Mike McGrady, reporter for Newsday.
Mr. McGrady was also somewhat famous for being one of the instigators behind the legendary Naked Came the Stranger:
The book is attributed to “Penelope Ashe” but was actually written by a group of 25 Newsday reporters, with McGrady and Harvey Aronson editing their work.
And there’s a punchline at the end of the obit which I won’t spoil for you.
A few weeks ago, we asked the musical question:
…how bad was the damage to Petrino’s Harley Davidson Road King?
By way of FARK, we have an answer. The Harley is for sale on a site called copart.com. It looks to be in pretty bad shape; as both the Mobile Press-Register and copart note, the Harley is estimated to have suffered $18,000 worth of damage, but is only valued at $16,000.
Notoriously anti-gun RINO Richard Lugar went down in flames like a tax-fattened hyena last night. Tam and Roberta X have more.
For the record: NYT obit for Maurice Sendak.
Keenan Alex stole a Cadillac Escalade.
Mr. Alex did not know that the car was actually a “bait car” being used by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to bust car thieves.
Mr. Alex also did not know that the “bait car” sting was being filmed by TruTV for their series “Bait Car”.
Mr. Alex was stopped and arrested by LACSD.
Ooopsie. The case against Mr. Alex has been dropped. Detective Shapiro is being investigated by LACSD.
You’d think that they could at least wipe off that video screen first. But this is California; they do things differently there.
I was going to make a snarky comment that this NYT article on what killed Vladimir Ilyich Lenin didn’t include my own favorite theory. Except that it does:
Daring Fireball is quoting sources as reporting the death of Adam Yauch, aka “MCA” of the Beastie Boys, aka “Sir Stewart Wallace”, aka “Nathan Wind”.
To be honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of the Beastie Boys, with the exception of two songs. One is “Rock Hard”. And the other? Like you couldn’t guess.
Back in January, I noted the indictment of DC Council member Harry Thomas on embezzlement charges. Thomas pled guilty, as expected, and was sentenced today to 38 months in prison. Guidelines called for 41 to 51 months; his attorney was asking for 18 months plus six more in “home confinement”.
I was going to put this in the earlier post, but I forgot, and it fits better here anyway:
11 of those charged were charged with felonies. If the charges are proven, I have no sympathy for those charged, and I hope they draw long, hard time.
I’m not sure what happened here: did I miss the story until Balko drew it to my attention, or has it been buried by the mass media? A Google search for references to “James M. Woosley” specifically on nytimes.com and latimes.com turned up nothing: the same search on washingtonpost.com turned up some references to Woosley’s suspension from his post and the convictions of other people in this scheme, but nothing about Woosley’s conviction.
No?
Of course it quacks, it’s a duck!
Okay. Last offer. Want to buy the Righthaven trademark? Act fast! Supplies are limited!
Obit watch: Junior Seau, former linebacker for the San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins, and New England Patriots.
And the Kennedy assassination conspiracy has claimed another victim: Earl Rose, the Dallas County medical examiner who wanted to autopsy Kennedy but was overruled. Dr. Rose also did the autopsies on J.D. Tippit (the police officer Oswald shot), on Oswald himself, and on Jack Ruby.
I am aware of the rumors that I was the winning bidder on Munch’s “The Scream”. At this time, I have no comment.
The NFL has announced disciplinary actions against four players for the New Orleans Saints for their roles in the bounty scandal.
It looks like the the Vilma and Hargrove penalties were harshest because of their level of involvement. Vilma was the defensive captain at the time and allegedly assisted Gregg Williams with the bounty program, as well as offering “$10,000 to any Saints teammate who knocked Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre out of the 2009 NFC championship game.”
Hargrove apparently obstructed the investigation and lied to investigators; his punishment may have been mitigated somewhat because he flipped later on, submitting “a signed declaration that established not only the existence of the program at the Saints, but also that he knew about and participated in it.”
According to Pro Football Talk, all four players plan to appeal. This could turn into an interesting legal battle.
I’m trying to think of harsher player suspensions in the NFL, and I’m not coming up with much; Vick got an “indefinite” suspension that basically worked out to two years (most of which he spent in prison). Albert Haynesworth got five games for stomping on a guy. Plaxico Burress got four games for shooting himself. Roethlisberger got a six-game hit which was reduced to four games. And apparently a few players (Dexter Manley being the most famous) have gotten lifetime bans for multiple failed drug tests.
The notoriously corrupt California city of Vernon is in the news again.
Specifically, the city is accused of classifying some of the attorneys on staff as “public safety” employees. This is typically a classification reserved for cops and firefighters, not lawyers – not even prosecutors. The city argued that the staff attorneys were “primarily engaged in the active enforcement of criminal laws.”
The city also has issues with their former administrator, Bruce Malkenhorst. Mr. Malkenhorst collects the largest pension of anyone in the California public pension system – according to the LAT, more than $500,000 a year.
When he was employed, Mr. Malkenhorst brought in $911,000 in 2006. It is not clear from the article exactly what he was doing at the time. The article does mention that at one point he claimed to hold 10 separate positions in Vernon’s city government, but it it not clear if he held these positions in 2006.
By the way, Mr. Malkenhorst pled guilty to a charge of “misappropriation of public funds” last year. His replacement, Eric T. Fresch, is one of the attorneys who were classified as “public safety” employees; he pulled in $1.65 million in 2008. Fresch is currently employed as a “special consultant” to the city at a rate of $525 an hour.
The former mayor of Vernon, Leonis Malburg, was convicted of perjury in 2009.