Random notes: September 18, 2024.

September 18th, 2024

Lawrence sent over two stories that I don’t think justify a blog post individually, but together might make a good one.

Story #1, which is actually getting a surprising (to me) amount of press coverage: Adrian Wojnarowski is leaving ESPN to become the GM of the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team.

The GM role has become more common in college basketball in recent years, as the transfer portal has made wholesale roster turnover an inherent part of the sport. The role includes name, image and likeness allocation, recruiting and supporting successful Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt.

The New York Post says he could be walking away from up to $20 million dollars. I probably wouldn’t have noted this, since it isn’t a firing, but Lawrence tells me this is a big freaking deal for basketball fans: Mr Wojnarowski has a reputation for breaking NBA news on Twitter.

I saw in another story (which, of course, I can’t find now) that Mr Wojnarowski had talked for years about his fantasy of throwing his cell phone into the ocean when he retired, as he was pretty much tied to it 24/7/365. “Kemosabe kiss my ass, I bought a boat, I’m going out to sea” indeed.

Story #2: Erma Wilson had her lawsuit against Midland County and former prosecutor Ralph Petty dismissed by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in a “plurality decision”, which apparently means that it doesn’t set a binding precedent. The decision was on somewhat narrow technical grounds: the Court of Appeals felt she hadn’t exhausted her remedies in state court yet.

Why was she suing?

…Wilson had been convicted in Midland County 23 years ago on felony possession of cocaine charges and given an eight-year probation sentence.
Long ago, Wilson had appealed her conviction to the state’s 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and lost.

Okay, so? Turns out that prosecutor Petty was moonlighting. He was a prosecutor by day…and a law clerk for “several district judges” at the same time.

By day the prosecutor was making the case against the defendants, while by night he was siding with himself from the judge’s chambers.

And I’m going to pause here to insert a quote from one of the greatest philosophers currently walking the earth, Judge Don Willet.

“This was a DEFCON 1 legal scandal,” Willet wrote in a dissent describing the background of the case.

…

“Wilson claims it would be unfair to force her back into the very state system that injured her,” states the plurality decision by Judge Andrew Oldham. “But it is also important that civil plaintiffs do not put the cart before the horse. Criminal proceedings and criminal judgments require criminal remedies—not civil ones. If and when Ms. Wilson pushes aside her criminal conviction, then but only then can she come back to civil court and ask for money. Until then, her § 1983 suit must be dismissed.”

Judge Willet disagrees. Strongly.

Willet, on the other hand, led a fiery dissent in which he stated that he would have let Wilson’s lawsuit proceed, noting, “A fair trial in a fair tribunal is a basic requirement of due process.”
“The Constitution’s fair-trial requirement is Con Law 101 — a bedrock due-process guarantee. In fact, the Framers cared so much about the sanctity of the criminal jury trial that our Constitution specifically mentions it twice — not only in the Sixth Amendment, but also in Article III,” he wrote.
“And to underscore they really meant it — that criminal-justice fairness is sacrosanct — the Founding generation doubled down, enshrining a host of procedural non-negotiables in multiple provisions of the Bill of Rights. Indeed, more words are devoted to We the People’s fair-trial right than to any other constitutional guarantee. Safe to say, the Framers were fixated on the adjudication of criminal charges — both the power to bring them and the process for resolving them — and spilled a lot of ink to ensure that the Constitution’s inviolable fair-trial guarantee is no empty promise.”

…

“Unfortunately for our circuit — and unfortunately for Wilson — wisdom remains a no-show. The only hope for wronged noncustodial plaintiffs like Erma Wilson is that the Supreme Court will at last confront the persistent circuit split, seize this occasion to settle the issue, and vindicate a bedrock constitutional guarantee that, sadly, is even more tenuous in today’s plea-bargain age than when the Founding generation first enshrined it.”

