If I put this into a novel, nobody would believe it.
July 6th, 2012Battleship!
July 5th, 2012I believe I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m a big fan of museums. Especially little museums, and especially military museums. I’ve had a lot of fun visiting official Navy museums, like the one at the Naval War College in Newport and the Submarine Force Museum in Groton. (However, I am not biased; I’ve been to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB twice, and loved that both times.)
It isn’t just the official museums I like. I want to get back over to the Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg soon. (I know, it is now the “National Museum of the Pacific War”, but I still think of it as the Nimitz Museum.) It isn’t even just the military ones; there’s a whole host of little museums in Houston, for example, that I’d like to visit.
(We visited the San Jacinto Monument a lot when I was a child, but I don’t remember ever touring the battleship Texas. Odd that. I also never got to eat at the San Jacinto Inn during the glory days of that establishment. Not that I’m bitter or anything.)
The purpose of this long digression is to point out an article in today’s LAT (I know, I know, but they come in waves, and the Cudahy articles were actually yesterday; I just didn’t have time to blog them) tied to the battleship Iowa docking in San Pedro.
The basic point of the article is that warship museums may or may not work out. Why? It depends on the location: thank you, Captain Obvious!
I’d suggest both of those are very special cases; San Diego has a strong naval presence, so I’d expect a warship museum to work well there. And the Intrepid is, to my mind, an atypical warship museum, what with the space shuttle and the SR-71 and the glaven and the HEY NICE LADY!
Sorry.
On the other hand, I’m not exactly shocked that the battleship New Jersey in Camden, New Jersey has trouble attracting visitors.
I’d also note Chumlee and Rick have a full work schedule at the shop and can’t be running off to every warship in the country, and the Old Man is probably too grumpy to be a good docent.
And while we’re talking about municipal corruption…
July 5th, 2012…let us turn our eyes to the West, and the state of California. It’s like a whole other country! Specifically, like a third world banana republic.
On Tuesday, the mayor of Cudahy, David M. Silva, resigned.
I’m intrigued by the idea that the FBI was using a marijuana dispensary owner as an informant, given the tensions between California and the Feds over medical pot. But there’s more to the story:
There’s a complimentary story in the LAT that goes into more detail about the alleged election fraud. Two men who ran for city council seats had their cars vandalized, rocks and bricks thrown at their homes, and then…
By the way, remember Maywood? The Maywood PD also patrolled Cudahy. A former Maywood PD chief is quoted in the article as having concerns about Cudahy’s elections and the “aura of intimidation”. (As far as I can tell, that chief came in at the very end of the police department’s existence, and did not have anything to do with the circumstances that led to the department being shut down.) The “towing company” involvement is interesting as well; as you may recall, there were some questionable things going on in Maywood with a towing company as well.
More:
Tough town, if the code enforcement folks need to carry guns.
Related: “What you have just said is among the most absurd things I have ever heard.”
Police watch: July 5, 2012.
July 5th, 2012There’s a town in Montgomery County, near Houston, called Patton Village. I have it in my head that Patton Village was one of the notorious Texas speedtraps up until a few years back, when The Ledge basically shut all of those down. (Edited to add: I hate using Wikipedia as a source, but it does seem to confirm my recollection with externally sourced links.)
Anyway, Patton Village is apparently trying to disband the city police department. I say “apparently” and “trying” because the mayor tried to hold a city council meeting yesterday. The meeting was posted at 8 PM on Tuesday.
This is a problem. You see, the Texas Open Meetings Act requires 72 hours notice for such meetings. (There is a “public emergency” exemption, but I gather the mayor did not declare such. And while I am not a lawyer or expert on the Open Records Act, I feel confident in declaring that the law strictly defines what constitutes a “public emergency”. Russian Chinese North Korean troops in the streets? Probably. Disbanding the police department? Probably not.)
Anyway, the mayor and two council members showed up for the meeting, but one of the council members walked out after declaring the meeting illegal. Shortly after that, the mayor apparently came out and told the police officers that she was shutting down the department and calling in the county sheriff. Shortly after that, when the media showed up, the mayor said there “were not enough there for the meeting and refused any other comment.”
But wait! The story gets better!
The mayor, two other city officials, and four police officers are under indictment!
