For the historical record: Augie Garrido, former UT baseball coach.
Obit watch: March 15, 2018.
March 15th, 2018Have I really been blogging this long?
March 15th, 2018Folks who have been reading this blog for a long time may remember Laura Hall, or, as I like to call her, “The Happy Hacker”.
For those with poor memories or who haven’t been following along, Ms. Hall is famous for such hits as “help this guy I know cut up and dispose of his girlfriend’s body” and “turn my five year sentence into ten years because I’m such a witch“.
Ms. Hall will be released from prison today.
Even though Hall was convicted in 2007, it took five years of emotional legal wrangling for a Travis County jury to sentence her to 11 years in prison. Her sentence included 10 years for the tampering with evidence conviction and one year for a charge of hindering apprehension — both were served concurrently.
She was also allowed time served, which is why she’s being released Thursday.
She’s served “almost” eight years out of her ten year sentence.
Now he’ll have time to go to Graceland.
March 14th, 2018Tubby Smith out as head basketball coach of the University of Memphis.
He was 40-26 over two seasons. It doesn’t look like this is related to any sort of scandal, unlike some other recent firings. But this is interesting:
…Smith’s dismissal is more related to off-court factors than the on-court product.
Attendance at home games fell to a 48-year low this year. As a result, the athletic department could miss out on an $800,000 payment from the Memphis Grizzlies as part of the school’s lease at FedExForum.
Donations to the athletic department also fell by $1.1 million during the 2016-17 fiscal year thanks in large part to a drop in men’s basketball season ticket sales.
Oh, why not?
March 14th, 2018Happy #PiDay! pic.twitter.com/vNSNgGZzgI
— CIA (@CIA) March 14, 2018
Obit watch: March 14, 2018.
March 14th, 2018I don’t feel like I need to say much more than that, but I like this quote:
Ollie Ollie Ollie get your pink slip here…
March 10th, 2018Kevin Ollie out as men’s basketball coach at the University of Connecticut.
Even better: the university is claiming “just cause” for the firing. Apparently, it’s not just that the team had a non-so-great season, but there’s also a possible recruting scandal simmering.
Possibly more later on.
Another one I missed.
March 8th, 2018Seriously, for the past few days, I’ve had crud oozing out of my eyes and nose continuously. Up until today, I could just barely stand to look at a computer monitor.
But that’s a digression. Remember the Fyre Festival? Wasn’t that a hoot?
…
He told the judge, Naomi Reice Buchwald, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, that he had begun organizing the festival with good intentions but had “greatly underestimated the resources” it would take.
But that’s not fraud. Poor judgment, maybe, but not outright fraud.
Charging documents filed by prosecutors said that Mr. McFarland, 26, had provided investors with false financial reports, including one that listed millions of dollars in talent-booking revenue for Fyre Media. In reality, the documents said, the company had earned only about $57,000 in bookings in the year leading up to the festival.
Mr. McFarland was also charged with showing investors bogus financial documents to claim that he owned more stock than he actually did so that it would appear he was in a position to personally guarantee an investment. And, prosecutors said, he used inflated revenue numbers to induce a ticket vendor to pay $2 million for a block of advance tickets for future festivals.
Oh. That’s different. (And it sounds like this is just what the government claimed: we don’t know what he actually admitted to in his plea.)
My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, Ken White thanks you, and I thank you.
Random.
March 8th, 2018He died doing what he loved: drinking whiskey and complaining about the Oscars.
“Ironically, he was giving his opinion of what someone was wearing that he thought was ugly, then asked (his wife) Patti to refill his whiskey,” Michael Solomon, former chief executive of Tower, said.
He died by the time his wife came back with his drink.
I’m not clear on what was “ironic” about that, and the obit is useless: who was wearing the “ugly” clothes?
Kevin Stallings out as basketball coach of the Pittsburgh Panthers after two seasons.
Obit watch: March 8, 2018.
March 8th, 2018I bet you didn’t know George Gershwin had a son. That’s okay: apparently, George didn’t know either.
I kid a little bit. But this is a long, fascinating, and kind of sad obituary:
Flames, hyenas, etc. (#48)
March 8th, 2018Apologies for being a little behind on these. I’ve been having some issues the past few days and am slowly getting back up to speed.
