Sadly, the fact that somebody got shot in the middle of the day today is not nearly as shocking as it should be. What was odd about the story, though, was that the assailants apparently used a Prius, first to ram their victim, then to drive away after they shot him for good measure.

Turns out there's a whole seamy underworld of criminals in Prii:

A brilliant legislator last night was talking to a reporter about getting a cell-phone driving law out of committee, while driving home:

“It’s a common-sense measure,” said Wagner, in a phone interview he described as hands-free while driving home from the State House in his Honda Accord. “I think it will save lives; I think that it will improve public safety on the roads of Massachusetts; I think it’s a measure which is long overdue.”

According to a University of Utah study, during that conversation Wagner had the reaction time of someone with a Blood Alcohol Content of .08, the state's limit - and was more likely to be involved in a crash. This was at night, probably in inclement weather, too. Then we see the chairman of the committee demonstrating complete ignorance:

Representative William M. Straus, House chairman of the transportation committee, said that may be the case, but dialing itself still poses a particular danger that pulls drivers’ eyes and attention from the road, their hands from the wheel. “I happen to believe that having both hands available to drive -- even though a conversation can be distracting -- is still an improvement to public safety,” he said.

There's nothing like placing one's "beliefs" over a decade and a half of research; the claim that hands-free devices represent a significant safety improvement was disproved starting in 1997 when NHTSA found research showing it's the conversation, stupid:

While the hands-free approach may at first seem like an obvious solution to cellular telephone related safety problems, it presumes that crashes caused by cellular telephone use result primarily from dialing, from having only one hand on the wheel, or from reaching for, holding or dropping a phone. Although these factors certainly contribute to the crash picture, the data from North Carolina as well as the NASS case studies suggest that conversation itself is the most prevalent single behavior associated with cellular telephone related crashes in the United States.

In 2009, a 2003 study comes to light with the following conclusion:

[...]there are negligible differences in safety relevant behavior and performance between using hand-held and hands-free communications devices while driving from the standpoint of cognitive distraction. Specifically, the experiment data reveal observable degradations in driver behavior and performance and changes in risk-taking and decision-making behaviors when using both hand-held and hands-free mobile phones, and the nature of these degradations and changes are symptomatic of the potential safety-related problems.

In January of 2010, NHSTA published a policy statement and FAQ, stating clearly:

[...]cell phone use while driving, whether it is a hands-free or hand-held device, degrades a driver’s performance. The driver is more likely to miss key visual and audio cues needed to avoid a crash. Hand-held devices may be slightly worse, but hands-free devices are not risk-free.

Finally, in December, the National Transportation Safety Board recommends a complete ban on personal electronic devices while driving, saying "No call, no text, no update, is worth a human life."

Our senators and representatives have no excuse for ignorance on this issue given that the federal government has a simple and easy-to-navigate website on the dangers of distracted driving for over a year now.

If you're going to have representatives bandy about phrases like "If that’s an inconvenience for people, tough [...] The inconvenience of the death and destruction on the road far outweighs any very minor inconvenience", then find some backbone, ignore the cell phone industry lobbyists, write effective legislation that will actually save lives, and enjoy the backing of 15 years of research to castigate anyone who refuses to support you.

The mayor's office reports some door-to-door marketers are attempting to foist burglar-alarm services on residents by claiming the city - actually, Mayor Menino himself - is springing for the installation costs.

Mayor Menino is not amused. If anybody knocks on your door from GE Security Systems and Versatile Marketing, tell 'em to take a hike, he advises:

The company installs their system, and although they do not charge an "installation fee," they collect social security and credit card information and sign up the resident for $49/month service charge for the system's maintenance. The City of Boston and Mayor Menino do NOT have any relationship with this company and remind residents that they should not give out their personal information to anyone they do not know who calls or visits their home.

Nancy Parker, 53, will be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court today on charges she faked an attack on her MBTA bus in Chelsea, then collected worker's compensation.

Parker, of Burlington, is formally charged with worker's compensation fraud, misleading an investigator and filing a false report for the Oct. 2, 2007 incident on a 111 bus, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports. The T fired her after they learned of discrepancies in her claim, the DA's office says.

In 2009, a Chelsea District Court judge tore into prosecutors, saying that while Parker had changed her initial story of being shot by a stranger in a robbery attempt to being shot by an ex-lover, there was little evidence to suggest she was lying about actually being shot.

Her arraignment today comes after an indictment by a grand jury.

Innocent, etc.

A local parent is frantically searching for his daughter's Lisa Leopard, stolen out of the family mini-van last night at the Rite-Aid near Davis Square:

She has had her since she was 3 years old. This is the go-to comfort toy. No, this is her best friend. This is the thing she brought to EVERY SINGLE "show and tell" day at school for a year.

This is her Hobbes. In fact, when I introduced her to Calvin and Hobbes last year, it was as if she had written the comics in a previous life.

So as you can imagine, I have spent the last several hours in the rain inspecting every square inch within a five block radius of the crime scene. I have been trying to get into the heads of whatever stoner kids found an unlocked door, grabbed the first thing they saw, and looked inside, and realized that there was nothing worth stealing. I have gone into every trash can and made friends with the T station workers. I even chatted up a few of the downtrodden folks at the bottle redemption center.

Charles McInerney spotted John Adams showing off his new Brady jersey in Quincy today.

Karin posts an ode to her early commute today.

The Dorchester Reporter breaks the news on City Councilor Sal LaMattina's ruminations. Like the city clerk's job, the register job has traditionally been a haven for city councilors who want to move on - if he runs and wins, LaMattina, who now represents East Boston, Charlestown and the North End, would replace Richard Ianella, who retired last year.

Dan Kennedy gives us an overview of the Globe retraction of its story that former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor - who sparked three civil wars (one of them in a neighboring country) - worked for the CIA. The retraction apparently hasn't been enough to keep the former Bentley student and one-time guest of the Commonwealth (MCI Plymouth, before he escaped) from taking time out from his busy schedule of defending himself before a special UN court on charges of rape, murder and other war crimes.