My shoes are still in Dublin

I left a pair of shoes in Dublin last week.
They weren’t anything amazing. Just a comfortable pair of brown shoes that I could wear with anything and on any occasion. But these were special shoes. They were on my feet as I spent the last couple weeks walking around London and Dublin.
And oh did I [...]

Varda

The knock on the door seemed frantic, so I quickly put down my book and dashed to the door. I asked who it was and got four words in return: “Rock Island police, sir.”
Through the window I see two officers, both baby-faced and looking less than happy to be standing in the rain. A bit [...]

Looking ahead 35 years

Assuming his conviction and sentence survive the appeal process, Raymond Stinde and I will be 59 years old when he is released from prison.
Stinde, who is exactly two months and 18 days younger than me, was sentenced to 35 years in prison today for his role in a September, 2008 murder.
Being a police/courts reporter, I [...]

The memory remains

Do you care how you’re remembered after you die? I don’t, but a lot of people do.
A man named Kelton Trice died April 16. He was killed by a police officer. Mr. Trice had fired a gun at the officer and the officer returned fire, killing him almost instantly. Kelton Trice had just turned 21.
In [...]

And in the end …

A saga ended yesterday. It was a saga that began April 16, when a man named Kelton Trice – wanted by police on an armed robbery charge – fired at a police officer named Tom Peterson, hitting him twice in the kevlar vest. Sgt. Peterson fired back, hitting Mr. Trice four times. Mr. Trice didn’t [...]

Nothing to fear but fear itself

I haven’t blogged in a while, but I think it’s time to get back into it.
I don’t often get scared by my job. But I’m going to be tomorrow.
Back in April, East Moline cops were attempting to serve a warrant on a kid. He was named Kelton Trice and he was 21. He was younger [...]

A fresh start

I’ve never lived outside the Midwest. Until recently, I’ve never really had a desire to.
But that all changed a few weeks ago. I took my first trip to Texas — Plano, specifically. I was there to see my friend Jet. It was going to be a weekend of relaxing and a change in the normal [...]

Signs of change

I got a haircut yesterday. Not just a trim. I didn’t just get my normally-shaggy hair neatened up a bit. Oh no. That’s too easy. I got a chop. As in electric clippers instead of scissors and piles of hair on the ground.
It felt really good to get the haircut. In reality, it was a [...]

A paradigm shift without a clutch

My mind was blown a bit yesterday.
I was driving a coworker to another coworker’s house for dinner last night. I had picked her up from her apartment in Moline and we were driving to our coworker’s house in Port Byron. A quick rundown for those of you not in the Quad City area: From Moline [...]

Out of the QC?

It seems like every native of the Quad Cities area that I meet in my various adventures is trying to get out.
Maybe it’s that I’ve only been here six months or so. Maybe it’s that I’m not from the area. But I don’t understand why people are in such a hurry to get out. I [...]