WICHITA FALLS MAN

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12-01-2023 - From the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission - Berkshire Blanket & Home Company Recalls Heated Throws and Blankets Due to Fire and Thermal Burn Hazards - Name of Product: Heated Throws and Blankets Hazard: The electric throws and blankets may overheat, posing fire and burn hazards. Remedy: Refund Recall Date: November 30, 2023 Units: About 29,840.

12-01-2023 - Good Morning! It's December and it's coffee time! I had a "flashback" of one of the two times I attended a meeting - in 1968 or 69 - of one of our local CB Radio clubs. It was either the Faith City Five Watters or the Red River Valley CB Radio Club. I can't remember which. The meeting was on the 3rd floor of the Wichita County Courthouse, in one of the courtrooms. I was a junior in high school. I was a guest of Eddie French, a classmate. You old people might remember Eddie from his popular band that played at the Little Brothers club. After the meeting, we descended to the first floor via one of the elevators. Eddie, a "stocky" guy, started jumping up and down in the elevator. I'm sure it shook the building. When the door opened, a Wichita County deputy was standing there with a puzzled look on his face. He looked at me, then Eddie. I could tell he thought that whatever happened, Eddie did it. He didn't say anything as we made tracks for the exit door.

11-30-2023 - From my corrections consultant - At the Allred Unit, with a few exceptions, only the picket boss is allowed to be inside the control picket. In one of the dorms, the "floor bosses" were also in the picket soaking up some of the air conditioning. It was probably one of those days when the temperature in the day rooms was 110+ degrees. An offender, knowing the rules as well as anyone, stood outside the door with arms folded, giving them a visual scolding. One of the officers said, "Unless you've got a camera, keep moving." The offender laughed and moved on.

11-30-2023 - The Allred Unit is pretty busy this morning. Tune in to daily operations at 153.815 MHz on your scanner.

11-30-2023 - It was the early 1980s at the old Albertson's store at Southwest Parkway and Kemp. There were several microphones, used for "price checks" and other announcements, located on support posts around the store. One fine afternoon I picked up one of those microphones and said: "May I have your attention please - the store will close in 8 hours." I know this was allowed because I heard someone do it at a Safeway in San Francisco a few years earlier.

11-30-2023 - From the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - Real average hourly earnings rose 0.8 percent from October 2022 to October 2023. The increase in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.9 percent in the average workweek resulted in no change in real average weekly earnings over this period.

11-30-2023 - From my law enforcement consultant - It was a "check welfare" or similar call. A man was found, face down on the floor, with a pool of blood surrounding his head. He was alive, bubbles in the blood emanating from the area of the face. A shotgun lay nearby. When we rolled him over, we saw that he had no face. No chin, no mouth, no nose, no face at all. Looking up, we could see parts of that face on the ceiling. It appeared that the shotgun discharged upward, from below the chin. A trail of blood was seen leading from the victim to a dresser with a mirror. Did he see the damage and then pass out? Was it intentional or accidental? I do not know. Reports say the man survived and received some degree of facial reconstruction.

11-30-2023 - Good Morning! I awoke at 0700 hours this morning. That's way late for me. The CB Radio band is somewhat open, and I'm listening to the DX on Channel 38 LSB (lower sideband). The WFISD school buses are busing on 152.360 MHz. The Allred Unit prison is prisoning on 153.815 MHz. Tonight, it's the Dallas Cowboys. Right now, my coffee is ready!

11-29-2023 - I stopped by the Pecan Shed at 1401 Midwestern Parkway this morning and picked up a pound of Pawnee pecans and a small bag of dark chocolate-covered pecans. I'm a semi-regular customer.

11-29-2023 - On my morning walk, I talked to another Amateur (ham) Radio operator on 146.520 MHz FM simplex who was mobile on Barnett Road. I was using my handheld radio set to 5 watts power output, and I was within 1/4 mile of Loop 11 (the loop that doesn't loop) and U.S. 287. At first I was surprised, but then I noticed that I was in a high spot and could see a large portion of southern Wichita Falls. Line-of-sight is king! Join in on .52 or listen in on your scanner.

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11-29-2023 - Someone began transmitting a digital signal - it sounded like ALE, or Automatic Link Establishment - on 14.060 MHz, a frequency commonly used for QRP (low power ) CW (Morse code) work. Someone using Morse code let them know they were violating a convention, but not an FCC rule, by doing so. The digital signal was not heard again.

