My May 3, 2009, post titled Bid-Rigging? linked readers to some indicators of bid-rigging, violations of federal anti-trust law. 

Here is a recent example of a federal conviction for bid-rigging.  The example and this Associated Press news story explains how sham bidding works.  Though the guilty plea and conviction was for wire fraud, the crimes involved bribery to win federal government contracts for bullet-proof vests used by US troops and contractors in Iraq.

The 2009 Kootenai County property tax assessment notices were mailed yesterday.  Some of us received ours today.  The Coeur d’Alene Press  even ran a news article urging us to attend the budget hearings listed on the assessment notices, reminding us that it is the taxing district budgets and not the assessments that determine our property taxes.

One minor problem:  The assessments were mailed May 26.  The North Idaho College budget hearings were held April 22, 2009, over a month before the assessments were mailed out.  

The Idaho Statesman  headline on the Associated Press story reads UI professor questions money spent in New Mexico.  The essence of the story may be in its last line attributed to professor David Egolf: 

“I’m very fed up,” Egolf said, adding other faculty members agree with him but are afraid to come forward. “I’m the only person that speaks out. I’m a Vietnam veteran. I’m not afraid of anything.”

Is a lie allegedly told by a public official a bigger lie with greater consequences simply because the official happens to be from New York and not from Coeur d’Alene?  Is a lie told by a Coeur d’Alene public official less of a lie, a lie with lesser consequences because it was told in Coeur d’Alene and not Washington, DC?

Codes and ciphers have been around since man realized he sometimes needed to communicate the written word in a way unreadable except by the intended recipient.  The Enigma cipher machine (shown left) proved to be a serious headache for Allied codebreakers in World War II.    

Modern criminals encrypt their communications for the same reason, and that presents challenges to criminal investigators.   If you’re interested in learning more about how criminals use codes and ciphers, read this article, Analysis of Criminal Codes and Ciphers, by Daniel Olson in the January 2000 issue of Forensic Science Communications.  Then if you would like to see if you can meet the challenge, here is your chance.  Have fun!