Just in case you were wondering, Mr. Petty has been disbarred, and according to “The Texan”, has been ordered not to use his name “in any manner in conjunction with the words ‘Attorney at Law,’ ‘Counselor at Law,’ or ‘Lawyer.'” He was also fined $50 and had to pick up the garbage. No, wait: “He also had to notify any of his clients in writing of his disbarment, give them back their money and documents, and notify all judges with whom he may have business pending.“

Posted in Law, Media, Sports, TV | No Comments »

Quick memo from the legal beat.

September 18th, 2024

Since I have mentioned it in the past, fairness compels me to note:

Erik Charles Maund is getting a new trial in his murder for hire case.

Maund, along with Bryon Brockway and Adam Carey, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire after Holly Williams and William Lanway were found dead in a car in Nashville in 2020.

…

Brockway and Carey were convicted on all charges, including kidnapping resulting in death and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Maund was found not guilty of kidnapping resulting in death. The maximum sentence for federal murder-for-hire is life in prison or death.

But, you see, there was a problem:

Now a judge has ruled that an administrative mistake caused certain things that were not admitted into evidence during the trial to be shown to jurors as they deliberated. The court clerk found out when members of the media started asking about the trial exhibits after the trial was over.

One story I saw elsewhere (and can’t find again) said that the evidence mistakes (and there was more than one) inclueed an exhibit that was supposed to be redacted…and which was shown to the jury in unredacted form.

Nobody knows yet when the new trial is going to be. But, good news: this is a court in Tennessee, not Travis or Williamson county.

Posted in Law | No Comments »

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#130 in a series)

September 18th, 2024

The mayor of Atlantic City, Marty Small Sr., and his wife (the superintendent of schools) have both been officially indicted.

I thought I had written about this before, but Google doesn’t turn up a reference. I know, though, that there have been stories circulating for months. Mayor Small and his wife aren’t charged with corruption, which is unusual for an Atlantic City mayor.

They’re charged with beating the s–t out of their teenage daughter.

Prosecutors said that on Jan. 13, 2024, Marty Small Sr. hit his daughter multiple times in the head with a broom, causing her to lose consciousness.
Ten days earlier, they said, Small engaged in an argument with his daughter, grabbing her head and throwing her to the ground, and threatening to throw her down a flight of stairs.
He threatened to “smack the weave out” of her head during the incident, according to prosecutors.
The 50-year-old Democratic mayor also is accused of punching his daughter repeatedly in the legs, causing bruising.
La’Quetta Small, 47, is accused of punching her daughter multiple times on the chest, leaving bruising. In another alleged incident, she is accused of dragging her daughter by the hair and striking her with a belt on her shoulders, leaving marks.
In yet another incident, La’Quetta Small is accused of punching her daughter in the mouth during an argument.

And I wasn’t aware of this previously, but Constance Days-Chapman, the principal of Atlantic City High School, was indicted last week. Charges against her include “official misconduct” and “child endangerment”.

According to the indictment, in December the girl, who was 15 at the time, told Days-Chapman she was suffering continuous headaches from being beaten by her parents in their home.
But instead of telling authorities, Days-Chapman instead told the Smalls.

By the way:

Days-Chapman is a close friend of the Smalls; La’Quetta Smalls is her boss.

I’m sure this is going to be one of my more controversial and divisive opinions, but:

Fark these people. Fark any parent who thinks it is okay to do their kids this way. Fark anybody who’s a mandated reporter that goes to the parents instead of Child Protective Services when a kid tells them their parents are beating them.

Sorry. A bit grumpy today.

Posted in Law, Politics | 2 Comments »

Your NFL loser update: week 2, 2024.

September 17th, 2024

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:

Baltimore
Cincinnati
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Tennessee
Denver
New York Football Giants
Carolina
Los Angeles Rams

In other news, the White Sox have actually won a few more games. Mostly they won against the City Unknown A’s, though they beat the LA Angels last night.

Currenrtly, the Sox are 36-115, for a .238 winning percentage. That projects out to 123 loses this season. Put another way, in order for the Sox to lose only 119 games and avoid tying the 1962 Mets for worst MLB record, they will have to win 7 out of the final 11 games, for a .636 winning percentage down the stretch.

