Once again debit fraud seems to be rearing its ugly head.  Last summer there was a rash of unauthorized transactions in California that were linked to the Aldi debit card scanner in the Wheeling store.  Now a new wave in the same larea?  Not so good.  And now we have Minnesota thrown into the mix.  This new info comes courtesy of Gremlin on CW.

Here are the reports from Friday through last night as reported in the Buffalo Grove Police Blotter:

Information for Police
Occurred 1:10pm on 4/30
1100 block of Highland Grove Drive
Resident reported and unauthorized withdrawal of $500.00 was made from her account. The withdrawal was made in California, and the resident still has her card in her possession.

Information for Police
Occurred 1:05pm on 5/1
1100 block of Johnson Drive
Resident reported four unauthorized withdrawals from her account, each in the amount of $400.00. The withdrawals occurred in California and the resident still has her card in her possession.

Information for Police
Occurred 3:30pm on 5/1
800 block of Boxwood Lane
Resident reported that someone made two unauthorized withdrawals from her account. The transactions took place in Skokie. The account has been cancelled.

Information for Police
Occurred between 4/7 and 5/2
800 block of Dunhill Drive
Resident reported that someone made two unauthorized withdrawals from her account totaling $490.00. The transactions took place in California. The account has been credited.

Information for Police
Occurred 6:10pm on 4/30
200 block of Thompson Boulevard
Resident reported that someone made four unauthorized withdrawals from her account totaling $811.80. The transactions took place in California. The account has been closed.

Information for Police
Occurred on 4/29
900 block of Pine Tree Circle South
Resident reported that someone made four unauthorized withdrawals from her account. The transactions took place in California. The account has been closed.

Information for Police
Occurred 4/29
400 block of Highland Grove Drive
Resident reported that someone made two unauthorized withdrawals from his account totaling $710.00. One was made in California the other in Minnesota. The account has been closed.

Information for Police
Occurred on 4/30
1000 block of Crofton Lane
Resident reported that someone attempted to make two transfers from her account totaling $13,000.00. The activity has been reported to the bank. The transactions took place in California.

Information for Police
Occurred 9:30am on 5/1
1100 block of Windbrooke Drive
Resident reported two unauthorized withdrawals from her account totaling $605.95. The transactions took place in California.

Information for Police
Occurred at Noon on 5/2
100 block of Horatio Boulevard
Resident reported that someone made two unauthorized withdrawals from her account totaling $803.00. The transactions took place in California.

Information for Police
Occurred on 4/30
1000 block of Hilldale Lane
Resident reported that someone made an unauthorized withdrawal from her account in the amount of $303.00. The transaction took place in California.

And this is another reason why PITA says we can’t afford to shop at Aldi!

OK, now I have a very sad, sorry tale to relate; get your hankies ready…

A reader placed a large Splenda order and bought 60 coupons for that deal and 24 Nivea coupons.  Her Damned fool Husband decided the clean off the dining room table of all “junk” mail and so not only tossed those coupons into the recycling bin, but also a very large insurance check.  Recycling was picked up this morning.

and yet he lives..

Carrie published her interview in today’s Trib with TLC, Supervalu and Joanie Demer (thecrazycouponlady.com); J’aime Kirlew (or, as she is known in the couponing community,  J’ailme Kirlew) did not respond to requests for an interview.

See if you can pin down the TLC guy on even one statement.  I couldn’t!  Goddess predicts a successful career in politics…

Is this the latest trend with the chi-chi set:  a happy hour for toddlers?

Toddler is served sangria at Lakeland Olive Garden

A 2-year-old boy was accidentally served sangria instead of orange juice at a Lakeland Olive Garden last month, prompting Orlando-based Darden Restaurants to change how it makes the wine punch at its Italian chain.

Olive Garden decided Wednesday to make sangrias individually to order. It had previously been made in batches and kept in pitchers, Darden spokesman Rich Jeffers said. A popular item, it had been the Olive Garden’s only alcoholic beverage made in batches, he said.

