Archive for the ‘Clippings’ Category

A handful of randomness.

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Headline: “Texas Equusearch wants Casey Anthony to answer questions under oath”.

That’s nice. I want a pony.

From the linked article: “Texas Equusearch is suing Casey to recover the more than $100,000 it says it spent on searches for Caylee Anthony in 2008.”

On what basis? Texas Equusearch is a non-profit organization that volunteered their services. They had no contractual agreement with Casey Anthony, to the best of my knowledge, so what basis do they have for filing a suit to recover costs?

She may be guilty as all get out. But the courts disagreed: only God knows, and he will pass judgment at the appropriate time. Let it go, people.

He plays that Choctaw stickball every Friday night.

Ask not for whom the bells toll at Notre-Dame: Angélique-Françoise, Antoinette-Charlotte, Hyacinthe-Jeanne and Denise-David are going to be melted down and replaced next year.

The other day, I mentioned the California rogue PI setting up ex-husbands for DWI (plus running a brothel for the cops and selling drugs for cops) case. Balko covered this as well, prompting a lively discussion in the comments.

One of the commentators posted a link to a longer article from Diablo Magazine about PI Chris Butler, which I think makes for interesting reading. The writer apparently started out expecting a standard human-interest story about PI moms; it’s fascinating to watch his skepticism develop as things start not adding up.

The website also said that Glock Firearms is the official firearms sponsor of Butler and Associates investigations, and that all of Butler’s investigators and investigative interns are trained exclusively on the Glock model G19, 9mm compact semiautomatic.

The first part of that statement would have raised red flags with me: I’m not aware that Glock officially sponsors private detectives (though they do sponsor competitive shooters). It seems like something that would have been easy to check with a call to Glock’s PR department; curiously, there’s no indication that the author ever did make that call.

Triton followup.

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

A long, long time ago, in the before time, back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, we noted that it was a bad idea to walk into someone’s office with a bottle of wine in one hand and an unloaded gun in the other.

That case took some strange turns. Ultimately, it seems to have marked the beginning of the end for Triton Financial, which turned out to be a huge Ponzi scheme.

But what of the gun-wielding woman?

Last week, the Travis County district attorney’s office dismissed the felony charge, which carried a maximum 20-year prison sentence.

The felony charge was for aggravated assault. She still faces a misdemeanor charge of “unlawful carrying of a weapon”.

Onion Field update.

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

Gregory Powell, about whom we have written previously, is seeking “compassionate release” from prison. Mr. Powell has been turned down 11 times for parole.

Former LAPD Officer Ian Campbell was unavailable for comment.

Edited to add 10/19: Not going to happen.

“B—h set me up!”

Monday, October 17th, 2011

California seems to be the home of that defense. I can’t find the post where I wrote about the teacher who had guns and drugs planted in his car (on school property) by his ex-wife and her boyfriend, but I do recall mentioning that.

Now we have a private detective agency that was allegedly taking money to set up ex-husbands on DUI charges.

I’ve got to admit that I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the way the LAT spins the story. I understand two chicks lured you to a bar, I understand one of them showed some cleavage; however, keeping under the legal limit is still your responsibility. There’s no evidence (and no accusation) that they drugged this poor guy’s drinks or anything like that.

On  the other hand:

In addition to setting up at least five DUIs, [Christopher Butler, the PI in question – DB] sold drugs for law enforcement officers and helped them open and operate a brothel, collecting and delivering the profits, according to prosecutors and a statement Butler gave them after his arrest.

That puts a different spin on things, but you don’t find out about these accusations until about halfway through the article.

Interesting legal note:

…prosecutors said Butler’s stings violated a little-used 19th century law that makes it a felony to conspire to subject another person to arrest. The female decoys have not been charged.

I wonder if Texas has a similar law?

Obit watch: October 17, 2011.

Monday, October 17th, 2011

I feel like I should say something about Dan Wheldon, but I don’t know what.

When I was a little kid, I was a big racing fan; I especially enjoyed watching the Indy 500. I still have a closet fondness for NASCAR: open-wheel racing kind of lost me with the whole CART/IndyCar debacle. But this is still just shocking and awful.

Surprising thing, though: the FARK threads have been more respectful than you’d think (this being FARK and all).

Random sports (and other) notes.

Monday, October 17th, 2011

I wasn’t planning to say anything about the Texas Rangers: last year was significant, this year, well, what can you say other than that they’ve gotten good?

However, I can’t help but take the opportunity to gloat a little here, since it appears that a Rangers/Cardinals World Series has John Gruber extremely upset. Poor guy.

Loser update tomorrow: Miami plays tonight.