They play the Angels again tonight, and LA is favored by ESPN. Of course, LA was favored by ESPN in last night’s game as well, and you see what that got them…

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | No Comments »

At last! Something even more boring to my readers than gun books!

September 16th, 2024

I admit, Lawrence probably isn’t going to cover this in his Linkswarm, and it is of interest to me partly because of my peculiar background. (I was with an auto insurance adjacent organization for quite a few years.)

But I do think there are some things in this story that are worth attention. Otherwise I wouldn’t be blogging it, right?

American Transit Insurance Company is an auto insurance company. They specialize in covering “for-hire vehicles”, which is basically your taxi cabs and Lyft/Uber drivers (at least, the ones who actually bother to get the specialized insurance they need to have). The paper of record claims that ATIC covers “60 percent of the available vehicles” in New York City.

American Transit Insurance Company is also insolvent. As in, “can’t pay their bills” insolvent. As in “can’t pay claims” insolvent.

In its latest financial filing, the privately owned company reported that it was insolvent, with more than $700 million in losses from existing and projected claims from past accidents — a huge hole that has been growing for years in part because of questionable financial practices, according to state officials.

Worthy quote:

That means American Transit does not have enough money in reserve to pay out those claims despite years of collecting premiums on those policies. Instead, the company has managed to continue operating by using money coming in from new premiums to help cover those costs, essentially leaving its current clients underinsured in the event of an accident, state officials said.

“Ponzi scheme”. The words we were looking for were “Ponzi scheme”.

That’s about the point where archive.is cuts off archiving the article, so I’ll have to summarize and use unlinked pull quotes from here on out.

What does this mean for me, Al Franken? There aren’t many companies that compete with ATIC in the NYC marketplace, so if ATIC collapses, a lot of “for-hire” cars will be without insurance, or have to pay more for insurance, which means either fewer taxis/Ubers/livery cars/etc. or higher costs, or both. Plus (and it probably goes without saying), people who have valid claims against ATIC insured drivers may not actually get paid. You got hit by an ATIC insured livery driver? Fark you, we don’t have any money to pay for your hospital bill.

How did they get this much in the hole?

…the department released two reports about American Transit’s finances from 2014 to 2019, which said that the company’s books showed evidence of accounting errors, unverified expenses and potential mismanagement.
According to the reports, American Transit paid nearly $100 million in commissions to an affiliated company for work signing up new policyholders and renewing existing policies, but the department could not confirm that the work had taken place.
American Transit also paid nearly $10 million for unclear reasons to Global Biomechanical Solutions, a consulting firm in which American Transit’s chief executive, Ralph Bisceglia, and a daughter-in-law of its co-founder had controlling interests, according to the reports.

Quel fromage! And I personally think the reasons are very clear, but publically stating them here might get me sued.

The firm submitted two remediation plans, which included rate increases and setting up a blockchain platform where policies could be bought and sold as nonfungible tokens.

You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me. A blockchain platform. NFTs. If I were the NY State Department of Insurance, I’d be looking in every corner for the Jerky Boys or the “Jackass” guys or even for someone trying to do a revival of “Candid Camera”.

Almost from the beginning, the company had financial problems. State regulators flagged its reserves as inadequate in 1979, and later found increasing levels of insolvency in eight examinations that were conducted between 1987 and 2020.

1979, ladies and Germans. 1979.

…in 1991, state officials again filed a petition to rehabilitate the company and later moved to liquidate it.
American Transit challenged those proceedings, and in 1996, reached a settlement with state regulators that allowed it to remain in business under certain conditions, including that it be closely monitored by state regulators.

“closely monitored by state regulutors”. How’s that working out for you?

Since then, however, the firm’s finances have continued to deteriorate. Last week, state officials said they had not been approached by any credible company seeking to acquire American Transit or its insurance policies.

Ooooooh. Maybe not so good?

To be fair…

American Transit has suggested that insurance fraud contributed to its financial problems. In response to an email from The Times seeking clarification about the company’s statement this month, American Transit said that “rampant insurance fraud” threatened the commercial market and allowed lawyers and “opportunistic medical service providers” to inflate costs, undermining the insurance system.

