Day: September 26, 2013

“Egg water” deadbeats: A collaboration between Slabbed New Media and the Alliance for Good Government

A few weeks ago someone knowledgeable of the operations of the City of Bay St Louis indicated to Slabbed the city was not being diligent in collecting past due water bills and this is important because of cash flow problems the City is experiencing overall. Cash flow problems in municipalities is not unusual per se as the majority of the property taxes come in from December through February and taper off greatly from there. The general subject gets arcane and technical very quickly but the City needs cash to pay payroll period and it’d be nice to have enough left over to pay the bills too.

Lana Noonan of the Hancock County Alliance for Good Government did the PRR work along with some analysis and this post would not be possible without her contribution and that of the Hancock County Alliance for Good Government to the effort. First up is the list of major delinquent accounts and note that WLOX’s Al Showers in on that list owing over $500.  Al, my best advice is to join The Advocate’s Richard Thompson and follow Slabbed immediately on Twitter because if I had to guess, those $100 water bills you are getting come partly from a leaky toilet and today I just happened to post on twitter a handy Youtube video on how to make the repair. Just guessing but I think Thompson has been close to militant on this issue because he covers folks like Jefferson Parish Councilman at Large Chris Roberts, a man that can make that repair in under 5 minutes at 5AM blindfolded with one hand tied behind his back. True dat Richard!

Without further ado here is the list of major H2O delinquents: Continue reading ““Egg water” deadbeats: A collaboration between Slabbed New Media and the Alliance for Good Government”

I hear A. J. Giardina was in town today

And the legal fight brewing between the Bay Waveland School District, New Orleans developer Jim Macphaille and singer Rochelle Harper is gonna make the local TeeVee News. The subject is complex and comes with requisite cronyism and incompetence. Hopefully Giardina does not butcher it.

One naturally wonders why Hancock County beat reporter Al Showers does not have this story for WLOX but maybe he took the day off to pay his severely late water bill. More on that later today.

The Engelhardt pummeling in the media continues: Who wudda thunk….

That Slabbed would be the one to go easy on him? I mean heck, back during the thick of the insurance war playing out in the Federal courts a few years back we levied a criticism or two at the man including when Slabbed went under the covers with Gidget but not here on the Danziger case. That said I do harbor some sympathy for the points Jarvis DeBerry made in his column.

Do the Danziger Bridge defendants deserve a new trial? ~ Juliet Linderman

Before you answer that question one should consider the alternative remedies.  I found this legal tome a bit dated but otherwise still useful.

In other news:

After Danziger Bridge ruling, lawyers for Perricone, Mann defend clients ~ Naomi Martin

This time Sal and Jan have stuck close to council, which is a smart move considering all the bad things that happened after Sal paid a visit to Errol and pals last year.

Bottom line here is a retrial is not near the worst thing that could have happened to the victims of the Danziger Bridge Shooting as a complete dismissal of the charges was an option for Judge Engelhardt.

The Slabbed Legal Metaphor of the day is: Fruit of the poisonous tree

Fruit of the poisonous tree is a legal metaphor in the United States used to describe evidence that is obtained illegally.[1] The logic of the terminology is that if the source of the evidence or evidence itself (the “tree”) is tainted, then anything gained from it (the “fruit”) is tainted as well. The term fruit of the poisonous tree was first used in Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385 (1920)[2] in the opinion by Justice Felix Frankfurter.[3]

Such evidence is not generally admissible in court.[4] For example, if a police officer conducted an unconstitutional (Fourth Amendment) search of a home and obtained a key to a train station locker, and evidence of a crime came from the locker, that evidence would most likely be excluded under the fruit of the poisonous tree legal doctrine. The discovery of a witness is not evidence in itself because the witness is attenuated by separate interviews, in-court testimony and his or her own statements.

The doctrine is an extension of the exclusionary rule, which, subject to some exceptions, prevents evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment from being admitted in a criminal trial. Like the exclusionary rule, the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine is intended to deter police from using illegal means to obtain evidence.

The doctrine is subject to four main exceptions. The tainted evidence is admissible if:

  1. it was discovered in part as a result of an independent, untainted source; or Continue Reading…………………..