Archive for the ‘Clippings’ Category
Obit watch: special “Crack is whack” edition.
Saturday, February 11th, 2012Obit watch: February 11, 2012.
Saturday, February 11th, 2012Jeffrey Zaslow, prominent author. (Link goes to the WSJ, but I don’t believe they’ve put this behind a paywall.)
The first time I heard of Zaslow, it was in the context of the legendary contest to replace Ann Landers (after she left the Sun-Times for the Tribune). Zaslow was assigned by the WSJ to cover the contest, entered it on a lark (and to get an angle for his story)…and won, writing an advice column for the paper for the next 14 years.
After that, it seems like he went on to books, mostly as a collaborator with other folks. The best known, and I think the most successful (also the only one I’ve read) was his book with the late Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
Also: Jill Kinmont Boothe, the skier who “The Other Side of the Mountain” was based on.
No roses for Donna Lee Kelly.
Friday, February 10th, 2012Donna Lee Kelly was killed in 2004. Her body was found stuffed in the trunk of her car.
No arrests were made until a few days ago, when the LA County Sheriff’s Office arrested Richard Allan Munnecke. According to LACSO, they have DNA evidence that links Munnecke to the murder.
This would ordinarily be a cold case of the type I don’t usually cover, but there’s two things that make it interesting:
- Munnecke is a former director of the Tournament of Roses parade. “Munnecke was music committee chairman for the Tournament of Roses in 1998-99 and Bandfest director in 1997.” It is believed that Munnecke and Kelly met, and developed a romantic relationship, while both worked on the parade.
- In spite of the fact that LACSO has DNA evidence, and apparently DNA evidence that was strong enough for them to make an arrest, the DA is refusing to file charges. This just seems odd to me. Maybe I don’t understand the way cops and the DAs office work, but I would have figured that LACSO would have gone to the DA with their evidence (especially on a cold case) in advance, and said, “Look, if we make an arrest, will you prosecute, given what we’ve got?” Am I wrong? Do they not talk to each other?
Edited to add 2/11: Longer followup story in the LAT, which goes into more detail about the evidence and the DA’s rejection.
Stuff your sorries in a sack, Mister!
Friday, February 10th, 2012Sorry, folks. Yesterday got a big hole blown in it due to a flat tire and associated wrangling, but there really hasn’t been much going on.
At least, not much that hasn’t been well-blogged elsewhere, such as the “tuba raid” story. (No, “Tuba Raid” is not a sequel to the great John Varley story “Air Raid”. But I’d love to see someone write “Tuba Raid”. I’d suggest the idea to John Scalzi, but I suspect he’s busy editing the “Stunning Stoat Stories” anthology.)
I was doing a bit of research for a post snarking on Mexico’s confiscation of 15 tons of meth. However, Jacob Sullum got there ahead of me. (There was a great discussion somewhere, earlier this week, involving people pushing back against new laws requiring prescriptions for pseudoephedrine-containing drugs. I swear it was on “Hit and Run” but I can’t find it now.)
Lawrence asked me a few days ago if the news that Carolyn McCarthy’s district was going to be axed had me doing the happy dance. Short answer: no. When she’s out of office, then I’ll do the happy dance. With an AK-47 that has a 30-round magazine. And a shoulder thing that goes up.
Quintana update.
Friday, February 10th, 2012The final charge (criminal mischief) against former APD officer Leonardo Quintana was dropped Thursday.
As you may recall, Mr. Quintana was acquitted by juries on three other charges; he was also fired by the APD and reinstated by arbitrators several times before his most recent termination (which seems to have stuck).
Roland the Headless CNN Correspondant.
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012Actually, I don’t care that much about Roland Martin, CNN, or Twitter. But I couldn’t pass up a chance to make a reference to my own personal favorite Warren Zevon song. As a matter of fact, why don’t we listen to it now?
Stuff. And things.
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012Obit watch: noted British SF author John Christopher.
Here’s the latest I’ve been able to find in the HouChron on the Rangers/FBI/Harris County DA. It doesn’t add a whole lot to what was reported yesterday, alas.
Paul Farhi in the WP writes about press coverage of the Lance Armstrong probe, including his own paper’s coverage.
Weer’d beat me to this one, but: carry your damn guns, people.
Break 1-9, good buddy…
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012There isn’t a whole lot known at this point, but various news sources are reporting that the Texas Rangers and FBI are questioning staff members at the Harris County DA’s office.
Both the HouChron and KTRK are reporting that the questioning allegedly involves the DA’s investigation into the grand jury, and not the BAT vans that the grand jury was investigating.
More on this when we know more.
TMQ watch: February 7, 2012.
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012Good news, everyone!
I’ve come up with a way for you to hear these columns in Professor Farnsworth’s voice!
Also, it turns out that this is the last TMQ of the season! Yes, no bad predictions review this year: just the Super Bowl column and then silence until draft time.
After the jump…
Morning roundup for February 7, 2012.
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012Bunch of stuff from the NYT this morning. Sorry, but that’s how things roll sometimes.