I’m willing to concede there may be some truth to that. I mean, this is New York City…

If it is not purchased, the company could go into receivership with the New York Liquidation Bureau, which would use American Transit’s remaining assets or a state fund to pay off active claims, said Mark Peters, a partner at the law firm Peters Brovner and a former head of the bureau.

Your tax dollars at work, New York residents. Paying off for an insolvent insurance company.

Posted in Cars, Geek | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: September 16, 2024.

September 16th, 2024

Dr. George Berci, Holocaust survivor, violinist, and big damn hero, passed away on August 30th. He was 103.

Dr. Berci was one of the pioneers of minimally invasive surgery.

Dr. Berci brought a precise eye and an inventor’s zeal to innovations that enabled doctors to better visualize the bladder, colon, esophagus, prostate, common bile duct and other body parts. Until earlier this summer, he was the senior director of minimally invasive surgery research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he had worked since 1969.
His innovations were critical to the revolution in minimally invasive endoscopies and laparoscopies, which dramatically reduced the need for surgeons to make large incisions.
In endoscopies, doctors use a flexible tube with a light and a camera to examine the upper and lower digestive system. Dr. Berci focused mainly on the area around the throat and vocal cords.
In laparoscopies, surgeons place a thin rod with a video camera attached at the end through a small abdominal incision. Carbon dioxide is then used to inflate the space to give doctors enough room to use small instruments to, among other things, remove gallbladders, cysts, tumors, appendixes and spleens; diagnose endometriosis; and repair hernias.

…

“It is unlikely that there will ever be another surgeon who so single-handedly impacts an entire field of surgery as Dr. Berci did,” said Dr. Brunt, the producer of the documentary, who is a professor of surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “He understood the potential for laparoscopy and its applications long before most surgeons saw any value in it.”

Tito Jackson. THR.

Herbie Flowers, session musician who played bass on “Walk on the Wild Side”.

Tommy Cash, Johnny’s brother, but he had a music career of his own. THR.

Posted in Heroism, History, Music, Obits | No Comments »

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#129 in a series)

September 16th, 2024

This is still breaking. Two chiefs with the New York Fire Department have been arrested on bribery charges.

The six-count indictment accuses them of soliciting and receiving bribes in that role from 2021 to 2023 for projects underway in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.
“For nearly two years, Saccavino and Cordasco misused this authority for their own financial gain,” the indictment charges. The men were also charged with lying to the F.B.I. in February about their involvement in the scheme.

These, by the way, are the same two chiefs whose homes and offices were raided by the FBI in February.

A retired firefighter who expedited building projects, Henry J. Santiago Jr., was identified by federal prosecutors as a co-conspirator who solicited and accepted bribes, but he was not named or charged in the indictment. The New York Times had previously reported his involvement, and he was identified by name by the authorities at a news conference about the case on Monday.

I’m going out on a limb here and saying: they flipped him.

According to the indictment, the two chiefs steered potential clients who wanted to expedite approval of their building projects to Mr. Santiago, and then ordered that those projects receive preferential treatment. Among the projects they fast-tracked were a high-end restaurant in Manhattan, a Brooklyn apartment building and two hotels near Kennedy Airport in Queens.
After getting paid by his clients, Mr. Santiago delivered bribes to Mr. Saccavino and Mr. Cordasco in cash and by check in face-to-face meetings at Fire Department offices in Brooklyn and steakhouse dinners in Manhattan, prosecutors said.
Mr. Saccavino funneled the illicit payments through a company started by his wife, while Mr. Cordasco received them through a company he had created and claimed was an entertainment business, prosecutors said.

Just in case you were wondering…

There is no indication that the case is related to any of the four separate federal corruption investigations swirling around Mayor Eric Adams, his campaign and some of his most senior aides. The inquiry focused on the mayor is being conducted by the same agencies that investigated the chiefs, however, and also relates in part to fire safety inspections, according to several people with knowledge of the matter said.

