THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† The Right To Bear Arms Belongs To Us All: Part II: U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle has ruled to let stand a FL law that took effect July 1st allowing employees who have concealed weapons licenses to keep their guns locked in their cars at work, reports The Associated Press. But the federal judge also permitted businesses to ban firearms on their property. The Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Retail Federation, which had challenged the state law, are leaning against appealing the ruling in favor of lobbying the legislature to amend the law.
Meanwhile, some 1,300 miles up I-95, in the second such incident within the space of a week, NYC deli workers were forced to defend their lives against a knife-wielding thug. They were armed only with sticks. One of them had to get 22 stitches in his forearm; the other was badly cut on the forehead.
† Is Kozinski The Victim Of A Vendetta?: The National Law Journal reports that 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Alex Kozinski and his nemesis, Cyrus Sanai, came close enough to each other at a circuit conference cocktail party on the grounds of a resort in Sun Valley, ID, to see the whites of each other’s eyes. Sanai, who had press credentials from the alternative newspaper LA Weekly to cover the conference, said “he was waiting to talk with Judge Richard Clifton, the conference chair, when Kozinski passed within a few feet. That was enough to trigger U.S. marshals to ask Sanai to leave.” Sanai did eventually talk to Clifton, but was later escorted from the party by a member of the circuit staff.
† Turkish Court Rules In Favor Of Secularism, Modernity And Feminism (second item): Turkey's highest court came within one vote of outlawing the nation's Islamic-rooted ruling party, but cut state funding to the party by half for one year, reports The Washington Post:
Court chairman Hasim Kilic said the ruling party should interpret the outcome as a “serious warning” and “take the necessary lessons from this.” …
Six of the court's 11 judges voted to outlaw the party, falling one vote short of the seven needed in this case. Four other judges agreed with the prosecutor's contention that the party had undermined Turkey's constitutionally mandated secularism but decided that cutting its funding was an adequate sanction. Kilic favored neither option. …
[T]he underlying political tension that led to the standoff remains. The country's ruling party, whose leaders are observant Muslims, and the secular establishment, which includes opposition parties, the military and the judiciary, are beset by deep mutual bitterness and suspicion. …
Ergun Ozbudun, a professor of political science and constitutional law at Bilkent University in Ankara, said the head scarf, once merely a symbol of piety, has become the leading wedge issue and political symbol of the broader debate about the role of Islam in Turkey.
Parliament approved a proposal to lift the ban this spring, but the country's top court ruled it unconstitutional. Suddenly, a prohibition that had been selectively enforced for years became dogmatic, and the issue became a flash point.
† Updates To Previous Posts (third item, “There's No Such Thing As Free Healthcare”): After giving former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) a forum to burnish his veep credentials by trumpeting his universal healthcare coverage plan (“Health-care reform is working in Massachusetts.”), The Wall Street Journal rebuts the op-ed with its own editorial:
Shortly after Mr. Romney's self-tribute, Governor Deval Patrick wheeled out a new $129 million tax plan to make up for this year's health spending shortfalls. Yet partisans are cheering the cost overruns as a sign of success. …
[T]he extra tab of $129 million … relies on uncertain federal funds from Medicaid. For now, Mr. Patrick wants one-time (yeah, right) charges of $33 million on insurers and $28 million on providers, plus some shuffling of state funds. The balance comes from an estimated $33 million boost in the state's "pay or play" tax: If businesses don't offer “fair and reasonable” insurance to their employees, they get hit.
This is a textbook example of how business taxes evolve into “pay or pay,” the first recourse of state-funded health systems.
One wonders why The Journal didn’t take a page from The New York Times playbook and simply ask Romney to make significant revisions to his op-ed before it could be considered for publication.
† Spend It If You Got It (By Mistake): Sabrina Walker, 37, who went on a spending spree with a $2.59 million check sent to her by mistake from the state Department of Human Services that was meant for the Hennepin County Medical Center, pleaded guilty to failure to turn over state funds, reports The Associated Press. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for Sept. 10th.
† Updates To Previous Posts (second item, “Sub-Par Solution For Sub-Prime Loans: Part II”): “[T]he biggest house that ABC's ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ ever made over - a sprawling, four-bedroom starter castle, a three-car garage mahal with a turret and all - has gone into foreclosure,” reports The Washington Post:
In that particular episode … it took 1,800 volunteers a week to demolish the house with the overflowing septic tank that belonged to Milton and Patricia Harper of Lake City, Ga., and then entirely rebuild a new, larger house, while the Harpers and their three children went away to Disneyland. When they returned, they had the biggest house on Ahyoka Drive, with all the appliances and furnishings, plus enough money to pay taxes on it for decades, plus a fund to send their children to college.
The house will be auctioned off, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, next Tuesday on the steps of the Clayton County Courthouse.
The Harpers had used their home as collateral on a $450,000 loan from JPMorgan Chase and fell in arrears, the newspaper reported. He ran a home security business; she mommed at home.
Lake City mayor Willie Oswalt, who was amongst the volunteers told the media, “It just makes you mad. You do that much work, and they just squander it.”
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