And so we come to the end of the TMQ NFL draft interregnum. What messages does TMQ have for us this week? After the jump…
Archive for the ‘Clippings’ Category
TMQ Watch: April 30, 2013.
Tuesday, April 30th, 2013Jimmy Casino.
Monday, April 29th, 2013Once upon a time, there was a man named James Stockwell who lived in Orange County.
Mr. Stockwell led a colorful life. He ran strip clubs on the Sunset Strip in the 1970s. He was also involved in credit card fraud and counterfeiting. Mr. Stockwell went away for a while.
When he came out of prison, he started a chain of hotdog stands called “Cowboy Hotdogs”. He raised a million dollars for his hotdog stands. But “Cowboy Hotdogs” folded; worse yet, Mr. Stockwell admitted that he stole $412,000 from his investors.
Mr. Stockwell, also known as “Jimmy Casino”, also ran the Mustang Topless Theater in Orange County. (Strippers, always with the strippers.) By 1987, he was in a bind: the IRS was going to shut down the Mustang because of “millions of dollars in unpaid taxes”, he didn’t have the money to make restitution payments to the “Cowboy Hotdogs” investors, and he owed other folks money. Serious other folks.
25 years later, a man named Richard Morris Jr. is standing trial for the murder of Jimmy Casino. The investigators in the case matched DNA from Morris to DNA recovered from Casino’s girlfriend, and arrested him in 2008.
I’m looking forward to the book about this case.
Spider-Man, Spider-Man…
Monday, April 29th, 2013If this had happened in New York City, I’d blame Julie Taymor, Bono, and The Edge.
Obit watch: April 29, 2013.
Monday, April 29th, 2013Dr. Kenneth I. Appel, noted mathematician.
Dr. Appel is famous, along with Dr. Wolfgang Haken, for their 1976 proof of the four-color map theorem. Their proof was significant for two reasons:
- The four color theorem was a major unsolved problem in mathematics.
- The Appel/Haken proof was the first major mathematical proof that used computers in the process.
The Appel/Haken proof was rather controversial at the time:
I would have been 11 at the time, and I remember this being a big deal. I even remember trying to read the Scientific American article about the four color proof, and it being more than a little above my head. I’d love to go back and read that article now, but (of course) it doesn’t seem to be available online unless you’re willing to cough up money to Nature.
(When did Nature acquire the Scientific American archives? Did I miss that?)
Letter from Travis County Jail.
Sunday, April 28th, 2013Travis County DA Rosemary Lehmberg says she’s not going to run for re-election in 2016. She also says she plans to seek “professional help and guidance” once she’s released.
It may seem that I’ve been gloating about this case. I’m not. Truthfully, I feel bad for Ms. Lehmberg. I’m not an expert in substance abuse, but if she had blown a .09, I could chalk that up as the kind of mistake anyone could make. Driving around with a .239 BAC and an open bottle of vodka in the passenger seat makes me think there’s a problem. I respect Ms. Lehmberg for standing up and taking responsibility for her actions – including entering a guilty plea right away, rather than forcing a trial and all the conflicts that would result from her office prosecuting her. I think she’s doing the right thing by seeking professional help.
But I also feel that her actions have compromised the office. And as I’ve said before, the law is the law, and says she can be removed from office for intoxication. There’s no “good person” exception.
I hope Ms. Lehmberg gets help, and I hope she remains a respected member of the Travis County legal community. I hope she uses this experience to help other people in similar situations. But I believe she needs to do so as a defense lawyer, not as an elected prosecutor.
Random notes in great haste: April 27, 2013.
Saturday, April 27th, 2013Heading out to the gun show, and then a ceremony at the university later on. Busy day coming.
The mayor of Patton Village, Texas, is no longer the mayor of Patton Village.
She was removed from office by the judge shortly after her conviction. Ms. Munoz still faces charges of tampering with government records: she was convicted of a felony in 1979, but lied about that conviction when she ran for mayor.
(Previously. Previously.)
Obit watch: the late great George Jones. NYT. LAT. A/V Club.
TMQ Watch: April 25, 2013.
Friday, April 26th, 2013Yeah, we know, we’re late. We didn’t realize until Wednesday that it was that time of year again, and it took us a while to work up the gumption to do this. Part of the problem, of course, is that this is the column where TMQ mocks the mock drafts. As we’ve said in the past, TMQ thinks this is more amusing than it actually is, and there’s really no reason to go item by item through his attempts at humor.
But we have an obligation to our reader. So we might as well get into it…
Know when to fold up…
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013Texas, like some other states, has a sunset law. In short, and with certain exceptions, every state agency is subject to being abolished 12 years after it is created, or after the Legislature votes to continue the agency’s existence. In order for an agency to keep going, the Legislature has to pass a law authorizing the agency to continue.
Earlier this afternoon, the Texas House voted 65-81 against a bill that would continue the operations of the Texas Lottery Commission. From what I can tell, this would effectively end the state lottery (and “all charitable bingo, including games at churches and veterans’ halls”).
