Archive for February, 2012
And yet…(take 2).
Monday, February 20th, 2012Quotes of the day.
Monday, February 20th, 2012Annals of law (number 2 in a series)
Monday, February 20th, 2012Today’s Statesman reprints a lengthy AP article by Kristen Gelineau about the Azaria Chamberlain case, tied to a new coroner’s inquest starting Friday. (This will be inquest number four.)
You remember Azaria Chamberlain? And her mother Lindy Chamberlain? Right?
This one goes out to my friend A.T. Campbell, the world's biggest Meryl Streep fan.
Yes, this is the famous “Dingo ate my baby!” case. For the younger set and the non-true crime buffs: the Chamberlain family was camping at Ayers Rock when Azaria (who was nine weeks old) disappeared. Lindy Chamberlain said she heard a cry, went to check on Azaria, and saw a dingo leaving their tent. Azaria’s jumpsuit was found in the desert; dingo tracks and blood were found in and near the tent.
There was considerable doubt at the time (and for that matter, today) that a dingo could carry off a baby. There was also some forensic evidence that, at the time, suggested Lindy Chamberlain had killed her daughter. (That evidence has since been debunked; details are in the linked article.) Lindy was convicted of murder, and her husband Michael was convicted as an accessory.
Three years after the conviction, Azaria’s jacket was discovered near a dingo den. (Azaria’s body has never been found.) Lindy and her husband were released from prison days later.
This is a pretty complicated case, with strong elements of prejudice. (The Chamberlains were Seventh-day Adventists.) I’ll admit to not having read Evil Angels
APD/Scott Henson update.
Sunday, February 19th, 2012I was busy much of the day yesterday (and chained to my desk doing schoolwork much of the day today) so this is the first chance I’ve had to blog the Statesman‘s followup to the Scott Henson story.
Basically, Chief Acevdeo showed a Statesman reporter video of the incident – video that hasn’t been released to the public – that he claims contradicts Henson’s story. As far as I can tell, the contradictions amount to:
- APD didn’t draw Tasers.
- APD disputes that Henson was “handcuffed roughly”.
I’m glad I waited, since Henson now has a response to Acevedo and the Statesman up at his own blog. In his response, Henson acknowledges the non-drawn Taser error, but disputes the handcuff issue.
Henson also makes another good point by way of an apology:
To me, that’s sort of the key issue: why did nine APD officers stop, detain, and handcuff someone the deputy constable had already spoken to and cleared?
And yet, Apple is evil.
Friday, February 17th, 2012Google is removing the cookies. Here’s a direct link to the actual work by Jonathan Mayer. And here’s the WSJ report, which does not appear to be behind a paywall.
Edited to add: LAT:
Noted for future reference.
Friday, February 17th, 2012All that airline stuff reminded me of a story I’d read a long time ago in Reader’s Digest.
I ended spending far more time than I needed to trying to track down that story (in part because I had both the title and the author’s name mangled). So just in case I want to refer to it in the future, and for the benefit of my readers (full-service blogging experience here, people; also, I think Frankie Housley should not be forgotten):
Wikipedia entry for Frankie Housley.
Knoxville “Metro Pulse” article on Frankie Housley (by way of the Wayback Machine).
HCDA stuff.
Friday, February 17th, 2012I missed this last night: the Texas Rangers are asking for a special prosecutor to assist in their investigation of the Harris County District Attorney’s office.
I learned of the HouChron article by way of The Hon. Murray Newman, who points out this is the fourth special prosecutor appointed to investigate the HCDA’s office since October.
Also, just to make things a little easier, I added a “HCDA” sub-category to the law category, and edited posts appropriately. Now everything I’ve posted (AFAIK) related to the Harris County District Attorney’s office is in one place, for easy review. Just part of the full-service blogging experience here at WCD, no need to thank me.
Burning airlines give you so much more.
Friday, February 17th, 2012Another topic of conversation at dinner last night: planes. Specifically, airlines.
