Queer Bridezillas of Orange County

Rachel Lucas has correctly identified the biggest ripple effect of the court ruling in California striking down the ban on gay marriage. 

All I know is, it’s only a matter of time before there’s a new reality show called Queer Bridezillas of Orange County.

Indeed.

Busalacchi Abused Authority

Nothing like a little political retaliation to get your hand slapped. 

State Department of Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi abused his discretion when he transferred his chief counsel out of a job, a state hearing examiner has determined.

The proposed decision - the first formal ruling since Jim Thiel was moved out of the job 3 years ago - provides little remedy. It says Thiel, 64, can have his old job back when it next comes open, which could take years. He also may be able to recover his attorney’s fees.

Busalacchi transferred Thiel out of the chief counsel job and made him a staff attorney one business day after Thiel angered Busalacchi by releasing records to the Journal Sentinel before Gov. Jim Doyle’s office could be alerted to the disclosure. Thiel had held the job for 31 years.

“without regard to racial background”

I support the goal here.

Doyle’s order also directed state agencies to use information technology systems to track and analyze data for racial disparities. It also means the state Office of Justice Assistance and the Transportation and Corrections departments must track traffic citations, arrests, charges, sentencing and parole revocations by race and jurisdiction.

The disparity problem runs deep, the governor said, and solutions should be sought without worrying about political correctness or sparing the feelings of any state officials. He called for cooperation at all levels of the justice system, saying people at each level make decisions that determine who gets incarcerated.

“We want to make sure in this state, each of those decisions is made without regard to racial background,” he said.

I want to make sure the law is applied regardless of a person’s race too.  The problem I have is that the racial disparity in incarcerations is being used as evidence of racial bias in the system.  That may or may not be true.  It’s possible that there are some racists in the justice system that results in more minorities being jailed.  It’s also possible that some races in Wisconsin commit more crimes than other races and the equal application of the law will result in a racial disparity in incarcerations.  The goal should be exactly what Doyle said - that the system operates “without regard to racial backgrounds.” The goal should not be to make the prison population mirror the racial proportions of the general population. 

Kennedy Questioned About Wisconsin’s Weak Election Laws

Oh, man, I would have loved to have been there.

A routine congressional hearing about how state elections chiefs can handle weather emergencies or terrorist attacks got a little more interesting Wednesday during an exchange between Kevin Kennedy, who serves as director of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

As the state’s top elections official, Kennedy was testifying in front of the House Administration Subcommittee on Elections about the state’s contingency plans. But McCarthy asked to introduce into the congressional record a copy of a controversial police report on the 2004 election.

The 67-page report, released this year, generated controversy because it was seen as a political report by the Milwaukee Police Department. The report, which identified problems in Milwaukee’s 2004 election, recommended that the state eliminate same-day voter registration and require voters to show photo identification before they could cast a ballot. Incoming Milwaukee Chief Edward Flynn, who did not see the report until it was released publicly, later said his agency should not be in the business of making policy recommendations.

Man Charged for Protecting Son from Bear

This is insane.

A man charged after he shot a grizzly in Kananaskis Country says he killed the bear only because his 13-year-old son was in danger.

Joe Lucas, a Canadian calf roping champion from near Carstairs, has been charged with five counts under the Parks Act and the Wildlife Act.

But Lucas said he had no choice but to shoot the grizzly as it was approaching his son Kyle.

“I had my boy there, and the bear was heading almost directly towards him,” Lucas said.

“He was 16 yards away, actually, when I shot him. It’s not fun being attacked by a grizzly bear, that’s for sure.”

Lucas said he has fully co-operated with the investigation. He even rode by horseback three hours to his truck to charge his cellphone and call authorities about the death.

“They’re wanting me to become accountable for killing that bear,” he said. “I wonder who would be accountable if my son was dead or I was dead?”

Seriously… if this guy wanted to poach a Grizzly Bear, he would have shot it, processed it, and headed home.  Nobody would have ever known.  Instead, he called authorities to notify them.  Sure, he may have misinterpreted the bear’s intentions and shot it without malicious provocation, but I would argue that a bear less than 50 feet away from me and my son is a concern.  Now this guy is facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines - Canadian dollars, no less, which are worth more than American dollars. 

Sorry, but no bear is worth the life of a human.  Period. 

Hat tip Firearms & Freedom.

TV Thief Charged

There was some snitching in Bay View.

