Sheriff Joe

You all remember Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona , who painted the jail cells pink and made the inmates wear pink prison garb. Well.........

SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN! [http://gfx2.hotmail.com/mail/w2/ltr/i_safe.gif]

Oh, there's MUCH more to know about Sheriff Joe! Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.

The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal.

He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows. The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million.

Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him. Cost us $78.

The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.

I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand. He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later.

We have six trees in our yard from the Prison. Yup, he was reelected last year with 83% of the vote. Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff.

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY: Sheriff Joe Arpaio (In Arizona ) who created the ' Tent City Jail': He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights Cut off all but 'G' movies. He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects. Then He Started Chain Gangs For Women So He Wouldn't Get Sued For Discrimination. He took away cable TV Until he found out there was A Federal Court Order that Required Cable TV For Jails So He Hooked Up The Cable TV Again Only Let In The Disney Channel And The Weather Channel.

When asked why the weather channel He Replied, So They Will Know How Hot It's Gonna Be While They Are Working ON My Chain Gangs. He Cut Off Coffee Since It Has Zero Nutritional Value. When the inmates complained, he told them, 'This Isn't The Ritz/Carlton.....If You Don't Like It, Don't Come Back.' He bought Newt Gingrich's lecture series on videotape that he pipes into the jails. When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series might explain why a lot of the inmates were in his jails in the first place.

More On The Arizona Sheriff: With Temperatures Being Even Hotter Than Usual In Phoenix (116 Degrees Just Set A New Record), the Associated Press Reports: About 2,000 Inmates Living In A Barbed-Wire-Surrounded Tent Encampment At The Maricopa County Jail Have Been Given Permission To Strip Down To Their Government-Issued Pink Boxer Shorts. On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 Degrees Inside The Week Before. Many Were Also Swathed In Wet, Pink Towels As Sweat Collected On Their Chests And Dripped Down To Their PINK SOCKS. 'It Feels Like We Are In A Furnace,' Said James Zanzot, An Inmate Who Has Lived In T he TENTS for 1 year. 'It's Inhumane.' Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic.

He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: 'It's 120 Degrees In Iraq And Our Soldiers Are Living In Tents Too, And They Have To Wear Full Battle Gear, But They Didn't Commit Any Crimes,So Shut Your Mouths!' Way To Go, Sheriff! Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves. Sheriff Joe was just reelected Sheriff in Maricopa County, Arizona

Andy Heads Out

BYU Bound

We have made our decision. We are going to BYU Law School. We are excited to become Cougars. We plan to move down in late August. Kate is looking for a job, and we are trying to get into housing close enough to the campus to walk. Graduation will be in 2011. Provo, here we come.

Rise and shout the Cougars are out...um...da da da da da da da daa da...

Thanks for Fasting

I want to thank everyone who helped us fast for the people in our Ward this past weekend. Just a little bit of information on these good folks: Crystal is in the hospital struggling with anorexia. Her family is struggling with it, too. She keeps losing weight, even in the hospital. Her dad, Don, has become very dispondent over this, and even has developed a serious infection that he is fighting as well. Fern is a 90 year-0ld lady who has lived in the Granger area all of her life. She is the sweetest lady. She also has Parkinson's Disease and yet she is always happy, and very cordial when I go to see her. You would love to talk to her. She lives with her 60+ year-old daughter, who cares for her every need. She got a new power wheel chair, which she does not know well. When she got out of it one day, she accidentally hit the power button, and it lurched forward, throwing her, and pinning her to the wall. It broke her back. She is still smiling, but in a great amount of pain. Lena is a mom of two teenage kids who has a very rare and horrible blood disorder that is often fatal. Her treatment has been having no effect. I told them all that not only the Ward Council was fasting for them, but also my family. They were very humbled and thankful for your help. Sometimes we feel so helpless, that fasting and prayer are all we can do. Thanks to you being a great family and helping me and these good people.

Another thing that I would like to ask you to do: I have heard that Becky's dad, Gene, had a stroke over the weekend. I don't know how many of you know "Geeno", but he is a great guy who really loves his family. He also needs our prayers in the near future. Please remember him. I am sure it will make a difference to him.

Dad

BYU Application

I thought I'd take the opportunity to let you guys in on what happened to me this weekend.

I have been trying to get a hold of the Assistant Dean of BYU's law school. I emailed him about 3 months ago to see if he'd be willing to review a few things with me before I sent my application in prior to the March 1 deadline. I didn't receive an answer, so I called and emailed again. Still nothing back, so I thought he was probably in the middle of reviewing applications already, so I let it go.

Then just last week he emailed me and said I could come see him on Wednesday. I decided to wait to submit my application until then and planned to take a day off work. A day later he changed it to Friday, and I changed my schedule because I wanted to be able to meet the man that would chair the admissions committee and decide whether I would have the Y as an option to attend for the next 3 years of my life.