Posted in Law, Politics | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: September 13, 2024.

September 13th, 2024

Donald Sheppard passed away on September 7th. He was 104. BBC.

Mr. Sheppard served in the Royal Engineers during World War II.

Mr. Sheppard was one of more than 150,000 soldiers who crossed the English Channel on June 6, 1944. He landed at Juno Beach, in Normandy, under a hail of gunfire. More than 4,000 Allied troops died that day.
“When he landed on the beach, he said he was just walking over dead bodies,” his son said. “Dead boys, dead men. And they gave their life for our freedom. I think to him, personally, he never wants that to be forgotten.”

…

In 1945, Mr. Sheppard helped British forces liberate Bergen-Belsen, one of the largest concentration camps in Germany; more than 50,000 people, including Anne Frank, died there. When the British arrived, corpses lay in piles; about 60,000 people, emaciated and ill, were still alive.
Mr. Sheppard struggled to talk about the experience; a granddaughter, Daisy O’Brien, said she did not learn about it until she was a teenager. Mr. Sheppard would become emotional remembering that day, his son said.“He couldn’t believe that one human could do that to another human,” Jonathan Sheppard said, and would often lament the “senselessness” of war.

…

After his retirement, Mr. Sheppard devoted himself to keeping alive the memory of the soldiers who fought and died beside him. He raised money for veterans, made repeated trips to Normandy and, until recently, spoke to schoolchildren about the war.

Chad McQueen. I think I’ve noted before that I don’t do obits for celebrity children just because they are celebrity children, but he did have a career beyond being Steve McQueen’s son. Other credits include “V”, “New York Cop”, and “Firepower”.

Bob Weatherwax, Hollywood dog trainer. He was most famous for succeeding his father, Rudd, in training dogs to play “Lassie”.

On a trip to Philadelphia to promote the 1994 movie “Lassie,” a successful attempt to revive the franchise, he and the film’s star stayed at the luxurious Rittenhouse Hotel, where the celebrity collie dined on boiled chicken that was prepared by a chef, delivered by room service and washed down with distilled water.
Lassie usually traveled with Mel, a Jack Russell terrier. The two dogs watched “Lassie” reruns on Nickelodeon in between promotional appearances.
“The hotels say they wish they had more guests like Lassie,” Mr. Weatherwax told The Los Angeles Times in 1994. “They don’t have to deal with cigarette holes in the carpet or spilled drinks.”

Alberto Fujimori.

Joe Schmidt, one of the Detroit Lions greats.

Schmidt was named to 10 Pro Bowls, selected as a first-team All-Pro eight times and chosen for the N.F.L.’s all-decade team for the 1950s.
The Lions were an N.F.L. powerhouse in those years. They defeated the Cleveland Browns for the 1952 league championship; beat them again in the 1953 title matchup, when Schmidt was a rookie; and bested them once more in 1957, routing them 59-14. They also went to the championship game against the Browns in 1954, but that time they lost.
Schmidt was 6 feet 1 inches and 220 pounds, not especially big even by the standards of his era. But he anchored the defense on Lions teams that included his fellow future Hall of Famers Yale Lary, Jack Christiansen and Dick Lane (known as Night Train) in the secondary, along with an offense featuring Bobby Layne at quarterback, Doak Walker at halfback and Lou Creekmur and Dick Stanfel on the line.
He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in 1973.

…

Schmidt’s teammates voted him their most valuable player four times. He was also the Lions’ longtime captain. When he retired after the 1965 season, he had intercepted 24 passes and recovered 14 fumbles.

Posted in Heroism, Mammals, NFL, Obits, Sports | No Comments »

Smoking hyenas update.

September 12th, 2024

I haven’t had a lot of time today, but before I turn in, I wanted to note: NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban resigned today. (Previously.)

Part of the reason I want to get this up is rumor control. The interim commissioner is not this guy:

though he does have NYPD and leadership experience. The interim commissioner is also not this guy:

though in my humble opinion, the NYPD would be vastly improved by a commissioner who carries an old-school Fitz Special.

