We hope that today’s “Readers Forum” will provoke honest and open dialogue concerning issues that we, as responsible citizens of this community, need to address in a rational and responsible way?

 WHATS ON YOUR MIND TODAY?

Todays“Readers Poll” question is: Are you pleased with all of the new development in downtown Evansville?

Please take time and read our articles entitled “STATEHOUSE Files, CHANNEL 44 NEWS, LAW ENFORCEMENT, READERS POLL, BIRTHDAYS, HOT JOBS” and “LOCAL SPORTS”.  You now are able to subscribe to get the CCO daily.

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]Younger generations buying fewer homes than prior generations is not good for America.

A recent Urban Institute study found homeownership among millennials, ages 25 to 34, is about 8 percent lower than it was for prior generations at the same age

Which means many millennials are missing out on the misery of home ownership.

The quaint cottage-style house I’ve owned for 22 years has given me grief from day one. The latest incident involved my pressure washer.

I have a lot of grounds to maintain. A pressure washer is essential. A few years ago, I bought the best one I could find at a big-box store.

It worked fine until this spring when it went drier than the Mojave Desert at high noon.

I determined that the hose was the likely culprit – that something had collapsed inside, preventing water from flowing freely.

I drove to the big-box store, where I was greeted by a highly knowledgeable and enthusiastic pressure-washer expert – Ha, ha! That didn’t happen. It took me several minutes to find anyone who worked there. One fellow told me which parts to buy.

Back home, I immediately discovered he’d sold me the wrong parts.

I drove back to the store, spent several minutes looking for someone who worked there, bought more parts and drove home. None of those parts worked. I repeated this exercise five times before calling it a night.

The next day, a Saturday, I went back to the store with the disassembled pressure washer, new and old parts, etc. I purchased more parts that didn’t work, drove home, then returned to the store THREE MORE times before I finally had the machine back together.

I started it up, eager to spray grass clippings and oak-tree gunk off my patios – but it wouldn’t spray. It was drier than Death Valley in August.

There was nothing to do but utter the three words my father always uttered when his house made him miserable: “Son of a … !!!”

Figuring the pressure-washer pump was bad, I drove to several big-box stores looking for a new pressure washer. I was delighted to find a refurbished, half-price unit. It was missing its nozzle tips, but I knew my broken pressure washer’s nozzle tips would work just fine.

I got the refurbished pressure washer home, connected its sprayer to the nozzle tip from my broken pressure washer and started it up. It was drier than the Great Basin Desert after a months-long drought.

“Son of a … !!!”

You probably figured out that the nozzle tip was the only thing broken – that all I needed was a new, $3 nozzle tip, not the hose parts and a refurbished pressure washer that set me back $600.

You probably chuckled at me wasting three days of my life in trying to get a lousy pressure washer to work.

You chuckled, no doubt, because you’re a homeowner and understand full well the highly creative ways our homes are hell-bent on destroying our weekends.

Renters do not understand this misery. That’s why it’s bad that millions of millennials have not yet purchased a home.

You see, renters are more likely to be bamboozled by silver-tongued politicians who promise them free stuff, whereas grumpy homeowners vote for politicians who promise to spend less and keep our taxes low.

That leaves us homeowners with more money to pay for the things that endlessly go wrong with our lousy homes.

Footnote: The City-County Observer posted this article without opinion, editing or bias.

 Unaccompanied Minors, Illegal Aliens, the Asylum Scam, 

And the Opioid Crisis 

By Richard Moss MD

The hysteria over “separating children” of illegal alien families is revelatory of a deepening divide in the country based on shifting demographics and the further radicalization of the media and the Democrat Party.  The policy of separating children from their parents is not new.  It is based on rules that precede the Trump administration.  Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton followed it.  But only under Trump have such measures been likened to “Nazi concentration camps,” or “Japanese internment centers.”  

Separation occurs when officials find that the adult is falsely claiming to be the parent, is a danger to the child, or is placed in criminal proceedings.  The difference is that adults who came as part of a family unit were previously allowed to enter the country pending legal outcomes.  Under Trump, as part of his “zero tolerance policy,” all adults are prosecuted to communicate that this administration is serious about enforcing our laws.  It is also complicated by the changing nature of illegal entry into the country across the southern border.  Previously, mainly young males from Mexico had driven it.  Now thanks to DACA, sanctuary cities, “catch and release,” the “asylum” scam, and the promise of amnesty under the Obama administration, the migration has shifted to women, children, and “family units,” as they are treated more leniently. 

The controversies manufactured by the left must be unpacked.  To begin, however sympathetic illegal alien children and family units may seem, they were not forced to enter the country.  They can stay in their own country.  It’s not our fault that their countries are dysfunctional.  Many countries are dysfunctional.  Billions of people live in failed nations.  There are a handful of Western nations and nations in East Asia that are successful.  Being dysfunctional is a normal state of affairs in most countries. 

