Month: August 2006

Akin rival arrested on traffic warrants:

On Monday night, Parker had just finished staking campaign signs on private property near Highway 40 in St. Charles County when he was pulled over by a state trooper who questioned what Parker was doing near the road.

When the officer later did a check on the candidate’s drivers license, he discovered that Parker had two arrest warrants for unresolved traffic violations in St. Louis County. Parker was briefly taken into police custody and released after paying a pair of $100 bonds, according to court documents.

So this has all the trappings of a racial profiling sort of stop, and the Post-Dispatch‘s activism is muted. Because the target is a Republican, or because the target himself is avoiding the obvious?

Parker, already considered a long shot to unseat Akin, issued an apologetic statement after being asked about the arrest on Friday.

“I very much regret that this incident may detract, in these last few days, from the issues I have been stressing in this campaign,” Parker said in a statement.

And:

“I understand, that as an elected official, no one person is above the law,” Parker said.

Sounds like the reasoned response of someone we’d want to elect. I haven’t seen the full statement (it’s not on his Web site), but I hope it’s as apologetic and appropriate as the paper makes it sound. Not accusatory, not avoiding responsibility, just explanatory and humble.

UPDATE: Representative Parker has sent me his complete statement, posted here.

Parents of woman killed in sky-diver plane crash file suit:

The parents of a would-be skydiver who died along with five others in a plane crash Saturday [July 29] filed a lawsuit today [August 2] claiming negligence caused the aircraft’s engine to fail.

Vivian and Susan Delacroix of Kent, England, brought suit against the engine manufacturer, skydiving club and others claiming they are responsible for the death of their daughter, Victoria Delacroix, 22.

“Our initial investigation points to a right engine failure just after takeoff,” said Gary C. Robb, a Kansas City attorney representing the family.

Congratulations to the proud attorney who pursued the pursuit of justice to England and probably got the lawsuit file before the body was buried. Not only is he quick, but he’s aggressive with the defendants:

The maker of the PT6A turbo prop engine in the DeHavilland DHC-6 airplane that crashed after taking off from the Sullivan Regional Airport. The manufacturer was Pratt & Whitney, which is owned by United Technologies.

Annick Laberge, a spokesman for Pratt & Whitney Canada division, declined comment today.

“It is our corporate policy not to discuss incidents under investigation,” she said.

The suit also names the Quantum Leap Skydiving Center, which operated the skydiving club; the airport, which serviced and maintained the plane; Adventure Aviation, which owned the plane; and pilot Scott Cowan, who also perished in the crash.

Suing the estate of another victim of the crash. That, my friends, is pluck with a capital F.

Although we at MfBJN wonder how they couldn’t work Thomas Miskel, Bourbeuse River Hauling, and Six Flags into the suit somehow. Perhaps it’s only a matter of time.

(I post this with the plantiffs’ attorney’s name in here understanding that this attorney will find this post–hi there!– next time he or a member of his staff uses Google to find his ‘fan base,’ but the last I heard, calling someone plucky is not actually libelous.)

Woman sues over son’s drowning death during church outing:

The mother of one of the five children who drowned last month during a church outing to an eastern Missouri state park has sued the church and Joyce Meyer Ministries, claiming negligence and inadequate supervision.

The wrongful death lawsuit, filed Tuesday in St. Louis Circuit Court, also said the ministries and its St. Louis Dream Center church did not have parents’ permission to take 50 children to Castlewood State Park in St. Louis County on July 9.

Litigation compounds a tragedy by ensuring that other depressed youth won’t get the opportunity to go to church picnics in the future.

The old man and the six-toed cats: Hemingway home in dispute:

The caretakers of Ernest Hemingway’s Key West home want a federal judge to intervene in their dispute with the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the six-toed cats that roam the property.

More than 50 descendants of a multi-toed cat the novelist received as a gift in 1935 wander the grounds of the home, where Hemingway lived for more than 10 years and wrote “A Farewell to Arms” and “To Have and Have Not.”

The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum disputes the USDA’s claim that it is an “exhibitor” of cats and needs to have a USDA Animal Welfare License, according to a complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Miami.

“What they’re comparing the Hemingway house to is a circus or a zoo because there are cats on the premises,” Cara Higgins, the home’s attorney, said Friday. “This is not a traveling circus. These cats have been on the premises forever.”

He would have broken a walking stick over his head is what he would have done. Or shot himself, perhaps; our world does not accommodate men of Papa’s stature and temperment any more. Instead, it allows attorneys and government functionaries to live the lives to which they’ve become accustomed, at our expense and at the expense of our mythology.

If my current gig goes south and I ever get tired of not having a real winter in St. Louis and confuse North Carolina for a real northern state, I could get a job proofreading street signs:

Pity the English teacher out for a drive, passing Raleigh street signs.

Russling Leaf Lane? That’s Rustling.

Sherrif Place? That’s Sheriff.

Chinquoteague Court? Misty lived in Chincoteague!

You can’t even scribble corrections in red spray-paint. The city would just scrub them off.

About a dozen Raleigh street signs display words that are flat-out misspelled.

Who am I kidding? There’s obviously no official sign proofreader position in Raleigh.

(Link seen on Triticale.)