Archive for the ‘Clippings’ Category

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Quirks.

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

Bruce Malkenhorst was convicted of misuse of public funds last week.

As part of Malkenhorst’s plea, he got three years of probation, as much as $35,000 in fines and penalties, and he must pay Vernon back $60,000 in restitution.

Keep those numbers in mind.

Mr. Malkenhorst was the city administrator for the corrupt city government of Vernon, California, a city government so corrupt that the state legislature is trying to disincorporate the city.

However, Mr. Malkenhorst, as city administrator, is not an elected official.

Why does that matter?

Mr. Malkenhorst, as a non-elected official, gets to keep his retirement pension. California law only allows for the revocation of pensions for elected officials.

Did I say “retirement pension”? I meant, “his $500,000 a year retirement pension“.

He pays about $100,000 in fines and restitution, gets three years of probation, and still comes out $400,000 ahead just in the first year.

Nice work if you can get it.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Script Ohio.

Monday, May 30th, 2011

Jim Tressel out at Ohio State. The Columbus Dispatch says he resigned, but strongly suggests he was pushed.

Everyone was expecting this in light of Ohio State’s recent troubles, and I get the feeling someone thought it was good timing to do this over a holiday weekend.

Posted in Clippings, Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: May 30, 2011.

Monday, May 30th, 2011

Former Texas governor William P. Clements, Jr.

I always thought Clements was an interesting character. He was the first Republican governor elected since Reconstruction; as a matter of fact, his campaign was the first (and only) political campaign I recall any of my family members volunteering for.

On the other hand, I wasn’t aware until many years later that Clements was involved up to his ears in the SMU scandal. (A Payroll to Meet is the definitive book on the scandal and Clements’ involvement, but don’t pay $245 for it.) On the gripping hand, I’m not sure Clements and SMU did anything that UT and A&M were not also doing at the time; SMU was just unlucky to get caught, and unlucky enough to be the test case for the “death penalty”. (Notice how the NCAA hasn’t used the “death penalty” since then?)

Posted in Clippings, Obits, Politics, Sports | Comments Closed

Time to do the happy dance!

Saturday, May 28th, 2011

I received an email from the Texas State Rifle Association fairly late in the day yesterday.

Senate Bill 321, aka “the guns in parking lots” bill, has passed both houses of the Legislature, and is on the way to the Governor’s desk for signature.

I haven’t been able to find much press reporting about this. According to the TSRA email, there are some limited exemptions involving people servicing oil and gas wells on leased property, and school district employees. Also, according to TSRA, people in the petro-chemical industry have to have a CHL, but are allowed to keep rifles and shotguns, as well as handguns, in their vehicles.

Everyone else, including those employed by college campuses, can now keep a firearm and ammunition out of sight in a locked personal vehicle.

I am both delighted and eager to see how this plays out. Well done, TSRA. Well done.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law | 1 Comment »

Public service announcement.

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

Since this weekend is a national drinking holiday, the Austin Police Department would like for you to know that it’s perfectly okay for you to get totally trashed on booze and then drive and/or boat.

Can someone explain to me why you’d ever purchase a personal watercraft, at least if you live in Austin? It seems that personal watercraft are banned on the lakes every single damn holiday: if you do own one, when can you use it?

Ah, what the heck, I’ve been meaning to link this for a while, and the national drinking holiday makes it relevant: bonus Negroni related content just for Glen. I may have to pick up a bottle of Campari and some sweet vermouth this weekend.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law, Mixology | 2 Comments »

Your May 25, 2011 bulletin from the Department of WTF?!

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

This by way of FARK: I’m breaking with policy because…it’s just so mind-croggling.

Since 2006, Alvarado’s supervisors at the Northside Independent School District Police Department had reprimanded or counseled him on at least 12 occasions — six for not following orders. In other cases, Alvarado failed to show up for assignments, and his bosses appeared to suspect him of lying.

Alvarado was suspended at least four times, and his supervisors warned of impending termination four times — once even recommending it.

Four suspensions. Six incidents of insubordination.

In two separate cases, Alvarado was suspended for collecting evidence that disappeared, including an MP3 player and fingerprint cards.

Where is this going? Back in November, Officer Alvarado once again disregarded the orders of a supervisor and went chasing after a suspect: a 14-year old boy who punched a classmate in the face. Officer Alvarado ended up shooting the unarmed 14-year old.

The San Antonio Police Department has ruled the case a justified shooting. The Bexar County district attorney’s office still is investigating.

And there are parts of his story that don’t add up:

“The suspect bull rushed his way out of the shed and lunged right at me,” Alvarado wrote. “The suspect was literally inches away from me, and I feared for my safety.”

Tracing the bullet’s path into the boy’s chest as it ricocheted off the pancreas, colon, right liver and left kidney and exited the stomach, an autopsy report notes a lack of gunpowder on Lopez’s bloodstained T-shirt.

“There is no evidence of close range firing of the wound,” the report concludes.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law | Comments Closed

Obit watch: May 25, 2011.

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

Huguette Clark, “antisocial socialite”.

I recommend clicking through and reading the entire NYT obit. Ms. Clark was 104 when she died, and her story is one of the saddest things I’ve read recently.

In addition to the Astor comparison, I’m reminded somewhat of the Green family, particularly Sylvia Green.

On a totally unrelated note, I think I’m going to have to pre-order the Blu-Ray edition of Citizen Kane.

(Hattip: I actually saw the obit skimming over the NYT site this morning, but thanks to Althouse for providing the link.)

Posted in Clippings, Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

Blue Blazers.

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

Sorry: I intended to link to this yesterday, but got distracted.

