Meyer's Minutes

AAA is projecting that about 665,000 folks will be traveling over the Memorial Day weekend in Wisconsin - a 7.8% increase over 2009.  And, apparently, many of those drivers lack knowledge about the rules of the road.

A nationwide poll conducted by GMAC Insurance finds about 20% of U.S. drivers - roughly 38 million people - lack basic knowledge about the rules of the road and would actually fail a written test if they had to take it again.

A whopping 85% of those polled did not know what to do when approaching a yellow traffic light.  Why do I get the feeling that many of those believe when you see a yellow light, you "floor it" to get through the intersection before it turns red?

By the way, men over 45 years of age scored the highest in this poll.  Women were more likely than men to do other things while driving, including talking to other passengers, putting on makeup, reading, eating and chatting on a cellphone.

It's been said many times before, "Let's be careful out there."  And have a great Memorial Day weekend.  And please remember what Memorial Day is really all about.

There's an interesting story in the New York Post by John Crudele. 

Last week, one of the millions of workers hired by the Census Bureau blew the whistle on some statistical tricks.  The worker, Naomi Cohn, told The Post that she was hired and fired a number of times by the Census Bureau.  Each time she was hired back, it seems, Census was able to report the creation of a new job to the Labor Department.  Each month, Census gives the Labor Department a figure on the number of workers it has hired.  That figure goes into the monthly employment report.  The Post story says for the past two months the hiring by Census has made up a good portion of the new jobs.

Apparently, the Labor Department doesn't check the Census hiring figure or whether the jobs are actually new or recycled.  It considers a new job to have been created if someone is hired to work at least ONE HOUR  a month.

So if a worker is terminated after only one hour and another worker is hired in his place, then a second new job can apparently be reported to the Labor Department.

Add it to the list of reasons not to trust the government.

The latest poll numbers from Rasmussen Reports had me chuckling initially.  But after you think about the fact that these people are running the country, it's scary.

Here are the numbers:  only 27% of likely voters polled are even somewhat confident that Congress knows what it's doing when addressing the nation's economic challenges.  Only 6% are very confident that Congress knows what it's doing.

In analyzing the numbers, Scott Rasmussen said, "Most Americans have come to believe that the political system is broken, that most politicians are corrupt, and that neither major political party has the answers.  Forty-one percent of voters say that a group of people randomly selected from the phone book would do a better job than the current Congress."

A few other numbers from the poll:  44% strongly disapprove of President Obama's job performance, 24% strongly approve.  Overall, Obama's approval rating is 42% with 56% disapproving.  Also, only 49% of Democrats strongly approve of Obama, down from a high of 65%.  Sixty-three percent of voters nationwide now favor repealing the health care law, the highest level of support for repeal yet measured.

According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, movie theater owners in New York are going to test the public's ability to absorb ever-higher ticket prices as, for the first time, a major Hollywood film will hit the $20 threshold at the box office.  

Several theaters will charge $20 per adult ticket to IMAX showings of the animated 3-D film "Shrek Forever After."  This price hike comes less than eight weeks after theater operators instituted some of the steepest hikes in a decade.  Those increases in late March were, in some cases, as high as 26%. 

I think the theaters are taking a huge risk with this move.  A family of four - let's say two adults and two children and assuming children's tickets are in the $10 to $12 range - would end up spending more than $60 just to walk in the theater.  Add popcorn and sodas to the total (which is also far from cheap in a movie theater) and you're talking at least $80 to go see a movie.  I think there will be more and more families willing to forego the big screen experience and simply wait for the DVD. 

Now I wouldn't expect these prices to come to our area anytime soon, but I'd say theater owners around the country will certainly be keeping an eye on the New York theaters to see how willing people are to pay these prices.

So, how much are YOU willing to pay?

According to CBS4 out of Denver, Colorado, a pshycic by the name of Nancy Marks has been arrested for fraud after telling clients certain numbers were evil and they needed to give her their credit card and bank account numbers.  She also convinced many customers to give her large amounts of money so she could cleanse it of evil spirits.

Police say Marks, 54, also threatened her victims, saying if they told anyone, bad things would happen to them. 

One woman said she lost $240,000.  Others claim to have lost their live savings to Marks.

It's stunning that some people are so gullible and/or naive to fall for something like this.  Oh, by the way, if Marks is psychic, why couldn't she see ahead of time that she would be arrested if she committed these alleged crimes? 

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Arizona residents are giving the city of San Diego a taste of its own medicine for its city council's decision to boycott Arizona over its illegal immigration law.

Many Arizona residents who were planning to vacation in San Diego have notified the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau and some hotels that they are cancelling their scheduled vacations there.  The convention bureau has reportedly received 25 to 30 emails from Arizona residents, with some saying they are cancelling their reservations and taking their money elsewhere.

