I've been reading through the New Testament every morning, it helps me get my mind working before I start working on my current writing project. I'm also able to have a quiet time for my speaking to the Lord and finishing off a large cup of hot tea, with a teaspoon of CBD to help my day along. If you haven't spent much time in the New Testament, I really recommend it. Basically, the New Testament is a collection of letters written by the apostles. John is my favorite, for not only did he write the Book of John, but he was also the author of the Book of Revelation. I spent a lot of time in that book when writing my story, "A Coming Storm". But, I've found the writings of Paul to be extremely enlightening. At times, I do not believe Paul was truly that great of a writer, as far as writers go, as he often repeats himself. But, then I take what he is trying to say, toss it around in my mind and come to realize that though he may not have been a literary master, he true has some great things to say concerning our relationship with the Lord. For those of you who might not be aware, as I wasn't when I first read these different books, was how Paul's writing were simply letters to the various people groups he was ministering to. This is my 2nd time of reading the Bible from cover to cover, and it usually takes about a year. The acts of violence that Paul had brought against him for his new Christian beliefs were incredible. He had been a Jew, who went out of his way to persecute the Christians. Then he had his encounter with the Lord and he was forever changed. Still, being an intelligent man, he would still forever live on with the acts of violence he had inflicted on the Christians, as this was one of his old jobs.
Last night I was finishing up on one of my chapters for my new project "Night Shift". A part of my latest chapter had to do with a real nasty fatality accident I investigated and the Crown Point Hazardous Material accident. An Alaska Railroad Hazmat train car had been removed from the Anchorage train yard and transported down and left by itself on a side track in Crown Point. This small hamlet, located on mile 21-22 of the Seward Highway, has approximately 100 people living in the area. Rumor had it that the car was already leaking and this is why it was moved, but this of course was never confirmed. But, the car was leaking and the leaking process of the hazmat gas inside, begin to alter and turn its gas into something else as the interior of the tank heated up. All this was brought up in the court proceeding that would later follow as the Alaska Railroad was sued by several of the citizens who would end up losing their homes.
The gas begin to geyser out of the train car tank apparatus normally used for filling/emptying and a massive cloud was formed. A cloud that slightly glowed and could be seen in the darkness of night. The Alaska State Trooper who handled the one man post in Crown Point took immediate action and initiated an evacuation of the area and road blocks were set up to keep people out of the danger area, closing of the Seward Highway to thru traffic. Hazmat experts from the railroad responded from Anchorage and a temporary fix was made. But, the damage was done. Half-a-dozen homes could never be occupied again and for a long time this included the Crown Point Lodge, which had been located within 300-feet of the accident. The railroad removed all the furniture, mattresses and whatever out of the homes and replaced it, as the gas had contaminated all these pieces. BUT, they couldn't get the gas out of the chinking used between the logs for those log homes close to the accident scene. Some of these homes were newer construction and were retirement homes.
One of the women from our church, who had such a home, had been sickened by the gas before she was evacuated and would suffer from the effects for the rest of her life. Others were made ill, but they improved in time. The lodge would sit vacant for many years. The railroad felt the trooper who set the evacuation into play had overreacted and wanted him either terminated or punished in some way, but the citizens of Crown Point rallied behind him and he was later awarded a medal of valor for the heroic actions he took that night. Now retired, he still lives in the Crown Point area. Another trooper, who worked the roadblock to the south of Crown Point, stood outside his vehicle and watched as the cloud of gas passed by overhead, visible in the night by its very nature. When he returned to the Seward Police Station he looked as if he had obtained bad sun burn and had to go through a lot of testing in the weeks to follow. As for me, I was working the midnight shift in Seward and I too watched as this bizarre cloud, about the size of 4 to 5 acres, and glowed just enough to see in the night sky, passed over the town and headed out to sea. The only effect I had from it was how for more than 4 hours my eye would not stop watering. I was in the restroom a dozen times that night washing my eye out and scrubbing my face and my hands. I also went home that morning and Mona tossed my police uniform into the wash, actually washing it twice as there seemed to be a strange odor attached to it, even after one wash. I made for a very bizarre night. Some of the Seward locals washed their cars that next morning, frightened by what the cloud might have dropped on them. All the police cars received a good washing. But, I never heard of anyone becoming ill in the Seward area. Whatever that gas changed into and how the safety seals were destroyed to allow the geyser to happen and a cloud to form, I never heard as it took time for the court battles to proceed and by the time they came to an end I was long gone from Seward. Taking on the Alaska Railroad was a major endeavor, even when several of the families joined together in their legal battle.
