September 12, 2008 :: The working world amuses me

As 3L's, looking for a job, it's disheartening to see such debauchery happening, practically at my doorstep... at least, being unemployed now, I wasn't contributing too many tax dollars to support this federal agency:

From Parties, Sex & Drugs Made Fed’l Office Much Like a Frat House, Probe Finds

Parties, Sex & Drugs Made Fed'l Office Much Like a Frat House, Probe Finds | ABA Journal - Law News Now

A federal government office charged with overseeing the collection of some $4 billion in royalty payments by oil companies to the U.S. government allegedly operated more like an out-of-control fraternity than a regulatory agency.

Sex, booze, drugs and parties among federal employees and representatives of the oil companies they were overseeing contributed to a ''culture of substance abuse and promiscuity'' at the Denver office of the U.S. Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, a $5.3 million investigation found. Meanwhile, there is concern that some 13 current and former employees in Denver and Washington, D.C., may also have been improperly influenced by gifts including sports tickets, golf outings and ski trips, according to the Associated Press and Washington Post.

BUT, compare with the verizon worker who used 45,000 (that's forty-five thousand) minutes of time on the phone AT WORK to make sex calls. I figured that works out to three hours per five day work week, for an entire year without a vacation. All charged to customers accounts, as well. One comment I read was, "how does one spend the equivalent of 3/8 of one's day, or 15 weeks out of 40, making sex calls without someone noticing?" The answer, I suppose, is, "beats me."


From Verizon Worker Charged in 5,000 Illicit Sex Calls

A former Verizon technician racked up $220,000 in calls to sex chat numbers by tapping into the land lines of nearly 950 customers, authorities said Tuesday.

Joseph R. Vaccarelli, 45, of Nutley used customer accounts to make about 5,000 calls to sexually explicit 900 numbers lasting a combined 45,000 minutes, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said in a news release.

The calls were placed over the last 10 months from residential and commercial accounts in about 30 Bergen County municipalities, authorities and Verizon officials said.

Vaccarelli worked for 10 years as a Verizon facilities technician, installing telephone service and repairing damaged or faulty equipment, said Rich Young, a Verizon spokesman.

Vaccarelli resigned last month after Verizon officials told him he was the target of an internal investigation that began after several customers complained about unauthorized charges, Young said.

Holly and mark at beach

July 22, 2008 :: I'm going back east soon!

Back east... Is that home or is this home?  Home is where one hangs their, er, hat, I suppose, and since my hat collection numbers five now, well, I suppose this sentance couldn't get any longer if I tried, and I'm really, really trying, as you can see, right?

June 17, 2008 :: Comments on moving to Denver

My comments to The House Hunt on metroblogging denver.

My wife and I did the same as you are doing and rented a house entirely through craigslist from D.C. Our story has a happy ending, but it could have gone the other way.

It’s really important to know where you think you’re going to work, as the Denver metropolitan area has the traffic patterns of a city with a much higher population density than it actually has. Mostly on the interstates (I-25, I-225, & I-70) which the inhabitants use as main traffic arterials, and, at the same time, cannot handle merge situations to save their lives. So, every day, between 8am and 10am, then again from 4pm until 6:30pm, many large parts of the interstate system within Denver and Aurora (the other large city stuck the Denver’s East) are parking lots. So, the closer to work you live, the better, especially now with high price of gas.

I needed to live near Denver University, and coming from D.C. where I spent 15-30 minutes commuting 1.5 miles to school, I wanted something closer and easier, so we narrowed our search for rental homes to within a mile from campus. I have a dog, so that narrowed our search as well. We emailed people to give us the address of the house if it wasn’t listed in the ad, and those that would not divulge their address were also filtered. Memorizing the address of the school, Google maps became our best friend. The satillite photos of the house also helped us to ask questions via email about the yard (does it have a fence, a garage, etc).

Some words of wisdom: inside Denver there are good and bad neighborhoods, of course.

- Ask about planned construction projects. Despite the housing situation, many areas like mine in the mile or two around D.U. from Colorado Blvd to Downing St (on the east and west borders) and from Evans St to Alameda (south to north borders) thave houses built in the 1920’s to 1940’s and are being sold for their lots and rebuilt. At least one or two houses per block are in this category, so be sure ask if there are any construction projects planned for next door or accross the street. These houses take from 10-18 months to complete. They are noisy: workers can begin construction at 7am (and they do!) and finish after 6-7pm. If you have no driveway and park on the street, which is common, much of your parking will be monopolized by the workers. Along with construction trailers, construction debris, etc.

