Rebecca Valdez is still on the stand in the Bell corruption trial. Yesterday’s revelation:
Valdez states that she believes Theresa Diaz, the previous city clerk (who, as you may recall, moved out of the city in 2004, but allegedly continued to act as the city clerk until 2007) forged her name on the documents in question.
This exchange is also amusing:
Obit watch: Patty Andrews, the last surviving Andrews Sister. (NYT. A/V Club.)
If a publisher is reissuing a non-fiction book, do they have an obligation to go back and do fact checking? What if the facts have been called into question since the book was issued? What if the book is “38 Witnesses” by A.M. Rosenthal of the New York Times?
What is there to correct?
This 2009 NPR interview goes into more detail about the many problems with the popular narrative of the case.
This lead made me giggle:
Hey, as long as we’re talking about crooked governors:
And lying politicians:
Back in May, I wrote about the case of Patricia Cook, the unarmed woman in Culpeper, Virginia who was killed by a police officer under suspicious circumstances; the officer, Daniel Harmon–Wright, was later charged with murder.
Things have moved faster than I expected: Harmon-Wright was convicted, but only of “voluntary manslaughter”, “shooting into an occupied vehicle”, and “shooting into an occupied vehicle resulting in death”.
And it is possible a mistrial will be declared: “a court’s clerk reported that she found two dictionaries and a thesaurus in the jury room”, which were brought in by the jury forewoman (according to another report) and were allegedly used by the jury to look up the definition of “malice”.
(Hattip: Balko.)
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies lost $109,206 in 2010.
They lost $3,815,144 during 2011, the same year their falling-out with Jim Romenesko began.
(Hattip: Jim Romenesko.)
Gun control works! Just ask Chicago!
More:
Uh, that’s not what a “straw buyer” is, Monica Davey. (Nor does Davey mention that “straw purchases” are also a violation of Federal law, though rarely prosecuted according to the WP. One wonders how much of a deterrent Chicago’s law is to people who are already violating federal law.)
(Likewise, purchasing guns in other states, bringing them across state lines, and selling them on the Chicago streets violates multiple existing federal laws. Davey ignores that fact as well.)
Edited to add: Just saw this, and found it appropriate.
Chicago pols blame rampant shootings on guns from Indiana and Iowa, which, mysteriously, don’t have rampant shootings.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) January 30, 2013
And I said, “What about ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’?”
He said, “I can’t afford a million dollars,
and as I recall, you’ve got plenty of money.”
And I said, “Well, that’s one thing we have not.”
The Bell trial picked up again yesterday. Rebecca Valdez, the former city clerk who wasn’t actually the city clerk at first, is still on the stand.
The defense is attacking her credibility, “seeking to show that record-keeping in Bell was in disarray. Valdez testified that she signed minutes for meetings she didn’t attend, was appointed to the job in name only and sometimes made mistakes marking the times that meetings began and ended.”
And what’s this about her being the city clerk but not being the city clerk?
Also interesting:
Not “food bank coordinator”, but “assistant to the food bank coordinator”, and pulling in at least $100,000 a year. How do I get this job?
Ah, the Texas Highway Patrol Museum. You do remember the Texas Highway Patrol Museum, don’t you? Shut down by the Attorney General last year? Assets, including the building, being sold off?
Well, about that…
The “procedural impropriety” seems to be that the high bidder says her bid was ignored. Also, the real estate broker would make a larger commission if the other bidder got the property. There’s some technical aspects that make it unclear which bid is best; that’s why the AG recommended that the building be listed again.
(Hattip on this to Grits for Breakfast. If Ms. Wong winds up getting the building, and we’re all still here, I want to do a road trip to Rosario’s Café y Cantina.)
Ah. The week between the championship games and the Superb Owl. Also known as “the silly week”, in which people look for things to fill space. And TMQ is no exception. This week’s column after the jump…
There’s a follow-up to last week’s story about the felon trying to sell guns at the gun show: he’s now been charged with theft.
Interesting. Very interesting indeed.
Setting aside for the moment the subject of this story, there’s a kind of interesting legal aspect to it. In Nevada, if you own a casino (or are a “key man” in a casino) you can still gamble anywhere execpt your own casino (for obvious reasons). In Atlantic City, though, you’re not allowed to gamble period; at your own casino or someone else’s, it doesn’t matter. I find it curious that there’s such a difference in the law. I’m sure Mr. Fertitta does, too.
I was hoping to have more on the Bell trial for you. I do, but it wasn’t what I was expecting: one of the alternate jurors called in sick yesterday and the trial was postponed.
But I do have excellent news. Remember Cudahy? The bimbo and the badge? Bribes in the Denny’s? (If you don’t remember Cudahy, previously.)
David Silva, the former mayor of Cudahy, was sentenced yesterday.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph Akrotirianakis recommended that he receive 41 months in prison.
He got one year of prison time, three years of probation, 1,500 hours of community service and was ordered to pay $17,000 in restitution. (He was convicted of taking $17,000 in bribes from someone who wanted to open a medical marijuana dispensary.)
I missed this previously, but the same LAT article notes that Angel Perales, “Cudahy’s former head of code enforcement and acting city manager”, who was also implicated in this case, got five years probation.
Akrotirianakis had recommended that Perales serve two years in prison.
I find it interesting that the judge in both cases ignored the sentencing recommendation and gave both gentlemen lower sentences than requested. I find it especially interesting that Perales appears to have gotten away with no prison time.