Hyena number one: Dawnna Dukes got curb-stomped in Tuesday’s primary.
Hyena number two: the mayor of Nashville resigned on Tuesday. This was part of her guilty plea to charges of felony theft.
Nashville isn’t my usual beat, but I’ve been sort of following this story from the edges. In brief: the mayor was having an affair with her “head of security”, and the felony theft charges apparently involve payments for overtime and travel expenses to her partner (who also pled guilty to felony theft charges).
…
One thing I picked up elsewhere: apparently, the plea deals include deferred adjudication. Basically, if Barry and Forrest keep their noses clean (and, I assume, make restitution), they can have the felony conviction expunged from their records.
Open question: what’s going to happen to Forrest’s pension? He retired the day the affair was announced, and was approved for $74,000 a year. But that figure was based, in part, on the overtime payments Forrest collected while he was Barry’s lover…
Edited to add: I got to wondering, and I’m sure all of you were as well. According to this article from 2015, former mayor Barry was not a member of Crooked Mayors For Disarmed Citizens. But it wasn’t for lack of trying:
…
Despite the push among some mayors demanding action on guns, Barry at this point isn’t part of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
…
Mayor’s office press secretary Sean Braisted said Barry has no plans to join Mayors Against Illegal Guns at this time.
Obit watch: March 5, 2018.
March 5th, 2018Sir Roger Bannister, the first man to run a mile under four minutes.
One of the things I always wondered: how does a medical student find time to become a record setting runner? Sort of an answer:
And I rather like this quote:
David Ogden Stiers. It is perhaps worth calling out that he was more than Major Charles Emerson Winchester III: he was the announcer in “THX-1138”, Cogsworth the clock in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” (and he had other roles in a lot of Disney films), and acted in four of Woody Allen’s movies.
I’m throwing this in so I have an excuse to mention: over the weekend, I caught an episode of “Match Game” with Ms. Swit. She was wearing a very unfortunate yellow and black striped outfit: it made her look like a giant bumblebee.
Sometimes, I miss the 70s. Then I’m reminded of why I shouldn’t.
Things you may have wondered about. (#6 in a series)
February 23rd, 2018Okay, maybe not. But it’s been a while since I did one of these.
Whatever happened to Beanie Babies?
(Spoiler: they’re worthless.)
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#47 in a series)
February 22nd, 2018Very quick, because this is my CPA volunteer night and I’m down at the cop shop:
Yes. FELONY invasion of privacy. Allegedly, he took nudes of someone without consent, and then “transmitted the photo in a way that allowed it to be seen on a computer, which prosecutors said made the crime a felony rather than a misdemeanor”.
More from the Post-Dispatch:
Also: two! Two in one day!
ETA 2/23: Now that I’m in front of a real computer, it looks like a double-hyena day isn’t unheard of (April of 2016). But it is rare enough to be noteworthy.
I’m looking forward to my first triple flaming hyena day.
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#46 in a series)
February 22nd, 2018This is how out of it I’ve been: I didn’t even know Democratic state Senator Carlos Uresti was actually on trial until Mike the Musicologist texted me the verdict. (Previously on WCD.)
And that verdict?
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
That’s “all charges”. And what were those charges again?
As to State Sen. Carlos Uresti:
Count 1, wire fraud: Guilty
Count 2, wire fraud: Guilty
Count 3, conspiracy to commit wire fraud: Guilty
Count 4, wire fraud: Guilty
Count 5, wire fraud: Guilty
Count 6, wire fraud: Guilty
Count 8, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments: Guilty
Count 11, engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity: Guilty
Count 20, securities fraud: Guilty
Count 21, securities fraud: Guilty
Count 22, unregistered securities broker: Guilty
As to Gary Cain:
Count 3, conspiracy to commit wire fraud: Guilty
Count 8, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments: Guilty
Count 13, engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity: Guilty
Count 14, engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity: Guilty
Count 15, engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity: Guilty
Count 16, engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity: Guilty
Count 17, engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity: Guilty
Count 18, engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity: Guilty
Count 19: engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity: Guilty
…
Of course, it is highly unlikely that he’ll get 200 years in prison. My prediction: I’ll be surprised if he gets more than 10 years.
Obit watch: February 22, 2018.
February 22nd, 2018For the historical record: Billy Graham.