- Everyone here waters their lawn - ask about the owner’s desires for a lawn and sprinklers. Our lawn care is included in the rent, we don’t mow the lawn or rake leaves, but we do have to pay the water bill. Last summer, that ran about $80-130 per month, mostly because of watering the lawn every third day with the in-ground, automatic sprinklers. I’m not a fan of green lawns in the desert or arid areas, so I find this wasteful, but at least I don’t mow the lawn on saturdays. Some people even water every day…

- Ask about parking. See above. Also, some places in denver require parking permits, like near DU due to students. Not expensive, but a pain to deal with.

- Houses here don’t often have central air-conditioning, but, if anything, swamp coolers which perform the same task. Mine doesn’t have either, but the owners left us two window units. Since the nights get cool (lately in the low 50’s) this isn’t a problem if you leave windows open at night, then the only warmer time in the house is late afternoon to early evening when the heat has built to its max, before going down again for cooler night temperatures. Good to know, good to ask about. You’ll want easy to open/close windows, not the older kind which "fall closed" or are painted shut - you’ll be using them in the older houses.

- Driver and Vehicle licsensing. If you get Colorado plates and license, these are not through the same agency. Vehicles are registered through the city, and drivers licenses through the state. All can be found through their website. Vehicles older than 8 years or so are cheap the register, but newer ones are not: Denver’s sales tax is 8% and new cars registered in Denver make you wonder why the roads aren’t better than they are :)

- See how close to the interstate it is. As they have so much traffic on them all the time, they have a lot of road noise. Depsite the sound walls, they still are audible background hums at our house a half mile away. We can hear the occassional motorcycle or tractor-trailer gunning their engine before a long shift. Mildly irritating when on a "quiet" 6am walk.

- Lastly, if you can, have anyonen run by a place a take pictures for you and give a general impression of the neighborhood. That’s the best way to check it out from afar. My wife’s father had a friend who drove by ours and didn’t see any obvious "gotcha’s."

Then, after a dozen emails back and forth, I sent the $2000 security deposit check 3/4 of the way accross the country to someone I didn’t really know, hoping they actually owned the property I had an unsigned lease for. Anxious sigh. The plan was to sign it upon arrival and final inspection of the property. I also booked a month at an extended stay hotel ($80 per night, extendable to $1400 for a month) so in the worst case that the house was not theirs, occupied by others, or not even there, we were not homeless and didn’t have to search for such a hotel. We only stayed the night we arrived in denver, and the house worked out the next day. That was last August.

The house next door to us is almost finished 9 months later after it’s construction began, and our sprinkler tech just activated our sprinklers yesterday to rejuvenate the dry, brown lawn in which the house we rent sits. Our dog has a nice yard to play in, and our next door neighbor is very nice and friendly: she a pleasure to talk with It’s 7:40am, and I hear the pleasent chirp of birds outside the window, as my neighborhood is pleasently quiet and for the most part safe.

Our story worked out, but I can see a dozen places where it might not have.

June 10, 2008 :: bored at court

May 31, 2008 :: Gay marriage article with major con law issues

I'm a happily married man, so what do I care about gay marriage? I care about rights. One of my older professors used a story to describe the definition of "new-comer" to a rural commuter county: everyone who moved out here after me is a newcomer. Well, just because I am married doesn't make everyone else a newcomer, less deserving of rights.

This is an interesting case, as per con law in general. The bigger issue here seems to be what happens when a state constitution prohibits gay marriage and is countered by the full faith and credit clause of the US Const where California will start regognizing gay marriage. Even more interesting is that the states seeking to prevent CA from starting their new law are using a separation of powers argument because the governor of NY stated policy to honor the CA marriages. It seems the state legislatures beleive it's their jobs to interpret their constitution and set policy, not the governor.

In prior articles, the press reported that full faith and credit usually applies to judicial acts with a far higher level of "oomph" (respect) than statutes, and I'm thinking that a marriage certificate, issued by a court would be such a higher-respected judicial act.