So now tourism officials appear to be in panic mode, urging Arizonans to consider the resolutions as merely symbolic and local politics at work.  The president of the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau, Joe Terzi, is quoted as saying, "This affects all the hardworking men and women who count on tourism for their livelihoods, so we're saying, don't do something that hurts their livelihoods." 

Perhaps the city of San Diego should've thought of the hardworking men and women of Arizona and the impact a boycott would have on their livelihoods before deciding to take the action they did.

Here we go again. 

Today's outrageous school story comes from Sandy Springs, Georgia.  A 14 year old autistic boy is facing terrorist charges after a sketch he made in school.

MyFoxDC is reporting the sketch shows two stick figures.  One of them is labeled "me" and is shown shooting a gun at another with a teacher's name above it.

Karen Finn says that her son, 8th grader Shane Finn, doesn't understand why he's in trouble.  She says her son is autistic and has the mental capacity of a 3rd grader.

Officials at Ridgeview Charter School say the student will face a tribunal and is being charged with making terrorist threats.

Finn says she plans to fight the charges.

So yesterday I posted the story of a Texas girl who got detention for possessing a piece of candy in school.  Does this next story top that?  You make the call.

According to KSBW.com, a simple art project turned controversial in Salinas, California, after a student said her drawing was deemed offensive.  What did she draw a picture of?  THE AMERICAN FLAG!!!

Tracy Hathaway, the mother of the girl, said the art teacher at Gavilian View Middle School told her daughter she couldn't draw the American flag, calling it offensive.  KSBW.com reports that another student's picture of President Obama, on the other hand, was praised.  Hathaway said she met with the teacher and principal at the school.  When asked what she thought was offensive about drawing the flag, the teacher didn't answer.

The Hathaways are demanding an apology and another meeting is planned this week.  District Superintendent Mike Brusa wouldn't say if any disciplinary action has been taken, or will be taken, against the teacher.

A 10 year old Texas third-grader has been slapped with a week's worth of detention for committing the egregious sin of possessing a piece of candy. 

According to FOXNews.com, a teacher confiscated the unopened Jolly Rancher, and the girl - Leighann Adair - served her detention during lunch and recess last week.  She and the girl who gave her the candy were told to also write an essay about what they did and why it was wrong.  Adair's parents are outraged, calling this an extreme punishment for something so small.

The superintendent for the Brazos Independent School District claims the district is simply following state guidelines to limit the amount of junk food in schools.  However, according to Texas Department of Agriculture spokesperson Bryan Black, state guidelines for punishing students with junk food don't even exist.  In fact, Black said, "If a parent wants to pack candy, it's their decision.  A parent needs to decide what a student eats." Wow!  That actually sounds like common sense!!  What a concept!

By the way, the girl's family and members of that community are planning to attend the next school board meeting to contest the school's candy policy.  The parents are also reportedly considering taking their kids out of the school district at the end of the year.

Remember the days when we were warned about drinking coffee?  Coffee drinking was considered a vice, the caffeine was bad for you, it may lead to sleepless nights, etc.  Well if you didn't heed all that BAD advice, you're probably healthier for it, according to a story from Newsmaxhealth.com.

Check this out!  Scientists are now discovering that coffee contains potent antioxidants that can fight numerous ailments, including:  dementia, liver disease, heart disease, prostate cancer, gout, breast cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's disease and colon cancer.  Oh, and it also helps morning radio guys stay awake and energized!

Get the full story here.

In the meantime, pour yourself another cup or two, or three or four!

Even though the Badger is our state animal, you rarely see them in the wild.  You also rarely see them in the post office.  But they did in Milwaukee Tuesday morning.

Am I the only one crazy enough to fire up the grill regularly in the winter?

The reason I ask is I ran across a foodnetwork.com poll in which 79% say they're "ready to light up the grill now rather than wait until Memorial Day weekend."  Six percent won't be grilling until the holiday weekend.  Who are these wimps that have to wait until Memorial Day?  I grill all year round.  I admit it's not a whole lot of fun when the wind chill is below zero, but you just run real fast into and out of the house to check on the food.  It can be done. 

By the way, that same poll shows charcoal is king.  Nearly 60% say food made on a charcoal grill tastes better than on a gas grill.  I agree - I'm a charcoal grill guy, although I used to own a gas grill.  From a convenience standpoint, gas grills are nice.  You just turn the knob and wait for it to heat up.  But I found I couldn't walk away from the gas grill for very long or we'd end up having ashes for dinner.  So eventually I went to charcoal and plan on staying with it.

As far as what kind of food people like to grill, hot dogs, burgers and steaks top the list.  But the poll does indicate 25% would like to perfect grilling beef roasts, while 18% would like to grill turkeys and pizza.  Sounds good, but a word of advice if you're going to try something more adventurous.  You learn how to grill these other types of food through trial and error.  Therefore, keep something else to eat on stand-by just in case.