you cannot be serious

I've known for awhile that this upcoming summer will not be a summer of love. Studying for the July 2007 California bar exam not only means flying solo for a few months, but it also means that I will more-than-likely miss the weddings of good friends from college, a good friend from high school, and good friends of Katie.

I received some good news last week when I received a save-the-date postcard from another high school friend. His wedding takes place on September 8 near Oakland. As that is the weekend after my first week of work, I was looking forward to making the 90 minute or so drive to there from Sacramento.

But I've just received breaking news that my cousin has decided to have his wedding on September 8 in Cincinnati. Are you freaking kidding me? Of all the weekends . . .

At this point, I'm not sure what to do. And I'm not talking about which wedding to go to. I'm talking about what to do right here, right now. The frustration and bad luck are distracting me from my studies. So many missed weddings, a complete travesty of justice. I need to vent, but am uncertain how. I could probably go for a Pantera concert, or something like that.

Virginia

Today I learned of a fascinating (and shameful) case in Manassas Park. From Radley Balko's 2/3/07 post on The Agitator:

The Cliff's Notes version: David Ruttenberg hires a guy named Tom Kifer to head up security for his bar. Kifer is specifically charged with keeping drug activity out of Rack n' Roll. Ruttenberg later finds out that Kifer is working for the police, who have instructed him to set up drug deals in the bar, which they then plan use against Ruttenberg, who would later lose his license for -- wait for it -- failing to stop drug activity in his pool hall.

Note that in the audio clips, Kifer tells Ruttenberg he realizes Ruttenberg's getting screwed, but that the police are holding his probation over his head. There's a bit more to this story, too. Kifer went to jail in part because of a bad check he wrote to Ruttenberg. Ruttenberg didn't want to turn him in. But when he cashed the check and it bounced, he had no choice. When Kifer got out, he begged Ruttenberg for his job back. Ruttenberg gave it to him, mostly out of pity, and out of regret for in part being the reason Kifer went to prison in the first place.

The whole thing was a ruse, of course. Kifer was working for the local police. Not to catch Ruttenberg doing anything wrong, but to help the police establish a pattern of drug activity at Rack n' Roll -- activity that took place despite Ruttenberg's best efforts to stop it.

What do you do when you continue to report drug activity to the police, only to have them ignore it, in all likelihood because they instigated much of it? What do you do when you hire security to hunt down drug dealers, only to find out that the very same security personnel you hired are setting up drug deals on behalf of the police -- sometimes deals where the only parties are undercover cops and paid informants?

I can't believe Ruttenberg hasn't gone completely nuts by now. Imagine watching helplessly as you learn, slowly, that the people who hold power where you live have decided to take you down, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

The harassment of Ruttenburg is ongoing.

Now, the city of Manassas Park has sent him sent him a cease and desist letter, claiming he's publishing "false and defamatory" information about city officials and employees. He writes:

I’m actually somewhat surprised by this, as everything I’ve said is true is backed up by video, audio, transcripts of testimony under oath, sworn statements, and/or multiple sources. Everything I’ve said on this matter is not only true to the best of my knowledge, but the evidence that supports this perspective on Manassas Park’s current regime is truly massive. If the City of Manassas Park decided to pursue a defamation case against me and put themselves in the position of being subjected to the degree of discovery a case like this would likely permit, it would give me all of the evidence now held by the city which has so far been denied David Ruttenberg, and would allow him to conclusively prevail in his five million dollar lawsuit against the city and many of it’s officers. That would be a positive outcome for justice, which has been denied for far too long.

A lawsuit like this would also give tremendous visibility to this scandal. I’ve become a somewhat notable website for local politics, but my readership is nothing close to the daily circulation of the media outlets which cover the area and I harbor no illusions about my significance outside of the political junkies and the occasionally curious. Having a locality file a lawsuit against a political blogger would probably be a pretty significant story and splash the Rack & Roll Scandal into the public consciousness in a way that I could never do. That would be a positive outcome for the citizens of Manassas Park, who deserve better government which such publicity might help to cause.

He's exactly right. Which is why I think they're bluffing. Manassas Park is governed by fools, but they can't possibly be this foolish.

Hat tip: Hit and Run.

See also Black Velvet Bruce Li.

Illinois

Here's a nice letter-to-the-editor that appeared in Monday's Journal Standard:

This is for our eight aldermen and aldermen-at-large. Take into consideration the following before you rubber stamp the proposed 0.25 percent sales tax increase. Yes, 35 percent of sales tax revenue generated in Freeport comes from out of town.

