Indianapolis is My Home

29
Jul

Lead Foots Beware – Smokey’s Got a Brand New Car

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Areas, Government, Indianapolis Star, Traffic & Transportation

The Indiana State Police are the proud owners of 18 new, unmarked, 2008 Mustang GT’s to patrol Indiana highways. One car has been assigned to each of the Indiana State Police posts, but they also hunt together in “wolf packs” to catch speeders. It seems to be working.

The officers of the 18-car Mustang Unit wrote more than 4,600 speeding citations in June. That averages to about seven tickets per day, per car.

I passed two of these cars last week on the southwest side of I-465. A red one and a blue had pulled over a red pickup truck. My standpoint still remains the same. I’m regularly pushing the speed limit by 5-10mph but I also accept the fact that if I get pulled over I’m speeding.

The topic of law enforcement and speeding has been a popular one on this site. Anyone think it’s unfair for the police to use these types of unmarked cars? In the IndyStar story they mentioned one speeder going 127mph in his Corvette on SR37. That’s along my route to home and work so getting that guy in the pocket book sounds good to me.

24
Jun

Fiery Crash Closes I-465 Today

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Indianapolis Star, News, Traffic & Transportation, West Side

I got to take a little tour of the west side of Indianapolis this morning, but it wasn’t on purpose. A wreck that happened around 2:30am involving three semis and a pick-up truck ended up causing the interstate to be shut-down indefinitely at this point. As I drove through areas trying to avoid all the redirected traffic but still make it to the office, I got to see some neighborhoods I’ve never seen before.

According to a statement from Emery released this morning: Archie Curry, 64, Greensburg, Ky., was driving a north when his semi rear-ended a Chevrolet pickup.

Curry’s vehicle caught fire and jack-knifed into the fuel tanks of another semi driven by Douglas M. Robinson, 50, Pine, Az. Robinson’s vehicle also caught fire and crashed into another semi driven by Larry Calvert, 40, Palestine, Ohio.

The fires burned so hot that the pavement surface was damaged and it’s not certain when the I-465 between Airport Expressway and Rockville Road will be reopened to traffic. The hope is that it won’t need immediate repaired and crews can work on fixing the damage during the lighter traffic use in the evenings.

Crash, fire closes I-465 on Westside | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star

17
Jun

Take a 10-yr Old’s Advice - It’s worth it!

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Elementary, Environment, Government, Indianapolis Star, Local Businesses, People, Students

Wynn Brower isn’t really the person you’d expect to be taking advice from these days but it turns out this Bloomington resident has got some stuff many of us should probably be thinking more about.

For a class science project he determined that his family could save a $1/day by just turning off their computer at night. Multiply that be how ever many computers you’ve got going while you sleep, multiplied by the number of homes like yourself and you’ve got a big savings in energy every single night.

It doesn’t stop there though, what if the city governments did it as well?

Wynn demonstrated how he used a device to test the energy use of a laptop and desktop computer, then extrapolated the results to the county’s 550 computers. He came up with a savings of $25,000 a year if all computers were turned off at the end of the workday.

Lot’s of people talk about being "green" and conscious about the environment. I think there are loads of opportunities out there for everyone to make an impact in our city that don’t require buying a hybrid or installing solar panels on our roofs.

Why aren’t we hearing more about these little ways we can all do our part?

10-year-old tells county how to save $25,000 | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star

08
Jun

You’ve Come Along Way Baby

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Health, Humor, Indianapolis Star, News, Weather

My brother brought my attention to this photo that was on the front page of the IndyStar website this morning.

Seems like a good time for a smoke right? Carrying a kid across a flooded road or something? I mean you want to protect them from danger right? All this rain and flooding has been killing people. Yep, so does smoking!

Guess smoking really is a stress reliever. I’m sure this situation was pretty stressful. Oh wait! It’s not even lit. Probably a good thing for the boy.

At least one of the three butts in this picture are still dry.