Archive for the ‘Law’ Category

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You see the signs, but you can’t read…

Sunday, March 21st, 2021

Sometimes, the warning signs are lit up with neon and searchlights, and people still miss them.

A married pair of San Francisco entrepreneurs were indicted Thursday on multiple federal charges, the latest twist in the saga of a once trendy, now bankrupt fecal matter-testing startup.
Zachary Schulz Apte and Jessica Sunshine Richman, co-founders of defunct microbiome testing company uBiome, are accused of bilking their investors and health insurance providers, federal prosecutors said. They were indicted Thursday on multiple federal charges, including conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud and money laundering.

Now, I’m just a poor dumb white boy from Hampden, but I feel like there’s at least two big warning signs that were missed here.

1.

San Francisco-based uBiome was founded in 2012, and kicked off the company in an unusual way for a biotech startup: via a Kickstarter campaign. Its offering was an at-home test to sequence the DNA of its customers gut microbiome, which could then in turn purportedly be used to improve health.

I’m an absolute believer that you should avoid – indeed, run away from – any crowd funding campaign that is medical or health care related.

2.

In 2018, Richman was even named an “innovator” winner in Goop’s “The Greater goop Awards” and at its peak, uBiome was valued at $600 million.

Goop? Seriously? No s–t.. Again: anything that’s recieved an award from Goop, is promoted on Goop, or has any involvement with Goop: run like hell in the other direction.

Posted in Geek, Law, Stupid | Comments Closed

Obit watch: March 17, 2021.

Wednesday, March 17th, 2021

James Levine, “one of the world’s most influential and admired conductors”, according to the other paper of record.

Nicola Pagett, British actress. She was “Elizabeth Bellamy” on “Upstairs, Downstairs”.

Barbara Rickles, Don’s wife.

By many accounts, the Rickleses had one of the happiest marriages in show business. They socialized often with another enduring Hollywood couple, Bob and Ginny Newhart. Don Rickles died at 90 in 2017.
Barbara Rickles helped produce the Emmy-winning documentary “Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project” (2007) and the 2020 release “Don Rickles Live in Concert.” Don Rickles, in serious moments, would note that he was nearly 40 on his wedding day and had struggled for years to find someone.
“I advise any young person that gets married, really, work at it. If you work at it, it’s delightful,” he said in 1986, during one of his many appearances on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, whom he would tease endlessly about his multiple marriages.

Burning in Hell watch: Ronald DeFeo.

Mr. DeFeo was convicted in 1975 on six counts of second-degree murder after he confessed to using a rifle to shoot and kill his father, Ronald DeFeo Sr.; his mother, Louise; his sisters, Dawn and Allison; and his brothers, Mark and John Matthew.
The victims were found in their beds with gunshot wounds on Nov. 13, 1974. Mr. DeFeo, the oldest of the siblings, was 23 at the time.

The historical significance of this is: the DeFeo’s old house in Amityville was sold to another couple a year later.

Yeah, that house.

That family, the Lutzes, stayed there for just 28 days and claimed that the house was haunted by poltergeists who slammed windows, banged walls and wrenched doors off their hinges.

Posted in Law, Music, Obits, TV | 2 Comments »

Art (Acevedo), damn it! watch. (#AF of a series)

Tuesday, March 16th, 2021

I’m a little behind on this, but I have to note it here anyway: after a little more than four years on the job, Art Acevedo is leaving as chief of the Houston PD…

…to take over as chief of the Miami PD.

(“The Tom Brady of police chiefs”? Fark that.)

My personal feeling? He decided to leave town before he got run out on a rail behind the narcotics scandal. But that’s just my opinion: I could be wrong.

More interesting question that someone asked me last night: could Flint Ironstag Brian Manley be headed to Houston?

Well, it is close to home, and it is a larger department, and he does have a proven track record, and it seems Houston is slightly more reasonable (and less hostile to the police) than the current Austin city council. But: 30 years in at APD, 97+% of his salary in retirement…what incentive does he have to take another police job in the current environment?

Other than the challenge, I guess.

Edited to add 3/17: Ha!

Farewell to Art Acevedo, the LeBron James of performative self-promotion

Posted in Cops, Law | 4 Comments »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 343

Tuesday, March 9th, 2021

Great and good friend of the blog RoadRich pointed out that Ernesto Miranda was born on this date in 1941.

You may remember Mr. Miranda from Miranda v. Arizona. Today’s feature video: “Right to Remain Silent: Miranda v. Arizona” from AnnnenbergClassroom.org.