Jill VanHeest of Lakeland said she took her son Nikolai to the hospital after the March 31 mix-up, where the toddler was given IV fluids and released a couple of hours later. He has suffered no lasting effects, she said in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel on Wednesday.

VanHeest said it took employees about a half-hour to realize something was wrong. She said she noticed a problem when Nikolai began acting up.

“His eyes were completely dilated and red,” she said.

A waiter removed the child’s drink and said he needed to get him a new one, but didn’t tell her anything more, she said.

“When he came back, I said, ‘I need to know what was in the cup in case he has some kind of reaction,”’ said VanHeest, who owns a restaurant with her husband. “He said, ‘the manager will be right over, but it was tropical sangria.”’

VanHeest has an attorney but isn’t sure whether she will sue.

VanHeest’s attorney contacted the news media in Tampa this week after reports surfaced that a Michigan Applebee’s accidentally served a margarita to another toddler. After the accident, Applebee’s said it will now pour apple juice from single-serve containers served at the table.

Darden’s Jeffers said he wasn’t sure whether drink making would need to change at other Darden restaurants, which include Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse.

Earlier Wednesday, Jeffers had said no changes would be made and that procedures had been in place to keep such an error from happening. He later said the chain decided that morning to tweak its rules.

Jeffers would not say whether anyone was fired because of the mistake.

The poll also reveals that the majority of the poll participants are male (53 percent), very conservative (40 percent) and between the ages of 45 and 65 (36 percent).

One commenter wrote:

“I believe God made us a different color for a reason and should be honored by not marrying outside of the race that God picked for me, however the color of one’s skin does not make him/her better than another color.”

Right.

But before I even consider Mississippi’s fascination with all things Jim Crow, let’s explore the premise of the poll in the first place.

The goal of the poll is to identify which Republican candidate Mississippians would vote for in the 2012 presidential election.

The infamously controversial Governor Haley Barbour is invariably the state’s favorite among ignorant-media-whore Sarah Palin, the God-righteous Mike Huckabee, the-Mormon-most-refuse-to-embrace Mitt Romney, the-incessant-adulterer Newt Gingrich, I-think-the-founding-fathers-ended-slavery Michele Bachman, cap-and-trade-flip-flopper Tim Pawlenty and I-don’t-believe-in-civil-rights Ron Paul.

What a lovely bunch.

So how on earth did Director and pollster Tom Jensen come up with that question? I mean, after asking about whether participants had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the named candidates and how they identified themselves, why ask whether they are for interracial marriage?

Is it because our President is the product of an interracial union? Is it because they consciously wanted to rile people up? Is it because, he, himself, or Public Policy, is biased on the issue to begin with? I just have a difficult time focusing on the actual poll, when this reeks of someone’s shameless effort for media attention.

And if I am to focus on the findings of this poll at all, are we really surprised to see that Barbour, known for saying he doesn’t think the slavery conversation is important, would be the front runner in this state? Or what about his equally progressive brother, Jeppie, who lit-er-ally said:

“I guess they’re [blacks] just goin’ through a state of being rebellious and hard-nosed and not listenin’ to white people like they used to.”

I wish I was making this up.

Good ole Mississippi, the state where Medgar Evers was murdered. Good ole Mississippi, the state where three civil rights workers were killed by the Ku Klux Klan. Good ole Mississippi, the state where after President Obama won the 2008 election, racial slurs and bigotry reigned supreme.

One thing the poll did make clear, though, is that the racism of the past largely lives with the old. I just hope that once much of that embattled generation passes away, they will take their archaic mind-set about interracial relationships with them.

But I won’t hold my breath.

A short post here to notify everyone on my gmail contacts list that apparently some enterprising hackers were at work alerting people to the incredible weight loss opportunities available using acai berries…well, folks, you know that if it worked I’d be shilling Wags, not online suppliers!  I mean, who pays, even for the Holy Grail of weight loss?  Oddly enough, every single email response knew this about me…