11-29-2023 - It was 1975 and it was my first trip to California. I was headed to the Presidio of San Francisco to play Army for two more years. I stopped at a small diner somewhere near either Bakersfield or Barstow. My memory is a little fuzzy on that. I took a seat in a booth and the first thing I noticed was an index card on the wall that said: "Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward sat here." I should have asked on which side I was sitting, but I didn't. Also, the CB Radio was alive and well with trucker chatter back then. I had plenty of entertainment on that long, slow trip from Texas to California at 55 MPH! Do you remember those days?

11-29-2023 - From my corrections consultant - It was during a semi-annual shakedown, and offenders were confined to their building and fed sack lunches (Johnny sacks) three times a day. I was carrying a load of those Johnny sacks, on a big bread tray, up to the third row. I guess I wasn't moving fast enough because I heard someone yell from a cell: "Come on, old man!" Johnny Sacks sounds like a Sopranos character.

11-29-2023 - From my law enforcement consultant - About 20 years ago, walking up to the main entrance of Sikes Senter Mall, I noticed a small-caliber bullet on the ground next to the doors. It appeared to be a .25 caliber bullet, and it was deformed as if it had hit the wall next to the entry doors. Was it fired from the parking lot, Kemp Blvd, or elsewhere? It's my guess that someone was driving by on Kemp and took a shot at the door. Whether people were present or not is unknown. Gang initiation? It's possible. A man jogging on a Northwest Freeway service road was shot, not fatally, in what was probably part of a gang initiation. The investigation revealed that the suspects had left town and were probably in California.

11-29-2023 - Good Morning, and it's coffee time once again! Yesterday I drove by a new-to-me restaurant, the El Pueblo Mexican Kitchen at 1308 Holliday Street. I'll have to make time to visit them one day. You know how restaurants, large and small, can come and go in the town. Right now, the school bus drivers - 152.360 MHz - are keeping me entertained while I enjoy my first cup of coffee.

11-28-2023 - It's 2000 hrs and the Clay County Amateur Radio Club Skywarn Practice Net is on the air at 146.680 MHz. If you're in Wichita Falls, your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to turn on your scanner radio and listen in. Of course, if you're a ham, you can check in! I'm also hearing some one-sided chatter on 151.880 MHz again.

11-28-2023 - The FCC sent this notice (edited by Wichita Falls Man for brevity) to five companies - Re: Notice of Important Gateway Provider Obligations - Dear XXXXXXXX - (Company) has received a significant volume of traceback requests from USTelecom’s Industry Traceback Group (ITG) concerning apparently illegal traffic that the Company has transmitted as a gateway provider on behalf of overseas providers. The Company has also received notice from the Federal Trade Commission alerting the Company of apparently illegal traffic. This letter provides the Company with notice of important legal obligations under Federal Communications Commission (the Commission or FCC) rules. All gateway providers must “take reasonable and effective steps to ensure that any foreign originating provider or foreign intermediate provider from which it directly receives traffic is not using the gateway provider to carry or process a high volume of illegal traffic onto the U.S. network.” 47 CFR § 64.1200(n)(4). Failure to abide by that rule may result in enforcement action.

11-28-2023 - From the U.S. Federal Trade Commission - The FTC is sending more than $3 million in refunds to businesses that paid for memberships to HomeAdvisor, Inc., a company affiliated with Angi (formerly known as Angie’s List). The agency is also sending claim forms to businesses that are eligible for additional refunds. The refunds stem from FTC allegations that HomeAdvisor used deceptive marketing tactics when selling home improvement project leads to service providers, including small businesses operating in the “gig” economy. The FTC’s March 2022 complaint alleged that since at least mid-2014, HomeAdvisor made false, misleading, or unsubstantiated claims about the quality and source of the leads it was selling to home service providers in search of potential customers. The agency also charged that HomeAdvisor told businesses that their annual membership would include one free month of mHelpDesk, an optional scheduling and payment processing service marketed by HomeAdvisor, but in reality the company charged an additional $59.99 for the first month.

11-28-2023 - From the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - 21 percent of eldercare providers were parents of children under age 18 in 2021–22 - November is National Family Caregivers Month, making it a good time to recognize those who provide unpaid care to older adults. There were 37.1 million eldercare providers age 15 and older in 2021-2022. Eldercare providers are people who provide unpaid care to someone age 65 or older who needs help because of a condition related to aging.