Illegal Immigrants Barred From Renting

The city of Escondido, California, has passed a law banning local landlords from renting properties to illegal immigrants.

The city is the latest of several from California to Pennsylvania which have passed laws in recent months to deny access to housing or jobs to illegal immigrants in their communities.

Lawmakers in Escondido, which lies about 50 miles north of the Mexican border near San Diego, passed the measure by a 3-2 vote following a heated debate that was interrupted by shouts, chants and catcalls.

Police officers removed two men from the council chamber after an argument erupted, while outside city hall dozens of police and sheriff's department officers separated boisterous supporters and opponents of the law. There were no arrests.

The law is set to come into effect in 30 days in the community of 140,000 residents, where more than a third of the population is Hispanic.

"It's a historic day for Escondido. We are very proud to be leading our city and our country in defending the nation," said councilman Sam Abed to cheers from supporters in the council chamber moments before the vote.

Opponents of the measure told the packed meeting that it would divide residents along racial lines in the city, which is set in a corridor of prosperous commuter towns close to San Diego.

"This ordinance is going to have neighbor against neighbor … that's not what this country is about, and that's not what this community is about," said Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler, who voted against the measure.

The ordinance requires landlords to hand over documentation on their tenants' immigration status to city authorities and evict illegal immigrant tenants or face penalties including suspension of their business licenses and fines.

I'm quite sure that there will be legal challenges to this. But it is another sign that citizens in this country are fed up with Federal inaction on this issue.

Sting Ray Seriously Injures Florida Man

A Florida man is in critical condition after a Spotted Eagle Sting Ray jumped into his boat and struck him in the chest with a foot-long sting.

An 81-year-old man suffered serious injuries this afternoon when a stingray leaped into his small, recreational boat and stung him in the chest, Lighthouse Point fire officials said.

The man, identified as James M. Bertakis, was enjoying the sunny afternoon with two family members when the fish emerged from the water. It slid across the bow of the boat and struck Bertakis, leaving a foot-long barb lodged in his chest, authorities said.

The ray, a spotted eagle ray, was at least three feet wide, according to acting Chief David Donzella, a Lighthouse Point fire spokesman.

''This certainly doesn't happen very often,'' Donzella said. “It's very odd that the thing jumped out of the water and stung him on the boat.''

When fire rescue officials arrived, the barb was still in Bertakis's chest. He was conscious and breathing, but in extreme pain from the toxins, Donzella said.

Paramedics took him to North Broward Medical Center with a closed chest wound and a collapsed lung.

''He's in pretty bad shape right now,'' Donzella said.

Hospital officials could not comment on his condition.

I sincerely wish Mr. Bertakis a swift and complete recovery.

Everything Tet Is New Again

Tigerhawk demolishes the suddenly ubiquitous meme that George Bush "accepted" that Iraq is like Vietnam. As usual, the press is wrong. That is not - at all - what was said. It is also not - at all - what Bush meant.

The President has apparently made news by "accepting" the Iraq-Vietnam comparison. Drudge has linked, and lefty blog Think Progress is making a big deal of it. Here is what President Bush said:

Stephanopoulos asked whether the president agreed with the opinion of columnist Tom Friedman, who wrote in The New York Times today that the situation in Iraq may be equivalent to the Tet offensive in Vietnam almost 40 years ago.

"He could be right," the president said, before adding, "There's certainly a stepped-up level of violence, and we're heading into an election."

Here's what Think Progress said he said:

President Bush is right to finally admit that violence in Iraq has reached a tipping point, and that the U.S. is not winning the war as he has claimed.

That is, of course, not what the President said. He merely agreed that there was an appropriate comparison to be made between the Tet offensive and the violence we are seeing in Iraq today. I agree. The question is, what was the lesson of Tet (the all-out offensive of the Viet Cong in early 1968, at the time of the "Tet" new year holiday in Vietnam)?

At the time the media perceived and promoted the Tet offensive as a great victory for the enemy. In an age when the network anchors deployed truly awesome power, Walter Cronkite destroyed Lyndon Johnson's chances for re-election when he editorialized that we were "mired in stalement". President Johnson declared "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America," and withdrew from the 1968 presidential campaign.

