A Norfolk (VA) man found himself wrongfully charged after he was caught with a rifle on school property. The student was violating school rules, but completely within compliance of state law (more on that later).
I always wondered what would happen if you put regular gas into something like a leaf blower that needs two-cycle oil/gas mixture. Now I know.
In the world of television there is a phrase that describes desperation and stupidity, the point where the show tips towards oblivion. That phrase is “jumping the shark”. This comes from the long running series “Happy Days” where in the final season the script writers were so desperate for a bit for sweeps week they had Fonzie (Catch phrase “Aaaay”) water skiing over a ski jump where he jumped over a shark.
In Knoxville City Government the equivalent of “jumping the shark” is, “Where is the glass dome”? This signifies the point in time when City Government (Catch phrase “If you build it they will come”) loses their ability to know when a project will work.
My only question for the South Knox Riverfront project is, “Where is the glass dome”?
All across America local governments are implementing impact fees so new development will pay for some of the new infrastructure costs. Not in Knoxville. Mayor Haslam has announced the first reverse impacts fees in American. The taxpayers pay for the roads, additional parking, parks, and greenways that the developer would normally pay for. So how will it be decided which developers win this taxpayer lottery and gets this special treatment? Good question.
The proposal for the South Knox Riverfront project works like this; TIF’s will be used for roads, additional parking, parks, and greenways. The infrastructure needed for new development.
You may ask why the Mayor would suggest TIF’s instead of bonds or more traditional financing methods. The City can’t. They already jumped the shark. All of the previous “If you build it they will come” failures make it impossible to use bonds. Even if they could be issued who in their right mind would buy them? The only avenue (suckers) left are the taxpayers.
Why do the developers that never win this lottery not sue the City? It seems unfair that only a very select few receive this benefit when everyone else has to do it the old fashioned way. The Robin Hood concept is supposed to work the other way around. Hint, you are supposed to rob from the rich and give to the poor.
The most obvious flaw in this plan is the needed 139 million dollars of taxpayer investment. Here is what supposedly the private developers will do in return:
2,500 new residential units
421,700 square feet of retail space
60,000 square feet of restaurant space
1 million square feet of office space
160 hotel rooms
225 marina boat slips
135,000-square-foot cultural/civic institution
700 garage parking spaces
790 on-street parking spaces
450 off-street parking spaces
11,750 linear feet of new roads
11,000 linear feet of improved roads
51.3 acres of new parks and greenways
1 whitewater kayak course
The whitewater kayak course qualifies as the “glass dome”. It is self-explanatory.
Is this as stupid as the Worsham Watkins glass dome for the Market Square? I don’t think so. More on the scale of Universe Knoxville but three times as expensive. Before the pack attacks and claims I am “an aginer” can we look at some of the really really stupid parts of this plan?
The 135,000-square-foot cultural/civic institution is completely asinine. Less than two miles away we already have one of those and it ain’t doing so great.
1 million square feet of office space will really help the downtown office market. I am sure that every building owner and real estate firm is just jazzed about this idea. That is enough for a 400 square foot office for each of the 2500 condo residents. Jump that shark Mayor.
421,700 square feet of retail space is enough for 281 trendy boutiques. The merchants on Market Square are going to love this.
60,000 square feet of restaurant space can provide 30 new restaurants to finish off the restaurants in Market Square and the Old City.
Let’s review, the City of Knoxville has spent over 280 million taxpayer dollars trying to revive and restore downtown Knoxville and NOW they suggest spending another 139 million taxpayer dollars to kill all economic activity downtown and move it across the river?
May I make a suggestion; shouldn’t we have a voter referendum on this rather than allowing City Council a few votes to make the decision?
Ask yourself these simple questions:
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Getting overwhelmed with spam again. SK2 thinks blogspot blogs are spam. Beyond my control though I’ve recovered some of the comments. If you use blogspot, leave the URL blank or use a tinyurl.
Update: I keep removing blogspot from the blacklist but it keeps putting it back.
Michael Hayden, who will likely be the next head of the CIA – which ought to maybe know something about the fourth amendment, once had this conversation:
QUESTION: Jonathan Landay with Knight Ridder. I’d like to stay on the same issue, and that had to do with the standard by which you use to target your wiretaps. I’m no lawyer, but my understanding is that the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution specifies that you must have probable cause to be able to do a search that does not violate an American’s right against unlawful searches and seizures. Do you use—
GEN. HAYDEN: No, actually—the Fourth Amendment actually protects all of us against unreasonable search and seizure. That’s what it says.
