PAX Centurion - Summer 2017

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • Summer 2017 • Page 61 By Bill Carroll See Sports Trivia Answers on page 66 1. What seasonwere themost home runs hit inMajorLeagueBaseball? 2. Who was the last major leaguer to hit 50 home runs in a season and not win the MVPAward? 3. Who was the last American golfer to win the British Open? 4. What major leaguer appeared in the most All-Star games? 5. Who holds theAmerican League record for the most home runs in a season? 6. What was the lastmajor league teamto appear in consecutiveWorld Series? 7. What three NFL teams do not hold training camp in the state that they play their home games in? 8. The NFL recently made a change in regards to overtime situations, can you name that change? 9. Prior to this year whenwas the last time theNHLheld an expansion draft? 10. When was the last time the NBA added an expansion team? electronic, cellular, and other technological means, and any data transmitted, including videos, texts, and photographs. 4. It specifically excludes body-mounted cameras and vehicle- mounted cameras from the definition of “intercepting device.” 5. It broadens the definition of “interception” to make clear that law enforcement officers may obtain information in real time concerning the existence of a communication and the identity of the parties to a communication where such action is authorized by a court. 6. It broadens the definition of “contents” to include spoken words, visual images, or written material. 7. It increases the amount of time a warrant is effective, from 15 days to 30 days. 8. It requires the warrant to identify the agency authorized to intercept the communications and of the person authorizing the application. 9. It allows execution of the warrant by “any designated individual operating under a contract with the commonwealth,” currently is it only by the authorized applicant or an investigative or law enforcement officer. 10. It allows a judge to order a provider or person to furnish information necessary to accomplish the interception, and for that provider/person to be compensated for reasonable expenses in providing such assistance This bill is expected to be reviewed later this session by the Legislature. At the very least, it does broaden the definition of crimes for which wiretapping can be used and updates the technology involved. I’m happy to discuss any aspect of it. As always, feel free to stop in and say hello and ask whatever is on your mind. From Wiretap on page 47 “Modernizing” the Massachusetts wiretap law – What are the actual changes? I’m a seenager! I just discovered my age group! I am a Seenager. (Senior teenager)  I have everything that I wanted as a teenager, only 50-60 years later.  I don't have to go to school or work. I get an allowance every month.  I have my own pad.  I don't have a curfew.  I have a driver’s license and my own car.  I have ID that gets me into bars and the wine store. I like the wine store best.  The people I hang around with are not scared of getting pregnant, they aren’t scared of anything, they have been blessed to live this long, why be scared?  And I don't have acne.  Life is Good!  Also, you will feel much more intelligent after reading this, if you are a Seenager.  Brains of older people are slow because they know so much.  People do not decline mentally with age, it just takes them longer to recall facts because they have more information in their brains.  Scientists believe this also makes you hard of hearing as it puts pressure on your inner ear.  Also, older people often go to another room to get something and when they get there, they stand there wondering what they came for.  It is NOT a memory problem, it is nature’s way of making older people do more exercise.  SO THERE!! THE GREAT UNKNOWN: SPUR-OF-THE-MOMENT RETIREMENT DECISIONS: As a very simple Human Resources/Personnel matter, the department is of course aware of who among our sworn employees must retire in the coming years as a function of age, but the great unknown is the number of employees who may retire and can do so at a moment’s whim. It may be a decision that occurs in a moment this summer sitting on a back deck overlooking the lake in New Hampshire or down the Cape, or a well-planned decision which will and should be in your own best interests (but not necessarily be viewed that way by the proverbial “department’s need’s barometer”). Whatever, wherever, and whenever you make your decision, make sure you make it with good advice from our officers assigned to the family assistance unit and their contacts at the City of Boston retirement board. It’s a big decision with a lot of variables and very specific, individual choices. Make sure you seek good, sound advice from knowledgeable people. Don’t be caught, as the retirement board counselors have told us, taking advice from those same people who seem to be quoted all the time by mis/mal-informed prospective retirees, named “Somebodytoldme” and “IthoughtIheardthat…” . Those people have cost many a retiree a lot of money. Do your homework… A CLICHÉ, MAYBE, BUT… As I write this piece, an officer in NYC has been assassinated as she sat in a command truck doing paperwork, and we await funeral arrangements. Shootings have exploded here in Boston once again, and it is no exaggeration to say that we’re safer in Kabul or Baghdad than on the South Side of Chicago. We make jokes, we laugh, but please, be careful out there.Your goal is to make it to the point where you can make that retirement decision on your own terms, and not have it made for you by some maggot with a political agenda and a chip on his shoulder… From Observations on page 40 Summer observations, random thoughts, current events…