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Ethics Complaint Filed Against Ammon Bundy's Lawyers

Clatsop County District Attorney Josh Marquis filed a state bar complaint against Bundy's two lawyers in regard to their frequent pre-trial press conferences:

In Marquis' complaint, which was emailed to the Oregon State Bar on Feb. 17 and first reported by The Register-Guard in Eugene Thursday, the Clatsop County district attorney described the Oregon U.S. Attorney's Office's handling of the federal conspiracy case pending against Bundy and 24 others as "measured.''

"Yet Mr. Arnold has seen fit to constantly hold news conferences to convey his clients opinions, defenses, attacks on the federal government in a manner that cannot be for any other purpose than reaching and influence possible jurors who, if this matter goes to trial, would be the triers of fact,'' Marquis wrote.

He apparently believes that their actions serve to unfairly taint the jury pool. It's unfortunate that nobody had the foresight a few decades ago to taint the Bundy gene pool; the circus might have been avoided here. As it is, every time you turn around it seems another one pops out of the clown car.

The Bundy Boys Should've Waited

That's because one of their big "demands" was that the feds "return lands to their rightful owners". But as it happens, there's been a bill floating around in Congress for the past several months that would allow states to buy up to 2 million acres of national forest lands - or swap state lands for national forest lands of equal value. Introduced by Alaska Rep. Don Young, there was a House committee hearing on it yesterday.

Noting that the Forest Service last year burned through more than half its budget fighting forest fires, Young maintains that there's a reason for that:

“The worst managed lands in the United States by our federal government is the Forest Service lands,” Young said. “It’s because they become park rangers instead of silviculturists. They don’t understand the harvesting. They don’t understand the impact on communities.”

Oregon Congressman Greg Walden is supportive; calling the bill an excellent idea that can spur more state and local active management. Preservationists, unsurprisingly, oppose it.

Hope'n'Change

Health professionals are now in full crisis mode trying to figure out how to keep mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus from crossing our southern borders and infecting the people that American mosquitoes won't infect.

While not yet proven, the Zika virus is thought to raise the possibility that fetuses exposed while in utero (latin for "never visited Planned Parenthood") may be born with microcephaly and, tragically, have a heightened lifelong risk of becoming a Democrat.

http://hopenchangecartoons.blogspot.com/

 

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A Rare Moment Of Sanity In Higher Vegetation

"I don't think one mistake should be the end of a career."

Well, Doctor Melissa Click, others do - and it wasn't just "one mistake" - you assaulted a student journalist and subsequently attacked a cop. That's kind of like "two mistakes".

You're fired.

Microsoft, Google, EFF Side With Apple

The government can't just order a company to produce new software so that the spooks can snoop.

Also planning to file are the American Civil Liberties Union, whose staff attorney Alex Abdo said in a statement that "the government's request also risks setting a dangerous precedent. If the FBI can force Apple to hack into its customers' devices, then so too can every repressive regime in the rest of the world."

It's rare that the ACLU is actually on the right side of things, but as the saying goes, even a broken clock....

In general, the American public is evenly split on the issue, with the paranoics insisting that we have to use every available tool to fight terrorism while the others believe that we already have a surfeit of surveillance in this country. If we want to get serious about fighting terrorism, we don't need to order companies to write new software; we need to get Barry to stop letting terrorists in. Enforce our existing laws on immigration. What a concept.

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Next Up: Government-Mandated Scheduling

Oh, you didn't really think they'd stop with the "Fight For $15", now, did you? That would be silly.

No, $15 an hour mandated by government, paid time off mandated by government, and health insurance mandated by government are totally insufficient. Next up: government-mandated scheduling.

You’ve heard the battle cries over paying workers a “living wage.” Now, get ready for the next phase: “Livable schedules.”

On the heels of Seattle passing a controversial $15 minimum wage law, the City Council there is now drafting an ordinance that aims to shift power away from employers when it comes to how workers are scheduled and paid.

“I think there is a sense among some workers that they are being abused,” Seattle City Council member Lorena Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez is leading the effort to impose new rules on how employers schedule their workers. The ordinance is still being written, but it is expected to include:

• A guarantee that workers get at least 11 hours of down time between shifts
• A requirement that workers get schedules a week in advance, or else be paid time-and-a-half if shifts are added inside that timeframe
• A requirement that employers pay employees for a few hours of work not performed if shifts are taken away

Businesses simply can't be run without government interference help. If I had a business there, I wouldn't any longer; I'd move it away from that city to someplace with a less intrusive city council. It might be one thing if these idiots actually made payroll, but they're politicians. That means they know more about operating a business than the ignorant business owners do.

Banning Energy From Coal, Valley Democratics Burnish Their "Green" Credentials

A Senate committee on Monday gave its blessing to the sweeping anti-coal proposal cooked up last year by environmental groups and investor-owned utilities. Hours later, we received an interesting email from Gov. Kate Brown's communications director. In it, Kristen Grainger asked us to retract a recent editorial in which we reflected on the muzzling by the governor's office of concerned utility commissioners at a crucial moment in the no-coal proposal's journey from backroom to prime time.

