Archive for April 9th, 2020

Today’s bulletin from Bizarro World.

Thursday, April 9th, 2020

Hattip on this one to Morlock Publishing, who is finally out of Twitter jail. I believe this link will let you bypass the LAT paywall and read the story, but I’m not 100% sure. (As I’ve noted in the past, the paper is really obnoxious about paywalls, ad blockers, and incognito mode.)

The meat of the story:

The manager of a gun store at the Los Angeles Police Academy has been arrested for allegedly stealing firearms and selling them to several officers and an L.A. County sheriff’s deputy, according to records and sources.

Yes. Not only was he stealing guns (which is a Federal crime) but he was selling them…to cops!

According to sources, the police officers and sheriff’s deputy purchased the guns without legally required federal paperwork and probably at steep discounts, which could expose them to criminal charges.
“They knew what they were doing,” said a person familiar with the investigation. “You know when you’re buying illegally and well below market value.”

…

Duenas came under suspicion last month after an audit of the store’s inventory revealed missing weapons and sales that had been transacted without proper paperwork, according to three sources familiar with the investigation. LAPRAAC officials also discovered empty boxes that should have contained firearms.

This does not seem like a well thought out plan. “Let me just get that gun for you…hey, why is this box empty?” (This may be a faulty assumption on my part, but given that they say he was the manager, I’m assuming there were people other than him working there.)

LAPRAAC is the “Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club”:

The club derives its revenues from the gun store, a gift and uniform shop, a cafe that is open to the public and rentals of its facilities on the storied Elysian Park academy campus, as well as membership dues from active and retired LAPD officers.
The gun store has been closed since Mayor Eric Garcetti’s March 23 stay-at-home order classified it as a nonessential business. The swimming pool, weight room, basketball court and other facilities used by LAPRAAC members are also closed, and the cafe is open only for takeout orders.

And, of course…

As the coronavirus pandemic worsened in L.A. last month, police officers lined up at the LAPRAAC store to stock up, mirroring a run on gun purchases among the public during that time.

Posted in California Über Alles, Cops, Guns, Law | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 10

Thursday, April 9th, 2020

Since I was a little selfish yesterday, today’s videos go out to great and good FOTB RoadRich, and to the good folks at the 1940 Air Terminal Museum in Houston. May they re-open soon.

First up: “The 707 Astrojet”, a 1961 co-production of American Airlines and Pratt & Whitney Aircraft.

Bonus video #1: “The F-4 Phantom Joins the Fleet”, from 1962. From the YouTube description, for all you military aviation buffs: “The film features Fighter Squadron SEVEN FOUR (VF-74) aka Bedevilers flying from the nearly-new aircraft carrier USS Forrestal (CVA-59) along with the rest of Carrier Air Wing EIGHT (CVW-8).”

Bonus video #2: “Grumman at War”, from 1944.

Posted in History, Planes | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 9, 2020.

Thursday, April 9th, 2020

Hal Willner, who the Times describes as “matchmaker, yenta, fan, longtime music coordinator for the sketches on ‘Saturday Night Live'”.

Mr. Willner was best known for assembling diverse casts of performers, including Rufus Wainwright and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, to play a slightly off-center body of work, such as the Disney songbook or the music of Nino Rota, who scored Federico Fellini’s movies. The music found a devoted following, but not breakout success.

I have a couple of those Willner tribute albums. “Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill” in particular is a swell album, and I wish someone would re-release that digitally.

Lawrence sent over an obit for Thomas L. Miller, TV producer. (“Full House”, “Family Matters”.)

Linda Tripp. For my younger readers, Ms. Tripp was a central figure in the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal of the 90s.

When Ms. Lewinsky confided in Ms. Tripp that she had had a physical relationship with the president, Ms. Tripp got in touch with Lucianne Goldberg, a literary agent who had once reached out to her for information on Vincent Foster, the White House lawyer who committed suicide in 1993.
More recently, Ms. Tripp had been working on a book proposal tentatively titled “Behind Closed Doors: What I Saw Inside the Clinton White House.” Now she had a hook.
Ms. Goldberg suggested, among other things, that Ms. Tripp tape her telephone conversations with Ms. Lewinsky. That was legal in the District of Columbia and in 39 states, but not in Maryland, where Ms. Tripp was living.
More than 20 hours of audiotapes were turned over to Kenneth Starr, the independent prosecutor handling the Clinton investigation.

Posted in History, Music, Obits, Politics, TV | Comments Closed