Alexander Orlowski: The Aftermath

by capper

Over the last two days, I've written of the life and the way-too-early death of Alexander Orlowski, an inmate who died from an accidental drug overdose at the House of Correction.

So what happens now?

As I mentioned yesterday, the Alexander's parents, Gary and Patti Orlowski, have a claim against the county, as a precursor to a lawsuit for the County's negligence in ensuring his safety. County Board Supervisor Mark Borkowski, whose district includes the HOC, feels that the Orlowskis have a pretty good chance of winning any lawsuit.

The Orlowskis realize that a lawsuit won't bring their son back. But they also feel that those responsible should be held to some sort of accountability.

The inmate that "sold" the Methadone to Alexander, Samuel Fitzpatrick, is facing charges of reckless homicide, under the Len Bias Law.

Despite a continuous series of crises at the House of Correction, including massive overtime payments due to being excessively short staffed, Alexander's death, and a damning audit done by the feds, Superintendent Ron Malone was fully endorsed by County Executive Scott Walker for reappointment after the elections this spring. After a lot of argument and delay, and with a lot of lobbying by Walker and his Chief of Staff Tom Nardelli, the County Board finally affirmed the reappointment.

All of this, only to have Walker throw Malone under the bus in the 2009 budget proposal, in which the County has decided to take the House of Correction, the Community Correctional Center, and the work release program and put it under the auspices of the Sheriff's Office.

Supervisor Borkowski told me that he has problems with the way that Walker and Nardelli so strongly commended Malone for supposedly turning around the HOC after the audit, only to turn on him months later with the budget proposal. The cynical side of me believes that Walker was planning for a long time to dump Malone, and thought it better to just keep him for a few more months than to put someone else in his place until he could foist the whole mess onto Clarke. I also recall Supervisor John Weishan arguing against the transfer of the HOC, stating that it would only allow Walker to walk away from the mess he created, without holding him accountable.

Clarke wasted no time and went down there to check things out. It does not appear that Malone did a lot to fix things after all, if one can believe Clark that is. His reputation appears pretty questionable as of late. I do know from inside sources that Clarke has already kicked Malone out of his own office and took it as his own.

It is questionable on what kind of effect that this change will have on things. Vanessa Allen of the Public Policy Forum had written a post a while ago, raising some interesting questions on how this might effect sentences issued by judges and other issues.

Borkowski told me that while he has no confidence in the current administration, he is not so sure that Clarke will actually improve things. He described the switch as being a panacea to the HOC's woes, but thinks it could turn out to be more of a placebo.

Borkowski goes on to point out that there might be some strife at the HOC between the COs and the Sheriff. One must concur when they think of all the lawsuits that were filed by the deputies' union. Clarke lost almost every one of them to boot.

It is also important to remember that Clark, about three or four years ago, lost a major lawsuit alleging that the Sheriff's Office and the Milwaukee County Jail were infringing on people's rights due to filthy living conditions and extraordinarily long waits, just to get booked. Clarke's incompetence cost taxpayers millions of dollars on that one alone.

For what it's worth, I have mixed feelings about the change.

Part of me agrees that it is only logical that the Sheriff's Office and the HOC be combined, since their work is already fairly symbiotic. It should help things go smoother and eliminate a level of unnecessary bureaucracy.

I do have concerns with putting the Sheriff in charge of 48% of the tax levy. Given his propensity of getting sued and losing those lawsuits, is it really wise to give him a chance to pick up even more lawsuits and lose more of our tax money?

Overall, I do think that while it is unfortunate that Walker will again get off without being held responsible for the disaster he created at HOC, that the merger is a good thing. It just points out that we need to get Walker and Clarke out of office, and put in people with at least some rudimentary understanding of what's going on and how to do things the proper way. And the sooner we do that, the better we will all be for it.

The Death of Alexander Orlowski

by capper

Yesterday, I told the gentle reader about the life of Alexander Orlowski, a young man that died while incarcerated at the House of Correction.

But the question now is this: How was Alexander allowed to die? The long answer short is that he was caught in the perfect storm of personal problems, bureaucratic incompetency and political influences.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in April 2008 that another inmate, Samuel M. Fitzpatrick, sold some methadone pills to Alexander, who eventually overdosed on these pills. The article goes on to mention that Alexander and Fitzpatrick were both drug addicts, but does little else to give the reader any further in-depth look at why Alexander died.