Even more interesting is that Colorado (of Romer v. Evans, loosely: the US sup ct case denying CO the "gay rights ban" to the people of CO's state constitution) is one of the states, but not virginia (where an anti-gay-marriage statute was actually passed in 2004).

10 States Seek Calif. Gay Marriage Delay; Suit to Be Filed in N.Y. | ABA Journal - Law News Now

Updated: Opposing forces are gearing up to fight a major battle over the right of same-sex couples to marry, centered on the recent decision by the California Supreme Court that the state constitution protects their right to do so.

Following a directive by New York's Democratic governor, David Paterson, that New York will recognize as legal any such marriage that is legal in the state in which it is held, a Christian legal group has announced that it will sue over the policy, reports the Associated Press.

"The group, the Alliance Defense Fund based in Arizona, is working with New York legislators on the case that in part will accuse Paterson of violating the separation of powers in his directive this week," the news agency writes.

Joseph Bruno, the New York senate's Republican majority leader, has been considering a possible challenge to the governor's directive, the New York Times previously reported.

Meanwhile, the attorneys general of 10 other states petitioned the California Supreme Court yesterday, seeking to delay the implementation of the gay marriage ruling until after this fall's elections. That is so they can see whether voters approve state constitutional amendments to require that marriages be between a man and a woman before deciding how to respond to the California situation, reports the Associated Press in another article.

California's attorney general is urging the court not to grant the delay.

State officials plan to begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses on June 17, and have already unveiled a new form that substitutes "Party A" and "Party B" for traditional bride and groom designations, as discussed in another New York Times article.

The 10 states seeking delay are: Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah.

May 31, 2008 :: Second year...Done

This is a short post. Second year of law school is finished. Leaving me 2/3 of the way through my J.D.

How exciting :)

March 28, 2008 :: Virginia Politics "mistakes were made" -Abusive-driver fees repealed -- Heads of State, Virginia, Timothy M. Kaine -- dailypress.com

The classic, "mistakes were made" political quote. I love it.

Abusive-driver fees repealed -- Heads of State, Virginia, Timothy M. Kaine -- dailypress.com: "The Virginia-only provision sparked widespread grass-roots anger. As accident and arrest data poured in, state leaders learned to their chagrin that the threat of fees as high as $3,000 didn't improve general driving behavior.

'In the earnestness of trying to solve the transportation issue, a mistake was made,' said Sen. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania, who sponsored Senate Bill 1 in the 2008 session to repeal the fees. 'This was simply the wrong way to go about funding transportation. And today is the day we correct all that.'"

March 26, 2008 :: Chewbacca's Purse

I've been looking at The Satchel Pages website and found myself reading about man-bandoliers for utility. Someone wrote about Star Wars' Chewbacca's utility belt, and I laughed out loud. That deserves a blog entry.

It seems that messenger bags are also "men purses," "bailout bags," and "murses," to name a few alternate terms for a bag a man carries things in. I've been looking for a decent bad to carry to court and think I might have found one for a reasonable price.

Soon, I'll be searching for a reasonably priced diaper bag. I'm narrowing on a canvas/leather bag, or a small timbuk2 messenger. Baby steps...pun.

Threads.Rebelscum.com: Chewbacca's Purse: "What the hell is that thing Chewbacca wears? What does he carry in it? A bigass hairbrush and nail file?

It sure as hell ain't no utility belt or he would have used it to escape from the net trap on Endor. It can't be an ammo belt, or it would have looked pretty damned suspicious for a couple of stormtroopers to be parading an 8-foot wookiee through the Death Star with a sling of ammunition draped over his shoulder. And I know it's not suspenders, 'cause he's got no pants.

Any ideas? To me, this is one of the great mysteries of the Classic Trilogy. Help me out."

March 16, 2008 :: Bella in a vail snowstorm

Vail snowstorm

Mar 11, 2008 :: Great weather

Sixty degrees! Supposed to snow later this week, though.

March 9, 2008 :: Chipotle's fun facts

Wikipedia's Chipotle's Mexican Grill page which says things I didn't know.

First, Chipotle is a Denver, CO based company.  The place started here!  Wow.

Second, McDonald's doesn't own any part of them anymore.  in 2005, it controlled 92% of the stocks, but for undisclosed reasons, divested totally in 2006.  Maybe because they started their own burrito interest in McD's, there's no more Chipotle McBurrito.