At the end of my first year with the Seward P.D., I learned that the jail supervisor, a former SPD officer, was in charge of keeping the department's statistics. These were then used to help him obtain grant monies for the SPD. He was also something of a computer whiz. He had quit being a cop after 5 high schoolers were killed in a nasty accident out at Mile Post 3 on the Seward Highway. They had been partying on a Halloween night and smashed into one of the bridges at a high rate of speed. He no longer wanted to be a cop after that night, but the Police Chief didn't want to lose him and his computer skills and made him the jail supervisor. Sadly, years later he would die from a very nasty disease. But, he surprised me after the end of the year and handed me my police statistics. In one year I had made over 300 arrests and 89 of those arrests were for drunk driving. As I wrote about in my story, from my working at two prior police departments and my 6 years as a military cop, I had established my own code when it came to DWI suspects. I knew what a DWI arrest could do to a person; from insurance hikes, marriage problems and even the loss of a job. So, for every DWI arrest I made I had let two people off the hook by turning their vehicle over to a sober driver, or locking their car up after parking it in a safe spot and either giving the driver a ride home myself or hailing a taxi. It all came down to the attitude of the driver and whether or not they were abusive or combative. I had one guy, a very muscular individual, who did his field sobriety test out at the scene by standing on his hands. He did the same thing for the 2nd sobriety test we did at the station, but this one was filmed. Yup, he did it on his hands, but fell down several times. He pled guilty, but went sober with the help of the local AA chapter. Alcoholics Anonymous did a lot of good for problem drinkers, saved a lot of families and marriages.
After I was hurt on duty from a bar fight, I had to go through a lot of testing and it was over 6 months before my retirement came through. My first retirement. I would later come back to work and take the Police Chief position for the City of Whittier. My first retirement only paid $1200 a month and that was hard to live on in 1986-87. We didn't want to leave Alaska, so I opted to go back to work. During those 6 months I was still with the Seward Police, I worked full time for $4.25 an hour, plus my 2/3 workman's comp pay, as the department's investigator. Twice I was promised the investigator's position if I could solve these cold cases or a double burglary where two of our city council member's homes were entered why the family slept and they were ripped off. Will, with the Lord's help I solved 82% of the cold cases I was given and solved the double-burglary. But, by then the department needed my slot of a 100% officer and I was moved to the boat harbor to help with their overdue accounts. Again the Lord blessed my endeavors and I returned over a $1 million in overdue rents and bad accounts. It drove my lieutenant at the SPD crazy on how I was able to solve so many cold cases or active ones. I told him it was a God thing. I would pray over each of my cases and sometime down the line the answer would just spring up in my mind. I had this burglary case, where a gang of teens had burglarized the laundromat and hauled away a 200-lb floor safe. Well, I was driving through town with Mona and all of a sudden I saw exactly where the safe was. Sure enough I found it at the bottom of some cliffs on the bay's shoreline. They had dropped it over the cliff in hopes the rocks below would burst open the safe. The kids had already tried a pick, a wood axe and an assortment of other tools to no avail. This led to the arrest of 5 older teens, 18 and 19 yr olds. That one really stunned my lieutenant.
All through my career in law enforcement, the Lord has helped me in so many ways. Later, as a state gambling investigator, the Lord would again assist me in some difficult cases. But, I;ll save those for future books I plan to write.
