If you got a photo radar speeding ticket at the intersection of Shea Boulevard and 120th Street in Scottsdale between December 7 and January 4, today is your lucky day.

A malfunctioning sensor in the photo radar system has caused the City of Scottsdale to toss out 589 speeding citations. The 35 upstanding citizens that already paid fines or traffic school fees will be refunded.

The bad sensor was in one of the eastbound lanes — attempting to nab all you people flying out to Fountain Hills.

Citations are being dismissed for drivers clocked at more than 11 MPH over the limit.

The news story doesn’t mention if those traveling westbound (on Shea) will also have their tickets dismissed.

The impact to the City of Scottsdale coffers has yet to be determined. Fines for speeding 9 mph over the limit range from $165 to $210 per citation. (And I betcha someone got clocked going WAY more than 9 MPH over…)

WARNING! The sensors have been repaired and cameras are back in service!

Technorati Tags: photo radar, Scottsdale

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Bear with me while I work on switching the blog hosting from GoDaddy to Media Temple. Hopefully in a couple of hours, all will be well.

Things will likely be goofy for awhile… Will update here when I think I’m done.

Update: All seems well. It can take a couple of days for the DNS propagation to complete — meaning sometimes you might get the site from GoDaddy, sometimes from Media Temple. But other than that, I think things are fine. If you see something wonky, please advise. Hopefully things speed up. Or at least don’t on occasion slow to an excruciating crawl.

At least the ding-dang timeouts have ceased for now. That is encouraging.

You’ve probably already heard this, but in case not…

As was generally expected, the Fed cut the Fed Funds rate another 50 basis points (0.5%) today to 3.0%.

This was the second rate cut in eight days, coming after the “emergency cut” last Tuesday.

This does not necessarily mean mortgage rates will drop.

As expected, lots of coverage from the mainstream media is out there…

From the Wall Street Journal:

With its second rate cut in eight days the Federal Reserve continued one of its most aggressive monetary easing campaigns in recent history as it seeks to nip an incipient recession in the bud.

The Fed lowered its short-term interest rate target 0.5 percentage points to 3%, and left the door open to more: the statement accompanying the move said “downside risks to growth remain” and the Fed would “act in a timely manner as needed to address those risks.” Investors expect the Fed to cut the rate to 2.75% in March.

From the FOMC (the “fed” – Federal Open Market Committee):

Financial markets remain under considerable stress, and credit has tightened further for some businesses and households.  Moreover, recent information indicates a deepening of the housing contraction as well as some softening in labor markets.

The Committee expects inflation to moderate in coming quarters, but it will be necessary to continue to monitor inflation developments carefully.

Technorati Tags: Fed Funds Rate, mortgage rates, financial policy

If you do nothing else today, read this:

Simple Acts of Kindness and Caring

UPDATE: This is a great story, and a great lesson. But it appears to be an “urban legend”.  Fiction. Now that doesn’t mean that you can’t learn something from it, but I don’t want anyone out there thinking it’s true (like gullible I did).

Jacquelyn Gyug from Point2 shared this little gem on the current weather in Saskatoon — way up north in Saskatchewan, Canada:

And I thought it was cold here in Gilbert, Arizona this morning:

Stay warm guys!  Heck, stay alive…

Norm, you OK?

Wonder if Saul Klein is reconsidering?

.

Technorati Tags: Point2, Saskatoon, ridiculously cold weather