A 52-year-old Minnesotan has been charged with defrauding a restaurant as a habitual criminal after he faked heart attacks to get out of paying bills on at least two occasions.

From the Associated Press:

Police say the Waukesha man took a cab to a mall Monday and pretended to have a heart attack. The cabdriver left unpaid.

Authorities say the man then ran up a $23 bill when he had a steak dinner at Applebee’s. He again pretended to have a heart attack.

This time the fire department took him to a hospital. A doctor there recognized the man as having pulled the same stunt in the past few weeks.

The man could get up to nine months in prison and a $10,000 fine.

And let’s hope his cardiovascular system is in good shape.

I met Josh Segall tonight as he was glad-handing folks at the City of Auburn’s Fourth of July celebration at Duck Samford Park.

Segall, of course, is the Democratic candidate for Congress against U.S. Rep Mike Rogers in the Alabama Third Congressional District. He is an attorney in Montgomery.

I have been reading about Segall as his campaign against Rogers has picked up momentum. Segall started small, but he’s gained a lot of attention from progressives in the blogosphere and among insiders in Washington who believe the Alabama Third just may be ripe for an upset. (Politico produced this article about him about six weeks ago, after Democrats picked off what had been a GOP seat in a special election in Mississippi, and the DCCC noted Segall’s progress when it named the contest as one of the “emerging races” in its Red-to-Blue fundraising program last month.)

Much of the upset talk has been fueled by Segall’s fundraising numbers. He’s raised a lot of money, and that hasn’t hurt his credibility, either. He outraised Rogers in the first quarter, about $270K to $100K. Some observers pondered that Segall might have picked all the low-hanging fruit, cautioning that it would be his second-quarter numbers, not his first, that would be the true gauge of the strength of his candidacy.

Well, Segall told me his campaign will announce that it has raised $275,000 by the end of the quarter.

Money enables you to do all sorts of things, like fun polls that can tell you all sorts of things about yourself – and your opponent. Segall said he has one in the field over the next few days. He didn’t elaborate, but a poll way back in November—well before Barack Obama was the Democratic nominee-in-waiting—reported that “although Mike Rogers leads unknown challenger Joshua Segall, Rogers’ support is soft and falls under 50 percent after voters receive basic information about both candidates. The race will be competitive if Segall has the resources to compete in paid communications.”

We talked about Rogers’ dismal numbers in the much-ballyhooed “power rankings” produced by D.C. insiders Capitol Advantage. (Rogers was ranked last among Alabama’s seven members and 403rd out of 435 total House members in terms of effectiveness in the latest list.)

Clearly, it wasn’t the first time Segall’s thought about it.

“I think there’s some fairness to it,” he said. “He’s 44th out of 46 in his class, and the 46th guy is under indictment.”

Sound bite: Check.

Segall then gave a small preview of what will likely become his stump speech as summer gives way to fall.

He rattled off a list of industries – among them, oil refineries – that can’t be built in East Alabama because of this area’s inadequate roads and bridges. Infrastructure is one of his top priorities, Segall said, along with other economic issues.

And it isn’t like he doesn’t have opportunities, Segall said, noting that Rogers serves on the House Armed Services Committee, the House Committee on Agriculture, the House Committee on Homeland Security and as the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Management, Investigations and Oversight (MIO) – or, as Segall put it, “the committee that oversees FEMA.”

Tying the issue back to the rankings, isn’t that Rogers won’t get road and bridge funding for East Alabama or fight to protect Auburn University’s federal funds, among other things, Segall said. It’s that he can’t.

We also discussed Obama, whether he thinks Obama will be competitive against John McCain in Alabama and how he thinks Obama’s campaign will affect his own. Segall said the sheer number of people who have participated in the primaries because of Obama is a good sign for him, and that as voter registrations increase and turnout increases, so do his chances.

He said he expects that the momentum he’s gaining will only be helped by the return of Auburn students in the fall, and he expects that AU’s College Democrats will be of great help to him in terms of campaign organization and volunteers.

Politics aside, he introduced me to his girlfriend and her family, who were seated right beside us, and told me about his personal passion for encouraging Alabamians to choose locally-grown agricultural products when they can. We discussed Homegrown Alabama, an organization he founded at the University of Alabama when he was in law school there, which seeks to educate students about the value of local produce and foster partnerships between local farmers and UA.

For more on Segall, check out his web site. [Rogers’ is here.]

All in all, I found Segall’s unassuming demeanor refreshing (it’s usually the first thing that disappears when a first-time candidate becomes a freshman legislator). I’m looking forward to sitting down with him – and with Rogers – and talking issues as the campaign wears on, especially as Rogers turns his attention to defending his seat and begins hitting back. My guess is that this election will come down to issues—not necessarily who’s right or wrong, but who’s more effective in setting the agenda. Segall is framing a pragmatic, no-frills campaign built to run on lunchbucket issues like jobs, infrastructure and the economy; Rogers will seek to convince East Alabamians that Segall, who is pro-choice, is out of step with their values.

As usual, I want to hear from you. What do you want to hear from these candidates? What are your concerns about Congress, and what do you expect of the person serving this district there?

Write me with your thoughts. 

If you have kids in your house, you know they think fireworks are the best part of the Fourth of July.

If they’re bummed out because the fireworks are finished, or if you had rain in your area that put them off until tomorrow, gather the kids and show them this page:

http://www.fireworkspop.com/liberty/

Courtesy of regular reader Don S., it’s interactive animation that allows your kids (or you, if they’re not around and no one is looking) to create their own fireworks shows.

As a bonus, while they’re playing, you can take the opportunity to tell them all about the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (click here for the Park Service’s web site, here for the Ellis Island Immigration Foundation, where you can read stories about the immigrants who came to America via Lady Liberty’s front door).

Cool, huh?