Here are some headlines: "2 Students kill classmate and injure 8 others at a high school near Columbine".... Pakistani Christian Woman Wrongly Convicted of Blasphemy Escapes to Canada"...."Denver Passes Law to Legalize Magic Mushrooms, First in the Nation"...."Iran Stops Complying With Parts of Nuclear Deal"...."Chinese Researchers Try Brain Implants to Treat Drug Addicts"...."Report: Christian Persecution Close to 'Genocide Levels', Largely Being Ignored Due to Political Correctness"...."Vacationing Couple Surprised to Find Bear in Their Hot Tub"...."Report: H&R Block, Turbo Tax Being Sued for Allegedly 'Deceiving' Taxpayers into Paying for Free Services".... "Philippines Sets Deadline for Canada to Ship-out Garbage in Filthy Stand-off"...."Tax Documents Show Trump Lost $1 Billion in Businesses in a Decade"...."Man Shoots and Kills 8 People After Leaving a Bar, Bartender Also Arrested"...."Muslim Shops in Sri Lanka Attacked"....."Report: Minimum Wage Hike to $15 An Hour Could Cost 350,000 Jobs in Wisconsin"...."Kremlin Blames US for Iran Nuclear Deal Roll Back"...."Jewish Students in Pennsylvania Demand Increased Security".... "Philippines Issues Ban on Accepting Waste Materials From Foreign Countries"...."Iran Sets 60-Day Deadline on New Nuclear Deal Terms"...."Mexico Confirm 13-Dead in Luxury Jet Crash".... "Pakistan Shrine Blast Kills 10 and Injures 24 People".... "Afghan Taliban Attack Office of U.S. Aid Group"...."Porsche Fined 535 Million Over 'Diesel-gate' Scandal"...."Authorities in Germany Announce They Fear Germany Now has 12,000 Neo-Nazis Ready to Use Violence"...."Far-Right Extremism on the Rise in Germany"...."Egypt Court Upholds Death Penalty for 13 Militants"....."Florida Man Jailed Over Bumper Sticker on His Truck"....."Seattle School District Tells Teachers to Bless Muslim Students in Arabic During Ramadan" ( But they're not allowed to pray or mention Jesus Christ for Christians- double standard! ) .... "Philadelphia Authorities Investigating Event Where Muslim Kids Filmed Singing, 'We Will Chop Off Their Heads', a Phrase Directed at Jews"...."Pope Francis Donates $500,000 to Help Illegal Aliens Reach America"...."In April, 3,000 Illegal Immigrant Children Trafficked Across U.S. Border by Complete Strangers, Causing Over-Burdened Communities to Provide Housing, Clothing and Food to Keep Them from Dying, While Border City Crime Rates Continue to Grow"...."Massive Cache of 1,000 Guns Discovered at Bel-Air Mansion"...."U.S. Seizes North Korean Coal Ship for Violating Sanctions".... "Chinese Officials Warn Christianity an 'Enormous Harm' to Society"...."U.S., Japan and Philippines Navies Challenge Beijing With Joint Navy Drills in South China Sea"...."United Nations Says $20 Million of Emergency Funding Needed in Gaza to Help 1,700 People Seriously Injured in Recent Demonstrations" ..... "U.S> Border Detentions Top 100,000 For Second Month in a Row"...."President Trump Considers Military Actions Against Iran"...."Tariffs on Chinese Goods Rises from 10% to 25% Today"...."U.S. B-52 Bombers Land in Qatar Over Iran Threat"...."As of July, You Must be 21-Years Old to Buy Tobacco Products in WalMart".... "Venezuelan Embassy's Power in Washington Cut Off, in Standoff".... "70 Feared Dead When Migrant Boat Sinks Off Tunisian Coast."...." In Berlin, Germany, Parks Now have designated 'Pink Drug Zones' For Buyers and Dealers".... " "Pennsylvania Elementary School Will No Longer Say 'God Bless America' After Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance"...."Iran Cleric Threatens U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier".... "Palestinians Beat Israeli Musician in Berlin For Defending Israel".
It would seem that once again, Germany rises up to become as hot bed for Nazism. Twice, Germany has brought about two World Wars and now once again the teaching of Hitler our leading the neo nazi movement. Jews are once again being verbally and physically assaulted, their homes and churches vandalized and the German government is turning a blind eye to these attacks. In France, the authorities are also speaking very little concerning the over 800 attacks on Christian and Jewish Churches. Only Notre Dame made the news because of its historical reference. Now numerous European Provinces are considering allowing Sharia Law to be practiced, with Muslim Police and Muslim Courts. There is an old saying, "You let the camel's nose under the tent, the rest of the camel is sure to follow", this was said to be in reference to letting political parties and other agencies the opportunity to interfere with an established way of doing things. I believe it may have originally come about with the Army and Navy combating each other prior to World War II for who did what in the defense of the country, and quoted numerous times when the FBI attempted to take over intelligence investigations outside the USA, and desiring to push the CIA out. Maybe the saying is older than that, I'm not sure.
Well, I'm signing off now. House is noisy and I need some breakfast. May the Good Lord bless your day and answer your prayers. BILL