Bonus: well, the discussion of Mr. Miranda kind of went a little sideways, what with talk of trying to find autographed Miranda warning cards and semi-related matters. (I can’t turn up any of the autographed ones online.) Lawrence mentioned in passing that Carmen Miranda was only 46 when she died, which is a fact I was not conscious of, and it kind of shocked me.

Carmen Miranda’s last performance on “The Jimmy Durante Show” in 1955.

According to Durante, Miranda had complained of feeling unwell before filming; he offered to find her a replacement, but she declined. After completing “Jackson, Miranda, and Gomez”, a song-and-dance number with Durante, she fell to one knee. Durante later said, “I thought she had slipped. She got up and said she was outa breath. I told her I’ll take her lines. But she goes ahead with ’em. We finished work about 11 o’clock and she seemed happy.”
After the last take, Miranda and Durante gave an impromptu performance on the set for the cast and technicians. The singer took several cast members and some friends home with her for a small party. She went upstairs to bed at about 3 a.m. Miranda undressed, placed her platform shoes in a corner, lit a cigarette, placed it in an ashtray and went into her bathroom to remove her makeup. She apparently came from the bathroom with a small, round mirror in her hand; in the small hall which led to her bedroom, she collapsed with a fatal heart attack.

Posted in History, Law, TV | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 338

Thursday, March 4th, 2021

Travel Thursday!

Would you like to fly in my beautiful balloon? Or if not that, a passenger airplane from the 1950s?

From those wonderful folks at TWA, “Flight To California”.

Bonus, plus CanCon! “The Mother of Rivers”, about the Columbia River ice field. Made about 1947 for the Canadian National Railways by our old friends at the National Film Board of Canada.

Bonus #2: Again, I’m stretching the definition of travel, but this involves planes and is short. Have you ever wanted to see a Boeing 747-8 fully loaded abort a takeoff at 200 MPH? Using only the brakes, no reverse thrust? And by the way, the brakes are worn down to the metal studs?

Posted in California Über Alles, History, Planes, Trains, Travel | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 335

Monday, March 1st, 2021

Good news: I have a day off today, thanks to Cisco’s recent policy of semi-regularly granting “a day for yourself”.

Bad news: I have an engagement today that I expect will take all day.

So, this is a scheduled sampler pack.

There is a man named Charles Ingram. He used to be a major in the British Army.

In September of 2001, he appeared on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” in Britain. His wife and brother-in-law had previously appeared on the show, and had each topped out at 32,000 GBP. Major Ingram made it all the way and won 1,000,000 GBP.

And almost immediately, questions arose.

“Major Fraud”, from “Tonight” with Trevor McDonald.

Bonus #1: “The Guys Who invented the Video Tape Recorder”. This is an approximately 30 minute interview with Jim Wheeler, a senior engineer at Ampex…the guys who invented the video tape recorder.

On a semi-related note, I was amused by this article that came across Hacker News about the Cambridge University Tape Recording Society for two reasons:

On the evening of 2 March 1969, a chauffeured Rolls-Royce pulled up outside Lady Mitchell Hall and disgorged two celebrity passengers. One was Yoko Ono, who had been invited to take part in a freeform jazz concert; the other was her fiancé, John Lennon. “That was the first time I had appeared un-Beatled,” Lennon later said of the couple’s improvised half-hour of atonal guitar and shrieking vocals.

“atonal guitar and shrieking vocals”. Need I say any more?

The activities of CUTRS were threefold. The first was recording performances at the University and the second was inviting leading audio professionals to give bi-weekly lectures. Both were partly funded by the third: buying blank tape in bulk and selling it to members at a discount.

“Frankly, we’re losing our shirts on this deal. But we’re looking for audiophiles who are interested in high-quality cassette tapes…”

Bonus #2: “Of Dolls and Murder”, about Frances Glessner Lee and the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Deaths. If you’re not familiar with the Nutshell Studies, well, read the Wikipedia page, and then strap in, folks.

Posted in History, Law, TV | Comments Closed

Seriously, has everything gone completely nutso?

Thursday, February 25th, 2021

Headline:

Lady Gaga’s Dog Walker Shot and Critically Wounded, 2 French Bulldogs Stolen

I don’t want to seem like I’m making fun of the poor guy: he’s currently hospitalized in critical condition, and I hope he makes a full recovery.

Tara Bruno, founder of SNORT Rescue, a New Jersey-based organization that rescues bulldogs, pugs and Boston terriers, says French bulldogs are among the most stolen dog breeds because they’re very popular, are small and portable, and are expensive.
French bulldogs from reputable breeders cost between $3,000 and $5,000, she says, while dogs from puppy mills or overseas importers with designer coats in blue or merle can bring in about $10,000.