- Aerflot is a member of the SkyTeam frequent flyer miles alliance (that’s Delta, Air France, AeroMexico, and some smaller airlines).
- There were press reports that Tupolev was planning to restore a TU-144 to flying condition, and use it “to transport the Olympic flame and take part in an air show” for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Wikipedia is appropriately skeptical, as am I, but it would be darned awesome if they actually did it.
- North Korea has a national airline, Air Koryo. “According to Skytrax airline rating services, among all worldwide carriers, it is the only one-star rated airline in the world.” This actually makes sense, in a weird sort of way; I’m sure there are officials of the North Korean government who need to travel to Japan, China, Europe, and such on business. And if your country doesn’t have hard currency to buy seats on KLM, what else can you do but start your own airline? (However, Air Koryo can only fly their two new TU-204 aircraft to Europe; all their other aircraft are banned.)
- I’m going to miss Continental.
- I kind of wish I still had this. There was a great fold-out chart in that issue showing the history of commercial airlines up to that point; which ones had folded, which ones had merged, which ones were still operational…
- This is only tangentially related to airlines, but my friend also showed me two Justin Van Genderen prints he’d purchased that I absolutely love (being, as I am, a huge fan of “2001: A Space Odyssey”): number one. number two. The other stuff in Van Genderen’s gallery impresses me, too, especially these mock Soviet space program posters. I think this is a guy who deserves wider notice.
More things you find on the Internet.
Thursday, February 16th, 2012I was having dinner with a friend tonight, and for various reasons the conversation turned to Las Vegas. We were discussing things like: could you make a go of it with a completely retro-Rat Pack themed casino? Vintage slot machines (or modern electronic reproductions of vintage slot machines), a 50s-style menu (lobster thermidor and baked Alaska?), Rat Pack impersonators giving nightly performances (that already happens to varying degrees at a lot of Vegas casinos these days)?
(I don’t know, but if I had a lot of money to burn, I’d buy the Sahara property and rights to the name and give it a shot.)
Anyway, the question came up: is there a list of Vegas casinos? The answer is obvious: this is the Internet, of course there’s a list of Vegas casinos. That’s no great shock.
More interesting is the list of defunct Vegas casinos. That has a few surprises. (I thought the Hooters Casino was defunct; actually, they filed for Chapter 11 and are up for sale. The Debbie Reynolds Hollywood Hotel also didn’t go defunct: it was sold multiple times (more on this later), spent much of the early 21st century as a dedicated hotel for United and Delta air crews, and is now owned by the Clarion people.)
But my own personal favorite is the list of Las Vegas casinos that never opened. There’s some fun ones here, such as:
- The World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment had two casino plans, one of which was for the Debbie Reynolds property, and neither of which ever went through.
- There was a plan for a Titanic themed casino across from the Sahara, but the Vegas city council rejected it. (As my friend said, “How bad does a plan have to be for the Vegas City Council to reject it?”)
- One of the founders of U-Haul bought a hotel, renamed it the World Trade Center Hotel, and applied for a casino license. The application was rejected when two of his partners in the project were found to have criminal records; the gentleman in question died the following year in a car crash that was ruled a suicide. (All of this was pre-September 11th, by the way.)
- The Moon Resort and Casino, a proposed 10,000 room, 250 acre resort with a lunar theme. Proposed, but nobody seems to believe it will ever be built because there’s just not that much space available on the Strip.
Those are just a few of the high points. Just think, if things were slightly different, you could be booking a room in the Harley Davidson Hotel and Casino. Or the Montreux Resort (keep an eye out for stupids with flare guns).
I know those words, but that sign makes no sense.
Thursday, February 16th, 2012LAT headline (as of 10:30 AM 2/16): “Whitney Houston’s private funeral will be streamed live on Internet”.
APD update.
Thursday, February 16th, 2012- The Scott Henson incident (previously) gets coverage from the Statesman.
