Alternative New Media for the Gulf South
The Picayune has the story with a couple of photos here.
The NFL network is reporting Dwight Freeney may miss next weeks game. I found this breaking news report on MSNBC.
At the risk of sounding callous this is Divine providence IMHO.
I’ve put the Times Picayune Video Embed of the parade below the fold. Continue reading “Gentlemen grab your dresses part deux: The Bunch-of-Men”
I’m told he was threatening some of his neighbors as well. When I spoke to him on the phone months ago he literally flew into a rage talking about his treatment after Katrina. The man is clearly very troubled and I hope he is able to get the help he needs. The Times Picayune has the story (H/t Slabbed Nation):
A disbarred New Orleans lawyer who gained notoriety after refusing to evacuate for Hurricane Katrina was arrested Friday night for allegedly sending an e-mail threatening the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in downtown New Orleans, the FBI said.
A criminal complaint charged Ashton O’Dwyer Jr., 62, of violating the law when he sent an email to the court saying, in part, “Given the recent ‘security breach’ at 500 Poydras Street, a number of scoundrels might be at risk if I DO become homicidal.”
The “breach” apparently referred to an incident last week in which three people entered the New Orleans office of Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu in the Hale Boggs Building on Poydras under false pretenses. Continue reading “One nasty email too many: Ashton is arrested for threatening court.”
To some Robert Hartwig is a “man of integrity”, others (like me) think he is a sociopath. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely solves the mystery for us all on his blog. Thanks teach! 🙂
sop
On this wet, cold and getting colder January day, the Mississippi State Supreme Court turned on the heat — and the otherwise dignified Chief Justice William Waller, Jr. gave the State’s hitch-up-your-britches Governor a wedgie when he officially broke the news:
The Mississippi Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, said Friday that Gov. Haley Barbour does not have the constitutional authority to cut the budget of the state’s court system.
Governors have been legislatively enabled to cut the budget to ensure Constitutional compliance; however, the State law says the governor can’t cut any program’s budget by more than five percent until he has cut every program’s budget by that amount.
The Supreme Court’s En Banc Administrative Order says that compliance with the Constitution also includes exempting the courts from the Governor’s cuts citing provisions for separation of power.
The State Fiscal Officer’s authority to make budget cuts pursuant to Section 27-104-13, or otherwise, is limited to “agencies” and “the Mississippi Department of Transportation,” and does not extend to the judiciary, which is constitutionally-established as a separate branch of government, rather than an “agency.”
The Order points to the distinction between a “separate branch of government” and an “agency”; however, in terms of the State budget, the distinction is between “units of government” and “arms of government”, more commonly known here as “general fund agencies” and “special fund agencies”.
Special fund agencies represent two distinctly different arms. One is the arm of the federal government and the other is actually called just that – other special funds and boy are they ever Continue reading “Well, someone had to, so here it is – Mississippi’s State Budget 101”
Kevin Allman at Gambit has the skinny here is a snippet:
And here’s Brownie showing how he takes responsibility later in the same story:
“People get beaten up and thrown under the bus all the time,” he notes. “You’ve got the choice of letting the bus run over you three times, and wallowing in that, or getting up and moving. And my choice was to get up and keep moving.”
If your radio doesn’t pick up signals from Denver, you’ll have to wait until June, when Brownie’s book Deadly Indifference: Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, Disease Pandemics and the Failed Politics of Disasters hits bookshelves. And if you’re shaking your head that Michael “FEMA” Brown would actually have the temerity or boneheadedness to write a Katrina book called Deadly Indifference, you don’t know Brownie.
