NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Miami
Indianapolis (Wow.)
St. Louis
Archive for October, 2011
Your loser update: week 7, 2011.
Monday, October 24th, 2011Two short items.
Sunday, October 23rd, 2011Here’s a longer and more detailed second day story from the HouChron about l’affair BATVan and the grand jury probe.
By the way, there are eight different events going on in and around downtown Austin this weekend (according to the article).
Can I offer you a ham sandwich?
Friday, October 21st, 2011We have previously covered Harris County’s problems with their Blood Alcohol Testing (BAT) vans. Those problems can perhaps best be summed up as: they weren’t reliable.
Now comes word from the HouChron that:
- A grand jury is apparently investigating the situation, and
- The grand jury is taking testimony without prosecutors present. As a matter of fact, they’ve actually expelled the prosecutors from the grand jury proceedings.
The DA’s office is…not pleased. As Murray Newman, a former DA, puts it: “The Grand Jurors excluding the prosecutors from the testimony is kind of the equivalent of the President being booted out of a Cabinet meeting.”
The HouChron piece is short. The Hon. Mr. Newman’s piece over at his site provides more background: he has his own spin on things, but he’s also more familiar with the background and the people involved than I am. Summarizing his position, it seems like the DA was trying to get revenge on the BATVan whistle blowers by pushing for a grand jury indictment, but it looks like the grand jury is digging into the conduct of the DA’s office instead.
This could turn interesting real quick.
Paging Mike the Musicologist.
Friday, October 21st, 2011This was kind of an odd case, with a bizarre ending. Planet K, a local chain of head shops – excuse me, “adult novelty stores” – has been planning to open a location in Bee Cave, and had local artist Kerry Awn do a mural for them. The city of Bee Cave claimed the mural was an illegal sign, and went to court.
At trial, the judge issued a directed verdict – basically, ordering the jury to return a “not guilty” finding – because the city of Bee Cave failed to prove that “AusPro Enterprises”, the company being prosecuted, actually owned the property or had any connection to the Planet K chain.
In my experience, directed verdicts are rare. I can’t remember the last time I heard of one being issued around here. And it sounds like somebody in the Bee Cave DA’s office failed to do their homework.
Headline of the day.
Thursday, October 20th, 2011“After Red Sox’ Epic Collapse, Fans Are Consumed by Chicken and Beer”.
ETA: #2. “Exotic animal killings: ‘It’s always the animals that suffer'”.
#3: “Restaurant nudity to be debated in San Francisco”. (With SFW, but NSFLunch photo.)
TMQ watch: noted.
Thursday, October 20th, 2011One of the suggestions TMQ has been making for reducing concussions in football is expanded use of “anti-concussion” helmets, as well as better fitting mouth guards.
With that in mind, we wanted to point out this article in today’s LAT:
It is fair to point out that TMQ has never suggested this equipment will totally prevent concussions. However, the article indicates that the alleged benefits may have been overstated: the Riddell Revolution helmet, which TMQ has endorsed, only reduces concussions by 2.6%, not the 31% Riddell claims.
Edited to add: Also worth noting: this NYT article about the death of Ridge Barden, mentioned in this week’s TMQ.
Academic update: Fall 2011, part 1.
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011The final grades have been posted in my “Constitutional Criminal Procedure” class.
And?
Or, to put it another way, I have done made the Fourth Amendment my…well, you know what I mean. The streak is still going.
(I’m also running out of awesome, though I do have one more “Star Trek” reference in the pipeline. I may have to resort to posting Plastic Bertrand videos.)
(“20% cooler in 10 seconds flat” explained here. Sort of.)
A handful of randomness.
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011Headline: “Texas Equusearch wants Casey Anthony to answer questions under oath”.
That’s nice. I want a pony.
From the linked article: “Texas Equusearch is suing Casey to recover the more than $100,000 it says it spent on searches for Caylee Anthony in 2008.”
On what basis? Texas Equusearch is a non-profit organization that volunteered their services. They had no contractual agreement with Casey Anthony, to the best of my knowledge, so what basis do they have for filing a suit to recover costs?