I’d like to think there would be some issues fencing bulldogs stolen at gunpoint. For example, I think most people who would pay money for a French bulldog probably want one with papers, which I’m sure the dog walker was not carrying around with him…

Posted in California Über Alles, Law, Mammals, Music | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 328

Monday, February 22nd, 2021

Been a while since I’ve done any vintage police training videos, mostly because not that many have been popping up.

Here’s one for you, from the FBI apparently sometime in the 1970s: “Examination Of Stolen Cars”.

Bonus #1: Don’t you love stupid people getting what is coming to them? I know I do. Plus: CanCon!

“Bait Car Greatest Hits” from the Vancouver Sun.

Bonus #2: “Accident Investigation” from 1974. Not one of those traffic safety films, but more a guide for the patrol officer on how to handle these situations: use your car as a shield, don’t move injured people, watch for spilled gasoline, etc…

Posted in Cops, History, Law | Comments Closed

Smash Lampjaw!

Saturday, February 13th, 2021

I wanted to note this yesterday, but I was kind of waiting to hear back from someone.

Austin Police chief Punch Rockgroin Brian Manley is retiring at the end of March.

He’s been the police chief for about three years, but he’s been on the force for 30.

It could be that he’s fed up with the current state of Austin politics and wants to get out while the getting is good. (Lawrence has suggested that Chief Slate Slabrock would have a lot of support if he ran for mayor. I currently live outside the city limits so I can’t vote for him if he does run.)

It could just be that, after 30 years, he wants to go off and do something else. At the 30 year mark, an APD officer gets 96% of their base salary in retirement. I think that’s based on your salary for the past two years, but I could be wrong about that. At “commander” rank, base salary ranges from $138,144 to $158,160 a year: I’m not clear on what chief pay is, but even 96% of the high end for a commander is still over $150K a year. Plus Chief Roll Fizzlebeef has a MBA from St. Edward’s University (one of the reasons I like the guy) so I doubt he’d have any trouble finding a job in private business.

Another person who shall remain nameless shared some speculation that Chief Punch Sideiron resigned as part of a deal with the City Council and city manager to get them to approve a new police academy class: we’ll bring in some new recruits who will (we hope) turn into officers, and in return you get to appoint the next guy to run the department. If so, that would be fairly noble on his part.

The big question in my mind right now is: who gets the job? Somebody local (which is another reason I liked Chief Rip Slagcheek: he was a local boy), or will they bring in someone from California (like they did with the previous chief, Art damn it! Art Acevedo). I suspect the latter, but would be pleasantly surprised with the former, depending on who they do appoint. (Ken Cassady, the head of the police union, is probably right off the list of candidates.)

I wish Chief Buck Plankchest the best of luck in whatever he does next, even if it does mean I don’t have as many chances to use selections from the Dave Ryder Wiki entry.

Posted in Austin, Cops, Law, Politics | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: February 12, 2021.

Friday, February 12th, 2021

I planned to post this last night, but we had multiple power outages through the day yesterday (as other people have noted, it is cold here: right now, my phone is calling for a low of 10 on Sunday and a low of 3 (yes, THREE) on Monday), the last one lasting until well into the evening.

So I’m playing catch-up today.

The NYT got around to publishing a respectful obit for James Gunn yesterday.

Chick Corea, jazz guy.

In 2006 he was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, the highest honor available to an American jazz musician.

In case you were wondering, I believe this is the complete list.

Lawrence sent over an obit for Leslie Robertson, structural engineer for the World Trade Center.

Mr. Robertson designed the structural systems of several notable skyscrapers, including the Shanghai World Financial Center, a 101-story tower with a vast trapezoidal opening at its peak, and I.M. Pei’s Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, a cascade of interlocking pyramids. His projects included bridges, theaters and museums, and he helped install sculptures by Richard Serra, some weighing as much as 20 tons.
But the project that came to define his career was the World Trade Center. He was in his early 30s and something of an upstart when he and his partner, John Skilling, were chosen to design the structural system for what were to be the time, at 110 stories, the world’s tallest buildings. He was in his 70s when the towers were destroyed.

…

“The responsibility for the design ultimately rested with me,” Mr. Robertson told The New York Times Magazine after the towers were destroyed. He added: “I have to ask myself, Should I have made the project more stalwart? And in retrospect, the only answer you can come up with is, Yes, you should have.”
He conceded that he had not considered the possibility of fire raging through the buildings after a plane crash. But he also said that that was not part of the structural engineer’s job, which involves making sure that buildings resist forces like gravity and wind. “The fire safety systems in a building fall under the purview of the architect,” he said.
In an interview in 2009 in his Lower Manhattan office, Mr. Robertson wiped away tears as he recalled the victims of 9/11. He talked about the family members who had come to see him, hoping he could say something to help them with their grief. But he also said he was proud of the design of the twin towers.