Friday morning I left early and met with him about my personal statement. It was the last piece of the puzzle. I had finished the online application and all I had to do was push the submit button. Everything went well and I stopped by Dad's work afterward to discuss it with him and Dad bought me a meal.

After that I had some work to do, so I logged into my computer remotely and ran into some problems that took me late into the afternoon. After finishing up I went out with Kate and some old friends to get some grub. When we got home, I had Kate look over my BYU application to make sure I hadn't missed filling out any part of it. Much to my dismay, Kate found two errors, but they were nothing that was on the online application. I had overlooked two six-word notes at the top of the app that said "Print out and sign part 3" and "Print out and sign part 8". I was concerned. My application was due the next day by five, I was in Riverton, and I didn't have these two parts done. I was even more upset when I found out that BYU was requiring a form filled out by my Bishop (1 1/2 hrs away) and another by the Dean of USU (1hr 45 min away). By this time it was after 10pm and a Friday night. So after a brief nervous breakdown I started making calls.

My Bishop agreed to meet with me the next morning. That was the easy part. To get a hold of the Dean I called the head Physician at USU (a friend of mine) who gave me information to call the Dean (going on 10:35 now) who gave me the number for the University lawyer (10:45pm). I called him and he agreed to meet me at noon the next day to sign the paper. I would have to drive them down to BYU myself and hope I could get in to drop them off.

I called Dad to let him know how badly I had blown it. Of course BYU requires an ecclesiastic recommendation, everyone knows that. I had been told that several times, but it just didn't register in my feeble and sometimes spooky mind. So after a late night of calls, I got up early to make the trip North. I met with my Bishop and headed to USU. I met with the University's attorney and jumped in the car to head South to Provo. I made it to the Y around 2:45pm. Dad had done a lot of footwork in the meantime to find a contact at the Y that would timestamp my application and drop it in the right box for me. That was a huge lifesaver. I walked into the library, and the kid was waiting there with a note about what to do thanks to Dad's calls. He timestamped my envelope and dropped it in the correct box 1hrs and 15min before the deadline. I guess that's pretty good time when you consider I only knew I would apply to BYU for 26 years.

I called the admissions officer and left a message to make sure she was aware my documents had arrived on time. I drove to Kate's parents where it had all began and rolled up around 4:30pm. What a blessing that I didn't blow it all together (that I didn't blow it).

Thanks to Dad for helping me out. I'm sure there was other help involved with getting all of my contacts to be awake and willing after 10pm at night.

Here's the moral of the story: Don't be a knucklehead.

May you all prepare your applications months in advance.

February 25, 2008

We need to thank Wiley for setting this up for us. This is pretty much cutting edge stuff, and is far superior to the website he had set up for us in the past. I think this is great, and you can post your own entries all the time. Please do that.

This is in lieu of trying to send family letters on a regular basis.

Regarding photos, when you send me photos via email, which many of you do on a regular basis, I'll post most of them on the blog. Andy just sent me some, and I will get with Wiley so that he can guide me through the process. After that, I'll post any photos you would like me to post, or that you don't mind if I post.

We are a family that believes in education. Hence, we also believe in making the most of that education, by going where the jobs are. That means that few of us will stay in a rural state like Utah forever. I would imagine most of you will be like JD, Andy and Mike, and will be making the most of your educations by taking the job that is best for your family. This poses lots of challenges to us if we want to stay close as a family. This blog seems to be one very good way to stay close.

With that in mind, please do the following:

1. Post blogs all the time. Don't worry about it seeming like you are bragging. We need the news of your new jobs, assignments, successes, etc. Anything you would like to share, please do.

2. We all have to visit the blog site as often as possible so that we can see when each other have new messages and information up. Please visit as soon as possible.

3. Be cautious about what you put up on the blog. Some of us will be viewing/posting, etc. while at work. Be sensitive to the fact that many businesses have very strict rules about what can be posted, read, accessed, saved, etc. on a business computer. Please don't put up anything that could be construed as being in poor taste or violating some HR policy. This happens frequently with emails. I know because I have done the investigations of employees who have forwarded or created suggestive emails, attachments and/or photos. Smack talk should be okay, but just be cautious. Also, Mr. NFL type stuff should be okay, as long as it could not be construed as being an office "pool" etc.

If you have any questions about this, please let me know. If I can't answer them, we'll get the answer.

Once again, thanks to Wiley for setting this up. I am looking forward to reading all of the messages you put on this site.

If an old goat like I can do this, so can you technically savvy people. Let's make the most of this.

Dad

Everyone Can Post on This Blog

Okay everyone,

All of you can post to the blog. To post, just log in and click on New Post. If you'd like to add pictures, send them to Dave via email.

Call Wiley with any questions.

Sincerely,

Kate Dawg