As noted earlier in this post, the street rebuilding project that has been going on in downtown Houston during almost the entire administration of former Mayor Lee Brown has been one of the mostly poorly managed public works projects in recent Houston history. This Chronicle article gives a good example of the legacy of this mess that new Mayor Bill White has inherited.
Brian Coyne, 58, a Houston defense lawyer who caused a downtown car wreck in January, 2003 that killed Michael Bruns, a Chase Bank officer from The Woodlands, was sentenced Monday to five days in jail, eight years’ probation, fined $10,000, and ordered to perform 350 hours of community service after pleading guilty to criminally negligent homicide in December. Mr. Coyne could have faced up to 10 years in prison.
This marks the end of legal proceedings over this incident, which is one of those unspeakable trajedies that reminds us of the shortness of life and the unforseen irreversible consequences that sometimes result from serious errors in judgment. Mr. Bruns was a pillar in The Woodlands community, and his death left a loving wife without a husband and three young children without a father. I do not know Mr. Coyne, but it my understanding from those who do is that he is a caring man and good attorney, and his statement to the court during his sentencing reflects the pain that he will experience for the rest of his life. May the Lord be with the Bruns Family and Mr. Coyne as they piece their lives back together after his tragic incident.
Houston has grown into a remarkably diverse city, but its heritage as a quintessential Texas city is reflected best by the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Unless you are a Houstonian, it’s a bit difficult to explain “the Rodeo,” as Houstonians call it. But it’s an event that lasts almost three weeks each March, involves volunteer efforts of thousands of Houstonians, brings hundreds of thousands of people into Houston, raises millions of dollars for academic scholarships, and provides some of the most interesting and unique entertainment that one could ever imagine.
Started in the early 1930’s in downtown Houston, the Rodeo has grown into a huge event that literally envelopes the entire Reliant Park complex, including Reliant Stadium and the adjacent convention facility. The Rodeo kicks off with 5,000 trailriders descending on Houston’s Memorial Park this Friday, which is “Go Texan Day” in Houston in which most folks go to work in some type of cowboy attire. After a wild night of campfire parties at Memorial Park, the Trailriders ride the five miles down Memorial Drive to downtown Houston early Saturday morning for the annual Rodeo Parade, which is great fun. Then, it’s off to the Rodeo at Reliant Park.
The Rodeo always has a first rate lineup of entertainers who perform after each night of the rodeo event, and this year is no exception. However, this year is particularly special for me in that rising country music star Dierks Bentley is one of the headline performers. Dierks is the younger brother of an old friend of mine, Houston real estate attorney Bart Bentley, who happens to be a pretty fair guitarist himself in the popular Houston rock band, Mid-Life Crisis and the Hot Flashes.
Although my teenage daughters undoubtedly will want to see Dierks’ show at the Rodeo, I most enjoy the Livestock Show in the Reliant Convention facility while visiting the Rodeo. Over the years, I have seen more incredible animals in the Livestock Show than in any zoo that I have ever visited.
Accordingly, if you are visiting Houston during March, do not miss the opportunity to visit the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Not only will you be highly entertained, but you will learn more about Texas in general and Houston in particular than you could anywhere else.
This Washington Times article describes a movement among certain National Football League owners to revise the NFL’s Trust, the master business agreement that maintains that shared national revenue structure that has propelled the NFL into a multi-billion dollar industry and makes the NFL the envy of virtually every other professional sports league.
In this post from last week, it was noted the plaintiff in the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion case had sought Fifth Circuit review of a District Court order denying her Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b) motion that attempted to reopen that controversial case. Today, the Fifth Circuit cancelled oral argument, which is not surprising because the Court often does not grant oral argument on appeals that are subject to summary disposition. Inasmuch as the appellant’s appeal in this case is a long shot, my sense is that the Fifth Circuit is preparing to affirm the District Court’s denial of the appellant’s motion and dismiss the appeal. Thanks to Howard Bashman for the tip on this development.
As the civil war worsens in Haiti, Daniel Drezner and Tyler Cowan point to Haiti Pundit, a blog about news and views on Haitian politics and culture. With American armed forces entering Haiti today, this is a good source of current information on the Haitian situation.
“Rumsfeld’s War” is a new book by Rowan Scarborough, defense reporter for The Washington Times. Today’s Times contains the first excerpt of a series from the book.
Mr. Rumsfeld’s efforts to transform the Pentagon have an interesting background that stretches back several decades. Author Robert Coram compellingly presents this interesting story in his book, “Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War.” Suffice it to say that appearances are deceiving with regard to the Pentagon, the special interests that attempt to control it, and the elected officials that attempt to lead it. This is not a story that the mainstream media has covered well, so Mr. Coram’s book and a few others that deal with this interesting story are essential to a sound understanding of the key issues confronting the United States Armed Forces in the context of modern warfare.
The Wall Street Journal ($) reports that Martha Stewart‘s legal team is seriously considering not putting Martha on the stand during her defense of the criminal case against her. The Stewart defense team apparently thinks that the prosecution’s laborious month long presentation of its case against Martha chloroformed the jury. Accordingly, the defense team is considering a minimalist defense that could be done by the end of the week.
Although understandable given the prosecution’s apparent mishandling of this case, not putting Martha on the stand is a risky strategy. Particularly in white collar prosecutions, jurors want to hear from the defendant. If the case is a closer call than what it appears, then Martha’s failure to defend herself on the stand could tilt jurors against her.
According to this refreshing piece, it appears that O.J. Simpson may have a bit of trouble collecting his fee for appearing at an autograph show in St. Louis.
Ethan Bronner, deputy foreign editor of the NY Times, has a review in today’s New York Times Book Review on several recent books that share a central theme — i.e., that the War on Terror combined with Attorney General John Ashcroft, as one book put it, ”are responsible for some of the most egregious civil liberties violations in the history of our nation.” Mr. Bronner is much more measured than that statement, and the entire article is well worth reading. Here are a couple of tidbits:
If you believe these changes are eroding the liberties that make this nation great, these books are for you. They will give texture and sharpness to your rage. You can pick from among them based on your level of concern. If you are incensed, go for the Brown essay collection, ”Lost Liberties.” In it, Aryeh Neier says, ”We are at risk of entering another of those dark periods of American history when the country abandons its proud tradition of respect for civil liberties.” And Nancy Chang of the Center for Constitutional Rights says that executive measures taken in the wake of the Patriot Act ”are responsible for some of the most egregious civil liberties violations in the history of our nation.” Given the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War, the Palmer raids in World War I and the internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II, both of these statements seem to me hard to defend.
Of course, one legitimate complaint that Ashcroft and many others could lodge against nearly all these books is that they fail to spend any time on the threat to liberty not from Ashcroft but from Al Qaeda. Liberty is meaningless without security, as Viet Dinh, the former assistant attorney general who wrote much of the Patriot Act, has often said. Stuart Taylor Jr., a legal journalist, put it this way in The National Journal in December 2002: ”Should we eschew fishing expeditions through Ryder truck rental records and fertilizer purchases? Not if we want to prevent terrorist mass murders. And I, for one, am a lot less worried about the government snooping through my credit card bills and psychiatric records than about being anthraxed in the subway or killed by a nuclear explosion in my downtown Washington office.” While this strikes me as too far in the other direction, such words are useful to keep in mind while reading of Ashcroft’s sins.