QUESTION: But the measure is probable cause, I believe.
GEN. HAYDEN: The amendment says unreasonable search and seizure.
QUESTION: But does it not say probable—
GEN. HAYDEN: No. The amendment says unreasonable search and seizure…
GEN. HAYDEN: … Just to be very clear—and believe me, if there’s any amendment to the Constitution that employees of the National Security Agency are familiar with, it’s the Fourth.
Be afraid.
Update: BTW, the fourth reads:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
I suppose that, technically, he may be correct that the Fourth Amendment actually protects all of us against unreasonable search and seizure. But it seems to me that he’s not even acknowledging that probable cause with respect to warrants is in there.
Update 2: Xrlqy Wrlqy says I am wrong. I’m inclined to concur. However, I think we use warrants far less often than we should, which is what probable cause refers to. That said, eliminating warrants where we usually would use them (which we’ve done in some cases), rather makes the entire probable cause section rather, err, unimportant. I think that’s a bad idea. Why include the warrant language if it’s not necessary? What am I missing here?
In the first state to pass the so-called “Stand Your Ground” law last year, it is expected to be a defense so far to three people: A tow truck driver who shot an unarmed man, a suspected gang member who shot another suspected gang member, and someone involved in a suspected felony drug deal.
That’s been Florida’s experience with legislation some Minnesota legislators want to pass here. And Sarah Brady and local citizen activists are urging Minnesotans to fight it.
“Let me be clear: People are dead because of this law elsewhere, and the people who killed them are using the law to try to get away with murder,” said Brady, the wife of former Reagan Press Secretary James Brady, who was shot in the assassination attempt on the former president. “This law encourages the most aggressive people in society to act more aggressively than is necessary. I urge the Legislature to reject this.”
Is she really so stupid as to suggest that gang bangers and drug dealers wouldn’t have shot one another had this law not been enacted?
David Hardy reports that The Gun Guys (who are actually just one guy, a comedian you’ve never heard of) are at it again. This time, he’s all crazy, hysterical and lying about the recent Castle Doctrines Laws, which he says are a license to murder.
It may be a bit scary but the techonology is pretty cool:
The department has three black and white patrol cars and one unmarked car equipped with the ALPR system, created by Pips Technology Inc., based in Tennessee.
The four vehicles are outfitted with a camera and sensors attached to each corner of the car.
The system works by scanning every plate that comes in the path of the sensor. Every time it reads a plate, the computer inside the patrol car dings and both a picture of the actual plate as well as the plate number the computer reads appear on the screen. The plate number is then run through a database, which has highlighted plates that fall in the category of lost or stolen, and drivers who are wanted for a felony.
The system runs in the background, so it does not distract the officer from scanning the streets, Morgan said. An alarm sounds if a matching plate is found.
If a plate matches a warranted plate in the computer’s database, an alarm sounds and the warrant information appears on the screen. This information tells the officer specifically what the plate has been warranted for, but does not say if it is currently still wanted.
Via an anonymous commenter, comes this:
Earlier this year in New York City, a public-heath regulation went into effect that set a new and very troublesome precedent, one that insinuates government agencies into personal medical matters.
In mid-January, the city began legally requiring laboratories that do medical testing to report to the Health Department the results of blood-sugar tests for city residents with diabetes — along with the names, ages, and contact information on those patients.
City officials are not only analyzing these data to assess patterns and changes in diabetes prevalence in the city, but are planning “interventions.” Simply put, diabetics will soon receive letters and phone calls from city officials offering advice and counsel on how to effectively deal with their medical condition. If you wish to keep your medical data confidential, you cannot.
Unbelievable. The nanny state marches on.
The good ol’ Gock 7 quote from the movie Die Hard:
That punk pulled a Glock 7 on me. You know what that is? It’s a porcelain gun made in Germany. It doesn’t show up on your airport X-ray machines, and it costs more than you make here in a month.
Of course, it’s crap. Buy Nylar tells us about more crap. Seems some sheriff in Jersey is all alarmed:
Cops recover assault weapon, all but invisible to X-rays
Of course, if the headline were accurate, it would read Cops recover pistol, not at all invisible to X-rays. More
Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said yesterday he will issue a warning to other police agencies after his officers seized an assault weapon made with so little metal it does not clearly show up on a security X-ray.
