The Washington Post has a feature article entitled ‘Fiscal cliff’ calculator:  What it means for me.  Using WaPo’s one-step calculator, taxpayers can compare the general effects the Democrat plan, the Republican plan, and the No-Deal plan would have on their families.

For those readers who are entirely consumed with more precise calculations using your own financial data, go directly to the Tax Policy Center’s TPC Tax Calculator and obsess to your heart’s content.

Today our local skewspaper, the Coeur d’Alene Press,  editorially suggested that the City of Coeur d’Alene should get a forensic audit done in order to restore the public’s confidence in the City’s ability to handle its finances.

Now Coeur d’Alene Press Publisher Jim Thompson and Editor Mike Patrick want the City to pay more money to hire a forensic accountant to come in and develop evidence that can be used in court against a person who has already agreed to plead guilty.

The horse named “Forensic Audit” has already left the barn insofar as the case against Sheryl Carroll is concerned.

Forensic audits are accounting processes used by specially-trained accountants to find and preserve evidence that will be admissible in court.  What the Press editorial board ought to have recommended instead is a financial risk analysis to identify all the financial risks facing the City and to suggest appropriate preventive and corrective countermeasures.  The fact is, a competent City Finance Director would already have done exactly that — shortly after being hired. (more…)

Fortunately for those of us in northern Idaho, all criminal gang activity is restricted to southern Idaho.  (The gangsters promised to stay south of the Benewah and Shoshone County lines.)

Here are links to two Idaho Statesman articles about the Slayers.

Boise Police say busted ‘Slayer’ gang was violent, into guns

Treasure Valley gang cases reveal secrets of Slayers

Cue the chorus:

And here we have Idaho,
Winning her way to fame.
Silver and gold in the sunlight blaze,
And romance lies in her name.

Whereas the book “No Easy Day” was primarily about the mental discipline, focus, and training of the Navy SEAL team that went into Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011, “The Finish — The Killing of Osama Bin Laden” recounts the intelligence and political actions leading up to the Abbottabad operation.

“The Finish” is not an action-packed tactical shoot-em-up thriller.  It is an account of what our government was doing to try and find, fix, and finish Osama bin Laden.  Though the book referred to F3EAD, it never explained the origin of that doctrine going back to the Korean war, nor did it explain the doctrine’s evolution.  F3EAD refers to find-fix-finish, exploit, analyze, and disseminate.  It is military shorthand for the US’s counterinsurgency doctrine.

An interesting side note is that because of newly-released movies such as “Zero Dark Thirty”, one of the CIA’s analysts was mentioned by pseudonym in both “No Easy Day” and “The Finish.”  In “No Easy Day” the analyst is a woman named “Jen.”  In “The Finish” the analyst is a man named “John.”

The book is interesting to read, and those who want some insight into the governmental processes that lead up to this type of tactical operation will get it.  Just recognize that it has been sanitized, and it is a bit self-serving.  Chapter 9, the final chapter, is appropriately titled “Glitter.”  It’s a pretty good summary of what politicians and their lackeys do to unnecessarily add “glitter” to a standalone stunning achievement.

In 2006 I posted Strategic Planning:  A Federal Model for Local Government on Whitecaps.  According to the Government Accountability Office, strategic planning is, “”A systematic method used by an organization to anticipate and adapt to expected changes.”

Today, Spokane’s new Chief of Police, Dr. Frank Straub, released the Spokane Police Department’s 2013 strategic plan titled Making Spokane a Safer City.  It is very readable.

Dr. Straub received his Ph.D. in criminal justice from City University of New York; his M.A. in forensic psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice; and his B.A. in psychology from St. John’s University.