Moraga Police Blotter: The Drunker You Are, the Harder You Fall; Smart Meter Mouthing; and Who Needs a Dang Driver's License?
Moraga police logged a week's worth of calls and prove, yet again, that police work is certainly interesting at times.
Police officers aren't the only ones who don't like paperwork, apparently. Moraga police stopped a 1996 Mercury Grand Marquis for driving 54 mph in a 35 mph zone on Moraga Way Tuesday and quickly learned that the driver did not have a valid driver's license.
In fact, it turned out, the driver had never been issued a license -- although they did manage to chalk up multiple convictions for driving without one. The driver was cited for speeding and driving without a license and the car was driven away by a licensed passenger.
In other tidbits, a local business executive called police to report an unusual visitor at his home. Apparently, a woman knocked on the door of a man we would guess is somehow connected to the utility companies at 5:45 p.m. on Jan. 15 and said: "You're killing me with your smart meters."
Police said the woman turned and went back to her car. The homeowner just wanted police to know about the visitor.
And on Jan. 12 Moraga police were sent to Saint Mary's College to investigate a report of a man who had fallen out of a three story window. Officers assisted Moraga-Orinda Fire District firefighters who were busy attending to a 19-year-old student who had attempted to gain entry to his dorm room -- via his neighbor's window.
The student, who police said had been drinking, lost his grip as he was attempting to enter the window and fell -- severely injuring himself in the process.
He was taken to John Muir Medical Center for treatment of "several" injuries and, to add insult to those injuries, is being investigated for several campus rule violations.
RobertWilliams
7:22 pm on Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The woman was correct if the guy in the house had anything to do with the smart meter program
RobertWilliams
7:23 pm on Tuesday, January 17, 2012
SMART OR STUPID?
NOW we find that there are NO Energy Savings from Smart Meters.
Two years ago some people thought the health problems from smart meters would have to be suffered to allow the energy advantages.
Smart Meters COST hundreds of dollars each – and for that we get SICK, LOSE OUR PRIVACY, GET HIGHER MONTHLY UTILITY BILLS and THREATEN OUR NATIONAL SECURITY and NO ENERGY SAVINGS.
Smart for whom?!
Eileen McPeake
7:28 pm on Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Not a Lamorindan and smart meters commentary seems to be RobertWilliams' pet peeve, as he's posting all over the country on different Patch sites. Click on his name and read "his" posting history....
Larry Pines
8:08 am on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Eileen, just because he's not a local and is dedicated to getting his accurate message out to people (most sleepy citizens have know idea how skewered we're all getting by "Smart" Meters and PG&E), doesn't make him wrong or somehow unreliable. If his political view point matched yours, you'd applaud his dedication, no doubt.
See yesterday's CoCo Times for front page report that PG&E collected $500 Million from us in bogus increases based on required infrastructure upgrades. Years later, they've spent none of it, but yet is now again petitioning the corrupt State PUC (in the tank for PG&E) to raise rates another $2 Billion in the wake of the San Bruno 30-home gas fire. Rather making management & shareholders pay up for corporate defalcation, they want the rate-payers to shell out even more for all the new over-the-top politically motivated gas line "upgrade" programs. And the band plays on.
Scott Bowhay
10:04 pm on Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Ummm...I posted on Piedmont Patch once...I hope I'm not already caught in that powerful swirl to post on ever more Patches!
J.D. O'Connor
7:28 am on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Don't fight us, Scott, we're going to draw you in sooner or later.... bwahhahaha!
Actually, I've noted an interesting dynamic with LamoPatch as an increasing number of folks appear to be visiting from outside our "City Limits." And they are welcome, too.
Stay well,
JD
Kenny
4:43 pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
I comment on other Patch sites all the time - Studio City, CA; Ames, Iowa - just to name a couple. If it's a story that interests me why not comment. In fact when I'm googling a topic I'll always add on a "patch.com" to the search just to see what, if anything, a patch website might have to say on the issue.
Ed Sharp
10:09 pm on Tuesday, January 17, 2012
I happen to work for PG
Ed Sharp
10:10 pm on Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Somehow my comment got truncated. I'll post from my desktop later.
J.D. O'Connor
7:16 am on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Hmm... may have hit the "submit" button prematurely. It happens.
Ed.
Tim Davis
8:15 am on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
I don't have any problem with *outsiders* visiting here AS LONG AS THEY IDENTIFY THEMSELVES
Larry Pines
8:47 am on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Good point, Tim, but that observation applies equally to apparent Lamorindan's as well. Many, if not most, Patch bloggers effusively opine about every manner of local issue, while hiding behind veils of clever initials, and pseudonames. My favorite is "TMoraga", who pontificates about the obvious need for widespread new taxation of Orindans to fix THEIR roads ! (I figure he works for/owns a AC paving company).
.... but with a name like Tim Davis you've got some built in anonymity. LOL.
J.D. O'Connor
9:07 am on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Morning, Larry --
Gratified to see more and more Patchers posting under their true names... and a proliferation of avatars in support of that with kids and pictures of the family dog cropping up. Hopefully, with some moderation of these threads, people will feel comfortable posting "in the open."
Ed.