Tet, however, was not a military disaster for the United States. Quite to the contrary, history has revealed that the Tet offensive was in fact a crushing defeat for the Viet Cong, and effectively required that the Communists conquer the South by invasion from the North, rather than by civil insurgency. The Viet Cong were only able to turn a military disaster into strategic victory by persuading the American media that the United States was mired in stalement. With the domestic political support for the war fading fast, the United States decided to withdraw from Indochina, even though it would take Nixon and Kissinger another four years to accomplish it.

I have long argued that the media and the American left robbed America of victory, or at least of a different and better outcome in Vietnam. When the last helicopter left Saigon, we left behind a mess that condemned enormous numbers of people to a harsh death. The "Domino effect" that many pooh-poohed actually occurred. Our abandonment of our allies left the thugs in Vietnam and Cambodia a free hand. The thugs used it, and many died as a result.

A precipitous withdrawal from Iraq will KILL tens of thousands, if not substantially more than that. Potentially it could kill more - in reality - than the fictional number the Lancet study spewed up. But the left does not care. Despite their protestations, they simply do not care how many die so long as they get their way here. Just like they did not - and do not - care how many Vietnamese corpses they caused. Just like they did not - and do not - care how meaningless their own actions rendered the deaths of thousands of their own countrymen.

Tet was a disaster for the Viet Cong. It took the media and the American left to make it a victory. In that respect, Bush is exactly right. The media and the left are at it again in exactly the same fashion.

UPDATE: Others: Political Pit Bull, Riehl World View, Dinocrat, Newsbusters, Mudville Gazette,

Life Catches Up With Urban Legend

Many years ago, I first heard the story of the car. I have since heard it many times, always a bit different, the details change depending on who is telling it and probably on who is listening to it. The story was old probably many years before I heard it. You've likely heard a variation on the same tale.

When I first heard it, the car was a Porsche. The story goes along these lines. A young man reads the want ads looking for a car. He sees an ad that says something along the lines of, "Porsche for sale, low miles, mint condition, $25". The young man calls, intrigued, but quite sure the ad is a misprint. He talks to a woman and she tells him that the ad is indeed correct. She will sell the car, exactly as advertised to the first person to bring the cash.

He hurries over, and lo and behold, it is indeed a beautiful Porsche in mint condition. He pays the money, even though he thinks the woman insane,  and gets the car. When he asks why she would sell such a car for such a ridiculous sum, the woman tells him that the car belonged to her husband. It seems the cad had run off with another woman. Then he'd called one day and told his wife to sell the car and send him the money. Which she did. The car changes in the story, as does the sum of money involved. But you get the idea.

Well, life has kind of caught up with the urban legend. A woman in England is selling all of her husband's clothing along with whatever else was in his closet on eBay after she found out about his affair and he left with another woman. She is willing to take cash or a decent, single male in trade.

A dumped wife has put her cheating husband's entire possessions up for sale on internet auction site eBay.

The scathing advert brands the man she has lived with for more than 20 years a 'dirty little weasel'.

Alongside is a photo of his belongings which have been tossed from an upstairs window and are lying in a heap in the garden.

The fuming mother-of-two set no reserve price on the auction, but said she would take cash or swap the items for 'a decent single man'.

The seller from Keighley, West Yorkshire, named on eBay as 395edmondson, added: "These are all the items that were in my husband of six and half years, and partner for 15 years' closet.

"This includes tops, trousers, boots, socks, underpants and a few bonus items that he didn't have stashed at his new fiancee's house when I found out about the dirty little weasel's affair, though God knows how he was going to get married to her without me finding out.

"Some of these items might be slightly damp due to them having been chucked out of the bedroom window and sitting in the garden for a bit, since the cheating scumbag hasn't dare show his face since I phoned him, despite his bull**** assurances that he would visit our two young sons.

"I have since bagged them up and put them in the garage but they may smell a bit damp and mouldy because I sure as hell am not washing and ironing his clothes just in case he has to collect them. Due to this I may have to remove the listing at short notice, but am sure you understand.

"I would consider swapping for a decent single man."

I wonder how the story will sound the next time I hear it?