As I mentioned yesterday, Alexander was a drug addict. To complicate the matter, he also had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. This meant that Alexander really never had a chance to fight his addiction unless he had some enforced sobriety and a lot of support.

Due to his addiction and mental illness, Alexander was often in trouble with the law. He was caught a number of times burglarizing houses and businesses to pay for his habit. He has a criminal history that includes burglary, breaking and entering, trespassing, resisting arrest and possession of a controlled substance.

When he was finally sentenced to the House of Correction, his parents report that they actually felt relief. They thought that at least they knew where he was, and that he would be relatively safe, as opposed to be out on the streets somewhere, doing God knows what, to support his habit.

At first, the Orlowskis were correct. Alexander responded well to the forced sobriety. He became more of his old self and would often write or call home. He became more focused on improving his life and earned his GED just weeks before he died. He kept telling his parents that he missed them and couldn't wait to get home. He asked them to delay Christmas until he came home.

Alexander, due to going to school, and then getting a job in the kitchen, was put into a dorm know as Z-2, or Zebra 2. When I worked at the HOC, I worked in that dorm. It was one of the hardest dorms to work in. Most dorms at HOC are large rooms where the correction officer would have an unobstructed view of almost the entire dorm. Z-2 is different than the rest. It is two smaller rooms divided by a hallway. The dayroom is behind the officer, instead of in front of him or her. The shower is off the dayroom and cannot be seen from the desk at all. Even if the officer was constantly patrolling the entire dorm, there would be plenty of opportunity for the inmates to get into all sorts of mischief. On top of it all, at night, when the main lights are off, it is very dim and difficult to see.

When I worked there, all but the most strictly controlled medications were kept in a locked footlocker and the officer was responsible to administer the medications. I believe that since I worked there, the policy was changed and a nurse was supposed to administer the medications, but rarely with the officer there to help supervise to make sure the inmate took the medicine, and didn't palm it or cheek it. Due to the bustle, the poor supervision and the dimness, it would still be easy for an inmate to cache his medication, either for later use, or more commonly, to sell for canteen (chips, soda, candy, etc.)

When the powers that be transferred Fitzpatrick into Z-2, Alexander was doomed. According to what the Orlowskis learned from the investigation, Fitzpatrick was known to deal his medication. As the paper reported, Fitzpatrick somehow was able to get a doctor to prescribe a large dose of Methadone. Methadone is commonly used to treat heroin withdrawal, but has become the drug of choice to replace Oxycontin as a pain reliever. Oxycontin was replaced due to its high demand as a way to get high among inmates.

Fitzpatrick was being given 14 tablets of Methadone, twice a day. It makes me wonder if there was any safety mechanism in place for medication review. While I am not a doctor, that seems like an unusually large amount of Methadone to give anyone, just for pain.

Anyway, it did not take long for Fitzpatrick to declare himself open for business and found a more than willing customer in Alexander. Likewise, it did not take Alexander long to build up a supply for himself. A supply large enough to turn out to be lethal.

On the day that Alexander died, he was supposed to get up for work, but when the officer went to wake him, he sat up, then quickly fell back in his cot and back to sleep. The officer sent an alternative in his place. Later that morning, Alexander was snoring loudly enough to have other inmates complain to the officer, and still nothing was done. Some even expressed concern that something was wrong with Alexander, but it still took hours before the officer called for medical help to come to the dorm.

Without being privy to the actual investigation reports, or talking to those that were there, I am hesitant to state definitively why there was such a long delay in summoning help. The officer might have thought that Alexander was malingering, wanting to take the holiday off from work. Maybe the officer wasn't trained very well. Maybe the officer was just not a good officer. We all work in fields where some people are better at their jobs, and some are worse at them. At that time, due to Scott Walker's budget cuts, officers were being forced to work many hours of overtime, and maybe the officer was just extremely tired and not performing his duties as he should have.

I don't know if we will ever know for sure what else happened that night. Fitzpatrick is scheduled to go to trial in January, and maybe some answers will come out then.

What I do know is that not only did the HOC not give the necessary care and supervision to Alexander was alive, they dropped the ball after his death.