Rich Cho out as GM of the Portland Trail Blazers after 10 months on the job.

Posted in Clippings, Firings, Sports | 1 Comment »

33 in the Shade.

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Randi Shade’s first ethics complaint was dismissed on Friday; somehow I managed to miss that. (Previously.)

Ms. Shade has responded by filing a second ethics complaint against her opponent, Kathie Tovo. We’ll see how that works for her.

Posted in Clippings, Politics | 1 Comment »

Links to make Lawrence happy.

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

Because I live for his happiness.

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Politics, Roads | Comments Closed

Bang bang bang bang bang bang.

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

I meant to blog this on Friday, but I got distracted by shiny objects.

Blippy is apparently dead.

“What’s Blippy?” you cry. Blippy was the “social website” that allowed you to “share” your credit card purchases with other people in your “social network”.

“Imagine being able to see everything your friends buy with a credit card as they do it,” MG wrote. “This not only tells you what kind of things they’re actually into (rather than someone just saying they like something), but also other information like how cheap they are, as well as where they actually are at a given time.”

There are things that would interest me less than that, but I am hard pressed to think of many.

The shocking thing, at least to me, is that Philip Kaplan (aka “Pud”, aka “the guy behind F—edCompany.com”) apparently thought this was a good idea. I suppose even Homer nods from time to time.

Posted in Clippings, Stupid | 2 Comments »

Celtic Women Sing Do-Wop Hits of the 1950s.

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

By way of Jimbo, we found this amusing article in today’s NYT:

Television executives who gathered here last week for PBS’s annual meeting enthusiastically embraced projects such as the five-part “Women, War and Peace”

Of course, the first thing we were reminded of is the old joke about the end of the world and how it is reported by the various papers. (We’d always heard “World Ends: Women, Minorities Hardest Hit” attached to the WP; the canonical NYT hed was something like “End of the World Strikes Manhattan: Also Outer Bouroughs. <subhed>Midwest, Other States Afffected As Well.”)

But the key point of the article isn’t how happy PBS execs are with their new series. No, they’re worried because PBS stations are in financial trouble. WMFE terminated their PBS affiliation and sold the station to a religious programmer because they couldn’t pay PBS dues of “just under $1 million annually”.

KCET in Los Angeles went independent at the first of this year, also due to a messy dues dispute with PBS. We were previously unaware that Waco’s PBS station shut down last year. And the more stations that leave, the more dues go up for the remaining stations.

PBS’s programming budget is dropping by $5 million in fiscal 2012 to $202 million, according to the trade publication Current, partly because of losing KCET dues.

We don’t give money to PBS. We do watch a fair amount of PBS programming: “American Experience”, “Nova”, “Secrets of the Dead”. But when our local PBS station begs for money every other month, they don’t ask for money by presenting stuff we”d actually watch. Instead, they beg for money with multiple reruns of Dr. Wayne Dyer, the Three Tenors On Ice, “How to Learn to Play the Piano in Five Minutes Using Only Common Household Materials”, and other old warhorses that come out of the stable only during pledge time.

We’d suggest that this may be part of the problem for PBS.  If they feel they deserve funding, show folks why. Instead of Nicholas Perricone, run a NOVA marathon. Bring out the old episodes of Julia Child. Do “American Experience” and “Nova” marathons. Have the courage to embrace who and what you are. Stop trying to fool people.

Posted in Clippings, TV | 3 Comments »

I’ve got a Nikon camera, I love to take photographs…

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

Les Jones recently upgraded from a Nikon D40 to a D7000, and he’s done some posts I find particularly interesting.

This post actually predates his upgrade, but it contains an interesting link to SD card performance testing on the D7000. I’ve been swearing by Kingston SD cards in my D40X and other SD capable devices, but I may have to pick up at least one of the SanDisk Extreme III cards. This is a good companion post which summarizes what cards Nikon recommends, and breaks down the differences between Class 4, Class 6, Class 10, and UHS-1.

I haven’t had a chance to try StolenCameraFinder.com yet, but it’s good to know about.

I’ve been using the D40X in RAW+JPEG mode, and doing all of my work in iPhoto using just the RAW version of the file. I’m happy to know I have some support for this. (At least the shooting RAW part: see the linked piece from Thom Hogan about the drawbacks of shooting RAW+JPEG. In my case, I can’t count on iPhoto, Aperture, Lightroom or Photoshop being part of my workflow, so I feel better sticking with RAW+JPEG.)

And I’ve been looking for a F1.8 50mm lens, so this is kind of exciting.

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Photography | Comments Closed

The saga of Maurice Pierce.

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

The long-awaited Statesman profile of Maurice Pierce finally ran on Sunday.

My feeling is that the Statesman glosses over a few things. Yes, Pierce may not have been guilty of the murders, but what was a 16-year-old doing carrying a pistol at the mall?

And why did Pierce react so violently to traffic stops? He was arrested in 2006 for not paying three minor traffic tickets issued in 2003, he punched someone in a traffic altercation in 2007 (and was fined $200 on a disorderly conduct charge), he got into an altercation with a cop in Plano after being pulled over for doing 70 in a 40 (this led to charges of aggravated assault on a public servant and evading arrest), and the final incident that led to his death started as a traffic stop for running a stop sign.

“Maurice stated that he hates cops and that he did not want to go to prison,” the report said.

With the possible exception of the Plano incident, which Pierce escalated, nothing on his rap sheet would have led to prison.

So what was his major malfunction?

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law | 2 Comments »

Robert “Ratso” Rizzo…

Friday, May 20th, 2011

…has a posse.

(Subject line hattip.)

Posted in Clippings | Comments Closed

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