Principle Ahead Of Self Interest

I have stayed off the topic of the purported "outing" of a Republican Senator from Idaho other than my single post last night. The reason is that the accused person and his family are going through more than they should have to already and I did not really want to add any fuel. The MSM appears to be treating this crap as it should be, they are not picking it up, much to the dismay of the major league creeps who orchestrated it, I'm sure. But I revisit it only because Dean Barnett has done an absolutely fabulous writeup of why the left is so badly, badly misjudging the reactions to their slime trails among conservatives.

I haven’t heard from a single conservative who gives a hoot about Larry Craig’s sexuality. I assume he’s straight as do most readers, but the overwhelming sentiment we all share is indifference.

But this story is an important one because it reveals so many pathologies of the left. Sadly, the Larry Craig “outing” reveals what the left has become.

THE FIRST LEFT WING PATHOLOGY “OUTED” by the Craig story is the relentless meanness that characterizes modern day liberalism. This is an old topic, and doesn’t deserve revisiting. If there are still people out there who think lefties lose elections because they’re too gosh darn nice, there’s nothing left to say that will convince them otherwise.

More interesting is what this line of attack tells us about the left’s beliefs regarding the right. The left strongly believes that conservatives detest homosexuals and will be disgusted by the presence of a Lavender Mafia in the GOP tent. I can understand how they would reach this conclusion – certain chronic right wing embarrassments like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson have historically fed such a notion.

But if those on the left actually knew more practicing Christians, they would know that the stuff about condemning the sin but loving the sinner isn’t mere lip service. If the members of the left actually knew the people that they so casually and easily defame, they would also understand that infinite forgiveness is a hallmark of America’s Christian community.

In short, this entire offensive rests on notions hatched in the left wing echo chamber without any dissenting voices available to disabuse the strategists of the their faulty assumptions. If the left actually took the time to understand the dynamics of the community they so loathe, they would know that professional Outing Scumbag Mike Rogers will inspire the Republican base, not the opposite.

Please read the whole thing. It is exactly what I and others have been trying to get across. This strategy is actually backfiring on the left and they cannot grasp that. Because they do not really understand who they are dealing with. They have a picture formed in an echo chamber that is as realistic as Wile E. Coyote's pursuit of the Roadrunner. They actually cannot even grasp the concept that some people can - and do - put principle ahead of self interest.  

Notice Anything Odd About This Coverage?

There was another debate today in Connecticut. Lieberman and Lamont were joined by Alan Schlesinger and two minor party candidates.

Two minor party candidates joined Democrat Ned Lamont in assailing Lieberman's support for the war. Republican Alan Schlesinger reminded the group that the Senate lacks the authority to withdraw troops.

"Three-and-a-half years ago, President Bush rushed our country into war," said Lamont, a wealthy businessman who rode a wave of anti-war sentiment to an August primary victory over Lieberman. "Senator Lieberman cheered him on every step of the way."

Lieberman, who is running as an independent, said, "No one wants to end the war in Iraq more than I do." But he warned against pulling out troops before the job is done.

The three-term senator and former vice presidential nominee criticized Lamont's support for a Senate resolution earlier this year that would have set a July 1 deadline for withdrawing U.S. troops.

"That would be a recipe for disaster," Lieberman said. "We've got to end the war in Iraq, but we've got to do it in the right way."

You really kind of have to read it all the way through to see what I'm seeing, I think. But the article, by the Associated Press discusses what Lieberman said, quotes from the minor candidates, quotes from Schlesinger  reminding everyone that Lamont's platform is basically meaningless because the Senate can't withdraw the troops

And has one little sentence from Lamont. Does this sound like Lamont did a great job or anything? I notice the left sites are praising Schlesinger as well.  But they are weirdly silent about Lamont. I don't think Ned is impressing anyone in these debates.

Venezuela Refuses To Pull Out Of Race

Venezuela has refused pleas from other Latin American and Caribbean nations to drop its pursuit of the open UN Security Council seat. Guatemala will not pull out either. Voting will continue tomorrow and Friday. The UN General Assembly will be paralyzed.

After 22 ballots on Monday and Tuesday, Venezuela lagged some 30 votes behind Guatemala 21 times. Neither nation reached the required two-thirds vote in the 192-member U.N. General Assembly for a two-year seat on the Security Council.

