Former NBC news correspondent Garrick Utley.
Archive for the ‘Clippings’ Category
Obit watch: February 21, 2014.
Friday, February 21st, 2014Banana republicans watch: February 21, 2014.
Friday, February 21st, 2014You may recall that last year, members of the city council of the notoriously corrupt city of Bell stood trial. One member was completely acquitted of the charges against him; the other five were found guilty on some charges, and had mistrials declared on others. The prosecution had indicated it planned to retry the cases that ended in mistrials.
However, the LAT is reporting that the prosecution is playing “Let’s Make a Deal” instead:
Five former Bell council members accused of looting the small city are scheduled to be in court Friday to consider an offer of a maximum four-year prison term in exchange for their guilty pleas.
The former leaders already face possible eight-year prison terms after being convicted on related corruption charges last year, making the four-year offer attractive.
It isn’t clear from the article, but my assumption is that the four-year terms would run concurrently with the eight-year ones, so the council members wouldn’t actually serve any additional time. But first they have to agree to the plea deal, and that doesn’t sound like a sure thing.
Edited to add: Indeed. The LAT is now reporting that only one out of five former council members expressed any desire to take the deal; the prosecution says either all five take the deal, or
Anyway, the lawyers have asked for more time, and it looks like the next hearing will be April 3rd. Watch this space for updates.
Still here. Just quiet.
Wednesday, February 19th, 2014Nothing really worth writing about. I don’t even have any interesting beef jerky and Michael Jackson fueled dreams to discuss.
(Possible addition to The Rules Of the Gunfight: Never bring beef jerky to a gunfight.)
Speaking of being quiet, is it just me, or did the NBA have their All-Star Game this past weekend…to massive public indifference? I don’t think there was even a FARK Sports tab thread.
Two random movie related notes:
- I’ve pretty much reached the limit of my tolerance for the trailer for “Cheap Thrills“, as well as the movie itself. I don’t care if it marks me as an old man; I’ve already fully embraced my old man status, and I’m just tired of movies about horrible people doing horrible things to other people.
- Dear Tim League: I totally get that you like Wes Anderson movies. I, personally, would not have made 4% of my desert island movie list Wes Anderson films; I’m not even sure a Wes Anderson film would be in my top 100. But de gustibus non est disputandum.
And the trailer for “The Grand Budapest Hotel” does look interesting; it almost seems like Wes Anderson trying to do his own version of “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” It is possible that I’ll actually pay money to see this at the Drafthouse. (I’m not sure if it helps or hurts the cause that I accidentally stumbled across and read a complete plot synopsis online. Even after that, I’m still not sure what Harvey Keitel is doing in this movie.)
But could we please lose your interminable introduction to the frigging trailer, for crying out loud? Hand to God, I think your introduction is as long as the trailer itself. Put it on YouTube or something, but don’t make me sit through it again. Let the trailer stand on its own.
Angry bird.
Saturday, February 15th, 2014A peacock? My grandmother had peacocks around when I was a child; I don’t remember them being particularly vicious.
Stun guns: not just for high school students.
Joe Biden, call your office please.
I have no joke here, I just like saying “feral peacocks”.
My humps, my humps…
Friday, February 14th, 2014Thoughts:
1. I admit I’ve written some bad Perl code. But I don’t recall writing any that ran away. SQL queries, yes, but not Perl code.
2. “Runaway Camel” sort of sounds like a stunt organized by those truth jackasses.
3. I have a “primates” tag; do I need a “mammals” tag?
Edited to add: I think I do need a “mammals” tag, and an associated “camels” tag. But even though primates are mammals, I don’t feel right moving the “primates” tag under the “mammals” tag, so I’m keeping them separate for now.
Obit watch: February 13, 2014.
Thursday, February 13th, 2014You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! watch (#9 in a series)
Wednesday, February 12th, 2014And I was worried that I wouldn’t find anything worth writing about today.
Nola.com states that “Under federal sentencing rules, he could be facing a 20-year prison term, possibly more…” I would take that with a large grain of salt, given that they don’t show their work.
Here’s a helpful complete breakdown of all the charges. Note, for the record, that Mayor Chocolate City was acquitted on one bribery count. I hope he enjoys those granite countertops.