That’s interesting. To me, he was making it more of a “why did it take 9 APD officers to sort this out, especially given my previous interaction with a deputy constable?” thing. But that’s just me.
- APD also fired two more officers, and suspended two supervisors.
Michelle Gish was fired for punching a woman (who was restrained on a gurney) for spitting on her. Jose Robledo was suspended for giving “false and inaccurate statements during the investigation” of the same incident. Sgt. Mark Breckenridge was suspended for 20 days for failing to “adequately investigate the use of force” in the same incident, and Cpl. Steve Jones was suspended for 10 days “because he witnessed the incident but did not submit his report about it until told to do so by a superior, and he approved reports related to the incident that were inaccurate or incomplete”.
Gish and Robledo can appeal. I have seen reports elsewhere indicating that Breckenridge can’t, because suspensions over 15 days require the agreement of both the officer and the city. I’m not sure about Jones and his ability to appeal.
Annals of Law (part one of a continuing series)
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012Gerhard Albert Becker has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
The charge against him is the result of a fire in January of last year that killed Glenn Allen, a firefighter with the Los Angeles Fire Department. Allen was killed, and several other firefighters injured, in a ceiling collapse while they were fighting a fire in what the LAT describes as a “Hollywood Hills mansion”.
Okay. So why is this odd? Well, Becker isn’t the homeowner. Becker isn’t an arsonist. He didn’t start the fire. But it had not always been burning since the world’s been turning: the home had recently been rebuilt.
No, Becker is the architect who designed the home. I’ve never heard of a case where an architect has been charged as a result of a fire death. But when you read the article…
Wow. That’s…interesting. In the “tragedy waiting to happen” sort of way. More:
I’m not familiar with LA building codes. Is plastic pipe considered acceptable for sprinkler systems?
(The comments on this story are interesting as well. Apparently, the home was given a certificate of occupancy. Doesn’t that imply an inspection by the building department? I can see that they may not have gone into the attic to look at the sprinkler system: you’d expect that, but maybe the inspector was pressed for time? Or lazy? Or that’s not a standard part of inspections? But wouldn’t an 18-foot indoor “fire trough” have made them say something?)
Edited to add: Longer article from the LAT. If the accusations in this article are true (and please keep in mind that this is just the prosecution’s case), they’re damming.
Building inspectors said Becker had told them there were no plans to build fireplaces in the home, and none were spotted during a final inspection. After the fire, investigators discovered that he had installed four outdoor fireplaces inside the home, a violation of city building codes.
…
One of the fireplaces, prosecutors allege, actually vented into the room where it was located. The fireplaces also included combustible materials, like drywall, and lacked required firebreaks to keep flames from spreading out.
Loser update.
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012I rely on Lawrence for my NBA news; it would be possible for me to care less than I currently do about the NBA, but that would also be difficult.
Anyway, when Lawrence isn’t feeding me NBA news, I have to depend on FARK.
And it was from FARK that I learned that the Charlotte Bobcats are heading towards the worst season in NBA history (currently 3-25, for a .107 winning percentage).
Question, though: should we really count this? In general, I don’t give a lot of credit to records set during seasons affected by labor stoppages.
ETA: Anybody remember the 2009-2010 New Jersey Nets? (12-70, .146)
On the DA Front…
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012DA Lykos says she asked the Rangers to investigate, and promised full cooperation.
More on this when we know more. Don’t hold your breath; you’ll just turn an unattractive shade of blue.
Fear of fire, and other random notes for February 15, 2012.
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012I just do not understand this. I get that prisons in other countries are overcrowded and not up to US standards. But I just can’t wrap my mind around that many people dying in a fire in the modern era.
Some stuff from the NYT:
They caught Edward Maher in Missouri last week. Who?
His wife and 3-year-old son had already left for the United States. The money was never found.
Coach Susan Polgar is leaving her championship program at Texas Tech and going to Webster University in St. Louis. Worse for Tech, she’s taking the top ten players on her team with her to Webster’s program.
By the way, Coach Polgar is the chess coach.