Rebecca Valdez is still on the stand in the Bell corruption trial. Yesterday’s revelation:
Valdez states that she believes Theresa Diaz, the previous city clerk (who, as you may recall, moved out of the city in 2004, but allegedly continued to act as the city clerk until 2007) forged her name on the documents in question.
This exchange is also amusing:
Obit watch: Patty Andrews, the last surviving Andrews Sister. (NYT. A/V Club.)
If a publisher is reissuing a non-fiction book, do they have an obligation to go back and do fact checking? What if the facts have been called into question since the book was issued? What if the book is “38 Witnesses” by A.M. Rosenthal of the New York Times?
What is there to correct?
This 2009 NPR interview goes into more detail about the many problems with the popular narrative of the case.
This lead made me giggle:
Hey, as long as we’re talking about crooked governors:
And lying politicians:
Back in May, I wrote about the case of Patricia Cook, the unarmed woman in Culpeper, Virginia who was killed by a police officer under suspicious circumstances; the officer, Daniel Harmon–Wright, was later charged with murder.
Things have moved faster than I expected: Harmon-Wright was convicted, but only of “voluntary manslaughter”, “shooting into an occupied vehicle”, and “shooting into an occupied vehicle resulting in death”.
And it is possible a mistrial will be declared: “a court’s clerk reported that she found two dictionaries and a thesaurus in the jury room”, which were brought in by the jury forewoman (according to another report) and were allegedly used by the jury to look up the definition of “malice”.
(Hattip: Balko.)
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies lost $109,206 in 2010.
They lost $3,815,144 during 2011, the same year their falling-out with Jim Romenesko began.
(Hattip: Jim Romenesko.)
Gun control works! Just ask Chicago!
More:
Uh, that’s not what a “straw buyer” is, Monica Davey. (Nor does Davey mention that “straw purchases” are also a violation of Federal law, though rarely prosecuted according to the WP. One wonders how much of a deterrent Chicago’s law is to people who are already violating federal law.)
(Likewise, purchasing guns in other states, bringing them across state lines, and selling them on the Chicago streets violates multiple existing federal laws. Davey ignores that fact as well.)
Edited to add: Just saw this, and found it appropriate.
Chicago pols blame rampant shootings on guns from Indiana and Iowa, which, mysteriously, don’t have rampant shootings.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) January 30, 2013
And I said, “What about ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’?”
He said, “I can’t afford a million dollars,
and as I recall, you’ve got plenty of money.”
And I said, “Well, that’s one thing we have not.”
The Bell trial picked up again yesterday. Rebecca Valdez, the former city clerk who wasn’t actually the city clerk at first, is still on the stand.
The defense is attacking her credibility, “seeking to show that record-keeping in Bell was in disarray. Valdez testified that she signed minutes for meetings she didn’t attend, was appointed to the job in name only and sometimes made mistakes marking the times that meetings began and ended.”
And what’s this about her being the city clerk but not being the city clerk?
Also interesting:
Not “food bank coordinator”, but “assistant to the food bank coordinator”, and pulling in at least $100,000 a year. How do I get this job?
Ah, the Texas Highway Patrol Museum. You do remember the Texas Highway Patrol Museum, don’t you? Shut down by the Attorney General last year? Assets, including the building, being sold off?
Well, about that…
The “procedural impropriety” seems to be that the high bidder says her bid was ignored. Also, the real estate broker would make a larger commission if the other bidder got the property. There’s some technical aspects that make it unclear which bid is best; that’s why the AG recommended that the building be listed again.
(Hattip on this to Grits for Breakfast. If Ms. Wong winds up getting the building, and we’re all still here, I want to do a road trip to Rosario’s Café y Cantina.)
Ah. The week between the championship games and the Superb Owl. Also known as “the silly week”, in which people look for things to fill space. And TMQ is no exception. This week’s column after the jump…
There’s a follow-up to last week’s story about the felon trying to sell guns at the gun show: he’s now been charged with theft.
Interesting. Very interesting indeed.
Setting aside for the moment the subject of this story, there’s a kind of interesting legal aspect to it. In Nevada, if you own a casino (or are a “key man” in a casino) you can still gamble anywhere execpt your own casino (for obvious reasons). In Atlantic City, though, you’re not allowed to gamble period; at your own casino or someone else’s, it doesn’t matter. I find it curious that there’s such a difference in the law. I’m sure Mr. Fertitta does, too.
I was hoping to have more on the Bell trial for you. I do, but it wasn’t what I was expecting: one of the alternate jurors called in sick yesterday and the trial was postponed.
But I do have excellent news. Remember Cudahy? The bimbo and the badge? Bribes in the Denny’s? (If you don’t remember Cudahy, previously.)
David Silva, the former mayor of Cudahy, was sentenced yesterday.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph Akrotirianakis recommended that he receive 41 months in prison.
He got one year of prison time, three years of probation, 1,500 hours of community service and was ordered to pay $17,000 in restitution. (He was convicted of taking $17,000 in bribes from someone who wanted to open a medical marijuana dispensary.)
I missed this previously, but the same LAT article notes that Angel Perales, “Cudahy’s former head of code enforcement and acting city manager”, who was also implicated in this case, got five years probation.
Akrotirianakis had recommended that Perales serve two years in prison.
I find it interesting that the judge in both cases ignored the sentencing recommendation and gave both gentlemen lower sentences than requested. I find it especially interesting that Perales appears to have gotten away with no prison time.
By the way, Osvaldo Conde (of bimbo and badge fame) is up for sentencing on February 25th. And I also missed this: “…the former mayor of Santa Fe Springs, Joseph Serrano Sr., was sentenced to two years in prison for taking $11,500 in bribes from the marijuana dispensary owner.”
W.C. Fields supposedly said “It is morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep their money.”
I was reminded of that reading this NYT article:
Some examples of questionable practice:
I’d make the Seattle Police Department pay. $100 for it. At the next gun buyback.
I’m amused at how often the “someone turned in a non-functional rocket launcher at a gun buyback” trope has been showing up in the mass media. At least this story mentions the non-functional aspect in the first sentence.
Because paying $100 for an empty fiberglass tube makes the public safer. Way to go, guys.
(Hattip: TJIC on the Twitter, though he didn’t draw the same conclusion I did.)
There were long lines and crowds at the gun show, according to the Statesman.
(Before today, I’ve never had to wait in line to get into a gun show, except maybe the one time I went with Borepatch and we had to wait for the doors to open. It took me about 40 minutes in line to get into the show; I got there around 10:30 AM. Two friends of mine got there later and reported the wait was much the same, even at 1 PM.)
Edited to add: Lawrence was there as well; here’s his report.