Today’s incident at Quincy University, where a man suspected of cooking meth ran from 17th and Oak to Francis Hall, shows how technology can keep people updated.

Ashley Hackamack, a senior communications major, was one of many students ushered into a locked classroom after the suspect ran into the building. Ashley said she didn’t feel threatened, but it was a little tense as officers searched the building.

So Ashley got on her laptop computer, as QU has a wireless campus. She received e-mails from QU security updating students, faculty and staff about the situation. She also called up the name of the suspect on the Adams County Circuit Clerk Web site.

Information is always good, even when you are locked in a classroom!

All of baseball and country music is abuzz over the story that legendary flamethrower Roger Clemens might have had "a relationship" with country music singer Mindy McCready.

Well. Clemens was a teammate of Wade Boggs, after all. McCready apparently had a 1996 hit called "Guys Do It All The Time." Let’s just leave that one alone, shall we?

So here are 10 songs we suggest McCready do as she begins her comeback — she just got out of jail last December for violating a drug conviction probation.

1. All My Ex’s Live in Texas
2. Rocket Man
3. Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Yankees
4. Stand By Your Pitcher
5. Hit Me Baby One More Time
6. Crazy
7. Whiskey For My Man, Beer For His Teammates
8. I’m A Yankee Doodle Dandy
9. Take Me Out To The Ballgame
10. Boys of Summer

If you have any other suggestions …. keep ‘em somewhat clean but let me know!

Today’s story about the Marion County Sheriff’s Department starting a Felony Fugitive Warrant Squad got me thinking about places to hide.

Let’s say there’s a warrant out for a guy. Where does he go? Does he bolt town, change his haircut and shave his beard, change his name, start activing differently?

Marion County isn’t that big of a place. I would think after a while, people would run out of places to hide … unless they had help.

This makes me think of Jose Olmeda, the convicted drug trafficker who also pleaded guilty to breaking out of the Adams County Jail in Quincy last December. He was on the lam in Quincy for 10 days before a Seventh and Oak resident called police and gave him up.

You know Olmeda had help from people while on the loose. Just how he survived in freezing weather and with law enforcement officers looking for him is something of a marvel and mystery.

Adams County juvenile probation officer Laura Hessling
helps Frank Calkins out of his office so he can go home
in this April 2007 file photo.

Frank Calkins passed away today in a Chicago hospital. He was up there over the weekend for a charity poker event and collapsed Saturday. Friends and family gathered the past few days to say goodbye.

Frank was a probation officer in Quincy and helped start the hugely successful Drug Court program in Adams County. He was diagnosed with ALS, and he lost control of his muscles, voice and ability to walk and take care of himself.

Quincy came together for a massive fundraiser last year, and I went to another huge event in Chicago last fall for Frank. He came from a large and loving family. Thank God they were with him when he passed on.

Frank stayed positive and funny to the end. At the Drug Court graduation last month, graduates spoke with love and reverence about the main they claimed help save their lifes.

He is in a better place.

But it still hurts to lose him.

Arrangements will be announced. I’ll have a column about two of his best former clients who are grieving and remembering the man who impacted them more than any other person on this earth.

A few years back, I had a spirited discussion with a Quincy High School student. He was upset that his backpack was being searched and he had to go through a metal detector before classes started every morning.

I felt for the kid. We never had to deal with that stuff as students.

They did this morning. Click here.

If we don’t react to perceived threats, authorities will get lambasted in retrospect. If we do, they get criticized for overreacting.

Then there’s the media role in all of this.

If we cover it, is that giving too much attention to a disturbed individual looking for attention? If we don’t, are we hiding our heads in the sand and not informing our audience?

Just some stuff to chew on.

We’re getting some interesting feedback on our poll question today about the earthquake, which you can check out on The Herald-Whig’s home page.

I didn’t sleep that well last night, and I felt my bed shake when the quake hit. I thought it was thunder or maybe a big truck, so I got up to look outside, and that was the last of feeble sleeping attempts for the morning.