Narcotics officers found the Professional Ordnance Carbon-15 Type-97 pistol in the car of a drug suspect in Newark and noticed it was a cut above the usual weaponry employed by local drug dealers, Fontoura said.
Officers in his ballistics laboratory, who said they had never seen an assault weapon made with so much plastic, had it taken to Newark Liberty International Airport yesterday for a test-run through the security scanners — minus its 30-round clip.
The image on the X-ray appeared as a straight metal rod, with no outline of a stock or a trigger guard, something an inattentive security guard may view as no more threatening than a curling iron, the sheriff said.
These are the popular Carbon rifles. Sure, they’re made of quite a bit of plastic (like a Glock) but they have a great many metal parts (also, like a Glock) that will show up on a metal detector, like the barrels, springs, hammer, disconnector, buffer tubes, etc. Plus, ammo is easy to see on an X-ray machine.
Lame hysteria but the anti-gunnies may push it soon.
Dr. Helen notes that some nannyists want to regulate french fries. I loved this remark, from comments:
Smoking bans.
Seat belt laws.
Bicycle helment laws.
Gun storage laws.
Harrasement laws.
Speech laws.
Etc, ad nauseum.I bet they win too.
Nanny knows best. Now shut up and eat your peas.
Another local yokel pipe dream for Blount County:
Taxpayers are putting up $20 million to buy the land from Rarity Communities, who will develop it. (CLARIFICATION: Blount County, Alcoa, Maryville, and Knox County will purchase the property from Rarity for $10 million and spend $10 million more on infrastructure. The county is not buying the property for $20 million.)
Again, plans to spend tax payer dollars on questionable items of questionable benefit. It’s supposed to be a business district but the first items slated are for condos. Additionally:
The deal is being announced as if it were done, yet there has been no public input.
Read the whole thing. R. Neal has done a lot of legwork covering this.
On March 1, 2006, WKRN-2 in Nashville, Tennessee ran a short news feature on the best ways to deduct charitable donations on your income tax report. The segment, which was introduced and read by afternoon anchors Bob Mueller and Anne Holt, featured numerous tax deduction tips and a lengthy soundbite from an accountant.
What viewers didn’t know is that the entire story was built from a video news release (VNR) from Jackson Hewitt, the second-largest tax preparation franchise in the United States. The imitation news story was created by Medialink Worldwide and reported in voiceover by publicist Kate Brookes. As a subtle promotion, the VNR featured over 30 seconds of soundbites from Jackson Hewitt CEO Mike Lister, and ended with a call for viewers to seek out a “qualified tax preparer.”
But:
Unfortunately for Jackson Hewitt, WKRN-2 trimmed over a minute of content from the original VNR, replacing Brookes’ narrative audio with the voice of Anne Holt and removing every mention of Jackson Hewitt. In addition to the loss of promotion, there was a full demotion for Mike Lister. Instead of being identified as the president of his own company, WKRN-2 merely billed him as an “accountant.”
Looks like they took the step of basically not running a commercial for them but they really report info compiled by corporations for the benefit of those corporations? I don’t take issue with that but I think it would lend to their credibility to disclose that sort of stuff.
I wonder if WKRN’s bloggers (linky and thinky) will chime in?
Update: Brittney responds in comments.
The NRA has a nice round up, including some letters given to those who were investigated (possibly illegally). You should read it all and contact your representatives. A taste:
The BATFE representative failed, however, to fully answer far more serious concerns about the bureau’s tactics, such as the strategies it used to target some gun buyers for “discouragement” at the show, or the legality of the traffic stops and gun seizures off the show premises. He also did not explain how it could be legal—given the extensive privacy limits on use of licensed firearm dealers’ records—to turn over those records to local police for “residency checks” of hundreds of gun buyers. In point of fact, one of the local police officials testified that BATFE had never answered his department’s legal concerns about that.
Angry conservatives are driving the approval ratings of President Bush and the GOP-led Congress to dismal new lows, according to an AP-Ipsos poll that underscores why Republicans fear an Election Day massacre. […]
* Just 33 percent of the public approves of Bush’s job performance, the lowest of his presidency. […] Forty-five percent of self-described conservatives now disapprove of the president.