When a US citizen commits a crime he will be detained by law enforcement.  If he has children, he will be separated since no child is placed in adult detention centers.  This is what happens to American citizens when they go to jail.  Why should we privilege foreigners?

The cost of caring for Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) is substantial.  According to the Washington Times, HHS paid over $1.4 billion last year to care for nearly 41,000 UACs in its facilities, who stayed 41 days on average, costing taxpayers about $670 per day for each child.

We often don’t know if the children being “ripped” from their parents are the actual parents and have actual family ties.  In 2008, for example, DNA tests on refugees from African countries who claimed to be families showed that the rate of fraud was so high the refugee program from these countries had to be suspended.  

The flood of fraudulent asylum claims is another problem.  It imposes great burdens on our limited resources.  According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 90% of asylum seekers are rejected.  The asylum claims from Central America are up 800% in the past six years with a backlog of 300,000 cases because of the promise of amnesty and catch and release.

It is reasonable to question the morality of parents and families who would take or send their children on such a dangerous journey from Central America through Mexico.  Many children face abuse including rape, assault, theft, and murder. Some parents give their children over to smugglers for profit.   Some migrants take children who are not their own, using them as bargaining chips. 

It is American policies regarding immigration that are behind the wild surges in illegal alien entry into the country in recent years from Mexico and Central America including children and adults – not persecution.  Drug cartels and their “coyotes” control all movements of migrants and profit enormously by these surges.  Migrants are used as diversions to allow more high-value illegals to enter the country.  Many are used as “drug mules” themselves smuggling illicit drugs into the country.  By tying up ICE resources with illegal entry between ports of entry criminals, human traffickers, and drug smugglers can pass readily through regular ports of entry.  

From 2012-2014, UACs from Central American countries increased by 490,444, or 610% driven by Obama era policies.  Ninety-five percent of illegal border crossers cited the promise of amnesty as the main reason behind immigration, not violence back home.  (They are not refugees or victims of persecution but economic and welfare migrants.) This incentivized parents to send children, hire coyotes and pay off drug cartels and smugglers.  Drug mules and human traffickers paid record funds.  The poppy fields of Mexican drug cartels tripled from 2013-2016.  The UACs also served as recruits for MS 13 and other illegal alien criminal gangs.  

The increased flows of UACs and “family units” are responsible for the “opioid crisis.” It is UACs and other illegal aliens serving as either diversion for other smugglers or drug mules themselves bringing in heroin, fentanyl, meth, cocaine, and other illicit drugs manufactured by drug lords in Mexico.  It is a billion dollar industry that accounted for three-fourths of the more than 60,000 drug-related deaths of Americans in 2016.  It is not doctors legitimately prescribing pain medicine for postoperative patients, cancer victims, or chronic pain patients that is behind the crisis.  It is an epidemic based on illegal drugs produced in Mexico and brought into the country and distributed by migrants from Mexico and Central America. 

It is necessary to expose the immorality of the open borders, anti-ICE, anti-American left by demonstrating the costs to Americans and to illegal aliens.  The solutions to this crisis are straightforward.  We must end all cross-border immigration.  Asylum seekers must apply at US embassies and consulates in Mexico and Central America, not on American soil.  A wall should be built.  We must expand interior enforcement, end sanctuary cities and catch and release, and begin deporting illegal aliens, particularly violent criminals.  Federal court jurisdiction over immigration must be removed.  We must make it clear to Mexico and Central American nations that we will no longer tolerate them sending their criminals, unemployed, and impoverished to our country.  It is up to them to reform their own failed states.  Nobody has a claim to our shores without our consent. 

FOOTNOTE: Dr. Richard Moss is a board certified head and neck cancer surgeon and was a candidate for Congress in 2016 and 2018. He graduated from the Indiana University School of Medicine and has been in practice in Jasper and Washington, IN for over 20 years. He is married with four children.  

For more information visit richardmossmd.com.  Find Richard Moss, M.D. on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

THE CITY-COUNTY OBSERVER POSTED THIS ARTICLE WITHOUT OPINION, BIAS OR EDITING.

 

Meet Sergeant Jason Cullum

Sgt. Jason Cullum is a 20 year veteran of the Evansville Indiana Police Department. He has served in many assignments that include co-founding the first ever EPD Bike Patrol Unit, SWAT team member, Field Training Officer. He also served as the Crime Prevention Unit supervisor for 3 years.

He is currently assigned as the agency’s Public Information Officer and also coordinates the department’s Speaker’s Bureau program.

Sgt. Cullum is an Evansville native and returned home to serve his community after a 4-year enlistment in the United States Air Force, where he served as a Military Working Dog handler and a Korean National Police Liaison.

In 2016, Sgt Cullum also served as a Fellow for the Office of Community Policing (COPS office) in Washington D.C. where he served as a subject matter expert for community policing development and law enforcement social media.

In 2013, Sgt. Cullum founded Cops Connecting with Kids. To date, this unique partnership between law enforcement, schools, and the community has provided all expenses paid trips to Walt Disney World for 166 underserved kids from Evansville.