A few minutes later my sister from Louisville, Ky., called all excited and told me it was an earthquake. They live much closer to the epicenter and said it was quite strong.

The main thing is that nobody was hurt, and there are no apparent damages.

If you do have a good story about the quake, let us know on the poll and with the comments or just comment on this blog.

News and notes from the music world ….

This summer’s Crue Fest will feature
the four original members of Motley Crue.

CRUE-ZING
NEWS: Motely Crue is launching the first-ever Crue Fest, a summer rock festival featuring the four original members of Motley Crue — singer Vince Neil, bassist Nikki Sixx, guitarist Mick Mars and drummer Tommy Lee — as well as Buckcherry, Papa Roach, Sixx:A.M. and Trapt.
VIEWS: Where are the ear plugs? How long will these guys beat the odds and stay alive? Any bets the tour gets halfway done and something explodes, like the drummer in Spinal Tap? Crue Fest is in St. Louis July 20.

POT CALLING KETTLE
NEWS: Organizers of one of Britain’s best-known music festivals defended their decision to book Jay-Z as their headline act after Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher blamed the rapper for disappointing ticket sales. The outdoor Glastonbury fest is a cornerstone of Britain’s music calendar. But it has yet to sell out this year, in contrast to past years when tickets were snapped up within hours.
VIEWS: Noel Gallagher and Jay Z deserve each other.

BOSS ENDORSES OBAMA
NEWS: Bruce Springsteen endorsed Democratic Sen. Barack Obama for president, saying “he speaks to the America I’ve envisioned in my music for the past 35 years.”
VIEWS: I’ve never understood Springsteen’s sway over the masses all these years, but he’s the real deal and he’s not afraid to let people know what he thinks. Plus it’s another blow to Billary. So it’s all good.

WHO IS SWIFT?
NEWS: Taylor Swift wins a bunch of country music awards.
VIEWS: Who?

HOPE HE SOBERS UP THURSDAY
NEWS: Police are asking for a misdemeanor child endangerment charge against Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora following his drunken-driving arrest in Laguna Beach, Calif., last month. Authorities haven’t released the names of a woman and two girls who were passengers in Sambora’s car.
VIEWS: Bon Jovi and Daughtry play in Kansas City Thursday night. A bunch of Quincy girls from the Adams County Courthouse are going. Hope Richie is feeling well enough to play ….

What is your take on the guilty plea of the Greek To Me restaurant manager for not letting a blind Quincy man and his dog guide eat there?

Is the penalty stiff enough? Should there have been a hung jury in the first place? Should there be some understanding given to the restaurant manager and owner, who say they didn’t understand the law and meant no disservice to the blind man?

As always, there are more questions than answers when a legal situation is resolved.

After reading my Saturday column about Quincy Police Department officer Gene Huddleston, who was shot in 1957 at Seventh and Broadway, an alert reader sent me a note about another QPD officer he believes was wounded in the line of duty.

In the 1960s, Frank Derhake was on duty and responding to a suicidal subject. He was wounded in the leg by a richocheting bullet. The reader says he remembers his family gathering around the 10 p.m. TV news to get an update on Derkahe’s condition. Derhake was 83 when he died two months ago in Quincy.

I’ve also heard from two other officers, one retired, who said they fired their weapon while on duty but did not hit anybody.

While researching the Huddleston article, I came upon a Herald-Whig clip from about 1959. Residents were concerned with three police shootings in the past two weeks. Another clip dealt with QPD bolstering its numbers so they could get an officer to patrol "the Hampshire Street beat."

Times they have a-changed, haven’t they?

So the Masters starts today, and I’m looking out the window at the pouring rain and wondering when I’ll get out the course for the first time this year.

The other day, I was talking with Adams County bailiff Hank Pfeiffer, who said he’s already been out on the links eight times this year. It’s making me pine for a warm Saturday morning, and there will be one here sooner than later, but it’s still hard to wait.

In the meantime, maybe this link will help you survive until it’s time to tee it up … God bless "Caddyshack."