Clat Adams Park looks better these days
after dealing with flooding this summer.

Went down to Clat Adams Park Monday for the first time since the flood. The park looks good, the grass is growing and it’s hard to tell it was under several feet of water in June.

It’s important to keep the riverfront area looking good, and the city and Quincy Park District have done a good job getting the park back to pre-flood condition.

The only gripe I have, and it’s very minor, is the benches. They need to be painted, but I’m sure the Park District has to prioritize things.

Our parks are great places to just hang out, have lunch and to host events.

Went to the Quincy High School homecoming parade Thursday night and enjoyed a beautiful evening on Maine Street.

The floats were well-done, students enthusiastic, and of  course the marching band was superb.

Just wish more candy would have been thrown my way ….

Det. Jeff Baird goes through an exercise
with his dog, Jake, during this 2003 file
photo taken at Blessing Hospital.

Det. Jeff Baird is returning to his first love — canine officer for the Quincy Police Department.

Chief Rob Copley announced Baird will work with Max, a Belgian Malenois, starting with training at the end of the month. Max’s handler, Darin Kent, resigned from the department last week.

Picking Baird is a wise choice. He was the department’s first canine officer, and he and partner Jake became QPD ambassadors during countless public demonstrations. After Jake retired four years ago, Baird became a detective and worked on some big cases, including one on his very first day on the job — a shooting at Indian Hills on New Year’s Day a few years back. He also worked the Quincy Notre Dame burglary case and others of note.

During today’s press conference at City Hall, Baird said he wanted to come back to the canine unit to work with Max. He talked it over with friends and family before making the decision.

Max has between two and four good years left as a police canine, and QPD has invested considerable resources into training him, so it makes sense to use a seasoned veteran like Baird to work with Max.

Hopefully Max and Baird bond during training, and Max can continue his work as an excellent canine officer.

I participated (sort of) in a Calftown garage sale Saturday.

After seeing my therapist this morning and taking a muscle relaxant, I’ve decided to write a column for this Saturday.

Garage sales are big business in Quincy and our area. Did you know 1,714 garage sale ads were placed in The Herald-Whig in the last year?

The Monster Garage Sale is Oct. 11 at the Oakley-Lindsay Center, and thousands will flock in search of elusive treasure, trinkets and old Barry Manilow records.

It’s possible I’ll be better by Oct. 11.

So Lance Armstrong is announcing his return to cycling and his intention to compete in the 2009 Tour de France. Big deal?

Armstrong has created a larger-than-life persona, complete with dating rock stars and the incredible cancer survival story. Who knows what makes him tick, but he obviously couldn’t care less about his image or legacy.

This will actually make people watch cycling again in this country. Do you know who won the Tour de France when Armstrong was retired?

Many try, few succeed in comebacks. MJ, Magic, Mario Lemieux, etc.

Go Lance Go.

Quincy Fire Assistant Chief Keith Frank left Tuesday on a mission to help Louisiana recover from Hurricane Gustav.

Frank is a member of a state incident management team. Louisiana asked for help through a mutual aid agreement with Illinois. He was in the Baton Rouge area Thursday morning helping with logistics and planning for an area decimated by power outages and supply issues.

A story about Keith’s visit will be in Friday’s edition of The Herald-Whig.

The Illinois State Police District 20 released Labor Day weekend traffic numbers today. For the sixth straight year, there were no fatalities in District 20 during the end-of-summer weekend, a great result.

But troopers still made 23 alcohol related arrests, eight for driving under the influence.

That’s 23 too many, eight too many. ISP puts a lot of time and effort into getting the word out about traffic safety at all times, and nobody can say they don’t know about drinking and driving laws.

Good for us there were no fatalities, and we can only hope the day will come when troopers don’t make any alcohol arrests during a holiday weekend.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Department new canine unit recently made its first big arrest.

Officers stopped a vehicle Wednesday and arrested the driver, Michael Trosper of Hannibal, for drug trafficking and delivery of more than 50 grams of cannabis. Canine officer Scott Saalborn and his dog, Bix, helped with the arrest.

Further investigation resulted in thousands of dollars in cash being seized, and Sheriff Brent Fischer says more than 20 pounds of marijuana has also been seized. More arrests and Adams County grand jury indictments are pending, the sheriff said.

As you can see by these photos, the new dog has already had an impact. Bix replaced Jako, the ACSD canine who passed away last year.

Tuesday night’s storm that smacked Mendon shows just how fickle weather can be.

The storm was only about six miles wide, but it went right through town and knocked down trees, telephone poles and wires. Mendon had 31 customers without power, and nearby Loraine had 41 without power. Fortunately, the damage was minor.

School was let out early because of the heat issues, and the high winds went right through Mendon Unity High School and Middle School.

In Quincy, there were no such issues in the afternoon and no indication of any bad weather, though it was hot and sticky all day.

WGEM’s Rich Cain says we’ll feel the after-affects of Hurricane Gustav in the next few days with a lot of rain possible. It’s always a little strange to look at the radar and see all that stuff coming up from the south, instead of from the west.

Check out Kate McAlpine’s rap about high-energy particle physics, which has drawn half a million hits on YouTube views.

McAlpine, 23, is a Michigan State University graduate and science rap writer. She breaks it down and hangs with her crew as they rap about the Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator built in a 17-mile circular tunnel at the CERN laboratory near Geneva,
Switzerland.

Want to know what a particle accelerator is? Watch the video!

This is the best rap video in many many years, and it might even come close to this searing and award-winning piece ….