She may be guilty as all get out. But the courts disagreed: only God knows, and he will pass judgment at the appropriate time. Let it go, people.
He plays that Choctaw stickball every Friday night.
Ask not for whom the bells toll at Notre-Dame: Angélique-Françoise, Antoinette-Charlotte, Hyacinthe-Jeanne and Denise-David are going to be melted down and replaced next year.
The other day, I mentioned the California rogue PI setting up ex-husbands for DWI (plus running a brothel for the cops and selling drugs for cops) case. Balko covered this as well, prompting a lively discussion in the comments.
One of the commentators posted a link to a longer article from Diablo Magazine about PI Chris Butler, which I think makes for interesting reading. The writer apparently started out expecting a standard human-interest story about PI moms; it’s fascinating to watch his skepticism develop as things start not adding up.
The first part of that statement would have raised red flags with me: I’m not aware that Glock officially sponsors private detectives (though they do sponsor competitive shooters). It seems like something that would have been easy to check with a call to Glock’s PR department; curiously, there’s no indication that the author ever did make that call.
Triton followup.
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011A long, long time ago, in the before time, back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, we noted that it was a bad idea to walk into someone’s office with a bottle of wine in one hand and an unloaded gun in the other.
That case took some strange turns. Ultimately, it seems to have marked the beginning of the end for Triton Financial, which turned out to be a huge Ponzi scheme.
But what of the gun-wielding woman?
The felony charge was for aggravated assault. She still faces a misdemeanor charge of “unlawful carrying of a weapon”.
Case brief: United States v. Aukai.
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011Last one, folks. This might be of more general interest, for reasons I outline below.
United States v. Aukai is unusual for a couple of reasons:
- Unlike all of our other case briefs, this was not a Supreme Court decision, but an en banc ruling by the notoriously flaky (with the exception of the honorable Judge Alex Kozinski, praise be unto him) Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
- This is specifically a case involving airport security and the limits of TSA’s ability to perform searches.
In Aukai’s case, he made the mistake of trying to get through airport security with a meth pipe in his pocket and meth on his person. Even dumber, he made the mistake of doing this without ID, which meant he was automatically selected for secondary screening. During the secondary screening, Aukai tried to withdraw consent and leave the secured area of the airport: TSA detained him, and eventually discovered the meth pipe and meth.
Aukai challenged his conviction for possession with intent to distribute on the grounds that once he stated he didn’t want to be searched and went to leave the secured area, the TSA had no authority to detain and continue searching him; thus, the meth pipe and meth were products of an “unreasonable” search and seizure and should be excluded as evidence against him.
Onion Field update.
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011Gregory Powell, about whom we have written previously, is seeking “compassionate release” from prison. Mr. Powell has been turned down 11 times for parole.
Former LAPD Officer Ian Campbell was unavailable for comment.
Edited to add 10/19: Not going to happen.
TMQ watch: October 18, 2011.
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011The more TMQ columns we observe, the more we think Gregg Easterbrook needs a good editor.
After the jump, this week’s TMQ:
Your loser update: week 6, 2011.
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Miami
Indianapolis
St. Louis
Joke of the day.
Monday, October 17th, 2011The bartender says, “I can’t serve you. We’re in different relativistic frames of reference.”
A “faster than light” neutrino walks into a bar.
(Hattip: SnarkyBytes.)
“B—h set me up!”
Monday, October 17th, 2011California seems to be the home of that defense. I can’t find the post where I wrote about the teacher who had guns and drugs planted in his car (on school property) by his ex-wife and her boyfriend, but I do recall mentioning that.
Now we have a private detective agency that was allegedly taking money to set up ex-husbands on DUI charges.
I’ve got to admit that I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the way the LAT spins the story. I understand two chicks lured you to a bar, I understand one of them showed some cleavage; however, keeping under the legal limit is still your responsibility. There’s no evidence (and no accusation) that they drugged this poor guy’s drinks or anything like that.
On the other hand:
That puts a different spin on things, but you don’t find out about these accusations until about halfway through the article.
Interesting legal note:
I wonder if Texas has a similar law?