Gomers -- What's going wrong

SQUAD CAR SMASHED: A Cedar Rapids police squad car, involved in chasing another vehicle whose driver had fled during a police stop, wound up being smashed by a train on Wednesday. The suspect was driving alongside railroad tracks, then veered onto the tracks. The police officer followed, driving between two sets of tracks that eventually merged, and soon was advised to stop the chase. But in turning around, the squad car became stuck on the tracks and an oncoming train couldn't stop in time. Happily, no one was hurt in what at best should have been a learning opportunity.

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EAVESDROPPING ERROR: Managers need to be sure the people they supervise are being productive and behaving appropriate to the job. But hiding a baby monitor in their workplace area to listen in on conversations is not an appropriate management tool. University of Iowa officials, following up on a complaint filed by several UI medical clinic employees that their supervisor did just that with the blessing of another administrator, on Thursday found reason to discipline both. Such workplace eavesdropping may be illegal; at the least, it's a lazy way to supervise employees and could have compromised the confidentiality of patients.

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