Wednesday, February 28, 2007

February 28 evening

Believe it, Baby! No smoking in city bars starting January 1 2008.
And $100gs of nicotine patches for the poor!

"A routine attempt to pull a car over in Baltimore County early this morning turned into a bizarre televised police chase across suburban Maryland that veered briefly into the District."

Carefree days of youth dept.
Jury selection will begin this afternoon in the case of Erik Stoddard, to be presented presently before Judge Allen Schwait, Part IV, Room 400 Mitchell Courthouse.
The backstory: On December 8, 2005 the Maryland Court of Appeals Judge Raker vacated Stoddard's second-degree murder conviction, finding that an out-of-court "utterance" made by Calen's 18-month-old cousin, Jasmine - "Is Erik going to get me?" - was impermissible hearsay."
A Baltimore City jury convicted Stoddard March 13, 2003 of second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death for the death of Calen Faith Dirubbo, 3. Court docs say that on June 15, 2002, little Calen was pronounced dead in the home she shared with her mother and Stoddard, her new Daddy. Dirubbo died as a result of multiple beatings over a period of at least a month with the blow that fatally severed her bowel occurring June 15, 2002.

A transfer hearing for Kemoni Sterette, a juvenile charged with murder, was scheduled for this morning before Judge Welch, Part 18, Courthouse East, 111 N. Calvert Street. Court documents allege Kemoni Sterrette was seen with co-defendant Antoine Oliver moments before a shooting incident at the Unity Hair Salon in the 2200 block of Garrison Boulevard on May 13, 2006 in which the victim, Justice Georgie, was shot and killed after trying to stop the robbery. A. Robert Kaufman helped identify Sterette.

Courtney Smith, a 15-year-old witness to the slaying of a Hagtown woman, said the fatal bullet was meant for someone else.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Yeaaahhh!!! Not only do i get to go to court tomorrow for the what 4th time, I get a comment from the defendant's sister on my blog, well she claims to be..... Cy read the dec.25th post's comments... I couldn't even really make out all that she was trying to say, but now I'm just a bit upset .

John Galt said...

So, you guys know what Tax Freedom Day is ?

The day you've already earned enough to pay Uncle Sam's bill for the rest of your work year.

Well, similarly, before the arrival of March we have already experienced about the number of homicides a city of 641,000 (Baltimore) would have if it had the crime rate of another (competently administered) city, such as New York City.

The rest of this year's murders, about 229) are all gratuitous and the blood is on the hands of the police commissioner and the mayor.

Baltimore needs to hire about 3,000 more officers and discharge some 500 who have never been good cops.

Why we have such high crime is no mystery. In fact, it's quite apparent: this city is a criminal paradise.

Unknown said...

Oh that smoking ban... I myself think it is not needed... some establishments that have their base of customers as non smoking can and do elect to become non smoking. take the Rendezvous for instance... 90% of the patrons there smoke, and the one or 2 who do come in that don't don't mind or don't complain because they know what they are walking into... that would be like someone saying next "hey we stand on the same bus stop, could you not smoke here?

I honestly think sometimes people make a deal about smoking not because of second hand smoke, but because they need something to gripe about. Yes you can get cancer from second hand smoke, but why would you want to be in a place full of smoke when you don't smoke? Go to jillians, or a number of other establishments that have chosen to be smoke-free. What I want to know from the non-smokers is, when i lose part of my sit down clientele and possible 50-70% of my tips, are you gonna fill the gap in my weekly earnings? Maybe you will have a job for me come Jan 1st 2008?

Unknown said...

Sorry but this smoking ban stuff makes me mad and i'm already mad... headed to court for probably a 4th postponement so of course i'm not the happiest camper this morning

John Galt said...

Liz,

the same people who are profoundly offended by others' smoking are also generalyy profoundly offended by others' drinking and others' bartending. In fact, I suspect you will find that they are profoundly offended by what you drive, where you drive it, and how you spent your money wherever you went in it.

Fascist upper-middle class white liberals.

Ben said...

I smoked for ten years and quit not so long ago. A good reason I don't go to my locals that often is because of the smoke. I've talked to other folks about it they feel the same way. The reason that everyone at the bar smokes is because non-smokers want nothing to do with their clothes reeking and an awful headache the next day. Drinking in New York is a like paradise and, in all honestly, smoking in the the beer garden or outside is a great way to meet new people.
But hey, what do I know, I'm just a fascist upper-middle class white liberal... wait a second?

John Galt said...

Look, I'm not a smoker and I don't enjoy the stuff personally, but I really object to some folks deciding what other folks will be allowed to do.

If a bar is playing bluegrass and I don't like it, I can express my displeasure to the owner. If he makes his living selling Jack to rednecks, then maybe I should find a place that's more my style.

If the place is painted red and I'd rather see blue, do I get a warranty of aesthetic satisfaction? No.

In my experience, smokers tend to be more regular patrons, while nonsmokers are more likely to be occasional.

Businesses cannot be patterned upon the possibility that a particularly finnicky customer might come in some day. It just doesn't work that way.

How about vegans who are disgusted by seeing others served meat ? Are they entitled to ban red meat ?? It is correlated with poor health outcomes and it does have the effect of causing proximate vegans to lose their appetite. Why not ban it, too ??

Ben said...

Well since smoking has health care costs somewhere around $70B dollars a year in the US I think it overshadows loose correlations between red meat, heart disease, colon cancer, etc...
I guess it's the same argument with the trans-fat cooking oil ban in New York and the past smoking ban. Beyond personal choice there are issues of long term health costs versus small initial costs to the "little guy" that overall people will be happy with in the end.

John Galt said...

Yes, as usual, when dealing with the UMC white liberal agenda, overall, people will get it in the end. Hard. Right in the end.

Unknown said...

It's like any other issue... like with abortion, people who are against it swear they are right, those for it swear they are.

You can't make people see your way, and if the ban doesn't get stopped in appeals, then so be it... but then what will people complain about now.... ya know if your in a bar drinking it's not good for you so you can't exactly be a health freak.

Maybe next people will feel like farting in a public bathroom disturbs them and ban that. There are bars in the city I have been to that allow smoking that I didn't care for... what did I do? I found somewhere else to go.

Yes smoking is unhealthy, but people don't willingly go into nuclear radiation areas, so why would you willingly sit in second-hand smoke if it so bothers you? Now in order to enter the bar you will have to walk through smoke clouds produced by the smoking patrons. So i guess it'll be banned on public streets next...