Thank God I don’t live in Denver.
sop
New Orleans sports radio legend Buddy Diliberto always promised he would wear a dress if the Saints ever made the Superbowl, secure in the knowledge (as he would sometimes say) that it would never happen in his lifetime. By all accounts Buddy D was a fun loving guy so I’m certain he’d appreciate the spectacle of Sunday’s “Bunch-of-Men’s Dress March”. There is a Mississippi connection as Buddy D’s son Chris of Ocean Springs plans to attend to make good on his Dad’s promise to the Who Dat Nation. James Jones at the Sun Herald filed the story:
Longtime WWL radio personality Buddy Diliberto promised to wear a dress if the New Orleans Saints reached the Super Bowl.
Unfortunately, Diliberto died before seeing the Saints finally make it.
Chris Diliberto will honor his late father’s promise to Saints fans this weekend in the Crescent City before the team heads to Miami for Super Bowl XLIV and a date with the Indianapolis Colts.
Chris Diliberto, of Ocean Springs, was in Gulfport Tuesday night to pick out a dress to fulfill his dad’s promise. Former Saints quarterback Bobby Hebert and Abdul D. Tentmakur of Vancleave, who both work for WWL 870 AM, will also wear dresses. Continue reading “Gentlemen, grab your dresses. Saints parade and the soul of New Orleans”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q47bpOCTcaY
The “drafts file” is overflowing (again) and time is short (again) – nothing to do but pull a handful of things I think worth a mention and go for what Sop has called a “round-up” post.
First up is an update on Young v Scruggs – brief because the case is stuck on proper service of the summons issued to Dick Scruggs, a discussion I passed on recenty when reporting Defendant’s Rebuttal. What’s happened since the, however, is more interesting. First, the defendants fied a Motion to Strike Purported Summons that basically restated the argument Scruggs was not lawfully served and there was a pending motion to dismiss on that basis. Next, plaintiffs pop up and file Notice the summons has been reissued – and on that same day, according to the docket, defendants filed anAmended Motion to Strike that cites and attaches a recent Mississippi Supreme Court ruling on the subject that’s worth a look.
The latest news on USA v Minor (Whitfield and Teel) makes for interesting reading – so did the recently filed Motion for Rehearing that was sitting in drafts when most media had the story up. Here’s the Motion and here’s the latest:
Pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 28(j), Paul Minor notifies the Court of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Citizens United v. FEC, No. 08-205 (Jan. 21, 2010). That decision clarifies that the jury instructions in this case, which allowed the jury to convict the defendants of honest services fraud for campaign contributions made with only an intent to influence and without any quid pro quo, violate the First Amendment. h/t Legal Schnauzer (entire letter posted there)
Now, news on the “odds” – the first “odd” appears to be Gerald Nielsen or, more accurately, Mr. Nielsen appears to be odd – long on ego but short on memory. Continue reading “Scruggs, Minor, and some legal odds and ends (pun intended) – Nielsen, Wilson, Robie and Tort Reform”
Nowdy will have more in a few minutes. Meantime early details are below the fold. Continue reading “BREAKING: There is a disturbance in the force. An Ex Rel Rigsby Update”
I only blog about my accounting practice indirectly when I express popular sentiment as I hear it from my small business clients. We in the trenches of the economy have a vantage point on the action the generals simply don’t have. I listened to part of the State of the Union last night and heard all the promises and nope none of us are buying in. CNN Money has a good story that drives home the point, here is a snippet:
….small business owners across the nation say they feel left out of the stimulus and recovery action.
“Basically, it seems to me that Washington’s efforts have been to help Wall Street, not Main Street,” said Kim Griebling, president of Custom Flag Company in Westminster, Colo. Griebling and her father bought the company in 1998 and now employ a staff of eight. As the economy deteriorated, so did the demand for flags.
Griebling applied in September for an America’s Recovery Capital (ARC) loan, an emergency financing program created as part of February’s stimulus bill. The program offers qualifying business owners a small, government-backed loan on very attractive terms, but those trying to land ARC loans face a gauntlet of administrative obstacles. While bailed-out financial giants like AIG got financing fast from Washington, business owners wait months. Continue reading “Hey Barack. Out here on Main Street we’re still not buying in.”