…

According to Mr. Robertson, the buildings had been designed to withstand the impact of a Boeing 707, but the planes flown into the towers were heavier 767s. And his calculations had been based on the initial impact of the plane; they did not take into account the possibility of what he called a “second event,” like a fire.
When the planes struck the towers, they sliced through the steel frames, but the buildings remained standing. Many engineers concluded that conventionally framed buildings would have collapsed soon after impact. The twin towers stood long enough to allow thousands of people to escape.
But the fire from the burning jet fuel raged on. The floor trusses lost strength as they heated up, and they began to sag. The floors eventually began pulling away from the exterior columns before the buildings fell. A total of 2,753 people were killed, including 343 firefighters.
Mr. Robertson said he received hate mail after 9/11. But on a flight to Toronto one day, an airline employee gave him an unexpected upgrade to first class. When he asked for an explanation, he recalled in the 2009 interview, the employee said, “I was in Tower 2, and I walked out.”

The infamous Larry Flynt. As my mother said, “I thought he was dead already.”

S. Clay Wilson, underground cartoonist. I went back and forth on whether I wanted to include Mr. Flynt and Mr. Wilson, but I decided that Mr. Flynt’s celebrity was too great to ignore. As for Mr. Wilson, you have to like a guy who says:

“I’m just a big kid,” Mr. Wilson told him. “I like toys, firearms and hats.”

Finally, also by way of Lawrence, British actor Harry Fielder, who was in pretty much every darn thing in Britain, passed away February 6th. Seriously, his IMDB entry has 279 credits as “actor” (though it looks like many of those were small roles).

Posted in Books, History, Law, Music, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: February 9, 2021.

Tuesday, February 9th, 2021

This just in: Marty Schottenheimer, NFL coach.

Schottenheimer coached the original Cleveland Browns from midway through the 1984 season to 1988, the Kansas City Chiefs from 1989 to 1998, the Washington Redskins in 2001 (the team dropped that name last July) and the San Diego Chargers from 2002 to 2006.
His teams went 200-126-1 over all, and he was named the 2004 N.F.L. coach of the year by The Associated Press when his Chargers went 12-4 after finishing the previous season at 4-12. But they were upset by the Jets in the first round of the playoffs.
Schottenheimer’s squads had a 5-13 record in playoff games.

Mary Wilson, of the Supremes.

Joe Allen, NYC restaurateur. Noted here because he was the guy who hung posters of Broadway flops on the wall of Joe Allen’s.

Ron Wright, Texas Congressman. (District 6, which is in North Texas.)

By way of Lawrence, a burning in Hell watch: Anthony Sowell, Ohio serial killer.

Posted in Law, Music, NFL, Obits, Politics, Sports, Texas | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 311

Friday, February 5th, 2021

As I’ve said before, I don’t like using TV shows here unless it is a short video to make a point, or a documentary series.

I’m fuzzing things a bit here, but I think it is justified. Also, it pushes some of my buttons.

Between 1962 and 1963, there was a television series called “GE True“. It was called “GE True” because it was sponsored by General Electric, and featured stories from True magazine that were adapted for television. Gene Roddenberry was one of the scriptwriters, and the series was produced and hosted by Jack Webb. Webb directed some of the episodes: some others were directed by William Conrad.

It was 25 minutes long (though some episodes were multi-part ones) and there were 33 total episodes. A small number of episodes have been uploaded to the ‘Tube.

I’ve written before about Earl Rogers, Clarence Darrow, and the LA Times jury bribery trial. From “GE True”, original airdate January 13, 1963, “Defendant: Clarence Darrow”. Robert Vaughn plays Earl Rogers, and Tol Avery (a prolific actor I was previously unfamiliar with: for the record, he appeared three times on “Mannix” before his death in 1973) plays Darrow.

Bonus #1: “V-Victor-5”, co-written by Gene Roddenberry. On a hot summer day in NYC in 1933, a lone off-duty NYPD officer in the days before radio cars, and surrounded by a hostile crowd, holds five armed and dangerous fugitives at gunpoint until backup arrives…two hours later.

(I know the YouTube title says “Commando”, but this one is really “V-Victor-5”. Also, there’s a punchline at the end that I won’t spoil for you.)

Bonus #2: “Commando”.

Oh, wait. Wrong “Commando”. Sorry. This is the right one.