As we are currently expanding the bypass around Freeport, remember this road will assist in taking our town business to Pecatonica, Winnebago, Rockford or Lena, Stockton or Galena, with greater ease.

You may wish to clear up an issue with my fellow residents. How dare you give thousands of dollars in tax incentives to a multi-billion dollar company for expansion on our south side. An expansion that would have happened without said incentives. All the while, we residents take it in the neck, while you are looking at a $500,000 budget deficit.

I wonder, with this tax incentive, these companies promise so many jobs over a period of time. Who monitors this? You? What happens if the company does not apply? Another tax incentive I would suppose. See? I always thought tax incentives were for small business. I guess Wal-Mart is a small employer in Freeport.

Yes, you need to think this one over, as you sit at the Visitors Center, watching the cars heading east, I hope you think Shop Freeport First.

Neal Toepfer

it's a blog eat blog world

Two new, fantastic blogs that I came across today:

riverfronttimes.com STLog

Truth on the Market



You can thank me later.

glass half full

This past December, the American Bar Association's ABA Journal published an article on the Seattle and Louisville school integration cases. To put it very briefly, the issue in these cases is whether local school districts may consider race as a factor in deciding which individual school a student will attend in that district.

The February issue of the ABA Journal came in the mail today, and I particularly enjoyed a letter to the editor from Alexander Schulman of Lake Forest, California, regarding the December article:

One of the fundamental duties of schools is to prepare children for what they will encounter in later life.

Toward that end, the Seattle and Louisville, Ky., school boards are right in introducing their students to the realities of racial preferences.

Young white males, like Crystal Meredith's son, must accept the subordination of their civil rights to achieve diversity. This will prepare them for future sacrifices they will make in college admissions and employment.

To be clear, the policy of the Seattle School District (I'm not sure about Louisville) affected both black and white students -- some white students were prevented from going to a particular school because there were already enough whites at the school, and some black students were prevented from going to a particular school because there were already enough blacks at the school.

On Schulman's tongue-in-cheek point, I must admit that it sucks to know that I more than likely would have gotten into a better law school if my skin was a different color.

I think the bigger problem, however, is that school boards and universities continue to perpetuate the idea that it is appropriate to govern their admissions and other policies based on skin color. If we really are a society that wants to see each for our abilities and not our race, schools and universities need to set the example.

Kentucky

The University of Kentucky's Center for Business and Economic Research recently issued a study on the effectiveness of KY's tax incentive programs. Today's Cincinnati Post offers an analysis of the study:

[T]he study suggests [that] it cost about $60,000 in tax breaks to create a single job, while training programs created one job for every $2,948 spent.

Kentucky economic development officials downplayed this portion of the report, saying it is a minor part of the larger story.

Still, the UK study calls into question the value of the tax breaks offered to businesses in exchange for locating or staying in the commonwealth. . . .

Our own perspective here at The Post is that state and local governments should do all they can to temper the tax giveaway wars. It's better, we believe, to focus on the essentials - efficient government services, a well-educated workforce, strong transportation and utility networks, for example - than to try to entice businesses with artificially low, business-specific tax breaks. Instead of picking winners and losers and giving favored treatment to new companies or old ones that threaten to move, work on developing a tax code that is fair, predictable and easy to administer.

Sound familiar?

commercials, cars, women

Has anyone else noticed over the past couple of years how motorcycle and car manufactures are all using simlar advertising themes in their television commercials: male approaches vehicle parked on the street, starts gazing at vehicle and thinks about how lucky the guy who owns vehicle is, then, to his surprise, an attractive female gets in and drives away with vehicle.

I think Harley started the trend, and Mercury and Suzuki (?) are currently using it.

Florida

It looks as though professional sports teams in Florida are going to get together to pressure politicians into giving them tax-breaks. From the Orlando Sentinel:

Gov. Charlie Crist signaled support Wednesday for a plan that could steer $540 million more in state taxpayer money to Florida's professional sports teams, including the Orlando Magic.

"I would look favorably upon it," Crist said in response to a question at The Associated Press' annual planning conference in Tallahassee.

"I think it's important for us to not lose these franchises. . . . It provides a lot of economic opportunities for our state," Crist added, though he said he had not yet reviewed the specific concept.

Magic officials are shopping a plan, first conceived by the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team, that would grant each of Florida's nine professional sports teams an extra $60 million tax break to use toward arena and stadium improvements. The Florida Marlins baseball team is lobbying state lawmakers for a similar break to spend on a new stadium in Miami.

The state already offers one $60 million tax break -- $2 million a year spread over 30 years -- for teams to use in building or renovating facilities.