*Just one-fourth of the public approves of the job Congress is doing, a new low in AP-Ipsos polling and down 5 percentage points since last month. A whopping 65 percent of conservatives disapprove of Congress.
The Bad:
A majority of Americans say they want Democrats rather than Republicans to control Congress (51 percent to 34 percent). That’s the largest gap recorded by AP-Ipsos since Bush took office. Even 31 percent of conservatives want Republicans out of power.
The Ugly: It took 5.5 years of big government Republicans to finally wake the conservatives in this country up.
Like you and me, only much, much better:
Baird wrote that Capitol Police Patrol Division units, who are trained in driving under the influence cases, were not allowed to perform basic field sobriety tests on the Congressman. Instead, two sergeants, who also responded to the accident, proceeded to confer with the Capitol Police watch commander on duty and then “ordered all of the Patrol Division Units to leave the scene and that they were taking over.”
Some West Virginia members of the National Rifle Association woke up Thursday to an orange postcard in their mailboxes, the same color the pro-gun organization sends out to announce candidates it has endorsed.
This card, however, was paid for by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Hiram Lewis’ campaign, telling voters of his past ‘A’ rating with the national group and work he has done for NRA candidates in the past.
The campaign mailing didn’t go over well with NRA leaders in suburban Virginia.
“It looks very similar to what we send,” said NRA spokeswoman Autumn Fogg. “It’s clearly an effort to mislead.”
Speaking of comments, several of you have told me that your comments are getting eaten by spam filters. Well, the reason is that Spam Karma has added blogspot blogs to its filter due to all the link farms/spam blogs set up on blogspot. So, I’ve recovered some and there are others that I can’t find. If you’re comment hasn’t shown up, I apologize. Fact is, it’s hard for me to go find your comment if it’s older than a few hours and that’s because I get over 500 spam attempts per day.
Update: I think I’ve recovered all comments in the last 24 hours. If your is still missing, let me know. I recommend you leave the URL field blank if you use a blogspot blog. It sucks.
Update 2: In comments, John recommends you use tinyurl.com.
I’m not judging nor am I saying one is right or one is wrong. But, why is it that larger urban population areas and big cities tend to be blue/liberal/Democrat (pick you label) and sparsely populated rural areas tend to be red/conservative/Republican? Seriously, I want to know
Oh, there you are:
Broadband providers and Internet phone companies will have to pick up the tab for the cost of building in mandatory wiretap access for police surveillance, federal regulators ruled Wednesday.
The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to levy what likely will amount to wiretapping taxes on companies, municipalities and universities, saying it would create an incentive for them to keep costs down and that it was necessary to fight the war on terror. Universities have estimated their cost to be about $7 billion.
The canaries are dead, ladies and gentlemen.
I’ve said before, I’m against it:
In theory, I support the death penalty. It is our society’s way of saying that some crimes are so heinous that they warrant killing the offender, both as a punishment and to deter others who may do the same thing.
In application, however, I oppose it. Studies have shown that the death penalty is not consistently applied among the races; nor is it equally applied among the wealthy, middle-class, and the poor. …
Also, the fact that people are on death row for 20 years is absolutely ridiculous.
That said, I find this case troubling:
Four of the nation’s top arson experts have concluded that the state of Texas executed a man in 2004 based on scientifically invalid evidence, and on Tuesday they called for an official reinvestigation of the case.
In their report, the experts, assembled by the Innocence Project, a non-profit organization responsible for scores of exonerations, concluded that the conviction and 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham for the arson-murders of his three daughters were based on interpretations by fire investigators that have been scientifically disproved.
Now, despite what Kevin said, this is not necessarily the case of the state killing an innocent person. Rather, it’s a case that some of the evidence presented was not absolute proof and that should give us all pause. After all, you can’t there is no Control+Z for the death penalty. If it’s done, it is done. That doesn’t mean that insufficient evidence is absolute proof of innocence. But that doesn’t matter so much because a person should be proven guilty beyond any reasonable doubt. And, as AC (who’s now blogging here) said once:
A society that uses capital punishment must be comfortable with one fact: You are going to kill innocent people. I don’t care how many appeals you exhaust or how much science you bring to it. Human error or human malice will result in the death of an innocent or two.
Ayup.
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
Uncle Pays the Bills
 |
|
Find Local
|
