“Oooh! Stop the presses! The vendor has a police record! Get the children into the house, honey!” Well, that’s unfortunate for the vendor, but those things happen. We are supposed to be a society that gives former convicts (assuming the vendor was incarcerated) a second chance at becoming a positive member of society. Seems like opening a pet store fits that bill. But I reckon that’s just not good enough for Moral Majority Mark. And for all that, Mark has his own arrest record, as well!

And what’s with this FWS agent? I’d have expected him to respond to Mark’s “revelation” with something more like “So connect the dots, Mark. This all sounds very superficial and disconnected. We know about his police record. And it’s not against the law for an ex-con to operate a business. And selling blue shrimp to a school kid is not exactly a major crime.  I’m sure your research will be useful to that kid’s parents. Now, I got some real investigative work to do. So long, Mark.”  Okay, so Jules Rivera would have to edit that response a bit and parse it out over a few panels.

Does it seem realistic that Agent Gunn would share confidential information about his active investigation with somebody not connected to the case? Wouldn’t Agent Gunn risk compromising the ongoing investigation!?

Mark Trail is supposed to be a professional investigative nature journalist, but he comes across like that person in the neighborhood who watches too many crime shows on TV and calls the police to report a stranger mowing the neighbor’s grass, while ignoring the lawn service truck out front.

IN CONCLUSION, like Mark’s research findings, I don’t see a lot of meat on this bone of a story. Nothing major, nothing dramatic, nothing even environmentally significant at this point. It’s still early days, however.