Inside9
11:03 am on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
The lady who visited the utility executive has guts and was doing all of us a service. She is unfortunately correct. Fortunately, the CPUC has acknowledged that many CA citizens know this and they are allowing us (on an individual basis) to keep our analog meters. They should not be asking us to "pay them off" to keep our health.
CJ
12:14 pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Look. I get the personal liberty perspective of losing these "Smart" meters. But can we please stop with the BS about the health risk they pose? You lose credibility when you stand on that red herring. Puts the whole argument into the Birther/Truther/Legalize hemp/ Bigfoot category.
Chris Nicholson
4:22 pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
@CJ: I object to your lumping of "Legalize Hemp" in with the other fringe causes. 47% of folks voted to legalize pot, and >50% would have if Arnold had not decriminalized it in advance of the vote (now it is an "infraction"-- like a speeding ticket).
CJ
7:24 am on Thursday, January 19, 2012
CN-"Legalize Hemp" is dishonest in an argument where the objective is to legalize "weed". Don't try and sell me that I need a hemp rope and shoes when all you want to do is get high.
Just call a spade a spade.
Chris Nicholson
7:59 am on Thursday, January 19, 2012
@CJ: with your clarification. I agree with you. Btw, some people want to legalize pot, not because they want to get high, but because they believe in freedom.....
Larry Pines
11:34 am on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
"Inside9" (whoever you might be) do you mean I can request that PG&E remove the Smart device ripping me off, and have them restore my old analog? Let's see if you have the inside scoop, Inside9.
Steve Kelly
12:19 pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
can we get an old meter??
Gr8Wahl
2:16 pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
RobertWilliams is no different than a naked man wearing a sandwich board walking around screaming that the world is going to end... Fear mongering is a complete waste of time, I don't work for PG&E but my husband works in the industry and there was an independent study done that showed the new meters to be more accurate, meaning we (energy users) have been underpaying PG&E for the last ten years, and instead of realizing we caught a break, people want to make out the new meters to be evil... give me a break.
In addition we (the state of California) have mandated that PG&E get 30% of its energy from renewable energy sources by 2030. Those resources produce inconsistent power while every monster blogger knows reeks havoc with sensitive computer equipment, so the only way for utilities to manage that problem is to better know our usage patterns so they can reduce risk.
Finally, you get waaaay more electro magnetic field radiation from the computer you are typing on than you ever could from the meter on the other side of your house...
Feel free to take the sandwich board off and put some clothes on, I'm not buying...
Brad Katkowsky
2:27 pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Remember PGE and its manufactured rolling brownouts?? Remember the demand letters they sent out to people they were overcharging by 200 percent or more? I can't wait for the day we can cut the electric cord tying us to them.
Nancy Lee
2:29 pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Sorry.... can't support you on this one. The "we caught a huge break and now it's time to pay up" argument isn't cutting it
CB
7:01 pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
I have conducted a study of my personal finances, and concluded that I'm in favor of the meter which results in the lowest energy use readings. I don't care if it's a smart meter, a dumb meter, or an average meter.
Regardless, this is a weird issue to inspire fear, exec-stalking, and tin foil hat paranoia. But it's California, after all -- so why am I ever surprised anymore?
Kenny
4:49 pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
It's fine to criticize smart meters in public or at PG&E offices. It is not, however, acceptable to approach a PG&E (or anyone for that matter) employee at their home. That action should constitute a trespass or harassment and the person arrested or issued a citation.
Now, recalling earlier stories, what if that woman had been viewed by the PG&E fellow as aggressive? She may have found herself looking at the wrong side of a gun. There is a time and place for everything. Bothering folks at their home is not acceptable. It's stupid. And, under the right circumstances, it may just get you shot.
bryan
5:09 pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Shot... or your utility bill increased.
Sorry, couldn't resist. And yes, I remember those manufactured brownouts....
Eileen McPeake
6:01 pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
OK, so my point in my original post was this: I don't trust single-issue posters who troll Patch sites all over the country to, IMO, interrupt what is otherwise a "local" conversation. (And this "RobertWilliams comments only on smart meters.) It has seemed, in the past, that paid corporate/political lobbyists have done same re: articles on leaf blowers, cell phone towers. It's like a member of staff at one restaurant/hotel/whatever posting fake negative reviews about the restaurant/hotel/whatever across the street on Yelp! I don't find their posts at all helpful and, at the end of the day, make me distrust the whole service.
If Patch is going to be a hyper-local resource I would prefer that commentators have a stake in the community. Sure, I've visited other Bay Area Patch sites and that of my old Brooklyn home, to see what's going on, and maybe I've commented on more than one occasion, but I think that's quite different from a one-issue probably-fake "person" commenting, in this case, on smart meters.
Kenny
9:41 am on Thursday, January 19, 2012
Depends what the issue is. I commented on the absurd billboard freak-out that occurred in Studio City. I also commented on a birth certificate issuance that came up in Iowa. Both were stories of a broad nature with some local or state context. I would say that issues like MOFD's office building fiasco are ones so localized in nature that it would be odd to find out of area folks commenting.
Sherry
9:25 pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Here is the link to what PG&E has recommended to the CPUC (who must approve any changes to the Smart Meter program):
http://www.pge.com/about/newsroom/newsreleases/20111219/pgampe_supports_giving_customers_who_opt-out_of_smartmeter_the_choice_of_using_analog_mechanical_meters.shtml