“We’re the only ones professional enough to have 21 MP-5 submachine guns stolen from our training facility.”

Somewhat buried lead: the MP-5s were converted to fire blanks only.

The parts required to change the MP-5 back to live firing were for sale on a gun supply website. It was unclear, however, what documentation or background checks would be required to purchase them.

I am not an MP-5 armorer, but I would guess: probably none. I doubt any of those parts are serial numbered like AR lower receivers. And I’m curious where the LAT reporter got his information.

On Texas Soil.

Friday, October 14th, 2011

Steven Seagal, that is.

You may remember (from here or elsewhere) Mr. Seagal’s stint with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, followed by his guest appearance with Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. (I believe I failed to note that the subject of the cockfighting bust is suing Mr. Seagal.)

Anyway, Mr. Seagal has taken on a new law enforcement role: deputy with the Hudspeth County Sheriff’s Office. Hudspeth County is right on the border with Mexico (Wikipedia map.)

“It became very clear to me that Mr. Seagal is not in this for the celebrity or the publicity,” Sheriff Arvin West said.

The current status of “Steven Seagal: Lawman” is unclear to me, but I welcome updates.

Noted.

Thursday, October 13th, 2011

I’ve been wondering if Roger Ebert was going to review the sequel to The Movie That We Do Not Discuss; after giving a zero-star review to the first one, was there any point in his reviewing the sequel?

Well, he finally got around to it. In keeping with our practice, we note this because it is also a zero-star review. We also question Ebert’s objectivity in reviewing this film. On the other hand, we really can’t work up the ability to be indignant that he chose to review it himself.

If you’re on the lam, you might want to avoid cats.

Thursday, October 13th, 2011

Just saying. It doesn’t look like they were good luck for Whitey Bulger.

Seriously, I’ve been meaning to throw up a link to this long and entertaining Boston Globe article about Whitey and his life on the run for a couple of days now. It has everything, including a former Miss Iceland who apparently ratted Whitey out. (My mother also forwarded a link saying that Miss Iceland is going to collect the $2 million reward offered by the FBI. Good luck to her: I hope Whitey’s friends, if he has any left, don’t reach as far as Iceland.)

Obit watch: October 13, 2011.

Thursday, October 13th, 2011

Various news sites are reporting the passing of Dennis Ritchie, co-creator of UNIX and creator of the C programming language.

Edited to add: NYT obit here. LAT obit here.

Today’s bulletin from the Department of WTF?!

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

Joseph Hyungmin Son, who played “Random Task” in the Austin Powers movies, is doing time in prison “after having been convicted of torture and sentenced to life in prison without parole in connection with the 1990 Christmas Eve rape of a woman out walking her dog.”

I think that was generally well known. That’s not the WTF moment.

According to the LAT, he’s now suspected of killing his cellmate. He’s been in prison for a little over three weeks now…

I am furious, Holder.

Saturday, October 8th, 2011

I’m a little busy, but I’m taking a break from Chimel v. California to throw some linky-love Lawrence’s way for his “Fast and Furious” posts. Especially this most recent one about Holder, which can best be summarized as:

Oh, wait, you're serious. Let me laugh even harder.

Obit watch: October 8, 2011.

Saturday, October 8th, 2011

Al Davis.

I always respected the man, mostly for his ability to make Pete Rozelle and the rest of the No Fun League miserable. I don’t expect you’ll hear a lot of “No, that’s God; he just thinks he’s Al Davis” jokes, but if he did make it to Heaven, I hope he has a decent quarterback.

Siracusa.

Friday, October 7th, 2011

This isn’t going to become the “All Steve, all the time” blog. (“Don’t mourn: build something.”)

But I really liked this piece by John Siracusa, and wanted to point it out. This will probably be the last Jobs related link, barring something extraordinary.

After seeing the Macintosh and then reading this issue of Macworld, I had an important realization in my young life: people made this.

We aren’t stuck with the things we have now. We can make new things, better things. And it doesn’t take many people to do it. The team that had created this mind-bending new machine were all up on my wall, their individual faces clearly recognizable.

(Also, you really should be listening to Siracusa’s “Hypercritical” podcast from 5by5 Studios.)

Was that wrong?

Friday, October 7th, 2011

Should they not have done that?

I tell you, I gotta plead ignorance on this thing. I mean, if someone had told them it was a bad idea for a guidance councilor to strip search students, and that the Supreme Court had ruled it was illegal, then the Atlantic Community School District might not be out $300,000.

You know, cause I’ve worked in a lot of school districts, and I tell you, people do things like sending 12-year-old boys out to act as decoy buyers so they can bust other kids for selling pot all the time.

(Well, you didn’t have to say it like that.)