Third, Their meat is mostly organic or at least very "natural" and with so many stores, so much demand, they have remarkable clout.

Fourth, all locations are corporately owned, not franchised.

Lastly, the original location of Chipotle is the one I enjoy the least, near Denver University on Evans Ave.  It's a micro Chipotle with, like three tables and a line that usually goes out the door.  Blew my mind when I read it was the original location.  I found a site with photos of it here: Picures of the original DU Chipotle

Ok, that's it.

Mar 5, 2008 :: more snow

March 2, 2008 :: Making breadsticks

Bread dough
300 g flour
pinch of salt
herbs (oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary)
liquid: warm water, yeast, honey (about a cup)

Mix, knead, flour, place in covered bowl, and put in warm place to proof...it should double in size.

Preheat oven to 450

Sauce
5-6 tomatoes (vine ripened or roma)
half a red onion (small to medium diced)
4 cloves garlic (roughly diced)
basil, thyme
olive oil
bake for 35 minutes partially covered

turn out dough
sheet pan w/parchment paper - sprinkle with masa
portion the dough into 3/4 inch knobs
roll into breadsticks
top with eggwash or olive oil
sprinkle with salt
bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown

Mar 1, 2008 :: Holly's a cutie!

Couldn't be happier with my gal!

Mar 1, 2008 :: Virginia Court ruling may be fatal for HRTA -- dailypress.com

This article from my old hometown is a good article on a classic con law/admin law hypo of in-state federalism and the issue of protecting one municipality from another's elected officials, separation of powers (delegating taxing authority), and an administrative agency (a general-assembly created transportation authority) trying to overreach.

Seems like the whole problem could have been avoided by having the authority submit its "proposed taxing plan" to the general assembly to ratify instead of having a direct taxing authority.

Court ruling may be fatal for HRTA -- dailypress.com

"The Virginia Supreme Court stripped taxing power away from the controversial Hampton Roads Transportation Authority on Friday, unanimously ruling that the regional body and a similar panel in Northern Virginia are unconstitutional.

In a 23-page opinion written by Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn, the court said the General Assembly attempted to sidestep the constitutional protections against tax increases by passing that power down to local officials."

Hmmm.

Feb 29, 2008 :: Recording classes with my compuer :: Mac podcast/audio tips 1: Microphones

Enterprise Mac | Tom Yager | InfoWorld | Mac podcast/audio tips 1: Microphones | March 28, 2006 01:09 PM | By Tom Yager: "Mac podcast/audio tips 1: Microphones
Filed under: Creative Pro

The podcasting craze gives me an opportunity to dust off my professional audio producer's cap. I'm having a blast, and as I climb back in, it strikes me that some of the knowledge I take for granted isn't that common for folks who are just taking up podcasting, streaming, soundtracks and other do-it-yourself digital audio."

Feb 26, 2008 :: More snow

It's 2:30am and it's snowed less than an inch since 11pm.

What a weak showing of snow since the average per occurrance over the past month has been 2-10 inches.

Sunday on Mt. Evans, it was snowing quite nicely, good wind blowing, and my beautiful bride and I did a good 1500 feet of ascent up the snow trail in waist deep powder on either side of the lofted several inch thick trail pack.  Fun.

If you deal with wine, you have to develop your sense of smell which consists of much of the wine connesour's ability to distinguish wine. I heard on NPR when I was in DC that such a kit exists that demonstrates the isolated scent of distinguishable wine scents. This kit sells for $400, which, to me these days, is a king's ransom. However, the news segment also mentioned the kit containing the twelve scents that wine lovers should know that SHOULD NOT be in their wines. The wine industry would rather us not have THIS information, but if you want to be serious about knowing when you've got a bad bottle, perhaps $109 plus tax and shipping is a good buy.

If you agree, then you should buy this: Make Scents of Wine 12 Aroma Faults Kit

The Make Scents of Wine Faults Kit is a perfect compliment to the Master Kit!

Questions Addressed:
- What are the major faults in the aromas of wine?
- How to recognize them?
- How did these faults occur?
- How and when can they be avoided?
- Can we eradicate them or lessen their effects?