The Orlowskis told me that they were notified of Alexander's death by a detective with the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office. Then they heard nothing again until the detective came back a few weeks later with Alexander's personal effects. Not once did they hear from Ron Malone, the superintendent of the HOC. Nor did they hear from any of the assistant superintendents or any other staff member of the HOC. Nor did any of these people return their phone calls.

Nor did they hear from Scott Walker, who is Ron Malone's boss.

County Board Supervisor Mark Borkowski, whose district includes the HOC, did talk to me about this case. He told me that he felt terrible about what happened to Alexander, but that "the damage was done and no magic will bring him back." He did add that if this is "how the County deals with grieving parents, he is ashamed to part of it."

The Orlowskis did hear from the inmates. Many of the inmates called and wrote to the Orlowskis. The told them how Alexander was respected among the others, not only for his art talents, but because he was just a likable kid. They told them how they tried to get help for Alexander, but had their efforts rebuffed by the correction officer.

Were the inmate lying to the Orlowski, just to make themselves look better or to assuage their own feelings of guilt? Maybe. Or maybe they felt that Alexander was definitely treated unjustly, and wanted someone to know. Either way, it is not often that inmates will go to that kind of effort for another inmate. That alone tells me that Alexander was one of those people that could reach out and affect people, no matter who they were.

The Orlowskis have filed a claim against the county, stating that "the county was grossly negligent in the hiring, training and supervision of employees at the House of Correction." A claim is the precursor to a lawsuit. Borkowski told me that from what he has learned of this case, he thinks that they have strong grounds and a good chance of winning.

Tomorrow, we will look at the future of the HOC, and what some pending changes could mean.

The Less Than Super Superintendent

by capper

Ron Malone needs to be given his walking papers. It's that simple really.

Ron Malone is the superintendent of the Milwaukee County House of Correction (HOC). Over the past year, we have seen numerous inmates that have escaped from custody.

We have seen good correction officers being scapegoated for an inmate's escape, even though they don't know if he really escaped.

Malone has shown that he doesn't even know what the policies are at his facility regarding late nights. In fact, Malone, as superintendent would have to approve of any decisions regarding grievances, but denied ever seeing the grievances regarding the late nights.

There was an inmate that died from a drug overdose, which stemmed from the consequences of the facility being short staffed.

There have also been audits that have shown the HOC to be in terrible shape regarding security, morale, and overall policy.

Things were bad enough that County Executive Scott Walker had threatened to fire Malone if things didn't turn around in a few months.

Now, in the last day, we see that there has been an ongoing investigation into reports that ranking officers were sexually harassing female employees. From what I understand, the report does not cover the whole story, and that there are people being investigated who go above and beyond just the two lieutenants, and that the investigations have been going on for at least a couple of months. One would think that complaints this expansive and serious in nature, involving some of his higher ranked employees would have caught his attention. One might think that, but that doesn't appear to be the case:

Meantime, House of Correction Superintendent Ron Malone would not go on camera Wednesday night but tells TMJ4 he takes this very seriously.

He couldn't tell us without going back through the records, if there is an investigation.
He does, however plan to take a closer look at this Thursday and promised to follow up.

Malone is either trying, and failing, to cover up a whole mess of problems that he is fully aware of, or he is just plainly incompetent and/or obtuse to what is going on in his facility. Either way, he hasn't shown that he is deserving of the role as superintendent.

Fortunately, some of the members of the county board have enough sense to put a halt to rubber stamping his re-appointment as superintendent, and have referred his appointment to be sent back to committee for further review. Hopefully, they will get it right this time and not agree to his re-appointment to this position.

I won't even rip on Scott Walker for this one either. I doubt if he was aware of the investigations. He's been too busy running for governor promoting Milwaukee County on his bike ride.

Will You Believe Me Now?

by capper

A MUCH OVERDUE UPDATE: Gretchen Schuldt has also posted her views on this matter. It is, as usual, much better written and more concise than my post. (Sorry for the delay, Gretchen.)

Sometimes, I get the feeling that outside of three or four people, as soon as they see my name at the top, they pass over what I write. Other times, not so much.

I know that I've been hitting Walker fast and often, especially in regards to the House of Correction and the myriad of problems that have been occurring there for the past year or so. Maybe I've been overdoing it, but I felt it was a strong concern for the county and the community, so I kept at it. And I am not the only one to have strong concerns about the correctional system in its current condition. Zachary has also been adding his valuable insight to the problems, having had the same work experience there as I did.

