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Saturday's Internet Edition, 5:38 AM, July 4, 2009.
Is it really speeding if only radar catches you?
Rancho Murieta Commentary
By Kathryn Brodrick
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I had a nice conversation with my own personal California Highway Patrol sergeant - my son Scott - about that damned Arizona speeding ticket I got at the end of April. After his initial teasing, he had some interesting things to tell me about radar in general and about California’s view of these devices in particular.
The CHP has only recently been given radar as a tool for speed enforcement because, under our Constitution, everyone accused of breaking the law has the right to face his or her accuser in a court of law. Of course, being accused of breaking a law by a radar device would violate that right.
When the CHP uses radar, the officer is doing the accusing - with the radar reading used as evidence of his or her approximation of the excessive speed. That sounds eminently fair to me.
In addition, Scott went on to say that radar, as a means of evidence of speeding, must be carefully calibrated with a representative of the company on hand to attest to the accuracy of the calibration.
The issue of calibration is critical. In Arizona, if you think the radar is incorrect, it’ll cost you $20 to challenge the citation. If you are certain the radar got it wrong, you’ll have to spend your own time and money fighting it, and you’ll be lucky if you’re only out $20. Not surprisingly, hundreds of anecdotal accounts of errors in the system are available on the Internet.
Now there appears to be quite a lot of conversation in the halls of the Arizona legislature over the future of the radar speed cameras. Even a number of law enforcement officials are opposed to the remote ticketing machines. Sheriff Paul Babeau of Pinal County calls the devices a revenue shakedown, generating millions of dollar a year. He figures that at $165 per ticket, multiplied by a projected 600,000 citations (approximately 10 percent of the state’s population, by the way), the cameras will yield nearly $100 million per year.
He dismisses arguments promoting the radar as a safety measure by pointing out that the cameras are set to trigger at 11 miles over the speed limit, allowing “wiggle room” that might not be in the interest of safe speed as judged by a human police person.
But the industry that reaps the most profit by far from the radar is the insurance industry. Premium prices are dramatically affected by “points” accumulated on one’s driving record by moving violations. Each point can raise a driver’s rates by $50 to $1000, depending upon his or her record and the severity of the violation.
This windfall has alarmed enough legislators to spur talk of removing the radar system from the freeways. In response, the company that manufactures and operates the system, American Traffic Solutions (ATF), has proposed that points not be charged for citations issued by the cameras. This move, according to ATF, would increase the number of citations issued, reduce the cost of taking the photographs and eliminate a number of due process protections that come with criminal citations. When points are not an issue for the driver, he or she is also less likely to contest the ticket.
Laws, in general, are made not just to alter the way we drive or otherwise interact with each other but also to provide a mechanism for enforcement of that alteration.
Speed laws are the state’s best approximation of a safe speed at which to travel a particular stretch of road under optimum conditions. When those conditions change, mechanical devices simply cannot make a rational judgment about a safe speed. Constitutional issues aside, these devices are flawed at best and unsafe at worst. Red light cameras are pretty black and white: You ran the red light or you didn’t. Speed is a much more dynamic issue with many variables. Those variables require human judgment and interaction.
The bottom line is this: Law enforcement in the United States is a face-to-face business. We’re entitled to face our accuser and have the issues fully heard. Infractions witnessed by no one but a robotic entity are not infractions - they may violate some law or other, but they are only enforceable when witnessed by another human being. Citizen’s arrest is based on that principle. Let’s hope Arizona’s legislature gets that right soon, and that California never forgets it.
Summer in gardens means yummy fruits, vegetables
Sloughhouse Commentary
By Mindy Cecchettini
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Welcome to summer. This is one of my favorite seasons, as I love to grow. I grow anything and everything, edible and non-edible. For me, there is nothing more pleasurable than to grow our own vegetables for dinner and our own fruit for fresh eating and for making pies.
Of course, I always plant and grow more than we can ever eat so I can make sure our family is well supplied with extras. It is also enjoyable to grow new and different flower varieties; I love to work combining textures and colors.
So now that the temperature is cooperative for setting fruit and veggies and summer bloomers are strutting their colors, I think I will have a great summer.
I know some of you are thinking that summer is here and it is time to enjoy the fruits of your labor and relax. Okay, this statement is partially true. But there are many tasks that should be done this month in order for your landscape and garden to produce and look its best.
This month, temperatures can easily reach 100 degrees. Stay cool and do your garden work in the morning hours or in the evening when the Delta breezes lower the temperature. Wear a hat, apply sunscreen and drink plenty of water. When working, if you feel a little lightheaded or nauseated, take a break in the shade and resume your chores when the temperature goes down and you are feeling fine.
Those of you who grow and enjoy roses should remember that they are hungry about now! Continue to feed and water regularly. If your sprinklers get the foliage wet, water before noon to reduce the risk of disease. Remove spent blossoms by cutting the stem about 1/2 inch above an outward-facing, five-leaflet cluster.
All annuals and perennials benefit from removal of faded blossoms. This encourages re-bloom quicker and keeps the garden tidy. Deadheading should be done on a regular basis throughout the spring, summer and fall months.
Continue to monitor your plants for snail, slug or earwig damage. Bait, trap or handpick the pests. In order to discourage crawling insects like ants in fruit trees and shrubs, you may want to apply a sticky barrier such as Tanglefoot around the base of the tree by applying the sticky barrier to a strip of foil and wrapping the foil around the trunk.
Stake any plants that are top heavy. Be sure to check your tomatoes for hornworms, squash for squash bugs and stink bugs, and tree fruit for various crawling pests.
About this time of year you may notice very small white flying insects fluttering around your plants and resting on the undersides of the leaves. These are white flies and are rather tricky to control and almost impossible to eliminate. The easiest control method is using yellow sticky traps posted around the garden to trap the adults. For troubled areas, try insecticidal soap or insecticidal oil such as neem oil or a narrow-range oil.
Thoroughly spray the plants, covering the undersides of all infected leaves. If the white flies persist and the plant is not very valuable, it would be best to pull the plant, bag it and add it to the garbage can for pick-up. White flies spread quickly in the warm weather if not controlled.
The UC Cooperative Extension office has UC Pest Notes available for snails and slugs #7427; earwigs #74102; ants #7411 and white flies #7401 to give you more detailed information. To avail yourself of these free Pest Notes, call the office at 875-6913.
To ensure that your plants receive the proper amount of water during our hot weather, check all irrigation systems frequently for plugged emitters and sprayers. Consider replacing conventional sprinkler heads in landscape areas with a more water efficient drip or soaker hose system. These minimize evaporation, reduce development of fungal diseases and reduce water waste.
Never depend on your lawn-watering to take care of the water needs of trees. Surface-watered trees have surface roots; deep-watered trees have deep roots.
This is the season to be on the lookout for spider mites. If you begin to see fine webs and mottled leaves on your plants, this could mean they have spider mites. To test for the presence of spider mites, tap a branch on a white piece of paper; if the dots move around on the paper, these are spider mites. Spider mites are not spiders but a soft- bodied insect that sucks the good juices out of plant leaves and stems, eventually killing the plant. Check out UC Pest Note #7405 for more information on spider mites.
It’s time to water the lawn when your footprints do not spring back as you walk across the grass. Water the lawn before 10 a.m. and reset your irrigation clocks as needed.
If you have any gardening questions, contact me at mindyc@wildblue.net or give me a call at 354-1805.
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