Archive for January 21st, 2013

Obit watch: January 21, 2013.

Monday, January 21st, 2013

Lawrence sent me a heads-up that Michael Winner had died, but I wasn’t able to find independent confirmation until now. Here’s the A/V Club obit.

His filmography is interesting: he directed Death Wish, Death Wish 2, Death Wish 3, and the original version of The Mechanic. (I kind of liked both Death Wish and The Mechanic, though I haven’t seen either one in ages.)

He also directed Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood, a version of The Big Sleep with Robert Mitchum as Marlowe and set in England instead of L.A., and (the reason Lawrence brought him up), The Sentinal.

Strange definitions.

Monday, January 21st, 2013

New York state has very strict gun laws.

One of those laws imposes a mandatory prison sentence of three and a half years on anyone caught carrying a loaded illegal gun.

How’s that working for them?

In 2011, the latest year for which sentencing statistics are available, fewer than half the defendants who had been arrested for illegal possession of a loaded gun in New York City received a state prison sentence, according to an analysis of criminal justice statistics by the mayor’s office.

You don’t say. Tell us more.

In the Bronx, as few as 31 percent were imprisoned. In Brooklyn the rate was 41 percent; in Staten Island it was 47 percent; in Manhattan it was 68 percent; and in Queens it was 76 percent.

Now, let’s be fair about this:

…the law can sometimes trap travelers who bring licensed guns into the state. Critics of strict mandatory sentencing caution that allowances must be made for unwitting violations.

The NYT gives two specific examples of cases in which Bronx prosecutors did not seek the mandatory sentence: “a state prison guard who was not authorized to carry a firearm only because he had failed to submit the required paperwork” (only ones syndrome, anyone?) and “a Pennsylvania school bus driver who was traveling to his sister-in-law’s wake in New York”.

I’m all for prosecutorial discretion, but in more than 50% of cases? This is obviously some strange definition of the word “mandatory” I was previously unaware of.

Random notes: January 21, 2013.

Monday, January 21st, 2013

I’ve written previously about the pot growers of Mendocino County. Today’s LAT reports on a new development.

Mendocino County set up a program to register medical marijuana growers:

Those who registered with the sheriff had to install security fencing and cameras, pay permitting fees up to $6,450 a year and undergo inspections four times a year. Every plant was given a zip-tie with a sheriff’s serial number on it.

The DEA raided the first person who registered.

Still, 91 growers signed up the next year.
Agents then targeted Matt Cohen, the grower most vocal in advocating for the program and getting it set up.

In spite of this, the county intended to continue registering growers:

But county officials stopped the permitting and inspections in March after the U.S. attorney threatened them with legal action. The federal subpoena landed in October, demanding records of inspections, applications, internal county emails, notes, memos and bank account numbers.

The county is now fighting the subpoenas. Three things about this:

Meanwhile, in local news: Austin has a moderately successful chains of bars known as “Little Woodrow’s”. The owners want to put a new location at 5425 Burnet, but they need a zoning change first. Here’s 5425 Burnet on Google Maps:


View Larger Map

This is a stretch of road I’m fairly familiar with; there’s not much along there except strip centers and stand-alone businesses. As the Statesman notes, there’s a mixed-use apartment/shopping development (with a parking garage) right across the street, which Little Woodrow’s hopes to cater to. There’s two bars close by that I can think of: Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon, mentioned in the article, which is also famous for chicken (stuff) bingo, and Billy’s on Burnet (which does very good hamburgers and has limited parking).

Anyway, the point is: the usual suspects – the Brentwood and Allandale neighborhood associations – are all butthurt over this, claiming there won’t be enough parking, the bar would be too noisy, yadda yadda. In spite of their opposition, “the opponents are short by roughly half the number of signatures needed on a petition that would require six of seven council members to approve the rezoning”. They had two votes against in a preliminary vote: Laura Morrison and Kathie Tovo.

(On a completely unrelated note: anyone got any experience organizing recall elections?)