Even then, some curmudgeons, like Dad29, would dismiss us as a couple of whiny liberals.

Well, would you believe the feds? In this morning's MSJ, there is an article that outlines a federal report about the conditions of the House of Corrections and the Community Correctional Center. It is, in its entirety, a pretty damning report. Some of the highlights:

Among his key findings:

• Security at the House of Correction "is very bad. The problems are many and they are widespread and deep." However, administrators were oblivious to "glaring security weaknesses." The report excludes specifics to avoid contributing to security breaches at the House, but those details were issued in a confidential side letter to Malone.

• An Aug. 3 inmate escape through a supply closet window was blamed on "chronic failures" and the fault of supervisors rather than correctional officers. The escapee spent over three weeks working to break through a security screen on a window in the closet, creating noise that was ignored. Other inmates tried to warn staff of the impending escape effort, but those warnings were not acted on.

• "Exceptionally deficient" fire safety was listed as the worst problem, and that problem was more pronounced at the work-release center. The aging building at 1004 N. 10th St., with up to 400 inmates on five floors, could quickly go up in flames with stairwells likely engulfed in heat and smoke before upper-floor residents could evacuate. The alarm system there has been broken for years.

• The House lacks tactical capacity to deal with a hostage situation or other crisis.

• The armory at the House was "dirty and badly disorganized." Drawers contained parts as well as years-old unopened equipment still in boxes. The lack of "intermediate force" weapons, such as gas grenades and rubber bullets, leaves the institution without adequate means of dealing with a large inmate disturbance. It has since been cleaned.

The report also throws a harsh light on Walker's ill-advised plan to close the CCC and put the inmates on a GPS monitoring system. The report says that there has been no planning at all for this. Sort of like Bush and his fiasco in Iraq, and we've all seen how well that has worked out for him.

Walker's response to this? He tells HOC Superintendent Ron Malone to fix everything in 90 days or be fired. What a guy. He creates a disaster of epic proportions and tells his underling to clean it up or be fired. That should be the textbook example of poor leadership.

The MSJ article goes on to say that the County Board is finally getting around to do what should have been done months ago, and what Walker still hasn't figured out, or is trying to cover up. They are calling for Malone and Sheriff David Clarke to submit reports with the facts on how all of these things keep happening, comparing our lock ups to those of other similar communities, and how to fix the problems we are having.

To his credit, Malone has expressed a ready willingness to cooperate. Clarke is still trying to figure out if his over-sized ego will let him take a realistic look at his office and its operations.

Yet Another Problem At The House Of Correction

by capper

Friday's paper had an article about an inmate that was found dead at the Milwaukee County House of Correction on Thanksgiving Day morning. This adds to the compounding trouble that has been occurring at the House of Correction and Community Correctional Center for the past several months.

This time the story is of an inmate, with a history of drug abuse issues, apparently taking an overdose of prescribed medication. As I have stated before, there is a systematic problem with the correctional system in Milwaukee County. There is poor leadership among top administrators that don't know what's is going on in their own departments. There is also a crisis of overcrowded prisoners and a severe shortage of correctional officers.

Instead of actually dealing with the root of these problems, County Executive Scott Walker originally chose to scapegoat some officers, blaming them for the errors in the system. He did this despite the fact that these problems had been called to that attention of administrators, who, in turn, dismissed those concerns. Based on Friday's article, Walker will have a hard time to do his scapegoating again (emphasis mine):

District Attorney John Chisholm said the death was being investigated as likely related to prescription drugs. He said his initial review had not turned up evidence of wrongdoing on the part of correctional officers. Prosecutors want to find out how enough drugs to kill Orlowski could have been hoarded and who supplied him with prescription pills, Chisholm said.

The article also asks for comments from HOC administrators. Ron Malone, superintendent of HOC, who didn't even have a clue about the late night issues at HOC, then lied about them, had this reported about him and the inquest:

Ron Malone, superintendent of the House of Correction, declined to comment.

Thanks for the insight, Mr. Malone, that was very helpful. Of course, Walker had nothing to say either. He can't be bothered to actually do his job, he has a campaign to run.

