Ottawa County Sheriff - Ottawa County Deputy Sheriff Association

If you weren't there or haven't heard the meeting last night was successful and brief.

The 2009-2011 contract that was negotiated by our team was passed by both non-312 and 312 groups.

Additionally, there have been some changes to your executive board on the road side. Sean James and Jeremy Baum have stepped down from their positions and we give them huge thanks for their service over the years. The new 312 VP is Eric Deboer and you have two new 312 trustees, Greg "Road Patrol" Rotman and Chris Todd.

Matt also has a more in depth review of the action posted in the "Union Business" forums.

Thanks to Sean, Jeremy and our negotiating committee for their hard work. We should also thank the Sheriff, Al Vandenberg and Marie Waalkes for ushering in a new era of earnest negotiation. As always if you have any questions please feel free to email me, the board or any individual member with your thoughts, comments or concerns.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office in Florida is taking a new and innovative approach to cold case crime and enlisting the help of the public to assist in these cases by placing information about the cases on a new section of their website called "Operation Found and Forgotten".

Each entry on the blog style page includes dates and basic information about each case as well as an image gallery of evidence and personal items collected from the scene. Each case has a link to send an anonymous tip to a "Silent Observer" like agency in Florida called "Crime Stoppers".

The idea is a great one that will not only help to bring witnesses forward that can help identify victims and killers, but helps to make sure those victims are remembered. 

To check out the website for yourself click here or to go Sheriff.org and click the link to "Operation Found and Forgotten" on the front page.

Michigan State Police Trooper Robert Metivier was injured yesterday after his vehicle was struck twice while he was helping stranded motorists along I-196 in Ottawa County.

Trooper Metivier was inside his vehicle when it was struck by an out of control driver and was pushed into traffic where it was struck again by another vehicle. The second vehicle left the scene.

Metivier was transported to North Ottawa Community Hospital with non-life threatening injuries and according to an article in the Grand Rapids Press he was listed there on Sunday in stable condition.

I would like to wish a speedy recovery to Trooper Metivier and a speedy apprehension to the driver of the second car that hit him. Trooper Metivier has been a great resource to us in the Holland area and is often around helping take calls and jumping in when we need a hand without being asked. Of course, the irony being that that is exactly what he was doing when his vehicle was struck.

• Read the full article from the Grand Rapids Press here
• Thanks to WZZM13 for the picture and you can read their article here

The details of the original incident are still sketchy, but what we do know is that 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot and killed by a Greek Special Guard in Athens on the evening of December 6th following a clash between two Special Guardsman and a group of local youths.

We also know that almost immediately following this incident riots broke out across Athens and are still raging today with militant anarchist groups mixing with ordinary citizens to create havoc and destruction in Greek streets.

AP photographers have captured amazing images of the riots and aftermath which the Boston Globe has collected the best of. Click the link below to view the photos.

Click here for images from The Boston Globe

I keep getting lots and lots of questions about HDTV and more specifically flat panel TV's as Christmas and the switch to digital tv approaches so I decided to put together a guide for everyone that ranges from quick and dirty to long and geeky. I will run through the quick answers and then provide links to more lengthy answers for those that want to read them.

It is definitely worthwhile to read for those of you looking to buy a big flat panel to proudly hang from your wall this year if only because there is so much misinformation out there surrounding these TV's. As you might imagine, much of that misinformation is driven by the TV manufacturers and stores that want to sell you the most expensive TV they can. So read on and show up to Best Buy informed and ready!

Hit the "Read More" link to learn all about it.

That's right...Fifty-year-old Scott Wagar of Minnesota has had enough and during his town's recent homecoming celebration he took matters into his own smelly hands.

The problem began several years ago when Scott caught a group of Willmar High School students toilet papering his house and made them clean it up. Since then smearing Wagar's home with TP, peanut butter, eggs, ketchup, etc has become a Willmar homecoming tradition.

This year Scott decided to fight back with the help of some borrowed military grade night vision googles and a super soaker loaded with a 1:3 mix of fox pee and water.

Scott hunkered down and when a group of 15-20 teens approached his home and failed to heed his warning he let go with a super-soaker stream of smelly fox. One of the teens jumped on Wagar's back and Wagar was able to free himself by pulling one of the attackers fingers backwards.

Ultimately of course the local police were called to the scene and Wagar has since been charged with not only assault, but also disorderly conduct for his scuffle with the teen who jumped on his back.

Researchers at the University of Utah have devised a new key that will jam the cellphones of teen drivers which is a good idea as studies have shown that cell-taking driver's are as bad as drunks on the roads.

The device encloses the actual key and then connects with the teens cellular phone via bluetooth or RFID and blocks the phone from sending or receiving phone calls or text messages. However, calls to 911 will still work.

The device is expected to hit the market within six months and come with a $50 price tag.

Click here to read more details on this device.

Authorities in Oregon have said that a second Officer has died after a bomb blast at a bank on Friday.

Police in Oregon originally responded to a Wells Fargo bank branch after employees there received a threatening phone call about a potential bomb.

A similar call came in later to the West Coast Bank branch next door where they found a suspicious package in the bushes outside. Police brought the package inside the building and were scanning it when it went off.

Senior Trooper William Hakim, a bomb squad technician with the Oregon State Police, and Capt. Tom Tennant of the Woodburn Police Department were killed in the blast.

Click here to read the article from the OregonLive.com