By the way, Osvaldo Conde (of bimbo and badge fame) is up for sentencing on February 25th. And I also missed this: “…the former mayor of Santa Fe Springs, Joseph Serrano Sr., was sentenced to two years in prison for taking $11,500 in bribes from the marijuana dispensary owner.”
W.C. Fields supposedly said “It is morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep their money.”
I was reminded of that reading this NYT article:
Some examples of questionable practice:
I’d make the Seattle Police Department pay. $100 for it. At the next gun buyback.
I’m amused at how often the “someone turned in a non-functional rocket launcher at a gun buyback” trope has been showing up in the mass media. At least this story mentions the non-functional aspect in the first sentence.
Because paying $100 for an empty fiberglass tube makes the public safer. Way to go, guys.
(Hattip: TJIC on the Twitter, though he didn’t draw the same conclusion I did.)
There were long lines and crowds at the gun show, according to the Statesman.
(Before today, I’ve never had to wait in line to get into a gun show, except maybe the one time I went with Borepatch and we had to wait for the doors to open. It took me about 40 minutes in line to get into the show; I got there around 10:30 AM. Two friends of mine got there later and reported the wait was much the same, even at 1 PM.)
Edited to add: Lawrence was there as well; here’s his report.
As noted previously, the trial of six former city council members from Bell has begun. The jury has been seated, opening statements have been stated, and the first testimony has been testified.
The first witness was Rebecca Valdez. Ms. Valdez was the former city clerk of Bell. The LAT notes that she has been granted immunity from prosecution in return for her testimony.
And what did she have to say? Basically, as city clerk, she was supposed to take notes on the council meetings,
(This is significant because the charges against the members involve “taking huge salaries to serve on board and commissions that rarely met and did little, if any, work.”)
And:
The defense attorney for one of the former council members got Valdez to admit that Robert “Ratso” Rizzo, the city manager, loaned her $48.000 for a down payment on a house; he also asserted that the $48,000 was city money, not a personal loan from Ratso.
It is still early in the trial, but it looks to me like the defense strategy is going to be “it was all Rizzo! We didn’t know what was going on! Ratso hid stuff from us!” We’ll see how effective this is. I’m thinking it probably won’t be very effective; if you’re taking $8,000 a month for meetings of boards that never meet, you’ve got to know something is up, and throwing Ratso under the bus isn’t going to help.
If I were Ratso, right about now I might be thinking about making a deal with the DA to testify against the council members, in return for a lighter sentence. If I’m the DA, I want Rizzo and Spaccia to do time, but I might be willing to make a deal with Rizzo (or Spaccia) if it means I can nail a bunch of corrupt elected officials. Ideally, I want everyone involved in the Bell scandal to be introduced to the joys of busting rocks, but sometimes you’ve got to make a trade. Personally, I’d rather send elected politicians to jail than appointed city officials, if I have to make a choice.
This one is from Laurence Simon. So finally you have a recipe that you can follow at home without purchasing a book from Amazon.
I followed Simon’s recipe more closely than I have any other recipe recently, even making several special trips to find date sugar. Sprouts didn’t have it. The Gateway Whole Foods didn’t have it. HEB, of course, doesn’t have it, even at Central Market.
(As a side note, I think the downtown Austin Whole Foods is the best place to go if you’re looking for unusual stuff. I griped previously about getting powdered goat’s milk; actually, both Sprouts and Whole Foods have it in large cans
Anyway, the only significant variation was that I used shredded Gruyère instead of Swiss or Emmenthaler. That’s what I had on hand, and I think that’s more traditional for French Onion soup. (Also, my machine
How did it come out? I’m going to put the rest of this behind a jump; those who are bored with my bread blogging are cordially invited to skip to the next post, or for that matter the previous post. If you don’t like this one, just wait; there will be another one coming along shortly.
Austin’s Saxet show is this weekend. I plan to be there Saturday. Feel free to say “Hi” if you see me: I’ll be wearing my snazzy Gunwalker t-shirt.
In Houston, a company called High Caliber Gun & Knife Shows runs gun shows in the George R. Brown Convention Center. They’re also having a show this weekend. (You may remember High Caliber from High Caliber v. Houston, aka “the city of Houston got their ass whipped and had to pay High Caliber’s legal fees”.)
Gun shows have security, like pretty much any public gathering; rock concert, biker rally, gun show. Gun shows do not generally hire the Hells Angels to provide security; in Austin, Saxet uses APD officers (who I believe are off-duty, but in uniform). In Houston, High Caliber uses off-duty Houston police officers.
At least they did until this past week.
Why?
This whole “state law” versus “house rule” thing doesn’t pass the smell test with me. Texas state concealed carry law allows a business to ban the carrying of concealed handguns, if they post a sign to that effect at the entrance or entrances. The sign has to meet specific wording and legibility requirements; we in Texas colloquially refer to them as “30.06 signs” after the relevant section of Texas law.
I haven’t been to a High Caliber show in Houston, but the Saxet shows in Austin have 30.06 signs posted at the entrances; I assume High Caliber does as well, which to me puts things firmly into the “state law” versus “house rule” category.
I wonder if off-duty police officers enforce “rules” that are not “laws” in other venues? For example, do off-duty police officers confiscate cameras and recording devices at rock concerts?
According to the HouChron, High Caliber has managed to get security from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, which doesn’t seem to have a problem with the whole “house rules” thing.
Quoth Union chief Hunt again:
Sounds like “only ones syndrome” again, doesn’t it? Also makes me wonder: I don’t see any indication that any of the officers working security complained. I wonder if somebody – perhaps on the city council or in the mayor’s office – put some pressure on Union chief Hunt. I don’t have any evidence for that yet; this is purely speculative.