This is…unexpected. Reading the Statesman‘s coverage, it looks like a lot of the legislators voting against the bill have philosophical problems with the idea of a state lottery. Of course, if they do away with the lottery, that blows a $2 billion hole in the state budget, so there’s a chance that the ledge might reconsider. But for right now, this looks like this year’s “pass the popcorn” Texas Legislature moment.
Edited to add: Well, isn’t this special? The House took a lunch break not long after the vote. Then they came back and voted again: this time, the bill continuing the lottery commission was approved 91-53.
Firings, obits, and other things: April 23, 2013.
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013Firings: Mike Dunlap, Charlotte Bobcats head coach. One season, 21-61.
Obits: Richie Havens. NYT. LAT. A/V Club.
E. L. Konigsburg, noted author (From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
This is one of those little tidbits that I find fascinating: “From the Mixed-Up Files…” won the Newbery Medal in 1968. That was Ms. Konigsburg’s second book. Her first book, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth
There will probably be more to say about this tomorrow, but Allan Arbus has also passed away.
In other news, while I was out and about having fun, Lawrence was working. Specifically, he’s been posting video of the Travis County DA being arrested for DWI, and of the DA in jail.
And what do I have to offer to compare with that? Pictures, maybe?
Here we see the elusive Mike the Musicologist. While Jim attempts to throw a net over him, let me tell you about Mutual of Omaha…
And one for my great and good friend Weer’d Beard: ducks!
Random notes: April 22, 2013.
Monday, April 22nd, 2013Busy having fun today. More later.
In the meantime, have this NYT article about the disaster area the Jets have become:
And this breakfast interview with one of my heros, Ricky Jay.
There’s a common variant on that saying: “You can’t cheat a honest person.” I often respond to that by bringing up the bank examiner scam, which works because it targets people’s honesty (and desire to help “law enforcement” catch “bad guys”). But it is nice to see Jay make the same point…
Where do we get such men?
Sunday, April 21st, 2013The Statesman and other papers are reporting that 14 people are confirmed dead in West.
The Waco paper is maintaing a list.
Volunteer Fireman’s Monument, Texas State Capitol
Detailed article on the Dumas-Sunray disaster from Industrial Fire World.
Shhhhhsh. The baby’s observing.
Saturday, April 20th, 2013This is…interesting. (And the photo of the wired-up baby is a little creepy.) I’ve been spending a fair amount of time recently around a baby (and a toddler), and I’m not 100% sure I agree with their police work there, Lou. What does “perceive objects in an adult-like way” mean, exactly? Because the baby I’ve been hanging with doesn’t seem to understand adult-like concepts like “you can’t go through a solid object”.
(Not that there’s anything wrong with that. She is, after all, a baby. At least we haven’t had to have the conversation about how riding the dog like it’s a small horse is FROWNED UPON IN THIS ESTABLISHMENT.)
Obit watch, random notes, and open thread: April 20, 2013.
Saturday, April 20th, 2013Al Neuharth, creator of USA Today. USA Today obit.
Headline:
This is not a repeat from two weeks ago.
Today is my birthday. I’m going to be out of pocket most of the day: going to the gun shop, then over to the capitol to take pictures, then on a tour of the UT Tower, and then to dinner. In my absence, consider this an open thread to talk about things you want to talk about: Boston, West, Michael Morton and Ken Anderson, the Astros, the vertical integration of the broiler industry, etc.
(As always, if this is your first time posting, I have to approve your comment. Once you’ve been approved, additional comments should go through without requiring moderation. Comment approval is one blog function I can do fairly easily from my phone, so you should not have to wait too long. Unless I’m driving.)
When I take over and declare martial law…
Friday, April 19th, 2013Theremin expert Jon Bernhardt has been at MIT’s WMBR since 8am, under lockdown but DJing defiantly wmbr.mit.edu
— Alex Ross (@alexrossmusic) April 19, 2013
…the radio stations will be all theremin, all the time. Except when I want to provide the people with important updates on the progress of our flying monkeys.
DAs Gone Wild!
Friday, April 19th, 2013Order now! Only $19.95!
More:
And updating: in addition to the 45 days in jail, she was fined $4,000 and her license has been suspended for 180 days.
I know what you’re wondering: who will run the show while she’s doing hard time? Answer: “operational aspects of the office will be handled by senior staff“.
But DA Lehmberg isn’t the only local DA who has run aground on the shoals of the law. And at least she didn’t hurt anybody.
I did not write a lot about the Michael Morton case and the court of inquiry into Anderson’s conduct because…well, I was a little distracted at the time, the case is complex, and it was being well covered by other people. Texas Monthly did a two-part series on the case itself, and covered the court of inquiry as well.
The short version of the story: Morton came home from work one day in 1986 and found his wife had been murdered. Morton was charged with and convicted of her murder, and served 25 years in prison. In 2011, DNA testing established another man committed the crime: Morton was released from prison, exonerated, and the other man was convicted of the murder in late March of this year. During the proceedings leading to Morton’s release, there were accusations that Anderson and the Williamson County DA’s office had intentionally withheld evidence from Morton and his defense during the original murder trial: these accusations resulted in the court of inquiry and the charges against Anderson.