“In 2013 the Jack Webb Fan Club of Los Angeles started a campaign to get the series released on DVD.”

Yes, please!

Posted in Cops, History, Law, Mannix, NYPD, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: February 3, 2021.

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021

Eugenio Martinez has passed away at the age of 98.

His death, at his daughter’s home near Orlando, was announced by Brigade 2506, a veterans group of Mr. Martinez’s fellow anti-Communist Cuban exiles. Their abortive invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 to overthrow the government headed by Fidel Castro was covertly supported by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Mr. Martinez was the last surviving Watergate burglar.

In January 1973 four of the five burglars — members of the so-called plumbers, an informal White House team assigned to plug information leaks — pleaded guilty so as to avoid revealing details of the bungled operation. They were convicted of conspiracy, theft and wiretapping.
The others, also Cuban-born, were Bernard L. Barker, a former Miami real estate agent and C.I.A. operative, who died in 2009; Virgilio González, a Miami locksmith, who died in 2014; and Frank A. Sturgis, a soldier of fortune, who died in 1993. (In 1971, the four had taken part in the break-in at the Los Angeles office of the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg, the former Defense Department analyst who disclosed the Pentagon papers to the press.)

E. Howard Hunt, who allegedly recruited them, served 31 months in prison.

They were led by James W. McCord Jr., a security coordinator for the Nixon campaign whose confession to the judge just before his sentencing precipitated the revelations of White House crimes and cover-ups that culminated in Nixon’s resignation in 1974. For aiding prosecutors in pursuing senior presidential aides in the scandal, Mr. McCord had his one-to-five-year sentence cut to less than four months.

…

In 1983, after his requests for clemency had been rejected by Presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter, Mr. Martinez — who, it turned out, had still been on retainer to the C.I.A. at the time of the Watergate break-in — was pardoned by President Ronald Reagan.
The pardon, which was granted because Mr. Martinez had been regarded as the least culpable of the defendants, restored his right to vote. Despite the ordeal, he prided himself on one Watergate keepsake — a golden lucky clover inscribed, in Spanish, with the words “Good luck, Richard Nixon.”

Posted in History, Law, Nixon, Obits, Politics | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 301

Tuesday, January 26th, 2021

I would call this “True Crime Tuesday” but there’s some other jerkface out there who does that already.

I did think it might be fun to do some stuff at the intersection of crime and art.

“The Mystery Conman – The Murky Business of Counterfeit Antiques”.

Bonus: “Stealing the Mona Lisa”.

Posted in Art, History, Law | Comments Closed

Obit watch: January 25, 2021.

Monday, January 25th, 2021

Jimmie Rodgers, crossover singer probably most famous for “Honeycomb”.

Mr. Rodgers was a regular presence on the pop, country, R&B and easy listening charts for a decade after “Honeycomb,” with records that included “Oh-Oh, I’m Falling in Love Again” (1958) and “Child of Clay” (1967), both of which were nominated for Grammy Awards.

Then something happened.

Mr. Rodgers said he was under consideration for a featured role in the 1968 movie musical “Finian’s Rainbow” when the encounter on the freeway derailed his career. In his telling, he was driving home late at night when the driver behind him flashed his lights. He thought it was his conductor, who was also driving to Mr. Rodgers’s house, and pulled over.
“I rolled the window down to ask what was the matter,” he told The Toronto Star in 1987. “That’s the last thing I remember.”
He ended up with a fractured skull and broken arm. He said the off-duty officer who had pulled him over called two on-duty officers to the scene, but all three scattered when his conductor, who went looking for Mr. Rodgers when he hadn’t arrived home, drove up.
The police told a different story: They said Mr. Rodgers had been drunk and had injured himself when he fell. Mr. Rodgers sued the Los Angeles Police Department, prompting a countersuit; the matter was settled out of court in his favor to the tune of $200,000.

…

Three brain surgeries followed, and he was left with a metal plate in his head. He eventually resumed performing, and even briefly had his own television show, but he faced constant difficulties. For a time he was sidelined because he started having seizures during concerts.
“Once word gets out that you’re having seizures onstage, you can’t work,” he told The News Sentinel of Knoxville, Tenn., in 1998. “People won’t hire you.”
Mr. Rodgers was found to have spasmodic dysphonia, a disorder characterized by spasms in the muscles of the voice box, a condition he attributed to his brain injury. Yet he later settled into a comfortable niche as a performer and producer in Branson, Mo., the country music mecca, where he had his own theater for several years before retiring to California in 2002.

Posted in California Über Alles, Cops, Law, Music, Obits | Comments Closed

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