Archive for August 1st, 2011

As a small side note…

Monday, August 1st, 2011

…to the previous post:

American McCarver: absolutely no mention of Hideki Irabu. Mike Monterio did find time to reblog an old article about Andre the Giant from Modern Drunkard.

Grantland, the heavily hyped Bill Simmons led ESPN spinoff: absolutely no mention of Hideki Irabu. Wright Thompson did find time to write about the death of William Faulkner’s niece, and Jay Caspian Kang found time to write about Amy Winehouse. (Edited to add: to be fair, Kang’s piece was published before Irabu’s death.)

Right Field, the National Review Online spin-off sports blog: absolutely no mention of Hideki Irabu.

You would think someone would acknowledge, even if just in passing, the suicide of a starting pitcher for the New York Yankees at the relatively young age of 42.

Posted in Media, Sports | Comments Closed

“I want…”

Monday, August 1st, 2011

I want to see another Stanley Cup parade on Long Island. I want to drive past the Nassau Coliseum every day on my way to work, look at it with pride and say “That’s where my team plays.” I want to continue going to games, cheering for my team, wearing the jersey with Long Island on it.

Yeah, Michele Catalano is at it again, trying to convince people they should vote for a new stadium for the New York Islanders. (Previously on WCD.) It is a curious article, full of “I want” and “I won’t” and “I”, “I”, “I”. It is as if Catalano thinks Long Island and Nassau County revolve around Catalano and her wants; as if everyone should just give in and let her have her beloved Islanders, because…

…I don’t know how I’ll deal with no hockey. I don’t know how I’ll spend the next three seasons watching a rising, hopeful team knowing they’re going to leave in 2015.

The idea that other people have wants, too, and those wants include things like wanting to keep the money they’ve earned (instead of putting it into the pockets of team owners so people like Catalano can “…get in my car fifteen minutes before game time and be in my seat with a pretzel and Coke before the puck drops”) seems never to have crossed Catalano’s mind.

Meanwhile, the indispensable Field of Schemes links to an interesting Montreal Gazette article about the deal. The Islanders are projecting $229 million a year in revenue if the referendum passes and a new stadium is built.

Consider these numbers: If the Islanders, who had the lowest attendance in the league last season at 11,059 per game, sell out all 41 games in a 17,500-seat arena with an average ticket price of $65 – which would be among the highest in the NHL – and every fan spent another $50 a game on beer, hotdogs and souvenirs, the total revenue would be a mere $82 million. It would take a lot of concerts and other events to make up the difference in the Islanders’ projections.

Posted in Politics, Sports | Comments Closed

Today’s municipal bankruptcy…

Monday, August 1st, 2011

…is brought to you by Central Falls, RI.

Receiver Robert G. Flanders announced the step at City Hall Monday.

(Simpsons mode ON)

Stupid Flanders.

(Simpsons mode OFF)

I used to spend a fair amount of time in Rhode Island. (There’s a reason this blog has a “Rhode Island” tag. Actually, two reasons, but Buddy Cianci’s been quiet recently.) I don’t recall ever going through Central Falls; looking on Google Maps, it appears to be to the north of my old stomping grounds, closer to Pawtucket than Providence.

Posted in Clippings, Rhode Island | Comments Closed

The Trail of Gears.

Monday, August 1st, 2011

We previously noted the troubled Loop 1/US 290 flyover project.

Today’s City of Austin project that’s falling apart at the seams is a 3.2 mile long bike trail in North Austin.

The city got $1.9 million in stimulus grant money back in 2009 for the bike trail, claiming the project was “shovel ready”. So far, according to the Statesman, about 20 feet of trail have been cleared. The architects (Larson, Burns and Smith, who have been paid $764,055.91 to date) and the construction firm (Westar Construction, paid $329,000 to date) have been fired, and oversight of the project has been moved from the Parks and Recreation Department to the Public Works Department.

(Larson, Burns and Smith apparently have nothing to say, at least to the Statesman. Westar basically says that Larson, Burns, and Smith screwed up the plans, and there were issues with the city that prevented them from doing more work on the trail.)

I do agree with one of the Statesman commenters: that is a pretty nice sign.

Posted in Clippings, Politics | Comments Closed

Police professionalism watch.

Monday, August 1st, 2011

Anthony Magsam worked for the Philadelphia Police Department in the Firearms Identification Unit. In that position, Officer Magsam had the opportunity to handle a lot of nifty guns. Officer Magsam was something of a gun buff as well:

Magsam was known by colleagues in the FIU as a gun collector, and he spoke often about knowing how to convert semiautomatic weapons into automatic weapons, according to more than a half-dozen police sources…

Unfortunately, Officer Magsam let his gun buffery get the better of him. Allegedly, he removed the trigger group from what’s described as an AR-15 with three-round burst capability, and replaced it with a semi-auto AR trigger group. He also allegedly took parts out of an M2 carbine:

“The bolt had been removed and replaced with nonautomatic parts that had been ground down and colored with a marker, so that nobody would notice,” the source said. “That started a snowball effect.”

So this is bad, m’kay? Officer Magsam was fired and criminally prosecuted, right? That’s what would happen if you or I were in illegal possession of full-auto parts, right?

Bzzzzt! Wrong! Thanks for playing! Officer Magsam was allowed by the commanding officer of the FIU to transfer out of FIU into another unit, and the theft was not reported.

When a handful of FIU members complained to [Lt. Vincent] Testa [the unit’s commanding officer – DB] that Magsam had broken the law, that the incident should have been reported, the sources said he told them: “That’s what’s going to be done. I gave an order. If you don’t like it, that’s tough s—.”

If I understand the Daily News article correctly, Internal Affairs is investigating. But IA had been investigating for over a year when the Daily News reported the story; it seems the investigation was “stalled”.

By the way, the guy who was overseeing the IA investigation used to work with Lt. Testa in the FIU. And Officer Magsam’s mother…

…Barbara Feeney, a longtime police sergeant, is married to retired police Chief Inspector Michael Feeney.

Posted in Cops, Guns, Law | Comments Closed