Who's Running This Joint?

by capper

Last week, I wrote about a couple of stories that appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel which dealt with the House of Correction and the Community Correctional Center. This morning we see a third story. Predictably, the powers that be chose to eliminate the late night hours that were traditionally allowed to inmates at HOC and CCC. This was a move long overdue.

But the odd thing in this story is the way the management is handling the issue. It's like watching an old Three Stooges or Abbott and Costello routine. First, we have the official position from last week:

Assistant Superintendent Willie Brisco said last week that the late hours worked as a good management tool for corrections officers, who could revoke the privilege for rule violations.

Apparently someone was not happy with Brisco's statements. He's not talking, but not we have acting Assistant Superintendent Jeffrey Mayer:

Canceling the late inmate hours will help avoid the possibility of fights breaking out, said Jeffrey Mayer, acting assistant superintendent. And if that happened, staffing could be compromised, he said.

And let us not forget Superintendent Ron Malone, who, as previously reported didn't even know what the policy at HOC was. He chimes in with:

On Monday, Malone said the change was made in part because of the article but also had been under consideration and would likely have been made by January in any case.

He decided to put the change into effect immediately, even though advance notice of work changes normally are given, Malone said.

"After the publicity of it, I just said, 'Let's do it,' " Malone said. "It had come up before. It was something we were already looking at," he said.:

Well, this is news to a lot of people. From today's article

The practice was subject of a grievance in summer by correctional officers, who complained the late-night socializing by inmates jeopardized officers' safety. But officials rejected the complaint.

and

Kevin Schoofs, president of the correctional officers union, said Monday that the change was welcome but overdue. He said he had not been given any inkling that Malone was considering doing away with the late-night hours for inmates. In fact, Malone told him he was adamantly opposed to changing the policy during a recent meeting with the union, Schoofs said.

Something tells me some heads are going to roll. We already know that Walker doesn't like to look bad, and will take any scapegoat he can get. Ironically, during all this, Walker did not have anything to say. He had a spokesperson say he agrees with the plan, but otherwise is suspiciously quiet. (And no, I don't expect Walker to micromanage every department in the County, but after a series of articles, I would expect some sort of statement.)

I guess he is to busy trying to figure out how to spin the fact that he is about to break his promise not to run for another term as County Executive, by announcing his campaign kick-off, maybe as soon as this week.

What's The Story Of These Two Stories? Part II

by capper

As I pointed out in my previous post, there are two stories in this morning's paper that piqued my interest. In the other post, I spoke of some seeming inconsistencies in the articles. Now, I would like to point out the ramifications of the articles.

I have already commented on then three, now four, correctional officers that have been targeted by Scott Walker as scapegoats for an escaped inmate who killed someone. The officers that have been charged have defended themselves by stating that there was no incompetence or lack of discipline, but they were following established protocol and are working under severe conditions due to the extreme understaffing at HOC and CCC. It should also be noted that the union has also raised concerns about the conditions at CCC, but these concerns were always ignored. Walker dismissed these reasons and the officers are suspended without pay until they go before a panel of Walker appointees, who will most likely fire them arbitrarily.

As a disclaimer, I would point out that I personally knew and worked with three of the four officers that have been suspended so far. I believe them to be honest and dedicated officers.

Now for the two articles from today's paper.

One deals with another inmate that escaped from CCC and was arrested by a sheriff's deputy. Milwaukee County Sheriff Clarke criticized CCC and HOC for allowing this inmate to have work release privileges in the first place, given his felony record. For the record, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Clarke.

It would make sense that the officers that are remaining at HOC and CCC are going to be busting their butts to toe the line while they know that the public and Walker is going to be scrutinizing them more closely for a while. This is just human nature. (Oh, I know, some on the right will automatically figure it's just another case of inept county workers, but those same people tend to not to want to show a lot of thought before opening their mouths anyway.) What this would indicate is that there is something systematically wrong with the program to have these many escapes.

The second article discusses the fact that inmates are allowed to stay up until 3:30 a.m. on holidays and weekends. It was this way when I worked there years ago, and that is when many fights would happen. I thought it was the norm across the state, until I read the article. The article points out that the state norm is much earlier, at either 10 or 11 p.m.