Voting will resume on Thursday and probably Friday unless General Assembly President Haya Rashed Al Khalifa of Bahrain cuts off the repetitive balloting, which diplomats said she was unlikely to do.

Armed with petrodollars, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has tried to form an alliance in Asia, Africa and the Middle East to challenge Washington's interests. Failure to get into the U.N. Security Council would represent a setback for his ambitions for a bigger international profile.

"We don't enjoy paralyzing the work of the General Assembly. We don't enjoy divisions in the Latin American group," Guatemalan Foreign Minister Gert Rosenthal said after a meeting of 32 Latin American and Caribbean nations.

But Rosenthal said since there was no agreement on a compromise or consensus candidate, "so why not pick the country that had the most votes in the General Assembly?"

Compromise candidates mentioned are Uruguay or Paraguay in South America. In Central America, the candidates would be Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, which are next in the lineup for council seats from the region.

Chavez will doubtless be trying to buy a few more votes, but it looks like this will go nowhere for the foreseeable future.

Consumer Prices Down, Housing Starts Up

US consumer prices dropped sharply in September while new housing construction jumped. The economy is still going strong.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cheaper energy helped pull overall U.S. consumer prices down steeply in September and new-home building unexpectedly rebounded, implying a still-resilient economy.

The promising government economic data on Wednesday bolstered investors' hopes for stronger corporate profits and persuaded analysts the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates on hold as it gauges the impact of cheaper energy on inflation expectations.

Now, don't worry, the media still finds a big black cloud behind that silver lining:

The Labor Department said overall U.S. consumer prices dropped 0.5 percent in September after rising 0.2 percent in August. But core prices, which exclude food and energy, crept up 0.2 percent for a third successive month, enough to keep inflation risk at the forefront as a potential worry.

Separately, the Commerce Department said housing starts hit an annual pace of 1.772 million units in September, compared with an upwardly revised 1.674 million pace in August.

The scope for a housing pickup seems limited, however, since permits for future groundbreaking that gauge builders' optimism fell 6.3 percent in September to 1.619 million units a year, the lowest rate since October 2001.

Regardless, it appears the Fed will not be changing interest rates any time soon. The analysts had been predicting a drop in housing - they were wrong. Annual inflation is around 3% and the dollar is gaining strength. The economy is booming.

Bolts From The Blue

Australia reports that over 4,000 bolts of lightning struck all over the Southeastern part of the country overnight.

Senior forecaster Neale Fraser said the lightning strikes in the southeast corner of New South Wales state heralded the start of Australia's summer storm season.

"From now on, right through the summer, is the severe storm season. Certainly from October onwards until March or April next year is potentially severe thunderstorm time," said Fraser.

Forecasters warn that the bolts are the number one cause of brush fires. Or sometimes they crash through the roof and get stuck in the ceiling. Oh, wait - different bolt.

CANBERRA, Australia - A man who lives under a Sydney flight path was shocked when a bolt from an airliner crashed through his roof, according to a news report Wednesday.

Angelo Margiotta said he thought a bomb had exploded when the stainless steel bolt, which appeared to be about 6 inches long, struck his roof in the Sydney suburb of Five Dock on Wednesday morning, Ten Network television news reported.

Margiotta called the fire brigade and a firefighter found the bolt which had smashed two roof tiles and lodged in the ceiling.

Oddly, nobody has missed a bolt from any airplanes flying about the area. Maybe it wasn't an airplane at all.

Black Sunday?

Authorities are taking this particular warning with a huge grain of salt. Apparently, there has been a threat issued on a website that seven NFL stadiums will be hit with so-called dirty bombs on Sunday. Neither the FBI or the NFL appears to be very worried at all.

The warning, posted Oct. 12, was part of an ongoing Internet conversation titled "New Attack on America Be Afraid." It mentioned NFL stadiums in New York, Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Oakland and Cleveland, where games are scheduled for this weekend.

The Homeland Security Department alerted authorities and stadium owners in those cities, as well as the NFL, of the Web message but said the threat was being viewed "with strong skepticism." Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said there was no intelligence that indicated such an attack was imminent, and he said the alert was "out of an abundance of caution."

"The department strongly encourages the public to continue to go about their plans, including attending events that involve large public gatherings such as football games," Knocke said.

