Archive for February 15th, 2013

Banana republicans on trial: February 15, 2013.

Friday, February 15th, 2013

That evil Robert “Ratso” Rizzo! He tied people up…and made them take money! The horror! The horror!

You think I’m kidding, right?

George Cole, a former steelworker, returned to the witness stand for a second day and testified that he voted for a 12% annual pay raise for a City Council board in 2008 only because he feared retribution from then-City Manager Robert Rizzo.

More:

“He had shown himself to be very vindictive if you crossed him at that time,” Cole said. “I was worried that if I didn’t vote for this, if I voted against it, he would do whatever he could to destroy the work that was important to me and the community. I knew that was his character.”
Cole said it was the most difficult decision he ever made while on the council but was in the best interest of Bell — a city, he said, where he had devoted decades to advocating for new schools and programs for at-risk youths and senior citizens.

…

The 63-year-old also told jurors that when he discovered $15,500 had been deposited into a 401(k)-style account for him, he complained. Cole said Rizzo refused to remove the money.

Cole is quoted, in a separate LANow blog post, as wanting to give up his salary in 2007, after one of Bell’s parks was closed. Ratso was not pleased:

“He got angry and told me if I didn’t take the salary I would have to resign from the City Council,” Cole said. “I told him that I was elected to that position by the people of the community, and if I didn’t want to take the salary and stay on board that was entirely up to me,” Cole said.

My understanding of city manager/council government is that the council tells the manager what to do, not the other way around. The testimony seems to be that Rizzo was driving the train. Left unanswered so far: why did the council allow this? If, indeed, the council did, and people like Cole aren’t engaging in retroactive butt covering?

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Lenny Bruce is not afraid, and other random notes for February 15, 2013.

Friday, February 15th, 2013

More on the Maureen O’Connor story from the NYT. Highlights:

Her lawyers said that while she had made well over a billion dollars in bets at casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and San Diego, her actual net losses were around $13 million.

…

…to wager a billion dollars over the course of her nine-year gambling spree, Ms. O’Connor would have had to bet the equivalent of more than $300,000 a day, seven days a week.

The Chelyabinsk meteor story is the kind of thing I feel obligated to comment on, but am still sorting out. I know my readers are looking to me for answers to such questions as “is it time to crack open our neighbor’s heads and feast on the tasty goo inside?” While you wait, WSJ coverage. And I’m going to break with one of my rules and point folks at Slate. My justification for this is that I’m pointing you at Phil Plait and “Bad Astronomy”: if anyone is going to be on top of this story, it will be Plait. Plus, he’s got lots of video.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Geek, Law | Comments Closed