Not surprisingly, the news these days is pretty much all Marathon all the time. And yet, if you look carefully, you can see a couple of stories that we should not lose sight of. For example:
- Former Probation Commissioner John J. O’Brien was acquitted in the first of two pending cases against him. It wasn’t even a hung jury: acquittal is a 12-0 vote (assuming it was a 12-person jury, which I think it probably was). And it didn’t take them long – according to this story, the jury returned the verdict the same day they got the case. In this case, which was in state court, “[p]rosecutors alleged that O’Brien used his influence to turn out attendees for a political fund-raiser for then-treasurer Timothy Cahill in exchange for a job [at the Mass. Lottery Commission] for his wife.”
“We are disappointed in this verdict, and believe the evidence showed that Commissioner O’Brien traded campaign contributions for a taxpayer-funded job for his wife,” said Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general, in a statement. “While some may believe that this type of behavior is ‘business as usual,’ we did not and do not believe that should be the case.”
The federal case against O’Brien is still pending.
- US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia seems to have lost all sense of decorum. His comments at oral argument several weeks ago in a case about the Voting Rights Act characterizing the Act as a “racial entitlement” were bad enough. Now, he’s repeated and expanded upon those comments in a speech in California – while the Voting Rights Act case is still pending. He did something similar regarding another pending case too. If there’s one rule that used to be pretty cut and dried, it’s that judges aren’t supposed to “tip their hand” in public about cases that are before them. Apparently, though, Scalia is so bored with his job that he just doesn’t give a crap anymore.
- You probably didn’t think ex-SC Gov. Mark “hiking the Appalachian trail” Sanford, who is now running for a vacant congressional seat, could do anything stupider than what he has already done. And yet, and yet…
The complaint says Jenny Sanford confronted Sanford leaving her Sullivans Island home on Feb. 3 by a rear door, using his cell phone for a flashlight…. The couple’s 2010 divorce settlement says neither may enter the other’s home without permission…. Jenny Sanford said Tuesday that she has custody of the couple’s four boys.
She said the complaint has nothing to do with her former husband’s efforts to rebuild his career in politics. She said it was filed with the court the day after the incident and when a family court judge last month set the case for the docket, it happened to be two days after the election.
“I am doing my best not to get in the way of his race,” Jenny Sanford told the AP. “I want him to sink or swim on his own. For the sake of my children I’m trying my best not to get in the way, but he makes things difficult for me when he does things like trespassing.”
Remarkable.
- California gajillionaire Tom Steyer, who seems terribly concerned about protecting the environment when it comes to a Senate election 3,000 miles from where he lives, should perhaps tend to his own garden first. Turns out his former company – Farallon Capital Management – is a named defendant in a lawsuit in Amador County, CA that is trying to stop the construction of a 278-acre rock quarry and an asphalt plant on land now largely used by cattle ranchers. Farallon is involved in the project as an investor in the land on which the quarry and plant would be built. Steyer no longer runs Farallon, but he did when it made the decision to get involved. “The plan is for the quarry operation eventually to mine 5 million tons of rock a year from Newman Ridge, a 450-foot-tall, 2-mile-long rise. The ridge would be leveled, the Wests [who filed the lawsuit] contend, altering weather patterns as winds it once held back blow toward Ione.” A group of area residents opposed to the project have set up a website with more information.
Did I miss anything?
jconway says
And Bob and Charley for pointing out that Tom Steyer is both a hypocrite and a cancer on our politics. Some on the left were praising him as ‘our’ response to the Koch brothers, but what makes the Koch brothers so insidious is not just their political positions but the fact that they feel they are above the law and government and can craft government to suit their own personal interests. Steyer, not even a MA resident, has no business interfering in our race, and his interference easily could have backfired and helped Lynch but luckily Ed Markey is classy enough to know dirty politics when he sees it and distance himself. Steyer should clean up his own act at home before he dirty’s our political waters in Massachusetts.
Laurel says
Parliament passed the marriage bill last night by a whomping 77-44 vote. After the vote was announced, the MPs and guests in the gallery sang a Maori celebratory song. I’ve got the details over at Pam’s House Blend.
mike_cote says
I so much want to visit New Zealand some day!
stomv says
and it awaits executive signature. Mujica has stated that he will sign it.
New Zealand’s bill awaits Royal Assent — a 4(?) month process.
fenway49 says
is so bored, maybe he can just retire.
My fondest hope — one of them — is that the next President is a Democrat and Scalia’s dream of holding on until a Republican can name the replacement is dashed.