FEATURES:
- 12 Aroma Vials
- A Booklet
- Presented in a cloth-bound book

12 Aroma Vials:
1) Vegetal, 2) Rotten Apple, 3) Vinegar, 4) Glue, 5) Soap, 6) Sulphur, 7) Rotten Egg, 8) Onion, 9) Cauliflower, 10) Horse, 11) Mouldy-Earth, 12) Cork

These 12 reference molecules are directly linked to the moecular composition of thes wines affected enabling the 12 faults most commonly found in wines to be memorized and identified.

Producers and consumers can now consult this guide at the slightest hint of problem. This kit is often used by wineries to test wines for faults! You will immediately know when the waiter has brought you a bad bottle!!

Feb 21, 2008 :: First client helped

For one of my clients with a jury trial, I spent at least 15-20 actual hours of preparation, not counting all the off hours, rolling through the voir dire, opening statement, closing statement, all the facts, all the direct testimony, and cross-examination.

We all showed up at 8am as court set it on the docket for the jury trial. My witnesses were there and were going to do slendidly, they were prepped and ready. My defendant was clearly in the right. I will probably never know what actually happened, but my suspicion is that all the preparation showed. I would expect that law students spend exponentially more time preparing for these "smaller charges" than a government prosecutor ever could or would spend. The fact is that the prosecutor, who spoke with the complaining witness, decided just before the case was assigned to a court with a jury, to dismiss the charges.

All dressed up with no place to go, and the client's goal was certainly fulfilled, without spending the day to do it. And then I got to go to a class I was certain I was going to miss.

Maybe it all does work out in the end.

Public defender staff paid lower than others -- dailypress.com

Public defender staff paid lower than others -- dailypress.com

Public defender staff paid lower than others
Some say those who defend poor clients should receive pay comparable to that of prosecutors they face in the courtroom."

...

Newport News Mayor Joe Frank said the City Council has supported boosting pay for prosecutors in the Commonwealth's Attorney's office "because crime is such a serious problem, and we should leave no stone unturned."

But Frank said he doesn't "have a lot of personal interest in supporting" supplements for public defender attorneys.

"Given all the needs we have in the city and the budget, it might not be a good time to be looking at new programs," he said.

Good article in the daily press on atty wages for newport news and hampton public defenders. Starting salary of $48k, up 28% from $38 only 18 months ago.

The city, through mayor joe frank, says that they'll support supplemental pay for the prosecutors, because "crime is such a problem." But will not support supplements to defenders for the same reason. Then the article quotes the newport news chief prosecutor saying that low pay in the defenders office makes it hard to keep good representation, and that bad representation from defenders causes many cases to be remanded to trial for such issues, either costing more money to prosecute or making prosecution impossible due to much time between trials, thereby forcing prosecutors to move that retrials be dismissed for lack of testimoney. Mayor's a strange man, huh?

Feb 10, 2008 :: Marines, asthma, and the VA (Man with asthma battling to get back into the Marines)

Here is a perfect govt beauracracy case: medically discharged for asthma, and suffering both the direct and indirect liabiities of a medical discharge from the marines, the VA won't give benefits because they medically evaluated him as not having asthma.

The twist is that all he wants is to serve the rest of his 20 years and retire, not the medical benefits from the VA.

I figured he's five years older than me: 42. and wants to be a sergeant again. wow. that's motivated.

Man with asthma battling to get back into the Marines -- dailypress.com

When Glenn Butorac enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1983, he intended to make the military his career.

After 10 years of honorable service, he was given a severance check and told to hang up his uniform.

In 1993, after Butorac felt tightness in his chest while running with his unit, the Corps medically discharged him.

He had asthma, military doctors wrote in his medical file.

Now 42 and living in Newport News, Butorac is fighting to get back into the service, to be reinstated at least as a sergeant — his rank when he left the service — and to finish his military career.

Feb 6, 2008 :: class

February 2, 2008 :: Decisions, Decisions...

"Figuring things out for yourself is the only freedom any one really has. Use that freedom. Make up your own mind"

Michael Ironside
Starship Troopers

So true...

Dinner at dub's

January 17, 2007 :: Single digit temps

Yes, that says 5.3 degrees outside. My dashboard says Aspen, Co is -9 F. Colorado is cold, duh.

January 13, 2008 :: Day before second half of law school

My view of the day before classes start this semester. Halfway through my degree.

My pup