A 44-year-old Bay View man was charged today with stealing a wide-screen television from the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Jeffry Polak, who was charged theft of government property, made his initial appearance in federal court today. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Polak is charged with stealing the 52-inch Samsung LCD set. He told residents he was a maintenance worker taking the television to be fixed when he carted it out on April 4.

Numerous relatives and co-workers called to report Polak after details of the theft were published in the Journal Sentinel and his photo from a surveillance camera was released, according to the criminal complaint. Polak reportedly told relatives he threw the television in a landfill, the complaint said.

Good for them. 

Hundreds Arrested In Illegal Immigration Raid

Expect kosher prices to rise. 

A raid by federal immigration officials at the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant may have resulted in as many as 700 arrests, immigration officials said Monday

Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement entered the Agriprocessors Inc. complex in northeast Iowa Monday morning to execute a criminal search warrant for evidence relating to aggravated identity theft, fraudulent use of Social Security numbers and other crimes, said Tim Counts, a Midwest ICE spokesman.

Agents are also executing a civil search warrant for people illegally in the United States, he said.

Immigration officials told aides to Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, that they expect 600 to 700 arrests. About 1,000 to 1,050 people work at the plant, according to Iowa Workforce Development, the state’s employment services agency.

Probation for Child Porn

Shameful.

Most child pornography cases result in jail or prison time, but a Madison man who everybody agreed has a good chance of rehabilitation escaped that Monday when he was put on probation for six years.

Brian Riha, who at the time was residing in Sun Prairie, was arrested late last year after a break-up with his girlfriend. As she was going through various CDs and DVDs to take her own with her when she left the home, she discovered child pornography on several discs and informed police of her discovery.

Riha was subsequently arrested and charged with three counts of possession of child pornography, counts which can carry a maximum sentence of up to 25 years in prison and have a presumptive minimum sentence of three years behind bars.

But neither a pre-sentence report prepared by the Department of Corrections nor a psychological report prepared by Dr. Patricia Coffey recommended that Riha be incarcerated.

JetBlue’s Planes Apparently Have Comfortable Potties

Assuming this guy’s story is true, I’d be peeved too. 

A New York City man is suing JetBlue Airways Corp. for more than $2 million because he says a pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than three hours on a flight from California.

Gokhan Mutlu, of Manhattan’s Inwood section, says in court papers the pilot told him to “go ‘hang out’ in the bathroom” about 90 minutes into the San Diego to New York flight because the flight attendant complained that the “jump seat” she was assigned was uncomfortable, the lawsuit said.

[...]

Initially, Mutlu was told a flight attendant had taken the last seat on the plane, but then he was advised she would sit in the employee “jump seat,” meaning he could have the last seat, the lawsuit said.

The pilot told him 1 1/2 hours into the five-hour flight that he would have to relinquish the seat to the flight attendant, court papers say. But the pilot said that Mutlu could not sit in the jump seat because only JetBlue employees were permitted to sit there, the lawsuit said.

When Mutlu expressed reluctance to go sit in the bathroom, the pilot, who was not named in the lawsuit, told him that “he was the pilot, that this was his plane, under his command that (Mutlu) should be grateful for being on board,” the lawsuit said.

Body Snatchers Muscle Found Guilty

Good.  The jury got it right.

A Milwaukee County jury has convicted Donald Cooper of suffocating a man to death with a plastic bag and burying his body under concrete and of torturing a different man with hot chicken grease.

Cooper, 42, whom witnesses called the muscle in a criminal organization known as the Body Snatchers, was convicted of 1st degree intentional homicide, kidnapping, aggravated battery and cocaine dealing.

He faces life in prison when he is sentenced by Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Wagner on July 14, a week after Michael Lock, the purported head of the Body Snatchers, is set to go on trial.

Political Hire Costs Taxpayers Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars

Here’s an example of the danger of hiring the unqualified but politically connected.

Politics improperly influenced the decision to hire a top state lawyer after former Gov. Tony Earl helped a friend’s nephew get the job, a hearing examiner has concluded.

The tainted hiring cost taxpayers $346,000 in recent legal settlements paid to two qualified internal candidates passed over for the job as the state’s top unemployment insurance lawyer, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press under the state open records law.

The Department of Workforce Development eventually hired Daniel LaRocque, a lawyer with no experience in unemployment insurance or state government but close ties to Democratic politics.

In the process, DWD officials broke numerous hiring policies and state laws, Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission hearing examiner Lauri Millot concluded in a proposed decision last year.

Not Random

Let’s hope they find the shooter soon.

Saturday night’s drive-by shooting in the Town of Addison that left a 16-year-old Slinger girl in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head was not a random act, Washington County Sheriff Dale Schmidt said today.

“Other residents don’t need to worry” that someone is driving around shooting at motorists, Schmidt said.

Nicole Sell was a passenger in a vehicle heading west on Highway K about 11 p.m. Saturday when someone in a passing westbound vehicle shot at her vehicle multiple times, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

Two other boys in the car, Scott Cecil, 17, of Hartford, and Justin Towne, also 17, of Slinger, were not hurt.

Schmidt said it was unknown yet whether the three teens knew the person who fired the shots.

Reckless Man Shoots Girl in Knee

This clerk deserves a swift kick in the groin… and some time in jail. 

According to a criminal complaint, the girl was at home with two friends, a boy and a girl, when the three decided to go to the store to do a “snatch and run.”

The two girls entered the store, and the boy held the door open but closed it when Hans told him to, the complaint says.

Once inside, the girls decided against the theft, according to the complaint. The shooting victim asked Hans to hold some items they brought to the counter while she and her friends went to get money to pay for them, the complaint says.

The cashier told them to leave and not come back, and he followed them outside with a gun, according to the complaint. When the girls and boy started running, the clerk fired one shot, the complaint says.

Hans was being held Friday at the Milwaukee County Jail, with bail set at $50,000.

WEAC Fights for Teacher Who Had Porn on His School Computer

WEAC is venue shopping.

It’s perhaps the most unusual twist yet in what has become a genuine legal saga over how much pornography Zellner might have viewed on his Cedarburg High School computer and whether he should have been fired.

The latest development is a request by Zellner’s lawyer for the Supreme Court to send Zellner’s termination case back to the state Court of Appeals, despite the fact that it was the appeals court that fast-tracked the case to the Supreme Court.

“I’m mystified; I’ve never seen such a thing in 30-some years of practicing,” said Steven Rynecki, a Milwaukee lawyer who represents the Cedarburg School District. “It seems presumptuous to tell the Supreme Court what they should take.”

[...]

The appeals court decision coincided with a Supreme Court election in which Justice Louis Butler Jr. - who was heavily supported by the state’s largest teachers union - was defeated by Circuit Court Judge Michael Gableman, an outcome observers say could tip the balance of power on the high court.

Jonen is employed by the union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council.

On April 11, 10 days after the election, Jonen asked the Supreme Court not to take the Zellner case.

And, of course, this is only getting more expensive for the taxpayers.

Zellner also has a federal civil rights lawsuit pending.

That suit, filed April 16 by another attorney, asks for $9 million from the Cedarburg School District, saying Zellner was retaliated against for speaking out as a union leader and was improperly fired.

WEAC loves to prance around and cluck their tongues when people complain about how hard it is to fire a public school teacher.  They say that it’s easy - all they ask is for due process.  But when a teacher is fired because he had porn on his school computer, they force the taxpayers to spend tens of thousands of dollars to litigate it.  Once again, their actions speak louder than words. 

One more side note, this is the excuse that this teacher gave in his federal case:

Zellner said in the federal suit that he did an image search of the word blonde on his school computer to see whether the School District had installed software to block pornography.

Um.  No.  If your do an image search for “blonde,” you may get some explicit images.  You do not, however, get 1,500 images in a single search.  That takes some more effort.  Also, I’d be interested in seeing if all of the images on his work computer were only blonds - and were only thumbnails.  Obviously, he is relying on the hope that the federal judge will be completely ignorant of computers and the internet. 

Husband Shoots Wife’s Lover… Wife Convicted

I love how the law works sometimes. 

A Texas woman who caused her lover’s shooting death by falsely crying rape was convicted Friday of involuntary manslaughter.

Tracy Denise Roberson, 37, cried a bit when the verdict was announced. The punishment phase was set for Monday, and she faces two to 20 years in prison.

In late 2006, Darrell Roberson came home from a late-night card game to find his scantily clad wife with another man in a pickup truck in the driveway. Tracy Roberson was with her lover but cried rape, and her husband fired four shots into the truck as Devin LaSalle drove off, killing him.

Darrell Roberson initially was arrested, but a murder charge was later dropped and a grand jury indicted Tracy Roberson instead.