No such retraction will happen because, well, we were right. Normally, we'd deliver that message to Grainger herself and be done with it. We won't this time, though, because the retraction request says something about the governor's office that readers ought to know. Rather than exhibiting a commitment to openness, the governor has doubled down on the very behavior that prompted the editorial to which her office objects. Brown's office, having muzzled utility commissioners, now wants to ignore history in an attempt to muzzle critics.

That's how the editorial board over at The Oregonian sees it - and they're right; much like our current pResident, who promised the most open and transparent administration in the history of the country and promptly erected more walls, Brown declared her commitment to open and honest government while erecting even more barriers to public discussion. Transparency is to Democratics what sunlight was to Count Dracula.

And they share another characteristic attributed to the Count: a desire to drain the blood from the populace.

Senate Republicans took the rare step of not taking any steps: they refused to show up for a vote on the bill, which denied the Democratics the quorum necessary to conduct business, and so now the little blood-suckers trying to come up with a way to execute an end-run around those "obstructionist" Republicans so that they can ram their bill through and get it onto the desk of our accidental governor.

They know full well that, in the words of our current pResident, "Under my plan, energy costs will necessarily skyrocket."

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Willamette Valley Democratics Go Rabid For Rail

As disgraced former Oregon gov. Retread and former Portland mayor Sam Adams both famously opined when threatening residents of Clark County, Washington: "No light rail, no bridge. No fooling." And sure enough, after burning through over $200 million on "studies" and "planning" and "designs", Washington pulled the plug on Portland's cherished "Columbia River Crossing" bridge plan to ram light rail into Clark County.

But Portland Democratics haven't given up; they're working on a bill that would allow Tri-Met a funding approach that would allow the agency to ram light rail through into areas outside its service area.

Senate Bill 1510 gives TriMet new authority to borrow money for construction outside its service area. Critics of the Columbia River Crossing see the bill as a new method to fund the controversial project.

This is a great approach: Tri-Met's jurisdiction extends only to the Portland metropolitan area, which incorporates parts of Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington counties in Oregon - but they've spent 20 years trying to find ways to build light rail lines into Washington state (whether the residents there want it or not). The latest effort would allow the agency to borrow funds to accomplish that, which funds Oregon taxpayers would be on the hook to repay. How can it lose?

By hook or by crook - and mostly by crook, this being Oregon - they're determined to build more light rail, and they're going to put it into Clark County, no matter what.

This is sort of a repeat performance of their antics in Clackamas County, where Tri-Met continues to harbor plans to build light rail into Oregon City despite the fact that AmTrak offers service to commuters between that city and Portland already; AmTrak also runs from Portland into Vancouver, Washington.

About That Whole First Amendment Thing, Citzen...

A federal judge in Philadelphia has ruled that plaintiffs had no First Amendment right to take cellphone video or pictures of police.

U.S. District Judge Mark Kearney ruled (PDF) on Feb. 19 in consolidated cases involving Richard Fields and Amanda Geraci, the Legal Intelligencer (sub. req.) reports. Fields, a Temple University student, took a cellphone photo of about 20 police officers standing outside a house party because he thought it would be an interesting picture. Geraci, a trained legal observer, tried to move closer to see and possibly record an arrest during a protest of hydraulic fracturing.

An officer handcuffed Fields, searched his cellphone before returning it, and cited him for obstructing the highway and public passages, Fields says. Geraci says an officer physically restrained her to prevent her from recording the arrest. Both sued for alleged First and Fourth Amendment violations.

But according to the judge, you can't just go around taking pictures of stuff; the First Amendment covers only "expressive conduct", and since neither Fields nor Geraci told police why they wished to capture the images, the First Amendment doesn't apply. Presumably, then, the photographer from The Oregonian informed Portland police prior to capturing that timeless image of "Liz" Nichols:

Kearney allowed Fourth Amendment claims by Fields and Geraci. “The citizens are not without remedy because once the police officer takes your phone, alters your technology, arrests you or applies excessive force, we proceed to trial on the Fourth Amendment claims,” Kearney said.

It's interesting that according to the judge, "altering your technology" may fall under the Fourth Amendment provisions.

Florida Language

Having solved all other problems, Florida's state Senate passed a bill declaring that computer coding counts as a foreign language and can be used to fulfill high school foreign language requirements.

Although not without opposition, the bill nonetheless was passed by a wide margin and will require all colleges and universities in the state to accept coding just as they would Spanish or Canadian languages.

“This debate is not about coding,” Clemens said. “It’s about whether or not we value culture and whether or not we value foreign language as a means to teach that.”

Miami-Dade public schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho is among those who have opposed making computer coding a substitute or alternative to foreign languages, especially because of the global economy and Florida’s increasingly bilingual communities.

“With this bill, we’re putting a stamp on it: Florida is a technology leader in this country,” said Ring, a Democrat from Margate and a former Yahoo executive. “We are truly, in this state, pioneering something that I believe will be a very significant trend.”

Ring said, if it becomes law, the computer-coding measure — which would take effect in the 2018-19 school year — would be the first of its kind in the country. He said “dozens of other states are looking at this.”

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Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article62291447.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article62291447.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link#storylink=cpy

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