(I’m sure you were expecting the second one, but I couldn’t pass up a chance to make a reference to the Fitz Special.)

Posted in Bagatelle, Cops, Guns, Law, NYPD | No Comments »

Our State Fair is a great state fair…

September 12th, 2024

The time for the State Fair of Texas has come around again.

And with that, the time for fair food! Especially fair food on a stick!

You can read a local news story from Fox Houston here, which covers some of the new items.

Or you can go to the State Fair of Texas web site and read a more comprehensive guide.

There’s nothing in the local news article that makes me gag. Except maybe the name “crookie”, and that’s still better than “cronut”. As for the fair’s website, only the “Fat Bacon Pickle Fries” trip my gag reflex. Though I will say to the inventors of the “Lay’s® Potato Chip Drink”: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” I’m also not wild about the “Hot Cheetos® Korean Corn Dog”.

Also, what’s the thing with “street corn”?

And I kind of want a “Milton’s Giant Amish Doughnut” right now.

Wasn’t “Cheeseception” the title of Christopher Nolan’s abandoned sequel? And isn’t the “Beso de Angel” really just a re-structured ChocoTaco?

Posted in Amish, Food, On a stick | No Comments »

Obit watch: September 10, 2024.

September 10th, 2024

James Earl Jones. NYT (gift link). THR. Variety.

I didn’t realize he was an EGOT (but the Oscar was honorary, not competitive).

The IMDB trivia asserts he was a NRA member, which is interesting. It also asserts that he was considered for the lead role in one of the spin-offs of a minor 1960s SF TV series, but they cast Avery “Hawk” Brooks instead.

Other credits include three episodes of “Homicide: Life on the Street”, something called “Excessive Force” that sounds fun, “The Last Remake of Beau Geste”, “Exorcist II: The Heretic”, and, of course, “The Star Wars Holiday Special”.

Once, while traveling cross-country, Jones broke out his Darth Vader voice on the CB radio scanner. “The truck drivers would really freak out — for them, it was Darth Vader. I had to stop doing that,” he told The New York Times magazine.

As a not-quite-an-obit but belongs here anyway note, the NYT obit is credited to Robert D. McFadden. Mr. McFadden retired from the Times on September 1st, and the paper of record ran a very nice tribute to him. I’ll say something nice about the NYT for once: I agree, Mr. McFadden was a pretty swell obit writer. I think he belongs in the same class as the legendary Robert McG. Thomas Jr..

He retired with more than 250 advance obituaries still in the pipeline, each awaiting its day.

Also among the dead: Ed Kranepool, one of the original Mets.

When Stengel assessed Kranepool’s talent, he told The New York Times: “He don’t strike out too much and he don’t let himself get suckered into goin’ for bad pitches. I wouldn’t be afraid to play him. He don’t embarrass you.”

…

After the ’69 Series, Kranepool and several teammates, including Tom Seaver and Cleon Jones, put together a musical act that performed in Las Vegas, singing, among other songs, “The Impossible Dream.” After the group’s debut on the Circus Maximus stage at Caesars Palace, Kranepool conceded that the singing Mets were nervous.
“It’s not like Shea Stadium, where we know what we’re doing,” he told The Times. “But we had enough Scotch.”

Baseball Reference.

Posted in 1970s, Media, Movies, Obits, Sports, TV | 3 Comments »

Your NFL loser update: week 1, 2024.

September 10th, 2024

As foretold in the prophecy, we have returned.

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:

New York Jets
Baltimore
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Tennessee
Las Vegas
Denver
Washington
New York Football Giants
Green Bay
Carolina
Atlanta
Los Angeles Rams
Arizona

In other news, the Chicago White Sox are now 33-112, for a .228 winning percentage. This projects out to 125 losses this season.

Put another way, there are 17 games left in the season. For the Sox to have only 119 losses and miss tying the record for worst MLB team in the modern era, they will have to win 10 out of those 17, for a .588 winning percentage.

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | No Comments »

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