The article also points out that the union tried to fight this late night policy and it was rebuffed:

(President of the correctional officers union Kevin) Schoofs filed a grievance last summer over the practice, saying House of Correction and work-release inmates should have mandatory bedtimes of no later than 10 p.m. The complaint was dismissed by the department managers, who called the late weekend and holiday hours a useful motivational tool.

The same as with the situation at CCC. But there's more:

Assistant Superintendent Willie Brisco said the late weekend hours practice goes back many years and probably has its roots in the days of the old county workhouse.

County officials apparently feel that workers are not supposed to follow established practice, but they can use it for their own defense. This makes them almost hypocritical enough for Jay's Thanksgiving Parade.

And as far as the leadership of these facilities, well, here is what the articles say about Superintendent Ron Malone, in the article about the escaped convict:

Ron Malone, superintendent of the work-release center, couldn’t be reached.

and in the late nights article:

Ron Malone, superintendent of the House of Correction and the work-release center at 1004 N. 10th St., declined to comment, saying he wasn't familiar with inmate hours.

So the superintendent is either missing in action or doesn't know what is going on in his own facilities? And yet they blame the workers, who are trying to do the best that they can, with what they have to work with, which isn't much.

I would hope that Scott Walker, who has been silent during these new events, will now stop doing the politically convenient, but dishonest thing. After all, even the internal investigator couldn't state that she comprehensively investigated the matter due to the arbitrary deadline put forth by Walker. I would hope that he recognizes the systematic flaws created by poor administration and understaffing, and address those issues in a responsible manner, and reinstate the fired officers that he has scapegoated, with back pay and an apology.

But I won't hold my breath for him to do it.

What's The Story Of These Two Stories? Part I

by capper

In today's MSJ, there are two articles, both written by Steve Schultze, and both dealing with the Milwaukee County House of Correction (HOC) and the Community Correctional Center (CCC) where they house the work release inmates. Both are in the main news section. One article is titled " Lights out for inmates is 3:30". This one was located on the front page and continued on the inside, on page 18. The second article is also on page 18. This article is titled "Clarke rips release plan after arrest".

Both articles caught my eye, due to the fact that I used to work there. I have also been following the story of the four corrections officers who were targeted by Scott Walker for termination. As I read both articles, I found that there were two areas of interest. One was the implications of the story, which I will cover in my next post. The other area was some of the inconsistencies in the two stories.

The main story was about how inmates at HOC and CCC are allowed to stay up until 3:30 a.m. on weekends and holidays, which apparently is unique to the state. All other correctional facilities have lights out at 10 p.m. The part I want to point out is when Mr. Schultze speaks to he superintendent of the HOC and CCC, Ron Malone:

Ron Malone, superintendent of the House of Correction and the work-release center at 1004 N. 10th St., declined to comment, saying he wasn't familiar with inmate hours.

While in the second article, which is about another escaped inmate from CCC, we see this:

Ron Malone, superintendent of the work-release center, couldn't be reached.

Did he speak to Malone, or didn't he? Or did he speak to Malone on one occasion and tried to make contact again? If this is the case, why wasn't that point clarified?

Also in the body of the second article, we have another seeming contradiction. First, Mr. Schultze writes:

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. criticized the county’s work-release program after deputies arrested a man Tuesday night who had left the downtown Community Correctional Center without authorization. Clarke said 41-year-old Kenneth D. Glenn should have been excluded from the work-release program based on his history of six felony convictions.

Note the verbs criticized and said. As Jay would teach us, those are action verbs, which would indicated that Clarke was present during these actions, or at least in direct contact with the reporter. But the last sentence of the same article reads:

Clarke was not available for comment Wednesday, said spokeswoman Kim Brooks.

Now, I realize Clarke probably did the original criticism through a press release. But I can't but think that it would make the article seem less self-contradictory if this was mentioned. But since it wasn't, and being right next to the first article, it would make it seem like sloppy journalism, or sloppy editing.

By no means should this critique be construed as maligning Mr. Schultze's personal or journalistic integrity, but I must point out that the inconsistencies between the two stories and in the same story, makes it more suspect to skepticism. I recognize that there may be some logical rationale on why these articles appear this way, but without knowing that rationale, one can only wonder, and be wary.

Another odd part to this whole thing is that when I went to write this post, I had to dig around in the archives to find the second story, even though it was just published today.