First up: I didn’t know there were plans for an Eisenhower memorial. I like Ike, and the artist’s conception doesn’t strike me as being too awful. However, I’m skeptical of the need for yet another memorial in DC. The big news here is that Eisenhower’s family is now raising “concerns” about the design.
Extra bonus points: the memorial designer is WCD’s (and Lawrence’s) favorite architect.
And this is why they do it:
Lecture mode on:
And finally:
I commend to the attention of Mayor Bloomberg and “Mumbles” Menino Matthew 7:5. Better yet, I commend to both gentlemen and the other members of the criminal organization Mayors Against Illegal Guns the simple strategy of shutting the f–k up.
Edited to add: Oh, drat. I forgot that I wanted to make note of Alberto Contador being stripped of his 2010 Tour de France win. Congrats to Andy Schleck.
Obit watch and more randomness for February 3, 2012.
Saturday, February 4th, 2012Obit watch: prominent spy novelist Dorothy Gilman.
Ben Gazzara. I’m glad to see “Run For Your Life” get some mention in his obit; that’s another series RTN was re-running, and that I wish someone would bring out a full DVD set of. (And I’d also like to see “Anatomy of a Murder” sometime; I’ve read the book, but haven’t seen the movie.)
Hey, how about that lengthy Federal investigation into Lance Armstrong’s alleged doping? The Feds took their best shot…and turned up nothing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the guy has been tested so often that either he’s telling the truth and is totally clean, or his doping technologists are not only ahead of the curve, you can’t even see the curve from where they are.
Finally, I wanted to make note of a developing local story. Early Friday morning, a guy wrecked his car near a railroad crossing in the Avery Ranch area of Northwest Austin. The guy walked away from the wreck. A little while later, the wife of a homeowner in the area heard voices outside and saw a man (the same guy) lying under her car. Her husband went out to investigate, and apparently attempted to hold the man at gunpoint. The homeowner ended up shooting the intruder three times, killing him.
And the homeowner has now been charged with murder.
There are too many unknowns in the current press coverage to make me feel comfortable passing judgment in this case. I know the article quotes the homeowner as saying, “If you flee, I’m going to shoot you,” and then firing on the intruder as he tried to flee. But we don’t know what else the intruder did at this point; did he display a weapon? Was there a disparity of force involved (23 year old intruder, 47 year old homeowner)?
I think there is one thing we can say for sure:
Use your gun defensively, and even if it is a good shoot, your life is going to change; probably not for the better. Commvault Bryan and I were talking the other day about having an attorney on “retainer” and the various groups that offer that service for a small monthly fee; I need to get with Karl and get the name of the organization he recommends.
Eye the Jury.
Friday, February 3rd, 2012More 185th Grand Jury stuff:
Lykos and her defenders were claiming they didn’t do anything out of the ordinary; they were just Googling folks, which, after all, anyone can do.
Not quite. It seems that the Harris County DA’s investigator also used something called Accurint. Accurint is not a publicly accessible system; it is a service that the county pays for, and which requires that you certify a “permissible use” before obtaining information. Defense attorney Mark Bennett has more about Accurint over at his blog, “Defending People”, which I commend to your attention.
And, of course, The Hon. Murray Newman is on the case as well.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? and other random notes for February 2, 2012.
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012Obit watch: Angelo Dundee, Muhammad Ali’s corner man.
Mike Kelley, L.A. based visual artist. There’s also a well-done appreciation of his work at the A/V Club website.
And I’m a little late on this, but wanted to note it anyway: Ian Abercrombie.
In other news, the fun never stops with the Harris County District Attorney’s office. I missed the actual report (I can’t get Houston’s Channel 13 in Austin), but BlogHouston and The Hon. Murray Newman have links. In brief, DA Lykos basically admitted that, yes, she ordered investigators in her office to “research” (as she puts it; other people use the word “investigate”) members of the 185th Grand Jury, as well as the special prosecutors and the judges involved with the grand jury.
I don’t think I am overstating things to suggest that the HCDA’s office is starting to look positively Nixonian.
Update: Leonardo Quintana
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012Do you remember Leonardo Quintana? The APD officer who was fired multiple times by APD, and reinstated multiple times by an arbitrator, before APD finally managed to make a charge stick? Last time we touched base with former officer Quintana, he’d just been acquitted on domestic assault charges.
According to the Statesman, there’s still one more criminal mischief charge pending against Quintana. We’ll try to keep you updated on the disposition of that charge.
The snakes try to get there around 3:30 in the afternoon…
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012People having too much fun with headlines:
1. “Burmese pythons turn Everglades into a buffet”. There’s also an interesting FARK thread based on a similar article from another source.
(As everyone who has a senior citizen in the family knows, you try to get to the buffet around 3:30 so you can pay the lunch price, but still get the stuff they put out for dinner starting around 4 PM.)
Edited to add: In the same vein, this Reason “Hit and Run” entry, which links to this Jonah Goldberg piece:
2. “USAF’s Big Penetrator Needs to Be Harder”. (Hattip: Shall Not Be Questioned.)
Making it harder sounds like a good thing, but perhaps they also need to add more thrust. Maybe a rocket assist?