Obit watch: February 11, 2014.
Tuesday, February 11th, 2014Some people call him Maurice…
Sunday, February 9th, 2014…but not “Coach” any longer: Maurice Cheeks out as head coach of the Pistons, in what I believe is the first NBA coach firing of the season.
Cheeks was hired in the offseason last year and coached a total of 50 games for Detroit, with a 21-29 record.
(Hattip: Lawrence.)
Flames. Tax-fattened. Hyena. Etc. (#8 in a series)
Saturday, February 8th, 2014Tony Mack and his brother “had participated in a scheme to take money in exchange for helping get approvals to develop a downtown parking garage. The deal was fictitious and part of a government investigation.”
Mayor Mack was convicted of both wire and mail fraud (a two-fer!) plus accepting bribes, “attempted extortion”, and “official extortion conspiracy”. His brother was convicted on extortion and bribery counts.
Two additional points:
1. Mayor Mack’s party affiliation is mentioned in the third paragraph of the article.
2. Mayor Mack was a member of “Mayors Against Illegal Guns”. I won’t link to it, but a quick Google search will turn up a press release on the MAIG site quoting Mayor Mack and stating he is a member.
Just not feeling it.
Friday, February 7th, 2014Sorry. Nothing much going on, nothing really engaging me, and the Japanese “composer” story was already on FARK. If you missed it: NYT.
(Mike the Musicologist points out that Beethoven was not the only deaf composer in history. Noted for the record.)
The weather here is crap and possibly getting worse and work has been mildly frustrating (thank Ghu for free coffee, though). I’m ready for a battery recharge.
The LAPD eight.
Thursday, February 6th, 2014A brief followup:
More:
And:
From the files of Captain Obvious.
Tuesday, February 4th, 2014You do remember the pickup truck story, don’t you?
And, of course, the unarmed women never fired on the cops or displayed a weapon…
This is priceless:
They shot up a pickup truck with two unarmed women in it, and “high-ranking police officials” wanted them cleared?
Quick gun show update.
Tuesday, February 4th, 2014Only have a limited amount of time before lunch is over and I have to return to the helium mines of Ceti Alpha V, but I wanted to get this up before it disappears behind the Statesman paywall:
Travis County commissioners voted unanimously to allow the Saxet Gun Show to continue at the county-run Exposition Center, only if all gun sales undergo a background check.
With Commissioners Ron Davis and Bruce Todd absent from Tuesday’s meeting, the rest of the county commissioners approved the contract, which now goes to Saxet officials to consider.
So three out of five voted? I guess that’s a quorum. (And I just noticed I missed updating the list of commissioners for Bruce Todd. Fixing that now.)
However, Saxet still has to agree to the contract, and the Statesman represents them as consistently stating they will not agree to a contract that requires background checks. Williamson County is looking better and better all the time.
(I’ll have to see if I can find a breakdown of some of the previous votes for y’all.)
Tax-fattened hyena watch.
Tuesday, February 4th, 2014“a move he said is best for his family”. Is your Spidey-sense tingling yet?
Andrews also allegedly used “a graduation party for his daughter to raise campaign cash.” Both of these things are violations of Federal law, in addition to House ethics rules.
By way of Grits for Breakfast, here’s a mildly interesting story: Aaron Rosenberg is suing his former employer and claims to be cooperating in “an ongoing federal investigation” of same.
So? Mr. Rosenberg’s former employer is Redflex Traffic Systems, one of the companies behind red light cameras.
Aaron Rosenberg, who was the company’s top national salesman, said in a civil defamation claim against Redflex that he was made a “scapegoat” to cover up a long-standing practice of “providing government officials with lavish gifts and bribes” after the Tribune began asking questions about the Chicago contract.
Redflex fired Rosenberg and sued him for damages in Arizona court in February, largely blaming him for the company’s wrongdoing in Chicago. In a counterclaim filed in October, Rosenberg disclosed that he provided information to local and federal investigators as well as to the outside attorney who conducted a damaging private investigation of the company.
And more:
Texas, eh? Would you like to guess some of the cities in Texas that have Redflex contracts? You don’t have to: Grits lists a few of them at his site. And yes, Austin is one of them.