up a few unmarked Mustangs to patrol the highways with. They are happy with the cars because it helps them be more stealth in their attempts at pulling over people on the highways. If you’re on 41 and going above the ridiculous 55-60mph speed limit, watch out.

Everyone wants to be informed before the weekend, so let’s wrap up the news of the past few days.

• Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel stated that he is not interested in the Lt. Governor spot on Jill Long Thompson’s ticket against Your Man Mitch. He’s focused on Evansville’s sewers and new stadium.
• It’s the 70’s all over again. People are stealing gas!
• Remember This Is Obama’s House (and the followup single ‘This Is McCain’s House’)? Those election violations are now being sent to the prosecutor for further investigation. Hope that electioneering was worth it.
• A sobriety checkpoint is planned for this weekend in Vanderburgh County. How about you stagger home in a cab instead of drinking and driving, you drunks?
• A local woman was tazed by the EPD after a drunk driving expedition. Sadly there will be no video of this incident as it occurred at Deaconess Hospital. And without tazing video, there can be no remixes like below.

photo courtesy of alchemyphotos08

Sub-title: The post where I use as many awful chicken-related puns and wordplays as possible

I bet the administrators at Harrison were clucking mad earlier this week when they discovered a battery of chickens walking through the hallways. As they planned to fly the coup of their high school, 9 seniors decided to release the sixteen chickens overnight. The chickens walked the hallways of Harrison and showed their school spirit by staining the carpet. What an eggcellent prank!

Sadly, the prank went afoul. The EVSC doesn’t have much of a sense of humor (or are they just too chicken to admit they do?) and have withheld the kids’ diplomas until they pay to replace the carpet where the chickens inhabited. I’ve also heard that one of the kids won’t be able to run in the state track meet next week because of the prank. I guess he really laid an egg in the EVSC’s eyes.

One of the kids checked in over at the Courier:

I am one of the seniors involved in this prank. We have been charged with a misdemeanor for criminal mischief. We just thought it woud be an amusing end to our senior year………and it was AWESOME! Oh, and for the record, all nine of us graduated with honors and distinction.

Criminal charges? Seriously? We’re doomed as a society if a senior prank is now grounds for getting a record. When I graduated from Day School, we stacked every chair in our commons at the entrance so no one could get in the building and took down all of the college pennants that adorned the walls. If the stiffs at Day School can take a prank, Harrison and the EVSC should certainly be able to.

Face it. It was a funny clucking prank. Make the kids pay to clean the soiled carpets, drop the charges and let the kid run the track meet. It’s Evansville salutes you, Harrison seniors, as you put this final feather in your high school cap!

photo courtesy of Darin Barry

Having just paid $4 a gallon to put premium in my car last week, I have dreams of being able to get around town on a bicycle for relatively short trips. Living in Newburgh, the luxury of public transportation is nonexistent. Risking my life trying to pedal on Newburgh’s narrow roads is not worth lowering my carbon footprint and padding my wallet.

Face it. The Evansville area seems to be one of the most bike unfriendly cities. Just last night was another story of a cyclist being smashed by a car.

An Evansville bicyclist suffered a possible back injury Sunday night when he collided with an oncoming vehicle at a four-way stop
…
[Jon] Hyneman was traveling south on Main Street through Louisiana Street when he hit an eastbound Dodge Stratus, according to an Evansville Police Department accident report. Hyneman reportedly rolled over the hood of the car, breaking its windshield, and then hit his back on the pavement.

It would be great if many major public thoroughfares offered a bicycle lane rather than forcing cyclists to attempt to share the road with a car. In the eternal struggle of cycle versus vehicle I am pretty sure the vehicle is undefeated.

A year and a half ago we a cyclist was actually killed in the area after being hit by a car during an organized ride. When I was at Purdue, there was a dedicated lane for cyclists and rarely did I hear of an accident involving motorist and cyclist and there were far more bikes on a college campus than in our fair town.

Maybe someday I can park my car for the majority of my day, but until then, I’ll keep bitching about the price of gas like it’s the 70’s all over again.

photo courtesy of Simon Davison

Well, that woke me up. All the news sources are claiming it was 10 seconds, but it felt like it was at least 20 out here in Newburgh. Definitely an offsetting feeling.

Courier’s on it

Follow the quake chatter via Tweetscan

Thanks for all the well wishes both publicly and privately last week. Let’s pick up where we left off.

• Baby Clinton is coming to USI on Tuesday at 9:45PM. I wonder if she will be reading her thesis? My main hope is that dude with the Adultery Enabler sign shows up to protest again.

• Speaking of the primaries, today is your last day to register to vote. I’m registered. Are you?

• No, those people in the neon green shirts picking up trash over the weekend weren’t prisoners. They were USI students!

• Get ready for more construction on the Lloyd this summer. This time, we’re targeting the east side!

• The Purdue team won the annual Rube Goldberg contest by building a 156-step hamburger builder. Was there any doubt? Boiler up!

• You can now have Charlton Heston’s gun.

photo courtesy of Kate Sherrill