The FBI also expressed doubt about the threat.

The nation's alert level remains at yellow, signaling an elevated risk of an attack. The threat level for airline flights is at orange, a higher level, where it has been since a foiled plot to bomb U.S.-bound commercial jets was revealed on Aug. 10.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said stadiums around the country "are very well protected through the comprehensive security procedures we have in place, including secure facility perimeters, pat-downs and bag searches."

Officials were made aware of the Web posting on Oct. 16. The threat was timed to be carried out on Sunday, Oct. 22, marking the final day in Mecca of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month.

"The death toll will approach 100,000 from the initial blasts and countless other fatalities will later occur as result from radioactive fallout," according to a copy of the posting that was obtained by The Associated Press.

The bombs, according to the posting, would be delivered to the stadiums in trucks. All but one of the stadiums — Atlanta — are open-air arenas, the posting noted, adding: "Due to the open air, the radiological fallout will destroy those not killed in the initial explosion."

Explosions would be nearly simultaneous, the posting said, with the cities specifically chosen in different time zones.

Well, aside from the fact that this is completely out of style for al Qaeda and would be almost impossible to pull off now that it has been telegraphed, one can understand why the authorities are not taking this warning of an "American Hiroshima" too seriously.

UPDATE: Additional coverage including the detail that the site the threat was posted on is hosted by a company in Troy, New York.

Boy Beats Beast

The animal uprising is at it again. They've dispatched their aquatic shock troops to England this time. A young lad out fishing turned the tables on the agent they sent, however. He hooked the beast with his fishing tackle first.

He found he'd caught a Piranha.

A teenage boy has caught a deadly piranha while fishing in the exotic waters of … Stockport.

The man-eating fish is feared in its traditional hunting ground in the tropical waters of South America, but is less of a danger in the chilly ponds of Greater Manchester.

Josh Boyle, 14, was at his local fishing spot when he hooked the sharp-toothed predator.

He held it carefully at arm's length so his friend could take a photo, rightly thinking that nobody would believe his fisherman's tale without evidence.

He said: "My brother used to keep piranhas as pets so I know what they look like.

"I was shocked - but it was as shocked as me. It had big teeth but it wasn't trying to bite me and it looked pretty weak."

The lad threw his catch back in the pond. The pestilential pond predator promptly died of embarrassment because he'd failed to catch the boy.

Chickens, Chickens, Chickens

Coming around once again to the subject of chickens counted before the eggs are even laid, the Hotline has this little item. Despite the massive cheerleading in the media, despite the huge, overblown predictions, despite the gloom and doom from some folks, despite the huge debts being assumed by the DNC, Republican grassroots efforts are not declining. In fact, they are gathering strength.

If you're ever read a profile of Ken Mehlman, you know he is obsessed with metrics. For him, one of the most important sources of data is a weekly e-mail his political team prepares called the "Weekly Grassroots Report." It meticulously records the work of tens of thousands of volunteers in targeted states, counties and congressional districts across the country. The data summary allows the RNC to determine which states are meeting goals and which states are falling behind.

The RNC declined to share the most recent report, which was issued Monday. But two independent sources who saw last week's report professed to be surprised: not only was their no drop off last week, 12 states broke new voter contact records.

In a month, the party completed more than a million phone calls and door contacts combined. Bigger states are putting up big numbers — even Ohio, which lagged behind its targets all summer, has caught up. The RNC is particularly pleased with their progress in New Jersey, where they've rapidly set up a more aggressive version of their 72 Hour Program in light of the state's more competitive Senate race.

In other words, Karl Rove is not optimistic because he's slipped his tether. He's optimistic for a darn good reason. That optimism may explain the sudden frantic borrowing of money by the DNC to finance last minute advertising.

UPDATE: Others: Wizbang, Ann Althouse, Jawa Report,

Theories Cut No Ice

Dang. New high resolution images of the Moon have dashed the long standing theory that water ice might be present in Lunar craters at the South Pole. It appears that if there is any water at all, it is most likely in the form of tiny grains rather than as large chunks of ice.

New high-resolution radar images of the Moon have diminished hopes that the lunar poles might harbor water that could sustain future lunar and solar system explorations.

