Raymond Kulma, a Sterling Heights, Michigan resident, is no stranger to the police in the area.  Kulma, 55, has had several altercations with local law enforcement including a , staggering, six drunken driving offenses. Kulma, once again met with police, when he stole a motorized wheelchair from a retirement village and proceeded to drive around Utica, Michigan on it while impaired.

The owner of the wheelchair has chosen not to press charges for the theft, but Kulma still faces a DUI charge. At the time of his arrest his blood alcohol content was .241. The legal BAC for driving is .08. A blood alcohol content of .24 is triple the legal limit and for most individuals would be considered heavily intoxicated. To put that in perspective a 200lb man would have to drink 12-15 beers in a short period of time to blow a .24 alcohol reading. Death is possible when BAC scores reach a .27.

While Kulma is clearly a menace to society due to his drinking problem his arrest and the news has been an eye-opener to many. Michigan laws, actually, prohibit individuals from driving any motorized vehicle while intoxicated. The law states any motorized vehicle which would include scoters, motorized bicycles, Segway’s and, yes, wheelchairs. The arrest is slightly laughable to some, but there is a serious lesson to be learned here.

The drunken driving laws in states are intended to protect the general public as well as the intoxicated party. That means that any form of driving while intoxication carries a risk to at least one party and is thus illegal.  For example one may think that there is less risk while driving a Segway while drunk than, say, a motorcycle. That may be true, but there is still a risk involved.  Driving a motorized wheelchair, like Kulma did, while drunk is a risk to pedestrians on the sidewalk as well as the drunken party.

There is no official word on what Kulma will be charged with, exactly, but it is likely that a seventh DUI charge will certainly be prosecuted. One has to wonder if the state will see Kulma as a large enough risk to himself and the population to force treatment for a clear problem with alcohol. With the sheer number of drunken driving charges under his belt it hardly seems like a stretch to suggest that he has an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. The elderly man who owned the stolen scooter suggested that, perhaps, a jail sentence, may help Kulma learn his lesson and get his life back on track.

Recently, an article surfaced in the Chattanoogan about an alleged drunk driver who just could not say NO to getting behind the wheel of a car and driving around while under the influence of alcohol. It is reported that this perilous driver already racked up four DUIs in the last two months even though he was ankled down with a bracelet that would detect any signs of alcohol on his breath.  His car was alxso equipped with alcohol detecting devices which must have been malfunctioning. You would have thought that these devices would have scared the alleged driving while intoxicated man straight and to his local AAA. Well, it did not deter this driver.

The judge slapped a $150,000 dollar bail on the alleged drunk driver. A large number of people were shocked while some were amused. It seems like this DUI simply got a slap on the wrist and a get out of jail card for the right price from the judge. The problem is that the judge has to follow what is set down by law. Each state has own separate DUI laws that must be followed by the legal system. Some states might categorize a DUI offense as a misdemeanor while another classifies the same offense as a crime. Fines for DUI range from a few hundred to thousands. It is certainly true that a number of DUI offenders never serve any jail time. This is of course due to the lenient laws in some states and that the jails are simply over crowded. Those offenders who are thought not a danger to society are let out.

What could be more dangerous than a drunk behind the wheel of a car plowing down the road at top speed? In this circumstance it was a convicted DUI driver and not a first offender. This was the driver's fifth offense. In my opinion anyone with this many convictions should have their driving privileges revoked permanently. They should not be allowed near a driver's seat or behind the wheel of a car. If they don't have the common sense to recognize the danger they are to society, then the judge should convict accordingly.  In many states, first offenders simply get a slap on the wrist and up to one year license suspension, fines, and penalties. Incarceration is not mandatory. First offenders should also suffer stiff penalties which might deter them from further DUI offenses.

On June 27th, this last Tuesday, FBI agents arrested 26 hackers for identity theft and a number of different computer crimes according to Mashable article. This bust took the FBI two years to bust through an undercover operation called "Operation Card Shop." The process was simple. The police set up a fake credit card trading website called CarderProfit.cc. Criminals would come to the website and sell stolen card numbers, or attempt to buy some, while the FBI collected their data and tracked the thieves down.  The FBI stated that the criminals were charged with exploiting credit cards and buying and selling stolen identities.

Identity theft is one of the newest and most high tech forms of theft in today's world. These types of crimes are becoming more prevalent and increasingly more difficult to capture. It is nice to see the FBI and other multinational organizations working together to combat these criminals on their own turf.

A decade ago cyber crime laws didn't exist. Now that is changing with thieves trading in their black masks for laptop computers. It is far easier to commit a crime inside your own home than risking your life robbing a bank.

The accessibility of this crime is a little scary at times. Now credit cards come with NFC chips that can be scanned from a passerby and all the users information will be sent through a simple email to their phone. It's so simple that some people don't realize the severity of the crime. People may scold someone from stealing a video game from a store, but is that any different from torrenting it on your home computer? It's this accessibility to crime and simplicity that is creating this new generation of cyber thieves.

You don't need to be a heavily built man to rob someone of their money. Now a skinny geek can do it without leaving his bedroom.

I am happy that the FBI is undertaking these new cyber operations to stop online identity thieves. I'm especially relieved that they are working with other nations, from 4 continents according to the article, to stop this. With digital thefts there are no boarders. Maybe when banks are more secure with their digital funds, or consumers are just more mindful of their passwords and money, will we see less of a need for these extreme cyber stakeouts.

Before this day however I always choose complicated strings of numbers and symbols on my passwords and never give out too much information about myself online. Even with just a surname and a place of birth, a thief can crack a password with little effort. Even restricting the amount of information that is displayed on social networking sites like Facebook can leak a little too much information about you. And you will have no one to blame but yourself for this. In the end it's all about keeping your privacy and controlling what information is public about yourself. It only takes a few simple steps to keep your identity safe, and your money in your pocket. 

There are many people in the United States who are addicted to prescription drugs. Many don't realize how dangerous they can be, because they can be taken by many legally. However, once people are hooked on them they can lead to death and destroy lives. Once people who have become hooked on prescription painkillers can't get anything more from their doctor, they often try getting more from other doctors. Most doctors are careful not to give too much to one patient, but there are some who have no problem giving drugs to people who have a problem.

This doctor was giving painkillers to people who clearly had a problem. He made his living from giving people anything they wanted. This lead to the death of a number of people, and this is one of the only doctors that have actually been brought up on criminal charges. His patients died of overdoses, after he gave them drugs that they should not have been taking. There needs to be a database of everything that people have been prescribed. While this may not be cheap, it is probably the only way to ensure that people are not given the opportunity to abuse the medical system. Cataloging how much each person has been given in a way that every doctor can see is the best way for to keep people from moving from doctor to doctor looking for more drugs. While it is difficult to prevent people like this doctor from prescribing too much, it will probably help catch these rogue doctors in the act. Giving into addicts in ways that can kill them is a serious criminal offense says the law firm of Katz & Phillips.

There also needs to be a limit of how much narcotic painkillers can be given to a person at any given time. Doctors are often far too willing to give people whatever they want, and may be willing to extend painkiller prescriptions after things like surgery when they shouldn't be. Doctors also need to have more information about how patients can become addicted, so that they do not inadvertently get patients started down the road to addiction. The only way that the public can help these addicts is to keep close track of what is being prescribed to everybody.