(The others indicted are the city secretary, two court clerks, and the four police officers, who are named in the HouChron story.)
But wait! It gets even better! Why were these folks indicted?
Somehow I missed this story when they were indicted. I must have been distracted by shiny objects.
Really, isn’t that just about the most stupid example of municipal corruption you’ve ever heard of? Using cop cars as loan collateral? And what about the banks? Don’t banks inspect the collateral before accepting it? I mean, I could see these folks claiming that they were personal vehicles, but I’d at least expect the bank to want to look at the title. (And I would assume the title would be in the name of “City of Patton Village”, not “Pamala Munoz” or one of the others charged.)
Plus, you know, if I’m a bank officer, and I go out to look at the collateral being offered, and I see it has a light bar and sirens and a shotgun rack and a BIG FREAKING SEAL on the side saying “Patton Village Police Department”, I’m going to be asking some questions. Just saying. Perhaps I overestimate the intelligence of the average banker.
By the way, the HouChron story is largely (but not entirely) based on reporting by the Montgomery County Police Reporter, who the HouChron credits, and who I do want to provide a link to as well.
Morning obit roundup.
July 4th, 2012Andy Griffith: NYT. NYT appreciation. LAT. LAT appreciation by Ron Howard. Another one from the LAT. Onion A/V Club.
Useless without pics.
July 3rd, 2012Though given my expressed aesthetic opinion, perhaps the lack of pictures is just as well. This is also noteworthy as a possible exception to The Journalist’s Guide to Firearms Identification:
Random notes: July 3, 2012.
July 3rd, 2012I think I’m going to wait until later tonight or tomorrow morning to do a roundup of Andy Griffith obits. In the meantime, how has the Criterion Collection not come out with an edition of “A Face In the Crowd”?
Here’s something I’m wondering about. There’s a story in the HouChron: I’ll link to it, but I won’t mention names. The gist of the story is that the sister of a state representative was arrested yesterday after a police raid found drugs and guns in her home. Reading between the lines of the honorable gentleman’s statement, it appears she has issues, if not a lifetime subscription and a complete set of bound volumes.
Question: why is this news? Would it have been newsworthy (outside of Corpus Christi) if her brother wasn’t a state rep? Does it matter that her brother happens to be a Republican? (I like to think I’d be asking the same question if he was a Democrat.)
In news that might actually be news: a while back, the Landry’s corporation got a tax abatement to build “The Inn at the Ballpark” . This was supposed to generate a certain number of jobs. According to a city audit, it didn’t generate the specified number.
So how did the Houston City Council respond? If you said “they voted not to ask Landry’s for the taxes they were previously exempted from”, take two gold stars…and you know the drill.
(Hattip: Lawrence. I’m aware that post has nothing to do with Landry’s, but I’ve been wanting to link it for a while.)
If it saves just one finger…
July 3rd, 2012The California legislature is considering a bill that would require all new table saws sold in the state to be equipped with something called “injury mitigation technology”. The basic idea behind this technology is that the saw will stop, instantly, whenever it encounters human flesh (or something like human flesh, but more on that later).
That sounds like a good idea if you’re not a libertarian like me, right? Who can be opposed to protecting fingers?
Well, the problem is that there’s only one company that makes saws equipped with “injury mitigation technology”, SD3, who markets the SawStop.
And the inventor of this technology holds 90 patents on it. By the way, he’s also a patent attorney. So no other company can use this technology without paying for the patents.
And the way the SawStop works is that it basically fires a stop into the blade, which kills the rotation almost instantly. However, every time the SawStop goes off, you’re looking at a $175 replacement bill for the blade and other parts of the device.
And because of the way the SawStop works, it can be fired even without fingers being present; for example, if the wood is wet. (The wisdom of cutting wet wood is debatable, of course.)
Overlawyered has been covering the SawStop, and attempts to make it mandatory for table saws. It is interesting to see the LAT pick up on this issue.
My take?
- Stupidity should hurt.
- If the government wants to make it mandatory on table saws, fine; let them do so after the patents expire, or require the inventor to license the patents for free. After all, what’s more important; safety, or money? Come to think of it, if he was really concerned with safety, he’d already have made this offer to saw makers. Right now, this looks like rent-seeking.
