Today’s Oddities

Today’s Oddities

        This first story will make, perhaps, more sense when I tell you at the end of it where the events occurred. A woman, one Danette Giltz, mother of two, went to the hospital suffering from what she told the ER admissions staff were kidney stones. Having had them before, she was certain the pain she felt was a recurrence of what can be a particularly painful ailment.

        She was, therefore, stunned when the admitting doctor informed her that she was instead, in labor. Within about four more minutes, Ms. Giltz delivered three four-pound girl babies, gestational age estimated at 34 weeks. Read that one more time. She was pregnant and had 12 pounds of almost term infants and until they popped out she was unaware of the pregnancy! Now, as promised: she lives in Sturgis, South Dakota, home of famed biker shenanigans. It must have been a good Bike week!  She has named her daughters “creatively”, apparently envisioning a life on the stage, screen, or “pole” for them. Blaze, Gypsy, and Nikki (Giltz) are said to be doing well.  

        Locally, well, a bit farther south at Lake Worth Beach, a man leaving his apartment on his way to work was more than a bit surprised to be assailed and bitten by a kinkajou. The man is ok, mildly scratched and, as mentioned, bitten. The kinkajou is native to the tropical forests of Central and South America, where they spend most of their time in the trees. This one’s Florida roots remain a mystery, but it is now in residence at a wildlife sanctuary. One supposes this is yet one more example of failed stupid human tricks – endeavoring to make a pet of a wild animal.  

       Am I the only one who thinks it odd that the same Trump administration which is foaming at  the mouth over the death of Jeffrey Epstein in federal custody, citing lack of proper staff attention and/or conspiracy,  is the same administration which enacted both budget cuts and hiring freezes. These caused prisons to rely on “augmentation” (a more civil term for mandated overtime). 

       From January 2017, when President Trump took office, to the end of 2018, the Bureau of Prisons’ staffing numbers dropped by more than 4,600 people—12 percent of its total staff—including correctional officers, psychologists, administrators or anyone else who works in the prisons, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In April, Atty General Barr acknowledged in a congressional hearing that the hiring freeze led to understaffing. He said by that point the prison system was down by as many as 5,000 employees. Union officials contend the number of positions left open by attrition grew to as many as 6,000.

        As the holder of an advanced management degree and years of Senior supervisory positions in the civilian and military sectors, I cannot imagine any organization which could suffer a loss of more than 10% of staff without a drastic accompanying drop in quality of service. Of course, the “blame game” is Trump’s stock in trade. He has yet to assume responsibility for any of the myriad negative outcomes he and his toadies have engendered.