The images, discussed in the Oct. 19 issue of the journal Nature, showed no evidence that ice exists in craters at the lunar south pole.

Even in the lunar summer at the south pole, the Sun barely edges above the horizon, so the bottoms of impact craters are in permanent shadow.

Since the 1960s, theorists have suggested that these "cold traps" might contain deposits of water ice. The theory was bolstered in 1992 when Earth-based radar telescopes located "ice deposits" inside impact craters at the poles of the planet Mercury.

Because of the tilt of the Moon's orbital plane relative to the Earth's equatorial plane, the Earth can rise much higher above the horizon at the lunar south pole than the Sun, so telescopes on the Earth can use radar to "see" some of the shadowed areas of the Moon.

Earth-based radar measurements of the Moon since the 1990s have consistently failed to detect ice deposits similar to those on Mercury.

Since water ice could be converted to oxygen, drinkable water or even rocket fuel, it would be a valuable resource for any future lunar base. Because of this high value, NASA's 2008 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will crash two vehicles onto the Moon to search for water ice at the South Pole.

If no water is found, it will make it harder to get a colony on the Moon or to use it as a staging point for a Mars mission. One of the high-resolution images can be seen here.

The Town Formerly Known As Prittlewell

I never meant 2 cause u any sorrow
I never meant 2 cause u any pain
I only wanted 2 one time see u laughing
I only wanted 2 see u laughing in the purple rain
(The artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince, Purple Rain)

Well the people of the town of Prittlewell, England sure as heck weren't laughing a whole lot when purple powder started raining down over a two square mile area. The residents literally had a purple rain. Emergency crews were dispatched, chemical hazard experts deployed and the entire area was cordoned off. Eventually, they figured out it wasn't dangerous.

A cloud of purple powder sparked panic when it rained down on an Essex town.

Worried families dialled 999 after the brightly coloured dust leaked into the atmosphere and started settling on homes and cars in Prittlewell, outside Southend, yesterday.

Emergency crews feared they were dealing with a major incident and threw an exclusion zone around an area of two square miles. The first fire crews arriving on the scene thought the powder could be dangerous to anyone inhaling it and stopped people entering the sealed-off area.

A team of chemical hazard officers were called in but, after several hours, they established that the purple rain was just an industrial dye from a food packaging plant 500 metres away which is being demolished.

(There's a great picture on the Daily Mail website, by the way. This was quite a large amount of dye and it is very, very purple.) It is hard to believe the demolition company didn't notice anything unusual. Like a big old purple plume rising from the building as they tore it down. In fact, it's impossible to believe. The powder should wash off with water and detergent. There is no word if the town is considering changing its name to "Prince".

Welcome To The Twilight Zone

Submitted for your approval: Activists are in full cry after childhood obesity. Lawyers are preparing class action suits against the food industry. Bans on soft drinks and trans-fats are being imposed. Experts express worries about couch potato kids perched in front of televisions and video games.

And schools districts are banning the game of tag at recess.

ATTLEBORO, Mass. - Tag, you're out! Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they'll get hurt and hold the school liable.

Recess is "a time when accidents can happen," said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban.

While there is no districtwide ban on contact sports during recess, local rules have been cropping up. Several school administrators around Attleboro, a city of about 45,000 residents, took aim at dodgeball a few years ago, saying it was exclusionary and dangerous.

Elementary schools in Cheyenne, Wyo., and Spokane, Wash., also recently banned tag during recess. A suburban Charleston, S.C., school outlawed all unsupervised contact sports.

Ah, the nanny state. Nothing has to make sense here in the twilight zone.

UPDATE: More local coverage from the Sun Chronicle including interviews with parents. Also a sane principal at another school:

George Gagnon, principal of Falls Elementary School in North Attleboro, said playground rules have swung a different direction since he started there four years ago.

Tag, touch football, soccer, "they can play all that," he said. That wasn't the case before he arrived.

Gagnon's philosophy is, "I'd rather see them running around, getting fresh air and coming back in refreshed."

He feels children are "trapped" in organized sports like football, hockey and baseball. Running around outside at recess, kids make up their own games with their own rules and resolutions, Gagnon said.

Accidents occur "every couple of days," he said. "But kids run and fall — that's kids."