Wind power…and hand grenades?
July 3rd, 2012This is an odd story.
Charles Anthony Malouff used to be a cop; he worked for both the Bosque County sheriff’s office and the Bertram Police Department. In 2007, he was convicted of “unlawful transfer of a firearm” and got three years probation.
It is not clear to me if he resigned or was fired, but in either case he stopped being a police officer.
Malouff and Mary Jo Woodall have been indicted on various fraud charges; the two are accused of trying to fraudulently obtain federal stimulus funds for a wind farm near Jonestown.
Back in October, search warrants were served at Malouff and Woodall’s homes. In the process, two gun safes were found at Woodall’s home. Woodall said they belonged to Malouff. The safes were opened, and…
According to the Statesman, the “destructive devices” were registered to the two agencies Malouff worked for. Malouff has pled guilty to the weapons charges; the plea agreement specifies a 2 1/2 year sentence, subject to judicial approval. The Statesman article raises a whole host of questions:
- What, exactly, were the “destructive devices”?
- I think we know eight of them were grenades. But what kind of grenades? Did Malouff have more flash-bangs left over from his previous work? Or were these real grenade grenades?
- If they were real grenade grenades, why did the two agencies have them? What does a police department do with a hand grenade?
- If they were flash bangs, I think the same question still applies. I’ve been to Bertram a few times, and it isn’t a place where I think they’d have a lot of use for flash bangs in SWAT raids.
- “Malouff remains under indictment in state District Court on charges of securing execution of a document by deception and misapplication of fiduciary property, both first-degree felonies punishable by up to life in jail.” Wow. So he gets 2 1/2 years on the gun charges, but the fraud charges can put him in prison for life?
Obit watch: special Heidi Hedi Ho edition.
July 3rd, 2012Julian Goodman, former NBC executive.
I haven’t been able to determine for sure if he was responsible for canceling “Star Trek” (which would be enough to make him one of nature’s noblemen in my book), but:
Just like a row of dominos.
July 2nd, 2012First, Stockton. Now the California city of Mammoth Lakes has filed for bankruptcy.
Interestingly, this does not appear to be a municipal pension or bond problem. Instead, the city lost a lawsuit against a developer, who was awarded $43 million in damages. The developer agreed to make improvements to the local airport (Mammoth Yosemite Airport) in return for rights to build a $400 million hotel on part of the airport property, along with an option on the land.
However, it seems that the city discovered there were issues with FAA policy with respect to the airport improvements, and decided they’d delay the hotel project, at which point the developer sued and won. The LAT specifically mentions that both parties wanted to extend the airport runway to handle 757s. Looking at this document, I think we’re talking roughly 2,500 meters or about 8,200 feet as the bare minimum runway length needed to handle a 757. (The actual takeoff and landing distance depends on airport elevation, atmospheric conditions, weight, and a host of other factors. as shown in the charts. According to various sources, Mammoth Lakes is at an altitude of about 7,900 feet, though the airport is at 7,135 feet according to AirNav. AirNav also shows the two active runways at 7,134.8 feet and 7,061.4 feet. So we’re talking probably a minimum of 1,200 additional feet of runway, maybe more if you want to have some margin.)
Obit watch: In Japan, the hand can be used like a knife…
July 2nd, 2012…but that doesn’t give you immortality.
Barry Becher, one half of the team that brought you the Ginsu knife, passed away on June 22nd, though his death was not widely reported until Saturday.
The continuing chimpanzee crisis.
June 29th, 2012More:
Well. Well. Well. Isn’t THAT special?
June 29th, 2012Earlier this week, I noted the goings-on in the notoriously corrupt California city of Vernon. One thing I mentioned was the $1.6 million salary of one Eric T. Fresch, a Vernon city official until this past May and one of the people behind Vernon’s failed natural gas hedge.
Mr. Fresch was found dead Thursday night in Angel Island State Park.
According to the LAT, the coroner’s office does not suspect foul play.
Also interesting: remember that audit?
Vernon, Vernon, Vernon…
June 28th, 2012The LAT has a story about a state audit report on the notoriously corrupt city. Some of the things in the audit were touched on the other day, like the natural gas hedge deal. There is some new stuff: