Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow of Misnomers

P-D:

Missouri Supreme Court sides with increased bail for gun offense in St. Louis

The Missouri Supreme Court is backing St. Louis and a judge who is setting higher bail in illegal gun cases in an effort to make the streets safer.

The supreme court entered an order on Tuesday denying a petition that basically argued that a $75,000 cash-only bail is excessive for keeping felon Deandre Usery, 29, for possessing a loaded handgun in a Washington Avenue nightclub in March.

(snip)

Usery’s attorney, John Rogers, fought the higher bail, saying Usery had appeared in court on time under the lower bail. Assistant circuit attorney Sarah Mease, arguing for the higher bail, said that Usery had not appeared in court on past cases and that he had a criminal history that included drug possession, stealing, and weapons charges.

Beginning in the spring, St. Louis judges have made a point of setting higher bails on gun cases. Before, defendants would be able to post 10 percent of a $30,000 or $50,000. Now, bail is usually set at cash-only, requiring the full amount. Judges say it’s a tool they can use to try and combat increasing gun violence.

Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce said she was pleased about the decision.

“This is a very good outcome for the people of this community,” she said in a statement.  “I believe high bonds for people who choose to possess illegal guns and use them for criminal activity help keep the people of this city safer.”

“Snip” includes names of sitting judges, ergo no link.

I agree with the decision, and I do think it will make the city measurably safer, but I’ve always wondered what is the point of setting bail at a given dollar amount if most people can chop off one zero.  However, Joyce’s comment bugs me a little bit, because it’s a misnomer.  These kinds of cases are almost always matters of previously convicted felons caught in possession of any firearm.  In those matters, Miss Joyce, it’s not that the gun is illegal, it’s that the person is illegal.

Then again, I’m not surprised at Joyce’s (likely racial) genuflection — In the fall of 2008, she teamed up with Bob McCulloch and Glenn Boyer and insinuated that they were going to throw Obama critics in jail.

Fun With Headlines (and a Possible Value Bet)

FNC:  Congressional Black Caucus Declares ‘War’ on Tea Party

Anyone got the Vegas over/under line on how many days this war will last before the CBC surrenders or is eviscerated?

Schlafly:  What Goes On at a NOW Convention?

Lesbian sex.  Lots of it.

WTVJ-NBC-6 Miami:  Nude Woman Found Crawling Up Busy [Key West] Street: Cops

They say that man bites dog is news while dog bites man isn’t news.  Naked woman crawling on a street in Key West is news, naked man doing it isn’t news.

Scholastic:  Kid Reporters Interview the President

The photo edited out the teleprompters.  His, not theirs.

NYP:  US could toss out O’s uncle

But it probably won’t.

He Wants You to Pray For Him

 

He made the request on Twitter.

Why?  Is he suffering from some form of terminal cancer?  Has his wife filed for divorce?  Is he facing a long prison stint?

The answers to those questions are, respectively:  No, no, and not yet.

Answer:

He’s holding out and refusing to attend training camp or play in games until he gets a new and more lucrative contract.

Sure, I’ll pray for him — That he sustains a career-ending injury.

Mo’ in Montgomery: Be Very Worried

Volokh Conspiracy:

$60,000 Damages for Blogging the Truth About Someone, Intending to Get the Person Fired

I blogged about the Johnny Northside case (Moore v. Hoff) when the verdict came down, but there’s now a moderately detailed trial court opinion refusing to set the verdict aside. Here’s an excerpt from a Minneapolis Star-Tribune article about this latest development:

The jury ruled last March that [John] Hoff’s scathing blog post amounted to actively interfering with [Jerry] Moore’s job at the U, even though Hoff’s statements were true when he linked Moore to high-profile mortgage fraud.

The jury awarded Moore $35,000 for lost wages and $25,000 for emotional distress….

Moore, former executive director of the Jordan Area Community Council, was hired in early 2009 at the U’s Urban Research and Outreach/Engagement Center to study mortgage foreclosures.

When Hoff found out about the hire, he wrote a post accusing Moore of being involved in a “high-profile fraudulent mortgage” that was one of several resulting in a 16-year prison sentence for former real estate agent Larry Maxwell. Moore was not charged in that case.

Hoff took partial credit for Moore’s firing in a later blog post, to which Moore responded with his suit.

As I wrote in March, people are constitutionally entitled to speak the truth about others, even with the goal of trying to get them fired. (The tort actually requires either knowledge that such a result is practically certain or a purpose of producing such a result, but I take it that here the allegation is that Hoff wanted Moore to get fired.) The First Amendment constrains the interference with business relations tort, just as it constrains the infliction of emotional distress and other torts.

I doubt this judgment will stand up as higher courts review it.  But imagine if it did.  You could sue someone and win for saying something truthful or quasi-truthful about you that causes you to lose your job.

Who would be sweating that precedent?

I’ll give you a hint:  Sounds like “Southern Poverty Law Center.”

Don’t Send In That Application Just Yet

C|Net:

AT&T promises 5,000 new jobs after T-Mobile merger

AT&T is using the prospect of more jobs to help make a stronger case for its merger with T-Mobile USA.

If the deal is approved, AT&T today said that it will be able to “bring back” 5,000 call center jobs to the United States that are currently outsourced to other countries. In addition, the company said that it doesn’t anticipate any job losses for U.S.-based call center workers after the merger closes.

For now, this is on hold because the DOJ is telling AT&T that two Ts are quite enough.  But even if it does happen and these jobs do return, I bet that people who look like your ever-lovin’ blogmeister and the majority readership of this medium won’t get those jobs.  I bet they’ll technically bring the jobs back, but they’ll import the Asians doing those jobs right now using H-xB legal immigrant visas.

Almost a Mahogany Mob in St. Louis

A couple of weekend nights ago, near the White Castle at Broadway and Chouteau.  That used to be my drunk at 3 AM White Castle, but it hasn’t been in a long time.  After seeing this, it won’t be ever again.  There is also a Rally’s and a Taco Bell at that corner, and most of the “action” seems to be around the Rally’s.  (Go figure)

H/T St. Louis Cop Talk.

This YouTube channel de-lists its videos, so the only way you can see this video is if you have its direct URL.  I guess whoever uploads those videos does that to stay under the radar of the Googitburo’s race censors.