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Friday, Oct. 30, 2009

Loose Lips: Traffic cops try social networking

You may not always consider the traffic cops friends in real life, but you can be buddies in cyberspace.

Joining the bandwagon and assuring it's following all road rules, the Merced Police Department's Traffic Division is social networking through Facebook. Don't get caught speeding through their page.

The fan site was established earlier in the year, but remained fairly dormant. It's hummed with a flurry of activity in the past week, with posts about the Merced High School homecoming parade today downtown and a child safety seat testing Thursday.

Sgt. Jay Struble said one of the department's grant providers suggested using Facebook to reach teenage drivers. "This younger generation doesn't read the paper," he told Lips. Ouch.

The idea is to remind young adults about officers setting up DUI checkpoints. And if they grow tired of looking at the page, they can play games like Mobsters 2: Vendetta, which is advertised on the police's fan page.

The division already has 131 fans, not bad for the ones who issue speeding and fix-it tickets. Some of them aren't even cops.

For what it's worth

Merced Irrigation District candidate Dave Long seems to have just about every endorsement possible, even one from former Merced County District Attorney Gordon Spencer.

We're not sure whether that helps or hurts.

Spencer's name joined a list that includes state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, and Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, D-Stockton.

Long raised a whopping $16,000 for his well-oiled campaign against incumbent Jack Hooper. Records don't show any greenbacks flowing from Spencer.

Long took in more than any of the Merced City Council candidates collected. Hooper gave himself a $4,444.07 loan and filed his disclosures late.

Water can be a dry issue, but this is the race to watch. Both sides have lobbed attack ads at each other. The balance of power on the MID board hinges on the election's outcome.

We're not sure where Spencer fits into the MID equation, except that he drove his Ford F-150 into Bear Creek years ago.

Well said

On your mark. Get set. Screech out of Merced County.

Everyone's favorite dream weaver John Condren is back behind the wheel. His latest project, since Riverside Motorsports Park didn't quite go according to plan, is a race event called the Chump Cars World Series.

It's a spinoff of the LeMons, a 24-hour endurance race that has competitors behind the wheel of $500 jalopies. Condren's event is, well, basically a rip-off of that event.

The inaugural event is Saturday at Portland International Raceway. Find out more on its fancy Web site, www.chumpcar.com, Facebook or Twitter.

Lips would like to think Condren's trying to raise some cash to pay back the $400,000 he owes Merced County. But that may be too much to ask.

At least his new business sports an appropriate name.

Loose Lips can be reached at editor@mercedsun-star.com.